The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 3.3.8

3.3.8

Al-amān was the child of that Bega (Hājī) Begam of whom the histories all speak, when in 1539 she is captured by Shīr Shāh at Chausa. Together with the news of Al-amān’s birth came that of a marriage of Kāmrān with a daughter of Sultān ‘Alī Begchīk. Babar sent congratulatory gifts to both sons in response; and he has included his covering letter to Humāyūn in his text. It is frank, fault-finding, and affectionate. It objects to the name given to the child; it urges action: ‘The world is his who exerts himself’; it objects to Humāyūn’s complaints of the remoteness of Badakhshān, and tells him that no bondage is like the bondage of kings, and that it ill becomes him to complain. It attacks Humāyūn’s spelling and composition, and ends this topic with words good to quote: ‘You certainly do not excel in letter-writing; and you fail chiefly because you have too great a desire to show off your acquirements. For the future, write unaffectedly, clearly, and in plain words fighting king at twelve Boy chiefs were common when fathers were so apt to die by violent means, so were baby figure-heads of armies such as that few-monthed Persian baby who (like an angel's semblance on an ancient battle-ship) led his father's army for Humayun's help in 1544