The Memoirs of Bābur 925.7
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 925.7
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925.7.1
[Sidenote: Fol. 234b.] Again, when we were getting out of Akhsī [908 AH.],[1448] Dost Beg chopped away at Bāqī _Ḥīz_[1449] who, although people called him _Ḥīz_, was a mighty master of the sword. Dost Beg was one of the eight left with me after we were out of Akhsī; he was the third they unhorsed. Again, after he had become a beg, when Sīūnjuk Khān (_Aūzbeg_), arriving with the (Aūzbeg) sulṯāns before Tāshkīnt, besieged Aḥmad-i-qāsim [_Kohbur_] in it [918 AH.],[1450] Dost Beg passed through them and entered the town. During the siege he risked his honoured life splendidly, but Aḥmad-i-qāsim, without a word to this honoured man,[1451] flung out of the town and got away. Dost Beg for his own part got the better of the Khān and sulṯāns and made his way well out of Tāshkīnt. Later on when Sherīm T̤aghāī, Mazīd and their adherents were in rebellion,[1452] he came swiftly up from Ghaznī with two or three hundred men, met three or four hundred effective braves sent out by those same Mughūls to meet him, unhorsed a mass of them near Sherūkān(?), cut off and brought in a number of heads. Again, his men were first over the ramparts at the fort of Bajaur (925 AH.). At Parhāla, again, he advanced, beat Hātī, put him to flight, and won Parhāla. After Dost Beg's death, I bestowed his district on his younger brother Nāṣir's Mīrīm.[1453] (_v. Various incidents._) (_April 9th_) On Friday the 8th of the second Rabī`, the walled-town was left for the Chār-bāgh.
925.7.2
(_April 13th_) On Tuesday the 12th there arrived in Kābul the honoured Sulṯānīm Begīm, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's eldest daughter, the mother of Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā. During those throneless times,[1454] she had settled down in Khwārizm where Yīlī-pārs [Sidenote: Fol. 235.] Sulṯān's younger brother Aīsān-qulī Sl. took her daughter. The Bāgh-i-khilwat was assigned her for her seat. When she had settled down and I went to see her in that garden, out of respect and courtesy to her, she being as my honoured elder sister, I bent the knee. She also bent the knee. We both advancing, saw one another mid-way. We always observed the same ceremony afterwards. (_April 18th_) On Sunday the 17th, that traitor to his salt, Bābā Shaikh[1455] was released from his long imprisonment, forgiven his offences and given an honorary dress. (_w. Visit to the Koh-dāman._) (_April 20th_) On Tuesday the 19th of the month, we rode out at the return of noon for Khwāja Sih-yārān. This day I was fasting. All astonished, Yūnas-i-`alī and the rest said, "A Tuesday! a journey! and a fast! This is amazing!" At Bīhzādī we dismounted at the Qāẓī's house. In the evening when a stir was made for a social gathering, the Qāẓī set this before me, "In my house such things never are; it is for the honoured Pādshāh to command!" For his heart's content, drink was left out, though all the material for a party was ready. (_April 21st_) On Wednesday we went to Khwāja Sih-yārān.
925.7.3
(_April 22nd_) On Thursday the 22nd of the month, we had a large round seat made in the garden under construction on the mountain-naze.[1456] (_April 23rd_) On Friday we got on a raft from the bridge. On our coming opposite the fowlers' houses, they brought a _dang_ [Sidenote: Fol. 235b.] (or _ding_)[1457] they had caught. I had never seen one before; it is an odd-looking bird. It will come into the account of the birds of Hindustan.[1458] (_April 24th_) On Saturday the 23rd of the month cuttings were planted, partly of plane, partly of _tāl_,[1459] above the round seat. At the Mid-day Prayer there was a wine-party at the place. (_April 25th_) At dawn we took our morning on the new seat. At noon we mounted and started for Kābul, reached Khwāja Ḥasan quite drunk and slept awhile, rode on and by midnight got to the Chār-bāgh. At Khwāja Ḥasan, `Abdu'l-lāh, in his drunkenness, threw himself into water just as he was in his _tūn aūfrāghī_.[1460] He was frozen with cold and could not go on with us when we mounted after a little of the night had passed. He stayed on Qūtlūq Khwāja's estate that night. Next day, awakened to his past intemperance, he came on repentant. Said I, "At once! will this sort of repentance answer or not? Would to God you would repent now at once in such a way that you would drink nowhere except at my parties!" He agreed to this and kept the rule for a few months, but could not keep it longer. (_x. Hindū Beg abandons Bhīra._)
925.7.4
(_April 26th_) On Monday the 25th came Hindū Beg. There having been hope of peace, he had been left in those countries with somewhat scant support. No sooner was our back turned than a mass of Hindūstānīs and Afghāns gathered, disregarded us and, not listening to our words, moved against Hindū Beg in Bhīra. The local peoples also went over to the Afghāns. Hindū Beg could make no stand in Bhīra, came to Khūsh-āb, came through the Dīn-kot country, came to Nīl-āb, came on to Kābul. [Sidenote: Fol. 236.] Sīktū's son Dīwa _Hindū_ and another Hindū had been brought prisoner from Bhīra. Each now giving a considerable ransom, they were released. Horses and head-to-foot dresses having been given them, leave to go was granted. (_April 30th_) On Friday the 29th of the month, burning fever appeared in my body. I got myself let blood. I had fever with sometimes two, sometimes three days between the attacks. In no attack did it cease till there had been sweat after sweat. After 10 or 12 days of illness, Mullā Khwāja gave me narcissus mixed with wine; I drank it once or twice; even that did no good. (_May 15th_) On Sunday the 15th of the first Jumāda[1461] Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī came from Khwāst, bringing a saddled horse as an offering and also _taṣadduq_ money.[1462] Muḥ. Sharīf the astrologer and the Mīr-zādas of Khwāst came with him and waited on me. (_May 16th_) Next day, Monday, Mullā Kabīr came from Kāshghar; he had gone round by Kāshghar on his way from Andijān to Kābul.
925.7.5
(_May 23rd_) On Monday the 23rd of the month, Malik Shāh Manṣūr _Yūsuf-zāī_ arrived from Sawād with 6 or 7 Yūsuf-zāī chiefs, and did obeisance. (_May 31st_) On Monday the 1st of the second Jumāda, the chiefs of the Yūsuf-zāī Afghāns led by Malik Shāh Manṣūr were dressed in robes of honour (_khil`at_). To Malik Shāh Manṣūr was given a long silk coat and an under-coat (? _jība_) with its buttons; to one of the other chiefs was given a coat with silk sleeves, and to six others silk coats. To all leave to go was granted. Agreement was made with them that they were not [Sidenote: Fol. 236b.] to reckon as in the country of Sawād what was above Abuha (?), that they should make all the peasants belonging to it go out from amongst themselves, and also that the Afghān cultivators of Bajaur and Sawād should cast into the revenue 6000 ass-loads of rice. (_June 2nd_) On Wednesday the 3rd, I drank _jul-āb_.[1463] (_June 5th_) On Saturday the 6th, I drank a working-draught (_dārū-i-kār_). (_June 7th_) On Monday the 8th, arrived the wedding-gift for the marriage of Qāsim Beg's youngest son Ḥamza with Khalīfa's eldest daughter. It was of 1000 _shāhrukhī_; they offered also a saddled horse.
925.7.6
(_June 8th_) On Tuesday Shāh Beg's Shāh Ḥasan asked for permission to go away for a wine-party. He carried off to his house Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī and some of the household-begs. In my presence were Yūnas-i-`alī and Gadāī T̤aghāī. I was still abstaining from wine. Said I, "Not at all in this way is it (_hech andāq būlmāī dūr_) that I will sit sober and the party drink wine, I stay sane, full of water, and that set (_būlāk_) of people get drunk; come you and drink in my presence! I will amuse myself a little by watching what intercourse between the sober and the drunk is like."[1464] The party was held in a smallish tent in which I sometimes sat, in the Plane-tree garden south-east of the Picture-hall. Later on Ghiyāṣ the house-buffoon (_kīdī_) arrived; several times for fun he was ordered kept out, but at last he made a great disturbance and his buffooneries found him a way in. We invited Tardī Muḥammad _Qībchāq_ also and Mullā _kitāb-dār_ (librarian). The following quatrain, written impromptu, was sent to Shāh Ḥasan and those gathered in his [Sidenote: Fol. 237.] house:— In your beautiful flower-bed of banquetting friends, Our fashion it is not to be; If there be ease (_ḥuzūr_) in that gathering of yours, Thank God! there is here no un-ease [_bī ḥuzūr_].[1465] It was sent by Ibrāhīm _chuhra_. Between the two Prayers (_i.e._ afternoon) the party broke up drunk.
925.7.7
I used to go about in a litter while I was ill. The wine-mixture was drunk on several of the earlier days, then, as it did no good I left it off, but I drank it again at the end of my convalescence, at a party had under an apple-tree on the south-west side of the Tālār-garden.