The Memoirs of Bābur 913.4
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 913.4
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- English
913.4.1
I gave the Qandahār country to Nāṣir Mīrzā. After the treasure had been got into order, loaded up and started off, he took the loads of white _tankas_ off a string of camels (_i.e._ _7_ beasts) at the citadel-treasury, and kept them. I did not demand them back; I just gave them to him. On leaving Qandahār, we dismounted in the Qūsh-khāna meadow. After setting the army forward, I had gone for an excursion, so I got into camp rather late. It was another camp! not to be recognized! Excellent _tīpūchāqs_, strings and strings of he-camels, she-camels, and mules, bearing saddle-bags (_khurzīn_) of silken stuffs and cloth,—tents of scarlet (cloth) and velvet, all sorts of awnings, every kind of work-shop, ass-load after ass-load of chests! The goods of the elder and younger (Arghūn) brethren had been kept in separate treasuries; out of each had come chest upon chest, bale upon bale of stuffs and clothes-in-wear (_artmāq artmāq_), sack upon sack of white _tankas_. In _aūtāgh_ and _chādar_ (lattice-tent and pole-tent) was much spoil for every man soever; many sheep also had been taken but sheep were less cared about!
913.4.2
I made over to Qāsim Beg Muqīm's retainers in Qalāt, under [Sidenote: Fol. 212b.] Qūj _Arghūn_ and Tāju'd-dīn Maḥmūd, with their goods and effects. Qāsim Beg was a knowing person; he saw it unadvisable for us to stay long near Qandahār, so, by talking and talking, worrying and worrying, he got us to march off. As has been said, I had bestowed Qandahār on Nāṣir Mīrzā; he was given leave to go there; we started for Kābul. There had been no chance of portioning out the spoils while we were near Qandahār; it was done at Qarā-bāgh where we delayed two or three days. To count the coins being difficult, they were apportioned by weighing them in scales. Begs of all ranks, retainers and household (_tābīn_) loaded up ass-load after ass-load of sacks full of white _tankas_, and took them away for their own subsistence and the pay of their soldiers. We went back to Kābul with masses of goods and treasure, great honour and reputation. (_o. Bābur's marriage with Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān._) After this return to Kābul I concluded alliance (_`aqd qīldīm_) with Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's daughter Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān Begīm whom I had asked in marriage at Khurāsān, and had had brought from there. (_p. Shaibāq Khān before Qandahār._)
913.4.3
A few days later a servant of Nāṣir Mīrzā brought the news that Shaibāq Khān had come and laid siege to Qandahār. That Muqīm had fled to Zamīn-dāwar has been said already; from there he went on and saw Shaibāq Khān. From Shāh Beg also one person after another had gone to Shaibāq Khān. At the instigation and petition of these two, the Khān came [Sidenote: Fol. 213.] swiftly down on Qandahār by the mountain road,[1305] thinking to find me there. This was the very thing that experienced person Qāsim Beg had in his mind when he worried us into marching off from near Qandahār. (Persian) What a mirror shews to the young man, A baked brick shews to the old one! Shaibāq Khān arriving, besieged Nāṣir Mīrzā in Qandahār. (_q. Alarm in Kābul._)
913.4.4
When this news came, the begs were summoned for counsel. The matters for discussion were these:—Strangers and ancient foes, such as are Shaibāq Khān and the Aūzbegs, are in possession of all the countries once held by Tīmūr Beg's descendants; even where Turks and Chaghatāīs[1306] survive in corners and border-lands, they have all joined the Aūzbeg, willingly or with aversion; one remains, I myself, in Kābul, the foe mightily strong, I very weak, with no means of making terms, no strength to oppose; that, in the presence of such power and potency, we had to think of some place for ourselves and, at this crisis and in the crack of time there was, to put a wider space between us and the strong foeman; that choice lay between Badakhshān and Hindūstān and that decision must now be made. Qāsim Beg and Sherīm T̤aghāī were agreed for Badakhshān; (_Author's note on Badakhshān._) Those holding their heads up in Badakhshān at this crisis were, of Badakhshīs, Mubārak Shāh and Zubair, Jahāngīr _Turkmān_ and Muḥammad the armourer. They had driven Nāṣir Mīrzā out but had not joined the Aūzbeg. [Sidenote: Fol. 213b.] I and several household-begs preferred going towards Hindūstān and were for making a start to Lamghān.[1307] (_r. Movements of some Mīrzās._)
913.4.5
After taking Qandahār, I had bestowed Qalāt and the Turnūk (Tarnak) country on `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā and had left him in Qalāt, but with the Aūzbeg besieging Qandahār, he could not stay in Qalāt, so left it and came to Kābul. He arriving just as we were marching out, was there left in charge.[1308] There being in Badakhshān no ruler or ruler's son, Mīrzā Khān inclined to go in that direction, both because of his relationship to Shāh Begīm[1309] and with her approval. He was allowed to go and the honoured Begīm herself started off with him. My honoured maternal-aunt Mihr-nigār Khānīm also wished to go to Badakhshān, notwithstanding that it was more seemly for her to be with me, a blood-relation; but whatever objection was made, she was not to be dissuaded; she also betook[1310] herself to Badakhshān. (_s. Bābur's second start for Hindūstān._) Under our plan of going to Hindūstān, we marched out of Kābul in the month of the first Jumāda (September 1507 AD.), taking the road through Little Kābul and going down by Sūrkh-rabāṯ to Qūrūq-sāī.
913.4.6
The Afghāns belonging between Kābul and Lamghān (Ningnahār) are thieves and abettors of thieves even in quiet times; for just such a happening as this they had prayed in vain. Said they, "He has abandoned Kābul", and multiplied their misdeeds by ten, changing their very merits for faults. To such [Sidenote: Fol. 214.] lengths did things go that on the morning we marched from Jagdālīk, the Afghāns located between it and Lamghān, such as the Khiẓr-khail, Shimū-khail, Khirilchī and Khūgīanī, thought of blocking the pass, arrayed on the mountain to the north, and advancing with sound of tambour and flourish of sword, began to shew themselves off. On our mounting I ordered our men to move along the mountain-side, each man from where he had dismounted;[1311] off they set at the gallop up every ridge and every valley of the saddle.[1312] The Afghāns stood awhile, but could not let even one arrow fly,[1313] and betook themselves to flight. While I was on the mountain during the pursuit, I shot one in the hand as he was running back below me. That arrow-stricken man and a few others were brought in; some were put to death by impalement, as an example. We dismounted over against the Adīnapūr-fort in the Nīngnahār _tūmān_. (_t. A raid for winter stores._)
913.4.7
Up till then we had taken no thought where to camp, where to go, where to stay; we had just marched up and down, camping in fresh places, while waiting for news.[1314] It was late in the autumn; most lowlanders had carried in their rice. People knowing the local land and water represented that the Mīl Kāfirs up the water of the `Alīshang _tūmān_ grow great quantities of rice, so that we might be able to collect winter supplies from them for the army. Accordingly we rode out of the Nīngnahār dale (_julga_), crossed (the Bārān-water) at Sāīkal, and went swiftly as far as the Pūr-amīn (easeful) valley. [Sidenote: Fol. 214b.] There the soldiers took a mass of rice. The rice-fields were all at the bottom of the hills. The people fled but some Kāfirs went to their death. A few of our braves had been sent to a look-out (_sar-kūb_)[1315] on a naze of the Pūr-anīm valley; when they were returning to us, the Kāfirs rushed from the hill above, shooting at them. They overtook Qāsim Beg's son-in-law Pūrān, chopped at him with an axe, and were just taking him when some of the braves went back, brought strength to bear, drove them off and got Pūrān away. After one night spent in the Kāfirs' rice-fields, we returned to camp with a mass of provisions collected. (_u. Marriage of Muqīm's daughter._) While we were near Mandrāwar in those days, an alliance was concluded between Muqīm's daughter Māh-chūchūk, now married to Shāh Ḥasan _Arghūn_, and Qāsim Kūkūldāsh.[1316]
913.4.8
(_v. Abandonment of the Hindūstān project._) As it was not found desirable to go on into Hindūstān, I sent Mullā Bābā of Pashāghar back to Kābul with a few braves. Meantime I marched from near Mandrāwar to Atar and Shīwa and lay there for a few days. From Atar I visited Kūnār and Nūr-gal; from Kūnār I went back to camp on a raft; it was the first time I had sat on one; it pleased me much, and the raft came into common use thereafter. (_w. Shaibāq Khān retires from Qandahār._) In those same days Mullā Bābā of Farkat came from Nāṣir Mīrzā with news in detail that Shaibāq Khān, after taking the outer-fort of Qandahār, had not been able to take the citadel but had retired; also that the Mīrzā, on various accounts, had left Qandahār and gone to Ghaznī.
913.4.9
Shaibāq Khān's arrival before Qandahār, within a few days [Sidenote: Fol. 215.] of our own departure, had taken the garrison by surprise, and they had not been able to make fast the outer-fort. He ran mines several times round about the citadel and made several assaults. The place was about to be lost. At that anxious time Khwāja Muḥ. Amīn, Khwāja Dost Khāwand, Muḥ. `Alī, a foot-soldier, and Shāmī (Syrian?) let themselves down from the walls and got away. Just as those in the citadel were about to surrender in despair, Shaibāq Khān interposed words of peace and uprose from before the place. Why he rose was this:—It appears that before he went there, he had sent his _ḥaram_ to Nīrah-tū,[1317] and that in Nīrah-tū some-one lifted up his head and got command in the fort; the Khān therefore made a sort of peace and retired from Qandahār. (_x. Bābur returns to Kābul._) Mid-winter though it was we went back to Kābul by the Bād-i-pīch road. I ordered the date of that transit and that crossing of the pass to be cut on a stone above Bād-i-pīch;[1318] Ḥāfiẓ Mīrak wrote the inscription, Ustād Shāh Muḥammad did the cutting, not well though, through haste. I bestowed Ghaznī on Nāṣir Mīrzā and gave `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā the Nīngnahār _tūmān_ with Mandrāwar, Nūr-valley, Kūnār and Nūr-gal.[1319] (_y. Bābur styles himself Pādshāh._) Up to that date people had styled Tīmūr Beg's descendants _Mīrzā_, even when they were ruling; now I ordered that people should style me _Pādshāh_.[1320]
913.4.10
(_z. Birth of Bābur's first son._) At the end of this year, on Tuesday the 4th day of the month of Ẕū'l-qa`da (March 6th 1506 AD.), the Sun being in Pisces [Sidenote: Fol. 215b.] (_Ḥūt_), Humāyūn was born in the citadel of Kābul. The date of his birth was found by the poet Maulānā Masnadī in the words _Sulṯān Humāyūn Khān_,[1321] and a minor poet of Kābul found it in _Shāh-i-fīrūs-qadr_ (Shāh of victorious might). A few days later he received the name Humāyūn; when he was five or six days old, I went out to the Chār-bāgh where was had the feast of his nativity. All the begs, small and great, brought gifts; such a mass of white _tankas_ was heaped up as had never been seen before. It was a first-rate feast!