The Memoirs of Bābur 904.1.1

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).