The Memoirs of Bābur 925.8
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 925.8
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925.8.1
(_June 11th_) On Friday the 12th came Aḥmad Beg and Sl. Muḥammad _Dūldāī_ who had been left to help in Bajaur. (_June 16th_) On Wednesday the 17th of the month, Tīngrī-bīrdī and other braves gave a party in Ḥaidar _Tāqi's_ garden; I also went and there drank. We rose from it at the Bed-time Prayer when a move was made to the great tent where again there was drinking. (_June 23rd_) On Thursday the 25th of the month, Mullā Maḥmūd was appointed to read extracts from the Qorān[1466] in my presence. (_June 28th_) On Tuesday the last day of the month, Abū'l-muslim Kūkūldāsh arrived as envoy from Shāh Shujā` _Arghūn_ bringing a _tīpūchāq_. After bargain made about swimming the reservoir in the Plane-tree garden, Yūsuf-i-`alī the stirrup-holder swam round it today 100 times and received a gift of a head-to-foot (dress), a saddled horse and some money. (_July 6th_) On Wednesday the 8th of Rajab, I went to Shāh Ḥasan's house and drank there; most of the household and of [Sidenote: Fol. 237b.] the begs were present.
925.8.2
(_July 9th_) On Saturday the 11th, there was drinking on the terrace-roof of the pigeon-house between the Afternoon and Evening Prayers. Rather late a few horsemen were observed, going from Dih-i-afghān towards the town. It was made out to be Darwīsh-i-muḥammad _Sārbān_, on his way to me as the envoy of Mīrzā Khān (Wais). We shouted to him from the roof, "Drop the envoy's forms and ceremonies! Come! come without formality!" He came and sat down in the company. He was then obedient and did not drink. Drinking went on till the end of the evening. Next day he came into the Court Session with due form and ceremony, and presented Mīrzā Khān's gifts. (_y. Various incidents._) Last year[1467] with 100 efforts, much promise and threats, we had got the clans to march into Kābul from the other side (of Hindū-kush). Kābul is a confined country, not easily giving summer and winter quarters to the various flocks and herds of the Turks and (Mughūl?) clans. If the dwellers in the wilds follow their own hearts, they do not wish for Kābul! They now waited (_khidmat qīlīb_) on Qāsim Beg and made him their mediator with me for permission to re-cross to that other side. He tried very hard, so in the end, they were allowed to cross over to the Qūndūz and Bāghlān side. Ḥāfiẕ the news-writer's elder brother had come from Samarkand; when I now gave him leave to return, I sent my _Dīwān_ by him to Pūlād Sulṯān.[1468] On the back of it I wrote the following [Sidenote: Fol. 238.] verse:—
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O breeze! if thou enter that cypress' chamber (_ḥarīm_) Remind her of me, my heart reft by absence; She yearns not for Bābur; he fosters a hope That her heart of steel God one day may melt.[1469] (_July 15th_) On Friday the 17th of the month, Shaikh Mazīd Kūkūldāsh waited on me from Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, bringing _taṣadduq_ tribute and a horse.[1470] Today Shāh Beg's envoy Abū'l-muslim Kūkūldāsh was robed in an honorary dress and given leave to go. Today also leave was given for their own districts of Khwāst and Andar-āb to Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī and Tīngrī-bīrdī. (_July 21st_) On Thursday the 23rd came Muḥ. `Alī _Jang-jang_ who had been left in charge of the countries near Kacha-kot and the Qārlūq. With him came one of Hātī's people and Mīrzā-i-malū-i-qārlūq's son Shāh Ḥasan. Today Mullā `Alī-jān waited on me, returned from fetching his wife from Samarkand. (_z. The `Abdu'r-raḥman Afghāns and Rustam-maidān._)
925.8.4
(_July 27th_) The `Abdu'r-raḥman Afghāns on the Gīrdīz border were satisfactory neither in their tribute nor their behaviour; they were hurtful also to the caravans which came and went. On Wednesday the 29th of Rajab we rode out to over-run them. We dismounted and ate food near Tang-i-waghchān,[1471] and rode on again at the Mid-day Prayer. In the night we lost the road and got much bewildered in the ups and downs of the land to the south-east of Pātakh-i-āb-i-shakna.[1472] After a time we lit on [Sidenote: Fol. 238b.] a road and by it crossed the Chashma-i-tūra[1473] pass. (_July 28th_) At the first prayer (_farẓ-waqt_) we got out from the valley-bottom adjacent[1474] to the level land, and the raid was allowed. One detachment galloped towards the Kar-māsh[1475] mountain, south-east of Gīrdīz, the left-hand of the centre led by Khusrau, Mīrzā Qulī and Sayyid `Alī in their rear. Most of the army galloped up the dale to the east of Gīrdīz, having in their rear men under Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate, Mīr Shāh _Qūchīn_, Qayyām (Aūrdū-shāh Beg?), Hindū Beg, Qūtlūq-qadam and Ḥusain [Ḥasan?]. Most of the army having gone up the dale, I followed at some distance. The dalesmen must have been a good way up; those who went after them wore their horses out and nothing to make up for this fell into their hands. Some Afghāns on foot, some 40 or 50 of them, having appeared on the plain, the rear-reserve went towards them. A courier was sent to me and I hastened on at once.
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Before I got up with them, Ḥusain Ḥāsan, all alone, foolishly and thoughtlessly, put his horse at those Afghāns, got in amongst them and began to lay on with his sword. They shot his horse, thus made him fall, slashed at him as he was getting up, flung him down, knifed him from all sides and cut him to pieces, while the other braves looked on, standing still and reaching him no helping hand! On hearing news of it, I hurried still faster forward, and sent some of the household and braves galloping loose-rein ahead [Sidenote: Fol. 239.] under Gadāī T̤aghāī, Payānda-i-muḥammad _Qīplān_, Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer and Mūmin Ātāka. Mūmin Ātāka was the first of them to bring an Afghān down; he speared one, cut off his head and brought it in. Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer, without mail as he was, went admirably forward, stopped in front of the Afghāns, laid his horse at them, chopped at one, got him down, cut off and brought in his head. Known though both were for bravelike deeds done earlier, their action in this affair added to their fame. Every one of those 40 or 50 Afghāns, falling to the arrow, falling to the sword, was cut in pieces. After making a clean sweep of them, we dismounted in a field of growing corn and ordered a tower of their heads to be set up. As we went along the road I said, with anger and scorn, to the begs who had been with Ḥusain, "You! what men!
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there you stood on quite flat ground, and looked on while a few Afghāns on foot overcame such a brave in the way they did! Your rank and station must be taken from you; you must lose _pargana_ and country; your beards must be shaved off and you must be exhibited in towns; for there shall be punishment assuredly for him who looks on while such a brave is beaten by such a foe [Sidenote: Fol. 239b.] on dead-level land, and reaches out no hand to help!" The troop which went to Kar-māsh brought back sheep and other spoil. One of them was Bābā Qashqa[1476] _Mughūl_; an Afghān had made at him with a sword; he had stood still to adjust an arrow, shot it off and brought his man down. (_July 29th_) Next day at dawn we marched for Kābul. Pay-aster Muḥammad, `Abdu'l-`azīz Master of the Horse, and Mīr Khūrd the taster were ordered to stop at Chashma-tūra, and get pheasants from the people there.
925.8.7
As I had never been along the Rustam-maidān road,[1477] I went with a few men to see it. Rustam-plain (_maidān_) lies amongst mountains and towards their head is not a very charming place. The dale spreads rather broad between its two ranges. To the south, on the skirt of the rising-ground is a smallish spring, having very large poplars near it. There are many trees also, but not so large, at the source on the way out of Rustam-maidān for Gīrdīz. This is a narrower dale, but still there is a plot of green meadow below the smaller trees mentioned, and the little dale is charming. From the summit of the range, looking south, the Karmāsh and Bangash mountains are seen at one's feet; and beyond the Karmāsh show pile upon pile of the rain-clouds of Hindūstān. Towards those other lands where no rain falls, not [Sidenote: Fol. 240.] a cloud is seen. We reached Hūnī at the Mid-day Prayer and there dismounted. (_July 30th_) Dismounting next day at Muḥammad Āghā's village,[1478] we perpetrated (_irtqāb_) a _ma'jūn_. There we had a drug thrown into water for the fish; a few were taken.[1479] (_July 31st_) On Sunday the 3rd of Sha`bān, we reached Kābul.
925.8.8
(_August 2nd_) On Tuesday the 5th of the month, Darwīsh-i-muḥammad _Faẓlī_ and Khusrau's servants were summoned and, after enquiry made into what short-comings of theirs there may have been when Ḥusain was overcome, they were deprived of place and rank. At the Mid-day Prayer there was a wine-party under a plane-tree, at which an honorary dress was given to Bābā Qashqa _Mughūl_.