The Memoirs of Bābur 910.2
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 910.2
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910.2.1
(_g. Khusrau Shāh waits on Bābur._) Khusrau Shāh was much upset when he heard that the Mughūl horde had joined me; seeing nothing better to do for himself, he sent his son-in-law, Ayūb's Yaq`ūb, to make profession of well-wishing and submission to me, and respectfully to represent that he would enter my service if I would make terms and compact with him. His offer was accepted, because Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ was a man of weight, and, however steady in his favourable disposition to me, did not overlook his brother's side in this matter. Compact was made that Khusrau Shāh's life should be safe, and that whatever amount of his goods he selected, should not be refused him. After giving Yaq`ūb leave to go, we marched down the Qīzīl-sū and dismounted near to where it joins the water of Andar-āb. [Sidenote: Fol. 123b.] Next day, one in the middle of the First Rabī` (end of August, 1504 AD.), riding light, I crossed the Andar-āb water and took my seat under a large plane-tree near Dūshī, and thither came Khusrau Shāh, in pomp and splendour, with a great company of men. According to rule and custom, he dismounted some way off and then made his approach. Three times he knelt when we saw one another, three times also on taking leave; he knelt once when asking after my welfare, once again when he offered his tribute, and he did the same with Jahāngīr Mīrzā and with Mīrzā Khān (Wais).
910.2.2
That sluggish old mannikin who through so many years had just pleased himself, lacking of sovereignty one thing only, namely, to read the _Khuṯba_ in his own name, now knelt 25 or 26 times in succession, and came and went till he was so wearied out that he tottered forward. His many years of begship and authority vanished from his view. When we had seen one another and he had offered his gift, I desired him to be seated. We stayed in that place for one or two _garīs_,[692] exchanging tale and talk. His conversation was vapid and empty, presumably because he was a coward and false to his salt. Two things he said were extraordinary for the time when, under his eyes, his trusty and trusted retainers were becoming mine, and when his affairs had reached the point that he, the sovereign-aping mannikin, had had to come, willy-nilly, abased and unhonoured, to what sort [Sidenote: Fol. 124.] of an interview! One of the things he said was this:—When condoled with for the desertion of his men, he replied, "Those very servants have four times left me and returned." The other was said when I had asked him where his brother Walī would cross the Amū and when he would arrive. "If he find a ford, he will soon be here, but when waters rise, fords change; the (Persian) proverb has it, 'The waters have carried down the fords.'" These words God brought to his tongue in that hour of the flowing away of his own authority and following!
910.2.3
After sitting a _garī_ or two, I mounted and rode back to camp, he for his part returning to his halting-place. On that day his begs, with their servants, great and small, good and bad, and tribe after tribe began to desert him and come, with their families, to me. Between the two Prayers of the next afternoon not a man remained in his presence. "Say,—O God! who possessest the kingdom! Thou givest it to whom Thou wilt and Thou takest it from whom Thou wilt! In Thy hand is good, for Thou art almighty."[693] Wonderful is His power! This man, once master of 20 or 30,000 retainers, once owning Sl. Maḥmūd's dominions from Qaḥlūgha,—known also as the Iron-gate,—to the range of [Sidenote: Fol. 124b.] Hindū-kush, whose old mannikin of a tax-gatherer, Ḥasan _Barlās_ by name, had made us march, had made us halt, with all the tax-gatherer's roughness, from Aīlāk to Aūbāj,[694] that man He so abased and so bereft of power that, with no blow struck, no sound made, he stood, without command over servants, goods, or life, in the presence of a band of 200 or 300 men, defeated and destitute as we were.
910.2.4
In the evening of the day on which we had seen Khusrau Shāh and gone back to camp, Mīrzā Khān came to my presence and demanded vengeance on him for the blood of his brothers.[695] Many of us were at one with him, for truly it is right, both by Law and common justice, that such men should get their desserts, but, as terms had been made, Khusrau Shāh was let go free. An order was given that he should be allowed to take whatever of his goods he could convey; accordingly he loaded up, on three or four strings of mules and camels, all jewels, gold, silver, and precious things he had, and took them with him.[696] Sherīm T̤aghāī was told off to escort him, who after setting Khusrau Shāh on his road for Khurāsān, by way of Ghūrī and Dahānah, was to go to Kāhmard and bring the families after us to Kābul. (_h. Bābur marches for Kābul._) Marching from that camp for Kābul, we dismounted in Khwāja Zaid. On that day, Ḥamza Bī _Mangfīt_,[697] at the head of Aūzbeg raiders, was over-running round about Dūshī. Sayyid Qāsim, the Lord of the Gate, and Aḥmad-i-qāsim _Kohbur_ were sent [Sidenote: Fol. 125.] with several braves against him; they got up with him, beat his Aūzbegs well, cut off and brought in a few heads.
910.2.5
In this camp all the armour (_jība_) of Khusrau Shāh's armoury was shared out. There may have been as many as 7 or 800 coats-of-mail (_joshan_) and horse accoutrements (_kūhah_);[698] these were the one thing he left behind; many pieces of porcelain also fell into our hands, but, these excepted, there was nothing worth looking at. With four or five marches we reached Ghūr-bund, and there dismounted in Ushtur-shahr. We got news there that Muqīm's chief beg, Sherak (var. Sherka) _Arghūn_, was lying along the Bārān, having led an army out, not through hearing of me, but to hinder `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā from passing along the Panjhīr-road, he having fled from Kābul[699] and being then amongst the Tarkalānī Afghāns towards Lamghān. On hearing this we marched forward, starting in the afternoon and pressing on through the dark till, with the dawn, we surmounted the Hūpīān-pass.[700] I had never seen Suhail;[701] when I came out of the pass I saw a star, bright and low. "May not that be Suhail?" said I. Said they, "It is Suhail." Bāqī _Chaghānīānī_ recited this couplet;—[702] "How far dost thou shine, O Suhail, and where dost thou rise? A sign of good luck is thine eye to the man on whom it may light."
910.2.6
The Sun was a spear's-length high[703] when we reached the foot of the Sanjid (Jujube)-valley and dismounted. Our scouting [Sidenote: Fol. 125b.] braves fell in with Sherak below the Qarā-bāgh,[704] near Aīkarī-yār, and straightway got to grips with him. After a little of some sort of fighting, our men took the upper hand, hurried their adversaries off, unhorsed 70-80 serviceable braves and brought them in. We gave Sherak his life and he took service with us. (_i. Death of Walī of Khusrau._)
910.2.7
The various clans and tribes whom Khusrau Shāh, without troubling himself about them, had left in Qūndūz, and also the Mughūl horde, were in five or six bodies (_būlāk_). One of those belonging to Badakhshān,—it was the Rūstā-hazāra,:—came, with Sayyidīm `Alī _darbān_,[705] across the Panjhīr-pass to this camp, did me obeisance and took service with me. Another body came under Ayūb's Yūsuf and Ayūb's Bihlūl; it also took service with me. Another came from Khutlān, under Khusrau Shāh's younger brother, Walī; another, consisting of the (Mughūl) tribesmen (_aīmāq_) who had been located in Yīlānchaq, Nikdiri (?), and the Qūndūz country, came also. The last-named two came by Andar-āb and Sar-i-āb,[706] meaning to cross by the Panjhīr-pass; at Sar-i-āb the tribesmen were ahead; Walī came up behind; they held the road, fought and beat him. He himself fled to the Aūzbegs,[707] and Shaibāq Khān had his head struck off in the Square (_Chār-sū_) of Samarkand; his followers, beaten and plundered, came on with the tribesmen, and like these, took service with me. With them came Sayyid [Sidenote: Fol. 126.] Yūsuf Beg (the Grey-wolfer). (_j. Kābul gained._)
910.2.8
From that camp we marched to the Āq-sarāī meadow of the Qarā-bāgh and there dismounted. Khusrau Shāh's people were well practised in oppression and violence; they tyrannized over one after another till at last I had up one of Sayyidīm `Alī's good braves to my Gate[708] and there beaten for forcibly taking a jar of oil. There and then he just died under the blows; his example kept the rest down. We took counsel in that camp whether or not to go at once against Kābul. Sayyid Yūsuf and some others thought that, as winter was near, our first move should be into Lamghān, from which place action could be taken as advantage offered. Bāqī Beg and some others saw it good to move on Kābul at once; this plan was adopted; we marched forward and dismounted in Ābā-qūrūq.