[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Mughals (1526–1857)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal) › [Bābur (1526–1530)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur) › [Bāburnāma](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama) › [The Babur-nama in English (A. S. Beveridge)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge) › 912.1 # The Memoirs of Bābur 912.1 The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 912.1 - **Language:** English ### [912.1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1.1) 912 AH.-MAY 24TH 1506 TO MAY 13TH 1507 AD.\[1171\] (\_a. Bābur starts to join Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā.\_) In the month of Muḥarram we set out by way of Ghūr-bund \[Sidenote: Fol. 183b.\] and Shibr-tū to oppose the Aūzbeg. As Jahāngīr Mīrzā had gone out of the country in some sort of displeasure, we said, "There might come much mischief and trouble if he drew the clans (\_aīmāq\_) to himself;" and "What trouble might come of it!" and, "First let's get the clans in hand!" So said, we hurried forward, riding light and leaving the baggage (\_aūrūq\_) at Ushtur-shahr in charge of Walī the treasurer and Daulat-qadam of the scouts. That day we reached Fort \[Z.\]aḥāq; from there we crossed the pass of the Little-dome (Guṃbazak-kūtal), trampled through Sāīghān, went over the Dandān-shikan pass and dismounted in the meadow of Kāhmard. From Kāhmard we sent Sayyid Afẓal the Seer-of-dreams (\_Khwāb-bīn\_) and Sl. Muḥammad \_Dūldāī\_ to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā with a letter giving the particulars of our start from Kābul.\[1172\] Jahāngīr Mīrzā must have lagged on the road, for when he got opposite Bāmīān and went with 20 or 30 persons to visit it, he saw near it the tents of our people left with the baggage. Thinking we were there, he and his party hurried back to their camp and, without an eye to anything, without regard for their own people marching in the rear, made off for Yaka-aūlāng.\[1173\] (\_b. Action of Shaibāq Khān.\_) ### [912.1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1.2) When Shaibāq Khān had laid siege to Balkh, in which was Sl. Qul-i-nachāq,\[1174\] he sent two or three sulṯāns with 3 or 4000 men to overrun Badakhshān. At the time Mubārak Shāh and Zubair had again joined Nāṣir Mīrzā, spite of former resentments and bickerings, and they all were lying at Shakdān, below Kishm \[Sidenote: Fol. 184.\] and east of the Kishm-water. Moving through the night, one body of Aūzbegs crossed that water at the top of the morning and advanced on the Mīrzā; he at once drew off to rising-ground, mustered his force, sounded trumpets, met and overcame them. Behind the Aūzbegs was the Kishm-water in flood, many were drowned in it, a mass of them died by arrow and sword, more were made prisoner. Another body of Aūzbegs, sent against Mubārak Shāh and Zubair where they lay, higher up the water and nearer Kishm, made them retire to the rising-ground. Of this the Mīrzā heard; when he had beaten off his own assailants, he moved against theirs. So did the Kohistān begs, gathered with horse and foot, still higher up the river. Unable to make stand against this attack, the Aūzbegs fled, but of this body also a mass died by sword, arrow, and water. In all some 1000 to 1500 may have died. This was Nāṣir Mīrzā's one good success; a man of his brought us news about it while we were in the dale of Kāhmard. (\_c. Bābur moves on into Khurāsān.\_) ### [912.1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1.3) While we were in Kāhmard, our army fetched corn from Ghūrī and Dahāna. There too we had letters from Sayyid \[Sidenote: Fol. 184b.\] Afẓal and Sl. Muḥammad \_Dūldāī\_ whom we had sent into Khurāsān; their news was of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's death. This news notwithstanding, we set forward for Khurāsān; though there were other grounds for doing this, what decided us was anxious thought for the reputation of this (Tīmūrid) dynasty. We went up the trough (\_aīchī\_) of the Ājar-valley, on over Tūp and Mandaghān, crossed the Balkh-water and came out on Ṣāf-hill. Hearing there that Aūzbegs were overrunning Sān and Chār-yak,\[1175\] we sent a force under Qāsim Beg against them; he got up with them, beat them well, cut many heads off, and returned. ### [912.1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1.4) We lay a few days in the meadow of Ṣāf-hill, waiting for news of Jahāngīr Mīrzā and the clans (\_aīmāq\_) to whom persons had been sent. We hunted once, those hills being very full of wild sheep and goats (\_kiyīk\_). All the clans came in and waited on me within a few days; it was to me they came; they had not gone to Jahāngīr Mīrzā though he had sent men often enough to them, once sending even \`Imādu'd-dīn Mas\`ūd. He himself was forced to come at last; he saw me at the foot of the valley when I came down off Ṣāf-hill. Being anxious about Khurāsān, we neither paid him attention nor took thought for the clans, but went right on through Gurzwān, Almār, Qaiṣār, Chīchīk-tū, and Fakhru'd-dīn's-death (\_aūlūm\_) into the Bām-valley, \[Sidenote: Fol. 185.\] one of the dependencies of Bādghīs. The world being full of divisions,\[1176\] things were being taken from country and people with the long arm; we ourselves began to take something, by laying an impost on the Turks and clans of those parts, in two or three months taking perhaps 300 \_tūmāns\_ of \_kipkī\_.\[1177\] (\_d. Coalition of the Khurāsān Mīrzās.\_) A few days before our arrival (in Bām-valley?) some of the Khurāsān light troops and of Ẕū'n-nūn Beg's men had well beaten Aūzbeg raiders in Pand-dih (Panj-dih?) and Marūchāq, killing a mass of men.\[1178\] ### [912.1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1.5) Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā with Muḥammad Barandūq \_Barlās\_, Ẕū'n-nūn \_Arghūn\_ and his son Shāh Beg resolved to move on Shaibāq Khān, then besieging Sl. Qul-i-nachāq (?) in Balkh. Accordingly they summoned all Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's sons, and got out of Herī to effect their purpose. At Chihil-dukhtarān Abū'l-muḥsin M. joined them from Marv; Ibn-i-ḥusain M. followed, coming up from Tūn and Qāīn. Kūpuk (Kīpik) M. was in Mashhad; often though they sent to him, he behaved unmanly, spoke senseless words, and did not come. Between him and Muz̤affar Mīrzā, there was jealousy; when Muz̤affar M. was made (joint-)ruler, he said, "How should \_I\_ go to \_his\_ presence?" Through this disgusting jealousy he did not come now, even at this crisis when all his brethren, older and younger, were assembling in concord, resolute against such a foe \[Sidenote: Fol. 185b.\] as Shaibāq Khān. Kūpuk M. laid his own absence to rivalry, but everybody else laid it to his cowardice. One word! In this world acts such as his outlive the man; if a man have any share of intelligence, why try to be ill-spoken of after death? if he be ambitious, why not try so to act that, he gone, men will praise him? In the honourable mention of their names, wise men find a second life! ### [912.1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1.6) Envoys from the Mīrzās came to me also, Mūh. Barandūq \_Barlās\_ himself following them. As for me, what was to hinder my going? It was for that very purpose I had travelled one or two hundred \_yīghāch\_ (500-600 miles)! I at once started with Muḥ. Barandūq Beg for Murgh-āb\[1179\] where the Mīrzās were lying. (\_e. Bābur meets the Mīrzās.\_) The meeting with the Mīrzās was on Monday the 8th of the latter Jumāda (Oct. 26th 1506 AH.). Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā came out a mile to meet me; we approached one another; on my side, I dismounted, on his side, he; we advanced, saw one another and remounted. Near the camp Muz̤affar Mīrzā and Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā met us; they, being younger than Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā ought to have come out further than he to meet me.\[1180\] Their dilatoriness may not have been due to pride, but to heaviness \[Sidenote: Fol. 186.\] after wine; their negligence may have been no slight on me, but due to their own social pleasures. On this Muz̤affar Mīrzā laid stress;\[1181\] we two saw one another without dismounting, so did Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā and I. We rode on together and, in an amazing crowd and press, dismounted at Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Gate. Such was the throng that some were lifted off the ground for three or four steps together, while others, wishing for some reason to get out, were carried, willy-nilly, four or five steps the other way. ### [912.1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1.7) We reached Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's Audience-tent. It had been agreed that I, on entering, should bend the knee (\_yūkūnghāī\_) once, that the Mīrzā should rise and advance to the edge of the estrade,\[1182\] and that we should see one another there. I went in, bent the knee once, and was going right forward; the Mīrzā rose rather languidly and advanced rather slowly; Qāsim Beg, as he was my well-wisher and held my reputation as his own, gave my girdle a tug; I understood, moved more slowly, and so the meeting was on the appointed spot. Four divans (\_tūshuk\_) had been placed in the tent. Always in the Mīrzā's tents one side was like a gate-way\[1183\] and at the edge of this gate-way he always sat. A divan was set there now \[Sidenote: Fol. 186b.\] on which he and Muz̤affar Mīrzā sat together. Abū'l-muḥsin, Mīrzā and I sat on another, set in the right-hand place of honour (\_tūr\_). On another, to Badī\`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's left, sat Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā with Qāsim Sl. \_Aūzbeg\_, a son-in-law of the late Mīrzā and father of Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān. To my right and below my divan was one on which sat Jahāngīr Mīrzā and \`Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā. To the left of Qāsim Sl. and Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā, but a good deal lower, were Muḥ. Barandūq Beg, Ẕū'n-nūn Beg and Qāsim Beg. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.babur.baburnama~en-beveridge.912.1) · Pramāṇa