The Memoirs of Bābur 913.3
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 913.3
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913.3.1
As on our march from Qalāt the army had suffered much from hunger and thirst, most of the soldiers on getting near Khalishak scattered up and down for sheep and cattle, grain and eatables. Without looking to collect them, we galloped off. Our force may have been 2000 in all, but perhaps not over 1000 were in the battle because those mentioned as scattering up and down could not rejoin in time to fight. Though our men were few I had them organized and posted on a first-rate plan and method; I had never arrayed them before by such a good one. For my immediate command (_khāṣa tābīn_) I had selected braves from whose hands comes work[1289] and had inscribed them by tens and fifties, each ten and each fifty under a leader who knew the post in the right or left of the centre for his ten or his fifty, knew the work of each in the battle, and was there on the observant watch; so that, after mounting, the right and left, right and left hands, right and left sides, charged right and left without the trouble of arraying them or the need of a _tawāchī_.[1290]
913.3.2
(_Author's note on his terminology._) [Sidenote: Fol. 209b.] Although _barānghār_, _aūng qūl_, _aūng yān_ and _aūng_ (right wing, right hand, right side and right) all have the same meaning, I have applied them in different senses in order to vary terms and mark distinctions. As, in the battle-array, the (Ar.) _maimana_ and _maisara_ _i.e._ what people call (Turkī) _barānghār_ and _jawānghār_ (r. and l. wings) are not included in the (Ar.) _qalb_, _i.e._ what people call (T.) _ghūl_ (centre), so it is in arraying the centre itself. Taking the array of the centre only, its (Ar.) _yamīn_ and _yasār_ (r. and l.) are called (by me) _aūng qūl_ and _sūl qūl_ (r. and l. hands). Again,—the (Ar.) _khāṣa tābīn_ (royal troop) in the centre has its _yamīn_ and _yasār_ which are called (by me) _aūng yān_ and _sūl yān_ (r. and l. sides, T. _yān_). Again,—in the _khāṣa tābīn_ there is the (T.) _būī_ (_nīng_) _tīkīnī_ (close circle); its _yamīn_ and _yasār_ are called _sūng_ and _sūl_. In the Turkī tongue they call one single thing a _būī_,[1291] but that is not the _būī_ meant here; what is meant here is close (_yāqīn_). The right wing (_barānghār_) was Mīrzā Khān (Wais), Sherīm T̤aghāī, Yārak T̤aghāī with his elder and younger brethren, Chilma _Mughūl_, Ayūb Beg, Muḥammad Beg, Ibrāhīm Beg, `Alī Sayyid _Mughūl_ with his Mughūls, Sl. Qulī _chuhra_, Khudā-bakhsh and Abū'l-ḥasan with his elder and younger brethren.
913.3.3
The left (_jawānghār_) was `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā, Qāsim Beg, Tīngrī-bīrdī, Qaṃbar-i-`alī, Aḥmad _Aīlchī-būghā_, Ghūrī _Barlās_, Sayyid Ḥusain Akbar, and Mīr Shāh _Qūchin_. The advance (_aīrāwal_) was Nāṣir Mīrzā, Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate, Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer, Pāpā Aūghulī (Pāpā's son?), Allāh-wairan _Turkmān_, Sher Qulī _Mughūl_ the scout with his elder and younger brethren, and Muḥammad `Alī. In the centre (_ghūl_), on my right hand, were Qāsim Kūkūldāsh, Khusrau Kūkūldāsh, Sl. Muḥammad _Dūldāī_, Shāh Maḥmūd the secretary, Qūl-i-bāyazīd the taster, and Kamāl the sherbet-server [Sidenote: Fol. 210.] server; on my left were Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī, Nāṣir's Dost, Nāṣir's Mīrīm, Bābā Sher-zād, Khān-qulī, Walī the treasurer, Qūtlūq-qadam the scout, Maqsūd the water-bearer (_sū-chī_), and Bābā Shaikh. Those in the centre were all of my household; there were no great begs; not one of those enumerated had reached the rank of beg. Those inscribed in this _būī_[1292] were Sher Beg, Ḥātim the Armoury-master, Kūpuk, Qulī Bābā, Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer;—of the Mughūls, Aūrūs (Russian) `Alī Sayyid,[1293] Darwīsh-i-`alī Sayyid, Khūsh-kīldī, Chilma, Dost-kīldī, Chilma _Tāghchī_, Dāmāchī, Mindī;—of the Turkmāns, Manṣūr, Rustam-i-`alī with his elder and younger brother, and Shāh Nāẕir and Sīūndūk. The enemy was in two divisions, one under Shāh Shujā' _Arghūn_, known as Shāh Beg and hereafter to be written of simply as Shāh Beg, the other under his younger brother Muqīm.
913.3.4
Some estimated the dark mass of Arghūns[1294] at 6 or 7000 men; no question whatever but that Shāh Beg's own men in mail were 4 or 5000. He faced our right, Muqīm with a force smaller may-be than his brother's, faced our left. Muqīm made a mightily strong attack on our left, that is on Qāsim Beg from whom two or three persons came before fighting began, to ask for reinforcement; we however could not detach a man because in front of us also the enemy was very strong. We made our onset without any delay; the enemy fell suddenly on our van, [Sidenote: Fol. 210b.] turned it back and rammed it on our centre. When we, after a discharge of arrows, advanced, they, who also had been shooting for a time, seemed likely to make a stand (_tūkhtaghāndīk_). Some-one, shouting to his men, came forward towards me, dismounted and was for adjusting his arrow, but he could do nothing because we moved on without stay. He remounted and rode off; it may have been Shāh Beg himself. During the fight Pīrī Beg _Turkmān_ and 4 or 5 of his brethren turned their faces from the foe and, turban in hand,[1295] came over to us. (_Author's note on Pīrī Beg._) This Pīrī Beg was one of those Turkmāns who came [into Herī] with the Turkmān Begs led by `Abdu'l-bāqī Mīrzā and Murād Beg, after Shāh Ismā`īl vanquished the Bāyandar sulṯāns and seized the `Irāq countries.[1296]
913.3.5
Our right was the first to overcome the foe; it made him hurry off. Its extreme point had gone pricking (_sānjīlīb_)[1297] as far as where I have now laid out a garden. Our left extended as far as the great tree-tangled[1298] irrigation-channels, a good way below Bābā Ḥasan Abdāl. Muqīm was opposite it, its numbers very small compared with his. God brought it right! Between it and Muqīm were three or four of the tree-tangled water-channels going on to Qandahār;[1299] it held the crossing-place and allowed no passage; small body though it was, it made splendid stand [Sidenote: Fol. 211.] and kept its ground. Ḥalwāchī Tarkhān[1300] slashed away in the water with Tīngrī-bīrdī and Qaṃbar-i-`alī. Qaṃbar-i-`alī was wounded; an arrow stuck in Qāsim Beg's forehead; another struck Ghūrī _Barlās_ above the eyebrow and came out above his cheek.[1301] We meantime, after putting our adversary to flight, had crossed those same channels towards the naze of Murghān-koh (Birds'-hill). Some-one on a grey _tīpūchāq_ was going backwards and forwards irresolutely along the hill-skirt, while we were getting across; I likened him to Shāh Beg; seemingly it was he. Our men having beaten their opponents, all went off to pursue and unhorse them. Remained with me eleven to count, `Abdu'l-lāh the librarian being one. Muqīm was still keeping his ground and fighting. Without a glance at the fewness of our men, we had the nagarets sounded and, putting our trust in God, moved with face set for Muqīm.
913.3.6
(Turkī) For few or for many God is full strength; No man has might in His Court. (Arabic) How often, God willing it, a small force has vanquished a large one! Learning from the nagarets that we were approaching, Muqīm forgot his fixed plan and took the road of flight. God brought it right! After putting our foe to flight, we moved for Qandahār and dismounted in Farrukh-zād Beg's Chār-bāgh, of which at this time not a trace remains! (_m. Bābur enters Qandahār._) [Sidenote: Fol. 211b.] Shāh Beg and Muqīm could not get into Qandahār when they took to flight; Shāh Beg went towards Shāl and Mastūng (Quetta), Muqīm towards Zamīn-dāwar. They left no-one able to make the fort fast. Aḥmad `Alī Tarkhān was in it together with other elder and younger brethren of Qulī Beg _Arghūn_ whose attachment and good-feeling for me were known. After parley they asked protection for the families of their elder and younger brethren; their request was granted and all mentioned were encompassed with favour. They then opened the Māshūr-gate of the town; with leaderless men in mind, no other was opened. At that gate were posted Sherīm T̤aghāī and Yārīm Beg. I went in with a few of the household, charged the leaderless men and had two or three put to death by way of example.[1302] (_n. The spoils of Qandahār._)
913.3.7
I got to Muqīm's treasury first, that being in the outer-fort; `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā must have been quicker than I, for he was just dismounting there when I arrived; I gave him a few things from it. I put Dost-i-nāṣir Beg, Qul-i-bāyazīd the taster and, of pay-masters, Muḥammad _bakhshī_ in charge of it, then passed on into the citadel and posted Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī, Shāh Maḥmūd and, of the pay-masters, T̤aghāī Shāh _bakhshī_ in charge of Shāh Beg's treasury. Nāṣir's Mīrīm and Maqṣūd the sherbet-server were sent to keep the house of Ẕū'n-nūn's _Dīwān_ Mīr Jān for Nāṣir Mīrzā; for Mīrzā Khān was kept Shaikh Abū-sa`īd _Tarkhānī's_; for `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā ... 's.[1303] [Sidenote: Fol. 212.] Such masses of white money had never been seen in those countries; no-one indeed was to be heard of who had seen so much. That night, when we ourselves stayed in the citadel, Shāh Beg's slave Saṃbhal was captured and brought in. Though he was then Shāh Beg's intimate, he had not yet received his later favour.[1304] I had him given into someone's charge but as good watch was not kept, he was allowed to escape. Next day I went back to my camp in Farrukh-zād Beg's Chār-bāgh.