The Memoirs of Bābur 931

931

931 AH.—OCT. 29TH 1524 TO OCT. 18TH 1525 AD.
_a. Daulat Khān._
Daulat Khān's power in the Panj-āb is shewn by what he effected after dispossessed of Lāhor. On Bābur's return to Kābul, he came down from the hills with a small body of his immediate followers, seized his son Dilāwar, took Sulṯānpūr, gathered a large force and defeated `Ālam Khān in Dībālpūr. He detached 5000 men against Sīālkot but Bābur's begs of Lāhor attacked and overcame them. Ibrāhīm sent an army to reconquer the Panj-āb; Daulat Khān, profiting by its dissensions and discontents, won over a part to himself and saw the rest break up.
_b. `Ālam Khān._
From his reverse at Dībālpūr, `Ālam Khān fled straight to Kābul. The further help he asked was promised under the condition that while he should take Ibrāhīm's place on the throne of Dihlī, Bābur in full suzerainty should hold Lāhor and all to the west of it. This arranged, `Ālam Khān was furnished with a body of troops, given a royal letter to the Lāhor begs ordering them to assist him, and started off, Bābur promising to follow swiftly.
`Ālam Khān's subsequent proceedings are told by Bābur in the annals of 932 AH. (1525 AD.) at the time he received details about them (f. 255_b_).
_c. Bābur called to Balkh._
All we have yet found about this affair is what Bābur says in explanation of his failure to follow `Ālam Khān as promised (f. 256), namely, that he had to go to Balkh because all the Aūzbeg Sulṯāns and Khāns had laid siege to it. Light on the affair may come from some Persian or Aūzbeg chronicle; Bābur's arrival raised the siege; and risk must have been removed, for Bābur returned to Kābul in time to set out for his fifth and last expedition to Hindūstān on the first day of the second month of next year (932 AH. 1525). A considerable body of troops was in Badakhshān with Humāyūn; their non-arrival next year delaying his father's progress, brought blame on himself.
THE MEMOIRS OF BĀBUR
SECTION III. HINDŪSTĀN