The Memoirs of Bābur 911.3.3

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;