The Memoirs of Bābur 912.3
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 912.3
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- English
912.3.1
Amongst the musicians present at this party were Ḥāfiẓ Ḥājī, [Sidenote: Fol. 190.] Jalālu'd-dīn Maḥmūd the flautist, and Ghulām _shādī_'s younger brother, Ghulām _bacha_ the Jews'-harpist. Ḥāfiẓ Ḥājī sang well, as Herī people sing, quietly, delicately, and in tune. With Jahāngīr Mīrzā was a Samarkandī singer Mīr Jān whose singing was always loud, harsh and out-of-tune. The Mīrzā, having had enough, ordered him to sing; he did so, loudly, harshly and without taste. Khurāsānīs have quite refined manners; if, under this singing, one did stop his ears, the face of another put question, not one could stop the singer, out of consideration for the Mīrzā. After the Evening Prayer we left the T̤arab-khāna for a new house in Muz̤affar Mīrzā's winter-quarters. There Yūsuf-i-`alī danced in the drunken time, and being, as he was, a master in music, danced well. The party waxed very warm there. Muz̤affar Mīrzā gave me a sword-belt, a lambskin surtout, and a grey _tīpūchāq_ (horse). Jānak recited in Turkī. Two slaves of the Mīrzā's, known as Big-moon and Little-moon, did offensive, drunken tricks in the drunken time. The party was warm till night when those assembled scattered, I, however, staying the night in that house. Qāsim Beg getting to hear that I had been pressed to drink wine, sent some-one to Ẕū'n-nūn Beg with advice for him and for Muz̤affar Mīrzā, given in very plain words; the result was [Sidenote: Fol. 190b.] that the Mīrzās entirely ceased to press wine upon me.
912.3.2
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, hearing that Muz̤affar M. had entertained me, asked me to a party arranged in the Maqauwī-khāna of the World-adorning Garden. He asked also some of my close circle[1193] and some of our braves. Those about me could never drink (openly) on my own account; if they ever did drink, they did it perhaps once in 40 days, with doorstrap fast and under a hundred fears. Such as these were now invited; here too they drank with a hundred precautions, sometimes calling off my attention, sometimes making a screen of their hands, notwithstanding that I had given them permission to follow common custom, because this party was given by one standing to me as a father or elder brother. People brought in weeping-willows....[1194] At this party they set a roast goose before me but as I was no carver or disjointer of birds, I left it alone. "Do you not like it?" inquired the Mīrzā. Said I, "I am a poor carver." On this he at once disjointed the bird and set it again before [Sidenote: Fol. 191.] me. In such matters he had no match. At the end of the party he gave me an enamelled waist-dagger, a _chār-qāb_,[1195] and a _tīpūchāq_. (_l. Bābur sees the sights of Herī._) Every day of the time I was in Herī I rode out to see a new sight; my guide in these excursions was Yūsuf-i-`alī Kūkūldāsh; wherever we dismounted, he set food before me. Except Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's Almshouse, not one famous spot, maybe, was left unseen in those 40 days.
912.3.3
I saw the Gāzur-gāh,[1196] `Alī-sher's Bāghcha (Little-garden), the Paper-mortars,[1197] Takht-astāna (Royal-residence), Pul-i-gāh, Kahad-stān,[1198] Naẕar-gāh-garden, Ni`matābād (Pleasure-place), Gāzur-gāh Avenue, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's Ḥaẕirat,[1199] Takht-i-safar,[1200] Takht-i-nawā'ī, Takht-i-barkar, Takht-i-Ḥājī Beg, Takht-i-Bahā'u'd-dīn `Umar, Takht-i-Shaikh Zainu'd-dīn, Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥmān _Jāmī_'s honoured shrine and tomb,[1201] Namāz-gāh-i-mukhtār,[1202] the Fish-pond,[1203] Sāq-i-sulaimān,[1204] Bulūrī (Crystal) which originally may have been Abū'l-walīd,[1205] Imām Fakhr,[1206] Avenue-garden, Mīrzā's Colleges and tomb, Guhār-shād Begīm's College, tomb,[1207] and Congregational Mosque, the Ravens'-garden, New-garden, Zubaida-garden,[1208] Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's White-house [Sidenote: Fol.
912.3.4
191b.] outside the `Iraq-gate, Pūrān,[1209] the Archer's-seat, Chargh (hawk)-meadow, Amīr Wāḥid,[1210] Mālān-bridge,[1211] Khwāja-tāq,[1212] White-garden, T̤arab-khāna, Bāgh-i-jahān-ārā, Kūshk,[1213] Maqauwī-khāna, Lily-house, Twelve-towers, the great tank to the north of Jahān-ārā and the four dwellings on its four sides, the five Fort-gates, _viz._ the Malik, `Irāq, Fīrūzābād, Khūsh[1214] and Qībchāq Gates, Chārsū, Shaikhu'l-islām's College, Maliks' Congregational Mosque, Town-garden, Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's College on the bank of the Anjīl-canal, `Alī-sher Beg's dwellings where we resided and which people call Unsīya (Ease), his tomb and mosque which they call Qudsīya (Holy), his College and Almshouse which they call Khalāṣīya and Akhlāṣīya (Freedom and Sincerity), his Hot-bath and Hospital which they call Ṣafā'īya and Shafā'īya. All these I visited in that space of time. (_m. Bābur engages Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān in marriage._) It must have been before those throneless times[1215] that Ḥabība-sulṯān Begīm, the mother of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's youngest daughter Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān Begīm, brought her daughter into Herī. One day when I was visiting my Ākā, Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān Begīm came there with her mother and at once felt arise in her a great inclination towards me. Private messengers having been sent, my Ākā and my Yīnkā, as I used to call Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm [Sidenote: Fol. 192.] and Habība-sulṯān Begīm, settled between them that the latter should bring her daughter after me to Kābul.[1216]
912.3.5
(_n. Bābur leaves Khurāsān._) Very pressingly had Muḥ Barandūq Beg and Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_ said, "Winter here!" but they had given me no winter-quarters nor had they made any winter-arrangements for me. Winter came on; snow fell on the mountains between us and Kābul; anxiety grew about Kābul; no winter-quarters were offered, no arrangements made! As we could not speak out, of necessity we left Herī! On the pretext of finding winter-quarters, we got out of the town on the 7th day of the month of Sha`bān (Dec. 24th 1506 AD.), and went to near Bādghīs. Such were our slowness and our tarryings that the Ramẓān-moon was seen a few marches only beyond the Langar of Mir Ghiyāṣ.[1217] Of our braves who were absent on various affairs, some joined us, some followed us into Kābul 20 days or a month later, some stayed in Herī and took service with the Mīrzās. One of these last was Sayyidīm `Alī the gate-ward, who became Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's retainer. To no servant of Khusrau Shāh had I shewn so much favour as to him; he had been given Ghaznī when Jahāngīr Mīrzā abandoned it, and in it when he came away with the army, had left his younger brother Dost-i-anjū (?) Shaikh. There were in truth [Sidenote: Fol. 192b.] no better men amongst Khusrau Shāh's retainers than this man Sayyidīm `Alī the gate-ward and Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer. Sayyidīm was of excellent nature and manners, a bold swordsman, a singularly competent and methodical man. His house was never without company and assembly;
912.3.6
he was greatly generous, had wit and charm, a variety of talk and story, and was a sweet-natured, good-humoured, ingenious, fun-loving person. His fault was that he practised vice and pederasty. He may have swerved from the Faith; may also have been a hypocrite in his dealings; some of what seemed double-dealing people attributed to his jokes, but, still, there must have been a something![1218] When Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā had let Shaibāq Khān take Herī and had gone to Shāh Beg (_Arghūn_), he had Sayyidīm `Alī thrown into the Harmand because of his double-dealing words spoken between the Mīrzā and Shāh Beg. Muḥibb-i-`alī's story will come into the narrative of events hereafter to be written. (_o. A perilous mountain-journey._) From the Langar of Mīr Ghiyās̤ we had ourselves guided past the border-villages of Gharjistān to Chach-charān.[1219] From the almshouse to Gharjistān was an unbroken sheet of snow; it was deeper further on; near Chach-charān itself it was above the horses' knees. Chach-charān depended on Ẕū'n-nūn _Arghūn_; his retainer Mīr Jān-aīrdī was in it now; from him we took, on payment, the whole of Ẕū'n-nūn Beg's store of provisions. A march or two further on, the snow was very deep, being above [Sidenote: Fol. 193.] the stirrup, indeed in many places the horses' feet did not touch the ground.
912.3.7
We had consulted at the Langar of Mīr Ghiyās̤ which road to take for return to Kābul; most of us agreed in saying, "It is winter, the mountain-road is difficult and dangerous; the Qandahār road, though a little longer, is safe and easy." Qāsim Beg said, "That road is long; you will go by this one." As he made much dispute, we took the mountain-road. Our guide was a Pashāī named Pīr Sulṯān (Old sultan?). Whether it was through old age, whether from want of heart, whether because of the deep snow, he lost the road and could not guide us. As we were on this route under the insistance of Qāsim Beg, he and his sons, for his name's sake, dismounted, trampled the snow down, found the road again and took the lead. One day the snow was so deep and the way so uncertain that we could not go on; there being no help for it, back we turned, dismounted where there was fuel, picked out 60 or 70 good men and sent them down the valley in our tracks to fetch any one soever of the Hazāra, wintering in the valley-bottom, who might shew us the road. That place could not be left till our men returned three or four days later. They brought no [Sidenote: Fol. 193b.] guide; once more we sent Sulṯān _Pashāī_ ahead and, putting our trust in God, again took the road by which we had come back from where it was lost. Much misery and hardship were endured in those few days, more than at any time of my life. In that stress I composed the following opening couplet:—