The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 4.4
The History of Humāyūn (A. S. Beveridge) 4.4
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4.4.1
To return to the Balkh campaign: spring was waited for, and there was delay for men. Spring came, and the minds of the ladies turned to thoughts of excursions out of town. They remarked more than once to Humayun that the riwaj would be coming up in the hills. This is a plant of subacid flavour which some say is like sorrel and some like rhubarb. It was, at least, a plant that people made excursions to eat, much as others go blackberrying. To these hints for change the royal reply was that the army was going out; that it would pass by the Koh-i-daman (which is renowned for its riwaj), and that the ladies should go too. Gul-badan must not be deprived of her story of the picnic, which illuminates the domestic ways of the court The ladies went so far as to see the waterfall at Paiza, and perhaps even to Istalif, twenty miles north of Kabul, and then returned
4.4.2
There had been bad omens for the start and there followed plenty of bad news from the front to fix attention on them Kamran broke his promise to come to Humayun’s help Gul-Chihra’s second husband, an Uzbeg prince, ran away when he came to know that the army was directed against his people There was an extraordinary retreat without an enemy, and of which the cause seems to have been fear that, as Kamran was not there, he was oppressing Kabul Humayun was left almost alone, and the Uzbegs attacked and killed many fugitives His horse was wounded and the whole affair was a fiasco After all, too, when Kabul was reached, there had been no sign of Kamran
4.4.3
It was the expected that Kamran should not keep his word, but perhaps the unexpected was behind his conduct on the occasion of the Balkh campaign Sulaiman and Ibrahim were with Humayun, and their presence might well have kept him away, for Gul-badan tells of an incident in which the three men had part and which did not make them good company for one another It is a bit of scandal to which Haram adds salt and vitality It is repeated here because some little points do not quite stand clear in the begam’s wording While Kamran was in Kulab — i.e., his last holding, — someone, who from her name of Taikhan Begam must have been a woman of good birth, advised him to make love to Haram Begam Good, she said, would come of it So Kamran sent a go-between with a letter and a kerchief to Haram, who, furiously angry, at once summoned husband and son from wherever they were away from home, and told them of the advances made to her She railed at Sulaiman, saying that it was clear he was thought a coward, and further observed that Kamran feared neither her nor her son Much was packed in the pronoun here ; there was ground to fear the energetic and resolute woman who had the arm of Badakhshan at her disposal. She was a forceful person and had the belwan torn to pieces. Kamran was audacious, and his advances look the more so that Haram's sister was his wife; but they may have been made rather to the charms of her arm than to those of its commandante.
4.4.4
The events of 1550 sum up in Jauhar's words: "Mirza Kamran wandered about the country with bad intentions." In his course he surprised Humayun in the Qibchaq defile, and an engagement took place which was attended by great loss of life. It was witnessed by Kamran's wives and daughters from a commanding height. Bayazid mentions that the bibis wore turbans, a detail which may have been suggested by the great heat of the weather. Why the women were on the scene is perhaps explained by a similar record in the Memoirs which concerns a wife of Sultan Husain Mirza. Shahr-banu, a daughter of Sultan Abu Sa'id Mirza, was, with Husain's other wives, present at a battle between her husband and her brother, Mahmud Mirza. She did not, as the other ladies did, leave her litter and mount a horse, so as to be ready for flight if necessary, but trusting to her brother, in the case of her husband's defeat, remained comfortably in her litter while the fight went on. This dispassionate composure so much offended Husain that he divorced her. Perhaps Kamran's family, too, had prepared for whatever was to be their fate by protecting themselves against the sun and by being ready to mount.
4.4.5
In this encounter Humayun was badly wounded. Gul-badan was able to hear the details of the misadventure, because Khizr Khwaja was with her brother and, it may be said, fighting against his own, as in-daulat Khizr and Mir Sayyid Barka (namak) helped to hold the wounded man up on an ambling pony when he could not sit his horse, and so they led him out of the fray, sustaining his courage as they went by tales of other princes who had come through plights as bad. The wound was on the head, and was like one of Babar’s in that it was given through a covering turban and this was uninjured. The pain was great and caused faintness. Humayun took off his quilted coat and gave it to a servant. The man finding its weight an encumbrance, left it lying; it was taken to Kamran, who posted off with it to Kabul, showed it as evidence of death, and once more took possession of the unfortunate city.
4.4.6
Jauhar has quaint stories of the destitution in which Humayun now was, with his camp equipage lost and deprived of all necessaries. He was helped along through the night, cold and weakened, and in the morning was placed in safety by the arrival of a body of reliable troopers under Haji Muhammad Koka. He warmed himself in the sun, washed his wound, said his prayer kneeling on a scarlet stool, and borrowed a coat from a servant to replace his own, which was blood-stained. Then came an old woman of the place and offered him a pair of silk trousers, that he might discard his blood-stained ones. He accepted, while saying they were not fit for a man’s wear, and remitted her taxes for life. This was drawing well in anticipation of the time when his account in those regions would stand to his credit. It is said that while he sat with his face still to the qibla one of his followers, Sultan Muhammad qauchin, performed again for him the rite his father had observed, and expressed his willingness to die for him. Humayun spoke reassuring words and comforted his faithful sacrifice.
4.4.7
For nearly three months Kabul believed Humayun dead. Those words cover much feeling, sad and joyful; but there is no one to tell the truth and say whether it was thought by some to offer better hope of peace that Humayun should be dead. There was always a large following of powerful officers ready to join Kamran, and one cannot suppose their changes in allegiance mere folly and fickleness. But no courtly author has told Kamran’s side of the whole matter, nor his view of his own position. With Kabul Akbar came again into his uncle’s hands. He was kept safe through all the vicissitudes of his father’s career, and was well cared for both by Kamran and by 'Askari. It has been said that on one occasion Kamran exposed him on the battlements of Kabul to his father’s guns, and this charge finds support from our princess. She however, it may be observed, makes no mention of the act attributed by some writers to Maham anaga, of interposing her own body to shield the child; indeed, she never once mentions this latterly influential woman. But this incident notwithstanding, it must be admitted that the boy was well treated. 'Askari’s wife, who took charge of him after his capture at Quetta, is said to have been most kind to him. He was entrusted by Kamran to Khanzada, itself an act of surety and kindness. Again and again he fell into his uncle’s hands when Kamran was exasperated by foiled attempts to keep Kabul, and yet he survived. Kamran had a son;
4.4.8
it would have surprised no one to learn that, as complement to his effort to oust Humayun from his higher place, he had killed Akbar to give his own son more chance. In this there is what fixes attention in the same way that it is fixed by Gul-badan’s record of Kamran’s anxiety to obtain from the elder ladies of his house sanction to have the Khutba read in his name. It was in his power to have himself proclaimed ruler in Kabul, but he discussed his wish to be so proclaimed with the other members of the royal family before he did it, and the discussion was prolonged, and referred from Dil-dar to the greatest of the ladies, Khanzada. In both these points there is something which, if better known, might mitigate the sweeping judgment usually passed upon Kamran as altogether wrong in all his doings.