The Memoirs of Bābur 913.2.1

913.2.1

When Shaibāq Khān arrived two or three days later; the Shaikhu'l-islām and notables went out to him with the keys of the outer-fort. That same `Āshiq-i-muḥammad held Ālā-qūrghān for 16 or 17 days; then a mine, run from the horse-market outside, was fired and brought a tower down; the garrison lost heart, could hold out no longer, so let the fort be taken. (_f. Shaibāq Khān in Herī._) Shaibāq Khān, after taking Herī,[1270] behaved badly not only to the wives and children of its rulers but to every person soever. For the sake of this five-days' fleeting world, he earned himself a bad name. His first improper act and deed in Herī was that, for the sake of this rotten world (_chirk dunyā_), he caused Khadīja Begīm various miseries, through letting the vile wretch Pay-master Shāh Manṣūr get hold of her to loot. Then he let `Abdu'l-wahhāb _Mughūl_ take to loot a person so saintly and so revered as Shaikh Pūrān, and each one of Shaikh Pūrān's children be taken by a separate person. He let the band of poets be seized by Mullā Banā'ī, a matter about which this verse is well-known in Khurāsān:— Except `Abdu'l-lāh the stupid fool (_kīr-khar_), Not a poet to-day sees the colour of gold; From the poets' band Banā'ī would get gold, All he will get is _kīr-khar_.[1271] [Sidenote: Fol. 206b.]