The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 4.2.4

4.2.4

Khizr is not mentioned as with Humayun in the desert wanderings, but he was in Qandahar with 'Askari in 1545. On the occasion of her reunion with Humayun in Kabul, in 1545, Gul-badan says that there had been a ‘toil and moil of separation’ lasting five years. The lustrum points to a farewell said at the Jhelam. One thing makes for her having gone with the loyal party, and this is her lively account of what befell it, but she is equally lively about Persia, where she certainly did not go. She had excellent opportunity of hearing what went on in Sind because she met her mother again in 1543, after she had come to Kabul from Qandahar. She also met Hamida in 1545, and heard from her not only about her wedding, concerning which she has such an excellent passage, but also about her visit to Persia. There was ample and easy opportunity for the two old companions to talk over the past and to refresh their memories when the book was being written in and after 1587 and when they were comfortably installed as the beloved and respected ‘Beneficent Ladies’ of Akbar. Moreover, Gul-badan has a note of acknowledgment to Khwaja Kalan for help derived from his writings, as to the early part of the royal wanderings. There is therefore nothing to contradict the probability that she continued under Kamran’s protection from 1540, the date of her unwilling departure from Agra, till 1545, when Humayun took Kabul.