The Memoirs of Bābur 926.2.4

926.2.4

A complete history of the events the _Bābur-nāma_ leaves unrecorded has yet to be written. The best existing one, whether Oriental or European, is Erskine's _History of India_, but this does not exhaust the sources—notably not using the _Ḥabību's-siyar_—and could be revised here and there with advantage. Most of the sources enumerated as useful for filling the previous gap are so here; to them must be added, for the affairs of Qandahār, Khwānd-amīr's _Ḥabību's-siyar_. This Mīr Ma`ṣūm's _Tārīkh-i-sind_ supplements usefully, but its brevity and its discrepant dates make it demand adjustment; in some details it is expanded by Sayyid Jamāl's _Tarkhān-_ or _Arghūn-nāma_. For the affairs of Hindūstān the main sources are enumerated in Elliot and Dowson's _History of India_ and in Nassau Lees' _Materials for the history of India_. Doubtless all will be exhausted for the coming _Cambridge History of India_. _EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS_ The question of which were Bābur's "Five expeditions" into Hindūstān has been often discussed; it is useful therefore to establish the dates of those known as made. I have entered one as made in this year for the following reasons;—it broke short because Shāh Beg made incursion into Bābur's territories, and that incursion was followed by a siege of Qandahār which several matters mentioned below show to have taken place in 926 AH. _a. Expedition into Hindūstān._