The Memoirs of Bābur 904
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 904
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Contents
904.1.1
904 AH.—AUG. 19TH. 1498 TO AUG. 8TH. 1499 AD.[432] (_a. Bābur borrows Pashāghar and leaves Khujand._) Twice we had moved out of Khujand, once for Andijān, once for Samarkand, and twice we had gone back to it because our work was not opened out.[433] Khujand is a poor place; a man with 2 or 300 followers would have a hard time there; with [Sidenote: Fol. 59.] what outlook would an ambitious man set himself down in it? As it was our wish to return to Samarkand, we sent people to confer with Muḥammad Ḥusain _Kūrkān Dūghlāt_ in Aūrā-tīpā and to ask of him the loan for the winter of Pashāghar where we might sit till it was practicable to make a move on Samarkand. He consenting, I rode out from Khujand for Pashāghar. (_Author's note on Pashāghar._) Pashāghar is one of the villages of Yār-yīlāq; it had belonged to his Highness the Khwāja,[434] but during recent interregna,[435] it had become dependent on Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā. I had fever when we reached Zamīn, but spite of my fever we hurried off by the mountain road till we came over against Rabāṯ-i-khwāja, the head-quarters of the sub-governor of the Shavdār _tūmān_, where we hoped to take the garrison at unawares, set our ladders up and so get into the fort. We reached it at dawn, found its men on guard, turned back and rode without halt to Pashāghar. The pains and misery of fever notwithstanding, I had ridden 14 or 15 _yīghāch_ (70 to 80 miles).
904.1.2
After a few days in Pashāghar, we appointed Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, [Sidenote: Fol. 59b.] Wais _Lāgharī_, Sherīm T̤aghāī and some of the household and braves to make an expedition amongst the Yār-yīlāq forts and get them into our hands. Yār-yīlāq, at that time was Sayyid Yūsuf Beg's,[436] he having remained in Samarkand at the exodus and been much favoured by Sl. `Ali Mīrzā. To manage the forts, Sayyid Yūsuf had sent his younger brother's son, Aḥmad-i-yūsuf, now[437] Governor of Sialkot, and Aḥmad-i-yūsuf was then in occupation. In the course of that winter, our begs and braves made the round, got possession of some of the forts peacefully, fought and took others, gained some by ruse and craft. In the whole of that district there is perhaps not a single village without its defences because of the Mughūls and the Aūzbegs. Meantime Sl. `Alī Mīrzā became suspicious of Sayyid Yūsuf and his nephew on my account and dismissed both towards Khurāsān. The winter passed in this sort of tug-of-war; with the oncoming heats,[438] they sent Khwāja Yaḥya to treat with me, while they, urged on by the (Samarkand) army, marched out to near Shīrāz and Kabud. I may have had 200 or 300 soldiers (_sipāhī_); powerful foes were on my every side; Fortune had [Sidenote: Fol. 60.] not favoured me when I turned to Andijān; when I put a hand out for Samarkand, no work was opened out. Of necessity, some sort of terms were made and I went back from Pashāghar.
904.1.3
Khujand is a poor place; one beg would have a hard time in it; there we and our families and following had been for half a year[439] and during the time the Musalmāns of the place had not been backward in bearing our charges and serving us to the best of their power. With what face could we go there again? and what, for his own part, could a man do there? 'To what home to go? For what gain to stay?'[440] In the end and with the same anxieties and uncertainty, we went to the summer-pastures in the south of Aūrā-tīpā. There we spent some days in amazement at our position, not knowing where to go or where to stay, our heads in a whirl. On one of those days, Khwāja Abū'l-makāram came to see me, he like me, a wanderer, driven from his home.[441] He questioned us about our goings and stayings, about what had or had not been done and about our whole position. He was touched with compassion for our state and recited the _fātiḥa_ for me before he left. I also was much touched; I pitied him. (_b. Bābur recovers Marghīnān._)
904.1.4
Near the Afternoon Prayer of that same day, a horseman appeared at the foot of the valley. He was a man named Yūl-chūq, presumably `Ali-dost T̤aghāī's own servant, and had been sent with this written message, 'Although many great misdeeds have had their rise in me, yet, if you will do me the [Sidenote: Fol. 60b.] favour and kindness of coming to me, I hope to purge my offences and remove my reproach, by giving you Marghīnān and by my future submission and single-minded service.' Such news! coming on such despair and whirl-of-mind! Off we hurried, that very hour,—it was sun-set,—without reflecting, without a moment's delay, just as if for a sudden raid, straight for Marghīnān. From where we were to Marghīnān may have been 24 or 25 _yīghāch_ of road.[442] Through that night it was rushed without delaying anywhere, and on next day till at the Mid-day Prayer, halt was made at Tang-āb (Narrow-water), one of the villages of Khujand. There we cooled down our horses and gave them corn. We rode out again at beat of (twilight-) drum[443] and on through that night till shoot of dawn, and through the next day till sunset, and on through that night till, just before dawn, we were one _yīghāch_ from Marghīnān. Here Wais Beg and others represented to me with some anxiety what sort of an evil-doer `Ali-dost was. 'No-one,' they said, 'has come and gone, time and again, between him and us; no terms and compact have been made; trusting to what are we going?' In truth their fears were just!
904.1.5
After waiting awhile to consult, we at last agreed that [Sidenote: Fol. 61.] reasonable as anxiety was, it ought to have been earlier; that there we were after coming three nights and two days without rest or halt; in what horse or in what man was any strength left?—from where we were, how could return be made? and, if made, where were we to go?—that, having come so far, on we must, and that nothing happens without God's will. At this we left the matter and moved on, our trust set on Him. At the Sunnat Prayer[444] we reached Fort Marghīnān. `Alī-dost T̤aghāī kept himself behind (_arqa_) the closed gate and asked for terms; these granted, he opened it. He did me obeisance between the (two) gates.[445] After seeing him, we dismounted at a suitable house in the walled-town. With me, great and small, were 240 men. As Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal had been tyrannical and oppressive, all the clans of the country were asking for me. We therefore, after two or three days spent in Marghīnān, joined to Qāsim Beg over a hundred men of the Pashāgharīs, the new retainers of Marghīnān and of `Alī-dost's following, and sent them to bring over to me, by force or fair words, such hill-people of the south of Andijān as the Ashpārī, Tūrūqshār, [Sidenote: Fol. 61b.] Chīkrāk and others roundabout. Ibrāhīm Sārū and Wais _Lāgharī_ and Sayyidī Qarā were also sent out, to cross the Khujand-water and, by whatever means, to induce the people on that side to turn their eyes to me.
904.1.6
Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal, for their parts, gathered together what soldiers and Mughūls they had and called up the men accustomed to serve in the Andijān and Akhsī armies. Then, bringing Jahāngīr Mīrzā with them, they came to Sapān, a village 2 m. east of Marghīnān, a few days after our arrival, and dismounted there with the intention of besieging Marghīnān. They advanced a day or two later, formed up to fight, as far as the suburbs. Though after the departure of the Commanders, Qāsim Beg, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ and Wais _Lāgharī_, few men were left with me, those there were formed up, sallied out and prevented the enemy from advancing beyond the suburbs. On that day, Page Khalīl, the turban-twister, went well forward and got his hand into the work. They had come; they could do nothing; on two other days they failed to get near the fort. [Sidenote: Fol. 62.] When Qāsim Beg went into the hills on the south of Andijān, all the Ashpārī, Tūrūqshār, Chīkrāk, and the peasants and highland and lowland clans came in for us. When the Commanders, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ and Wais _Lāgharī_, crossed the river to the Akhsī side, Pāp and several other forts came in.
904.1.7
Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal being the heathenish and vicious tyrants they were, had inflicted great misery on the peasantry and clansmen. One of the chief men of Akhsī, Ḥasan-dīkcha by name,[446] gathered together his own following and a body of the Akhsī mob and rabble, black-bludgeoned[447] Aūzūn Ḥasan's and Taṃbal's men in the outer fort and drubbed them into the citadel. They then invited the Commanders, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, Wais _Lāgharī_ and Sayyidī Qarā and admitted them into the fort.
904.2.1
Sl. Maḥmūd Khān had appointed to help us, Ḥaidar _Kūkūldāsh's_ (son) Banda-`alī and Ḥājī Ghāzī _Manghīt_,[448] the latter just then a fugitive from Shaibānī Khān, and also the Bārīn _tūmān_ with its begs. They arrived precisely at this time.
904.2.2
[Sidenote: Fol. 62b.] These news were altogether upsetting to Aūzūn Ḥasan; he at once started off his most favoured retainers and most serviceable braves to help his men in the citadel of Akhsī. His force reached the brow of the river at dawn. Our Commanders and the (Tāshkīnt) Mughūls had heard of its approach and had made some of their men strip their horses and cross the river (to the Andijān side). Aūzūn Ḥasan's men, in their haste, did not draw the ferry-boat up-stream;[449] they consequently went right away from the landing-place, could not cross for the fort and went down stream.[450] Here-upon, our men and the (Tāshkīnt) Mughūls began to ride bare-back into the water from both banks. Those in the boat could make no fight at all. Qārlūghāch (var. Qārbūghāch) _Bakhshī_ (Pay-master) called one of Mughūl Beg's sons to him, took him by the hand, chopped at him and killed him. Of what use was it? The affair was past that! His act was the cause why most of those in the boat went to their death. Instantly our men seized them all (_arīq_) and killed all (but a few).[451] Of Aūzūn Ḥasan's confidants escaped Qārlūghāch _Bakhshī_ and Khalīl _Dīwān_ and Qāẓī _Ghulām_, the last getting off by pretending to be a slave (_ghulām_); and of his trusted braves, Sayyid `Alī, now in trust in my own service,[452] and Ḥaidar-i-qulī and Qilka _Kāshgharī_ escaped. Of his 70 or 80 men, no more than this [Sidenote: Fol. 63.] same poor five or six got free.
904.2.3
On hearing of this affair, Aūzūn Ḥasan and Taṃbal, not being able to remain near Marghīnān, marched in haste and disorder for Andijān. There they had left Nāṣir Beg, the husband of Aūzūn Ḥasan's sister. He, if not Aūzūn Ḥasan's second, what question is there he was his third?[453] He was an experienced man, brave too; when he heard particulars, he knew their ground was lost, made Andijān fast and sent a man to me. They broke up in disaccord when they found the fort made fast against them; Aūzūn Ḥasan drew off to his wife in Akhsī, Taṃbal to his district of Aūsh. A few of Jahāngīr Mīrzā's household and braves fled with him from Aūzūn Ḥasan and joined Taṃbal before he had reached Aūsh. (_c. Bābur recovers Andijān._) Directly we heard that Andijān had been made fast against them, I rode out, at sun-rise, from Marghīnān and by mid-day was in Andijān.[454] There I saw Nāṣir Beg and his two sons, that is to say, Dost Beg and Mīrīm Beg, questioned them and uplifted their heads with hope of favour and kindness. In this way, by God's grace, my father's country, lost to me for two years, was regained and re-possessed, in the month Ẕū'l-qa`da of [Sidenote: Fol. 63b.] the date 904 (June 1498).[455]
904.2.4
Sl. Aḥmad Taṃbal, after being joined by Jahāngīr Mīrzā, drew away for Aūsh. On his entering the town, the red rabble (_qīzīl ayāq_) there, as in Akhsī, black-bludgeoned (_qarā tīyāq qīlīb_) and drubbed his men out, blow upon blow, then kept the fort for me and sent me a man. Jahāngīr and Taṃbal went off confounded, with a few followers only, and entered Aūzkīnt Fort. Of Aūzūn Ḥasan news came that after failing to get into Andijān, he had gone to Akhsī and, it was understood, had entered the citadel. He had been head and chief in the rebellion; we therefore, on getting this news, without more than four or five days' delay in Andijān, set out for Akhsī. On our arrival, there was nothing for him to do but ask for peace and terms, and surrender the fort. We stayed in Akhsī[456] a few days in order to settle its affairs and those of Kāsān and that country-side. We gave the Mughūls who had come in to help us, leave for return (to Tāshkīnt), then went back to Andijān, taking with us Aūzūn Ḥasan and his family and dependants. In Akhsī was left, for a time, Qāsim-i-`ajab (Wonderful Qāsim), formerly one of the household circle, now arrived at beg's rank. (_d. Renewed rebellion of the Mughūls._)
904.2.5
As terms had been made, Aūzūn Ḥasan, without hurt to life [Sidenote: Fol. 64.] or goods, was allowed to go by the Qarā-tīgīn road for Ḥiṣār. A few of his retainers went with him, the rest parted from him and stayed behind. These were the men who in the throneless times had captured and plundered various Musalmān dependants of my own and of the Khwāja. In agreement with several begs, their affair was left at this;—'This very band have been the captors and plunderers of our faithful Musalmān dependants;[457] what loyalty have they shown to their own (Mughūl) begs that they should be loyal to us? If we had them seized and stripped bare, where would be the wrong? and this especially because they might be going about, before our very eyes, riding our horses, wearing our coats, eating our sheep. Who could put up with that? If, out of humanity, they are not imprisoned and not plundered, they certainly ought to take it as a favour if they get off with the order to give back to our companions of the hard guerilla times, whatever goods of theirs are known to be here.'
904.2.6
In truth this seemed reasonable; our men were ordered to take what they knew to be theirs. Reasonable and just though the order was, (I now) understand that it was a little hasty. [Sidenote: Fol. 64b.] With a worry like Jahāngīr seated at my side, there was no sense in frightening people in this way. In conquest and government, though many things may have an outside appearance of reason and justice, yet 100,000 reflections are right and necessary as to the bearings of each one of them. From this single incautious order of ours,[458] what troubles! what rebellions arose! In the end this same ill-considered order was the cause of our second exile from Andijān. Now, through it, the Mughūls gave way to anxiety and fear, marched through Rabāṯik-aūrchīnī, that is, Aīkī-sū-ārāsī, for Aūzkīnt and sent a man to Taṃbal. In my mother's service were 1500 to 2000 Mughūls from the horde; as many more had come from Ḥiṣār with Ḥamza Sl. and Mahdī Sl. and Muḥammad _Dūghlāt Ḥiṣārī_.[459] Mischief and devastation must always be expected from the Mughūl horde. Up to now[460] they have rebelled five times against me. It must not be understood that they rebelled through not getting on with me; they have done the same thing with their own Khāns, again and again. Sl. Qulī _Chūnāq_[461] brought me the news. His late father, Khudāī-bīrdī _Būqāq_[462] I had favoured amongst the Mughūls; he was himself with the (rebel) Mughūls [Sidenote: Fol.
904.2.7
65.] and he did well in thus leaving the horde and his own family to bring me the news. Well as he did then however, he, as will be told,[463] did a thing so shameful later on that it would hide a hundred such good deeds as this, if he had done them. His later action was the clear product of his Mughūl nature. When this news came, the begs, gathered for counsel, represented to me, 'This is a trifling matter; what need for the pādshāh to ride out? Let Qāsim Beg go with the begs and men assembled here.' So it was settled; they took it lightly; to do so must have been an error of judgment. Qāsim Beg led his force out that same day; Taṃbal meantime must have joined the Mughūls. Our men crossed the Aīlāīsh river[464] early next morning by the Yāsī-kījīt (Broad-crossing) and at once came face to face with the rebels. Well did they chop at one another (_chāpqūlāshūrlār_)! Qāsim Beg himself came face to face with Muḥammad _Arghūn_ and did not desist from chopping at him in order to cut off his head.[465] Most of our braves exchanged [Sidenote: Fol. 65b.] good blows but in the end were beaten. Qāsim Beg, `Alī-dost T̤aghāī, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, Wais _Lāgharī_, Sayyidī Qarā and three or four more of our begs and household got away but most of the rest fell into the hands of the rebels. Amongst them were `Alī-darwesh Beg and Mīrīm _Lāgharī_ and (Sherīm?) T̤aghāī Beg's (son) Tūqā[466] and `Alī-dost's son, Muḥammad-dost and Mīr Shāh _Qūchīn_ and Mīrīm Dīwān.
904.2.8
Two braves chopped very well at one another; on our side, Samad, Ibrāhīm _Sārū's_ younger brother, and on their side, Shāh-suwār, one of the Ḥiṣārī Mughūls. Shāh-suwār struck so that his sword drove through Samad's helm and seated itself well in his head; Samad, spite of his wound, struck so that his sword cut off Shāh-suwār's head a piece of bone as large as the palm of a hand. Shāh-suwār must have worn no helm; they trepanned his head and it healed; there was no one to trepan Samad's and in a few days, he departed simply through the wound.[467] Amazingly unseasonable was this defeat, coming as it did just in the respite from guerilla fighting and just when we had regained the country. One of our great props, Qaṃbar-`alī _Mughūl_ (the Skinner) had gone to his district when Andijān [Sidenote: Fol. 66.] was occupied and therefore was not with us. (_e. Taṃbal attempts to take Andijān._) Having effected so much, Taṃbal, bringing Jahāngīr Mīrzā with him, came to the east of Andijān and dismounted 2 miles off, in the meadow lying in front of the Hill of Pleasure (`Aīsh).[468]
904.2.9
Once or twice he advanced in battle-array, past Chihil-dukhterān[469] to the town side of the hill but, as our braves went out arrayed to fight, beyond the gardens and suburbs, he could not advance further and returned to the other side of the hill. On his first coming to those parts, he killed two of the begs he had captured, Mīrīm _Lāgharī_ and Tūqā Beg. For nearly a month he lay round-about without effecting anything; after that he retired, his face set for Aūsh. Aūsh had been given to Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ and his man in it now made it fast.