The Memoirs of Bābur 925.4.5

925.4.5

(_March 3rd_) People were always saying, "It could do no harm to send an envoy, for peace' sake, to countries that once depended on the Turk." Accordingly on Thursday the 1st of Rabī`u'l-awwal, Mullā Murshid was appointed to go to Sl. Ibrāhīm who through the death of his father Sl. Iskandar had attained to rule in Hindūstān some 5 or 6 months earlier(?). I sent him a goshawk (_qārchīgha_) and asked for the countries which from of old had depended on the Turk. Mullā Murshid was given charge of writings (_khāṯt̤lār_) for Daulat Khān (_Yūsuf-khail_) and writings for Sl. Ibrāhīm; matters were sent also by word-of-mouth; and he was given leave to go. Far from sense and wisdom, shut off from judgment and counsel must people in Hindūstān be, the Afghāns above all; for they could not move and make stand like a foe, nor did they know ways and rules of friendliness. [Sidenote: Fol. 227.] Daulat Khān kept my man several days in Lāhūr without seeing him himself or speeding him on to Sl. Ibrāhīm; and he came back to Kābul a few months later without bringing a reply. (_n. Birth of Hind-āl._) (_March 4th_) On Friday the 2nd of the month, the foot-soldiers Shaibak and Darwesh-i-`alī,—he is now a matchlockman,—bringing dutiful letters from Kābul, brought news also of Hind-āl's birth. As the news came during the expedition into Hindūstān, I took it as an omen, and gave the name Hind-āl (Taking of Hind). Dutiful letters came also from Muḥammad-i-zamān M. in Balkh, by the hand of Qaṃbar Beg.