The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 3.5.7

3.5.7

Babar was greatly angered by the desertion, which in truth placed Badakhshan in difficulty by withdrawing both troops and control. Its consequences were important, and caused him profound regret. To stand fast across the mountains and to push out the royal holdings beyond the Oxus from the vantage-ground of Badakhshan was a cherished dream, and one which he had taken steps through both Humayun and Kamran to realize. He wished Humayun to return to his post, but the latter, while saying he must go if ordered, was not willing to leave his people again. Babar then asked Khalifa to go, but this request was evaded, and there is much to arouse surmise that Khalifa saw in it the act of someone who wished him absent from the scene of crisis now foreseen as near. In his objection to leave Agra, affection for his old master would be a natural factor; another was his own supreme influence, the sequel of his character and of Babar’s recent failure in health, and springing from his power was, perhaps the dominant factor of his objection to leave,—a disposition to supplant Humayun in the succession by a ruler of less doubtful character.