The Memoirs of Bābur 914.5

914.5

A work issuing from a Sunnī Aūzbeg centre, Faẓl bin Ruzbahān _Isfahānī's Sūlūku'l-mulūk_, has a Preface of special value, as shewing one view of what it writes of as the spread of heresy in Māwarā'u'n-nahr through Bābur's invasions. The book itself is a Treatise on Musalmān Law, and was prepared by order of `Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān _Aūzbeg_ for his help in fulfilling a vow he had made, before attacking Bābur in 918 AH., at the shrine of Khwāja Aḥmad _Yasawī_ [in Haẓrat Turkistān], that, if he were victorious, he would conform exactly with the divine Law and uphold it in Māwarā'u'n-nahr (Rieu's Pers. Cat. ii, 448). The _Tārīkh-i Ḥājī Muḥammad `Ārif Qandahārī_ appears, from the frequent use Firishta made of it, to be a useful source, both because its author was a native of Qandahār, a place much occupying Bābur's activities, and because he was a servant of Bairām Khān-i-khānān, whose assassination under Akbar he witnessed.[1333] Unfortunately, though his life of Akbar survives no copy is now known of the section of his General History which deals with Bābur's. An early source is Yahya _Kazwīnī's Lubbu't-tawārīkh_, written in 948 AH. (1541 AD.), but brief only in the Bābur period. It issued from a Shī`a source, being commanded by Shāh Ismā`īl _Ṣafawī_'s son Bahrām.