The Memoirs of Bābur 911.3
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 911.3
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911.3.1
(_j. Chīn Ṣūfī's death._) This year Shaibāq Khān took Khwārizm after besieging Chīn Sūfī in it for ten months. There had been a mass of fighting during the siege; many were the bold deeds done by the Khwārizmī braves; nothing soever did they leave undone. Again and again their shooting was such that their arrows pierced shield and cuirass, sometimes the two cuirasses.[979] For ten months they sustained that siege without hope in any quarter. A few bare braves then lost heart, entered into talk with the Aūzbeg and were in the act of letting him up into the fort when Chīn Ṣūfī had the news and went to the spot. Just as he was beating and forcing down the Aūzbegs, his own page, in a discharge of arrows, shot him from behind. No man was left to fight; the Aūzbegs took Khwārizm. God's mercy on Chīn Ṣūfī, who never for one moment ceased to stake his life [Sidenote: Fol. 163b.] for his chief![980] Shaibāq Khān entrusted Khwārizm to Kūpuk (_sic_) Bī and went back to Samarkand. (_k. Death of Sultān Ḥusain Mīrzā._) Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā having led his army out against Shaibāq Khān as far as Bābā Ilāhī[981] went to God's mercy, in the month of Ẕū'l-ḥijja (Ẕū'l-ḥijja 11th 911 AH.-May 5th 1506 AD.). SULT̤ĀN ḤUSAIN MĪRZĀ AND HIS COURT.[982] (_a._) _His birth and descent._
911.3.2
He was born in Herī (Harāt), in (Muḥarram) 842 (AH.-June-July, 1438 AD.) in Shāhrukh Mīrzā's time[983] and was the son of Manṣūr Mīrzā, son of Bāī-qarā Mīrzā, son of `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, son of Amīr Tīmūr. Manṣūr Mīrzā and Bāī-qarā Mīrzā never reigned. His mother was Fīrūza Begīm, a (great-)grandchild (_nabīra_) of Tīmūr Beg; through her he became a grandchild of Mīrān-shāh also.[984] He was of high birth on both sides, a ruler of royal lineage.[985] Of the marriage (of Manṣūr with Fīrūza) were born two sons and two daughters, namely, Bāī-qarā Mīrzā and Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, Ākā Begīm and another daughter, Badka Begīm whom Aḥmad Khān took.[986] Bāī-qarā Mīrzā was older than Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā; he was his younger brother's retainer but used not to be present as head of the Court;[987] except in Court, he used to share his brother's divan (_tūshak_). He was given Balkh by his younger brother and was its Commandant for several years. He had three sons, Sl. Muḥammad Mīrzā, Sl. Wais Mīrzā and Sl. Iskandar Mīrzā.[988] Ākā Begīm was older than the Mīrzā; she was taken by [Sidenote: Fol. 164.] Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā,[989] a grandson (_nabīra_) of Mīrān-shāh; by him she had a son (Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā), known as Kīchīk (Little) Mīrzā, who at first was in his maternal-uncle's service, but later on gave up soldiering to occupy himself with letters. He is said to have become very learned and also to have taste in verse.[990] Here is a Persian quatrain of his:—
911.3.3
For long on a life of devotion I plumed me, As one of the band of the abstinent ranged me; Where when Love came was devotion? denial? By the mercy of God it is I have proved me! This quatrain recalls one by the Mullā.[991] Kīchīk Mīrzā made the circuit of the _ka'ba_ towards the end of his life. Badka (Badī`u'l-jamāl) Begīm also was older[992] than the Mīrzā. She was given in the guerilla times to Aḥmad Khān of Ḥājī-tarkhān;[993] by him she had two sons (Sl. Maḥmūd Khān and Bahādur Sl.) who went to Herī and were in the Mīrzā's service. (_b._) _His appearance and habits._ He was slant-eyed (_qīyik gūzlūq_) and lion-bodied, being slender from the waist downwards. Even when old and white-bearded, he wore silken garments of fine red and green. He used to wear either the black lambskin cap (_būrk_) or the _qālpāq_,[994] but on a Feast-day would sometimes set up a little three-fold turban, wound broad and badly,[995] stick a heron's plume in it and so go to Prayers. When he first took Herī, he thought of reciting the names of [Sidenote: Fol. 164b.] the Twelve Imāms in the _khuṯba_,[996] but `Alī-sher Beg and others prevented it; thereafter all his important acts were done in accordance with orthodox law. He could not perform the Prayers on account of a trouble in the joints,[997] and he kept no fasts. He was lively and pleasant, rather immoderate in temper, and with words that matched his temper. He shewed great respect for the law in several weighty matters;
911.3.4
he once surrendered to the Avengers of blood a son of his own who had killed a man, and had him taken to the Judgment-gate (_Dāru'l-qaẓā_). He was abstinent for six or seven years after he took the throne; later on he degraded himself to drink. During the almost 40 years of his rule[998] in Khurāsān, there may not have been one single day on which he did not drink after the Mid-day prayer; earlier than that however he did not drink. What happened with his sons, the soldiers and the town was that every-one pursued vice and pleasure to excess. Bold and daring he was! Time and again he got to work with his own sword, getting his own hand in wherever he arrayed to fight; no man of Tīmūr Beg's line has been known to match him in the slashing of swords. He had a leaning to poetry and even put a _dīwān_ together, writing in Turkī with Ḥusainī for his pen-name.[999] Many couplets in his _dīwān_ are not bad; it is however in one and the same metre throughout. Great ruler though he was, [Sidenote: Fol. 165.] both by the length of his reign (_yāsh_) and the breadth of his dominions, he yet, like little people kept fighting-rams, flew pigeons and fought cocks. (_c._) _His wars and encounters._[1000] He swam the Gurgān-water[1001] in his guerilla days and gave a party of Aūzbegs a good beating.
911.3.5
Again,—with 60 men he fell on 3000 under Pay-master Muḥammad `Alī, sent ahead by Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā, and gave them a downright good beating (868 AH.). This was his one fine, out-standing feat-of-arms.[1002] Again,—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā near Astarābād (865 AH.).[1003] Again,—this also in Astarābād, he fought and beat Sa`īdlīq Sa`īd, son of Ḥusain _Turkmān_ (873 AH.?). Again,—after taking the throne (of Herī in Ramẓān 873 AH.-March 1469 AD.), he fought and beat Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā at Chanārān (874 AH.).[1004] Again,—coming swiftly[1005] from the Murgh-āb bridge-head (Sar-i-pul), he fell suddenly on Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā where he lay drunk in the Ravens'-garden (875 AH.), a victory which kept all Khurāsān quiet. Again,—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā at Chīkmān-sarāī in the neighbourhood of Andikhūd and Shibrghān (876 AH.).[1006] Again,—he fell suddenly on Abā-bikr Mīrzā[1007] after that Mīrzā, joined by the Black-sheep Turkmāns, had come out of `Irāq, beaten Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā (_Kābulī_) in Takāna and Khimār (var. Ḥimār), taken Kābul, left it because of turmoil in `Irāq, crossed Khaibar, gone on to Khūsh-āb and Multān, on again to [Sidenote: Fol. 165b.] Sīwī,[1008] thence to Karmān and, unable to stay there, had entered the Khurāsān country (884 AH.).[1009] Again,—he defeated his son Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā at Pul-i-chirāgh (902 AH.); he also defeated his sons Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Kūpuk (Round-shouldered) Mīrzā at Ḥalwā-spring (904 AH.).[1010]
911.3.6
Again,—he went to Qūndūz, laid siege to it, could not take it, and retired; he laid siege to Ḥiṣār, could not take that either, and rose from before it (901 AH.); he went into Ẕū'n-nūn's country, was given Bast by its _dārogha_, did no more and retired (903 AH.).[1011] A ruler so great and so brave, after resolving royally on these three movements, just retired with nothing done! Again,—he fought his son Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā in the Nīshīn-meadow, who had come there with Ẕū'n-nūn's son, Shāh Beg (903 AH.). In that affair were these curious coincidences:—The Mīrzā's force will have been small, most of his men being in Astarābād; on the very day of the fight, one force rejoined him coming back from Astarābād, and Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā arrived to join Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā after letting Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā take Ḥiṣār, and Ḥaidar Mīrzā came back from reconnoitring Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā at Sabzawār. (_d._) _His countries._ His country was Khurāsān, with Balkh to the east, Bistām and Damghān to the west, Khwārizm to the north, Qandahār [Sidenote: Fol. 166.] and Sīstān to the south. When he once had in his hands such a town as Herī, his only affair, by day and by night, was with comfort and pleasure; nor was there a man of his either who did not take his ease. It followed of course that, as he no longer tolerated the hardships and fatigue of conquest and soldiering, his retainers and his territories dwindled instead of increasing right down to the time of his departure.[1012]
911.3.7
(_e._) _His children._ Fourteen sons and eleven daughters were born to him.[1013] The oldest of all his children was Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā; (Bega Begīm) a daughter of Sl. Sanjar of Marv, was his mother. Shāh-i-gharīb Mīrzā was another; he had a stoop (_būkūrī_); though ill to the eye, he was of good character; though weak of body, he was powerful of pen. He even put a _dīwān_ together, using Gharbatī (Lowliness) for his pen-name and writing both Turkī and Persian verse. Here is a couplet of his:—