The Memoirs of Bābur 904.1
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 904.1
- Language
- English
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.