The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 3.6.4

3.6.4

Kabul was made an imperial domain by Babar’s written command to both elder sons, and his own words leave one in doubt as to his further intentions about it. To whom Hindustan would have been given if Humayun had obeyed orders and had held fast in Badakhshan, there is nothing to show, but weight is due to the gist of the story of the supersession. Kamran declared that Kabul was given to his mother Gul-rukh, and Humayun gave it in fief to Kamran at his accession. There is mist over the scene from which only the accomplished facts emerge. Humayun came to India; he was Maham’s son; she was there; Khalifa let Mahdi fall; Humayun’s personal charm reasserted itself over Babar’s anger; and he became Emperor of Hindustan and all the imperial domains. Child though Gul-badan was at her father’s death, she must have been impressed by the events that preceded it: Alwar’s death; her own accident at Sikri; her father’s premonitions and dervish-moods; Humayun’s sudden arrival and the anger it caused; his illness and the dread for his life; her father’s awe-inspiring rite and its bewildering success; her sisters’ marriages, which could not be joyful; the haunting suspicion of poison; the end and the blank, — all too much for so short a time in strange scenes and in a disabling climate.