The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 4.1
The History of Humāyūn (A. S. Beveridge) 4.1
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- English
4.1.1
In Babar's history the man holds the interest and lifts the eyes over his shortcomings to his excellence. No character demanding admiration attracts interest to Humayun, but yet his story is one which it needs a master-hand to unfold. A Tolstoi could depict his faults and merits; his qualities and defects rolled a tide of retribution over him and those bound to him as surely and visibly as it does over Anna Karenine and her associates. From the historic standpoint, Mr. Erskine has told the tale in a way to hold his readers, and it befits this humble introduction to build up only such framework as will support details, some of which concern the ladies of the time, and others of which may interest readers who are not Orientalists. In order to realize how fully the fate of the ladies was involved in that of the Emperor, it must be remembered that his occupation of Hindustan was unrooted, military and the sport of war. When we in Britain have to lament a reverse of arms, we do it in safe homes and we brace ourselves to what will come next, in the familiar surroundings of the daily tradesman, the usual postman, and the trivial comforts of the hearth. Even Colonials had a refuge under the flag at measurable distance from their outraged homes in 1899-1900. But when the Timurids were defeated in 1539-40, and driven from Agra and Dihli and Lahor, there was no refuge open to all. Their head, Humayun, had none; a brother took his last.
4.1.2
Like the Israelites, he and his followers then wandered in deserts and hungered and thirsted, dwelt in strange lands, pursued and attacked, exiled and humiliated The course of events was less historic than biographical was individual and not national There were no nations behind Babar and Humayun there were only ruling families who came and went as they could or could not get the upper hand of other houses and there was the dumb mass whom the earth nourished and labour of whom fed in luxury of life and strength of alien arms whatever dynasty had just struck hardest home conference about it, and about the murder in his name, but not by his act, of Humayun’s favourite, Shaikh Bahlul Gul-badan, like the good sister she was, makes excuses for her brother, and those who have not her bias of affection, can add others and stronger. Hindal was nineteen, a good and successful young general; he was supported by men of rank and age, some of whom had come from Gaur, and had seen Humayun’s army perishing in that sink of fever and corruption, and Humayun buried within its walls. There was no ruler in Hindustan; Shir Shah was between Humayun and the capital. The mirzas were lifting up their heads again, and a chief was needed. Hindal was perhaps always the best of Babar's sons in character, and certainly so when Humayun had become the changeling of opium.
4.1.3
He had the Friday prayer (Khutba) read in his own name, and on his behalf, Nuru-d-din Muhammad, a son-in-law of Babar and grandson of Sultan Husain Bayq'ra, murdered Shaikh Bahlul. The motive of the crime appears to have been desire to place the death as an impassable barrier between the loyal brothers.
4.1.4
The news of Hindal's rebellion stirred Humayun to move from Gaur. His march to Agra was broken off tragically by the rout at Chausa, where he lost 8,000 of his best Turki troops by sword or river. Here Ma'suma was widowed, and here a terrible blank was made in the royal household by the loss of several women. Bega's (Haji Begam) capture is known to all the histories, and so, too, is her return to Humayun. Shir Shah promised safety to all women found in the camp, and there is no reason to doubt that he did his best for them. But there had been fighting round their tents before his guards arrived, and some of Humayun’s amirs had perished in trying to defend them. It came about that there were losses of women and of children as to whose fate no word was ever heard again. Amongst them was Shad Begam the wife of Qasim Husain Sultan Mirza. The next name in our begam’s list takes us far back. It is that of Bachaka, a servant (khalifa), and one such and so named had escaped from Samarkand with Babar's mother in 1501. The one lost at Chausa had been a servant in Babar's household, and may have been she of the memorable siege. Next are named two children, a foster-child and Bega's 'Aqiqa of six years old. Two of Humayun's of low degree also disappeared. When Humayun had been rescued from the river by a lowly water-carrier, he made way to Agra, and there had a conversation with Gul-badan about the loss of 'Aqiqa.
4.1.5
The princess was then seventeen years old, and a comment of his, which she sets down, lets it be known that she is now a married woman. Humayun told her he did not recognise her at first, because when he went away with the army (1537) she wore the *taqi*, and now wears the *lachaq*. The *taqi* is a cap, and the *lachaq* — a wife's coiffure — is a kerchief folded crossways, tied under the chin by two corners, and capable of much more elaboration and ornament than this simple description would lead one to suppose. This is Gul-badan's nearest approach to informing her readers of her marriage, and she never mentions her husband as such. He was her second cousin, Khizr Khwaja Khan, Chaghattai Mughal, and of the line of the Great Khans. His father was Aiman Khwaja, and his mother a cousin of Haidar Mirza Doghlat. One ancestor was that Yunas whose fate as a chief of nomads was in such entertaining contrast to his taste as a lover of cities and books. Khizr had many other noteworthy kinsfolk, but to tell of them would lead too far afield. It is useful, however, to say that Gul-rang and Gul-chihra had married two of his uncles, and that his brother Yasin (Hasan or Ais) -daulat, the Fair Sultan, became the husband of Kamran's Habiba. He had two other brothers in India, namely, Mahdi and Mas'ud. Their father and one at least of them came from Kashghar to Agra just after the death of Babar.
4.1.6
Shortly after this interview Humayun took the field against Sher Shah, and Kamran, deserting his post, left Agra and led off his 12,000 troopers towards Lahore. Under his escort went an immense convoy of women and helpless people, and he wished to take Gul-badan also. She was extremely unwilling to go and only partially resigned herself when she saw that it was Humayun’s will. She bewailed herself as parting from those with whom she had grown up, and no uninitiated reader could guess that she was going with her father’s son. She was a clever and attractive girl whose society was welcome to all her brothers, but in Kamran's wish to take her now there is something more. It is possible that he who liked her, thought of her safety; it is probable that, as he had attached two of her husband’s brothers, Yasin-daulat and Mahdi, and perhaps the third, Mas'ud, he desired to have Khizr too. Gul-badan’s departure from the home circle was perhaps her first adventure into the foreign world as a married woman. By going when she did and under the escort of Kamran's strong force, she was spared a terrible journey which her mother and the rest of the loyal party made under care of Hindal, with foes in front and behind, and at great peril.
4.1.7
There now followed that amazing battle at Kanauj, in which 40,000 men in armour fled, without a gun fired, before 10,000. Here again, as at Chausa, the deaths in the river were appalling, and here again the Emperor was saved by a lowly man. Again the remnant made its way to Agra; but, says Haidar, ‘we made no tarry; broken and dispirited, in a state heart-rending to tell, we went on to Lahor.’ Their road took them to Sikri, of which the memories and witness to Babar’s genius for living must have rubbed salt into the wounds of their spirit. Many ladies had remained in Agra, and Humayun spoke to Hindal of the difficulty of getting them safe to Lahor, and confessed that he had often regretted not killing 'Aqiqa with his own hand. Hindal combated the suggestion, born of defeat, that a mother and sisters should be killed, and himself fought his way through country folk and Afghans, and convoyed them safe to Lahor.
4.1.8
Here was a mighty gathering of Timurids and their and five months slipped by in uncertain counsels and fruitless talk. The four brothers met often to discuss plans, and it seems that the emptiness of this in practical result lay in what was in the mind of Kamran and made him oppose every course proposed. He wished to make terms for himself with the daily approaching victor, and to keep Lahur and the Panjab; but if this could not be, he meant to hold fast to Kabul and keep Humayun out of it. The fief of Kabul had been granted to him by Humayun. Humayun therefore could resume it. That he would now do so was Kamran’s expectation, so, when Humayun proposed to go to Badakhshan, Kamran would not hear of it, because the road thither lay through Kabul, and once in that beloved city, it was highly improbable that Humayun would move further.