The Memoirs of Bābur 935.3
The Bābur-nāma in English (A. S. Beveridge) 935.3
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- English
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(_p. Royal letters sent into Khurāsān._) (_Oct. 24th_) On Saturday the 10th of the month, Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad's foot-man Shāh Qāsim who once before had taken letters of encouragement to kinsfolk in Khurāsān,[2310] was sent to Herī with other letters to the purport that, through God's grace, our hearts were at ease in Hindūstān about the rebels and [Sidenote: Fol. 345b.] pagans of east and west; and that, God bringing it aright, we should use every means and assuredly in the coming spring should touch the goal of our desire.[2311] On the margin of a royal letter sent to Ahmad _Afshār_ (_Turk_) a summons to Farīdūn the _qabūz_-player was written with my own hand. (_Here the record of 11 days is wanting._) In today's forenoon (_Tuesday 20th_?) I made a beginning of eating quicksilver.[2312] (_q. News from Kābul and Khurāsān._)[2313]
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(_Nov. 4th_) On Wednesday the 21st of the month (_Ṣafar_) a Hindūstānī foot-man (_pīāda_) brought dutiful letters (_`arẓ-dāshtlār_) from Kāmrān and Khwāja Dost-i-khāwand. The Khwāja had reached Kābul on the 10th of Ẕū'l-ḥijja[2314] and will have been anxious to go on[2315] to Humāyūn's presence, but there comes to him a man from Kāmrān, saying, "Let the honoured Khwāja come (to see me); let him deliver whatever royal orders there may be; let him go on to Humāyūn when matters have been talked over."[2316] Kāmrān will have gone into Kābul on the 17th of Ẕū'l-ḥijja (_Sep. 2nd_), will have talked with the Khwāja and, on the 28th of the same month, will have let him go on for Fort Victory (_Qila'-i-ẕafar_). There was this excellent news in the dutiful letters received:—that Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp, resolute to put down the Aūzbeg,[2317] had overcome and killed Rīnīsh (var. Zīnīsh) _Aūzbeg_ in Dāmghān and made a general massacre of his people; that 'Ubaid Khān, getting sure news about the _Qīzīl-bāsh_ (Red-head) had risen from round Herī, gone to Merv, called up to him there all the sulṯāns of Samarkand and those parts, and that all the sulṯāns of Mā warā'u'n-nahr had gone to help him.[2318] [Sidenote: Fol. 346.] This same foot-man brought the further news that Humāyūn was said to have had a son by the daughter of Yādgār T̤aghāī, and that Kāmrān was said to be marrying in Kābul, taking the daughter of his mother's brother Sl. `Alī Mīrzā (_Begchīk_).[2319]
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(_r. Honours for an artificer._)[2320] On this same day Sayyid Daknī of Shīrāz the diviner (_ghaiba-gar_?) was made to wear a dress of honour, given presents, and ordered to finish the arched(?) well (_khwāralīq-chāh_) as he best knew how. (_s. The Wālidiyyah-risāla (Parental-tract)._) (_Nov. 6th_) On Friday the 23rd of the month[2321] such heat[2322] appeared in my body that with difficulty I got through the Congregational Prayer in the Mosque, and with much trouble through the Mid-day Prayer, in the book-room, after due time, and little by little. Thereafter[2323] having had fever, I trembled less on Sunday (_Nov. 28th_). During the night of Tuesday[2324] the 27th of the month Ṣafar, it occurred to me to versify (_naẕm qīlmāq_)
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the _Wālidiyyah-risāla_ of his Reverence Khwāja 'Ubaidu'l-lāh.[2325] I laid it to heart that if I, going to the soul of his Reverence[2326] for protection, were freed from this disease, it would be a sign that my poem was accepted, just as the author of the _Qaṣīdatu'l-būrda_[2327] was freed from the affliction of paralysis when his poem [Sidenote: Fol. 346b.] had been accepted. To this end I began to versify the tract, using the metre[2328] of Maulānā 'Abdu´r-raḥīm _Jāmī's Subḥatu'l-abrār_ (Rosary of the Righteous). Thirteen couplets were made in that same night. I tasked myself not to make fewer than 10 a day; in the end one day had been omitted. While last year every time such illness had happened, it had persisted at least a month or 40 days,[2329] this year, by God's grace and his Reverence's favour, I was free, except for a little depression (_afsurda_), on Thursday the 29th of the month (_Nov. 12th_). The end of versifying the contents of the tract was reached on Saturday the 8th of the first Rabī' (_Nov. 20th_). One day 52 couplets had been made.[2330] (_t. Troops warned for service._) (_Nov. 11th_) On Wednesday the 28th of the month royal orders were sent on all sides for the armies, saying, "God bringing it about, at an early opportunity my army will be got to horse. Let all come soon, equipped for service." (_Here the record of 9 days is wanting._)[2331] (_u. Messengers from Humāyūn._)
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(_Nov. 21st_) On Sunday the 9th of the first Rabī`, Beg Muḥammad _ta`alluqchī_[2332] came, who had been sent last year (934 AH.) at the end of Muḥarram to take a dress of honour and a horse to Humāyūn.[2333] (_Nov. 22nd_) On Monday the 10th of the month there came from Humāyūn's presence Wais _Lāgharī's_ (son) Beg-gīna (Little Beg) and Bīān Shaikh, one of Humāyūn's servants who had come as the messenger of the good tidings of the birth of Humāyūn's son whose name he gave as Al-amān. Shaikh Abū'l-wajd found _Shăh sa`ādatmand_[2334] to be the date of his birth. [Sidenote: Fol. 347.] (_v. Rapid travel._) Bīān Shaikh set out long after Beg-gīna. He parted from Humāyūn on Friday the 9th of Ṣafar (_Oct. 23rd_) at a place below Kishm called Dū-shaṃba (Monday); he came into Āgra on Monday the 10th of the first Rabī` (_Nov. 23rd_). He came very quickly! Another time he actually came from Qila`-i-ẕafar to Qandahār in 11 days.[2335] (_w. News of T̤ahmāsp's victory over the Aūzbegs._) Bīān Shaikh brought news about Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp's advancing out of `Irāq and defeating the Aūzbeg.[2336] Here are his particulars:—Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp, having come out of `Irāq with 40,000 men arrayed in Rūmī fashion of matchlock and cart,[2337] advances with great speed, takes Basṯām, slaughters Rīnīsh (var.
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Zīnīsh) _Aūzbeg_ and his men in Dāmghān, and from there passes right swiftly on.[2338] Kīpīk Bī's son Qaṃbar-i-`alī Beg is beaten by one of the _Qīzīl-bāsh_ (Red-head)'s men, and with his few followers goes to `Ubaid Khān's presence. `Ubaid Khān finds it undesirable to stay near Herī, hurriedly sends off gallopers to all the sulṯāns of Balkh, Ḥiṣār, Samarkand, and Tāshkend (Tāshkīnt) and goes himself to Merv. Sīūnjak Sl.'s younger son Bārāq Sl. from Tāshkend, Kūchūm Khān, with (his sons) Abū-sa`īd Sl. and Pūlad Sl., and Jānī Beg Sl. with his sons, from [Sidenote: Fol. 347b.] Samarkand and Mīān-kāl, Mahdī Sl.'s and Ḥamza Sl.'s sons from Ḥiṣār, Kītīn-qarā Sl. from Balkh, all these sulṯāns assemble right swiftly in Merv. To them their informers (_tīl-chī_) take news that Shāh-zāda, after saying, "`Ubaid Khān is seated near Herī with few men only," had been advancing swiftly with his 40,000 men, but that when he heard of this assembly (_i.e._ in Merv), he made a ditch in the meadow of Rādagān[2339] and seated himself there.[2340] Here-upon the Aūzbegs, with entire disregard of their opponents,[2341] left their counsels at this:—"Let all of us sulṯāns and khāns seat ourselves in Mashhad;[2342] let a few of us be told off with 20,000 men to go close to the Qīzīl-bāsh camp[2343] and not let them put head out;
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let us order magicians[2344] to work their magic directly Scorpio appears;[2345] by this stratagem the enemy will be enfeebled, and we shall overcome." So said, they march from Merv. Shāh-zāda gets out of Mashhad.[2346] He confronts them near Jām-and-Khirgird.[2347] There defeat befalls the Aūzbeg side.[2348] A mass of sulṯāns are overcome and slaughtered. In one letter it (_khūd_) was written, "It is not known for certain [Sidenote: Fol. 348.] that any sulṯān except Kūchūm Khān has escaped; not a man who went with the army has come back up to now." The sulṯāns who were in Ḥiṣār abandoned it. Ibrāhīm _Jānī's_ son Chalma, whose real name is Ismā`īl, must be in the fort.[2349] (_x. Letters written by Bābur._) (_Nov. 27th and 28th_) This same Bīān Shaikh was sent quite quickly back with letters. for Humāyūn and Kāmrān. These and other writings being ready by Friday the 14th of the month (_Nov. 27th_) were entrusted to him, his leave was given, and on Saturday the 15th he got well out of Āgra. COPY OF A LETTER TO HUMĀYŪN.[2350] "The first matter, after saying, 'Salutation' to Humāyūn whom I am longing to see, is this:— "Exact particulars of the state of affairs on that side and on this[2351] have been made known by the letters and dutiful representations brought on Monday the 10th of the first Rabī` by Beg-gīna and Bīān Shaikh. (_Turkī_) Thank God! a son is born to thee! A son to thee, to me a heart-enslaver (_dil-bandī_).
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"May the Most High ever allot to thee and to me tidings as joyful! So may it be, O Lord of the two worlds!" "Thou sayest thou hast called him Al-amān; God bless and prosper this! Thou writest it so thyself (_i.e._ Al-amān), but hast over-looked that common people mostly say _alāmā_ or _aīlāmān_.[2352] [Sidenote: Fol. 348b.] Besides that, this _Al_ is rare in names.[2353] May God bless and prosper him in name and person; may He grant us to keep Al-amān (peace) for many years and many decades of years![2354] May He now order our affairs by His own mercy and favour; not in many decades comes such a chance as this!"[2355]