The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur) (part 3 of 6)

The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur) (part 3 of 6)

Some estimated the dark mass of Arghūns[1294] at 6 or 7000 men; no question whatever but that Shāh Beg's own men in mail were 4 or 5000. He faced our right, Muqīm with a force smaller may-be than his brother's, faced our left. Muqīm made a mightily strong attack on our left, that is on Qāsim Beg from whom two or three persons came before fighting began, to ask for reinforcement; we however could not detach a man because in front of us also the enemy was very strong. We made our onset without any delay; the enemy fell suddenly on our van, [Sidenote: Fol. 210b.] turned it back and rammed it on our centre. When we, after a discharge of arrows, advanced, they, who also had been shooting for a time, seemed likely to make a stand (tūkhtaghāndīk). Some-one, shouting to his men, came forward towards me, dismounted and was for adjusting his arrow, but he could do nothing because we moved on without stay. He remounted and rode off; it may have been Shāh Beg himself. During the fight Pīrī Beg Turkmān and 4 or 5 of his brethren turned their faces from the foe and, turban in hand,[1295] came over to us.

(Author's note on Pīrī Beg.) This Pīrī Beg was one of those Turkmāns who came [into Herī] with the Turkmān Begs led by `Abdu'l-bāqī Mīrzā and Murād Beg, after Shāh Ismā`īl vanquished the Bāyandar sulṯāns and seized the `Irāq countries.[1296]

Our right was the first to overcome the foe; it made him hurry off. Its extreme point had gone pricking (sānjīlīb)[1297] as far as where I have now laid out a garden. Our left extended as far as the great tree-tangled[1298] irrigation-channels, a good way below Bābā Ḥasan Abdāl. Muqīm was opposite it, its numbers very small compared with his. God brought it right! Between it and Muqīm were three or four of the tree-tangled water-channels going on to Qandahār;[1299] it held the crossing-place and allowed no passage; small body though it was, it made splendid stand [Sidenote: Fol. 211.] and kept its ground. Ḥalwāchī Tarkhān[1300] slashed away in the water with Tīngrī-bīrdī and Qaṃbar-i-`alī. Qaṃbar-i-`alī was wounded; an arrow stuck in Qāsim Beg's forehead; another struck Ghūrī Barlās above the eyebrow and came out above his cheek.[1301]

We meantime, after putting our adversary to flight, had crossed those same channels towards the naze of Murghān-koh (Birds'-hill). Some-one on a grey tīpūchāq was going backwards and forwards irresolutely along the hill-skirt, while we were getting across; I likened him to Shāh Beg; seemingly it was he.

Our men having beaten their opponents, all went off to pursue and unhorse them. Remained with me eleven to count, `Abdu'l-lāh the librarian being one. Muqīm was still keeping his ground and fighting. Without a glance at the fewness of our men, we had the nagarets sounded and, putting our trust in God, moved with face set for Muqīm.

(Turkī) For few or for many God is full strength; No man has might in His Court.

(Arabic) How often, God willing it, a small force has vanquished a large one!

Learning from the nagarets that we were approaching, Muqīm forgot his fixed plan and took the road of flight. God brought it right!

After putting our foe to flight, we moved for Qandahār and dismounted in Farrukh-zād Beg's Chār-bāgh, of which at this time not a trace remains!

(m. Bābur enters Qandahār.) [Sidenote: Fol. 211b.]

Shāh Beg and Muqīm could not get into Qandahār when they took to flight; Shāh Beg went towards Shāl and Mastūng (Quetta), Muqīm towards Zamīn-dāwar. They left no-one able to make the fort fast. Aḥmad `Alī Tarkhān was in it together with other elder and younger brethren of Qulī Beg Arghūn whose attachment and good-feeling for me were known. After parley they asked protection for the families of their elder and younger brethren; their request was granted and all mentioned were encompassed with favour. They then opened the Māshūr-gate of the town; with leaderless men in mind, no other was opened. At that gate were posted Sherīm T̤aghāī and Yārīm Beg. I went in with a few of the household, charged the leaderless men and had two or three put to death by way of example.[1302]

(n. The spoils of Qandahār.)

I got to Muqīm's treasury first, that being in the outer-fort; `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā must have been quicker than I, for he was just dismounting there when I arrived; I gave him a few things from it. I put Dost-i-nāṣir Beg, Qul-i-bāyazīd the taster and, of pay-masters, Muḥammad bakhshī in charge of it, then passed on into the citadel and posted Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī, Shāh Maḥmūd and, of the pay-masters, T̤aghāī Shāh bakhshī in charge of Shāh Beg's treasury.

Nāṣir's Mīrīm and Maqṣūd the sherbet-server were sent to keep the house of Ẕū'n-nūn's Dīwān Mīr Jān for Nāṣir Mīrzā; for Mīrzā Khān was kept Shaikh Abū-sa`īd Tarkhānī's; for `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā ... 's.[1303]

[Sidenote: Fol. 212.] Such masses of white money had never been seen in those countries; no-one indeed was to be heard of who had seen so much. That night, when we ourselves stayed in the citadel, Shāh Beg's slave Saṃbhal was captured and brought in. Though he was then Shāh Beg's intimate, he had not yet received his later favour.[1304] I had him given into someone's charge but as good watch was not kept, he was allowed to escape. Next day I went back to my camp in Farrukh-zād Beg's Chār-bāgh.

I gave the Qandahār country to Nāṣir Mīrzā. After the treasure had been got into order, loaded up and started off, he took the loads of white tankas off a string of camels (i.e. 7 beasts) at the citadel-treasury, and kept them. I did not demand them back; I just gave them to him.

On leaving Qandahār, we dismounted in the Qūsh-khāna meadow. After setting the army forward, I had gone for an excursion, so I got into camp rather late. It was another camp! not to be recognized! Excellent tīpūchāqs, strings and strings of he-camels, she-camels, and mules, bearing saddle-bags (khurzīn) of silken stuffs and cloth,—tents of scarlet (cloth) and velvet, all sorts of awnings, every kind of work-shop, ass-load after ass-load of chests! The goods of the elder and younger (Arghūn) brethren had been kept in separate treasuries; out of each had come chest upon chest, bale upon bale of stuffs and clothes-in-wear (artmāq artmāq), sack upon sack of white tankas. In aūtāgh and chādar (lattice-tent and pole-tent) was much spoil for every man soever; many sheep also had been taken but sheep were less cared about!

I made over to Qāsim Beg Muqīm's retainers in Qalāt, under [Sidenote: Fol. 212b.] Qūj Arghūn and Tāju'd-dīn Maḥmūd, with their goods and effects. Qāsim Beg was a knowing person; he saw it unadvisable for us to stay long near Qandahār, so, by talking and talking, worrying and worrying, he got us to march off. As has been said, I had bestowed Qandahār on Nāṣir Mīrzā; he was given leave to go there; we started for Kābul.

There had been no chance of portioning out the spoils while we were near Qandahār; it was done at Qarā-bāgh where we delayed two or three days. To count the coins being difficult, they were apportioned by weighing them in scales. Begs of all ranks, retainers and household (tābīn) loaded up ass-load after ass-load of sacks full of white tankas, and took them away for their own subsistence and the pay of their soldiers.

We went back to Kābul with masses of goods and treasure, great honour and reputation.

(o. Bābur's marriage with Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān.)

After this return to Kābul I concluded alliance (`aqd qīldīm) with Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's daughter Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān Begīm whom I had asked in marriage at Khurāsān, and had had brought from there.

(p. Shaibāq Khān before Qandahār.)

A few days later a servant of Nāṣir Mīrzā brought the news that Shaibāq Khān had come and laid siege to Qandahār. That Muqīm had fled to Zamīn-dāwar has been said already; from there he went on and saw Shaibāq Khān. From Shāh Beg also one person after another had gone to Shaibāq Khān. At the instigation and petition of these two, the Khān came [Sidenote: Fol. 213.] swiftly down on Qandahār by the mountain road,[1305] thinking to find me there. This was the very thing that experienced person Qāsim Beg had in his mind when he worried us into marching off from near Qandahār.

(Persian) What a mirror shews to the young man, A baked brick shews to the old one!

Shaibāq Khān arriving, besieged Nāṣir Mīrzā in Qandahār.

(q. Alarm in Kābul.)

When this news came, the begs were summoned for counsel. The matters for discussion were these:—Strangers and ancient foes, such as are Shaibāq Khān and the Aūzbegs, are in possession of all the countries once held by Tīmūr Beg's descendants; even where Turks and Chaghatāīs[1306] survive in corners and border-lands, they have all joined the Aūzbeg, willingly or with aversion; one remains, I myself, in Kābul, the foe mightily strong, I very weak, with no means of making terms, no strength to oppose; that, in the presence of such power and potency, we had to think of some place for ourselves and, at this crisis and in the crack of time there was, to put a wider space between us and the strong foeman; that choice lay between Badakhshān and Hindūstān and that decision must now be made.

Qāsim Beg and Sherīm T̤aghāī were agreed for Badakhshān;

(Author's note on Badakhshān.) Those holding their heads up in Badakhshān at this crisis were, of Badakhshīs, Mubārak Shāh and Zubair, Jahāngīr Turkmān and Muḥammad the armourer. They had driven Nāṣir Mīrzā out but had not joined the Aūzbeg.

[Sidenote: Fol. 213b.] I and several household-begs preferred going towards Hindūstān and were for making a start to Lamghān.[1307]

(r. Movements of some Mīrzās.)

After taking Qandahār, I had bestowed Qalāt and the Turnūk (Tarnak) country on `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā and had left him in Qalāt, but with the Aūzbeg besieging Qandahār, he could not stay in Qalāt, so left it and came to Kābul. He arriving just as we were marching out, was there left in charge.[1308]

There being in Badakhshān no ruler or ruler's son, Mīrzā Khān inclined to go in that direction, both because of his relationship to Shāh Begīm[1309] and with her approval. He was allowed to go and the honoured Begīm herself started off with him. My honoured maternal-aunt Mihr-nigār Khānīm also wished to go to Badakhshān, notwithstanding that it was more seemly for her to be with me, a blood-relation; but whatever objection was made, she was not to be dissuaded; she also betook[1310] herself to Badakhshān.

(s. Bābur's second start for Hindūstān.)

Under our plan of going to Hindūstān, we marched out of Kābul in the month of the first Jumāda (September 1507 AD.), taking the road through Little Kābul and going down by Sūrkh-rabāṯ to Qūrūq-sāī.

The Afghāns belonging between Kābul and Lamghān (Ningnahār) are thieves and abettors of thieves even in quiet times; for just such a happening as this they had prayed in vain. Said they, "He has abandoned Kābul", and multiplied their misdeeds by ten, changing their very merits for faults. To such [Sidenote: Fol. 214.] lengths did things go that on the morning we marched from Jagdālīk, the Afghāns located between it and Lamghān, such as the Khiẓr-khail, Shimū-khail, Khirilchī and Khūgīanī, thought of blocking the pass, arrayed on the mountain to the north, and advancing with sound of tambour and flourish of sword, began to shew themselves off. On our mounting I ordered our men to move along the mountain-side, each man from where he had dismounted;[1311] off they set at the gallop up every ridge and every valley of the saddle.[1312] The Afghāns stood awhile, but could not let even one arrow fly,[1313] and betook themselves to flight. While I was on the mountain during the pursuit, I shot one in the hand as he was running back below me. That arrow-stricken man and a few others were brought in; some were put to death by impalement, as an example.

We dismounted over against the Adīnapūr-fort in the Nīngnahār tūmān.

(t. A raid for winter stores.)

Up till then we had taken no thought where to camp, where to go, where to stay; we had just marched up and down, camping in fresh places, while waiting for news.[1314] It was late in the autumn; most lowlanders had carried in their rice. People knowing the local land and water represented that the Mīl Kāfirs up the water of the `Alīshang tūmān grow great quantities of rice, so that we might be able to collect winter supplies from them for the army. Accordingly we rode out of the Nīngnahār dale (julga), crossed (the Bārān-water) at Sāīkal, and went swiftly as far as the Pūr-amīn (easeful) valley. [Sidenote: Fol. 214b.] There the soldiers took a mass of rice. The rice-fields were all at the bottom of the hills. The people fled but some Kāfirs went to their death. A few of our braves had been sent to a look-out (sar-kūb)[1315] on a naze of the Pūr-anīm valley; when they were returning to us, the Kāfirs rushed from the hill above, shooting at them. They overtook Qāsim Beg's son-in-law Pūrān, chopped at him with an axe, and were just taking him when some of the braves went back, brought strength to bear, drove them off and got Pūrān away. After one night spent in the Kāfirs' rice-fields, we returned to camp with a mass of provisions collected.

(u. Marriage of Muqīm's daughter.)

While we were near Mandrāwar in those days, an alliance was concluded between Muqīm's daughter Māh-chūchūk, now married to Shāh Ḥasan Arghūn, and Qāsim Kūkūldāsh.[1316]

(v. Abandonment of the Hindūstān project.)

As it was not found desirable to go on into Hindūstān, I sent Mullā Bābā of Pashāghar back to Kābul with a few braves. Meantime I marched from near Mandrāwar to Atar and Shīwa and lay there for a few days. From Atar I visited Kūnār and Nūr-gal; from Kūnār I went back to camp on a raft; it was the first time I had sat on one; it pleased me much, and the raft came into common use thereafter.

(w. Shaibāq Khān retires from Qandahār.)

In those same days Mullā Bābā of Farkat came from Nāṣir Mīrzā with news in detail that Shaibāq Khān, after taking the outer-fort of Qandahār, had not been able to take the citadel but had retired; also that the Mīrzā, on various accounts, had left Qandahār and gone to Ghaznī.

Shaibāq Khān's arrival before Qandahār, within a few days [Sidenote: Fol. 215.] of our own departure, had taken the garrison by surprise, and they had not been able to make fast the outer-fort. He ran mines several times round about the citadel and made several assaults. The place was about to be lost. At that anxious time Khwāja Muḥ. Amīn, Khwāja Dost Khāwand, Muḥ. `Alī, a foot-soldier, and Shāmī (Syrian?) let themselves down from the walls and got away. Just as those in the citadel were about to surrender in despair, Shaibāq Khān interposed words of peace and uprose from before the place. Why he rose was this:—It appears that before he went there, he had sent his ḥaram to Nīrah-tū,[1317] and that in Nīrah-tū some-one lifted up his head and got command in the fort; the Khān therefore made a sort of peace and retired from Qandahār.

(x. Bābur returns to Kābul.)

Mid-winter though it was we went back to Kābul by the Bād-i-pīch road. I ordered the date of that transit and that crossing of the pass to be cut on a stone above Bād-i-pīch;[1318] Ḥāfiẓ Mīrak wrote the inscription, Ustād Shāh Muḥammad did the cutting, not well though, through haste.

I bestowed Ghaznī on Nāṣir Mīrzā and gave `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā the Nīngnahār tūmān with Mandrāwar, Nūr-valley, Kūnār and Nūr-gal.[1319]

(y. Bābur styles himself Pādshāh.)

Up to that date people had styled Tīmūr Beg's descendants Mīrzā, even when they were ruling; now I ordered that people should style me Pādshāh.[1320]

(z. Birth of Bābur's first son.)

At the end of this year, on Tuesday the 4th day of the month of Ẕū'l-qa`da (March 6th 1506 AD.), the Sun being in Pisces [Sidenote: Fol. 215b.] (Ḥūt), Humāyūn was born in the citadel of Kābul. The date of his birth was found by the poet Maulānā Masnadī in the words Sulṯān Humāyūn Khān,[1321] and a minor poet of Kābul found it in Shāh-i-fīrūs-qadr (Shāh of victorious might). A few days later he received the name Humāyūn; when he was five or six days old, I went out to the Chār-bāgh where was had the feast of his nativity. All the begs, small and great, brought gifts; such a mass of white tankas was heaped up as had never been seen before. It was a first-rate feast!

914 AH.—MAY 2ND 1508 TO APRIL 21ST 1509 AD.[1322]

This spring a body of Mahmand Afghāns was over-run near Muqur.[1323]

(a. A Mughūl rebellion.)

A few days after our return from that raid, Qūj Beg, Faqīr-i-`alī, Karīm-dād and Bābā chuhra were thinking about deserting, but their design becoming known, people were sent who took them below Astar-ghach. As good-for-nothing words of theirs had been reported to me, even during Jahāngīr M.'s life-time,[1324] I ordered that they should be put to death at the top of the bāzār. They had been taken to the place; the ropes had been fixed; and they were about to be hanged when Qāsim Beg sent Khalīfa to me with an urgent entreaty that I would pardon their offences. To please him I gave them their lives, but I ordered them kept in custody.

What there was of Khusrau Shāh's retainers from Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz, together with the head-men of the Mughūls, Chilma, [Sidenote: Fol. 216.] `Alī Sayyid,[1325] Sakma (?), Sher-qulī and Aīkū-sālam (?), and also Khusrau Shāh's favourite Chaghatāī retainers under Sl. `Alī chuhra and Khudabakhsh, with also 2 or 3000 serviceable Turkmān braves led by Sīūndūk and Shāh Naẕar,[1326] the whole of these, after consultation, took up a bad position towards me. They were all seated in front of Khwāja Riwāj, from the Sūng-qūrghān meadow to the Chālāk; `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā, come in from Nīng-nahār, being in Dih-i-afghān.[1327]

Earlier on Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer had told Khalīfa and Mullā Bābā once or twice of their assemblies, and both had given me a hint, but the thing seeming incredible, it had had no attention. One night, towards the Bed-time Prayer, when I was sitting in the Audience-hall of the Chār-bāgh, Mūsa Khwāja, coming swiftly up with another man, said in my ear, "The Mughūls are really rebelling! We do not know for certain whether they have got `Abdu'r-razzāq M. to join them. They have not settled to rise to-night." I feigned disregard and a little later went towards the ḥarams which at the time were in the Yūrūnchqa-garden[1328] and the Bāgh-i-khilwat, but after page, servitor and messenger (yasāwal) had turned back on getting [Sidenote: Fol. 216b.] near them, I went with the chief-slave towards the town, and on along the ditch. I had gone as far as the Iron-gate when Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī[1329] met me, he coming by the bāzār road from the opposite direction. He joined me ... of the porch of the Hot-bath (ḥammām)....[1330]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE ON 914 TO 925 AH.—1508 TO 1519 AD.

From several references made in the Bābur-nāma and from a passage in Gul-badan's Humāyūn-nāma (f. 15), it is inferrible that Bābur was composing the annals of 914 AH. not long before his last illness and death.[1331]

Before the diary of 925 AH. (1519 AD.) takes up the broken thread of his autobiography, there is a lacuna of narrative extending over nearly eleven years. The break was not intended, several references in the Bābur-nāma shewing Bābur's purpose to describe events of the unchronicled years.[1332] Mr. Erskine, in the Leyden and Erskine Memoirs, carried Bābur's biography through the major lacunæ, but without firsthand help from the best sources, the Habību's-siyar and Tārīkh-i-rashīdī. He had not the help of the first even in his History of India. M. de Courteille working as a translator only, made no attempt to fill the gaps.

Bābur's biography has yet to be completed; much time is demanded by the task, not only in order to exhaust known sources and seek others further afield, but to weigh and balance the contradictory statements of writers deep-sundered in sympathy and outlook. To strike such a balance is essential when dealing with the events of 914 to 920 AH. because in those years Bābur had part in an embittered conflict between Sunni and Shī`a. What I offer below, as a stop-gap, is a mere summary of events, mainly based on material not used by Mr. Erskine, with a few comments prompted by acquaintance with Bāburiana.

USEFUL SOURCES

Compared with what Bābur could have told of this most interesting period of his life, the yield of the sources is scant, a natural sequel from the fact that no one of them had his biography for its main theme, still less had his own action in crises of enforced ambiguity.

Of all known sources the best are Khwānd-amīr's Ḥabību's-siyar and Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dūghlāt's Tārīkh-i-rashīdī. The first was finished nominally in 930 AH. (1524-5 AD.), seven years therefore before Bābur's death, but it received much addition of matter concerning Bābur after its author went to Hindūstān in 934 AH. (f. 339). Its fourth part, a life of Shāh Ismā`īl Ṣafawī is especially valuable for the years of this lacuna. Ḥaidar's book was finished under Humāyūn in 953 AH. (1547 AD.), when its author had reigned five years in Kashmīr. It is the most valuable of all the sources for those interested in Bābur himself, both because of Ḥaidar's excellence as a biographer, and through his close acquaintance with Bābur's family. From his eleventh to his thirteenth year he lived under Bābur's protection, followed this by 19 years service under Sa`īd Khān, the cousin of both, in Kāshghar, and after that Khān's death, went to Bābur's sons Kāmrān and Humāyūn in Hindūstān.

A work issuing from a Sunnī Aūzbeg centre, Faẓl bin Ruzbahān Isfahānī's Sūlūku'l-mulūk, has a Preface of special value, as shewing one view of what it writes of as the spread of heresy in Māwarā'u'n-nahr through Bābur's invasions. The book itself is a Treatise on Musalmān Law, and was prepared by order of `Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān Aūzbeg for his help in fulfilling a vow he had made, before attacking Bābur in 918 AH., at the shrine of Khwāja Aḥmad Yasawī [in Haẓrat Turkistān], that, if he were victorious, he would conform exactly with the divine Law and uphold it in Māwarā'u'n-nahr (Rieu's Pers. Cat. ii, 448).

The Tārīkh-i Ḥājī Muḥammad `Ārif Qandahārī appears, from the frequent use Firishta made of it, to be a useful source, both because its author was a native of Qandahār, a place much occupying Bābur's activities, and because he was a servant of Bairām Khān-i-khānān, whose assassination under Akbar he witnessed.[1333] Unfortunately, though his life of Akbar survives no copy is now known of the section of his General History which deals with Bābur's.

An early source is Yahya Kazwīnī's Lubbu't-tawārīkh, written in 948 AH. (1541 AD.), but brief only in the Bābur period. It issued from a Shī`a source, being commanded by Shāh Ismā`īl Ṣafawī's son Bahrām.

Another work issuing also from a Ṣafawī centre is Mīr Sikandar's Tārīkh-i-`ālam-arāī, a history of Shāh `Abbas I, with an introduction treating of his predecessors which was completed in 1025 AH. (1616 AD.). Its interest lies in its outlook on Bābur's dealings with Shāh Ismā`īl.

A later source, brief only, is Firishta's Tārīkh-i-firishta, finished under Jahāngīr in the first quarter of the 17th century.

Mr. Erskine makes frequent reference to Kh(w)āfī Khān's Tārīkh, a secondary authority however, written under Aurangzīb, mainly based on Firishta's work, and merely summarizing Bābur's period. References to detached incidents of the period are found in Shaikh `Abdu'l-qādir's Tārīkh-i-badāyūnī and Mīr Ma`ṣūm's Tārīkh-i-sind.

EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS

914 AH.-MAY 2ND 1508 TO APRIL 21ST 1509 AD.

The mutiny, of which an account begins in the text, was crushed by the victory of 500 loyalists over 3,000 rebels, one factor of success being Bābur's defeat in single combat of five champions of his adversaries.[1334] The disturbance was not of long duration; Kābul was tranquil in Sha`bān (November) when Sl. Sa`īd Khān Chaghatāī, then 21, arrived there seeking his cousin's protection, after defeat by his brother Manṣūr at Almātū, escape from death, commanded by Shaibānī, in Farghāna, a winter journey through Qarā-tīgīn to Mīrzā Khān in Qilā'-i-ẓafar, refusal of an offer to put him in that feeble Mīrzā's place, and so on to Kābul, where he came a destitute fugitive and enjoyed a freedom from care never known by him before (f. 200_b_; T.R. p. 226). The year was fatal to his family and to Ḥaidar's; in it Shaibānī murdered Sl. Maḥmūd Khān and his six sons, Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā and other Dūghlāt sulṯāns.

915 AH.-APRIL 21ST 1509 TO APRIL 11TH 1510 AD.

In this year hostilities began between Shāh Ismā`īl Ṣafawī and Muḥ. Shaibānī Khān Aūzbeg, news of which must have excited keen interest in Kābul.

In it occurred also what was in itself a minor matter of a child's safety, but became of historical importance, namely, the beginning of personal acquaintance between Bābur and his sympathetic biographer Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dūghlāt. Ḥaidar, like Sa`īd, came a fugitive to the protection of a kinsman; he was then eleven, had been saved by servants from the death commanded by Shaibānī, conveyed to Mīrzā Khān in Badakhshān, thence sent for by Bābur to the greater security of Kābul (f. 11; Index s.n.; T.R. p. 227).

916 AH.-APRIL 11TH 1510 TO MARCH 31ST 1510 AD.

a. News of the battle of Merv.

Over half of this year passed quietly in Kābul; Ramẓān (December) brought from Mīrzā Khān (Wāis) the stirring news that Ismā`īl had defeated Shaibānī near Merv.[1335] "It is not known," wrote the Mīrzā, "whether Shāhī Beg Khān has been killed or not. All the Aūzbegs have crossed the Amū. Amīr Aūrūs, who was in Qūndūz, has fled. About 20,000 Mughūls, who left the Aūzbeg at Merv, have come to Qūndūz. I have come there." He then invited Bābur to join him and with him to try for the recovery of their ancestral territories (T.R. p. 237).

b. Bābur's campaign in Transoxiana begun.

The Mīrzā's letter was brought over passes blocked by snow; Bābur, with all possible speed, took the one winter-route through Āb-dara, kept the Ramẓān Feast in Bāmīān, and reached Qūndūz in Shawwāl (Jan. 1511 AD.). Ḥaidar's detail about the Feast seems likely to have been recorded because he had read Bābur's own remark, made in Ramẓān 933 AH. (June 1527) that up to that date, when he kept it in Sīkrī, he had not since his eleventh year kept it twice in the same place (f. 330).

c. Mughūl affairs.

Outside Qūndūz lay the Mughūls mentioned by Mīrzā Khān as come from Merv and so mentioned, presumably, as a possible reinforcement. They had been servants of Bābur's uncles Maḥmūd and Aḥmad, and when Shaibānī defeated those Khāns at Akhsī in 908 AH., had been compelled by him to migrate into Khurāsān to places remote from Mughūlistān. Many of them had served in Kāshghar; none had served a Tīmūrid Mīrzā. Set free by Shaibānī's death, they had come east, a Khān-less 20,000 of armed and fully equipped men and they were there, as Ḥaidar says, in their strength while of Chaghatāīs there were not more than 5,000. They now, and with them the Mughūls from Kābul, used the opportunity offering for return to a more congenial location and leadership, by the presence in Qūndūz of a legitimate Khāqān and the clearance in Andijān, a threshold of Mughūlistān, of its Aūzbeg governors (f. 200_b_). The chiefs of both bodies of Mughūls, Sherīm Taghāī at the head of one, Ayūb Begchīk of the other, proffered the Mughūl Khānship to Sa`īd with offer to set Bābur aside, perhaps to kill him. It is improbable that in making their offer they contemplated locating themselves in the confined country of Kābul; what they seem to have wished was what Bābur gave, Sa`īd for their Khāqān and permission to go north with him.

Sa`īd, in words worth reading, rejected their offer to injure Bābur, doing so on the grounds of right and gratitude, but, the two men agreeing that it was now expedient for them to part, asked to be sent to act for Bābur where their friendship could be maintained for their common welfare. The matter was settled by Bābur's sending him into Andijān in response to an urgent petition for help there just arrived from Ḥaidar's uncle. He "was made Khān" and started forth in the following year, on Ṣafar 14th 917 AH. (May 13th 1511 AD.); with him went most of the Mughūls but not all, since even of those from Merv, Ayūb Begchīk and others are found mentioned on several later occasions as being with Bābur.

Bābur's phrase "I made him Khān" (f. 200_b_) recalls his earlier mention of what seems to be the same appointment (f. 10_b_), made by Abū-sa`īd of Yūnas as Khān of the Mughūls; in each case the meaning seems to be that the Tīmūrid Mīrzā made the Chaghatāī Khān Khāqān of the Mughūls.

d. First attempt on Ḥiṣār.

After spending a short time in Qūndūz, Bābur moved for Ḥiṣār in which were the Aūzbeg sulṯāns Mahdī and Ḥamza. They came out into Wakhsh to meet him but, owing to an imbroglio, there was no encounter and each side retired (T.R. p. 238).

e. Intercourse between Bābur and Ismā`īl Ṣafawī.

While Bābur was now in Qūndūz his sister Khān-zāda arrived there, safe-returned under escort of the Shāh's troops, after the death in the battle of Merv of her successive husbands Shaibānī and Sayyid Hādī, and with her came an envoy from Ismā`īl proffering friendship, civilities calculated to arouse a hope of Persian help in Bābur. To acknowledge his courtesies, Bābur sent Mīrzā Khān with thanks and gifts; Ḥaidar says that the Mīrzā also conveyed protestations of good faith and a request for military assistance. He was well received and his request for help was granted; that it was granted under hard conditions then stated later occurrences shew.

917 AH.-MARCH 31ST 1511 TO MARCH 19TH 1512 AD.

a. Second attempt on Ḥiṣār.

In this year Bābur moved again on Ḥiṣār. He took post, where once his forbear Tīmūr had wrought out success against great odds, at the Pul-i-sangīn (Stone-bridge) on the Sūrkh-āb, and lay there a month awaiting reinforcement. The Aūzbeg sulṯāns faced him on the other side of the river, they too, presumably, awaiting reinforcement. They moved when they felt themselves strong enough to attack, whether by addition to their own numbers, whether by learning that Bābur had not largely increased his own. Concerning the second alternative it is open to surmise that he hoped for larger reinforcement than he obtained; he appears to have left Qūndūz before the return of Mīrzā Khān from his embassy to Ismā`īl, to have expected Persian reinforcement with the Mīrzā, and at Pul-i-sangīn, where the Mīrzā joined him in time to fight, to have been strengthened by the Mīrzā's own following, and few, if any, foreign auxiliaries. These surmises are supported by what Khwānd-amīr relates of the conditions [specified later] on which the Shāh's main contingent was despatched and by his shewing that it did not start until after the Shāh had had news of the battle at Pul-i-sangīn.

At the end of the month of waiting, the Aūzbegs one morning swam the Sūrkh-āb below the bridge; in the afternoon of the same day, Bābur retired to better ground amongst the mountain fastnesses of a local Āb-dara. In the desperate encounter which followed the Aūzbegs were utterly routed with great loss in men; they were pursued to Darband-i-ahanīn (Iron-gate) on the Ḥiṣār border, on their way to join a great force assembled at Qarshī under Kūchūm Khān, Shaibānī's successor as Aūzbeg Khāqān. The battle is admirably described by Ḥaidar, who was then a boy of 12 with keen eye watching his own first fight, and that fight with foes who had made him the last male survivor of his line. In the evening of the victory Mahdī, Ḥamza and Ḥamza's son Mamak were brought before Bābur who, says Ḥaidar, did to them what they had done to the Mughūl Khāqāns and Chaghatāī Sulṯāns, that is, he retaliated in blood for the blood of many kinsmen.

b. Persian reinforcement.

After the battle Bābur went to near Ḥiṣār, was there joined by many local tribesmen, and, some time later, by a large body of Ismā`īl's troops under Aḥmad Beg Ṣafawī, `Alī Khān Istiljū and Shāhrukh Sl. Afshār, Ismā`īl's seal-keeper. The following particulars, given by Khwānd-amīr, about the despatch of this contingent help to fix the order of occurrences, and throw light on the price paid by Bābur for his auxiliaries. He announced his victory over Mahdī and Ḥamza to the Shāh, and at the same time promised that if he reconquered the rest of Transoxiana by the Shāh's help, he would read his name in the khuṯba, stamp it on coins together with those of the Twelve Imāms, and work to destroy the power of the Aūzbegs. These undertakings look like a response to a demand; such conditions cannot have been proffered; their acceptance must have been compelled. Khwānd-amīr says that when Ismā`īl fully understood the purport of Bābur's letter, [by which would seem to be meant, when he knew that his conditions of help were accepted,] he despatched the troops under the three Commanders named above.

The Persian chiefs advised a move direct on Bukhārā and Samarkand; and with this Bābur's councillors concurred, they saying, according to Ḥaidar, that Bukhārā was then empty of troops and full of fools. `Ubaid Khān had thrown himself into Qarshī; it was settled not to attack him but to pass on and encamp a stage beyond the town. This was done; then scout followed scout, bringing news that he had come out of Qarshī and was hurrying to Bukhārā, his own fief. Instant and swift pursuit followed him up the 100 miles of caravan-road, into Bukhārā, and on beyond, sweeping him and his garrison, plundered as they fled, into the open land of Turkistān. Many sulṯāns had collected in Samarkand, some no doubt being, like Tīmūr its governor, fugitives escaped from Pul-i-sangīn. Dismayed by Bābur's second success, they scattered into Turkistān, thus leaving him an open road.

c. Samarkand re-occupied and relations with Ismā`īl Ṣafawī.

He must now have hoped to be able to dispense with his dangerous colleagues, for he dismissed them when he reached Bukhārā, with gifts and thanks for their services. It is Ḥaidar, himself present, who fixes Bukhārā as the place of the dismissal (T.R. p. 246).

From Bukhārā Bābur went to Samarkand. It was mid-Rajab 917 AH. (October 1511 AD.), some ten months after leaving Kābul, and after 9 years of absence, that he re-entered the town, itself gay with decoration for his welcome, amidst the acclaim of its people.[1336]

Eight months were to prove his impotence to keep it against the forces ranged against him,—Aūzbeg strength in arms compacted by Sunnī zeal, Sunnī hatred of a Shī`a's suzerainty intensified by dread lest that potent Shī`a should resolve to perpetuate his dominance. Both as a Sunnī and as one who had not owned a suzerain, the position was unpleasant for Bābur. That his alliance with Ismā`īl was dangerous he will have known, as also that his risks grew as Transoxiana was over-spread by news of Ismā`īl's fanatical barbarism to pious and learned Sunnīs, notably in Herī. He manifested desire for release both now and later,—now when he not only dismissed his Persian helpers but so behaved to the Shāh's envoy Muḥammad Jān,—he was Najm S̤ānī's Lord of the Gate,—that the envoy felt neglect and made report of Bābur as arrogant, in opposition, and unwilling to fulfil his compact,—later when he eagerly attempted success unaided against `Ubaid Khān, and was then worsted. It illustrates the Shāh's view of his suzerain relation to Bābur that on hearing Muḥammad Jān's report, he ordered Najm S̤ānī to bring the offender to order.

Meantime the Shāh's conditions seem to have been carried out in Samarkand and Bābur's subservience clearly shewn.[1337] Of this there are the indications,—that Bābur had promised and was a man of his word; that Sunnī irritation against him waxed and did not wane as it might have done without food to nourish it; that Bābur knew himself impotent against the Aūzbegs unless he had foreign aid, expected attack, knew it was preparing; that he would hear of Muḥammad Jān's report and of Najm S̤ānī's commission against himself. Honesty, policy and necessity combined to enforce the fulfilment of his agreement. What were the precise terms of that agreement beyond the two as to the khuṯba and the coins, it needs close study of the wording of the sources to decide, lest metaphor be taken for fact. Great passions,—ambition, religious fervour, sectarian bigotry and fear confronted him. His problem was greater than that of Henry of Navarre and of Napoleon in Egypt; they had but to seem what secured their acceptance; he had to put on a guise that brought him hate.

Khān-zāda was not the only member of Bābur's family who now rejoined him after marriage with an Aūzbeg. His half-sister Yādgār-sulṯān had fallen to the share of Ḥamza Sulṯān's son `Abdu'l-laṯīf in 908 AH. when Shaibānī defeated the Khāns near Akhsī. Now that her half-brother had defeated her husband's family, she returned to her own people (f. 9).

918 AH.-MARCH 19TH 1512 TO MARCH 9TH 1513 AD.

a. Return of the Aūzbegs.

Emboldened by the departure of the Persian troops, the Aūzbegs, in the spring of the year, came out of Turkistān, their main attack being directed on Tāshkīnt, then held for Bābur.[1338] `Ubaid Khān moved for Bukhārā. He had prefaced his march by vowing that, if successful, he would thenceforth strictly observe Musalmān Law. The vow was made in Ḥaẓrat Turkistān at the shrine of Khwāja Aḥmad Yasawī, a saint revered in Central Asia through many centuries; he had died about 1120 AD.; Tīmūr had made pilgrimage to his tomb, in 1397 AD., and then had founded the mosque still dominating the town, still the pilgrim's land-mark.[1339] `Ubaid's vow, like Bābur's of 933 AH., was one of return to obedience. Both men took oath in the Ghāzī's mood, Bābur's set against the Hindū whom he saw as a heathen, `Ubaid's set against Bābur whom he saw as a heretic.

b. Bābur's defeat at Kul-i-malik.

In Ṣafar (April-May) `Ubaid moved swiftly down and attacked the Bukhārā neighbourhood. Bābur went from Samarkand to meet him. Several details of what followed, not given by Ḥaidar and, in one particular, contradicting him, are given by Khwānd-amīr. The statement in which the two historians contradict one another is Ḥaidar's that `Ubaid had 3000 men only, Bābur 40,000. Several considerations give to Khwānd-amīr's opposed statement that Bābur's force was small, the semblance of being nearer the fact. Ḥaidar, it may be said, did not go out on this campaign; he was ill in Samarkand and continued ill there for some time; Khwānd-amīr's details have the well-informed air of things learned at first-hand, perhaps from some-one in Hindūstān after 934 AH.

Matters which make against Bābur's having a large effective force at Kul-i-malik, and favour Khwānd-amīr's statement about the affair are these:—`Ubaid must have formed some estimate of what he had to meet, and he brought 3000 men. Where could Bābur have obtained 40,000 men worth reckoning in a fight? In several times of crisis his own immediate and ever-faithful troop is put at 500; as his cause was now unpopular, local accretions may have been few. Some Mughūls from Merv and from Kābul were near Samarkand (T.R. pp. 263, 265); most were with Sa`īd in Andijān; but however many Mughūls may have been in his neighbourhood, none could be counted on as resolute for his success. If too, he had had more than a small effective force, would he not have tried to hold Samarkand with the remnant of defeat until Persian help arrived? All things considered, there is ground for accepting Khwānd-amīr's statement that Bābur met `Ubaid with a small force.

Following his account therefore:—Bābur in his excess of daring, marched to put the Aūzbeg down with a small force only, against the advice of the prudent, of whom Muḥammad Mazīd Tarkhān was one, who all said it was wrong to go out unprepared and without reinforcement. Paying them no attention, Bābur marched for Bukhārā, was rendered still more daring by news had when he neared it, that the enemy had retired some stages, and followed him up almost to his camp. `Ubaid was in great force; many Aūzbegs perished but, in the end, they were victors and Bābur was compelled to take refuge in Bukhārā. The encounter took place near Kul-i-malik (King's-lake) in Ṣafar 918 AH. (April-May 1512 AD.).

c. Bābur leaves Samarkand.

It was not possible to maintain a footing in Samarkand; Bābur therefore collected his family and train[1340] and betook himself to Ḥiṣār. There went with him on this expedition Māhīm and her children Humāyūn, Mihr-jahān and Bārbūl,—the motherless Ma`ṣūma,—Gul-rukh with her son Kāmrān (Gulbadan f. 7). I have not found any account of his route; Ḥaidar gives no details about the journey; he did not travel with Bābur, being still invalided in Samarkand. Perhaps the absence of information is a sign that the Aūzbegs had not yet appeared on the direct road for Ḥiṣār. A local tradition however would make Bābur go round through Farghāna. He certainly might have gone into Farghāna hoping to co-operate with Sa`īd Khān; Tāshkīnt was still holding out under Aḥmad-i-qāsim Kohbur and it is clear that all activity in Bābur's force had not been quenched because during the Tāshkīnt siege, Dost Beg broke through the enemy's ranks and made his way into the town. Sairām held out longer than Tāshkīnt. Of any such move by Bābur into Andijān the only hint received is given by what may be a mere legend.[1341]

d. Bābur in Ḥiṣār.

After experiencing such gains and such losses, Bābur was still under 30 years of age.

The Aūzbegs, after his departure, re-occupied Bukhārā and Samarkand without harm done to the towns-people, and a few weeks later, in Jumāda I (July-August) followed him to Ḥiṣār. Meantime he with Mīrzā Khān's help, had so closed the streets of the town by massive earth-works that the sulṯāns were convinced its defenders were ready to spend the last drop of their blood in holding it, and therefore retired without attack.[1342] Some sources give as their reason for retirement that Bābur had been reinforced from Balkh; Bairām Beg, it is true, had sent a force but one of 300 men only; so few cannot have alarmed except as the harbinger of more. Greater precision as to dates would shew whether they can have heard of Najm S̤ānī's army advancing by way of Balkh.

e. Qarshī and Ghaj-davān.

Meantime Najm S̤ānī, having with him some 11,000 men, had started on his corrective mission against Bābur. When he reached the Khurāsān frontier, he heard of the defeat at Kul-i-malik and the flight to Ḥiṣār, gathered other troops from Harāt and elsewhere, and advanced to Balkh. He stayed there for 20 days with Bairām Beg, perhaps occupied, in part, by communications with the Shāh and Bābur. From the latter repeated request for help is said to have come; help was given, some sources say without the Shāh's permission. A rendezvous was fixed, Najm S̤ānī marched to Tīrmīẕ, there crossed the Amū and in Rajab (Sep.-Oct.) encamped near the Darband-i-ahanīn. On Bābur's approach through the Chak-chaq pass, he paid him the civility of going several miles out from his camp to give him honouring reception.

Advancing thence for Bukhārā, the combined armies took Khuzār and moved on to Qarshī. This town Bābur wished to pass by, as it had been passed by on his previous march for Bukhārā; each time perhaps he wished to spare its people, formerly his subjects, whom he desired to rule again, and who are reputed to have been mostly his fellow Turks. Najm S̤ānī refused to pass on; he said Qarshī must be taken because it was `Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān's nest; in it was `Ubaid's uncle Shaikhīm Mīrzā; it was captured; the Aūzbeg garrison was put to the sword and, spite of Bābur's earnest entreaties, all the towns-people, 15,000 persons it is said, down to the "suckling and decrepit", were massacred. Amongst the victims was Banā'ī who happened to be within it. This action roused the utmost anger against Najm S̤ānī; it disgusted Bābur, not only through its merciless slaughter but because it made clear the disregard in which he was held by his magnificent fellow-general.

From murdered Qarshī Najm S̤ānī advanced for Bukhārā. On getting within a few miles of it, he heard that an Aūzbeg force was approaching under Tīmūr and Abū-sa`īd, presumably from Samarkand therefore. He sent Bairām Beg to attack them; they drew off to the north and threw themselves into Ghaj-davān, the combined armies following them. This move placed Najm S̤ānī across the Zar-afshān, on the border of the desert with which the Aūzbegs were familiar, and with `Ubaid on his flank in Bukhārā.

As to what followed the sources vary; they are brief; they differ less in statement of the same occurrence than in their choice of details to record; as Mr. Erskine observes their varying stories are not incompatible. Their widest difference is a statement of time but the two periods named, one a few days, the other four months, may not be meant to apply to the same event. Four months the siege is said to have lasted; this could not have been said if it had been a few days only. The siege seems to have been of some duration.

At first there were minor engagements, ending with varying success; provisions and provender became scarce; Najm S̤ānī's officers urged retirement, so too did Bābur. He would listen to none of them. At length `Ubaid Khān rode out from Bukhārā at the head of excellent troops; he joined the Ghaj-davān garrison and the united Aūzbegs posted themselves in the suburbs where walled lanes and gardens narrowed the field and lessened Najm S̤ānī's advantage in numbers. On Tuesday Ramẓān 3rd (Nov. 12th)[1343] a battle was fought in which his army was routed and he himself slain.

f. Bābur and Yār-i-aḥmad Najm Sānī.

Some writers say that Najm S̤ānī's men did not fight well; it must be remembered that they may have been weakened by privation and that they had wished to retire. Of Bābur it is said that he, who was the reserve, did not fight at all; it is difficult to see good cause why, under all the circumstances, he should risk the loss of his men. It seems likely that Ḥaidar's strong language about this defeat would suit Bābur's temper also. "The victorious breezes of Islām overturned the banners of the schismatics.... Most of them perished on the field; the rents made by the sword at Qarshī were sewn up at Ghaj-davān by the arrow-stitches of vengeance. Najm S̤ānī and all the Turkmān amīrs were sent to hell."

The belief that Bābur had failed Najm S̤ānī persisted at the Persian Court, for his inaction was made a reproach to his son Humāyūn in 951 AH. (1544 AD.), when Humāyūn was a refugee with Ismā`īl's son T̤ahmāsp. Badāyūnī tells a story which, with great inaccuracy of name and place, represents the view taken at that time. The part of the anecdote pertinent here is that Bābur on the eve of the battle at Ghaj-davān, shot an arrow into the Aūzbeg camp which carried the following couplet, expressive of his ill-will to the Shāh and perhaps also of his rejection of the Shī`a guise he himself had worn.

I made the Shāh's Najm road-stuff for the Aūzbegs; If fault has been mine, I have now cleansed the road.[1344]

g. The Mughūls attack Bābur.

On his second return to Ḥiṣār Bābur was subjected to great danger by a sudden attack made upon him by the Mughūls where he lay at night in his camp outside the town. Firishta says, but without particulars of their offence, that Bābur had reproached them for their misconduct; the absence of detail connecting the affair with the defeat just sustained, leads to the supposition that their misdeeds were a part of the tyranny over the country-people punished later by `Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān. Roused from his sleep by the noise of his guards' resistance to the Mughūl attack, Bābur escaped with difficulty and without a single attendant[1345] into the fort. The conspirators plundered his camp and withdrew to Qarā-tīgīn. He was in no position to oppose them, left a few men in Ḥiṣār and went to Mīrzā Khān in Qūndūz.

After he left, Ḥiṣār endured a desolating famine, a phenomenal snowfall and the ravages of the Mughūls. `Ubaid Khān avenged Bābur on the horde; hearing of their excesses, he encamped outside the position they had taken up in Wakhsh defended by river, hills and snow, waited till a road thawed, then fell upon them and avenged the year's misery they had inflicted on the Ḥiṣārīs. Ḥaidar says of them that it was their villainy lost Ḥiṣār to Bābur and gained it for the Aūzbeg.[1346]

These Mughūls had for chiefs men who when Sa`īd went to Andijān, elected to stay with Bābur. One of the three named by Ḥaidar was Ayūb Begchīk. He repented his disloyalty; when he lay dying some two years later (920 AH.) in Yāngī-ḥiṣār, he told Sa`īd Khān who visited him, that what was "lacerating his bowels and killing him with remorse", was his faithlessness to Bābur in Ḥiṣār, the oath he had broken at the instigation of those "hogs and bears", the Mughūl chiefs (T.R. p. 315).

In this year but before the Mughūl treachery to Bābur, Ḥaidar left him, starting in Rajab (Sep.-Oct.) to Sa`id in Andijān and thus making a beginning of his 19 years spell of service.

919 AH.-MARCH 9TH 1513 TO FEB. 26TH 1514 AD.

Bābur may have spent this year in Khishm (Ḥ.S. iii, 372). During two or three months of it, he had one of the Shāh's retainers in his service, Khwāja Kamālu'd-dīn Maḥmūd, who had fled from Ghaj-davān to Balkh, heard there that the Balkhīs favoured an Aūzbeg chief whose coming was announced, and therefore went to Bābur. In Jumāda 11 (August), hearing that the Aūzbeg sultan had left Balkh, he returned there but was not admitted because the Balkhīs feared reprisals for their welcome to the Aūzbeg, a fear which may indicate that he had taken some considerable reinforcement to Bābur. He went on into Khurāsān and was there killed; Balkh was recaptured for the Shāh by Deo Sulṯān, a removal from Aūzbeg possession which helps to explain how Bābur came to be there in 923 AH.

920 AH.—FEB. 26TH 1514 TO FEB. 15TH 1515 AD.

Ḥaidar writes of Bābur as though he were in Qūndūz this year (TR. p. 263), says that he suffered the greatest misery and want, bore it with his accustomed courtesy and patience but, at last, despairing of success in recovering Ḥiṣār, went back to Kābul. Now it seems to be that he made the stay in Khwāst to which he refers later (f. 241_b_) and during which his daughter Gul-rang was born, as Gul-badan's chronicle allows known.

It was at the end of the year, after the privation of winter therefore, that he reached Kābul. When he re-occupied Samarkand in 917 AH., he had given Kābul to his half-brother Nāṣir Mīrzā; the Mīrzā received him now with warm welcome and protestations of devotion and respect, spoke of having guarded Kābul for him and asked permission to return to his own old fief Ghaznī. His behaviour made a deep impression on Bābur; it would be felt as a humane touch on the sore of failure.

921 AH.—FEB. 15TH 1515 TO FEB. 5TH 1516 AD.

a. Rebellion of chiefs in Ghaznī.

Nāṣir Mīrzā died shortly after (dar hamān ayyām) his return to Ghaznī. Disputes then arose amongst the various commanders who were in Ghaznī; Sherīm T̤aghāī was one of them and the main strength of the tumult was given by the Mughūls. Many others were however involved in it, even such an old servant as Bābā of Pashāghar taking part (f. 234_b_; T.R. p. 356). Ḥaidar did not know precisely the cause of the dispute, or shew why it should have turned against Bābur, since he attributes it to possession taken by Satan of the brains of the chiefs and a consequent access of vain-glory and wickedness. Possibly some question of succession to Nāṣir arose. Dost Beg distinguished himself in the regular battle which ensued; Qāsim Beg's son Qaṃbar-i-`alī hurried down from Qūndūz and also did his good part to win it for Bābur. Many of the rioters were killed, others fled to Kāshghar. Sherīm T̤aghāī was one of the latter; as Sa`īd Khān gave him no welcome, he could not stay there; he fell back on the much injured Bābur who, says Ḥaidar, showed him his usual benevolence, turned his eyes from his offences and looked only at his past services until he died shortly afterwards (T.R. p. 357).[1347]

922 AH.—FEB. 5TH 1516 TO JAN. 24TH 1517 AD.

This year may have been spent in and near Kābul in the quiet promoted by the dispersion of the Mughūls.

In this year was born Bābur's son Muḥammad known as _`Askarī_from his being born in camp. He was the son of Gulrukh Begchīk and full-brother of Kāmrān.

923 AH.—JAN. 24TH 1517 TO JAN. 13TH 1518 AD.

a. Bābur visits Balkh.

Khwānd-amīr is the authority for the little that is known of Bābur's action in this year (Ḥ.S. iii, 367 et seq.). It is connected with the doings of Badī`u'z-zamān Bāī-qarā's son Muḥammad-i-zamān. This Mīrzā had had great wanderings, during a part of which Khwānd-amīr was with him. In 920 AH. he was in Shāh Ismā`īl's service and in Balkh, but was not able to keep it. Bābur invited him to Kābul,—the date of invitation will have been later therefore than Bābur's return there at the end of 920 AH. The Mīrzā was on his way but was dissuaded from going into Kābul by Mahdī Khwāja and went instead into Ghurjistān. Bābur was angered by his non-arrival and pursued him in order to punish him but did not succeed in reaching Ghurjistān and went back to Kābul by way of Fīrūz-koh and Ghūr. The Mīrzā was captured eventually and sent to Kābul. Bābur treated him with kindness, after a few months gave him his daughter Ma`ṣūma in marriage, and sent him to Balkh. He appears to have been still in Balkh when Khwānd-amīr was writing of the above occurrences in 929 AH. The marriage took place either at the end of 923 or beginning of 924 AH. The Mīrzā was then 21, Ma`ṣūma 9; she almost certainly did not then go to Balkh. At some time in 923 AH. Bābur is said by Khwānd-amīr to have visited that town.[1348]

b. Attempt on Qandahār.

In this year Bābur marched for Qandahār but the move ended peacefully, because a way was opened for gifts and terms by an illness which befell him when he was near the town.

The Tārīkh-i-sind gives what purports to be Shāh Beg's explanation of Bābur's repeated attempts on Qandahār. He said these had been made and would be made because Bābur had not forgiven Muqīm for taking Kābul 14 years earlier from the Tīmūrid `Abdu'r-razzāq; that this had brought him to Qandahār in 913 AH., this had made him then take away Māhchuchak, Muqīm's daughter; that there were now (923 AH.) many unemployed Mīrzās in Kābul for whom posts could not be found in regions where the Persians and Aūzbegs were dominant; that an outlet for their ambitions and for Bābur's own would be sought against the weaker opponent he himself was.

Bābur's decision to attack in this year is said to have been taken while Shāh Beg was still a prisoner of Shāh Ismā`īl in the Harāt country; he must have been released meantime by the admirable patience of his slave Saṃbhal.

924 AH.—JAN. 13TH 1518 TO JAN. 3RD 1519 AD.

In this year Shāh Beg's son Shāh Ḥasan came to Bābur after quarrel with his father. He stayed some two years, and during that time was married to Khalīfa's daughter Gul-barg (Rose-leaf). His return to Qandahār will have taken place shortly before Bābur's campaign of 926 A.H. against it, a renewed effort which resulted in possession on Shawwāl 13th 928 AH. (Sep. 6th 1522 AD.).[1349]

In this year began the campaign in the north-east territories of Kābul, an account of which is carried on in the diary of 925 AH. It would seem that in the present year Chaghān-sarāī was captured, and also the fortress at the head of the valley of Bābā-qarā, belonging to Ḥaidar-i-`alī Bajaurī (f. 216_b_).[1350]

925 AH.-JAN. 3RD TO DEC. 23RD 1519 AD.[1351]

(a. Bābur takes the fort of Bajaur.)

(Jan. 3rd) On Monday[1352] the first day of the month of Muḥarram, there was a violent earthquake in the lower part of the dale (julga) of Chandāwal,[1353] which lasted nearly half an astronomical hour.

(Jan. 4th) Marching at dawn from that camp with the intention of attacking the fort of Bajaur,[1354] we dismounted near it and sent a trusty man of the Dilazāk[1355] Afghāns to advise its sulṯān[1356] and people to take up a position of service (qullūq) and surrender the fort. Not accepting this counsel, that stupid and ill-fated band sent back a wild answer, where-upon the army was ordered to make ready mantelets, ladders and other appliances for taking a fort. For this purpose a day's (Jan. 5th) halt was made on that same ground.

(Jan. 6th) On Thursday the 4th of Muḥarram, orders were given that the army should put on mail, arm and get to horse;[1357] that the left wing should move swiftly to the upper side of the fort, cross the water at the water-entry,[1358] and dismount on the [Sidenote: Fol. 217.] north side of the fort; that the centre, not taking the way across the water, should dismount in the rough, up-and-down land to the north-west of the fort; and that the right should dismount to the west of the lower gate. While the begs of the left under Dost Beg were dismounting, after crossing the water, a hundred to a hundred and fifty men on foot came out of the fort, shooting arrows. The begs, shooting in their turn, advanced till they had forced those men back to the foot of the ramparts, Mullā `Abdu'l-malūk of Khwāst, like a madman,[1359] going up right under them on his horse. There and then the fort would have been taken if the ladders and mantelets had been ready, and if it had not been so late in the day. Mullā Tirik-i-`alī[1360] and a servant of Tīngrī-bīrdī crossed swords with the enemy; each overcame his man, cut off and brought in his head; for this each was promised a reward.

As the Bajaurīs had never before seen matchlocks (tufang) they at first took no care about them, indeed they made fun when they heard the report and answered it by unseemly gestures. On that day[1361] Ustād `Alī-qulī shot at and brought down five men with his matchlock; Walī the Treasurer, for his part, brought down two; other matchlockmen were also very active in firing and did well, shooting through shield, through cuirass, through kusarū,[1362] and bringing down one man after another. Perhaps 7, 8, or 10 Bajaurīs had fallen to the matchlock-fire (ẓarb) before night. After that it so became that not a head could be put out because of the fire. The order [Sidenote: Fol. 217b.] was given, "It is night; let the army retire, and at dawn, if the appliances are ready, let them swarm up into the fort."

(Jan. 7th) At the first dawn of light (farẓ waqt) on Friday the 5th of Muḥarram, orders were given that, when the battle-nagarets had sounded, the army should advance, each man from his place to his appointed post (yīrlīk yīrdīn) and should swarm up. The left and centre advanced from their ground with mantelets in place all along their lines, fixed their ladders, and swarmed up them. The whole left hand of the centre, under Khalīfa, Shāh Ḥasan Arghūn and Yūsuf's Aḥmad, was ordered to reinforce the left wing. Dost Beg's men went forward to the foot of the north-eastern tower of the fort, and busied themselves in undermining and bringing it down. Ustād `Alī-qulī was there also; he shot very well on that day with his matchlock, and he twice fired off the firingī.[1363] Walī the Treasurer also brought down a man with his matchlock. Malik `Alī quṯnī[1364] was first up a ladder of all the men from the left hand of the centre, and there was busy with fight and blow. At the post of the centre, Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang[1365] and his younger brother Nau-roz got up, each by a different ladder, and made lance and sword to touch. Bābā the waiting man (yasāwal), getting up by another ladder, occupied himself in breaking down the fort-wall with his [Sidenote: Fol. 218.] axe. Most of our braves went well forward, shooting off dense flights of arrows and not letting the enemy put out a head; others made themselves desperately busy in breaching and pulling down the fort, caring naught for the enemy's fight and blow, giving no eye to his arrows and stones. By breakfast-time Dost Beg's men had undermined and breached the north-eastern tower, got in and put the foe to flight. The men of the centre got in up the ladders by the same time, but those (aūl) others were first (awwal?) in.[1366] By the favour and pleasure of the High God, this strong and mighty fort was taken in two or three astronomical hours! Matching the fort were the utter struggle and effort of our braves; distinguish themselves they did, and won the name and fame of heroes.

As the Bajaurīs were rebels and at enmity with the people of Islām, and as, by reason of the heathenish and hostile customs prevailing in their midst, the very name of Islām was rooted out from their tribe, they were put to general massacre and their wives and children were made captive. At a guess more than 3000 men went to their death; as the fight did not reach to the eastern side of the fort, a few got away there.

The fort taken, we entered and inspected it. On the walls, in houses, streets and alleys, the dead lay, in what numbers! Comers and goers to and fro were passing over the bodies. [Sidenote: Fol. 218b.] Returning from our inspection, we sat down in the Bajaur sulṯān's residence. The country of Bajaur we bestowed on Khwāja Kalān,[1367] assigning a large number of braves to reinforce him. At the Evening Prayer we went back to camp.

(b. Movements in Bajaur.)

(Jan. 8th) Marching at dawn (Muḥ. 6th), we dismounted by the spring[1368] of Bābā Qarā in the dale of Bajaur. At Khwāja Kalān's request the prisoners remaining were pardoned their offences, reunited to their wives and children, and given leave to go, but several sulṯāns and of the most stubborn were made to reach their doom of death. Some heads of sulṯāns and of others were sent to Kābul with the news of success; some also to Badakhshān, Qūndūz and Balkh with the letters-of-victory.

Shāh Manṣūr Yūsuf-zāī,—he was with us as an envoy from his tribe,—[1369] was an eye-witness of the victory and general massacre. We allowed him to leave after putting a coat (tūn) on him and after writing orders with threats to the Yūsuf-zāī.

(Jan. 11th) With mind easy about the important affairs of the Bajaur fort, we marched, on Tuesday the 9th of Muḥarram, one kuroh (2 m.) down the dale of Bajaur and ordered that a tower of heads should be set up on the rising-ground.

(Jan. 12th) On Wednesday the 10th of Muḥarram, we rode out to visit the Bajaur fort. There was a wine-party in Khwāja Kalān's house,[1370] several goat-skins of wine having been brought down by Kāfirs neighbouring on Bajaur. All wine and fruit [Sidenote: Fol. 219.] had in Bajaur comes from adjacent parts of Kāfiristān.

(Jan. 13th) We spent the night there and after inspecting the towers and ramparts of the fort early in the morning (Muḥ. 11th), I mounted and went back to camp.

(Jan. 14th) Marching at dawn (Muḥ. 12th), we dismounted on the bank of the Khwāja Khiẓr torrent.[1371]

(Jan. 15th) Marching thence, we dismounted (Muḥ. 13th) on the bank of the Chandāwal torrent. Here all those inscribed in the Bajaur reinforcement, were ordered to leave.

(Jan. 16th) On Sunday the 14th of Muḥarram, a standard was bestowed on Khwāja Kalān and leave given him for Bajaur. A few days after I had let him go, the following little verse having come into my head, it was written down and sent to him:—[1372]

Not such the pact and bargain betwixt my friend and me, At length the tooth of parting, unpacted grief for me! Against caprice of Fortune, what weapons (chāra) arm the man? At length by force of arms (ba jaur) my friend is snatched from me!

(Jan. 19th) On Wednesday the 17th of Muḥarram, Sl. `Alā'u'd-dīn of Sawād, the rival (mu`āriẓ) of Sl. Wais of Sawād,[1373] came and waited on me.

(Jan. 20th) On Thursday the 18th of the month, we hunted the hill between Bajaur and Chandāwal.[1374] There the būghū-marāl[1375] have become quite black, except for the tail which is of another colour; lower down, in Hindūstān, they seem to become black all over.[1376] Today a sārīq-qūsh[1377] was taken; that was black all over, its very eyes being black! Today an eagle (būrkūt)[1378] took a deer (kīyīk).

Corn being somewhat scarce in the army, we went into the Kahrāj-valley, and took some. [Sidenote: Fol. 219b.]

(Jan. 21st) On Friday (Muḥ. 19th) we marched for Sawād, with the intention of attacking the Yūsuf-zāī Afghāns, and dismounted in between[1379] the water of Panj-kūra and the united waters of Chandāwal and Bajaur. Shāh Manṣūr Yūsuf-zāī had brought a few well-flavoured and quite intoxicating confections (kamālī); making one of them into three, I ate one portion, Gadāī T̤aghāī another, `Abdu'l-lāh the librarian another. It produced remarkable intoxication; so much so that at the Evening Prayer when the begs gathered for counsel, I was not able to go out. A strange thing it was! If in these days[1380] I ate the whole of such a confection, I doubt if it would produce half as much intoxication.

(c. An impost laid on Kahrāj.)

(Jan. 22nd) Marching from that ground, (Muḥ. 20th), we dismounted over against Kahrāj, at the mouth of the valleys of Kahrāj and Peshgrām.[1381] Snow fell ankle-deep while we were on that ground; it would seem to be rare for snow to fall thereabouts, for people were much surprised. In agreement with Sl. Wais of Sawād there was laid on the Kahrāj people an impost of 4000 ass-loads of rice for the use of the army, and he himself was sent to collect it. Never before had those rude mountaineers borne such a burden; they could not give (all) the grain and were brought to ruin.

(cc. Raid on Panj-kūra.)

(Jan. 25th) On Tuesday the 23rd of Muḥarram an army was [Sidenote: Fol. 220.] sent under Hindū Beg to raid Panj-kūra. Panj-kūra lies more than half-way up the mountain;[1382] to reach its villages a person must go for nearly a kuroh (2 m.) through a pass. The people had fled and got away; our men brought a few beasts of sorts, and masses of corn from their houses.

(Jan. 26th) Next day (Muḥ. 24th) Qūj Beg was put at the head of a force and sent out to raid.

(Jan. 27th) On Thursday the 25th of the month, we dismounted at the village of Māndīsh, in the trough of the Kahrāj-valley, for the purpose of getting corn for the army.

(d. Māhīm's adoption of Dil-dār's unborn child.)

(Jan. 28th) Several children born of Humāyūn's mother had not lived. Hind-āl was not yet born.[1383] While we were in those parts, came a letter from Māhīm in which she wrote, "Whether it be a boy, whether it be a girl, is my luck and chance; give it to me; I will declare it my child and will take charge of it." On Friday the 26th of the month, we being still on that ground, Yūsuf-i-`alī the stirrup-holder was sent off to Kābul with letters[1384] bestowing Hind-āl, not yet born, on Māhīm.

(dd. Construction of a stone platform.)

While we were still on that same ground in the Māndīsh-country, I had a platform made with stones (tāsh bīla) on a height in the middle of the valley, so large that it held the tents of the advance-camp. All the household and soldiers carried the stones for it, one by one like ants.

(e. Bābur's marriage with his Afghān wife, Bībī Mubāraka.)

In order to conciliate the Yūsuf-zāī horde, I had asked for a daughter of one of my well-wishers, Malik Sulaimān Shāh's son Malik Shāh Manṣūr, at the time he came to me as envoy [Sidenote: Fol. 220b.] from the Yūsuf-zāī Afghāns.[1385]

While we were on this ground news came that his daughter[1386] was on her way with the Yūsuf-zāī tribute. At the Evening Prayer there was a wine-party to which Sl. `Alā'u'd-dīn (of Sawād) was invited and at which he was given a seat and special dress of honour (khilcat-i-khāṣa).

(Jan. 30th) On Sunday the 28th, we marched from that valley. Shāh Manṣūr's younger brother T̤āūs (Handsome) Khān brought the above-mentioned daughter of his brother to our ground after we had dismounted.

(f. Repopulation of the fort of Bajaur.)

For the convenience of having the Bī-sūt people in Bajaur-fort,[1387] Yūsuf'i-`alī the taster was sent from this camp to get them on the march and take them to that fort. Also, written orders were despatched to Kābul that the army there left should join us.

(Feb. 4th) On Friday the 3rd of the month of Ṣafar, we dismounted at the confluence of the waters of Bajaur and Panj-kūra.

(Feb. 6th) On Sunday the 5th of the month, we went from that ground to Bajaur where there was a drinking-party in Khwāja Kalān's house.

(g. Expedition against the Afghān clans.)

(Feb. 8th) On Tuesday the 7th of the month the begs and the Dilazāk Afghān headmen were summoned, and, after consultation, matters were left at this:—"The year is at its end,[1388] only a few days of the Fish are left; the plainsmen have carried in all their corn; if we went now into Sawād, the army would [Sidenote: Fol. 221.] dwindle through getting no corn. The thing to do is to march along the Aṃbahar and Pānī-mānī road, cross the Sawād-water above Hash-nagar, and surprise the Yūsuf-zāī and Muḥammadī Afghāns who are located in the plain over against the Yūsuf-zāī sangur of Māhūrā. Another year, coming earlier in the harvest-time, the Afghāns of this place must be our first thought." So the matter was left.

(Feb. 9th) Next day, Wednesday, we bestowed horses and robes on Sl. Wais and Sl. `Alā'u'u-dīn of Sawād, gave them leave to go, marched off ourselves and dismounted over against Bajaur.

(Feb. 10th) We marched next day, leaving Shāh Manṣūr's daughter in Bajaur-fort until the return of the army. We dismounted after passing Khwāja Khiẓr, and from that camp leave was given to Khwāja Kalān; and the heavy baggage, the worn-out horses and superfluous effects of the army were started off into Lamghān by the Kūnār road.

(Feb. 11th) Next morning Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān was put in charge of the camel baggage-train and started off by the Qūrghā-tū and Darwāza road, through the Qarā-kūpa-pass. Riding light for the raid, we ourselves crossed the Ambahar-pass, and yet another great pass, and dismounted at Pānī-mālī nearer[1389] the Afternoon Prayer. Aūghān-bīrdī was sent forward with a few others to learn[1390] how things were.

(Feb. 12th) The distance between us and the Afghāns being short, we did not make an early start. Aūghān-bīrdī came back at breakfast-time.[1391] He had got the better of an Afghān and had cut his head off, but had dropped it on the road. He [Sidenote: Fol. 221b.] brought no news so sure as the heart asks (kūnkūl-tīladīk). Midday come, we marched on, crossed the Sawād-water, and dismounted nearer[1392] the Afternoon Prayer. At the Bed-time Prayer, we remounted and rode swiftly on.

(Feb. 13th) Rustam Turkmān had been sent scouting; when the Sun was spear-high he brought word that the Afghāns had heard about us and were shifting about, one body of them making off by the mountain-road. On this we moved the faster, sending raiders on ahead who killed a few, cut off their heads and brought a band of prisoners, some cattle and flocks. The Dilazāk Afghāns also cut off and brought in a few heads. Turning back, we dismounted near Kātlāng and from there sent a guide to meet the baggage-train under Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān and bring it to join us in Maqām.[1393]

(Feb. 14th) Marching on next day, we dismounted between Kātlāng and Maqām. A man of Shāh Manṣūr's arrived. Khusrau Kūkūldāsh and Aḥmadī the secretary were sent with a few more to meet the baggage-train.

(Feb. 15th) On Wednesday the 14th of the month, the baggage-train rejoined us while we were dismounting at Maqām.

It will have been within the previous 30 or 40 years that a heretic qalandar named Shahbāz perverted a body of Yūsuf-zāī and another of Dilazāk. His tomb was on a free and dominating height of the lower hill at the bill (tūmshūq) of the [Sidenote: Fol. 222.] Maqām mountain. Thought I, "What is there to recommend the tomb of a heretic qalandar for a place in air so free?" and ordered the tomb destroyed and levelled with the ground. The place was so charming and open that we elected to sit there some time and to eat a confection (ma'jūn).

(h. Bābur crosses the Indus for the first time.)

We had turned off from Bajaur with Bhīra in our thoughts.[1394] Ever since we came into Kābul it had been in my mind to move on Hindūstān, but this had not been done for a variety of reasons. Nothing to count had fallen into the soldiers' hands during the three or four months we had been leading this army. Now that Bhīra, the borderland of Hindūstān, was so near, I thought a something might fall into our men's hands if, riding light, we went suddenly into it. To this thought I clung, but some of my well-wishers, after we had raided the Afghāns and dismounted at Maqām, set the matter in this way before me:—"If we are to go into Hindūstān, it should be on a proper basis; one part of the army stayed behind in Kābul; a body of effective braves was left behind in Bajaur; a good part of this army has gone into Lamghān because its horses were worn-out; and the horses of those who have come this far, are so poor that they have not a day's hard riding in them." Reasonable as these considerations were, yet, having made the start, we paid no [Sidenote: Fol. 222b.] attention to them but set off next day for the ford through the water of Sind.[1395] Mīr Muḥammad the raftsman and his elder and younger brethren were sent with a few braves to examine the Sind-river (daryā), above and below the ford.

(Feb. 16th) After starting off the camp for the river, I went to hunt rhinoceros on the Sawātī side which place people call also Karg-khāna (Rhino-home).[1396] A few were discovered but the jungle was dense and they did not come out of it. When one with a calf came into the open and betook itself to flight, many arrows were shot at it and it rushed into the near jungle; the jungle was fired but that same rhino was not had. Another calf was killed as it lay, scorched by the fire, writhing and palpitating. Each person took a share of the spoil. After leaving Sawātī, we wandered about a good deal; it was the Bed-time Prayer when we got to camp.

Those sent to examine the ford came back after doing it.

(Feb. 17th) Next day, Thursday the 16th,[1397] the horses and baggage-camels crossed through the ford and the camp-bazar and foot-soldiers were put over on rafts. Some Nīl-ābīs came and saw me at the ford-head (guẕar-bāshī), bringing a horse in mail and 300 shāhrukhīs as an offering. At the Mid-day Prayer of this same day, when every-one had crossed the river, we marched on; we went on until one watch of the night had passed (circa 9 p.m.) when we dismounted near the water of Kacha-kot.[1398]

(Feb. 18th) Marching on next day, we crossed the Kacha-kot-water; noon returning, went through the Sangdakī-pass and dismounted. While Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate was [Sidenote: Fol. 223.] in charge of the rear (chāghdāwal) he overcame a few Gujūrs who had got up with the rear march, cut off and brought in 4 or 5 of their heads.

(Feb. 19th) Marching thence at dawn and crossing the Sūhān-water, we dismounted at the Mid-day Prayer. Those behind kept coming in till midnight; the march had been mightily long, and, as many horses were weak and out-of-condition, a great number were left on the road.

(i. The Salt-range.)

Fourteen miles (7 kos) north of Bhīra lies the mountain-range written of in the Z̤afar-nāma and other books as the Koh-i-jūd.[1399] I had not known why it was called this; I now knew. On it dwell two tribes, descendants from one parent-source, one is called Jūd, the other Janjūha. These two from of old have been the rulers and lawful commanders of the peoples and hordes (aūlūs) of the range and of the country between Bhīra and Nīl-āb. Their rule is friendly and brotherly however; they cannot take what their hearts might desire; the portion ancient custom has fixed is given and taken, no less and no more. The agreement is to give one shāhrukhī[1400] for each yoke of oxen and seven for headship in a household; there is also service in the army. The Jūd and Janjūha both are divided into several clans. The Koh-i-jūd runs for 14 miles along the Bhīra country, taking off from those Kashmīr mountains that are one with [Sidenote: Fol. 223b.] Hindū-kūsh, and it draws out to the south-west as far as the foot of Dīn-kot on the Sind-river.[1401] On one half of it are the Jūd, the Janjūha on the other. People call it Koh-i-jūd through connecting it with the Jūd tribe.[1402] The principal headman gets the title of Rāī; others, his younger brothers and sons, are styled Malik. The Janjūha headmen are maternal uncles of Langar Khan. The ruler of the people and horde near the Sūhān-water was named Malik Hast. The name originally was Asad but as Hindūstānīs sometimes drop a vowel e.g. they say khabr for khabar (news), they had said Asd for Asad, and this went on to Hast.

Langar Khān was sent off to Malik Hast at once when we dismounted. He galloped off, made Malik Hast hopeful of our favour and kindness, and at the Bed-time Prayer, returned with him. Malik Hast brought an offering of a horse in mail and waited on me. He may have been 22 or 23 years old.[1403]

The various flocks and herds belonging to the country-people were close round our camp. As it was always in my heart to possess Hindūstān, and as these several countries, Bhīra, Khūsh-āb, Chīn-āb and Chīnīūt[1404] had once been held by the Turk, I pictured them as my own and was resolved to get them into my hands, whether peacefully or by force. For these reasons it being imperative to treat these hillmen well, this following [Sidenote: Fol. 224.] order was given:—"Do no hurt or harm to the flocks and herds of these people, nor even to their cotton-ends and broken needles!"

(j. The Kalda-kahār lake.)

(Feb. 20th) Marching thence next day, we dismounted at the Mid-day Prayer amongst fields of densely-growing corn in Kalda-kahār.

Kalda-kahār is some 20 miles north of Bhīra, a level land shut in[1405] amongst the Jūd mountains. In the middle of it is a lake some six miles round, the in-gatherings of rain from all sides. On the north of this lake lies an excellent meadow; on the hill-skirt to the west of it there is a spring[1406] having its source in the heights overlooking the lake. The place being suitable I have made a garden there, called the Bāgh-i-ṣafā,[1407] as will be told later; it is a very charming place with good air.

(Feb. 21st) We rode from Kalda-kahār at dawn next day. When we reached the top of the Hamtātū-pass a few local people waited on me, bringing a humble gift. They were joined with `Abdu'r-raḥīm the chief-scribe (shaghāwal) and sent with him to speak the Bhīra people fair and say, "The possession of this country by a Turk has come down from of old; beware not to bring ruin on its people by giving way to fear and anxiety; our eye is on this land and on this people; raid and rapine shall not be."

We dismounted near the foot of the pass at breakfast-time, [Sidenote: Fol. 224b.] and thence sent seven or eight men ahead, under Qurbān of Chīrkh and `Abdu'l-malūk of Khwāst. Of those sent one Mīr Muḥammad (a servant ?) of Mahdī Khwāja[1408] brought in a man. A few Afghān headmen, who had come meantime with offerings and done obeisance, were joined with Langar Khān to go and speak the Bhīra people fair.

After crossing the pass and getting out of the jungle, we arrayed in right and left and centre, and moved forward for Bhīra. As we got near it there came in, of the servants of Daulat Khān Yūsuf-khail's son `Alī Khān, Sīktū's son Dīwa Hindū; with them came several of the notables of Bhīra who brought a horse and camel as an offering and did me obeisance. At the Mid-day Prayer we dismounted on the east of Bhīra, on the bank of the Bahat (Jehlam), in a sown-field, without hurt or harm being allowed to touch the people of Bhīra.

(k. History of Bhīra.)

Tīmūr Beg had gone into Hindūstān; from the time he went out again these several countries viz. Bhīra, Khūsh-āb, Chīn-āb and Chīnīūt, had been held by his descendants and the dependants and adherents of those descendants. After the death of Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā and his son `Alī Asghar Mīrzā, the sons of Mīr `Alī Beg [Sidenote: Fol. 225.] viz. Bābā-i-kābulī, Daryā Khān and Apāq Khān, known later as Ghāzī Khān, all of whom Sl. Mas`ūd M. had cherished, through their dominant position, got possession of Kābul, Zābul and the afore-named countries and parganas of Hindūstān. In Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's time, Kābul and Zābul went from their hands, the Hindūstān countries remaining. In 910 AH. (1504 AD.) the year I first came into Kābul, the government of Bhīra, Khūsh-āb and Chīn-āb depended on Sayyid `Alī Khān, son of Ghāzī Khān and grandson of Mīr `Alī Beg, who read the khuṯba for Sikandar son of Buhlūl (Lūdī Afghān) and was subject to him. When I led that army out (910 AH.) Sayyid `Alī Khān left Bhīra in terror, crossed the Bahat-water, and seated himself in Sher-kot, one of the villages of Bhīra. A few years later the Afghāns became suspicious about him on my account; he, giving way to his own fears and anxieties, made these countries over to the then governor [Sidenote: Fol. 225b.] in Lāhūr, Daulat Khān, son of Tātār Khān Yūsuf-khail, who gave them to his own eldest son `Alī Khān, and in `Alī Khān's possession they now were.

(Author's note on Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā.) He was the son of Sūyūrghatmīsh Mīrzā, son of Shāhrukh Mīrzā, (son of Tīmūr), and was known as Sl. Mas`ūd Kābulī because the government and administration of Kābul and Zābul were then dependent on him (deposed 843 AH.-1440 AD.)

(Author's note to 910 AH.) That year, with the wish to enter Hindūstān, Khaibar had been crossed and Parashāwūr (sic) had been reached, when Bāqī Chaghānīānī insisted on a move against Lower Bangash i.e. Kohāt, a mass of Afghāns were raided and scraped clean (qīrīb), the Bannū plain was raided and plundered, and return was made through Dūkī (Dūgī).

(Author's note on Daulat Khān Yūsuf-khail.) This Tātār Khān, the father of Daulat Khān, was one of six or seven sardārs who, sallying out and becoming dominant in Hindūstān, made Buhlūl Pādshāh. He held the country north of the Satluj (sic) and Sahrind,[1409] the revenues of which exceeded 3 krūrs.[1410] On Tātār Khān's death, Sl. Sikandar (Lūdī), as over-lord, took those countries from Tātār Khān's sons and gave Lāhūr only to Daulat Khān. That happened a year or two before I came into the country of Kābul (910 AH.).

(l. Bābur's journey resumed.)

(Feb. 22nd) Next morning foragers were sent to several convenient places; on the same day I visited Bhīra; and on the same day Sangur Khān Janjūha came, made offering of a horse, and did me obeisance.

(Feb. 23rd) On Wednesday the 22nd of the month, the headmen and chauderis[1411] of Bhīra were summoned, a sum of 400,000 shāhrukhīs[1412] was agreed on as the price of peace (māl-i-amān), and collectors were appointed. We also made an excursion, going in a boat and there eating a confection.

(Feb. 24th) Ḥaidar the standard-bearer had been sent to the Bilūchīs located in Bhīra and Khūsh-āb; on Thursday morning they made an offering of an almond-coloured tīpūchāq [horse], and did obeisance. As it was represented to me that some of the soldiery were behaving without sense and were laying-hands on Bhīra people, persons were sent who caused some of those [Sidenote: Fol. 226.] senseless people to meet their death-doom, of others slit the noses and so led them round the camp.

(Feb. 25th) On Friday came a dutiful letter from the Khūshābīs; on this Shāh Shujā` Arghūn's son Shāh Ḥasan was appointed to go to Khūsh-āb.

(Feb. 26th) On Saturday the 25th of the month,[1413] Shāh Ḥasan was started for Khūsh-āb.

(Feb. 27th) On Sunday so much rain fell[1414] that water covered all the plain. A small brackish stream[1415] flowing between Bhīra and the gardens in which the army lay, had become like a great river before the Mid-day Prayer; while at the ford near Bhīra there was no footing for more than an arrow's flight; people crossing had to swim. In the afternoon I rode out to watch the water coming down (kīrkān sū); the rain and storm were such that on the way back there was some fear about getting in to camp. I crossed that same water (kīrkān sū) with my horse swimming. The army-people were much alarmed; most of them abandoned tents and heavy baggage, shouldered armour, horse-mail and arms, made their horses swim and crossed bare-back. Most streams flooded the plain.

(Feb. 28th) Next day boats were brought from the river (Jehlam), and in these most of the army brought their tents and baggage over. Towards mid-day, Qūj Beg's men went 2 miles up the water and there found a ford by which the rest crossed.

[Sidenote: Fol. 226b.] (March 1st) After a night spent in Bhīra-fort, Jahān-nūma they call it, we marched early on the Tuesday morning out of the worry of the rain-flood to the higher ground north of Bhīra.

As there was some delay about the moneys asked for and agreed to (taqabbul), the country was divided into four districts and the begs were ordered to try to make an end of the matter. Khalīfa was appointed to one district, Qūj Beg to another, Nāṣir's Dost to another, Sayyid Qāsim and Muḥibb-i-`alī to another. Picturing as our own the countries once occupied by the Turk, there was to be no over-running or plundering.

(m. Envoys sent to the court in Dihlī.)

(March 3rd) People were always saying, "It could do no harm to send an envoy, for peace' sake, to countries that once depended on the Turk." Accordingly on Thursday the 1st of Rabī`u'l-awwal, Mullā Murshid was appointed to go to Sl. Ibrāhīm who through the death of his father Sl. Iskandar had attained to rule in Hindūstān some 5 or 6 months earlier(?). I sent him a goshawk (qārchīgha) and asked for the countries which from of old had depended on the Turk. Mullā Murshid was given charge of writings (khāṯt̤lār) for Daulat Khān (Yūsuf-khail) and writings for Sl. Ibrāhīm; matters were sent also by word-of-mouth; and he was given leave to go. Far from sense and wisdom, shut off from judgment and counsel must people in Hindūstān be, the Afghāns above all; for they could not move and make stand like a foe, nor did they know ways and rules of friendliness. [Sidenote: Fol. 227.] Daulat Khān kept my man several days in Lāhūr without seeing him himself or speeding him on to Sl. Ibrāhīm; and he came back to Kābul a few months later without bringing a reply.

(n. Birth of Hind-āl.)

(March 4th) On Friday the 2nd of the month, the foot-soldiers Shaibak and Darwesh-i-`alī,—he is now a matchlockman,—bringing dutiful letters from Kābul, brought news also of Hind-āl's birth. As the news came during the expedition into Hindūstān, I took it as an omen, and gave the name Hind-āl (Taking of Hind). Dutiful letters came also from Muḥammad-i-zamān M. in Balkh, by the hand of Qaṃbar Beg.

(March 5th) Next morning when the Court rose, we rode out for an excursion, entered a boat and there drank `araq.[1416] The people of the party were Khwāja Dost-khāwand, Khusrau, Mīrīm, Mīrzā Qulī, Muḥammadī, Aḥmadī, Gadāī, Na`man, Langar Khān, Rauh-dam,[1417] Qāsim-i-`alī the opium-eater (tariyākī), Yūsuf-i-`alī and Tīngrī-qulī. Towards the head of the boat there was a tālār[1418] on the flat top of which I sat with a few people, a few others sitting below. There was a sitting-place also at the tail of the boat; there Muḥammadī, Gadāī and Na`man sat. `Araq was drunk till the Other Prayer when, disgusted by its bad flavour, by consent of those at the head of the boat, ma'jūn was preferred. [Sidenote: Fol. 227b.] Those at the other end, knowing nothing about our ma'jūn drank `araq right through. At the Bed-time Prayer we rode from the boat and got into camp late. Thinking I had been drinking `araq Muḥammadī and Gadāī had said to one another, "Let's do befitting service," lifted a pitcher of `araq up to one another in turn on their horses, and came in saying with wonderful joviality and heartiness and speaking together, "Through this dark night have we come carrying this pitcher in turns!" Later on when they knew that the party was (now) meant to be otherwise and the hilarity to differ, that is to say, that [there would be that] of the ma'jūn band and that of the drinkers, they were much disturbed because never does a ma'jūn party go well with a drinking-party. Said I, "Don't upset the party! Let those who wish to drink `araq, drink `araq; let those who wish to eat ma'jūn, eat ma'jūn. Let no-one on either side make talk or allusion to the other." Some drank `araq, some ate ma'jūn, and for a time the party went on quite politely. Bābā Jān the qabūz-player had not been of our party (in the boat); we invited him when we reached the tents. He asked to drink `araq. We invited Tardī Muḥammad Qībchāq also and made him a comrade of the drinkers. A ma'jūn party never goes well with an `araq or a wine-party; the drinkers began to make wild talk and chatter from all sides, mostly in allusion to ma'jūn and ma'jūnīs. Bābā Jān even, when drunk, said many wild things. The drinkers soon made Tardī Khān mad-drunk, by giving him one full bowl after another. Try as we did [Sidenote: Fol. 228.] to keep things straight, nothing went well; there was much disgusting uproar; the party became intolerable and was broken up.

(March 7th) On Monday the 5th of the month, the country of Bhīra was given to Hindū Beg.

(March 8th) On Tuesday the Chīn-āb country was bestowed on Ḥusain Aīkrak(?) and leave was given to him and the Chīn-āb people to set out. At this time Sayyid `Alī Khān's son Minūchihr Khān, having let us know (his intention), came and waited on me. He had started from Hindūstān by the upper road, had met in with Tātār Khān Kakar;[1419] Tātār Khān had not let him pass on, but had kept him, made him a son-in-law by giving him his own daughter, and had detained him for some time.

(o. The Kakars.)

In amongst the mountains of Nīl-āb and Bhīra which connect with those of Kashmīr, there are, besides the Jūd and Janjūha tribes, many Jats, Gujūrs, and others akin to them, seated in villages everywhere on every rising-ground. These are governed by headmen of the Kakar tribes, a headship like that over the Jūd and Janjūha. At this time (925 AH.) the headmen of the people of those hill-skirts were Tātār Kakar and Hātī Kakar, two descendants of one forefather; being paternal-uncles' sons.[1420] Torrent-beds and ravines are their strongholds. Tātār's place, named Parhāla,[1421] is a good deal below the snow-mountains; Hātī's country connects with the mountains and also he had made Bābū Khān's fief Kālanjar,[1422] look towards himself. Tātār [Sidenote: Fol. 228b.] Kakar had seen Daulat Khān (Yūsuf-khail) and looked to him with complete obedience. Hātī had not seen Daulat Khān; his attitude towards him was bad and turbulent. At the word of the Hindūstān begs and in agreement with them, Tātār had so posted himself as to blockade Hātī from a distance. Just when we were in Bhīra, Hātī moved on pretext of hunting, fell unexpectedly on Tātār, killed him, and took his country, his wives and his having (būlghāni).[1423]

(p. Bābur's journey resumed.)

Having ridden out at the Mid-day Prayer for an excursion, we got on a boat and `araq was drunk. The people of the party were Dost Beg, Mīrzā Qulī, Aḥmadī, Gadāī, Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang, `Asas,[1424] and Aūghān-bīrdī Mughūl. The musicians were Rauḥ-dam, Bābā Jān, Qāsim-i-`alī, Yūsuf-i-`alī, Tīngrī-qulī, Abū'l-qāsim, Rāmẓān Lūlī. We drank in the boat till the Bed-time Prayer; then getting off it, full of drink, we mounted, took torches in our hands, and went to camp from the river's bank, leaning over from our horses on this side, leaning over from that, at one loose-rein gallop! Very drunk I must have been for, when they told me next day that we had galloped loose-rein into camp, carrying torches, I could not recall it in the very least. After reaching my quarters, I vomited a good deal.

(March 11th) On Friday we rode out on an excursion, crossed the water (Jehlam) by boat and went about amongst the orchards (bāghāt) of blossoming trees and the lands of the sugar-cultivation. We saw the wheel with buckets, had water drawn, and asked [Sidenote: Fol. 229.] particulars about getting it out; indeed we made them draw it again and again. During this excursion a confection was preferred. In returning we went on board a boat. A confection (ma'jūn) was given also to Minūchihr Khān, such a one that, to keep him standing, two people had to give him their arms. For a time the boat remained at anchor in mid-stream; we then went down-stream; after a while had it drawn up-stream again, slept in it that night and went back to camp near dawn.

(March 12th) On Saturday the 10th of the first Rabī`, the Sun entered the Ram. Today we rode out before mid-day and got into a boat where `araq was drunk. The people of the party were Khwāja Dost-khāwand, Dost Beg, Mīrīm, Mīrzā Qulī, Muḥammadī, Aḥmadī, Yūnas-i-`alī, Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang, Gadāī T̤aghāī, Mīr Khurd (and ?) `Asas. The musicians were Rauḥdam, Bābā Jān, Qāsim, Yūsuf-i-`alī, Tīngrī-qulī and Ramẓān. We got into a branch-water (shakh-i-āb), for some time went down-stream, landed a good deal below Bhīra and on its opposite bank, and went late into camp.

This same day Shāh Ḥasan returned from Khūsh-āb whither he had been sent as envoy to demand the countries which from of old had depended on the Turk; he had settled peaceably with them and had in his hands a part of the money assessed on them.

The heats were near at hand. To reinforce Hindū Beg (in Bhīra) were appointed Shāh Muḥammad Keeper of the Seal and his younger brother Dost Beg Keeper of the Seal, together with several suitable braves; an accepted (yārāsha) stipend [Sidenote: Fol. 229b.] was fixed and settled in accordance with each man's position. Khūsh-āb was bestowed, with a standard, on Langar Khān, the prime cause and mover of this expedition; we settled also that he was to help Hindū Beg. We appointed also to help Hindū Beg, the Turk and local soldiery of Bhīra, increasing the allowances and pay of both. Amongst them was the afore-named Minūchihr Khān whose name has been mentioned; there was also Naẕar-i-`alī Turk, one of Minūchihr Khān's relations; there were also Sangar Khān Janjūha and Malik Hast Janjūha.

(pp. Return for Kābul.)

(March 13th) Having settled the country in every way making for hope of peace, we marched for Kābul from Bhīra on Sunday the 11th of the first Rabī`. We dismounted in Kaldah-kahār. That day too it rained amazingly; people with rain-cloaks[1425] were in the same case as those who had none! The rear of the camp kept coming in till the Bed-time Prayer.

(q. Action taken against Hātī Kakar.)

(March 14th) People acquainted with the honour and glory (āb u tāb) of this land and government, especially the Janjūhas, old foes of these Kakars, represented, "Hātī is the bad man round-about; he it is robs on the roads; he it is brings men to ruin; he ought either to be driven out from these parts, or to be severely punished." Agreeing with this, we left Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān and Nāṣir's Mīrīm next day with the camp, parting from them at big breakfast,[1426] and moved on Hātī Kakar. As has been said, he had killed Tātār a few days earlier, and having taken possession of Parhāla, was in it now. Dismounting at the Other [Sidenote: Fol. 230.] Prayer, we gave the horses corn; at the Bed-time Prayer we rode on again, our guide being a Gujūr servant of Malik Hast, named Sar-u-pā. We rode the night through and dismounted at dawn, when Beg Muḥammad Mughūl was sent back to the camp, and we remounted when it was growing light. At breakfast-time (9 a.m.) we put our mail on and moved forward faster. The blackness of Parhāla shewed itself from 2 miles off; the gallop was then allowed (chāpqūn qūīūldī); the right went east of Parhāla, Qūj Beg, who was also of the right, following as its reserve; the men of the left and centre went straight for the fort, Dost Beg being their rear-reserve.

Parhāla stands amongst ravines. It has two roads; one, by which we came, leads to it from the south-east, goes along the top of ravines and on either hand has hollows worn out by the torrents. A mile from Parhāla this road, in four or five places before it reaches the Gate, becomes a one-man road with a ravine falling from its either side; there for more than an arrow's flight men must ride in single file. The other road comes from the north-west; it gets up to Parhāla by the trough of a valley and it also is a one-man road. There is no other road on any side. Parhāla though without breast-work or battlement, has no assailable place, its sides shooting perpendicularly [Sidenote: Fol. 230b.] down for 7, 8, 10 yards.

When the van of our left, having passed the narrow place, went in a body to the Gate, Hātī, with whom were 30 to 40 men in armour, their horses in mail, and a mass of foot-soldiers, forced his assailants to retire. Dost Beg led his reserve forward, made a strong attack, dismounted a number of Hātī's men, and beat him. All the country-round, Hātī was celebrated for his daring, but try as he did, he could effect nothing; he took to flight; he could not make a stand in those narrow places; he could not make the fort fast when he got back into it. His assailants went in just behind him and ran on through the ravine and narrows of the north-west side of the fort, but he rode light and made his flight good. Here again, Dost Beg did very well and recompense was added to renown.[1427]

Meantime I had gone into the fort and dismounted at Tātār Kakar's dwelling. Several men had joined in the attack for whom to stay with me had been arranged; amongst them were Amīn-i-muḥammad Tarkhān Argkūn and Qarācha.[1428] For this fault they were sent to meet the camp, without sar-u-pā, into the wilds and open country with Sar-u-pā[1429] for their guide, the Gujūr mentioned already.

(March 16th) Next day we went out by the north-west ravine and dismounted in a sown field. A few serviceable braves under Wālī the treasurer were sent out to meet the camp.[1430]

(March 17th) Marching on Thursday the 15th, we dismounted at Andarāba on the Sūhān, a fort said to have depended from [Sidenote: Fol. 231.] of old on ancestors of Malik Hast. Hātī Kakar had killed Malik Hast's father and destroyed the fort; there it now lay in ruins.

At the Bed-time Prayer of this same day, those left at Kalda-kahār with the camp rejoined us.

(r. Submissions to Bābur.)

It must have been after Hātī overcame Tātār that he started his kinsman Parbat to me with tribute and an accoutred horse. Parbat did not light upon us but, meeting in with the camp we had left behind, came on in the company of the train. With it came also Langar Khān up from Bhīra on matters of business. His affairs were put right and he, together with several local people, was allowed to leave.

(March 18th) Marching on and crossing the Sūhān-water, we dismounted on the rising-ground. Here Hātī's kinsman (Parbat) was robed in an honorary dress (khil`at), given letters of encouragement for Hātī, and despatched with a servant of Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang. Nīl-āb and the Qārlūq (Himalayan?) Hazāra had been given to Humāyūn (aet. 12); some of his servants under Bābā Dost and Halāhil came now for their darogha-ship.[1431]

(March 19th) Marching early next morning, we dismounted after riding 2 miles, went to view the camp from a height and ordered that the camp-camels should be counted; it came out at 570. [Sidenote: Fol. 231b.]

We had heard of the qualities of the saṃbhal plant[1432]; we saw it on this ground; along this hill-skirt it grows sparsely, a plant here, a plant there; it grows abundantly and to a large size further along the skirt-hills of Hindūstān. It will be described when an account is given of the animals and plants of Hindūstān.[1433]

(March 20th) Marching from that camp at beat of drum (i.e. one hour before day), we dismounted at breakfast-time (9 a.m.) below the Sangdakī-pass, at mid-day marched on, crossed the pass, crossed the torrent, and dismounted on the rising-ground.

(March 21st) Marching thence at midnight, we made an excursion to the ford[1434] we had crossed when on our way to Bhīra. A great raft of grain had stuck in the mud of that same ford and, do what its owners would, could not be made to move. The corn was seized and shared out to those with us. Timely indeed was that corn!

Near noon we were a little below the meeting of the waters of Kābul and Sind, rather above old Nīl-āb; we dismounted there between two waters.[1435] From Nīl-āb six boats were brought, and were apportioned to the right, left and centre, who busied themselves energetically in crossing the river (Indus). We got there on a Monday; they kept on crossing the water through the night preceding Tuesday (March 22nd), through Tuesday and up to Wednesday (March 23rd) and on Thursday (24th) also a few crossed.

Hātl's kinsman Parbat, he who from Andarāba was sent to [Sidenote: Fol. 232.] Hātī with a servant of Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang, came to the bank of the river with Hātī's offering of an accoutred horse. Nīlābīs also came, brought an accoutred horse and did obeisance.

(s. Various postings.)

Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang had wished to stay in Bhīra but Bhīra being bestowed on Hindū Beg, he was given the countries between it and the Sind-river, such as the Qārlūq Hazāra, Hātī, Ghiyāṣ-wāl and Kīb (Kitib):—

Where one is who submits like a ra`iyat, so treat him; But him who submits not, strike, strip, crush and force to obey.

He also received a special head-wear in black velvet, a special Qīlmāq corselet, and a standard. When Hātī's kinsman was given leave to go he took for Hātī a sword and head-to-foot (bāsh-ayāq) with a royal letter of encouragement.

(March 24th) On Thursday at sunrise we marched from the river's bank. That day confection was eaten. While under its influence[1436] wonderful fields of flowers were enjoyed. In some places sheets of yellow flowers bloomed in plots; in others sheets of red (arghwānī) flowers in plots, in some red and yellow bloomed together. We sat on a mound near the camp to enjoy the sight. There were flowers on all sides of the mound, yellow [Sidenote: Fol. 232b.] here, red there, as if arranged regularly to form a sextuple. On two sides there were fewer flowers but as far as the eye reached, flowers were in bloom. In spring near Parashāwar the fields of flowers are very beautiful indeed.

(March 25th) We marched from that ground at dawn. At one place on the road a tiger came out and roared. On hearing it, the horses, willy-nilly, flung off in terror, carrying their riders in all directions, and dashing into ravines and hollows. The tiger went again into the jungle. To bring it out, we ordered a buffalo brought and put on the edge of the jungle. The tiger again came out roaring. Arrows were shot at it from all sides[1437]; I shot with the rest. Khalwī (var. Khalwā) a foot-soldier, pricked it with a spear; it bit the spear and broke off the spearhead. After tasting of those arrows, it went into the bushes (būta) and stayed there. Bābā the waiting-man [yasāwal] went with drawn sword close up to it; it sprang; he chopped at its head; `Alī Sīstānī[1438] chopped at its loins; it plunged into the river and was killed right in the water. It was got out and ordered to be skinned.

(March 26th) Marching on next day, we reached Bīgrām and went to see Gūr-khattrī. This is a smallish abode, after the fashion of a hermitage (ṣauma`at), rather confined and dark. After entering at the door and going down a few steps, one must lie full length to get beyond. There is no getting in without a lamp. All round near the building there is let lie an enormous quantity of hair of the head and beard which men have shaved off there. There are a great many retreats (ḥujra) near Gūr-khattrī [Sidenote: Fol. 233.] like those of a rest-house or a college. In the year we came into Kābul (910 AH.) and over-ran Kohāt, Bannū and the plain, we made an excursion to Bīgrām, saw its great tree and were consumed with regret at not seeing Gūr-khattrī, but it does not seem a place to regret not-seeing.[1439]

On this same day an excellent hawk of mine went astray out of Shaikhīm the head-falconer's charge; it had taken many cranes and storks and had moulted (tūlāb) two or three times. So many things did it take that it made a fowler of a person so little keen as I!

At this place were bestowed 100 mis̤qāls of silver, clothing (tūnlūq), three bullocks and one buffalo, out of the offerings of Hindūstān, on each of six persons, the chiefs of the Dilazāk Afghāns under Malik Bū Khān and Malik Mūsa; to others, in their degree, were given money, pieces of cloth, a bullock and a buffalo.

(March 27th) When we dismounted at `Alī-masjid, a Dilazāk Afghān of the Yaq`ūb-khail, named Ma`rūf, brought an offering of 10 sheep, two ass-loads of rice and eight large cheeses.

(March 28th) Marching on from `Alī-masjid, we dismounted at Yada-bīr; from Yada-bīr Jūī-shāhī was reached by the Midday Prayer and we there dismounted. Today Dost Beg was attacked by burning fever.

(March 29th) Marching from Jūī-shāhī at dawn, we ate our mid-day meal in the Bāgh-i-wafā. At the Mid-day Prayer we betook ourselves out of the garden, close to the Evening Prayer forded the Siyāh-āb at Gandamak, satisfied our horses' hunger in a field of green corn, and rode on in a garī or two (24-48 min.).

After crossing the Sūrkh-āb, we dismounted at Kark and took [Sidenote: Fol. 233b.] a sleep.

(March 30th) Riding before shoot of day from Kark, I went with 5 or 6 others by the road taking off for Qarā-tū in order to enjoy the sight of a garden there made. Khalīfa and Shāh Ḥasan Beg and the rest went by the other road to await me at Qūrūq-sāī.

When we reached Qarā-tū, Shāh Beg Arghūn's commissary (tawāchī) Qīzīl (Rufus) brought word that Shāh Beg had taken Kāhān, plundered it and retired.

An order had been given that no-one soever should take news of us ahead. We reached Kābul at the Mid-day Prayer, no person in it knowing about us till we got to Qūtlūq-qadam's bridge. As Humāyūn and Kāmrān heard about us only after that, there was not time to put them on horseback; they made their pages carry them, came, and did obeisance between the gates of the town and the citadel.[1440] At the Other Prayer there waited on me Qāsim Beg, the town Qāẓī, the retainers left in Kābul and the notables of the place.

(April 2nd) At the Other Prayer of Friday the 1st of the second Rabī` there was a wine-party at which a special head-to-foot (bāsh-ayāq) was bestowed on Shāh Ḥasan.

(April 3rd) At dawn on Saturday we went on board a boat and took our morning.[1441] Nūr Beg, then not obedient (tā'īb), played the lute at this gathering. At the Mid-day Prayer we left the boat to visit the garden made between Kul-kīna[1442] and the mountain (Shāh-i-kābul). At the Evening Prayer we went to the Violet-garden where there was drinking again. From Kul-kīna I got in by the rampart and went into the citadel.

(u. Dost Beg's death.)

(April 6th) On the night of Tuesday the 5th of the month,[1443] Dost Beg, who on the road had had fever, went to God's mercy. [Sidenote: Fol. 234.]

Sad and grieved enough we were! His bier and corpse were carried to Ghaznī where they laid him in front of the gate of the Sulṯān's garden (rauza).

Dost Beg had been a very good brave (yīkīt) and he was still rising in rank as a beg. Before he was made a beg, he did excellent things several times as one of the household. One time was at Rabāṯ-i-zauraq,[1444] one yīghāch from Andijān when Sl. Aḥmad Taṃbal attacked me at night (908 AH.). I, with 10 to 15 men, by making a stand, had forced his gallopers back; when we reached his centre, he made a stand with as many as 100 men; there were then three men with me, i.e. there were four counting myself. Nāṣir's Dost (i.e. Dost Beg) was one of the three; another was Mīrzā Qulī Kūkūldāsh; Karīm-dād Turkmān was the other. I was just in my jība[1445]; Taṃbal and another were standing like gate-wards in front of his array; I came face to face with Taṃbal, shot an arrow striking his helm; shot another aiming at the attachment of his shield;[1446] they shot one through my leg (būtūm); Taṃbal chopped at my head. It was wonderful! The (under)-cap of my helm was on my head; not a thread of it was cut, but on the head itself was a very bad wound. Of other help came none; no-one was left with me; of necessity I brought myself to gallop back. Dost Beg had been a little in my rear; (Taṃbal) on leaving me alone, chopped at him.[1447]

[Sidenote: Fol. 234b.] Again, when we were getting out of Akhsī [908 AH.],[1448] Dost Beg chopped away at Bāqī Ḥīz[1449] who, although people called him Ḥīz, was a mighty master of the sword. Dost Beg was one of the eight left with me after we were out of Akhsī; he was the third they unhorsed.

Again, after he had become a beg, when Sīūnjuk Khān (Aūzbeg), arriving with the (Aūzbeg) sulṯāns before Tāshkīnt, besieged Aḥmad-i-qāsim [Kohbur] in it [918 AH.],[1450] Dost Beg passed through them and entered the town. During the siege he risked his honoured life splendidly, but Aḥmad-i-qāsim, without a word to this honoured man,[1451] flung out of the town and got away. Dost Beg for his own part got the better of the Khān and sulṯāns and made his way well out of Tāshkīnt.

Later on when Sherīm T̤aghāī, Mazīd and their adherents were in rebellion,[1452] he came swiftly up from Ghaznī with two or three hundred men, met three or four hundred effective braves sent out by those same Mughūls to meet him, unhorsed a mass of them near Sherūkān(?), cut off and brought in a number of heads.

Again, his men were first over the ramparts at the fort of Bajaur (925 AH.). At Parhāla, again, he advanced, beat Hātī, put him to flight, and won Parhāla.

After Dost Beg's death, I bestowed his district on his younger brother Nāṣir's Mīrīm.[1453]

(v. Various incidents.)

(April 9th) On Friday the 8th of the second Rabī`, the walled-town was left for the Chār-bāgh.

(April 13th) On Tuesday the 12th there arrived in Kābul the honoured Sulṯānīm Begīm, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's eldest daughter, the mother of Muḥammad Sulṯān Mīrzā. During those throneless times,[1454] she had settled down in Khwārizm where Yīlī-pārs [Sidenote: Fol. 235.] Sulṯān's younger brother Aīsān-qulī Sl. took her daughter. The Bāgh-i-khilwat was assigned her for her seat. When she had settled down and I went to see her in that garden, out of respect and courtesy to her, she being as my honoured elder sister, I bent the knee. She also bent the knee. We both advancing, saw one another mid-way. We always observed the same ceremony afterwards.

(April 18th) On Sunday the 17th, that traitor to his salt, Bābā Shaikh[1455] was released from his long imprisonment, forgiven his offences and given an honorary dress.

(w. Visit to the Koh-dāman.)

(April 20th) On Tuesday the 19th of the month, we rode out at the return of noon for Khwāja Sih-yārān. This day I was fasting. All astonished, Yūnas-i-`alī and the rest said, "A Tuesday! a journey! and a fast! This is amazing!" At Bīhzādī we dismounted at the Qāẓī's house. In the evening when a stir was made for a social gathering, the Qāẓī set this before me, "In my house such things never are; it is for the honoured Pādshāh to command!" For his heart's content, drink was left out, though all the material for a party was ready.

(April 21st) On Wednesday we went to Khwāja Sih-yārān.

(April 22nd) On Thursday the 22nd of the month, we had a large round seat made in the garden under construction on the mountain-naze.[1456]

(April 23rd) On Friday we got on a raft from the bridge. On our coming opposite the fowlers' houses, they brought a dang [Sidenote: Fol. 235b.] (or ding)[1457] they had caught. I had never seen one before; it is an odd-looking bird. It will come into the account of the birds of Hindustan.[1458]

(April 24th) On Saturday the 23rd of the month cuttings were planted, partly of plane, partly of tāl,[1459] above the round seat. At the Mid-day Prayer there was a wine-party at the place.

(April 25th) At dawn we took our morning on the new seat. At noon we mounted and started for Kābul, reached Khwāja Ḥasan quite drunk and slept awhile, rode on and by midnight got to the Chār-bāgh. At Khwāja Ḥasan, `Abdu'l-lāh, in his drunkenness, threw himself into water just as he was in his tūn aūfrāghī.[1460] He was frozen with cold and could not go on with us when we mounted after a little of the night had passed. He stayed on Qūtlūq Khwāja's estate that night. Next day, awakened to his past intemperance, he came on repentant. Said I, "At once! will this sort of repentance answer or not? Would to God you would repent now at once in such a way that you would drink nowhere except at my parties!" He agreed to this and kept the rule for a few months, but could not keep it longer.

(x. Hindū Beg abandons Bhīra.)

(April 26th) On Monday the 25th came Hindū Beg. There having been hope of peace, he had been left in those countries with somewhat scant support. No sooner was our back turned than a mass of Hindūstānīs and Afghāns gathered, disregarded us and, not listening to our words, moved against Hindū Beg in Bhīra. The local peoples also went over to the Afghāns. Hindū Beg could make no stand in Bhīra, came to Khūsh-āb, came through the Dīn-kot country, came to Nīl-āb, came on to Kābul. [Sidenote: Fol. 236.] Sīktū's son Dīwa Hindū and another Hindū had been brought prisoner from Bhīra. Each now giving a considerable ransom, they were released. Horses and head-to-foot dresses having been given them, leave to go was granted.

(April 30th) On Friday the 29th of the month, burning fever appeared in my body. I got myself let blood. I had fever with sometimes two, sometimes three days between the attacks. In no attack did it cease till there had been sweat after sweat. After 10 or 12 days of illness, Mullā Khwāja gave me narcissus mixed with wine; I drank it once or twice; even that did no good.

(May 15th) On Sunday the 15th of the first Jumāda[1461] Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī came from Khwāst, bringing a saddled horse as an offering and also taṣadduq money.[1462] Muḥ. Sharīf the astrologer and the Mīr-zādas of Khwāst came with him and waited on me.

(May 16th) Next day, Monday, Mullā Kabīr came from Kāshghar; he had gone round by Kāshghar on his way from Andijān to Kābul.

(May 23rd) On Monday the 23rd of the month, Malik Shāh Manṣūr Yūsuf-zāī arrived from Sawād with 6 or 7 Yūsuf-zāī chiefs, and did obeisance.

(May 31st) On Monday the 1st of the second Jumāda, the chiefs of the Yūsuf-zāī Afghāns led by Malik Shāh Manṣūr were dressed in robes of honour (khil`at). To Malik Shāh Manṣūr was given a long silk coat and an under-coat (? jība) with its buttons; to one of the other chiefs was given a coat with silk sleeves, and to six others silk coats. To all leave to go was granted. Agreement was made with them that they were not [Sidenote: Fol. 236b.] to reckon as in the country of Sawād what was above Abuha (?), that they should make all the peasants belonging to it go out from amongst themselves, and also that the Afghān cultivators of Bajaur and Sawād should cast into the revenue 6000 ass-loads of rice.

(June 2nd) On Wednesday the 3rd, I drank jul-āb.[1463]

(June 5th) On Saturday the 6th, I drank a working-draught (dārū-i-kār).

(June 7th) On Monday the 8th, arrived the wedding-gift for the marriage of Qāsim Beg's youngest son Ḥamza with Khalīfa's eldest daughter. It was of 1000 shāhrukhī; they offered also a saddled horse.

(June 8th) On Tuesday Shāh Beg's Shāh Ḥasan asked for permission to go away for a wine-party. He carried off to his house Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī and some of the household-begs. In my presence were Yūnas-i-`alī and Gadāī T̤aghāī. I was still abstaining from wine. Said I, "Not at all in this way is it (hech andāq būlmāī dūr) that I will sit sober and the party drink wine, I stay sane, full of water, and that set (būlāk) of people get drunk; come you and drink in my presence! I will amuse myself a little by watching what intercourse between the sober and the drunk is like."[1464] The party was held in a smallish tent in which I sometimes sat, in the Plane-tree garden south-east of the Picture-hall. Later on Ghiyāṣ the house-buffoon (kīdī) arrived; several times for fun he was ordered kept out, but at last he made a great disturbance and his buffooneries found him a way in. We invited Tardī Muḥammad Qībchāq also and Mullā kitāb-dār (librarian). The following quatrain, written impromptu, was sent to Shāh Ḥasan and those gathered in his [Sidenote: Fol. 237.] house:—

In your beautiful flower-bed of banquetting friends, Our fashion it is not to be; If there be ease (ḥuzūr) in that gathering of yours, Thank God! there is here no un-ease [bī ḥuzūr].[1465]

It was sent by Ibrāhīm chuhra. Between the two Prayers (i.e. afternoon) the party broke up drunk.

I used to go about in a litter while I was ill. The wine-mixture was drunk on several of the earlier days, then, as it did no good I left it off, but I drank it again at the end of my convalescence, at a party had under an apple-tree on the south-west side of the Tālār-garden.

(June 11th) On Friday the 12th came Aḥmad Beg and Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī who had been left to help in Bajaur.

(June 16th) On Wednesday the 17th of the month, Tīngrī-bīrdī and other braves gave a party in Ḥaidar Tāqi's garden; I also went and there drank. We rose from it at the Bed-time Prayer when a move was made to the great tent where again there was drinking.

(June 23rd) On Thursday the 25th of the month, Mullā Maḥmūd was appointed to read extracts from the Qorān[1466] in my presence.

(June 28th) On Tuesday the last day of the month, Abū'l-muslim Kūkūldāsh arrived as envoy from Shāh Shujā` Arghūn bringing a tīpūchāq. After bargain made about swimming the reservoir in the Plane-tree garden, Yūsuf-i-`alī the stirrup-holder swam round it today 100 times and received a gift of a head-to-foot (dress), a saddled horse and some money.

(July 6th) On Wednesday the 8th of Rajab, I went to Shāh Ḥasan's house and drank there; most of the household and of [Sidenote: Fol. 237b.] the begs were present.

(July 9th) On Saturday the 11th, there was drinking on the terrace-roof of the pigeon-house between the Afternoon and Evening Prayers. Rather late a few horsemen were observed, going from Dih-i-afghān towards the town. It was made out to be Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān, on his way to me as the envoy of Mīrzā Khān (Wais). We shouted to him from the roof, "Drop the envoy's forms and ceremonies! Come! come without formality!" He came and sat down in the company. He was then obedient and did not drink. Drinking went on till the end of the evening. Next day he came into the Court Session with due form and ceremony, and presented Mīrzā Khān's gifts.

(y. Various incidents.)

Last year[1467] with 100 efforts, much promise and threats, we had got the clans to march into Kābul from the other side (of Hindū-kush). Kābul is a confined country, not easily giving summer and winter quarters to the various flocks and herds of the Turks and (Mughūl?) clans. If the dwellers in the wilds follow their own hearts, they do not wish for Kābul! They now waited (khidmat qīlīb) on Qāsim Beg and made him their mediator with me for permission to re-cross to that other side. He tried very hard, so in the end, they were allowed to cross over to the Qūndūz and Bāghlān side.

Ḥāfiẕ the news-writer's elder brother had come from Samarkand; when I now gave him leave to return, I sent my Dīwān by him to Pūlād Sulṯān.[1468] On the back of it I wrote the following [Sidenote: Fol. 238.] verse:—

O breeze! if thou enter that cypress' chamber (ḥarīm) Remind her of me, my heart reft by absence; She yearns not for Bābur; he fosters a hope That her heart of steel God one day may melt.[1469]

(July 15th) On Friday the 17th of the month, Shaikh Mazīd Kūkūldāsh waited on me from Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, bringing taṣadduq tribute and a horse.[1470] Today Shāh Beg's envoy Abū'l-muslim Kūkūldāsh was robed in an honorary dress and given leave to go. Today also leave was given for their own districts of Khwāst and Andar-āb to Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī and Tīngrī-bīrdī.

(July 21st) On Thursday the 23rd came Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang who had been left in charge of the countries near Kacha-kot and the Qārlūq. With him came one of Hātī's people and Mīrzā-i-malū-i-qārlūq's son Shāh Ḥasan. Today Mullā `Alī-jān waited on me, returned from fetching his wife from Samarkand.

(z. The `Abdu'r-raḥman Afghāns and Rustam-maidān.)

(July 27th) The `Abdu'r-raḥman Afghāns on the Gīrdīz border were satisfactory neither in their tribute nor their behaviour; they were hurtful also to the caravans which came and went. On Wednesday the 29th of Rajab we rode out to over-run them. We dismounted and ate food near Tang-i-waghchān,[1471] and rode on again at the Mid-day Prayer. In the night we lost the road and got much bewildered in the ups and downs of the land to the south-east of Pātakh-i-āb-i-shakna.[1472] After a time we lit on [Sidenote: Fol. 238b.] a road and by it crossed the Chashma-i-tūra[1473] pass.

(July 28th) At the first prayer (farẓ-waqt) we got out from the valley-bottom adjacent[1474] to the level land, and the raid was allowed. One detachment galloped towards the Kar-māsh[1475] mountain, south-east of Gīrdīz, the left-hand of the centre led by Khusrau, Mīrzā Qulī and Sayyid `Alī in their rear. Most of the army galloped up the dale to the east of Gīrdīz, having in their rear men under Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate, Mīr Shāh Qūchīn, Qayyām (Aūrdū-shāh Beg?), Hindū Beg, Qūtlūq-qadam and Ḥusain [Ḥasan?]. Most of the army having gone up the dale, I followed at some distance. The dalesmen must have been a good way up; those who went after them wore their horses out and nothing to make up for this fell into their hands.

Some Afghāns on foot, some 40 or 50 of them, having appeared on the plain, the rear-reserve went towards them. A courier was sent to me and I hastened on at once. Before I got up with them, Ḥusain Ḥāsan, all alone, foolishly and thoughtlessly, put his horse at those Afghāns, got in amongst them and began to lay on with his sword. They shot his horse, thus made him fall, slashed at him as he was getting up, flung him down, knifed him from all sides and cut him to pieces, while the other braves looked on, standing still and reaching him no helping hand! On hearing news of it, I hurried still faster forward, and sent some of the household and braves galloping loose-rein ahead [Sidenote: Fol. 239.] under Gadāī T̤aghāī, Payānda-i-muḥammad Qīplān, Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer and Mūmin Ātāka. Mūmin Ātāka was the first of them to bring an Afghān down; he speared one, cut off his head and brought it in. Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer, without mail as he was, went admirably forward, stopped in front of the Afghāns, laid his horse at them, chopped at one, got him down, cut off and brought in his head. Known though both were for bravelike deeds done earlier, their action in this affair added to their fame. Every one of those 40 or 50 Afghāns, falling to the arrow, falling to the sword, was cut in pieces. After making a clean sweep of them, we dismounted in a field of growing corn and ordered a tower of their heads to be set up. As we went along the road I said, with anger and scorn, to the begs who had been with Ḥusain, "You! what men! there you stood on quite flat ground, and looked on while a few Afghāns on foot overcame such a brave in the way they did! Your rank and station must be taken from you; you must lose pargana and country; your beards must be shaved off and you must be exhibited in towns; for there shall be punishment assuredly for him who looks on while such a brave is beaten by such a foe [Sidenote: Fol. 239b.] on dead-level land, and reaches out no hand to help!" The troop which went to Kar-māsh brought back sheep and other spoil. One of them was Bābā Qashqa[1476] Mughūl; an Afghān had made at him with a sword; he had stood still to adjust an arrow, shot it off and brought his man down.

(July 29th) Next day at dawn we marched for Kābul. Pay-aster Muḥammad, `Abdu'l-`azīz Master of the Horse, and Mīr Khūrd the taster were ordered to stop at Chashma-tūra, and get pheasants from the people there.

As I had never been along the Rustam-maidān road,[1477] I went with a few men to see it. Rustam-plain (maidān) lies amongst mountains and towards their head is not a very charming place. The dale spreads rather broad between its two ranges. To the south, on the skirt of the rising-ground is a smallish spring, having very large poplars near it. There are many trees also, but not so large, at the source on the way out of Rustam-maidān for Gīrdīz. This is a narrower dale, but still there is a plot of green meadow below the smaller trees mentioned, and the little dale is charming. From the summit of the range, looking south, the Karmāsh and Bangash mountains are seen at one's feet; and beyond the Karmāsh show pile upon pile of the rain-clouds of Hindūstān. Towards those other lands where no rain falls, not [Sidenote: Fol. 240.] a cloud is seen.

We reached Hūnī at the Mid-day Prayer and there dismounted.

(July 30th) Dismounting next day at Muḥammad Āghā's village,[1478] we perpetrated (irtqāb) a ma'jūn. There we had a drug thrown into water for the fish; a few were taken.[1479]

(July 31st) On Sunday the 3rd of Sha`bān, we reached Kābul.

(August 2nd) On Tuesday the 5th of the month, Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Faẓlī and Khusrau's servants were summoned and, after enquiry made into what short-comings of theirs there may have been when Ḥusain was overcome, they were deprived of place and rank. At the Mid-day Prayer there was a wine-party under a plane-tree, at which an honorary dress was given to Bābā Qashqa Mughūl.

(August 5th) On Friday the 8th Kīpa returned from the presence of Mīrzā Khān.

(aa. Excursion to the Koh-dāman.)

(August 11th) On Thursday at the Other Prayer, I mounted for an excursion to the Koh-dāman, Bārān and Khwāja Sih-yārān.[1480] At the Bed-time Prayer, we dismounted at Māmā Khātūn.[1481]

(August 12th) Next day we dismounted at Istālīf; a confection was eaten on that day.

(August 13th) On Saturday there was a wine-party at Istālīf.

(August 14th) Riding at dawn from Istālīf, we crossed the space between it and the Sinjid-valley. Near Khwāja Sih-yārān a great snake was killed as thick, it may be, as the fore-arm and as long as a qūlāch.[1482] From its inside came out a slenderer snake, that seemed to have been just swallowed, every part of it being [Sidenote: Fol. 240b.] whole; it may have been a little shorter than the larger one. From inside this slenderer snake came out a little mouse; it too was whole, broken nowhere.[1483]

On reaching Khwāja Sih-yārān there was a wine-party. Today orders were written and despatched by Kīch-kīna the night-watch (tūnqṯār) to the begs on that side (i.e. north of Hindū-kush), giving them a rendezvous and saying, "An army is being got to horse, take thought, and come to the rendezvous fixed."

(August 15th) We rode out at dawn and ate a confection. At the infall of the Parwān-water many fish were taken in the local way of casting a fish-drug into the water.[1484] Mīr Shāh Beg set food and water (āsh u āb) before us; we then rode on to Gul-bahār. At a wine-party held after the Evening Prayer, Darwīsh-i-muḥammad (Sārbān) was present. Though a young man and a soldier, he had not yet committed the sin (irtqāb) of wine, but was in obedience (tā'ib). Qūtlūq Khwāja Kūkūldāsh had long before abandoned soldiering to become a darwīsh; moreover he was very old, his very beard was quite white; nevertheless he took his share of wine at these parties. Said I to Darwīsh-i-muḥammad, "Qūtlūq Khwāja's beard shames you! He, a darwīsh and an old man, always drinks wine; you, a soldier, a young man, your beard quite black, never drink! What does it mean?" My custom being not to press wine on a non-drinker, with so much said, it all passed off as a joke; he was not pressed to drink.

(August 16th) At dawn we made our morning (ṣubāḥī ṣubūḥī qīldūk).

(August 17th) Riding on Wednesday from Gul-i-bahār, we [Sidenote: Fol. 241.] dismounted in Abūn-village[1485], ate food, remounted, went to a summer-house in the orchards (bāghāt-i-kham) and there dismounted. There was a wine-party after the Mid-day Prayer.

(August 18th) Riding on next day, we made the circuit of Khwāja Khāwand Sa`īd's tomb, went to China-fort and there got on a raft. Just where the Panjhīr-water comes in, the raft struck the naze of a hill and began to sink. Rauḥ-dam, Tīngrī-qulī and Mīr Muḥammad the raftsman were thrown into the water by the shock; Rauḥ-dam and Tīngrī-qulī were got on the raft again; a China cup and a spoon and a ṯambour went into the water. Lower down, the raft struck again opposite the Sang-i-barīda (the cut-stone), either on a branch in mid-stream or on a stake stuck in as a stop-water (qāqghān qāzūq). Right over on his back went Shāh Beg's Shāh Ḥasan, clutching at Mīrzā Qulī Kūkūldāsh and making him fall too. Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān was also thrown into the water. Mīrzā Qulī went over in his own fashion! Just when he fell, he was cutting a melon which he had in his hand; as he went over, he stuck his knife into the mat of the raft. He swam in his tūn aūfrāghī[1486] and got out of the water without coming on the raft again. Leaving it that night, we slept at raftsmen's houses. Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān presented me with a seven-coloured cup exactly like the one lost in the water.

(August 19th) On Friday we rode away from the river's bank and dismounted below Aīndīkī on the skirt of Koh-i-bacha where, with our own hands, we gathered plenty of tooth-picks.[1487] [Sidenote: Fol. 241b.] Passing on, food was eaten at the houses of the Khwāja Khiẓr people. We rode on and at the Mid-day Prayer, dismounted in a village of Qūtlūq Khwāja's fief in Lamghān where he made ready a hasty meal (mā ḥaẓirī); after partaking of this, we mounted and went to Kābul.

(bb. Various incidents.)

(August 22nd) On Monday the 25th, a special honorary dress and a saddled horse were bestowed on Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān and he was made to kneel as a retainer (naukar).

(August 24th) For 4 or 5 months I had not had my head shaved; on Wednesday the 27th, I had it done. Today there was a wine-party.

(August 26th) On Friday the 29th, Mīr Khūrd was made to kneel as Hind-āl's guardian.[1488] He made an offering of 1000 shāhrukhīs (circa £50).

(August 31st) On Wednesday the 5th of Ramẓān, a dutiful letter was brought by Tūlik Kūkūldāsh's servant Barlās Jūkī(?). Aūzbeg raiders had gone into those parts (Badakhshān); Tūlik had gone out, fought and beaten them. Barlās Jūkī brought one live Aūzbeg and one head.

(Sep. 2nd) In the night of Saturday the 8th, we broke our fast[1489] in Qāsim Beg's house; he led out a saddled horse for me.

(Sep. 3rd) On Sunday night the fast was broken in Khalīfa's house; he offered me a saddled horse.

(Sep. 4th) Next day came Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī and Jān-i-nāṣir who had been summoned from their districts for the good of the army.[1490]

(Sep. 7th) On Wednesday the 12th, Kāmrān's maternal uncle [Sidenote: Fol. 242.] Sl. `Alī Mīrzā arrived.[1491] As has been mentioned,[1492] he had gone to Kāshghar in the year I came from Khwāst into Kābul.

(cc. A Yūsuf-zāī campaign.)

(Sep. 8th) We rode out on Thursday the 13th of the month of Ramẓān, resolved and determined to check and ward off the Yūsuf-zāī, and we dismounted in the meadow on the Dih-i-yaq`ūb side of Kābul. When we were mounting, the equerry Bābā Jān led forward a rather good-for-nothing horse; in my anger I struck him in the face a blow which dislocated my fist below the ring-finger.[1493] The pain was not much at the time, but was rather bad when we reached our encampment-ground. For some time I suffered a good deal and could not write. It got well at last.

To this same assembly-ground were brought letters and presents (bīlāk) from my maternal-aunt Daulat-sulṯān Khānīm[1494] in Kāshghar, by her foster-brother Daulat-i-muḥammad. On the same day Bū Khān and Mūsa, chiefs of the Dilazāk, came, bringing tribute, and did obeisance.

(Sep. 11th) On Sunday the 16th Qūj Beg came.

(Sep. 14th) Marching on Wednesday the 19th we passed through Būt-khāk and, as usual, dismounted on the Būt-khāk water.[1495]

As Qūj Beg's districts, Bāmīān, Kāh-mard and Ghūrī, are close to the Aūzbeg, he was excused from going with this army and given leave to return to them from this ground. I bestowed on him a turban twisted for myself, and also a head-to-foot (bāsh-ayāq).

(Sep. 16th) On Friday the 21st, we dismounted at Badām-chashma. [Sidenote: Fol. 242b.]

(Sep. 17th) Next day we dismounted on the Bārīk-āb, I reaching the camp after a visit to Qarā-tū. On this ground honey was obtained from a tree.

(Sep. 20th) We went on march by march till Wednesday the 26th, and dismounted in the Bāgh-i-wafā.

(Sep. 21st) Thursday we just stayed in the garden.

(Sep. 22nd) On Friday we marched out and dismounted beyond Sulṯānpūr. Today Shāh Mīr Ḥusain came from his country. Today came also Dilazāk chiefs under Bū Khān and Mūsa. My plan had been to put down the Yūsuf-zāī in Sawād, but these chiefs set forth to me that there was a large horde (aūlūs) in Hash-naghar and that much corn was to be had there. They were very urgent for us to go to Hash-naghar. After consultation the matter was left in this way:—As it is said there is much corn in Hash-naghar, the Afghāns there shall be overrun; the forts of Hash-naghar and Parashāwar shall be put into order; part of the corn shall be stored in them and they be left in charge of Shāh Mīr Ḥusain and a body of braves. To suit Shāh Mīr Ḥusain's convenience in this, he was given 15 days leave, with a rendezvous named for him to come to after going to his country and preparing his equipment.

(Sep. 23rd) Marching on next day, we reached Jūī-shāhī and there dismounted. On this ground Tīngrī-bīrdī and Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī overtook us. Today came also Ḥamza from Qūndūz.[1496]

(Sep. 25th) On Sunday the last day of the month (Ramẓān), we marched from Jūī-shāhī and dismounted at Qīrīq-arīq (forty-conduits), [Sidenote: Fol. 243.] I going by raft, with a special few. The new moon of the Feast was seen at that station.[1497] People had brought a few beast-loads of wine from Nūr-valley;[1498] after the Evening Prayer there was a wine-party, those present being Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer, Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī the librarian, Shāh Beg's Shāh Ḥasan, Sl. Muḥ. Dūldāī and Darwīsh-i-muḥ. Sārbān, then obedient (tā'ib). From my childhood up it had been my rule not to press wine on a non-drinker; Darwīsh-i-muḥammad was at every party and no pressure was put on him (by me), but Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī left him no choice; he pressed him and pressed him till he made him drink.

(Sep. 26th) On Monday we marched with the dawn of the Feast-day,[1499] eating a confection on the road to dispel crop-sickness. While under its composing influence (nāklīk), we were brought a colocynth-apple (khunṯul). Darwīsh-i-muḥammad had never seen one; said I, "It is a melon of Hindūstān," sliced it and gave him a piece. He bit into it at once; it was night before the bitter taste went out of his mouth. At Garm-chashma we dismounted on rising-ground where cold meat was being set out for us when Langar Khān arrived to wait on me after being for a time at his own place (Koh-i-jūd). He brought an offering of a horse and a few confections. Passing on, we dismounted at Yada-bīr, at the Other Prayer got on a raft there, went for as much as two miles on it, then left it.

(Sep. 27th) Riding on next morning, we dismounted below the Khaibar-pass. Today arrived Sl. Bāyazīd, come up by the [Sidenote: Fol. 243b.] Bāra-road after hearing of us; he set forth that the Afrīdī Afghāns were seated in Bāra with their goods and families and that they had grown a mass of corn which was still standing (lit. on foot). Our plan being for the Yūsuf-zāī Afghāns of Hash-naghar, we paid him no attention. At the Mid-day Prayer there was a wine-party in Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī's tent. During the party details about our coming in this direction were written and sent off by the hand of a sulṯān of Tīrah to Khwāja Kalān in Bajaur. I wrote this couplet on the margin of the letter (farmān):—

Say sweetly o breeze, to that beautiful fawn, Thou hast given my head to the hills and the wild.[1500]

(Sep. 28th) Marching on at dawn across the pass, we got through the Khaibar-narrows and dismounted at `Alī-masjid. At the Mid-day Prayer we rode on, leaving the baggage behind, reached the Kābul-water at the second watch (midnight) and there slept awhile.

(Sep. 29th) A ford[1501] was found at daylight; we had forded the water (sū-dīn kīchīldī), when news came from our scout that the Afghāns had heard of us and were in flight. We went on, passed through the Sawād-water and dismounted amongst the Afghān corn-fields. Not a half, not a fourth indeed of the promised corn was had. The plan of fitting-up Hash-naghar, made under the hope of getting corn here, came to nothing. [Sidenote: Fol. 244.] The Dilazāk Afghāns, who had urged it on us, were ashamed. We next dismounted after fording the water of Sawād to its Kābul side.

(Sep. 30th) Marching next morning from the Sawād-water, we crossed the Kābul-water and dismounted. The Begs admitted to counsel were summoned and a consultation having been had, the matter was left at this:—that the Afrīdī Afghāns spoken of by Sl. Bāyazīd should be over-run, Pūrshāwūr-fort be fitted up on the strength of their goods and corn, and some-one left there in charge.

At this station Hindū Beg Qūchīn and the Mīr-zādas of Khwāst overtook us. Today ma'jūn was eaten, the party being Darwesh-i-muḥammad Sārbān, Muḥammad Kūkūldāsh, Gadāī T̤aghāī and `Asas; later on we invited Shāh Ḥasan also. After food had been placed before us, we went on a raft, at the Other Prayer. We called Langar Khān Nīa-zāī on also. At the Evening Prayer we got off the raft and went to camp.

(Oct. 1st) Marching at dawn, in accordance with the arrangement made on the Kābul-water, we passed Jām and dismounted at the outfall of the `Alī-masjid water.[1502]

(dd. Badakhshān affairs.)

Sl. `Alī (T̤aghāī's servant ?) Abū'l-hāshim overtaking us, said, "On the night of `Arafa,[1503] I was in Jūī-shāhī with a person from Badakhshān; he told me that Sl. Sa`īd Khān had come with designs on Badakhshān, so I came on from Jūī-shāhī along the Jām-rūd, to give the news to the Pādshāh." On this the begs were summoned and advice was taken. In consequence of this [Sidenote: Fol. 244b.] news, it seemed inadvisable to victual the fort (Pūrshāwūr), and we started back intending to go to Badakhshān.[1504] Langar Khān was appointed to help Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang; he was given an honorary dress and allowed to go.

That night a wine-party was held in Khwāja Muḥ. `Alī's tent. We marched on next day, crossed Khaibar and dismounted below the pass.

(ee. The Khiẓr-khail Afghāns.)

(Oct. 3rd) Many improper things the Khiẓr-khail had done! When the army went to and fro, they used to shoot at the laggards and at those dismounted apart, in order to get their horses. It seemed lawful therefore and right to punish them. With this plan we marched from below the pass at daybreak, ate our mid-day meal in Dih-i-ghulāmān (Basaul),[1505] and after feeding our horses, rode on again at the Mid-day Prayer.

Muḥ Ḥusain the armourer was made to gallop off to Kābul with orders to keep prisoner all Khiẓr-khailīs there, and to submit to me an account of their possessions; also, to write a detailed account of whatever news there was from Badakhshān and to send a man off with it quickly from Kābul to me.

That night we moved on till the second watch (midnight), got a little beyond Sulṯānpūr, there slept awhile, then rode on again. The Khiẓr-khail were understood to have their seat from Bahār (Vihāra?) and Mīch-grām to Karā-sū (sic). Arriving before dawn, (Oct. 4th) the raid was allowed. Most of the goods of the Khiẓr-khailīs and their small children fell into the army's hands; a few tribesmen, being near the mountains, drew off to [Sidenote: Fol. 245.] them and were left.

(Oct. 5th) We dismounted next day at Qīlaghū where pheasants were taken on our ground. Today the baggage came up from the rear and was unloaded here. Owing to this punitive raid, the Wazīrī Afghāns who never had given in their tribute well, brought 300 sheep.

(Oct. 9th) I had written nothing since my hand was dislocated; here I wrote a little, on Sunday the 14th of the month.[1506]

(Oct. 10th) Next day came Afghān chiefs leading the Khirilchī [and] Samū-khail. The Dilazāk Afghāns entreated pardon for them; we gave it and set the captured free, fixed their tribute at 4000 sheep, gave coats (tūn) to their chiefs, appointed and sent out collectors.

(Oct. 13th) These matters settled, we marched on Thursday the 18th, and dismounted at Bahār (Vihāra?) and Mīch-grām.

(Oct. 14th) Next day I went to the Bāgh-i-wafā. Those were the days of the garden's beauty; its lawns were one sheet of trefoil; its pomegranate-trees yellowed to autumn splendour,[1507] their fruit full red; fruit on the orange-trees green and glad (khurram), countless oranges but not yet as yellow as our hearts desired! The pomegranates were excellent, not equal, however, to the best ones of Wilāyat.[1508] The one excellent and blessed content we have had from the Bāgh-i-wafā was had at this time. [Sidenote: Fol. 245b.] We were there three or four days; during the time the whole camp had pomegranates in abundance.

(Oct. 17th) We marched from the garden on Monday. I stayed in it till the first watch (9 a.m.) and gave away oranges; I bestowed the fruit of two trees on Shāh Ḥasan; to several begs I gave the fruit of one tree each; to some gave one tree for two persons. As we were thinking of visiting Lamghān in the winter, I ordered that they should reserve (qūrūghlāīlār) at least 20 of the trees growing round the reservoir. That day we dismounted at Gandamak.

(Oct. 18th) Next day we dismounted at Jagdālīk. Near the Evening Prayer there was a wine-party at which most of the household were present. After a time Qāsim Beg's sister's son Gadāī bihjat[1509] used very disturbing words and, being drunk, slid down on the cushion by my side, so Gadāī T̤aghāī picked him up and carried him out from the party.

(Oct. 19th) Marching next day from that ground, I made an excursion up the valley-bottom of the Bārīk-āb towards Qūrūq-sāī. A few purslain trees were in the utmost autumn beauty. On dismounting, seasonable[1510] food was set out. The vintage was the cause! wine was drunk! A sheep was ordered brought from the road and made into kabābs (brochettes). We amused ourselves by setting fire to branches of holm-oak.[1511]

Mullā `Abdu'l-malik dīwāna[1512] having begged to take the news of our coming into Kābul, was sent ahead. To this place came Ḥasan Nabīra from Mīrzā Khān's presence; he must have come after letting me know [his intention of coming].[1513] There was [Sidenote: Fol. 246.] drinking till the Sun's decline; we then rode off. People in our party had become very drunk, Sayyid Qāsim so much so, that two of his servants mounted him and got him into camp with difficulty. Muḥ. Bāqir's Dost was so drunk that people, headed by Amīn-i-muḥammad Tarkhān and Mastī chuhra, could not get him on his horse; even when they poured water on his head, nothing was effected. At that moment a body of Afghāns appeared. Amīn-i-muḥammad, who had had enough himself, had this idea, "Rather than leave him here, as he is, to be taken, let us cut his head off and carry it with us." At last after 100 efforts, they mounted him and brought him with them. We reached Kābul at midnight.

(ff. Incidents in Kābul.)

In Court next morning Qulī Beg waited on me. He had been to Sl. Sa'īd Khān's presence in Kāshghar as my envoy. To him as envoy to me had been added Bīshka Mīrzā Itārchī[1514] who brought me gifts of the goods of that country.

(Oct. 25th) On Wednesday the 1st of Ẕū'l-qa`da, I went by myself to Qābil's tomb[1515] and there took my morning. The people of the party came later by ones and twos. When the Sun waxed hot, we went to the Violet-garden and drank there, by the side of the reservoir. Mid-day coming on, we slept. At the Mid-day Prayer we drank again. At this mid-day party I gave wine to Tīngrī-qulī Beg and to Mahndī (?) to whom at any earlier party, wine had not been given. At the Bed-time [Sidenote: Fol. 246b.] Prayer, I went to the Hot-bath where I stayed the night.

(Oct. 26th) On Thursday honorary dresses were bestowed on the Hindūstānī traders, headed by Yaḥya Nūḥānī, and they were allowed to go.

(Oct. 28th) On Saturday the 4th, a dress and gifts were bestowed on Bīshka Mīrzā, who had come from Kāshghar, and he was given leave to go.

(Oct. 29th) On Sunday there was a party in the little Picture-hall over the (Chār-bāgh) gate; small retreat though it is, 16 persons were present.

(gg. Excursion to the Koh-dāman.)

(Oct. 30th) Today we went to Istālīf to see the harvest (khizān). Today was done the sin (? irtikāb qīlīb aīdī) of ma'jūn. Much rain fell; most of the begs and the household came into my tent, outside the Bāgh-i-kalān.

(Oct. 31st) Next day there was a wine-party in the same garden, lasting till night.

(November 1st) At dawn we took our morning (ṣubāḥī ṣubūḥī qīldūk) and got drunk, took a sleep, and at the Mid-day Prayer rode from Istālīf. On the road a confection was eaten. We reached Bih-zādī at the Other Prayer. The harvest-crops were very beautiful; while we were viewing them those disposed for wine began to agitate about it. The harvest-colour was extremely beautiful; wine was drunk, though ma'jūn had been eaten, sitting under autumnal trees. The party lasted till the Bed-time Prayer. Khalīfa's Mullā Maḥmūd arriving, we had him summoned to join the party. `Abdu'l-lāh was very drunk [Sidenote: Fol. 247.] indeed; a word affecting Khalīfa (ṯarfidīn) being said, `Abdu'l-lāh forgot Mullā Maḥmūd and recited this line:—

Regard whom thou wilt, he suffers from the same wound.[1516]

Mullā Maḥmūd was sober; he blamed `Abdu'l-lāh for repeating that line in jest; `Abdu'l-lāh came to his senses, was troubled in mind, and after this talked and chatted very sweetly.

Our excursion to view the harvest was over; we dismounted, close to the Evening Prayer, in the Chār-bāgh.

(Nov. 12th) On Friday the 16th, after eating a confection

with a few special people in the Violet-garden, we went on a boat. Humāyūn and Kāmrān were with us later; Humāyūn made a very good shot at a duck.

(hh. A Bohemian episode.)

(Nov. 14th) On Saturday the 18th, I rode out of the Chār-bāgh at midnight, sent night-watch and groom back, crossed Mullā Bābā's bridge, got out by the Dīūrīn-narrows, round by the bāzārs and kārez of Qūsh-nādur (var.), along the back of the Bear-house (khirs-khāna), and near sunrise reached Tardī Beg Khāk-sār's[1517] kārez. He ran out quickly on hearing of me. His shortness (qālāshlīghī) was known; I had taken 100 shāhrukhīs (£5) with me; I gave him these and told him to get wine and other things ready as I had a fancy for a private and unrestrained party. He went for wine towards Bih-zādī[1518]; I sent my horse by his slave to the valley-bottom and sat down on the slope behind the kārez. At the first watch (9 a.m.) Tardī Beg brought [Sidenote: Fol. 247b.] a pitcher of wine which we drank by turns. After him came Muḥammad-i-qāsim Barlās and Shāh-zāda who had got to know of his fetching the wine, and had followed him, their minds quite empty of any thought about me. We invited them to the party. Said Tardī Beg, "Hul-hul Anīga wishes to drink wine with you." Said I, "For my part, I never saw a woman drink wine; invite her." We also invited Shāhī a qalandar, and one of the kārez-men who played the rebeck. There was drinking till the Evening Prayer on the rising-ground behind the kārez; we then went into Tardī Beg's house and drank by lamp-light almost till the Bed-time Prayer. The party was quite free and unpretending. I lay down, the others went to another house and drank there till beat of drum (midnight). Hul-hul Anīga came in and made me much disturbance; I got rid of her at last by flinging myself down as if drunk. It was in my mind to put people off their guard, and ride off alone to Astar-ghach, but it did not come off because they got to know. In the end, I rode away at beat of drum, after letting Tardī Beg and Shāh-zāda know. We three mounted and made for Astar-ghach.

(Nov. 15th) We reached Khwāja Ḥasan below Istālīf by the first prayer (farẓ waqt); dismounted for a while, ate a confection, [Sidenote: Fol. 248.] and went to view the harvest. When the Sun was up, we dismounted at a garden in Istālīf and ate grapes. We slept at Khwāja Shahāb, a dependency of Astar-ghach. Ātā, the Master of the Horse, must have had a house somewhere near, for before we were awake he had brought food and a pitcher of wine. The vintage was very fine. After drinking a few cups, we rode on. We next dismounted in a garden beautiful with autumn; there a party was held at which Khwāja Muḥammad Amīn joined us. Drinking went on till the Bed-time Prayer. During that day and night `Abdu'l-lāh, `Asas, Nūr Beg and Yūsuf-i-`alī all arrived from Kābul.

(Nov. 16th) After food at dawn, we rode out and visited the Bāgh-i-pādshāhī below Astar-ghach. One young apple-tree in it had turned an admirable autumn-colour; on each branch were left 5 or 6 leaves in regular array; it was such that no painter trying to depict it could have equalled. After riding from Astar-ghach we ate at Khwāja Ḥasan, and reached Bih-zādī at the Evening Prayer. There we drank in the house of Khwāja Muḥ. Amīn's servant Imām-i-muḥammad.

(Nov. 17th) Next day, Tuesday, we went into the Chār-bāgh of Kābul.

(Nov. 18th) On Thursday the 23rd, having marched (kūchūb), the fort was entered.

(Nov. 19th) On Friday Muḥammad `Alī (son of ?) Ḥaidar the stirrup-holder brought, as an offering, a tūīgūn[1519] he had caught.

(Nov. 20th) On Saturday the 25th, there was a party in the Plane-tree garden from which I rose and mounted at the Bed-time Prayer. Sayyid Qāsim being in shame at past occurrences,[1520] we dismounted at his house and drank a few cups.

[Sidenote: Fol. 248b.] (Nov. 24th) On Thursday the 1st of Ẕū'l-ḥijja, Tāju'd-dīn Maḥmūd, come from Qandahār, waited on me.

(Dec. 12th) On Monday the 19th, Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang came from Nīl-āb.

(Dec. 13th) On Tuesday the ... of the month, Sangar Khān Janjūha, come from Bhīra, waited on me.

(Dec. 16th) On Friday the 23rd, I finished (copying?) the odes and couplets selected according to their measure from `Alī-sher Beg's four Dīwāns.[1521]

(Dec. 20th) On Tuesday the 27th there was a social-gathering in the citadel, at which it was ordered that if any-one went out from it drunk, that person should not be invited to a party again.

(Dec. 23rd) On Friday the 30th of Ẕū'l-ḥijja it was ridden out with the intention of making an excursion to Lamghān.

926 AH.-DEC. 23RD 1519 TO DEC. 12TH 1520 AD.[1522]

(a. Excursion to the Koh-dāman and Kohistān.)

(Dec. 23rd) On Saturday Muḥarram 1st Khwāja Sih-yārān was reached. A wine-party was had on the bank of the conduit, where this comes out on the hill.[1523]

(Dec. 24th) Riding on next morning (2nd), we visited the moving sands (reg-i-rawān). A party was held in Sayyid Qāsim's Bulbul's house.[1524]

(Dec. 25th) Riding on from there, we ate a confection (ma'jūn), went further and dismounted at Bilkir (?).

(Dec. 26th) At dawn (4th) we made our morning [ṣubāḥī ṣubūḥī qīldūk], although there might be drinking at night. We rode on at the Mid-day Prayer, dismounted at Dūr-nāma[1525] and there had a wine party.

(Dec. 27th) We took our morning early. Ḥaq-dād, the headman of Dūr-namā made me an offering (pesh-kash) of his garden.

(Dec. 28th) Riding thence on Thursday (6th), we dismounted at the villages of the Tājiks in Nijr-aū.

(Dec. 29th) On Friday (7th) we hunted the hill between Forty-ploughs (Chihil-qulba) and the water of Bārān; many deer fell. [Sidenote: Fol. 249.] I had not shot an arrow since my hand was hurt; now, with an easy[1526] bow, I shot a deer in the shoulder, the arrow going in to half up the feather. Returning from hunting, we went on at the Other Prayer in Nijr-aū.

(Dec. 30th) Next day (Saturday 8th) the tribute of the Nijr-aū people was fixed at 60 gold mis̤qāls.[1527]

(Jan. 1st) On Monday (10th) we rode on intending to visit Lamghān.[1528] I had expected Humāyūn to go with us, but as he inclined to stay behind, leave was given him from Kūra-pass. We went on and dismounted in Badr-aū (Tag-aū).

(b. Excursions in Lamghān.)

(Jan. ...) Riding on, we dismounted at Aūlūgh-nūr.[1529] The fishermen there took fish at one draught[1530] from the water of Bārān. At the Other Prayer (afternoon) there was drinking on the raft; and there was drinking in a tent after we left the raft at the Evening Prayer.

Ḥaidar the standard-bearer had been sent from Dāwar[1531] to the Kāfirs; several Kāfir headmen came now to the foot of Bād-i-pīch (pass), brought a few goat-skins of wine, and did obeisance. In descending that pass a surprising number of ...[1532] was seen.

(Jan. ...) Next day getting on a raft, we ate a confection, got off below Būlān and went to camp. There were two rafts.

(Jan. 5th) Marching on Friday (14th), we dismounted below Mandrāwar on the hill-skirt. There was a late wine-party.

(Jan. 6th) On Saturday (15th), we passed through the Darūta narrows by raft, got off a little above Jahān-namā'ī (Jalālābād) and went to the Bāgh-i-wafā in front of Adīnapūr. When we were leaving the raft the governor of Nīngnahār Qayyām Aūrdū Shāh came and did obeisance. Langar Khān Nīā-zāī,—he had [Sidenote: Fol. 249b.] been in Nīl-āb for a time,—waited upon me on the road. We dismounted in the Bāgh-i-wafā; its oranges had yellowed beautifully; its spring-bloom was well-advanced, and it was very charming. We stayed in it five or six days.

As it was my wish and inclination (jū dagh-dagha)to return to obedience (tā'ib) in my 40th year, I was drinking to excess now that less than a year was left.

(Jan. 7th) On Sunday the 16th, having made my morning (ṣubūḥī) and became sober. Mullā Yārak played an air he had composed in five-time and in the five-line measure (makhammas), while I chose to eat a confection (ma'jūn). He had composed an excellent air. I had not occupied myself with such things for some time; a wish to compose came over me now, so I composed an air in four-time, as will be mentioned in time.[1533]

(Jan. 10th) On Wednesday (19th) it was said for fun, while we were making our morning (ṣubūḥī), "Let whoever speaks like a Sārt (i.e. in Persian) drink a cup." Through this many drank. At sunnat-waqt[1534] again, when we were sitting under the willows in the middle of the meadow, it was said, "Let whoever speaks like a Turk, drink a cup!" Through this also numbers drank. After the sun got up, we drank under the orange-trees on the reservoir-bank.

(Jan. 11th) Next day (20th) we got on a raft from Darūta; got off again below Jūī-shāhī and went to Atar.

(Jan....) We rode from there to visit Nūr-valley, went as far as Sūsān (lily)-village, then turned back and dismounted in Amla.

[Sidenote: Fol. 250.] (Jan. 14th) As Khwāja Kalān had brought Bajaur into good order, and as he was a friend of mine, I had sent for him and had made Bajaur over to Shāh Mīr Ḥusain's charge. On Saturday the 22nd of the month (Muḥarram), Shāh Mīr Ḥusain was given leave to go. That day in Amla we drank.

(Jan. 15th) It rained (yāmghūr yāghdūrūb) next day (23rd).

When we reached Kula-grām in Kūnār[1535] where Malik `Alī's house is, we dismounted at his middle son's house, overlooking an orange-orchard. We did not go into the orchard because of the rain but just drank where we were. The rain was very heavy. I taught Mullā `Alī Khān a ṯalisman I knew; he wrote it on four pieces of paper and hung them on four sides; as he did it, the rain stopped and the air began to clear.

(Jan. 16th) At dawn (24th) we got on a raft; on another several braves went. People in Bajaur, Sawād, Kūnār and thereabouts make a beer (bīr būza)[1536] the ferment of which is a thing they call kīm.[1537] This kīm they make of the roots of herbs and several simples, shaped like a loaf, dried and kept by them. Some sorts of beer are surprisingly exhilarating, but bitter and distasteful. We had thought of drinking beer but, because of its bitter taste, preferred a confection. `Asas, Ḥasan Aīkirik,[1538] and Mastī, on the other raft, were ordered to drink some; they did so and became quite drunk. Ḥasan Aīkirik set up a disgusting disturbance; `Asas, very drunk, did such [Sidenote: Fol. 250b.] unpleasant things that we were most uncomfortable (ba tang). I thought of having them put off on the far side of the water, but some of the others begged them off.

I had sent for Khwāja Kalān at this time and had bestowed Bajaur on Shāh Mīr Ḥusain. For why? Khwāja Kalān was a friend; his stay in Bajaur had been long; moreover the Bajaur appointment appeared an easy one.

At the ford of the Kūnār-water Shāh Mīr Ḥusain met me on his way to Bajaur. I sent for him and said a few trenchant words, gave him some special armour, and let him go.

Opposite Nūr-gal (Rock-village) an old man begged from those on the rafts; every-one gave him something, coat (tūn), turban, bathing-cloth and so on, so he took a good deal away.

At a bad place in mid-stream the raft struck with a great shock; there was much alarm; it did not sink but Mīr Muḥammad the raftsman was thrown into the water. We were near Atar that night.

(Jan. 17th) On Tuesday (25th) we reached Mandrāwar.[1539] Qūtlūq-qadam and his father had arranged a party inside the fort; though the place had no charm, a few cups were drunk there to please them. We went to camp at the Other Prayer.

(Jan. 18th) On Wednesday (26th) an excursion was made to Kind-kir[1540] spring. Kind-kir is a dependent village of the Mandrāwar tūmān, the one and only village of the Lamghānāt [Sidenote: Fol. 251.] where dates are grown. It lies rather high on the mountain-skirt, its date lands on its east side. At one edge of the date lands is the spring, in a place aside (yān yīr). Six or seven yards below the spring-head people have heaped up stones to make a shelter[1541] for bathing and by so-doing have raised the water in the reservoir high enough for it to pour over the heads of the bathers. The water is very soft; it is felt a little cold in wintry days but is pleasant if one stays in it.

(Jan. 19th) On Thursday (27th) Sher Khān Tarkalānī got us to dismount at his house and there gave us a feast (ẓiyāfat). Having ridden on at the Mid-day Prayer, fish were taken out of the fish-ponds of which particulars have been given.[1542]

(Jan. 20th) On Friday (28th) we dismounted near Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān's village. A party was held there at the Evening Prayer.

(Jan. 21st) On Saturday (29th) we hunted the hill between `Alī-shang and Alangār. One hunting-circle having been made on the `Alī-shang side, another on the Alangār, the deer were driven down off the hill and many were killed. Returning from hunting, we dismounted in a garden belonging to the Maliks of Alangār and there had a party.

Half of one of my front-teeth had broken off, the other half remaining; this half broke off today while I was eating food.

(Jan. 22nd) At dawn (Ṣafar 1st) we rode out and had a fishing-net cast, at mid-day went into `Alī-shang and drank in a garden.

(Jan. 23rd) Next day (Ṣafar 2nd) Ḥamza Khān, Malik of `Alī-shang was made over to the avengers-of-blood[1543] for his evil deeds in shedding innocent blood, and retaliation was made.

(Jan. 24th) On Tuesday, after reading a chapter of the Qorān [Sidenote: Fol. 251b.] (wird), we turned for Kābul by the Yān-būlāgh road. At the Other Prayer, we passed the [Bārān]-water from Aūlūgh-nūr (Great-rock); reached Qarā-tū by the Evening Prayer, there gave our horses corn and had a hasty meal prepared, rode on again as soon as they had finished their barley.[1544]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE ON 926 TO 932 AH.-1520 TO 1525 AD.

Bābur's diary breaks off here for five years and ten months.[1545] His activities during the unrecorded period may well have left no time in which to keep one up, for in it he went thrice to Qandahār, thrice into India, once to Badakhshān, once to Balkh; twice at least he punished refractory tribesmen; he received embassies from Hindūstān, and must have had much to oversee in muster and equipment for his numerous expeditions. Over and above this, he produced the Mubīn, a Turkī poem of 2000 lines.

That the gap in his autobiography is not intentional several passages in his writings show;[1546] he meant to fill it; there is no evidence that he ever did so; the reasonable explanation of his failure is that he died before he had reached this part of his book.

The events of these unrecorded years are less interesting than those of the preceding gap, inasmuch as their drama of human passion is simpler; it is one mainly of cross-currents of ambition, nothing in it matching the maelstrom of sectarian hate, tribal antipathy, and racial struggle which engulphed Bābur's fortunes beyond the Oxus.

None-the-less the period has its distinctive mark, the biographical one set by his personality as his long-sustained effort works out towards rule in Hindūstān. He becomes felt; his surroundings bend to his purpose; his composite following accepts his goal; he gains the southern key of Kābul and Hindūstān and presses the Arghūns out from his rear; in the Panj-āb he becomes a power; the Rājpūt Rānā of Chitor proffers him alliance against Ibrāhīm; and his intervention is sought in those warrings of the Afghāns which were the matrix of his own success.

a. Dramatis personae.

The following men played principal parts in the events of the unchronicled years:—

Bābur in Kābul, Badakhshān and Balkh,[1547] his earlier following purged of Mughūl rebellion, and augmented by the various Mīrzās-in-exile in whose need of employment Shāh Beg saw Bābur's need of wider territory.[1548]

Sulṯān Ibrāhīm Lūdī who had succeeded after his father Sikandar's death (Sunday Ẕū'l-qa`da 7th 923 AH.-Nov. 21st 1517 AD.)[1549], was now embroiled in civil war, and hated for his tyranny and cruelty.

Shāh Ismā`īl Ṣafawī, ruling down to Rajab 19th 930 AH. (May 24th 1524 AD.) and then succeeded by his son T̤ahmāsp aet. 10.

Kūchūm (Kūchkūnjī) Khān, Khāqān of the Aūzbegs, Shaibānī's successor, now in possession of Transoxiana.

Sulṯān Sa`īd Khān Chaghatāī, with head-quarters in Kāshghar, a ruler amongst the Mughūls but not their Khāqān, the supreme Khānship being his elder brother Manṣūr's.

Shāh Shujā' Beg Arghūn, who, during the period, at various times held Qandahār, Shāl, Mustang, Sīwīstān, and part of Sind. He died in 930 AH. (1524 AD.) and was succeeded by his son Ḥasan who read the khuṯba for Bābur.

Khān Mīrzā Mīrānshāhī, who held Badakhshān from Bābur, with head-quarters in Qūndūz; he died in 927 AH. (1520 AD.) and was succeeded in his appointment by Humāyūn aet. 13.

Muḥammad-i-zamān Bāī-qarā who held Balkh perhaps direct from Bābur, perhaps from Ismā`īl through Bābur.

`Alā'u'd-dīn `Ālam Khān Lūdī, brother of the late Sulṯān Sikandar Lūdī and now desiring to supersede his nephew Ibrāhīm.

Daulat Khān Yūsuf-khail (as Bābur uniformly describes him), or Lūdī (as other writers do), holding Lāhor for Ibrāhīm Lūdī at the beginning of the period.

SOURCES FOR THE EVENTS OF THIS GAP

A complete history of the events the Bābur-nāma leaves unrecorded has yet to be written. The best existing one, whether Oriental or European, is Erskine's History of India, but this does not exhaust the sources—notably not using the Ḥabību's-siyar—and could be revised here and there with advantage.

Most of the sources enumerated as useful for filling the previous gap are so here; to them must be added, for the affairs of Qandahār, Khwānd-amīr's Ḥabību's-siyar. This Mīr Ma`ṣūm's Tārīkh-i-sind supplements usefully, but its brevity and its discrepant dates make it demand adjustment; in some details it is expanded by Sayyid Jamāl's Tarkhān- or Arghūn-nāma.

For the affairs of Hindūstān the main sources are enumerated in Elliot and Dowson's History of India and in Nassau Lees' Materials for the history of India. Doubtless all will be exhausted for the coming Cambridge History of India.

EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS

926 AH.-DEC. 23RD 1519 TO DEC. 12TH 1520 AD.

The question of which were Bābur's "Five expeditions" into Hindūstān has been often discussed; it is useful therefore to establish the dates of those known as made. I have entered one as made in this year for the following reasons;—it broke short because Shāh Beg made incursion into Bābur's territories, and that incursion was followed by a siege of Qandahār which several matters mentioned below show to have taken place in 926 AH.

a. Expedition into Hindūstān.

The march out from Kābul may have been as soon as muster and equipment allowed after the return from Lamghān chronicled in the diary. It was made through Bajaur where refractory tribesmen were brought to order. The Indus will have been forded at the usual place where, until the last one of 932 AH. (1525 AD.), all expeditions crossed on the outward march. Bhīra was traversed in which were Bābur's own Commanders, and advance was made, beyond lands yet occupied, to Sīālkot, 72 miles north of Lāhor and in the Rechna dū-āb. It was occupied without resistance; and a further move made to what the MSS. call Sayyidpūr; this attempted defence, was taken by assault and put to the sword. No place named Sayyidpūr is given in the Gazetteer of India, but the Āyīn-i-akbarī mentions a Sidhpūr which from its neighbourhood to Sīālkot may be what Bābur took.

Nothing indicates an intention in Bābur to join battle with Ibrāhīm at this time; Lāhor may have been his objective, after he had made a demonstration in force to strengthen his footing in Bhīra. Whatever he may have planned to do beyond Sidhpūr(?) was frustrated by the news which took him back to Kābul and thence to Qandahār, that an incursion into his territory had been made by Shāh Beg.

b. Shāh Shujā` Beg's position.

Shāh Beg was now holding Qandahār, Shāl, Mustang and Sīwīstān.[1550] He knew that he held Qandahār by uncertain tenure, in face of its desirability for Bābur and his own lesser power. His ground was further weakened by its usefulness for operations on Harāt and the presence with Bābur of Bāī-qarā refugees, ready to seize a chance, if offered by Ismā`īl's waning fortunes, for recovery of their former seat. Knowing his weakness, he for several years had been pushing his way out into Sind by way of the Bolān-pass.

His relations with Bābur were ostensibly good; he had sent him envoys twice last year, the first time to announce a success at Kāhān had in the end of 924 AH. (Nov. 1519 AD.). His son Ḥasan however, with whom he was unreconciled, had been for more than a year in Bābur's company,—a matter not unlikely to stir under-currents of unfriendliness on either side.

His relations with Shāh Ismā`īl were deferential, in appearance even vassal-like, as is shewn by Khwānd-amīr's account of his appeal for intervention against Bābur to the Shāh's officers in Harāt. Whether he read the khuṯba for any suzerain is doubtful; his son Ḥasan, it may be said, read it later on for Bābur.

c. The impelling cause of this siege of Qandahār.

Precisely what Shāh Beg did to bring Bābur back from the Panj-āb and down upon Qandahār is not found mentioned by any source. It seems likely to have been an affair of subordinates instigated by or for him. Its immediate agents may have been the Nīkdīrī (Nūkdīrī) and Hazāra tribes Bābur punished on his way south. Their location was the western border-land; they may have descended on the Great North Road or have raided for food in that famine year. It seems certain that Shāh Beg made no serious attempt on Kābul; he was too much occupied in Sind to allow him to do so. Some unused source may throw light on the matter incidentally; the offence may have been small in itself and yet sufficient to determine Bābur to remove risk from his rear.[1551]

d. Qandahār.

The Qandahār of Bābur's sieges was difficult of capture; he had not taken it in 913 AH. (f. 208_b_) by siege or assault, but by default after one day's fight in the open. The strength of its position can be judged from the following account of its ruins as they were seen in 1879 AD., the military details of which supplement Bellew's description quoted in Appendix J.

The fortifications are of great extent with a treble line of bastioned walls and a high citadel in the centre. The place is in complete ruin and its locality now useful only as a grazing ground.... "The town is in three parts, each on a separate eminence, and capable of mutual defence. The mountain had been covered with towers united by curtains, and the one on the culminating point may be called impregnable. It commanded the citadel which stood lower down on the second eminence, and this in turn commanded the town which was on a table-land elevated above the plain. The triple walls surrounding the city were at a considerable distance from it. After exploring the citadel and ruins, we mounted by the gorge to the summit of the hill with the impregnable fort. In this gorge are the ruins of two tanks, some 80 feet square, all destroyed, with the pillars fallen; the work is pukka in brick and chunām (cement) and each tank had been domed in; they would have held about 400,000 gallons each." (Le Messurier's Kandahar in 1879 AD. pp. 223, 245.)

e. Bābur's sieges of Qandahār.

The term of five years is found associated with Bābur's sieges of Qandahār, sometimes suggesting a single attempt of five years' duration. This it is easy to show incorrect; its root may be Mīr Ma`ṣūm's erroneous chronology.

The day on which the keys of Qandahār were made over to Bābur is known, from the famous inscription which commemorates the event (Appendix J), as Shawwāl 13th 928 AH. Working backwards from this, it is known that in 927 AH. terms of surrender were made and that Bābur went back to Kābul; he is besieging it in 926 AH.—the year under description; his annals of 925 AH. are complete and contain no siege; the year 924 AH. appears to have had no siege, Shāh Beg was on the Indus and his son was for at least part of it with Bābur; 923 AH. was a year of intended siege, frustrated by Bābur's own illness; of any siege in 922 AH. there is as yet no record known. So that it is certain there was no unremitted beleaguerment through five years.

f. The siege of 926 AH. (1520 AD.).

When Bābur sat down to lay regular siege to Qandahār, with mining and battering of the walls,[1552] famine was desolating the country round. The garrison was reduced to great distress; "pestilence," ever an ally of Qandahār, broke out within the walls, spread to Bābur's camp, and in the month of Tīr (June) led him to return to Kābul.

In the succeeding months of respite, Shāh Beg pushed on in Sind and his former slave, now commander, Mehtar Saṃbhal revictualled the town.

927 AH.—DEC. 12TH 1520 TO DEC. 1ST 1521 AD.

a. The manuscript sources.

Two accounts of the sieges of Qandahār in this and next year are available, one in Khwānd-amīr's Ḥabību's-siyar, the other in Ma`ṣūm Bhakkarī's Tārīkh-i-sind. As they have important differences, it is necessary to consider the opportunities of their authors for information.

Khwānd-amīr finished his history in 1524-29 AD. His account of these affairs of Qandahār is contemporary; he was in close touch with several of the actors in them and may have been in Harāt through their course; one of his patrons, Amīr Ghiyāṣu'd-dīn, was put to death in this year in Harāt because of suspicion that he was an ally of Bābur; his nephew, another Ghiyāṣu'd-dīn was in Qandahār, the bearer next year of its keys to Bābur; moreover he was with Bābur himself a few years later in Hindūstān.

Mīr Ma`ṣūm wrote in 1600 AD. 70 to 75 years after Khwānd-amīr. Of these sieges he tells what may have been traditional and mentions no manuscript authorities. Blochmann's biography of him (Āyīn-i-akbarī p. 514) shews his ample opportunity of learning orally what had happened in the Arghūn invasion of Sind, but does not mention the opportunity for hearing traditions about Qandahār which his term of office there allowed him. During that term it was that he added an inscription, commemorative of Akbar's dominion, to Bābur's own at Chihil-zīna, which records the date of the capture of Qandahār (928 AH.-1522 AD.).

b. The Ḥabību's-siyar account (lith. ed. iii, part 4, p. 97).

Khwānd-amīr's contemporary narrative allows Ma`ṣūm's to dovetail into it as to some matters, but contradicts it in the important ones of date, and mode of surrender by Shāh Beg to Bābur. It states that Bābur was resolved in 926 AH. (1520 AD.) to uproot Shāh Shujā` Beg from Qandahār, led an army against the place, and "opened the Gates of war". It gives no account of the siege of 926 AH. but passes on to the occurrences of 927 AH. (1521 AD.) when Shāh Beg, unable to meet Bābur in the field, shut himself up in the town and strengthened the defences. Bābur put his utmost pressure on the besieged, "often riding his piebald horse close to the moat and urging his men to fiery onset." The garrison resisted manfully, breaching the "life-fortresses" of the Kābulīs with sword, arrow, spear and death-dealing stone, but Bābur's heroes were most often victorious, and drove their assailants back through the Gates.

c. Death of Khān Mīrzā reported to Bābur.

Meantime, continues Khwānd-amīr, Khān Mīrzā had died in Badakhshān; the news was brought to Bābur and caused him great grief; he appointed Humāyūn to succeed the Mīrzā while he himself prosecuted the siege of Qandahār and the conquest of the Garm-sīr.[1553]

d. Negociations with Bābur.

The Governor of Harāt at this time was Shāh Ismā`īl's son T̤ahmāsp, between six and seven years old. His guardian Amīr Khān took chief part in the diplomatic intervention with Bābur, but associated with him was Amīr Ghiyāṣu'd-dīn—the patron of Khwānd-amīr already mentioned—until put to death as an ally of Bābur. The discussion had with Bābur reveals a complexity of motives demanding attention. Nominally undertaken though intervention was on behalf of Shāh Beg, and certainly so at his request, the Persian officers seem to have been less anxious on his account than for their own position in Khurāsān, their master's position at the time being weakened by ill-success against the Sulṯān of Rūm. To Bābur, Shāh Beg is written of as though he were an insubordinate vassal whom Bābur was reducing to order for the Shāh, but when Amīr Khān heard that Shāh Beg was hard pressed, he was much distressed because he feared a victorious Bābur might move on Khurāsān. Nothing indicates however that Bābur had Khurāsān in his thoughts; Hindūstān was his objective, and Qandahār a help on the way; but as Amīr Khān had this fear about him, a probable ground for it is provided by the presence with Bābur of Bāī-qarā exiles whose ambition it must have been to recover their former seat. Whether for Harāt, Kābul, or Hindūstān, Qandahār was strength. Another matter not fitting the avowed purpose of the diplomatic intervention is the death of Ghiyāṣu'd-dīn because an ally of Bābur; this makes Amīr Khān seem to count Bābur as Ismā`īl's enemy.

Shāh Beg's requests for intervention began in 926 AH. (1520 AD.), as also did the remonstrance of the Persian officers with Bābur; his couriers followed one another with entreaty that the Amīrs would contrive for Bābur to retire, with promise of obeisance and of yearly tribute. The Amīrs set forth to Bābur that though Shāh Shujā` Beg had offended and had been deserving of wrath and chastisement, yet, as he was penitent and had promised loyalty and tribute, it was now proper for Bābur to raise the siege (of 926 AH.) and go back to Kābul. To this Bābur answered that Shāh Beg's promise was a vain thing, on which no reliance could be placed; please God!, said he, he himself would take Qandahār and send Shāh Beg a prisoner to Harāt; and that he should be ready then to give the keys of the town and the possession of the Garm-sīr to any-one appointed to receive them.

This correspondence suits an assumption that Bābur acted for Shāh Ismā`īl, a diplomatic assumption merely, the verbal veil, on one side, for anxiety lest Bābur or those with him should attack Harāt,—on the other, for Bābur's resolve to hold Qandahār himself.

Amīr Khān was not satisfied with Bābur's answer, but had his attention distracted by another matter, presumably `Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān's attack on Harāt in the spring of the year (March-April 1521 AD.). Negociations appear to have been resumed later, since Khwānd-amīr claims it as their result that Bābur left Qandahār this year.

e. The Tārīkh-i-sind account.

Mīr Ma`ṣūm is very brief; he says that in this year (his 922 AH.), Bābur went down to Qandahār before the year's tribute in grain had been collected, destroyed the standing crops, encompassed the town, and reduced it to extremity; that Shāh Beg, wearied under reiterated attack and pre-occupied by operations in Sind, proposed terms, and that these were made with stipulation for the town to be his during one year more and then to be given over to Bābur. These terms settled, Bābur went to Kābul, Shāh Beg to Sīwī.

The Arghūn families were removed to Shāl and Sīwī, so that the year's delay may have been an accommodation allowed for this purpose.

f. Concerning dates.

There is much discrepancy between the dates of the two historians. Khwānd-amīr's agree with the few fixed ones of the period and with the course of events; several of Ma`ṣūm's, on the contrary, are seriatim five (lunar) years earlier. For instance, events Khwānd-amīr places under 927 AH. Ma`ṣūm places under 922 AH. Again, while Ma`ṣūm correctly gives 913 AH. (1507 AD.) as the year of Bābur's first capture of Qandahār, he sets up a discrepant series later, from the success Shāh Beg had at Kāhān; this he allots to 921 AH. (1515 AD.) whereas Bābur received news of it (f. 233_b_) in the beginning of 925 AH. (1519 AD.). Again, Ma`ṣūm makes Shāh Ḥasan go to Bābur in 921 AH. and stay two years; but Ḥasan spent the whole of 925 AH. with Bābur and is not mentioned as having left before the second month of 926 AH. Again, Ma`ṣūm makes Shāh Beg surrender the keys of Qandahār in 923 AH. (1517 AD.), but 928 AH. (1522 AD.) is shewn by Khwānd-amīr's dates and narrative, and is inscribed at Chihil-zīna.[1554]

928 AH.-DEC. 1ST 1521 TO NOV. 20TH 1522 AD.

a. Bābur visits Badakhshān.

Either early in this year or late in the previous one, Bābur and Māhīm went to visit Humāyūn in his government, probably to Faizābād, and stayed with him what Gul-badan calls a few days.

b. Expedition to Qandahār.

This year saw the end of the duel for possession of Qandahār. Khwānd-amīr's account of its surrender differs widely from Ma`ṣūm's. It claims that Bābur's retirement in 927 AH. was due to the remonstrances from Harāt, and that Shāh Beg, worn out by the siege, relied on the arrangement the Amīrs had made with Bābur and went to Sīwī, leaving one `Abdu'l-bāqī in charge of the place. This man, says Khwānd-amīr, drew the line of obliteration over his duty to his master, sent to Bābur, brought him down to Qandahār, and gave him the keys of the town—by the hand of Khwānd-amīr's nephew Ghiyāṣu'd-dīn, specifies the Tarkhān-nāma. In this year messengers had come and gone between Bābur and Harāt; two men employed by Amīr Khān are mentioned by name; of them the last had not returned to Harāt when a courier of Bābur's, bringing a tributary gift, announced there that the town was in his master's hands. Khwānd-amīr thus fixes the year 928 AH. as that in which the town passed into Bābur's hands; this date is confirmed by the one inscribed in the monument of victory at Chihil-zīna which Bābur ordered excavated on the naze of the limestone ridge behind the town. The date there given is Shawwāl 13th 928 AH. (Sep. 6th 1522 AD.).

Ma`ṣūm's account, dated 923 AH. (1517 AD.), is of the briefest:—Shāh Beg fulfilled his promise, much to Bābur's approval, by sending him the keys of the town and royal residence.

Although Khwānd-amīr's account has good claim to be accepted, it must be admitted that several circumstances can be taken to show that Shāh Beg had abandoned Qandahār, e.g. the removal of the families after Bābur's retirement last year, and his own absence in a remote part of Sind this year.

c. The year of Shāh Beg's death.

Of several variant years assigned for the death of Shāh Beg in the sources, two only need consideration.[1555] There is consensus of opinion about the month and close agreement about the day, Sha`bān 22nd or 23rd. Ma`ṣūm gives a chronogram, Shahr-Sha`bān, (month of Sha`bān) which yields 928, but he does not mention where he obtained it, nor does anything in his narrative shew what has fixed the day of the month.

Two objections to 928 are patent: (1) the doubt engendered by Ma`ṣūm's earlier ante-dating; (2) that if 928 be right, Shāh Beg was already dead over two months when Qandahār was surrendered. This he might have been according to Khwānd-amīr's narrative, but if he died on Sha`bān 22nd 928 (July 26th 1522), there was time for the news to have reached Qandahār, and to have gone on to Harāt before the surrender. Shāh Beg's death at that time could not have failed to be associated in Khwānd-amīr's narrative with the fate of Qandahār; it might have pleaded some excuse with him for `Abdu'l-bāqī, who might even have had orders from Shāh Ḥasan to make the town over to Bābur whose suzerainty he had acknowledged at once on succession by reading the khuṯba in his name. Khwānd-amīr however does not mention what would have been a salient point in the events of the siege; his silence cannot but weigh against the 928 AH.

The year 930 AH. is given by Niẕāmu'd-dīn Aḥmad's T̤abaqāt-i-akbarī (lith. ed. p. 637), and this year has been adopted by Erskine, Beale, and Ney Elias, perhaps by others. Some light on the matter may be obtained incidentally as the sources are examined for a complete history of India, perhaps coming from the affairs of Multān, which was attacked by Shāh Ḥasan after communication with Bābur.

d. Bābur's literary work in 928 AH. and earlier.

1. The Mubīn. This year, as is known from a chronogram within the work, Bābur wrote the Turkī poem of 2000 lines to which Abū'l-faẓl and Badāyūnī give the name Mubīn (The Exposition), but of which the true title is said by the Nafā'isu'l-ma`āsir to be Dar fiqa mubaiyan (The Law expounded). Sprenger found it called also Fiqa-i-bāburī (Bābur's Law). It is a versified and highly orthodox treatise on Muḥammadan Law, written for the instruction of Kāmrān. A Commentary on it, called also Mubīn, was written by Shaikh Zain. Bābur quotes from it (f. 351_b_) when writing of linear measures. Berézine found and published a large portion of it as part of his Chrestomathie Turque (Kazan 1857); the same fragment may be what was published by Ilminsky. Teufel remarks that the MS. used by Berézine may have descended direct from one sent by Bābur to a distinguished legist of Transoxiana, because the last words of Berézine's imprint are Bābur's Begleitschreiben (envoi); he adds the expectation that the legist's name might be learned. Perhaps this recipient was the Khwāja Kalān, son of Khwāja Yaḥya, a Samarkandī to whom Bābur sent a copy of his Memoirs on March 7th 1520 (935 AH. f. 363).[1556]

2. The Bābur-nāma diary of 925-6 AH. (1519-20 AD.). This is almost contemporary with the Mubīn and is the earliest part of the Bābur-nāma writings now known. It was written about a decade earlier than the narrative of 899 to 914 AH. (1494 to 1507 AD.), carries later annotations, and has now the character of a draft awaiting revision.

3. A Dīwān (Collection of poems). By dovetailing a few fragments of information, it becomes clear that by 925 AH. (1519 AD.) Bābur had made a Collection of poetical compositions distinct from the Rāmpūr Dīwān; it is what he sent to Pūlād Sulṯan in 925 AH. (f. 238). Its date excludes the greater part of the Rāmpūr one. It may have contained those verses to which my husband drew attention in the Asiatic Quarterly Review of 1911, as quoted in the Abūshqa; and it may have contained, in agreement with its earlier date, the verses Bābur quotes as written in his earlier years. None of the quatrains found in the Abūshqa and there attributed to "Bābur Mīrzā", are in the Rāmpūr Dīwān; nor are several of those early ones of the Bābur-nāma. So that the Dīwān sent to Pūlād Sulṯān may be the source from which the Abūshqa drew its examples.

On first examining these verses, doubt arose as to whether they were really by Bābur Mīrānshāhī; or whether they were by "Bābur Mīrzā" Shāhrukhī. Fortunately my husband lighted on one of them quoted in the Sanglakh and there attributed to Bābur Pādshāh. The Abūshqa quatrains are used as examples in de Courteille's Dictionary, but without an author's name; they can be traced there through my husband's articles.[1557]

929 AH.—NOV. 20TH 1522 TO NOV. 10TH 1523 AD.

a. Affairs of Hindūstān.

The centre of interest in Bābur's affairs now moves from Qandahār to a Hindūstān torn by faction, of which faction one result was an appeal made at this time to Bābur by Daulat Khān Lūdī (Yūsuf-khail) and `Alāu'd-dīn `Ālam Khān Lūdī for help against Ibrāhīm.[1558]

The following details are taken mostly from Aḥmad Yādgār's Tārīkh-i-salāṯīn-i-afāghana[1559]:—Daulat Khān had been summoned to Ibrāhīm's presence; he had been afraid to go and had sent his son Dilāwar in his place; his disobedience angering Ibrāhīm, Dilāwar had a bad reception and was shewn a ghastly exhibit of disobedient commanders. Fearing a like fate for himself, he made escape and hastened to report matters to his father in Lāhor. His information strengthening Daulat Khān's previous apprehensions, decided the latter to proffer allegiance to Bābur and to ask his help against Ibrāhīm. Apparently `Ālam Khān's interests were a part of this request. Accordingly Dilāwar (or Apāq) Khān went to Kābul, charged with his father's message, and with intent to make known to Bābur Ibrāhīm's evil disposition, his cruelty and tyranny, with their fruit of discontent amongst his Commanders and soldiery.

b. Reception of Dilāwar Khān in Kābul.

Wedding festivities were in progress[1560] when Dilāwar Khān reached Kābul. He presented himself, at the Chār-bāgh may be inferred, and had word taken to Bābur that an Afghān was at his Gate with a petition. When admitted, he demeaned himself as a suppliant and proceeded to set forth the distress of Hindūstān. Bābur asked why he, whose family had so long eaten the salt of the Lūdīs, had so suddenly deserted them for himself. Dilāwar answered that his family through 40 years had upheld the Lūdī throne, but that Ibrāhīm maltreated Sikandar's amīrs, had killed 25 of them without cause, some by hanging some burned alive, and that there was no hope of safety in him. Therefore, he said, he had been sent by many amīrs to Bābur whom they were ready to obey and for whose coming they were on the anxious watch.

c. Bābur asks a sign.

At the dawn of the day following the feast, Bābur prayed in the garden for a sign of victory in Hindūstān, asking that it should be a gift to himself of mango or betel, fruits of that land. It so happened that Daulat Khān had sent him, as a present, half-ripened mangoes preserved in honey; when these were set before him, he accepted them as the sign, and from that time forth, says the chronicler, made preparation for a move on Hindūstān.

d. `Ālam Khān.

Although `Ālam Khān seems to have had some amount of support for his attempt against his nephew, events show he had none valid for his purpose. That he had not Daulat Khān's, later occurrences make clear. Moreover he seems not to have been a man to win adherence or to be accepted as a trustworthy and sensible leader.[1561] Dates are uncertain in the absence of Bābur's narrative, but it may have been in this year that `Ālam Khān went in person to Kābul and there was promised help against Ibrāhīm.

e. Birth of Gul-badan.

Either in this year or the next was born Dil-dār's third daughter Gul-badan, the later author of an Humāyūn-nāma written at her nephew Akbar's command in order to provide information for the Akbar-nāma.

930 AH.—NOV. 10TH 1523 TO OCT. 29TH 1524 AD.

a. Bābur's fourth expedition to Hindūstān.

This expedition differs from all earlier ones by its co-operation with Afghān malcontents against Ibrāhīm Lūdī, and by having for its declared purpose direct attack on him through reinforcement of `Ālam Khān.

Exactly when the start from Kābul was made is not found stated; the route taken after fording the Indus, was by the sub-montane road through the Kakar country; the Jīhlam and Chīn-āb were crossed and a move was made to within 10 miles of Lāhor.

Lāhor was Daulat Khān's head-quarters but he was not in it now; he had fled for refuge to a colony of Bilūchīs, perhaps towards Multān, on the approach against him of an army of Ibrāhīm's under Bihār Khān Lūdī. A battle ensued between Bābur and Bihār Khān; the latter was defeated with great slaughter; Bābur's troops followed his fugitive men into Lāhor, plundered the town and burned some of the bāzārs.

Four days were spent near Lāhor, then move south was made to Dībālpūr which was stormed, plundered and put to the sword. The date of this capture is known from an incidental remark of Bābur about chronograms (f. 325), to be mid-Rabī`u'l-awwal 930 AH. (circa Jan. 22nd 1524 AD.).[1562] From Dībālpūr a start was made for Sihrind but before this could be reached news arrived which dictated return to Lāhor.

b. The cause of return.

Daulat Khān's action is the obvious cause of the retirement. He and his sons had not joined Bābur until the latter was at Dībālpūr; he was not restored to his former place in charge of the important Lāhor, but was given Jalandhar and Sulṯānpūr, a town of his own foundation. This angered him extremely but he seems to have concealed his feelings for the time and to have given Bābur counsel as if he were content. His son Dilāwar, however, represented to Bābur that his father's advice was treacherous; it concerned a move to Multān, from which place Daulat Khān may have come up to Dībālpūr and connected with which at this time, something is recorded of co-operation by Bābur and Shāh Ḥasan Arghūn. But the incident is not yet found clearly described by a source. Dilāwar Khān told Bābur that his father's object was to divide and thus weaken the invading force, and as this would have been the result of taking Daulat Khān's advice, Bābur arrested him and Apāq on suspicion of treacherous intent. They were soon released, and Sulṯānpūr was given them, but they fled to the hills, there to await a chance to swoop on the Panj-āb. Daulat Khān's hostility and his non-fulfilment of his engagement with Bābur placing danger in the rear of an eastward advance, the Panj-āb was garrisoned by Bābur's own followers and he himself went back to Kābul.

It is evident from what followed that Daulat Khān commanded much strength in the Panj-āb; evident also that something counselled delay in the attack on Ibrāhīm, perhaps closer cohesion in favour of `Ālam Khān, certainly removal of the menace of Daulat Khān in the rear; there may have been news already of the approach of the Aūzbegs on Balkh which took Bābur next year across Hindū-kush.

c. The Panj-āb garrison.

The expedition had extended Bābur's command considerably, notably by obtaining possession of Lāhor. He now posted in it Mīr `Abdu'l-`azīz his Master of the Horse; in Dībālpūr he posted, with `Ālam Khān, Bābā Qashqa Mughūl; in Sīālkot, Khusrau Kūkūldāsh, in Kalanūr, Muḥammad `Alī Tājik.

d. Two deaths.

This year, on Rajab 19th (May 23rd) died Ismā`īl Ṣafawī at the age of 38, broken by defeat from Sulṯān Salīm of Rūm.[1563] He was succeeded by his son T̤ahmāsp, a child of ten.

This year may be that of the death of Shāh Shujā` Arghūn,[1564] on Sha`bān 22nd (July 18th), the last grief of his burden being the death of his foster-brother Fāẓil concerning which, as well as Shāh Beg's own death, Mīr Ma`ṣūm's account is worthy of full reproduction. Shāh Beg was succeeded in Sind by his son Ḥasan, who read the khuṯba for Bābur and drew closer links with Bābur's circle by marrying, either this year or the next, Khalīfa's daughter Gul-barg, with whom betrothal had been made during Ḥasan's visit to Bābur in Kābul. Moreover Khalīfa's son Muḥibb-i-`alī married Nāhīd the daughter of Qāsim Kūkūldāsh and Māh-chūchūk Arghūn (f. 214_b_). These alliances were made, says Ma`ṣūm, to strengthen Ḥasan's position at Bābur's Court.

e. A garden detail.

In this year and presumably on his return from the Panj-āb, Bābur, as he himself chronicles (f. 132), had plantains (bananas) brought from Hindūstān for the Bāgh-i-wafā at Adīnapūr.

931 AH.—OCT. 29TH 1524 TO OCT. 18TH 1525 AD.

a. Daulat Khān.

Daulat Khān's power in the Panj-āb is shewn by what he effected after dispossessed of Lāhor. On Bābur's return to Kābul, he came down from the hills with a small body of his immediate followers, seized his son Dilāwar, took Sulṯānpūr, gathered a large force and defeated `Ālam Khān in Dībālpūr. He detached 5000 men against Sīālkot but Bābur's begs of Lāhor attacked and overcame them. Ibrāhīm sent an army to reconquer the Panj-āb; Daulat Khān, profiting by its dissensions and discontents, won over a part to himself and saw the rest break up.

b. `Ālam Khān.

From his reverse at Dībālpūr, `Ālam Khān fled straight to Kābul. The further help he asked was promised under the condition that while he should take Ibrāhīm's place on the throne of Dihlī, Bābur in full suzerainty should hold Lāhor and all to the west of it. This arranged, `Ālam Khān was furnished with a body of troops, given a royal letter to the Lāhor begs ordering them to assist him, and started off, Bābur promising to follow swiftly.

`Ālam Khān's subsequent proceedings are told by Bābur in the annals of 932 AH. (1525 AD.) at the time he received details about them (f. 255_b_).

c. Bābur called to Balkh.

All we have yet found about this affair is what Bābur says in explanation of his failure to follow `Ālam Khān as promised (f. 256), namely, that he had to go to Balkh because all the Aūzbeg Sulṯāns and Khāns had laid siege to it. Light on the affair may come from some Persian or Aūzbeg chronicle; Bābur's arrival raised the siege; and risk must have been removed, for Bābur returned to Kābul in time to set out for his fifth and last expedition to Hindūstān on the first day of the second month of next year (932 AH. 1525). A considerable body of troops was in Badakhshān with Humāyūn; their non-arrival next year delaying his father's progress, brought blame on himself.

THE MEMOIRS OF BĀBUR

SECTION III. HINDŪSTĀN

932 AH.-OCT. 18TH 1525 TO OCT. 8TH 1526 AD.[1565]

(a. Fifth expedition into Hindūstān.)

(Nov. 17th) On Friday the 1st of the month of Ṣafar at the [Sidenote: Ḥaidarābād MS. Fol. 251b.] date 932, the Sun being in the Sign of the Archer, we set out for Hindūstān, crossed the small rise of Yak-langa, and dismounted in the meadow to the west of the water of Dih-i-ya`qūb.[1566] `Abdu'l-malūk the armourer came into this camp; he had gone seven or eight months earlier as my envoy to Sulṯān Sa`īd Khān (in Kāshghar), and now brought one of the Khān's men, styled Yāngī Beg (new beg) Kūkūldāsh who conveyed letters, and small presents, and verbal messages[1567] from the Khānīms and the Khān.[1568]

(Nov. 18th to 21st) After staying two days in that camp for the convenience of the army,[1569] we marched on, halted one night,[1570] and next dismounted at Bādām-chashma. There we ate a confection (ma`jūn).

(Nov. 22nd) On Wednesday (Ṣafar 6th), when we had dismounted at Bārīk-āb, the younger brethren of Nūr Beg—he himself remaining in Hindūstān—brought gold ashrafīs and tankas[1571] to the value of 20,000 shāhrukhīs, sent from the Lāhor revenues by Khwāja Ḥusain. The greater part of these moneys was despatched by Mullā Aḥmad, one of the chief men of Balkh, for the benefit of Balkh.[1572]

(Nov. 24th) On Friday the 8th of the month (Ṣafar), after [Sidenote: Fol. 252.] dismounting at Gandamak, I had a violent discharge;[1573] by God's mercy, it passed off easily.

(Nov. 25th) On Saturday we dismounted in the Bāgh-i-wafā. We delayed there a few days, waiting for Humāyūn and the army from that side.[1574] More than once in this history the bounds and extent, charm and delight of that garden have been described; it is most beautifully placed; who sees it with the buyer's eye will know the sort of place it is. During the short time we were there, most people drank on drinking-days[1575] and took their morning; on non-drinking days there were parties for ma`jūn.

I wrote harsh letters to Humāyūn, lecturing him severely because of his long delay beyond the time fixed for him to join me.[1576]

(Dec. 3rd) On Sunday the 17th of Ṣafar, after the morning had been taken, Humāyūn arrived. I spoke very severely to him at once. Khwāja Kalān also arrived to-day, coming up from Ghaznī. We marched in the evening of that same Sunday, and dismounted in a new garden between Sulṯānpur and Khwāja Rustam.

(Dec. 6th) Marching on Wednesday (Ṣafar 20th), we got on a raft, and, drinking as we went reached Qūsh-guṃbaz,[1577] there landed and joined the camp.

(Dec. 7th) Starting off the camp at dawn, we ourselves went on a raft, and there ate confection (ma`jūn). Our encamping-ground was always Qīrīq-ārīq, but not a sign or trace of the camp could [Sidenote: Fol. 252b.] be seen when we got opposite it, nor any appearance of our horses. Thought I, "Garm-chashma (Hot-spring) is close by; they may have dismounted there." So saying, we went on from Qīrīq-ārīq. By the time we reached Garm-chashma, the very day was late;[1578] we did not stop there, but going on in its lateness (kīchīsī), had the raft tied up somewhere, and slept awhile.

(Dec. 8th) At day-break we landed at Yada-bīr where, as the day wore on, the army-folks began to come in. The camp must have been at Qīrīq-ārīq, but out of our sight.

There were several verse-makers on the raft, such as Shaikh Abū'l-wajd,[1579] Shaikh Zain, Mullā `Alī-jān, Tardī Beg Khāksār and others. In this company was quoted the following couplet of Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ:—[1580]

(Persian) With thee, arch coquette, for a sweetheart, what can man do? With another than thou where thou art, what can man do?

Said I, "Compose on these lines";[1581] whereupon those given to versifying, did so. As jokes were always being made at the expense of Mullā `Alī-jān, this couplet came off-hand into my head:—

(Persian) With one all bewildered as thou, what can man do? . . . . . . , what can man do?[1582]

(b. Mention of the Mubīn.[1583])

From time to time before it,[1584] whatever came into my head, of good or bad, grave or jest, used to be strung into verse and written down, however empty and harsh the verse might be, but while I was composing the Mubīn, this thought pierced through my dull wits and made way into my troubled heart, "A pity it [Sidenote: Fol. 253.] will be if the tongue which has treasure of utterances so lofty as these are, waste itself again on low words; sad will it be if again vile imaginings find way into the mind that has made exposition of these sublime realities."[1585] Since that time I had refrained from satirical and jesting verse; I was repentant (ta'īb); but these matters were totally out of mind and remembrance when I made that couplet (on Mullā `Alī-jān).[1586] A few days later in Bīgrām when I had fever and discharge, followed by cough, and I began to spit blood each time I coughed, I knew whence my reproof came; I knew what act of mine had brought this affliction on me.

"Whoever shall violate his oath, will violate it to the hurt of his own soul; but whoever shall perform that which he hath covenanted with God, to that man surely will He give great reward" (Qorān cap. 48 v. 10).

(Turkī) What is it I do with thee, ah! my tongue? My entrails bleed as a reckoning for thee. Good once[1587] as thy words were, has followed this verse Jesting, empty,[1588] obscene, has followed a lie. If thou say, "Burn will I not!" by keeping this vow Thou turnest thy rein from this field of strife.[1589]

"O Lord! we have dealt unjustly with our own souls; if Thou forgive us not, and be not merciful unto us, we shall surely be of those that perish"[1590] (Qorān cap. 7 v. 22).

Taking anew the place of the penitent pleading for pardon, I gave my mind rest[1591] from such empty thinking and such unlawful occupation. I broke my pen. Made by that Court, such reproof of sinful slaves is for their felicity; happy are the highest and the slave when such reproof brings warning and its profitable fruit.

(c. Narrative resumed.)

(Dec. 8th continued) Marching on that evening, we dismounted at `Alī-masjid. The ground here being very confined, I always [Sidenote: Fol. 253b.] used to dismount on a rise overlooking the camp in the valley-bottom.[1592] The camp-fires made a wonderful illumination there at night; assuredly it was because of this that there had always been drinking there, and was so now.

(Dec. 9th and 10th) To-day I rode out before dawn; I preferred a confection (ma`jūn)[1593] and also kept this day a fast. We dismounted near Bīgrām (Peshāwar); and next morning, the camp remaining on that same ground, rode to Karg-awī.[1594] We crossed the Siyāh-āb in front of Bīgrām, and formed our hunting-circle looking down-stream. After a little, a person brought word that there was a rhino in a bit of jungle near Bīgrām, and that people had been stationed near-about it. We betook ourselves, loose rein, to the place, formed a ring round the jungle, made a noise, and brought the rhino out, when it took its way across the plain. Humāyūn and those come with him from that side (Tramontana), who had never seen one before, were much entertained. It was pursued for two miles; many arrows were shot at it; it was brought down without having made a good set at man or horse. Two others were killed. I had often wondered how a rhino and an elephant would behave if brought face to face; this time one came out right in front of some elephants the mahauts were bringing along; it did not face them [Sidenote: Fol. 254.] when the mahauts drove them towards it, but got off in another direction.

(d. Preparations for ferrying the Indus.[1595])

On the day we were in Bīgrām, several of the begs and household were appointed, with pay-masters and dīwāns, six or seven being put in command, to take charge of the boats at the Nīl-āb crossing, to make a list of all who were with the army, name by name, and to count them up.

That evening I had fever and discharge[1596] which led on to cough and every time I coughed, I spat blood. Anxiety was great but, by God's mercy, it passed off in two or three days.

(Dec. 11th) It rained when we left Bīgrām; we dismounted on the Kābul-water.

(e. News from Lāhor.)

News came that Daulat Khān[1597] and (Apāq) Ghāzī Khān, having collected an army of from 20 to 30,000, had taken Kilānūr, and intended to move on Lāhor. At once Mumin-i-`alī the commissary was sent galloping off to say, "We are advancing march by march;[1598] do not fight till we arrive."

(Dec. 14th) With two night-halts on the way, we reached the water of Sind (Indus), and there dismounted on Thursday the 28th (of Ṣafar).

(f. Ferrying the Indus.)

(Dec. 16th) On Saturday the 1st of the first Rabī`, we crossed the Sind-water, crossed the water of Kacha-kot (Hārū), and dismounted on the bank of the river.[1599] The begs, pay-masters and dīwāns who had been put in charge of the boats, reported that the number of those come with the army, great and small, good and bad, retainer and non-retainer, was written down as 12,000.

(g. The eastward march.)

The rainfall had been somewhat scant in the plains, but [Sidenote: Fol. 254b.] seemed to have been good in the cultivated lands along the hill-skirts; for these reasons we took the road for Sīālkot along the skirt-hills. Opposite Hātī Kakar's country[1600] we came upon a torrent[1601] the waters of which were standing in pools. Those pools were all frozen over. The ice was not very thick, as thick as the hand may-be. Such ice is unusual in Hindūstān; not a sign or trace of any was seen in the years we were (aīdūk) in the country.[1602]

We had made five marches from the Sind-water; after the sixth (Dec. 22nd—Rabī` I. 7th) we dismounted on a torrent in the camping-ground (yūrt) of the Bugīāls[1603] below Balnāth Jogī's hill which connects with the Hill of Jūd.

(Dec. 23rd) In order to let people get provisions, we stayed the next day in that camp. `Araq was drunk on that day. Mullā Muḥ. Pargharī told many stories; never had he been so talkative. Mullā Shams himself was very riotous; once he began, he did not finish till night.

The slaves and servants, good and bad, who had gone out after provisions, went further than this[1604] and heedlessly scattered over jungle and plain, hill and broken ground. Owing to this, a few were overcome; Kīchkīna tūnqiṯār died there.

(Dec. 24th) Marching on, we crossed the Bihat-water at a ford below Jīlam (Jīhlam) and there dismounted. Walī Qīzīl (Rufus) came there to see me. He was the Sīālkot reserve, and held the parganas of Bīmrūkī and Akrīāda. Thinking about Sīālkot, [Sidenote: Fol. 255.] I took towards him the position of censure and reproach. He excused himself, saying "I had come to my pargana before Khusrau Kūkūldāsh left Sīālkot; he did not even send me word." After listening to his excuse, I said, "Since thou hast paid no attention to Sīālkot, why didst thou not join the begs in Lāhor?" He was convicted, but as work was at hand, I did not trouble about his fault.

(h. Scouts sent with orders to Lāhor.)

(Dec. 25th) Sayyid T̤ūfān and Sayyid Lāchīn were sent galloping off, each with a pair-horse,[1605] to say in Lāhor, "Do not join battle; meet us at Sīālkot or Parsrūr" (mod. Pasrūr). It was in everyone's mouth that Ghāzī Khān had collected 30 to 40,000 men, that Daulat Khān, old as he was, had girt two swords to his waist, and that they were resolved to fight. Thought I, "The proverb says that ten friends are better than nine; do you not make a mistake: when the Lāhor begs have joined you, fight there and then!"

(Dec. 26th and 27th) After starting off the two men to the begs, we moved forward, halted one night, and next dismounted on the bank of the Chīn-āb (Chan-āb).

As Buhlūlpūr was khalṣa,[1606] we left the road to visit it. Its fort is situated above a deep ravine, on the bank of the Chīn-āb. It pleased us much. We thought of bringing Sīālkot to it. Please God! the chance coming, it shall be done straightway! [Sidenote: Fol. 255b.] From Buhlūlpūr we went to camp by boat.

(i. Jats and Gujūrs.[1607])

(Dec. 29th) On Friday the 14th of the first Rabī` we dismounted at Sīālkot. If one go into Hindūstān the Jats and Gujūrs always pour down in countless hordes from hill and plain for loot in bullock and buffalo. These ill-omened peoples are just senseless oppressors! Formerly their doings did not concern us much because the country was an enemy's, but they began the same senseless work after we had taken it. When we reached Sīālkot, they fell in tumult on poor and needy folks who were coming out of the town to our camp, and stripped them bare. I had the silly thieves sought for, and ordered two or three of them cut to pieces.

From Sīālkot Nūr Beg's brother Shāham also was made to gallop off to the begs in Lāhor to say, "Make sure where the enemy is; find out from some well-informed person where he may be met, and send us word."

A trader, coming into this camp, represented that `Ālam Khān had let Sl. Ibrāhīm defeat him.

(j. `Ālam Khān's action and failure.[1608])

Here are the particulars:—`Ālam Khān, after taking leave of me (in Kābul, 931 AH.), went off in that heat by double marches, regardless of those with him.[1609] As at the time I gave him leave to go, all the Aūzbeg khāns and sulṯāns had laid siege to Balkh, [Sidenote: Fol. 256.] I rode for Balkh as soon as I had given him his leave. On his reaching Lāhor, he insisted to the begs, "You reinforce me; the Pādshāh said so; march along with me; let us get (Apāq) Ghāzī Khān to join us; let us move on Dihlī and Āgra." Said they, "Trusting to what, will you join Ghāzī Khān? Moreover the royal orders to us were, 'If at any time Ghāzī Khān has sent his younger brother Ḥājī Khān with his son to Court, join him; or do so, if he has sent them, by way of pledge, to Lāhor; if he has done neither, do not join him.' You yourself only yesterday fought him and let him beat you! Trusting to what, will you join him now? Besides all this, it is not for your advantage to join him!" Having said what-not of this sort, they refused `Ālam Khān. He did not fall in with their views, but sent his son Sher Khān to speak with Daulat Khān and with Ghāzī Khān, and afterwards all saw one another.

`Ālam Khān took with him Dilāwar Khān, who had come into Lāhor two or three months earlier after his escape from prison; he took also Maḥmūd Khān (son of) Khān-i-jahān,[1610] to whom a pargana in the Lāhor district had been given. They seem to have left matters at this:—Daulat Khān with Ghāzī Khān was to take all the begs posted in Hindūstān to himself, indeed he was to take everything on that side;[1611] while `Ālam [Sidenote: Fol. 256b.] Khān was to take Dilāwar Khān and Ḥājī Khān and, reinforced by them, was to capture Dihlī and Āgra. Ismā`īl Jilwānī and other amīrs came and saw `Ālam Khān; all then betook themselves, march by march, straight for Dihlī. Near Indrī came also Sulaimān Shaikh-zāda.[1612] Their total touched 30 to 40,000 men.

They laid siege to Dihlī but could neither take it by assault nor do hurt to the garrison.[1613] When Sl. Ibrāhīm heard of their assembly, he got an army to horse against them; when they heard of his approach, they rose from before the place and moved to meet him. They had left matters at this:—"If we attack by day-light, the Afghāns will not desert (to us), for the sake of their reputations with one another; but if we attack at night when one man cannot see another, each man will obey his own orders." Twice over they started at fall of day from a distance of 12 miles (6 kurohs), and, unable to bring matters to a point, neither advanced nor retired; but just sat on horseback for two or three watches. On a third occasion they delivered an attack when one watch of night remained—their purpose seeming to be the burning of tents and huts! They went; they set fire from every end; they made a disturbance. Jalāl Khān Jig-hat[1614] came with other amīrs and saw `Ālam Khān.

Sl. Ibrāhīm did not bestir himself till shoot of dawn from where he was with a few of his own family[1615] within his own enclosure (sarācha). Meantime `Ālam Khān's people were busy [Sidenote: Fol. 257.] with plunder and booty. Seeing the smallness of their number, Sl. Ibrāhīm's people moved out against them in rather small force with one elephant. `Ālam Khān's party, not able to make stand against the elephant, ran away. He in his flight crossed over into the Mīān-dū-āb and crossed back again when he reached the Pānīpat neighbourhood. In Indrī he contrived on some pretext to get 4 laks from Mīān Sulaimān.[1616] He was deserted by Ismā`īl Jilwānī, by Biban[1617] and by his own oldest son Jalāl, who all withdrew into the Mīān-dū-āb; and he had been deserted just before the fighting, by part of his troops, namely, by Daryā Khān (Nūḥānī)'s son Saif Khān, by Khān-i-jahān (Nūḥānī)'s son Maḥmūd Khān, and by Shaikh Jamāl Farmulī. When he was passing through Sihrind with Dilāwar Khān, he heard of our advance and of our capture of Milwat (Malot).[1618] On this Dilāwar Khān—who always had been my well-wisher and on my account had dragged out three or four months in prison,—left `Ālam Khān and the rest and went to his family in Sulṯānpūr. He waited on me three or four days after we took Milwat. `Ālam Khān and Ḥājī Khān crossed the Shatlut (sic)-water and went into Gingūta,[1619] one of the strongholds in the range that lies between the valley and the plain.[1620] There our Afghān and Hazāra[1621] troops besieged them, and had [Sidenote: Fol. 257b] almost taken that strong fort when night came on. Those inside were thinking of escape but could not get out because of the press of horses in the Gate. There must have been elephants also; when these were urged forward, they trod down and killed many horses. `Ālam Khān, unable to escape mounted, got out on foot in the darkness. After a lak of difficulties, he joined Ghāzī Khān, who had not gone into Milwat but had fled into the hills. Not being received with even a little friendliness by Ghāzī Khān; needs must! he came and waited on me at the foot of the dale[1622] near Pehlūr.

(k. Diary resumed.)

A person came to Sīālkot from the Lāhor begs to say they would arrive early next morning to wait on me.

(Dec. 30th) Marching early next day (Rabī` I. 15th), we dismounted at Parsrūr. There Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang, Khwāja Ḥusain and several braves waited on me. As the enemy's camp seemed to be on the Lāhor side of the Rāvī, we sent men out under Būjka for news. Near the third watch of the night they brought word that the enemy, on hearing of us, had fled, no man looking to another.

(Dec. 31st) Getting early to horse and leaving baggage and train in the charge of Shāh Mīr Ḥusain and Jān Beg, we bestirred ourselves. We reached Kalānūr in the afternoon, and there dismounted. Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā and `Ādil Sl.[1623] came [Sidenote: Fol. 258.] to wait on me there, together with some of the begs.

(Jan. 1st 1526 AD.) We marched early from Kalānūr. On the road people gave us almost certain news of Ghāzī Khān and other fugitives. Accordingly we sent, flying after those fliers, the commanders Muḥammadī, Aḥmadī, Qūtlūq-qadam, Treasurer Walī and most of those begs who, in Kābul, had recently bent the knee for their begship. So far it was settled:—That it would be good indeed if they could overtake and capture the fugitives; and that, if they were not able to do this, they were to keep careful watch round Milwat (Malot), so as to prevent those inside from getting out and away. Ghāzī Khān was the object of this watch.

(l. Capture of Milwat.)

(Jan. 2nd and 3rd) After starting those begs ahead, we crossed the Bīāh-water (Beas) opposite Kanwāhīn[1624] and dismounted. From there we marched to the foot of the valley of Fort Milwat, making two night-halts on the way. The begs who had arrived before us, and also those of Hindūstān were ordered to dismount in such a way as to besiege the place closely.

A grandson of Daulat Khān, son of his eldest son `Alī Khān, Ismā`īl Khān by name, came out of Milwat to see me; he took back promise mingled with threat, kindness with menace.

(Jan. 5th) On Friday (Rabī` I. 21st) I moved camp forward to within a mile of the fort, went myself to examine the place, posted right, left and centre, then returned to camp.

Daulat Khān sent to represent to me that Ghāzī Khān had [Sidenote: Fol. 258b.] fled into the hills, and that, if his own faults were pardoned, he would take service with me and surrender Milwat. Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān was sent to chase fear from his heart and to escort him out; he came, and with him his son `Alī Khān. I had ordered that the two swords he had girt to his waist to fight me with, should be hung from his neck. Was such a rustic blockhead possible! With things as they were, he still made pretensions! When he was brought a little forward, I ordered the swords to be removed from his neck. At the time of our seeing one another[1625] he hesitated to kneel; I ordered them to pull his leg and make him do so. I had him seated quite in front, and ordered a person well acquainted with Hindūstānī to interpret my words to him, one after another. Said I, "Thus speak:—I called thee Father. I shewed thee more honour and respect than thou couldst have asked. Thee and thy sons I saved from door-to-door life amongst the Balūchīs.[1626] Thy family and thy ḥaram I freed from Ibrāhīm's prison-house.[1627] Three krors I gave thee on Tātār Khān's lands.[1628] What ill sayest thou I have done thee, that thus thou shouldst hang a sword on thy either side,[1629] lead an army out, fall on lands of ours,[1630] and stir strife and trouble?" Dumbfounded, the old man [Sidenote: Fol. 259.] stuttered a few words, but, he gave no answer, nor indeed could answer be given to words so silencing. He was ordered to remain with Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān.

(Jan. 6th) On Saturday the 22nd of the first Rabī`, I went myself to safeguard the exit of the families and ḥarams[1631] from the fort, dismounting on a rise opposite the Gate. To me there came `Alī Khān and made offering of a few ashrafīs. People began to bring out the families just before the Other Prayer. Though Ghāzī Khān was reported to have got away, there were some who said they had seen him in the fort. For this reason several of the household and braves[1632] were posted at the Gate, in order to prevent his escape by a ruse, for to get away was his full intention.[1633] Moreover if jewels and other valuables were being taken away by stealth, they were to be confiscated. I spent that night in a tent pitched on the rise in front of the Gate.

(Jan. 7th) Early next morning, Muḥammadī, Aḥmadī, Sl. Junaid, `Abdu'l-`azīz, Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang and Qūtlūq-qadam were ordered to enter the fort and take possession of all [Sidenote: Fol. 259b.] effects. As there was much disturbance at the Gate, I shot off a few arrows by way of chastisement. Humāyūn's story-teller (qiṣṣa-khẉān) was struck by the arrow of his destiny and at once surrendered his life.

(Jan. 7th and 8th) After spending two nights[1634] on the rise, I inspected the fort. I went into Ghāzī Khān's book-room;[1635] some of the precious things found in it, I gave to Humāyūn, some sent to Kāmrān (in Qandahār). There were many books of learned contents,[1636] but not so many valuable ones as had at first appeared. I passed that night in the fort; next morning I went back to camp.

(Jan. 9th) It had been in our minds that Ghāzī Khān was in the fort, but he, a man devoid of nice sense of honour, had escaped to the hills, abandoning father, brethren and sisters in Milwat.

See that man without honour who never The face of good luck shall behold; Bodily ease he chose for himself, In hardship he left wife and child (Gulistān cap. i, story 17).

(Jan. 10th) Leaving that camp on Wednesday, we moved towards the hills to which Ghāzī Khān had fled. When we dismounted in the valley-bottom two miles from the camp in the mouth of Milwat,[1637] Dilāwar Khān came and waited on me. Daulat Khān, `Alī Khān and Ismā`īl Khān, with other chiefs, were given into Kitta Beg's charge who was to convey them to the Bhīra fort of Milwat (Malot),[1638] and there keep guard over [Sidenote: Fol. 260.] them. In agreement with Dilāwar Khān, blood-ransom was fixed for some who had been made over each to one man; some gave security, some were kept prisoner. Daulat Khān died when Kitta Beg reached Sulṯānpūr with the prisoners.[1639]

Milwat was given into the charge of Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang who, pledging his own life for it, left his elder brother Arghūn and a party of braves in it. A body of from 200 to 250 Afghāns were told off to reinforce him.

Khwāja Kalān had loaded several camels with Ghaznī wines. A party was held in his quarters overlooking the fort and the whole camp, some drinking `araq, some wine. It was a varied party.

(m. Jaswān-valley.)

Marching on, we crossed a low hill of the grazing-grounds (arghā-dāl-līq) of Milwat and went into the dūn, as Hindūstānīs are understood to call a dale (julga).[1640] In this dale is a running-water[1641] of Hindūstān; along its sides are many villages; and it is said to be the pargana of the Jaswāl, that is to say, of Dilāwar Khān's maternal uncles. It lies there shut-in, with meadows along its torrent, rice cultivated here and there, a three or four mill-stream flowing in its trough, its width from two to [Sidenote: Fol. 260b.] four miles, six even in places, villages on the skirts of its hills—hillocks they are rather—where there are no villages, peacocks, monkeys, and many fowls which, except that they are mostly of one colour, are exactly like house-fowls.

As no reliable news was had of Ghāzī Khān, we arranged for Tardīka to go with Bīrīm Deo Malinhās and capture him wherever he might be found.

In the hills of this dale stand thoroughly strong forts; one on the north-east, named Kūtila, has sides 70 to 80 yards (qārī) of straight fall, the side where the great gate is being perhaps 7 or 8 yards.[1642] The width of the place where the draw-bridge is made, may be 10 to 12 yards. Across this they have made a bridge of two tall trees[1643] by which horses and herds are taken over. This was one of the local forts Ghāzī Khān had strengthened; his man will have been in it now. Our raiders (chāpqūnchī) assaulted it and had almost taken it when night came on. The garrison abandoned this difficult place and went off. Near this dale is also the stronghold of Ginguta; it is girt round by precipices as Kūtila is, but is not so strong as Kūtila. As has been mentioned `Ālam Khān went into it.[1644] [Sidenote: Fol. 261.]

(n. Bābur advances against Ibrāhīm.)

After despatching the light troop against Ghāzī Khān, I put my foot in the stirrup of resolution, set my hand on the rein of trust in God, and moved forward against Sulṯān Ibrāhīm, son of Sulṯān Sikandar, son of Buhlūl Lūdī Afghān, in possession of whose throne at that time were the Dihlī capital and the dominions of Hindūstān, whose standing-army was called a lak (100,000), whose elephants and whose begs' elephants were about 1,000.

At the end of our first stage, I bestowed Dībālpūr on Bāqī shaghāwal[1645] and sent him to help Balkh[1646]; sent also gifts, taken in the success of Milwat, for (my) younger children and various train in Kābul.

When we had made one or two marches down the (Jaswān) dūn, Shāh `Imād Shīrāzī arrived from Araish Khān and Mullā Muḥammad Maẕhab,[1647] bringing letters that conveyed their good wishes for the complete success of our campaign and indicated their effort and endeavour towards this. In response, we sent, by a foot-man, royal letters expressing our favour. We then marched on.

(o. `Ālam Khān takes refuge with Bābur.)

The light troop we had sent out from Milwat (Malot), took Hurūr, Kahlūr and all the hill-forts of the neighbourhood—places to which because of their strength, no-one seemed to have gone for a long time—and came back to me after plundering a little. Came also `Ālam Khān, on foot, ruined, stripped bare. We sent some of the begs to give him honourable meeting, sent horses too, and he waited (malāẓamat qīldī) in that [Sidenote: Fol. 261b.] neighbourhood.[1648]

Raiders of ours went into the hills and valleys round-about, but after a few nights' absence, came back without anything to count. Shāh Mīr Ḥusain, Jān Beg and a few of the braves asked leave and went off for a raid.

(p. Incidents of the march for Pānī-pat.)

While we were in the (Jaswān) dūn, dutiful letters had come more than once from Ismā`īl Jilwānī and Biban; we replied to them from this place by royal letters such as their hearts desired. After we got out of the dale to Rūpar, it rained very much and became so cold that a mass of starved and naked Hindūstānīs died.

When we had left Rūpar and were dismounted at Karal,[1649] opposite Sihrind, a Hindūstānī coming said, "I am Sl. Ibrāhīm's envoy," and though he had no letter or credentials, asked for an envoy from us. We responded at once by sending one or two Sawādī night-guards (tunqiṯār).[1650] These humble persons Ibrāhīm put in prison; they made their escape and came back to us on the very day we beat him.

After having halted one night on the way, we dismounted on the bank of the torrent[1651] of Banūr and Sanūr. Great rivers apart, one running water there is in Hindūstān, is this[1652]; they call it the water of Kakar (Ghaggar). Chitr also is on its bank. We rode up it for an excursion. The rising-place (zih) of the water of this torrent (rūd) is 3 or 4 kurohs (6-8 m.) above Chitr. Going up the (Kakar) torrent, we came to where a 4 or 5 millstream issues from a broad (side-)valley (dara), up which there [Sidenote: Fol. 262.] are very pleasant places, healthy and convenient. I ordered a Chār-bāgh to be made at the mouth of the broad valley of this (tributary) water, which falls into the (Kakar-) torrent after flowing for one or two kurohs through level ground. From its infall to the springs of the Kakar the distance may be 3 to 4 kurohs (6-8 m.). When it comes down in flood during the rains and joins the Kakar, they go together to Sāmāna and Sanām.[1653]

In this camp we heard that Sl. Ibrāhīm had been on our side of Dihlī and had moved on from that station, also that Ḥamīd Khān khāṣa-khail,[1654] the military-collector (shiqdār) of Ḥiṣār-fīrūza, had left that place with its army and with the army of its neighbourhood, and had advanced 10 or 15 kurohs (20-30 m.). Kitta Beg was sent for news to Ibrāhīm's camp, and Mumin Ātaka to the Ḥiṣār-fīrūza camp.

(q. Humāyūn moves against Ḥamīd Khān.)

(Feb. 25th) Marching from Aṃbāla, we dismounted by the side of a lake. There Mumin Ātāka and Kitta Beg rejoined us, both on the same day, Sunday the 13th of the first Jumāda.

We appointed Humāyūn to act against Ḥamīd Khān, and joined the whole of the right (wing) to him, that is to say, Khwāja Kalān, Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī, Treasurer Walī, and also some of the begs whose posts were in Hindūstān, namely, Khusrau, Hindū Beg,`Abdu'l-'azīz and Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang, with also, from the household and braves of the centre, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Kitta Beg and Muḥibb-i `alī. [Sidenote: Fol. 262b.]

Biban waited on me in this camp. These Afghāns remain very rustic and tactless! This person asked to sit although Dilāwar Khān, his superior in following and in rank, did not sit, and although the sons of `Ālam Khān, who are of royal birth, did not sit. Little ear was lent to his unreason!

(Feb. 26th) At dawn on Monday the 14th Humāyūn moved out against Ḥamīd Khān. After advancing for some distance, he sent between 100 and 150 braves scouting ahead, who went close up to the enemy and at once got to grips. But when after a few encounters, the dark mass of Humāyūn's troops shewed in the rear, the enemy ran right away. Humāyūn's men unhorsed from 100 to 200, struck the heads off one half and brought the other half in, together with 7 or 8 elephants.

(March 2nd) On Friday the 18th of the month, Beg Mīrak Mughūl brought news of Humāyūn's victory to the camp. He (Humāyūn?) was there and then given a special head-to-foot and a special horse from the royal stable, besides promise of guerdon (juldū).

(March 5th) On Monday the 25th of the month, Humāyūn arrived to wait on me, bringing with him as many as 100 prisoners and 7 or 8 elephants. Ustād `Alī-qulī and the [Sidenote: Fol. 263.] matchlockmen were ordered to shoot all the prisoners, by way of example. This had been Humāyūn's first affair, his first experience of battle; it was an excellent omen!

Our men who had gone in pursuit of the fugitives, took Ḥiṣār-fīrūza at once on arrival, plundered it, and returned to us. It was given in guerdon to Humāyūn, with all its dependencies and appurtenances, with it also a kror of money.

We marched from that camp to Shāhābād. After we had despatched a news-gatherer (tīl-tūtār kīshī) to Sl. Ibrāhīm's camp, we stayed a few days on that ground. Raḥmat the foot-man was sent with the letters of victory to Kābul.

(r. News of Ibrāhīm.)

(March 13th) On Monday the 28th of the first Jumāda,[1655] we being in that same camp, the Sun entered the Sign of the Ram. News had come again and again from Ibrāhīm's camp, "He is coming, marching two miles" or "four miles", "stopping in each camp two days," or "three days". We for our part advanced from Shāhābād and after halting on two nights, reached the bank of the Jūn-river (Jumna) and encamped opposite Sarsāwa. From that ground Khwāja Kalān's servant Ḥaidar-qulī was sent to get news (tīl tūtā).

Having crossed the Jūn-river at a ford, I visited Sarsāwa. That day also we ate ma`jūn. Sarsāwa[1656] has a source (chashma) from which a smallish stream issues, not a bad place! Tardī Beg khāksār praising it, I said, "Let it be thine!" so just [Sidenote: Fol. 263b.] because he praised it, Sarsāwa was given to him!

I had a platform fixed in a boat and used to go for excursions on the river, sometimes too made the marches down it. Two marches along its bank had been made when, of those sent to gather news, Ḥaidar-qulī brought word that Ibrāhīm had sent Daud Khān (Lūdī) and Ḥātīm Khān (Lūdī) across the river into the Mīān-dū-āb (Tween-waters) with 5 or 6000 men, and that these lay encamped some 6 or 7 miles from his own.

(s. A successful encounter.)

(April 1st) On Sunday the 18th of the second Jumāda, we sent, to ride light against this force, Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān,[1657] Mahdī Khwāja, Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, `Ādil Sulṯān, and the whole of the left, namely, Sl. Junaid, Shāh Mīr Ḥusain, Qūtlūq-qadam, and with them also sent `Abdu'l-lāh and Kitta Beg (of the centre). They crossed from our side of the water at the Mid-day Prayer, and between the Afternoon and the Evening Prayers bestirred themselves from the other bank. Biban having crossed the water on pretext of this movement, ran away.

(April 2nd) At day-break they came upon the enemy;[1658] he made as if coming out in a sort of array, but our men closed with his at once, overcame them, hustled them off, pursued and unhorsed them till they were opposite Ibrāhīm's own camp. Ḥātim Khān was one of those unhorsed, who was Daud Khān (Lūdī)'s elder brother and one of his commanders. Our men brought him in when they waited on me. They brought also [Sidenote: Fol. 264.] 60-70 prisoners and 6 or 7 elephants. Most of the prisoners, by way of warning, were made to reach their death-doom.

(t. Preparations for battle.)

While we were marching on in array of right, left and centre, the army was numbered;[1659] it did not count up to what had been estimated.

At our next camp it was ordered that every man in the army should collect carts, each one according to his circumstances. Seven hundred carts (arāba) were brought[1660] in. The order given to Ustād `Alī-qulī was that these carts should be joined together in Ottoman[1661] fashion, but using ropes of raw hide instead of chains, and that between every two carts 5 or 6 mantelets should be fixed, behind which the matchlockmen were to stand to fire. To allow of collecting all appliances, we delayed 5 or 6 days in that camp. When everything was ready, all the begs with such braves as had had experience in military affairs were summoned to a General Council where opinion found decision at this:—Pānī-pat[1662] is there with its crowded houses and suburbs. It would be on one side of us; our other sides must be protected by carts and mantelets behind which our foot and matchlockmen would stand. With so much settled we marched forward, halted one night on the way, and reached Pānī-pat on Thursday the last day (29th) of the second Jumāda (April 12th).

(u. The opposed forces.)

On our right was the town of Pānī-pat with its suburbs; in front of us were the carts and mantelets we had prepared; on our left and elsewhere were ditch and branch. At distances of [Sidenote: Fol. 264b.] an arrow's flight[1663] sally-places were left for from 100 to 200 horsemen.

Some in the army were very anxious and full of fear. Nothing recommends anxiety and fear. For why? Because what God has fixed in eternity cannot be changed. But though this is so, it was no reproach to be afraid and anxious. For why? Because those thus anxious and afraid were there with a two or three months' journey between them and their homes; our affair was with a foreign tribe and people; none knew their tongue, nor did they know ours:—

A wandering band, with mind awander; In the grip of a tribe, a tribe unfamiliar.[1664]

People estimated the army opposing us at 100,000 men; Ibrāhīm's elephants and those of his amīrs were said to be about 1000. In his hands was the treasure of two forbears.[1665] In Hindūstān, when work such as this has to be done, it is customary to pay out money to hired retainers who are known as b:d-hindī.[1666] If it had occurred to Ibrāhīm to do this, he might have had another lak or two of troops. God brought it right! Ibrāhīm could neither content his braves, nor share out his treasure. How should he content his braves when he was ruled by avarice and had a craving insatiable to pile coin on coin? He was an unproved brave[1667]; he provided nothing for his [Sidenote: Fol. 265.] military operations, he perfected nothing, nor stand, nor move, nor fight.

In the interval at Pānī-pat during which the army was preparing defence on our every side with cart, ditch and branch, Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān had once said to me, "With such precautions taken, how is it possible for him to come?" Said I, "Are you likening him to the Aūzbeg khāns and sulṯāns? In what of movement under arms or of planned operations is he to be compared with them?" God brought it right! Things fell out just as I said!

(Author's note on the Aūzbeg chiefs.) When I reached Ḥiṣār in the year I left Samarkand (918 AH.-1512 AD.), and all the Aūzbeg khāns and sulṯāns gathered and came against us, we brought the families and the goods of the Mughūls and soldiers into the Ḥiṣār suburbs and fortified these by closing the lanes. As those khāns and sulṯāns were experienced in equipment, in planned operations, and in resolute resistance, they saw from our fortification of Ḥiṣār that we were determined on life or death within it, saw they could not count on taking it by assault and, therefore, retired at once from near Nūndāk of Chaghānīān.

(v. Preliminary encounters.)

During the 7 or 8 days we lay in Pānī-pat, our men used to go, a few together, close up to Ibrāhīm's camp, rain arrows down on his massed troops, cut off and bring in heads. Still he made [Sidenote: Fol. 265b.] no move; nor did his troops sally out. At length, we acted on the advice of several Hindūstānī well-wishers and sent out 4 or 5000 men to deliver a night-attack on his camp, the leaders of it being Mahdī Khwāja, Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, `Ādil Sulṯān, Khusrau, Shāh Mīr Ḥusain, Sl. Junaid Barlās, `Abdu'l-`azīz the Master of the Horse, Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang, Qūtlūq-qadam, Treasurer Walī, Khalīfa's Muḥibb-i-`alī, Pay-master Muḥammad, Jān Beg and Qarā-qūzī. It being dark, they were not able to act together well, and, having scattered, could effect nothing on arrival. They stayed near Ibrāhīm's camp till dawn, when the nagarets sounded and troops of his came out in array with elephants. Though our men did not do their work, they got off safe and sound; not a man of them was killed, though they were in touch with such a mass of foes. One arrow pierced Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang's leg; though the wound was not mortal, he was good-for-nothing on the day of battle.

On hearing of this affair, I sent off Humāyūn and his troops to go 2 or 3 miles to meet them, and followed him myself with the rest of the army in battle-array. The party of the night-attack joined him and came back with him. The enemy making no further advance, we returned to camp and dismounted. That night a false alarm fell on the camp; for some 20 minutes (one garī) there were uproar and call-to-arms; the disturbance died down after a time. [Sidenote: Fol. 266.]

(w. Battle of Pānī-pat.[1668])

(April 20th) On Friday the 8th of Rajab,[1669] news came, when it was light enough to distinguish one thing from another (farẓ-waqtī) that the enemy was advancing in fighting-array. We at once put on mail,[1670] armed and mounted.[1671] Our right was Humāyūn, Khwāja Kalān, Sulṯān Muḥammad Dūldāī, Hindū Beg, Treasurer Walī and Pīr-qulī Sīstānī; our left was Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, Mahdī Khwāja, `Ādil Sulṯān, Shāh Mīr Ḥusain, Sl. Junaid Barlās, Qūtlūq-qadam, Jān Beg, Pay-master Muḥammad, and Shāh Ḥusain (of) Yāragī Mughūl Ghānchī(?).[1672] The right hand of the centre[1673] was Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān, Sulaimān Mīrzā,[1674] Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Yūnas-i-`alī, Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān and `Abdu'l-lāh the librarian. The left of the centre was Khalīfa, Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān, Secretary Aḥmadī, Tardī Beg (brother) of Qūj Beg, Khalīfa's Muḥibb-i-`alī and Mīrzā Beg Tarkhān. The advance was Khusrau Kūkūldāsh and Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang. `Abdu'l-'azīz the Master of the Horse was posted as the reserve. For the turning-party (tūlghuma) at the point of the right wing,[1675] we fixed on Red Walī and Malik Qāsim (brother) of Bābā Qashqa, with their Mughūls; for the turning-party at the point of the left wing, we arrayed Qarā-qūzī, Abū'l-muḥammad the lance-player, Shaikh Jamāl Bārīn's Shaikh `Alī, Mahndī(?) and Tīngrī-bīrdī Bashaghī(?) Mughūl; these two parties, directly the enemy got near, were to turn his rear, one from the right, the other from the left. [Sidenote: Fol. 266b.]

When the dark mass of the enemy first came in sight, he seemed to incline towards our right; `Abdu'l-`azīz, who was the right-reserve, was sent therefore to reinforce the right. From the time that Sl. Ibrāhīm's blackness first appeared, he moved swiftly, straight for us, without a check, until he saw the dark mass of our men, when his pulled up and, observing our formation and array,[1676] made as if asking, "To stand or not? To advance or not?" They could not stand; nor could they make their former swift advance.

Our orders were for the turning-parties to wheel from right and left to the enemy's rear, to discharge arrows and to engage in the fight; and for the right and left (wings) to advance and join battle with him. The turning-parties wheeled round and began to rain arrows down. Mahdī Khwāja was the first of the left to engage; he was faced by a troop having an elephant with it; his men's flights of arrows forced it to retire. To reinforce the left I sent Secretary Aḥmadī and also Qūj Beg's Tardī Beg and Khalīfa's Muḥibb-i-'alī. On the right also there was some stubborn fighting. Orders were given for Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Yūnas-i-`alī and `Abdu'l-lāh to engage those facing them in front of the centre. From that same position Ustād `Alī-qulī made good discharge of firingī shots;[1677]

Musṯafa the commissary for his part made excellent discharge [Sidenote: Fol. 267.] of zarb-zan shots from the left hand of the centre. Our right, left, centre and turning-parties having surrounded the enemy, rained arrows down on him and fought ungrudgingly. He made one or two small charges on our right and left but under our men's arrows, fell back on his own centre. His right and left hands (qūl) were massed in such a crowd that they could neither move forward against us nor force a way for flight.

When the incitement to battle had come, the Sun was spear-high; till mid-day fighting had been in full force; noon passed, the foe was crushed in defeat, our friends rejoicing and gay. By God's mercy and kindness, this difficult affair was made easy for us! In one half-day, that armed mass was laid upon the earth. Five or six thousand men were killed in one place close to Ibrāhīm. Our estimate of the other dead, lying all over the field, was 15 to 16,000, but it came to be known, later in Āgra from the statements of Hindūstānīs, that 40 or 50,000 may have died in that battle.[1678]

The foe defeated, pursuit and unhorsing of fugitives began. Our men brought in amīrs of all ranks and the chiefs they captured; mahauts made offering of herd after herd of elephants.

Ibrāhīm was thought to have fled; therefore, while pursuing [Sidenote: Fol. 267b.] the enemy, we told off Qismatāī Mīrzā, Bābā chuhra and Būjka of the khaṣa-tābīn[1679] to lead swift pursuit to Āgra and try to take him. We passed through his camp, looked into his own enclosure (sarācha) and quarters, and dismounted on the bank of standing-water (qarā-sū).

It was the Afternoon Prayer when Khalīfa's younger brother-in-law T̤āhir Tībrī[1680] who had found Ibrāhīm's body in a heap of dead, brought in his head.

(x. Detachments sent to occupy Dihlī and Āgra.)

On that very same day we appointed Humāyūn Mīrzā[1681] to ride fast and light to Āgra with Khwāja Kalān, Muḥammadī, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Yūnas-i-`alī, `Abdu'l-lah and Treasurer Walī, to get the place into their hands and to mount guard over the treasure. We fixed on Mahdī Khwāja, with Muḥammad Sl. Mīrza, `Ādil Sulṯān, Sl. Junaid Barlās and Qūtlūq-qadam to leave their baggage, make sudden incursion on Dihlī, and keep watch on the treasuries.[1682]

(April 21st) We marched on next day and when we had gone 2 miles, dismounted, for the sake of the horses, on the bank of the Jūn (Jumna).

(April 24th) On Tuesday (Rajab 12th), after we had halted on two nights and had made the circuit of Shaikh Niẓāmu'd-dīn Auliyā's tomb[1683] we dismounted on the bank of the Jūn over against Dihlī.[1684] That same night, being Wednesday-eve, we made an excursion into the fort of Dihlī and there spent the night.

(April 25th) Next day (Wednesday Rajab 13th) I made the circuit of Khwāja Quṯbu'd-dīn's[1685] tomb and visited the tombs and residences of Sl. Ghiyāṣu'd-dīn Balban[1686] and Sl. `Alāu'u'd-dīn [Sidenote: Fol. 268.] Khiljī,[1687] his Minār, and the Ḥauẓ-shamsī, Ḥauẓ-i-khaṣ and the tombs and gardens of Sl. Buhlūl and Sl. Sikandar (Lūdī). Having done this, we dismounted at the camp, went on a boat, and there `araq was drunk.

We bestowed the Military Collectorate (shiqdārlīghī) of Dihlī on Red Walī, made Dost Dīwān in the Dihlī district, sealed the treasuries, and made them over to their charge.

(April 26th) On Thursday we dismounted on the bank of the Jūn, over against Tūghlūqābād.[1688]

(y. The khuṯba read for Bābur in Dihlī.)

(April 27th) On Friday (Rajab 15th) while we remained on the same ground, Maulānā Maḥmūd and Shaikh Zain went with a few others into Dihlī for the Congregational Prayer, read the khuṯba in my name, distributed a portion of money to the poor and needy,[1689] and returned to camp.

(April 28th) Leaving that ground on Saturday (Rajab 16th), we advanced march by march for Āgra. I made an excursion to Tūghlūqābād and rejoined the camp.

(May 4th) On Friday (Rajab 22nd), we dismounted at the mansion (manzil) of Sulaimān Farmulī in a suburb of Āgra, but as the place was far from the fort, moved on the following day to Jalāl Khān Jig:hat's house.

On Humāyūn's arrival at Āgra, ahead of us, the garrison had made excuses and false pretexts (about surrender). He and his noticing the want of discipline there was, said, "The long hand may be laid on the Treasury"! and so sat down to watch the roads out of Āgra till we should come.

(z. The great diamond.)

In Sultan Ibrāhīm's defeat the Rāja of Gūālīār Bikramājīt the Hindū had gone to hell.[1690] [Sidenote: Fol. 268b.]

(Author's note on Bikramājīt.) The ancestors of Bikramājīt had ruled in Gūālīār for more than a hundred years.[1691] Sikandar (Lūdī) had sat down in Āgra for several years in order to take the fort; later on, in Ibrāhīm's time, `Aẕim Humāyūn Sarwānī[1692] had completely invested it for some while; following this, it was taken on terms under which Shamsābād was given in exchange for it.[1693]

Bikramājīt's children and family were in Āgra at the time of Ibrāhīm's defeat. When Humāyūn reached Āgra, they must have been planning to flee, but his postings of men (to watch the roads) prevented this and guard was kept over them. Humāyūn himself did not let them go (bārghālī qūīmās). They made him a voluntary offering of a mass of jewels and valuables amongst which was the famous diamond which `Alāu'u'd-dīn must have brought.[1694] Its reputation is that every appraiser has estimated its value at two and a half days' food for the whole world. Apparently it weighs 8 mis̤qāls.[1695] Humāyūn offered it to me when I arrived at Āgra; I just gave it him back.

(aa. Ibrāhīm's mother and entourage.)

Amongst men of mark who were in the fort, there were Malik Dād Karānī, Millī Sūrdūk and Fīrūz Khān Mīwātī. They, being convicted of false dealing, were ordered out for capital punishment. Several persons interceded for Malik Dād Karānī and four or five days passed in comings and goings before the matter was arranged. We then shewed to them (all?) kindness and favour in agreement with the petition made for them, and we restored them all their goods.[1696] A pargana worth 7 laks[1697] was bestowed on Ibrāhīm's mother; parganas were given also to these begs of his.[1698] She was sent out of the fort with her old servants and given encamping-ground (yūrt) two miles below [Sidenote: Fol. 269.] Āgra.

(May 10th) I entered Āgra at the Afternoon Prayer of Thursday (Rajab 28th) and dismounted at the mansion (manzil) of Sl. Ibrāhīm.

EXPEDITIONS OF TRAMONTANE MUḤAMMADANS INTO HIND.

(a. Bābur's five attempts on Hindūstān.)

From the date 910 at which the country of Kābul was conquered, down to now (932 AH.) (my) desire for Hindūstān had been constant, but owing sometimes to the feeble counsels of begs, sometimes to the non-accompaniment of elder and younger brethren,[1699] a move on Hindūstān had not been practicable and its territories had remained unsubdued. At length no such obstacles were left; no beg, great or small (beg begāt) of lower birth,[1700] could speak an opposing word. In 925 AH. (1519 AD.) we led an army out and, after taking Bajaur by storm in 2-3 garī (44-66 minutes), and making a general massacre of its people, went on into Bhīra. Bhīra we neither over-ran nor plundered; we imposed a ransom on its people, taking from them in money and goods to the value of 4 laks of shāhrukhīs and having shared this out to the army and auxiliaries, returned to Kābul. From then till now we laboriously held tight[1701] to Hindūstān, five times leading an army into it.[1702] The fifth time, God the Most High, by his own mercy and favour, made such a foe as Sl. Ibrāhīm the vanquished and loser, such a realm as Hindūstān our conquest and possession.

(b. Three invaders from Tramontana.)

From the time of the revered Prophet down till now[1703] three men from that side[1704] have conquered and ruled Hindūstān. Sl. Maḥmūd Ghāzī[1705] was the first, who and whose descendants sat long on the seat of government in Hindūstān. Sl. Shihābu'd-dīn [Sidenote: Fol. 269b.] of Ghūr was the second,[1706] whose slaves and dependants royally shepherded[1707] this realm for many years. I am the third.

But my task was not like the task of those other rulers. For why? Because Sl. Maḥmūd, when he conquered Hindūstān, had the throne of Khurāsān subject to his rule, vassal and obedient to him were the sulṯāns of Khwārizm and the Marches (Dāru'l-marz), and under his hand was the ruler of Samarkand. Though his army may not have numbered 2 laks, what question is there that it[1708] was one. Then again, rājas were his opponents; all Hindūstān was not under one supreme head (pādshāh), but each rāja ruled independently in his own country. Sl. Shihābu'd-dīn again,—though he himself had no rule in Khurāsān, his elder brother Ghiyās̱u'd-dīn had it. The T̤abaqāt-i-nāṣirī[1709] brings it forward that he once led into Hindūstān an army of 120,000 men and horse in mail.[1710] His opponents also were rāīs and rājas; one man did not hold all Hindūstān.

That time we came to Bhīra, we had at most some 1500 to 2000 men. We had made no previous move on Hindūstān with an army equal to that which came the fifth time, when we beat Sl. Ibrāhīm and conquered the realm of Hindūstān, the total written down for which, taking one retainer with another, and [Sidenote: Fol. 270.] with traders and servants, was 12,000. Dependent on me were the countries of Badakhshān, Qūndūz, Kābul and Qandahār, but no reckonable profit came from them, rather it was necessary to reinforce them fully because several lie close to an enemy. Then again, all Māwarā'u'n-nahr was in the power of the Aūzbeg khāns and sulṯāns, an ancient foe whose armies counted up to 100,000. Moreover Hindūstān, from Bhīra to Bihār, was in the power of the Afghāns and in it Sl. Ibrāhīm was supreme. In proportion to his territory his army ought to have been 5 laks, but at that time the Eastern amīrs were in hostility to him. His army was estimated at 100,000 and people said his elephants and those of his amīrs were 1000.

Under such conditions, in this strength, and having in my rear 100,000 old enemies such as are the Aūzbegs, we put trust in God and faced the ruler of such a dense army and of domains so wide. As our trust was in Him, the most high God did not make our labour and hardships vain, but defeated that powerful foe and conquered that broad realm. Not as due to strength and effort of our own do we look upon this good fortune, but as had solely through God's pleasure and kindness. We know that this happiness was not the fruit of our own ambition and resolve, but that it was purely from His mercy and favour.

DESCRIPTION OF HINDŪSTĀN.

(a. Hindūstān.)

The country of Hindūstān is extensive, full of men, and full [Sidenote: Fol. 270b.] of produce. On the east, south, and even on the west, it ends at its great enclosing ocean (muḥiṯ daryā-sī-gha). On the north it has mountains which connect with those of Hindū-kush, Kāfiristān and Kashmīr. North-west of it lie Kābul, Ghaznī and Qandahār. Dihlī is held (aīrīmīsh) to be the capital of the whole of Hindūstān. From the death of Shihābu'd-dīn Ghūrī (d. 602 AH.-1206 AD.) to the latter part of the reign of Sl. Fīrūz Shāh (Tūghlūq Turk d. 790 AH.-1388 AD.), the greater part of Hindūstān must have been under the rule of the sulṯāns of Dihlī.

(b. Rulers contemporary with Bābur's conquest.)

At the date of my conquest of Hindūstān it was governed by five Musalmān rulers (pādshāh)[1711] and two Pagans (kāfir). These were the respected and independent rulers, but there were also, in the hills and jungles, many rāīs and rājas, held in little esteem (kīchīk karīm).

First, there were the Afghāns who had possession of Dihlī, the capital, and held the country from Bhīra to Bihār. Jūnpūr, before their time, had been in possession of Sl. Ḥusain Sharqī (Eastern)[1712] whose dynasty Hindūstānīs call Pūrabī (Eastern). His ancestors will have been cup-bearers in the presence of Sl. Fīrūz Shāh and those (Tūghlūq) sulṯāns; they became supreme in Jūnpūr after his death.[1713] At that time Dihlī was in the hands of Sl. `Alāu'u'd-dīn (`Ālam Khān) of the Sayyid dynasty to whose ancestor Tīmūr Beg had given it when, after having captured it, he went away.[1714] Sl. Buhlūl Lūdī and his son (Sikandar) got possession of the capital Jūnpūr and the capital Dihlī, and brought both under one government (881 AH.-1476 AD.).

Secondly, there was Sl. Muḥammad Muz̤affer in Gujrāt; he departed from the world a few days before the defeat of Sl. Ibrāhīm. He was skilled in the Law, a ruler (pādshāh) seeking [Sidenote: Fol. 271.] after knowledge, and a constant copyist of the Holy Book. His dynasty people call Tānk.[1715] His ancestors also will have been wine-servers to Sl. Fīrūz Shāh and those (Tūghlūq) sulṯāns; they became possessed of Gujrāt after his death.

Thirdly, there were the Bāhmanīs of the Dakkan (Deccan, i.e. South), but at the present time no independent authority is left them; their great begs have laid hands on the whole country, and must be asked for whatever is needed.[1716]

Fourthly, there was Sl. Maḥmūd in the country of Malwā, which people call also Mandāū.[1717] His dynasty they call Khilīj (Turk). Rānā Sangā had defeated Sl. Maḥmūd and taken possession of most of his country. This dynasty also has become feeble. Sl. Maḥmūd's ancestors also must have been cherished by Sl. Fīrūz Shāh; they became possessed of the Malwā country after his death.[1718]

Fifthly, there was Naṣrat Shāh[1719] in the country of Bengal. His father (Ḥusain Shāh), a sayyid styled `Alāu'u'd-dīn, had ruled in Bengal and Naṣrat Shāh attained to rule by inheritance. A surprising custom in Bengal is that hereditary succession is rare. The royal office is permanent and there are permanent offices of amīrs, wazīrs and manṣab-dārs (officials). It is the office that Bengalis regard with respect. Attached to each office is a body of obedient, subordinate retainers and servants. If the royal heart demand that a person should be dismissed [Sidenote: Fol. 271b.] and another be appointed to sit in his place, the whole body of subordinates attached to that office become the (new) office-holder's. There is indeed this peculiarity of the royal office itself that any person who kills the ruler (pādshāh) and seats himself on the throne, becomes ruler himself; amīrs, wazīrs, soldiers and peasants submit to him at once, obey him, and recognize him for the rightful ruler his predecessor in office had been.[1720] Bengalis say, "We are faithful to the throne; we loyally obey whoever occupies it." As for instance, before the reign of Naṣrat Shāh's father `Alāu'u'd-dīn, an Abyssinian (Ḥabshī, named Muz̤affar Shāh) had killed his sovereign (Maḥmūd Shāh Ilyās), mounted the throne and ruled for some time. `Alāu'u'd-dīn killed that Abyssinian, seated himself on the throne and became ruler. When he died, his son (Naṣrat) became ruler by inheritance. Another Bengali custom is to regard it as a disgraceful fault in a new ruler if he expend and consume the treasure of his predecessors. On coming to rule he must gather treasure of his own. To amass treasure Bengalis regard as a glorious distinction. Another custom in Bengal is that from ancient times parganas have been assigned to meet the charges of the treasury, stables, and all royal expenditure and to defray these charges no impost is laid on other lands.

These five, mentioned above, were the great Musalmān rulers, honoured in Hindūstān, many-legioned, and broad-landed. Of the Pagans the greater both in territory and army, is the Rāja of Bījānagar.[1721] [Sidenote: Fol. 272.]

The second is Rānā Sangā who in these latter days had grown great by his own valour and sword. His original country was Chitūr; in the downfall from power of the Mandāū sulṯāns, he became possessed of many of their dependencies such as Rantanbūr, Sārangpūr, Bhīlsān and Chandīrī. Chandīrī I stormed in 934 AH. (1528 A.D.)[1722] and, by God's pleasure, took it in a few hours; in it was Rānā Sangā's great and trusted man Midnī Rāo; we made general massacre of the Pagans in it and, as will be narrated, converted what for many years had been a mansion of hostility, into a mansion of Islām.

There are very many rāīs and rājas on all sides and quarters of Hindūstān, some obedient to Islām, some, because of their remoteness or because their places are fastnesses, not subject to Musalmān rule.

(c. Of Hindūstān.)

Hindūstān is of the first climate, the second climate, and the third climate; of the fourth climate it has none. It is a wonderful country. Compared with our countries it is a different world; its mountains, rivers, jungles and deserts, its towns, its cultivated lands, its animals and plants, its peoples and their tongues, its rains, and its winds, are all different. In some respects the hot-country (garm-sīl) that depends on Kābul, is like Hindūstān, but in others, it is different. Once the water of Sind is crossed, everything is in the Hindūstān way (ṯāriq) [Sidenote: Fol. 272b.] land, water, tree, rock, people and horde, opinion and custom.

(d. Of the northern mountains.)

After crossing the Sind-river (eastwards), there are countries, in the northern mountains mentioned above, appertaining to Kashmīr and once included in it, although most of them, as for example, Paklī and Shahmang (?), do not now obey it. Beyond Kashmīr there are countless peoples and hordes, parganas and cultivated lands, in the mountains. As far as Bengal, as far indeed as the shore of the great ocean, the peoples are without break. About this procession of men no-one has been able to give authentic information in reply to our enquiries and investigations. So far people have been saying that they call these hill-men Kas.[1723] It has struck me that as a Hindūstānī pronounces shīn as sīn (i.e. sh as s), and as Kashmīr is the one respectable town in these mountains, no other indeed being heard of, Hindūstānīs might pronounce it Kasmīr.[1724] These people trade in musk-bags, b:ḥrī-qūṯās,[1725] saffron, lead and copper.

Hindīs call these mountains Sawālak-parbat. In the Hindī tongue sawāī-lak means one lak and a quarter, that is, 125,000, and parbat means a hill, which makes 125,000 hills.[1726] The snow on these mountains never lessens; it is seen white from many districts of Hind, as, for example, Lāhor, Sihrind and Saṃbal. The range, which in Kābul is known as Hindū-kush, comes from Kābul eastwards into Hindūstān, with slight inclination to the south. The Hindūstānāt[1727] are to the south of it. Tībet lies to the north of it and of that unknown horde called Kas. [Sidenote: Fol. 273.]

(e. Of rivers.)

Many rivers rise in these mountains and flow through Hindūstān. Six rise north of Sihrind, namely Sind, Bahat (Jīlam), Chān-āb [sic], Rāwī, Bīāh, and Sutluj[1728]; all meet near Multān, flow westwards under the name of Sind, pass through the Tatta country and fall into the `Umān(-sea).

Besides these six there are others, such as Jūn (Jumna), Gang (Ganges), Rahap (Raptī?), Gūmtī, Gagar (Ghaggar), Sirū, Gandak, and many more; all unite with the Gang-daryā, flow east under its name, pass through the Bengal country, and are poured into the great ocean. They all rise in the Sawālak-parbat.

Many rivers rise in the Hindūstān hills, as, for instance, Chaṃbal, Banās, Bītwī, and Sūn (Son). There is no snow whatever on these mountains. Their waters also join the Gang-daryā.

(f. Of the Arāvallī.)

Another Hindūstān range runs north and south. It begins in the Dihlī country at a small rocky hill on which is Fīrūz Shāh's residence, called Jahān-nāma,[1729] and, going on from there, appears near Dihlī in detached, very low, scattered here and there, rocky [Sidenote: Fol. 273b.] little hills.[1730] Beyond Mīwāt, it enters the Bīāna country. The hills of Sīkrī, Bārī and Dūlpūr are also part of this same including (tūtā) range. The hills of Gūālīār—they write it Gālīūr—although they do not connect with it, are off-sets of this range; so are the hills of Rantanbūr, Chitūr, Chandīrī, and Mandāū. They are cut off from it in some places by 7 to 8 kurohs (14 to 16 m.). These hills are very low, rough, rocky and jungly. No snow whatever falls on them. They are the makers, in Hindūstān, of several rivers.

(g. Irrigation.)

The greater part of the Hindūstān country is situated on level land. Many though its towns and cultivated lands are, it nowhere has running waters.[1731] Rivers and, in some places, standing-waters are its "running-waters" (āqār-sūlār). Even where, as for some towns, it is practicable to convey water by digging channels (ārīq), this is not done. For not doing it there may be several reasons, one being that water is not at all a necessity in cultivating crops and orchards. Autumn crops grow by the downpour of the rains themselves; and strange it is that spring crops grow even when no rain falls. To young trees water is made to flow by means of buckets or a wheel. They are given water constantly during two or three years; after which they need no more. Some vegetables are watered constantly.

In Lāhor, Dībālpūr and those parts, people water by means of a wheel. They make two circles of ropes long enough to suit the depth of the well, fix strips of wood between them, and on these fasten pitchers. The ropes with the wood and attached [Sidenote: Fol. 274.] pitchers are put over the well-wheel. At one end of the wheel-axle a second wheel is fixed, and close (qāsh) to it another on an upright axle. This last wheel the bullock turns; its teeth catch in the teeth of the second, and thus the wheel with the pitchers is turned. A trough is set where the water empties from the pitchers and from this the water is conveyed everywhere.

In Āgra, Chandwār, Bīāna and those parts, again, people water with a bucket; this is a laborious and filthy way. At the well-edge they set up a fork of wood, having a roller adjusted between the forks, tie a rope to a large bucket, put the rope over the roller, and tie its other end to the bullock. One person must drive the bullock, another empty the bucket. Every time the bullock turns after having drawn the bucket out of the well, that rope lies on the bullock-track, in pollution of urine and dung, before it descends again into the well. To some crops needing water, men and women carry it by repeated efforts in pitchers.[1732]

(h. Other particulars about Hindūstān.)

The towns and country of Hindūstān are greatly wanting in charm. Its towns and lands are all of one sort; there are no walls to the orchards (bāghāt), and most places are on the dead level plain. Under the monsoon-rains the banks of some of its rivers and torrents are worn into deep channels, difficult and [Sidenote: Fol. 274b.] troublesome to pass through anywhere. In many parts of the plains thorny jungle grows, behind the good defence of which the people of the pargana become stubbornly rebellious and pay no taxes.

Except for the rivers and here and there standing-waters, there is little "running-water". So much so is this that towns and countries subsist on the water of wells or on such as collects in tanks during the rains.

In Hindūstān hamlets and villages, towns indeed, are depopulated and set up in a moment! If the people of a large town, one inhabited for years even, flee from it, they do it in such a way that not a sign or trace of them remains in a day or a day and a half.[1733] On the other hand, if they fix their eyes on a place in which to settle, they need not dig water-courses or construct dams because their crops are all rain-grown,[1734] and as the population of Hindūstān is unlimited, it swarms in. They make a tank or dig a well; they need not build houses or set up walls—khas-grass (Andropogon muricatum) abounds, wood is unlimited, huts are made, and straightway there is a village or a town!

(i. Fauna of Hindūstān:—Mammals.)

The elephant, which Hindūstānīs call hāt(h)ī, is one of the wild animals peculiar to Hindūstān. It inhabits the (western?) borders of the Kālpī country, and becomes more numerous in its wild state the further east one goes (in Kālpī?). From this tract it is that captured elephants are brought; in Karrah and [Sidenote: Fol. 275.] Mānikpūr elephant-catching is the work of 30 or 40 villages.[1735] People answer (jawāb bīrūrlār) for them direct to the exchequer.[1736] The elephant is an immense animal and very sagacious. If people speak to it, it understands; if they command anything from it, it does it. Its value is according to its size; it is sold by measure (qārīlāb); the larger it is, the higher its price. People rumour that it is heard of in some islands as 10 qārī[1737] high, but in this tract it[1738] is not seen above 4 or 5. It eats and drinks entirely with its trunk; if it lose the trunk, it cannot live. It has two great teeth (tusks) in its upper jaw, one on each side of its trunk; by setting these against walls and trees, it brings them down; with these it fights and does whatever hard tasks fall to it. People call these ivory (`āj, var. ghāj); they are highly valued by Hindūstānīs. The elephant has no hair.[1739] It is much relied on by Hindūstānīs, accompanying every troop of their armies. It has some useful qualities:—it crosses great rivers with ease, carrying a mass of baggage, and three or four have gone dragging without trouble the cart of the mortar (qazān) it takes four or five hundred men to haul.[1740] But its stomach is large; one elephant eats the corn (būghūz) of two strings (qiṯār) of camels.[1741]

The rhinoceros is another. This also is a large animal, equal [Sidenote: Fol. 275b.] in bulk to perhaps three buffaloes. The opinion current in those countries (Tramontana) that it can lift an elephant on its horn, seems mistaken. It has a single horn on its nose, more than nine inches (qārīsh) long; one of two qārīsh is not seen.[1742] Out of one large horn were made a drinking-vessel[1743] and a dice-box, leaving over [the thickness of] 3 or 4 hands.[1744] The rhinoceros' hide is very thick; an arrow shot from a stiff bow, drawn with full strength right up to the arm-pit, if it pierce at all, might penetrate 4 inches (aīlīk, hands). From the sides (qāsh) of its fore and hind legs,[1745] folds hang which from a distance look like housings thrown over it. It resembles the horse more than it does any other animal.[1746] As the horse has a small stomach (appetite?), so has the rhinoceros; as in the horse a piece of bone (pastern?) grows in place of small bones (T. āshūq, Fr. osselets (Zenker), knuckles), so one grows in the rhinoceros; as in the horse's hand (aīlīk, Pers. dast) there is kūmūk (or gūmūk, a tibia, or marrow), so there is in the rhinoceros.[1747] It is more ferocious than the elephant and cannot be made obedient and submissive. There are masses of it in the Parashāwar and Hashnagar jungles, so too between the Sind-river and the jungles of the Bhīra country. Masses there are also on the banks of [Sidenote: Fol. 276.] the Sārū-river in Hindūstān. Some were killed in the Parashāwar and Hashnagar jungles in our moves on Hindūstān. It strikes powerfully with its horn; men and horses enough have been horned in those hunts.[1748] In one of them the horse of a chuhra (brave) named Maqṣūd was tossed a spear's-length, for which reason the man was nick-named the rhino's aim (maqṣūd-i-karg).

The wild-buffalo[1749] is another. It is much larger than the (domestic) buffalo and its horns do not turn back in the same way.[1750] It is a mightily destructive and ferocious animal.

The nīla-gāū (blue-bull)[1751] is another. It may stand as high as a horse but is somewhat lighter in build. The male is bluish-gray, hence, seemingly, people call it nīla-gāū. It has two rather small horns. On its throat is a tuft of hair, nine inches long; (in this) it resembles the yak.[1752] Its hoof is cleft (aīrī) like the hoof of cattle. The doe is of the colour of the būghū-marāl[1753]; she, for her part, has no horns and is plumper than the male.

The hog-deer (kotah-pāīcha) is another.[1754] It may be of the size of the white deer (āq kiyīk). It has short legs, hence its name, little-legged. Its horns are like a būghū's but smaller; like the būghū it casts them every year. Being rather a poor runner, it does not leave the jungle.

Another is a deer (kiyīk) after the fashion of the male deer (aīrkākī hūna) of the jīrān.[1755] Its back is black, its belly white, its horns longer than the hūna's, but more crooked. A Hindūstānī [Sidenote: Fol. 276b.] calls it kalahara,[1756] a word which may have been originally kālā-haran, black-buck, and which has been softened in pronunciation to kalahara. The doe is light-coloured. By means of this kalahara people catch deer; they fasten a noose (ḥalqa) on its horns, hang a stone as large as a ball[1757] on one of its feet, so as to keep it from getting far away after it has brought about the capture of a deer, and set it opposite wild deer when these are seen. As these (kalahara) deer are singularly combative, advance to fight is made at once. The two deer strike with their horns and push one another backwards and forwards, during which the wild one's horns become entangled in the net that is fast to the tame one's. If the wild one would run away, the tame one does not go; it is impeded also by the stone on its foot. People take many deer in this way; after capture they tame them and use them in their turn to take others;[1758] they also set them to fight at home; the deer fight very well.

There is a smaller deer (kiyīk) on the Hindūstān hill-skirts, as large may-be as the one year's lamb of the arqārghalcha (Ovis poli).

The gīnī-cow[1759] is another, a very small one, perhaps as large as the qūchqār (ram) of those countries (Tramontana). Its flesh is very tender and savoury.

The monkey (maimūn) is another—a Hindūstānī calls it bandar. Of this too there are many kinds, one being what people [Sidenote: Fol. 277.] take to those countries. The jugglers (lūlī) teach them tricks. This kind is in the mountains of Nūr-dara, in the skirt-hills of Safīd-koh neighbouring on Khaibar, and from there downwards all through Hindūstān. It is not found higher up. Its hair is yellow, its face white, its tail not very long.—Another kind, not found in Bajaur, Sawād and those parts, is much larger than the one taken to those countries (Tramontana). Its tail is very long, its hair whitish, its face quite black. It is in the mountains and jungles of Hindūstān.[1760]—Yet another kind is distinguished (būlā dūr), quite black in hair, face and limbs.[1761]

The nawal (nūl)[1762] is another. It may be somewhat smaller than the kīsh. It climbs trees. Some call it the mūsh-i-khūrma (palm-rat). It is thought lucky.

A mouse (T. sīchqān) people call galāhrī (squirrel) is another. It is just always in trees, running up and down with amazing alertness and speed.[1763]

(j. Fauna of Hindūstān:—Birds.)[1764]

The peacock (Ar. ṯāūs) is one. It is a beautifully coloured and splendid animal. Its form (andām) is not equal to its colouring and beauty. Its body may be as large as the crane's (tūrna) but it is not so tall. On the head of both cock and hen are 20 to 30 feathers rising some 2 or 3 inches high. The hen has neither colour nor beauty. The head of the cock has an iridescent collar (ṯauq sūsanī); its neck is of a beautiful blue; [Sidenote: Fol. 277b.] below the neck, its back is painted in yellow, parrot-green, blue and violet colours. The flowers[1765] on its back are much the smaller; below the back as far as the tail-tips are [larger] flowers painted in the same colours. The tail of some peacocks grows to the length of a man's extended arms.[1766] It has a small tail under its flowered feathers, like the tail of other birds; this ordinary tail and its primaries[1767] are red. It is in Bajaur and Sawād and below them; it is not in Kunur [Kūnūr] and the Lamghānāt or any place above them. Its flight is feebler than the pheasant's (qīrghāwal); it cannot do more than make one or two short flights.[1768] On account of its feeble flight, it frequents the hills or jungles, which is curious, since jackals abound in the jungles it frequents. What damage might these jackals not do to birds that trail from jungle to jungle, tails as long as a man's stretch (qūlāch)! Hindūstānīs call the peacock mor. Its flesh is lawful food, according to the doctrine of Imām Abū Ḥanīfa; it is like that of the partridge and not unsavoury, but is eaten with instinctive aversion, in the way camel-flesh is.

The parrot (H. ṯūṯī) is another. This also is in Bajaur and countries lower down. It comes into Nīngnahār and the Lamghānāt in the heats when mulberries ripen; it is not there at other times. It is of many, many kinds. One sort is that which people carry into those (Tramontane) countries. They [Sidenote: Fol. 278.] make it speak words.—Another sort is smaller; this also they make speak words. They call it the jungle-parrot. It is numerous in Bajaur, Sawād and that neighbourhood, so much so that 5 or 6000 fly in one flock (khail). Between it and the one first-named the difference is in bulk; in colouring they are just one and the same.—Another sort is still smaller than the jungle-parrot. Its head is quite red, the top of its wings (i.e. the primaries) is red also; the tip of its tail for two hands'-thickness is lustrous.[1769] The head of some parrots of this kind is iridescent (sūsanī). It does not become a talker. People call it the Kashmīr parrot.—Another sort is rather smaller than the jungle-parrot; its beak is black; round its neck is a wide black collar; its primaries are red. It is an excellent learner of words.—We used to think that whatever a parrot or a shārak (mīna) might say of words people had taught it, it could not speak of any matter out of its own head. At this juncture[1770] one of my immediate servants Abū'l-qāsim Jalāīr, reported a singular thing to me. A parrot of this sort whose cage must have been covered up, said, "Uncover my face; I am stifling." And another time when palkī bearers sat down to take breath, this parrot, presumably on hearing wayfarers pass by, said, "Men are going past, are you not going on?" Let credit rest with the narrator,[1771] but never-the-less, so long as a person has not heard with his own ears, he may not believe!—Another kind is of a beautiful [Sidenote: Fol. 278b.] full red; it has other colours also, but, as nothing is distinctly remembered about them, no description is made. It is a very beautiful bird, both in colour and form. People are understood to make this also speak words.[1772] Its defect is a most unpleasant, sharp voice, like the drawing of broken china on a copper plate.[1773]

The (P.) shārak[1774] is another. It is numerous in the Lamghānāt and abounds lower down, all over Hindūstān. Like the parrot, it is of many kinds.—The kind that is numerous in the Lamghānāt has a black head; its primaries (qānāt) are spotted, its body rather larger and thicker[1775] than that of the (T.) chūghūr-chūq.[1776] People teach it to speak words.—Another kind they call p:ndāwalī[1777]; they bring it from Bengal; it is black all over and of much greater bulk than the shārak (here, house-mīna). Its bill and foot are yellow and on each ear are yellow wattles which hang down and have a bad appearance.[1778] It learns to speak well and clearly.—Another kind of shārak is slenderer than the last and is red round the eyes. It does not learn to speak. People call it the wood-shārak.[1779] Again, at the time when (934 AH.) I had made a bridge over Gang (Ganges), crossed it, and put my adversaries to flight, a kind of shārak was seen, in the neighbourhood of Laknau and Aūd (Oude), for the first time, which had a white breast, piebald head, and black back. This kind does not learn to speak.[1780]

The lūja[1781] is another. This bird they call (Ar.) bū-qalamūn (chameleon) because, between head and tail, it has five or six changing colours, resplendent (barrāq) like a pigeon's throat. [Sidenote: Fol. 279.] It is about as large as the kabg-i-darī[1782] and seems to be the kabg-i-darī of Hindūstān. As the kabg-i-darī moves (yūrūr) on the heads (kulah) of mountains, so does this. It is in the Nijr-aū mountains of the countries of Kābul, and in the mountains lower down but it is not found higher up. People tell this wonderful thing about it:—When the birds, at the onset of winter, descend to the hill-skirts, if they come over a vineyard, they can fly no further and are taken. God knows the truth! The flesh of this bird is very savoury.

The partridge (durrāj)[1783] is another. This is not peculiar to Hindūstān but is also in the Garm-sīr countries[1784]; as however some kinds are only in Hindūstān, particulars of them are given here. The durrāj (Francolinus vulgaris) may be of the same bulk as the kīklīk[1785]; the cock's back is the colour of the hen-pheasant (qīrghāwal-ning māda-sī); its throat and breast are black, with quite white spots.[1786] A red line comes down on both sides of both eyes.[1787] It is named from its cry[1788] which is something like Shir dāram shakrak.[1789] It pronounces shir short; dāram shakrak it says distinctly. Astarābād partridges are said to cry Bāt mīnī tūtīlār (Quick! they have caught me). The partridge of Arabia and those parts is understood to cry, Bi'l shakar tadawm al ni`am (with sugar pleasure endures)! The hen-bird has the colour of the young pheasant. These birds are found below Nijr-aū.—Another kind is called kanjāl. Its bulk may be that of the one already described. Its voice is very like that of the kīklīk but much shriller. There is little [Sidenote: Fol. 279b.] difference in colour between the cock and hen. It is found in Parashāwar, Hashnagar and countries lower down, but not higher up.

The p(h)ūl-paikār[1790] is another. Its size may be that of the kabg-i-darī; its shape is that of the house-cock, its colour that of the hen. From forehead (tūmāgh) to throat it is of a beautiful colour, quite red. It is in the Hindūstān mountains.

The wild-fowl (ṣaḥrāī-tāūgh)[1791] is another. It flies like a pheasant, and is not of all colours as house-fowl are. It is in the mountains of Bajaur and lower down, but not higher up.

The chīlsī (or jīlsī)[1792] is another. In bulk it equals the p(h)ūl-paikār but the latter has the finer colouring. It is in the mountains of Bajaur.

The shām[1793] is another. It is about as large as a house-fowl; its colour is unique (ghair mukarrar).[1794] It also is in the mountains of Bajaur.

The quail (P. būdana) is another. It is not peculiar to Hindūstān but four or five kinds are so.—One is that which goes to our countries (Tramontana), larger and more spreading than the (Hindūstān) quail.[1795]—Another kind[1796] is smaller than the one first named. Its primaries and tail are reddish. It flies in flocks like the chīr (Phasianus Wallichii).—Another kind is smaller than that which goes to our countries and is darker on throat [Sidenote: Fol. 280.] and breast.[1797]—Another kind goes in small numbers to Kābul; it is very small, perhaps a little larger than the yellow wag-tail (qārcha)[1798]; they call it qūrātū in Kābul.

The Indian bustard (P. kharchāl)[1799] is another. It is about as large as the (T.) tūghdāq (Otis tarda, the great bustard), and seems to be the tūghdāq of Hindūstān.[1800] Its flesh is delicious; of some birds the leg is good, of others, the wing; of the bustard all the meat is delicious and excellent.

The florican (P. charz)[1801] is another. It is rather less than the tūghdīrī (houbara)[1802]; the cock's back is like the tūghdīrī's, and its breast is black. The hen is of one colour.

The Hindūstān sand-grouse (T. bāghrī-qarā)[1803] is another. It is smaller and slenderer than the bāghrī-qarā [Pterocles arenarius] of those countries (Tramontana). Also its cry is sharper.

Of the birds that frequent water and the banks of rivers, one is the dīng,[1804] an animal of great bulk, each wing measuring a qūlāch (fathom). It has no plumage (tūqī) on head or neck; a thing like a bag hangs from its neck; its back is black; its breast is white. It goes sometimes to Kābul; one year people brought one they had caught. It became very tame; if meat were thrown to it, it never failed to catch it in its bill. Once it swallowed a six-nailed shoe, another time a whole fowl, wings [Sidenote: Fol. 280b.] and feathers, all right down.

The sāras (Grus antigone) is another. Turks in Hindūstān call it tīwa-tūrnā (camel-crane). It may be smaller than the dīng but its neck is rather longer. Its head is quite red.[1805] People keep this bird at their houses; it becomes very tame.

The mānek[1806] is another. In stature it approaches the sāras, but its bulk is less. It resembles the lag-lag (Ciconia alba, the white stork) but is much larger; its bill is larger and is black. Its head is iridescent, its neck white, its wings partly-coloured; the tips and border-feathers and under parts of the wings are white, their middle black.

Another stork (lag-lag) has a white neck and all other parts black. It goes to those countries (Tramontana). It is rather smaller than the lag-lag (Ciconia alba). A Hindūstānī calls it yak-rang (one colour?).

Another stork in colour and shape is exactly like the storks that go to those countries. Its bill is blacker and its bulk much less than the lag-lag's (Ciconia alba).[1807]

Another bird resembles the grey heron (aūqār) and the lag-lag; but its bill is longer than the heron's and its body smaller than the white stork's (lag-lag).

Another is the large buzak[1808] (black ibis). In bulk it may equal the buzzard (Turkī, sār). The back of its wings is white. It has a loud cry.

The white buzak[1809] is another. Its head and bill are black. [Sidenote: Fol. 281.] It is much larger than the one that goes to those countries,[1810] but smaller than the Hindūstān buzak.[1811]

The gharm-pāī[1812] (spotted-billed duck) is another. It is larger than the sūna būrchīn[1813] (mallard). The drake and duck are of one colour. It is in Hashnagar at all seasons, sometimes it goes into the Lamghānāt. Its flesh is very savoury.

The shāh-murgh (Sarcidiornis melanonotus, comb duck or nukta) is another. It may be a little smaller than a goose. It has a swelling on its bill; its back is black; its flesh is excellent eating.

The zummaj is another. It is about as large as the būrgūt (Aquila chrysaetus, the golden eagle).

The (T.) ālā-qārgha of Hindūstān is another (Corvus cornix, the pied crow). This is slenderer and smaller than the ālā-qārgha of those countries (Tramontana). Its neck is partly white.

Another Hindūstān bird resembles the crow (T. qārcha, C. splendens) and the magpie (Ar. `aqqa). In the Lamghānāt people call it the jungle-bird (P. murgh-i-jangal).[1814] Its head and breast are black; its wings and tail reddish; its eye quite red. Having a feeble flight, it does not come out of the jungle, whence its name.

The great bat (P. shapara)[1815] is another. People call it (Hindī) chumgādur. It is about as large as the owl (T. yāpālāq, Otus brachyotus), and has a head like a puppy's. When it is thinking of lodging for the night on a tree, it takes hold of a branch, turns head-downwards, and so remains. It has much singularity.

The magpie (Ar. `aqqa) is another. People call it (H.?) matā (Dendrocitta rufa, the Indian tree-pie). It may be somewhat less than the `aqqa (Pica rustica), which moreover is pied black and white, while the matā is pied brown and black.[1816]

Another is a small bird, perhaps of the size of the (T.) sāndūlāch.[1817] [Sidenote: Fol. 281b.] It is of a beautiful red with a little black on its wings.

The karcha[1818] is another; it is after the fashion of a swallow (T. qārlūghāch), but much larger and quite black.

The kūīl[1819] (Eudynamys orientalis, the koel) is another. It may be as large as the crow (P. zāg) but is much slenderer. It has a kind of song and is understood to be the bulbul of Hindūstān. Its honour with Hindūstānīs is as great as is the bulbul's. It always stays in closely-wooded gardens.

Another bird is after the fashion of the (Ar.) shiqarrāk (Cissa chinensis, the green-magpie). It clings to trees, is perhaps as large as the green-magpie, and is parrot-green (Gecinus striolatus, the little green-woodpecker?).

(k. Fauna of Hindūstān:—Aquatic animals.)

One is the water-tiger (P. shīr-ābī, Crocodilus palustris).[1820] This is in the standing-waters. It is like a lizard (T. gīlās).[1821] People say it carries off men and even buffaloes.

The (P.) siyāh-sār (black-head) is another. This also is like a lizard. It is in all rivers of Hindūstān. One that was taken and brought in was about 4-5 qārī (cir. 13 feet) long and as thick perhaps as a sheep. It is said to grow still larger. Its snout is over half a yard long. It has rows of small teeth in its upper and lower jaws. It comes out of the water and sinks into the mud (bātā).

The (Sans.) g[h]aṛīāl (Gavialus gangeticus) is another.[1822] It is said to grow large; many in the army saw it in the Sarū (Gogra) river. It is said to take people; while we were on that river's banks (934-935 A.H.), it took one or two slave-women (dādūk), and it took three or four camp-followers between Ghāzīpūr and Banāras. In that neighbourhood I saw one but from a distance only and not quite clearly.

The water-hog (P. khūk-ābī, Platanista gangetica, the porpoise) is another. This also is in all Hindūstān rivers. It comes up suddenly out of the water; its head appears and disappears; it [Sidenote: Fol. 282.] dives again and stays below, shewing its tail. Its snout is as long as the siyāh-sār's and it has the same rows of small teeth. Its head and the rest of its body are fish-like. When at play in the water, it looks like a water-carrier's bag (mashak). Water-hogs, playing in the Sarū, leap right out of the water; like fish, they never leave it.

Again there is the kalah (or galah)-fish [bāligh].[1823] Two bones each about 3 inches (aīlīk) long, come out in a line with its ears; these it shakes when taken, producing an extraordinary noise, whence, seemingly, people have called it kalah [or galah].

The flesh of Hindūstān fishes is very savoury; they have no odour (aīd) or tiresomeness.[1824] They are surprisingly active. On one occasion when people coming, had flung a net across a stream, leaving its two edges half a yard above the water, most fish passed by leaping a yard above it. In many rivers are little fish which fling themselves a yard or more out of the water if there be harsh [Sidenote: Fol. 282b.] noise or sound of feet.

The frogs of Hindūstān, though otherwise like those others (Tramontane), run 6 or 7 yards on the face of the water.[1825]

(l. Vegetable products of Hindūstān: Fruits.)

The mango (P. anbah) is one of the fruits peculiar to Hindūstān. Hindūstānīs pronounce the b in its name as though no vowel followed it (i.e. Sans. anb);[1826] this being awkward to utter, some people call the fruit [P.] naghzak[1827] as Khwāja Khusrau does:—

Naghzak-i mā [var. khẉash] _naghz-kun-i būstān, Naghztarīn mewa_ [var. na`mat]-i-Hindūstān.[1828]

Mangoes when good, are very good, but, many as are eaten, few are first-rate. They are usually plucked unripe and ripened in the house. Unripe, they make excellent condiments (qātīq), are good also preserved in syrup.[1829] Taking it altogether, the mango is the best fruit of Hindūstān. Some so praise it as to give it preference over all fruits except the musk-melon (T. qāwūn), but such praise outmatches it. It resembles the kārdī peach.[1830] It ripens in the rains. It is eaten in two ways: one is to squeeze it to a pulp, make a hole in it, and suck out the juice,—the other, to peel and eat it like the kārdī peach. Its tree grows very large[1831] and has a leaf somewhat resembling the peach-tree's. The trunk is ill-looking and ill-shaped, but in Bengāl and Gujrāt is heard of as growing handsome (khūb).[1832]

The plantain (Sans. kelā, Musa sapientum) is another.[1833] An [Sidenote: Fol. 283.] `Arab calls it mauz.[1834] Its tree is not very tall, indeed is not to be called a tree, since it is something between a grass and a tree. Its leaf is a little like that of the amān-qarā[1835] but grows about 2 yards (qārī) long and nearly one broad. Out of the middle of its leaves rises, heart-like, a bud which resembles a sheep's heart. As each leaf (petal) of this bud expands, there grows at its base a row of 6 or 7 flowers which become the plantains. These flowers become visible with the lengthening of the heart-like shoot and the opening of the petals of the bud. The tree is understood to flower once only.[1836] The fruit has two pleasant qualities, one that it peels easily, the other that it has neither stone nor fibre.[1837] It is rather longer and thinner than the egg-plant (P. bādanjān; Solanum melongena). It is not very sweet; the Bengāl plantain (i.e. chīnī-champa) is, however, said to be very sweet. The plantain is a very good-looking tree, its broad, broad, leaves of beautiful green having an excellent appearance.

The anblī (H. imlī, Tamarindus indica, the tamarind) is another. By this name (anblī) people call the khurmā-i-hind (Indian date-tree).[1838] It has finely-cut leaves (leaflets), precisely like those of the (T.) būīā, except that they are not so finely-cut.[1839] It is a very good-looking tree, giving dense shade. It grows wild in masses too.

The (Beng.) mahuwā (Bassia latifolia) is another.[1840] People call it also (P.) gul-chikān (or chigān, distilling-flower). This also is a very large tree. Most of the wood in the houses of Hindūstānīs [Sidenote: Fol. 283b.] is from it. Spirit (`araq) is distilled from its flowers,[1841] not only so, but they are dried and eaten like raisins, and from them thus dried, spirit is also extracted. The dried flowers taste just like kishmish;[1842] they have an ill-flavour. The flowers are not bad in their natural state[1843]; they are eatable. The mahuwā grows wild also. Its fruit is tasteless, has rather a large seed with a thin husk, and from this seed, again,[1844] oil is extracted.

The mimusops (Sans. khirnī, Mimusops kauki) is another. Its tree, though not very large, is not small. The fruit is yellow and thinner than the red jujube (T. chīkdā, Elæagnus angustifolia). It has just the grape's flavour, but a rather bad after-taste; it is not bad, however, and is eatable. The husk of its stone is thin.

The (Sans.) jāman (Eugenia jambolana)[1845] is another. Its leaf, except for being thicker and greener, is quite like the willow's (T. tāl). The tree does not want for beauty. Its fruit is like a black grape, is sourish, and not very good.

The (H.) kamrak (Beng. kamrunga, Averrhoa carambola) is another. Its fruit is five-sided, about as large as the `ain-ālū[1846] and some 3 inches long. It ripens to yellow; gathered unripe, it is very bitter; gathered ripe, its bitterness has become sub-acid, not bad, not wanting in pleasantness.[1847]

The jack-fruit (H. kadhil, B. kanthal, Artocarpus integrifolia) is another.[1848] This is a fruit of singular form and flavour; it looks [Sidenote: Fol. 284.] like a sheep's stomach stuffed and made into a haggis (gīpa);[1849] and it is sickeningly-sweet. Inside it are filbert-like stones[1850] which, on the whole, resemble dates, but are round, not long, and have softer substance; these are eaten. The jack-fruit is very adhesive; for this reason people are said to oil mouth and hands before eating of it. It is heard of also as growing, not only on the branches of its tree, but on trunk and root too.[1851] One would say that the tree was all hung round with haggises.[1852]

The monkey-jack (H. badhal, B. burhul, Artocarpus lacoocha) is another. The fruit may be of the size of a quince (var. apple). Its smell is not bad.[1853] Unripe it is a singularly tasteless and empty[1854] thing; when ripe, it is not so bad. It ripens soft, can be pulled to pieces and eaten anywhere, tastes very much like a rotten quince, and has an excellent little austere flavour.

The lote-fruit (Sans. ber, Zizyphus jujuba) is another. Its Persian name is understood to be kanār.[1855] It is of several kinds: of one the fruit is larger than the plum (ālūcha)[1856]; another is shaped like the Ḥusainī grape. Most of them are not very good; we saw one in Bāndīr (Gūālīār) that was really good. The lote-tree sheds its leaves under the Signs S̤aur and Jauzā (Bull and Twins), burgeons under Saraṯān and Asad (Crab and Lion) which are the true rainy-season,—then becoming fresh and green, and it ripens its fruit under Dalū and Ḥaut (Bucket i.e. Aquarius, and Fish).

The (Sans.) karaūndā (Carissa carandas, the corinda) is another. It grows in bushes after the fashion of the (T.) chīka of our country.[1857] but the chīka grows on mountains, the karaūndā on the [Sidenote: Fol. 284b.] plains. In flavour it is like the rhubarb itself,[1858] but is sweeter and less juicy.

The (Sans.) pānīyālā (Flacourtia cataphracta)[1859] is another. It is larger than the plum (ālūcha) and like the red-apple unripe.[1860] It is a little austere and is good. The tree is taller than the pomegranate's; its leaf is like that of the almond-tree but smaller.

The (H.) gūlar (Ficus glomerata, the clustered fig)[1861] is another. The fruit grows out of the tree-trunk, resembles the fig (P. anjīr), but is singularly tasteless.

The (Sans.) āmlā (Phyllanthus emblica, the myrobalan-tree) is another. This also is a five-sided fruit.[1862] It looks like the unblown cotton-pod. It is an astringent and ill-flavoured thing, but confiture made of it is not bad. It is a wholesome fruit. Its tree is of excellent form and has very minute leaves.

The (H.) chirūnjī (Buchanania latifolia)[1863] is another. This tree had been understood to grow in the hills, but I knew later about it, because there were three or four clumps of it in our gardens. It is much like the mahuwā. Its kernel is not bad, a thing between the walnut and the almond, not bad! rather smaller than the pistachio and round; people put it in custards (P. pālūda) and sweetmeats (Ar. ḥalwa).

The date-palm (P. khurmā, Phœnix dactylifera) is another. This is not peculiar to Hindūstān, but is here described because it is not in those countries (Tramontana). It grows in Lamghān also.[1864] Its branches (i.e. leaves) grow from just one place at its top; its leaves (i.e. leaflets) grow on both sides of the branches (midribs) from neck (būīn) to tip; its trunk is rough and ill-coloured; [Sidenote: Fol. 285.] its fruit is like a bunch of grapes, but much larger. People say that the date-palm amongst vegetables resembles an animal in two respects: one is that, as, if an animal's head be cut off, its life is taken, so it is with the date-palm, if its head is cut off, it dries off; the other is that, as the offspring of animals is not produced without the male, so too with the date-palm, it gives no good fruit unless a branch of the male-tree be brought into touch with the female-tree. The truth of this last matter is not known (to me). The above-mentioned head of the date-palm is called its cheese. The tree so grows that where its leaves come out is cheese-white, the leaves becoming green as they lengthen. This white part, the so-called cheese, is tolerable eating, not bad, much like the walnut. People make a wound in the cheese, and into this wound insert a leaf(let), in such a way that all liquid flowing from the wound runs down it.[1865] The tip of the leaflet is set over the mouth of a pot suspended to the tree in such a way that it collects whatever liquor is yielded by the wound. This liquor is rather pleasant if drunk at once; if drunk after two or three days, people say it is quite exhilarating (kaifīyat). Once when I had gone to visit Bārī,[1866] and made an [Sidenote: Fol. 285b.] excursion to the villages on the bank of the Chaṃbal-river, we met in with people collecting this date-liquor in the valley-bottom. A good deal was drunk; no hilarity was felt; much must be drunk, seemingly, to produce a little cheer.

The coco-nut palm (P. nārgīl, Cocos nucifera) is another. An `Arab gives it Arabic form[1867] and says nārjīl; Hindūstān people say nālīr, seemingly by popular error.[1868] Its fruit is the Hindī-nut from which black spoons (qarā qāshūq) are made and the larger ones of which serve for guitar-bodies. The coco-palm has general resemblance to the date-palm, but has more, and more glistening leaves. Like the walnut, the coco-nut has a green outer husk; but its husk is of fibre on fibre. All ropes for ships and boats and also cord for sewing boat-seams are heard of as made from these husks. The nut, when stripped of its husk, near one end shews a triangle of hollows, two of which are solid, the third a nothing (būsh), easily pierced. Before the kernel forms, there is fluid inside; people pierce the soft hollow and drink this; it tastes like date-palm cheese in solution, and is not bad.

The (Sans.) tāṛ (Borassus flabelliformis, the Palmyra-palm) is another. Its branches (i.e. leaves) also are quite at its top. Just as [Sidenote: Fol. 286.] with the date-palm, people hang a pot on it, take its juice and drink it. They call this liquor tāṛī;[1869] it is said to be more exhilarating than date liquor. For about a yard along its branches (i.e. leaf-stems)[1870] there are no leaves; above this, at the tip of the branch (stem), 30 or 40 open out like the spread palm of the hand, all from one place. These leaves approach a yard in length. People often write Hindī characters on them after the fashion of account rolls (daftar yūsūnlūq).

The orange (Ar. nāranj, Citrus aurantium) and orange-like fruits are others of Hindūstān.[1871] Oranges grow well in the Lamghānāt, Bajaur and Sawād. The Lamghānāt one is smallish, has a navel,[1872] is very agreeable, fragile and juicy. It is not at all like the orange of Khurāsān and those parts, being so fragile that many spoil before reaching Kābul from the Lamghānāt which may be 13-14 yīghāch (65-70 miles), while the Astarābād orange, by reason of its thick skin and scant juice, carries with [Sidenote: Fol. 286b.] less damage from there to Samarkand, some 270-280 yīghāch.[1873] The Bajaur orange is about as large as a quince, very juicy and more acid than other oranges. Khwāja Kalān once said to me, "We counted the oranges gathered from a single tree of this sort in Bajaur and it mounted up to 7,000." It had been always in my mind that the word nāranj was an Arabic form;[1874] it would seem to be really so, since every-one in Bajaur and Sawād says (P.) nārang.[1875]

The lime (B. līmū, C. acida) is another. It is very plentiful, about the size of a hen's egg, and of the same shape. If a person poisoned drink the water in which its fibres have been boiled, danger is averted.[1876]

The citron (P. turunj,[1877] C. medica) is another of the fruits resembling the orange. Bajaurīs and Sawādīs call it bālang and hence give the name bālang-marabbā to its marmalade (marabbā) confiture. In Hindūstān people call the turunj bajaurī.[1878] There are two kinds of turunj: one is sweet, flavourless and nauseating, of no use for eating but with peel that may be good for marmalade; it has the same sickening sweetness as the Lamghānāt turunj; the other, that of Hindūstān and Bajaur, is acid, quite deliciously acid, and makes excellent sherbet, well-flavoured, and wholesome drinking. Its size may be that of the Khusrawī melon; it has a thick skin, wrinkled and uneven, with one end thinner and beaked. It is of a deeper yellow than the orange (nāranj). Its tree has no trunk, is rather low, grows in bushes, and has a larger [Sidenote: Fol. 287.] leaf than the orange.

The sangtāra[1879] is another fruit resembling the orange (nāranj). It is like the citron (turunj) in colour and form, but has both ends of its skin level;[1880] also it is not rough and is somewhat the smaller fruit. Its tree is large, as large as the apricot (aūrūq), with a leaf like the orange's. It is a deliciously acid fruit, making a very pleasant and wholesome sherbet. Like the lime it is a powerful stomachic, but not weakening like the orange (nāranj).

The large lime which they call (H.) gal-gal[1881] in Hindūstān is another fruit resembling the orange. It has the shape of a goose's egg, but unlike that egg, does not taper to the ends. Its skin is smooth like the sangtāra's; it is remarkably juicy.

The (H.) jānbīrī lime[1882] is another orange-like fruit. It is orange-shaped and, though yellow, not orange-yellow. It smells like the citron (turunj); it too is deliciously acid.

The (Sans.) sadā-fal (phal)[1883] is another orange-like fruit. This is pear-shaped, colours like the quince, ripens sweet, but not to the sickly-sweetness of the orange (nāranj).

The amrd-fal (sic. Ḥai. MS.—Sans. amrit-phal)[1884] is another orange-like fruit.

The lemon (H. karnā, C. limonum) is another fruit resembling the orange (nāranj); it may be as large as the gal-gal and is also acid.

The (Sans.) amal-bīd[1885] is another fruit resembling the orange. After three years (in Hindūstān), it was first seen to-day.[1886] They say a needle melts away if put inside it,[1887] either from its acidity [Sidenote: Fol. 287b.] or some other property. It is as acid, perhaps, as the citron and lemon (turunj and līmū).[1888]

(m. Vegetable products of Hindūstān:—Flowers.)

In Hindūstān there is great variety of flowers. One is the (D.) jāsūn (Hibiscus rosa sinensis), which some Hindūstānīs call (Hindī) gaẕhal.[1889] *It is not a grass (giyāh); its tree (is in stems like the bush of the red-rose; it) is rather taller than the bush of the red-rose.[1890]* The flower of the jāsūn is fuller in colour than that of the pomegranate, and may be of the size of the red-rose, but, the red-rose, when its bud has grown, opens simply, whereas, when the jāsūn-bud opens, a stem on which other petals grow, is seen like a heart amongst its expanded petals. Though the two are parts of the one flower, yet the outcome of the lengthening and thinning of that stem-like heart of the first-opened petals gives the semblance of two flowers.[1891] It is not a common matter. The beautifully coloured flowers look very well on the tree, but they do not last long; they fade in just one day. The jāsūn blossoms very well through the four months of the rains; it seems indeed to flower all through the year; with this profusion, however, it gives no perfume.

The (H.) kanīr (Nerium odorum, the oleander)[1892] is another. It grows both red and white. Like the peach-flower, it is five petalled. It is like the peach-bloom (in colour?), but opens 14 or 15 flowers from one place, so that seen from a distance, they look like one great flower. The oleander-bush is taller than the rose-bush. The red oleander has a sort of scent, faint and agreeable. (Like the jāsūn,) it also blooms well and profusely in the [Sidenote: Fol. 288.] rains, and it also is had through most of the year.

The (H.) (kīūrā) (Pandanus odoratissimus, the screw-pine) is another.[1893] It has a very agreeable perfume.[1894] Musk has the defect of being dry; this may be called moist musk—a very agreeable perfume. The tree's singular appearance notwithstanding, it has flowers perhaps 1-1/2 to 2 qārīsh (13-1/2 to 18 inches) long. It has long leaves having the character of the reed (P.) gharau[1895] and having spines. Of these leaves, while pressed together bud-like, the outer ones are the greener and more spiny; the inner ones are soft and white. In amongst these inner leaves grow things like what belongs to the middle of a flower, and from these things comes the excellent perfume. When the tree first comes up not yet shewing any trunk, it is like the bush (būta) of the male-reed,[1896] but with wider and more spiny leaves. What serves it for a trunk is very shapeless, its roots remaining shewn.

The (P.) yāsman (jasmine) is another; the white they call (B.) champa.[1897] It is larger and more strongly scented than our yāsman-flower.

(n. Seasons of the year.)

Again:—whereas there are four seasons in those countries,[1898] there are three in Hindūstān, namely, four months are summer; four are the rains; four are winter. The beginning of their months is from the welcome of the crescent-moons.[1899] Every three years they add a month to the year; if one had been added to the rainy season, the next is added, three years later, to the winter months, the next, in the same way, to the hot months. This is their mode of intercalation.[1900] (Chait, Baisākh, Jeṭh and [Sidenote: Fol. 288b.] Asāṛh) are the hot months, corresponding with the Fish, (Ram, Bull and Twins; Sāwan, Bhādoṅ, Kū,ār and Kātik) are the rainy months, corresponding with the Crab, (Lion, Virgin and Balance; Aghan, Pūs, Māgh and Phālgun) are the cold months, corresponding with the Scorpion, (Archer, Capricorn, and Bucket or Aquarius).

The people of Hind, having thus divided the year into three seasons of four months each, divide each of those seasons by taking from each, the two months of the force of the heat, rain,[1901] and cold. Of the hot months the last two, i.e. Jeṭh and Asāṛh are the force of the heat; of the rainy months, the first two, i.e. Sāwan and Bhādoṅ are the force of the rains; of the cold season, the middle two, i.e. Pūs and Māgh are the force of the cold. By this classification there are six seasons in Hindūstān.

(o. Days of the week.)

To the days also they have given names:—[1902] (Sanīchar is Saturday; Rabī-bār is Sunday; Som-wār is Monday; Mangal-wār is Tuesday; Budh-bār is Wednesday; Brihaspat-bār is Thursday; Shukr-bār is Friday).

(p. Divisions of time.)

[Sidenote: Fol. 289.] (Author's note on the daqīqa.) The daqīqa is about as long as six repetitions of the Fātiḥa with the Bismillāh, so that a day-and-night is as long as 8640 repetitions of the Fātiḥa with the Bismillāh.

As in our countries what is known by the (Turkī) term kīcha-gūndūz (a day-and-night, nycthemeron) is divided into 24 parts, each called an hour (Ar. sā`at), and the hour is divided into 60 parts, each called a minute (Ar. daqīqa), so that a day-and-night consists of 1440 minutes,—so the people of Hind divide the night-and-day into 60 parts, each called a (S.) g'harī.[1903] They also divide the night into four and the day into four, calling each part a (S.) pahr (watch) which in Persian is a pās. A watch and watchman (pās u pāsbān) had been heard about (by us) in those countries (Transoxania), but without these particulars. Agreeing with the division into watches, a body of g'harīālīs[1904] is chosen and appointed in all considerable towns of Hindūstān. They cast a broad brass (plate-) thing,[1905] perhaps as large as a tray (ṯabaq) and about two hands'-thickness; this they call a g'harīāl and hang up in a high place (bīr buland yīr-dā). Also they have a vessel perforated at the bottom like an hour-cup[1906] and filling in one g'harī (i.e. 24 minutes). The g'harīālīs put this into water and wait till it fills. For example, they will put the perforated [Sidenote: Fol. 289b.] cup into water at day-birth; when it fills the first time, they strike the gong once with their mallets; when a second time, twice, and so on till the end of the watch. They announce the end of a watch by several rapid blows of their mallets. After these they pause; then strike once more, if the first day-watch has ended, twice if the second, three times if the third, and four times if the fourth. After the fourth day-watch, when the night-watches begin, these are gone through in the same way. It used to be the rule to beat the sign of a watch only when the watch ended; so that sleepers chancing to wake in the night and hear the sound of a third or fourth g'harī, would not know whether it was of the second or third night-watch. I therefore ordered that at night or on a cloudy day the sign of the watch should be struck after that of the g'harī, for example, that after striking the third g'harī of the first night-watch, the g'harīālīs were to pause and then strike the sign of the watch, in order to make it known that this third g'harī was of the first night-watch,—and that after striking four g'harīs of the third night-watch, they should pause and then strike the sign of the third watch, in order to make it known that this fourth g'harī was of the third night-watch. It did very well; anyone happening to wake in the night and hear the gong, would know what g'harī of what watch of night it was.

Again, they divide the g'harī into 60 parts, each part being called a pal;[1907] by this each night-and-day will consist of 3,500 pals. [Sidenote: Fol. 290.]

(Author's note on the pal.) They say the length of a pal is the shutting and opening of the eyelids 60 times, which in a night-and-day would be 216,000 shuttings and openings of the eyes. Experiment shews that a pal is about equal to 8 repetitions of the Qul-huwa-allāh[1908] and Bismillāh; this would be 28,000 repetitions in a night-and-day.

(q. Measures.)

The people of Hind have also well-arranged measures:—[1909] 8 ratīs = 1 māsha; 4 māsha = 1 tānk = 32 ratīs; 5 māsha = 1 miṣqāl = 40 ratīs; 12 māsha = 1 tūla = 96 ratīs; 14 tūla = 1 ser.

This is everywhere fixed:—40 ser = 1 mānbān; 12 mānbān = 1 mānī; 100 mānī they call a mīnāsa.[1910]

Pearls and jewels they weigh by the tānk.

(r. Modes of reckoning.)

The people of Hind have also an excellent mode of reckoning: 100,000 they call a lak; 100 laks, a krūr; 100 krūrs, an arb; 100 arbs, 1 karb; 100 karb's, 1 nīl; 100 nīls, 1 padam; 100 padams, 1 sāng. The fixing of such high reckonings as these is proof of the great amount of wealth in Hindūstān.

(s. Hindū inhabitants of Hindūstān.)

Most of the inhabitants of Hindūstān are pagans; they call a pagan a Hindū. Most Hindūs believe in the transmigration of souls. All artisans, wage-earners, and officials are Hindūs. In our countries dwellers in the wilds (i.e. nomads) get tribal names; [Sidenote: Fol. 290b.] here the settled people of the cultivated lands and villages get tribal names.[1911] Again:—every artisan there is follows the trade that has come down to him from forefather to forefather.

(t. Defects of Hindūstān.)

Hindūstān is a country of few charms. Its people have no good looks; of social intercourse, paying and receiving visits there is none; of genius and capacity none; of manners none; in handicraft and work there is no form or symmetry, method or quality; there are no good horses, no good dogs, no grapes, musk-melons or first-rate fruits, no ice or cold water, no good bread or cooked food in the bāzārs, no Hot-baths, no Colleges, no candles, torches or candlesticks.

In place of candle and torch they have a great dirty gang they call lamp-men (diwatī), who in the left hand hold a smallish wooden tripod to one corner of which a thing like the top of a candlestick is fixed, having a wick in it about as thick as the thumb. In the right hand they hold a gourd, through a narrow slit made in which, oil is let trickle in a thin thread when the wick needs it. Great people keep a hundred or two of these lamp-men. This is the Hindūstān substitute for lamps and candlesticks! If their rulers and begs have work at night needing candles, these dirty lamp-men bring these lamps, go close up and [Sidenote: Fol. 291.] there stand.

Except their large rivers and their standing-waters which flow in ravines or hollows (there are no waters). There are no running-waters in their gardens or residences (`imāratlār).[1912] These residences have no charm, air (hawā), regularity or symmetry.

Peasants and people of low standing go about naked. They tie on a thing called lungūtā,[1913] a decency-clout which hangs two spans below the navel. From the tie of this pendant decency-clout, another clout is passed between the thighs and made fast behind. Women also tie on a cloth (lung), one-half of which goes round the waist, the other is thrown over the head.

(u. Advantages of Hindūstān.)

Pleasant things of Hindūstān are that it is a large country and has masses of gold and silver. Its air in the Rains is very fine. Sometimes it rains 10, 15 or 20 times a day; torrents pour down all at once and rivers flow where no water had been. While it rains and through the Rains, the air is remarkably fine, not to be surpassed for healthiness and charm. The fault is that the air becomes very soft and damp. A bow of those (Transoxanian) countries after going through the Rains in Hindūstān, may not be drawn even; it is ruined; not only the bow, everything is [Sidenote: Fol. 291b.] affected, armour, book, cloth, and utensils all; a house even does not last long. Not only in the Rains but also in the cold and the hot seasons, the airs are excellent; at these times, however, the north-west wind constantly gets up laden with dust and earth. It gets up in great strength every year in the heats, under the Bull and Twins when the Rains are near; so strong and carrying so much dust and earth that there is no seeing one another. People call this wind Darkener of the Sky (H. āndhī). The weather is hot under the Bull and Twins, but not intolerably so, not so hot as in Balkh and Qandahār and not for half so long.

Another good thing in Hindūstān is that it has unnumbered and endless workmen of every kind. There is a fixed caste (jam`ī) for every sort of work and for every thing, which has done that work or that thing from father to son till now. Mullā Sharaf, writing in the Z̤afar-nāma about the building of Tīmūr Beg's Stone Mosque, lays stress on the fact that on it 200 stone-cutters worked, from Āẕarbāījān, Fars, Hindūstān and other countries. But 680 men worked daily on my buildings in Āgra and of Āgra stone-cutters only; while 1491 stone-cutters worked daily on my buildings in Āgra, Sīkrī, Bīāna, Dūlpūr, Gūālīār and Kūīl. In [Sidenote: Fol. 292.] the same way there are numberless artisans and workmen of every sort in Hindūstān.

(v. Revenues of Hindūstān.)

The revenue of the countries now held by me (935 AH.-1528 AD.) from Bhīra to Bihār is 52 krūrs,[1914] as will be known in detail from the following summary.[1915] Eight or nine krūrs of this are from parganas of rāīs and rājas who, as obedient from of old, receive allowance and maintenance.

REVENUES OF HINDŪSTĀN FROM WHAT HAS SO FAR COME UNDER THE VICTORIOUS STANDARDS

--------------------------------+---------+-----+---------- Sarkārs. | Krūrs. |Laks.| Tankas. --------------------------------+---------+-----+---------- Trans-sutluj:--Bhīra, | | | Lāhūr, Sīālkūt, | | | Dībālpūr, etc. | 3 | 33 |15,989 Sihrind | 1 | 29 |31,985 Ḥiṣār-fīrūza | 1 | 30 |75,174 The capital Dihlī and | | | Mīān-dū-āb | 3 | 69 |50,254 Mīwāt, not included in | | | Sikandar's time | 1 | 69 |81,000 Bīāna | 1 | 44 |14,930 [Sidenote: Āgra | | 29 |76,919 Fol. 292b.] Mīān-wilāyat (Midlands) | 2 | 91 | 19 Gūālīār | 2 | 23 |57,450 Kālpī and Seho[n.]da | | | (Seondhā) | 4 | 28 |55,950 Qanauj | 1 | 36 |63,358 Saṃbhal | 1 | 38 |44,000 Laknūr and Baksar | 1 | 39 |82,433 Khairābād | | 12 |65,000 Aūd (Oude) and Bahraj | | | (Baraich) | 1 | 17 | 1,369 [Sidenote: Jūnpūr | 4 | ·0 |88,333 Fol. 293.] Karra and Mānikpūr | 1 | 63 |27,282 Bihār | 4 | 5 |60,000 Sarwār | 1 | 55 |17,506-1/2 Sāran | 1 | 10 |18,373 Champāran | 1 | 90 |86,060 Kandla | | 43 |30,300 Tirhut from Rāja | | | Rup-narāīn's tribute, | | | silver | | 2 |55,000 black (i.e. copper) | | 27 |50,000 Rantanbhūr from Būlī, | | | Chātsū, and Malarna | | 20 |?00,000 Nagūr | -- | -- | -- Rāja Bikrāmajīt in | | | Rantanbhūr | -- | -- | -- Kalanjarī | -- | -- | -- Rāja Bīr-sang-deo (or, | | | Sang only) | -- | -- | -- Rāja Bikam-deo | -- | -- | -- Rāja Bikam-chand | -- | -- | -- --------------------------------+---------+-----+----------

[1916] So far as particulars and details about the land and people of the country of Hindūstān have become definitely known, they have been narrated and described; whatever matters worthy of record may come to view hereafter, I shall write down.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RESUMED.

(a. Distribution of treasure in Āgra.)[1917]

(May 12th) On Saturday the 29th[1918] of Rajab the examination and distribution of the treasure were begun. To Humāyūn were given 70 laks from the Treasury, and, over and above this, a treasure house was bestowed on him just as it was, without ascertaining and writing down its contents. To some begs 10 laks were given, 8, 7, or 6 to others.[1919] Suitable money-gifts were bestowed from the Treasury on the whole army, to every tribe there was, Afghān, Hazāra, `Arab, Bīlūch etc. to each according to its position. Every trader and student, indeed every man who had come with the army, took ample portion and share of bounteous gift and largess. To those not with the army went a mass of treasure in gift and largess, as for instance, 17 laks to Kāmran, 15 laks to Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, while to `Askarī, Hindāl and indeed to the whole various train of relations and younger children[1920] went masses of red and white (gold and silver), of plenishing, jewels and slaves.[1921] Many gifts went to the begs and soldiery on that side (Tramontana). Valuable gifts (saughāt) [Sidenote: Fol. 294.] were sent for the various relations in Samarkand, Khurāsān, Kāshghar and `Irāq. To holy men belonging to Samarkand and Khurāsān went offerings vowed to God (nuẕūr); so too to Makka and Madīna. We gave one shāhrukhi for every soul in the country of Kābul and the valley-side[1922] of Varsak, man and woman, bond and free, of age or non-age.[1923]

(b. Disaffection to Bābur.)

On our first coming to Āgra, there was remarkable dislike and hostility between its people and mine, the peasantry and soldiers running away in fear of our men. Dilhī and Āgra excepted, not a fortified town but strengthened its defences and neither was in obedience nor submitted. Qāsim Saṃbhalī was in Saṃbhal; Niẕām Khān was in Bīāna; in Mīwāt was Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī himself, impious mannikin! who was the sole leader of the trouble and mischief.[1924] Muḥammad Zaitun was in Dūlpūr; Tātār Khān Sārang-khānī[1925] was in Gūālīār; Ḥusain Khān Nuḥānī was in Rāprī; Quṯb Khān was in Itāwa (Etāwa); `Ālam Khān (Kālpī) was in Kālpī. Qanauj and the other side of Gang (Ganges) was all held by Afghāns in independent hostility,[1926] such as Naṣīr Khān Nuḥānī, Ma`rūf Farmūlī and a crowd of other amīrs. These had been in rebellion for three or four years before Ibrāhīm's death and when I defeated him, were holding Qanauj and the whole country beyond it. At the present time they were lying two or three marches on our side of Qanauj and had made Bihār Khān the son of Daryā Khān Nuḥānī their pādshāh, under the style Sulṯān Muḥammad. [Sidenote: Fol. 294b.] Marghūb the slave was in Mahāwīn (Muttra?); he remained there, thus close, for some time but came no nearer.

(c. Discontent in Bābur's army.)

It was the hot-season when we came to Āgra. All the inhabitants (khalāīq) had run away in terror. Neither grain for ourselves nor corn for our horses was to be had. The villages, out of hostility and hatred to us had taken to thieving and highway-robbery; there was no moving on the roads. There had been no chance since the treasure was distributed to send men in strength into the parganas and elsewhere. Moreover the year was a very hot one; violent pestilential winds struck people down in heaps together; masses began to die off.

On these accounts the greater part of the begs and best braves became unwilling to stay in Hindūstān, indeed set their faces for leaving it. It is no reproach to old and experienced begs if they speak of such matters; even if they do so, this man (Bābur) has enough sense and reason to get at what is honest or what is mutinous in their representations, to distinguish between loss and gain. But as this man had seen his task whole, for himself, when he resolved on it, what taste was there in their reiterating that things should be done differently? What recommends the expression of distasteful opinions by men of little standing [Sidenote: Fol. 295.] (kīchīk karīm)? Here is a curious thing:—This last time of our riding out from Kābul, a few men of little standing had just been made begs; what I looked for from them was that if I went through fire and water and came out again, they would have gone in with me unhesitatingly, and with me have come out, that wherever I went, there at my side would they be,—not that they would speak against my fixed purpose, not that they would turn back from any task or great affair on which, all counselling, all consenting, we had resolved, so long as that counsel was not abandoned. Badly as these new begs behaved, Secretary Aḥmadī and Treasurer Walī behaved still worse. Khwāja Kalān had done well in the march out from Kābul, in Ibrāhīm's defeat and until Āgra was occupied; he had spoken bold words and shewn ambitious views. But a few days after the capture of Āgra, all his views changed,—the one zealous for departure at any price was Khwāja Kalān.[1927]

(d. Bābur calls a council.)

When I knew of this unsteadiness amongst (my) people, I summoned all the begs and took counsel. Said I, "There is no supremacy and grip on the world without means and resources; without lands and retainers sovereignty and command (pādshāhlīq u amīrlīq) are impossible. By the labours of several years, by encountering hardship, by long travel, by flinging myself and the army into battle, and by deadly slaughter, we, through God's [Sidenote: Fol. 295b.] grace, beat these masses of enemies in order that we might take their broad lands. And now what force compels us, what necessity has arisen that we should, without cause, abandon countries taken at such risk of life? Was it for us to remain in Kābul, the sport of harsh poverty? Henceforth, let no well-wisher of mine speak of such things! But let not those turn back from going who, weak in strong persistence, have set their faces to depart!" By these words, which recalled just and reasonable views to their minds, I made them, willy-nilly, quit their fears.

(e. Khwāja Kalān decides to leave Hindūstān.)

As Khwāja Kalān had no heart to stay in Hindūstān, matters were settled in this way:—As he had many retainers, he was to convoy the gifts, and, as there were few men in Kābul and Ghaznī, was to keep these places guarded and victualled. I bestowed on him Ghaznī, Girdīz and the Sulṯān Mas`ūdī Hazāra, gave also the Hindūstān pargana of G'hūram,[1928] worth 3 or 4 laks. It was settled for Khwāja Mīr-i-mīrān also to go to Kābul; the gifts were put into his immediate charge, under the custody of Mullā Ḥasan the banker (ṣarrāf) and Tūka[1929] Hindū.

Loathing Hindūstān, Khwāja Kalān, when on his way, had the following couplet inscribed on the wall of his residence [Sidenote: Fol. 296.] (`imāratī) in Dihlī:—

If safe and sound I cross the Sind, Blacken my face ere I wish for Hind!

It was ill-mannered in him to compose and write up this partly-jesting verse while I still stayed in Hind. If his departure

caused me one vexation, such a jest doubled it.[1930] I composed the following off-hand verse, wrote it down and sent it to him:—

Give a hundred thanks, Bābur, that the generous Pardoner Has given thee Sind and Hind and many a kingdom. If thou (i.e. the Khwāja) have not the strength for their heats, If thou say, "Let me see the cold side (yūz)," Ghaznī is there.[1931]

(f. Accretions to Bābur's force.)

At this juncture, Mullā Apāq was sent into Kūl with royal letters of favour for the soldiers and quiver-wearers (tarkash-band) of that neighbourhood. Shaikh Gūran (G'hūran)[1932] came trustfully and loyally to do obeisance, bringing with him from 2 to 3,000 soldiers and quiver-wearers from Between-two-waters (Mīān-dū-āb).

(Author's note on Mullā Apāq.) Formerly he had been in a very low position indeed, but two or three years before this time, had gathered his elder and younger brethren into a compact body and had brought them in (to me), together with the Aūrūq-zāī and other Afghāns of the banks of the Sind.

Yūnas-i-`alī when on his way from Dihlī to Āgra[1933] had lost his way a little and got separated from Humāyūn; he then met in with `Alī Khān Farmūlī's sons and train,[1934] had a small affair with them, took them prisoners and brought them in. Taking advantage of this, one of the sons thus captured was sent to his [Sidenote: Fol. 296b.] father in company with Daulat-qadam Turk's son Mīrzā Mughūl who conveyed royal letters of favour to `Alī Khān. At this time of break-up, `Alī Khān had gone to Mīwāt; he came to me when Mīrzā Mughūl returned, was promoted, and given valid(?) parganas[1935] worth 25 laks.

(g. Action against the rebels of the East.)

Sl. Ibrāhīm had appointed several amīrs under Muṣṯafa Farmūlī and Fīrūz Khān Sārang-khānī, to act against the rebel amīrs of the East (Pūrab). Muṣṯafa had fought them and thoroughly drubbed them, giving them more than one good beating. He dying before Ibrāhīm's defeat, his younger brother Shaikh Bāyazīd—Ibrāhīm being occupied with a momentous matter[1936]—had led and watched over his elder brother's men. He now came to serve me, together with Fīrūz Khān, Maḥmūd Khān Nuḥānī and Qāẓī Jīā. I shewed them greater kindness and favour than was their claim; giving to Fīrūz Khān 1 krūr, 46 laks and 5000 tankas from Jūnpūr, to Shaikh Bāyazīd 1 krūr, 48 laks and 50,000 tankas from Aūd (Oude), to Maḥmūd Khān 90 laks and 35,000 tankas from Ghāzīpūr, and to Qāẓī Jīā 20 laks.[1937]

(h. Gifts made to various officers.)

It was a few days after the `Īd of Shawwāl[1938] that a large party was held in the pillared-porch of the domed building standing in the middle of Sl. Ibrāhīm's private apartments. At this party there were bestowed on Humāyūn a chār-qab,[1939] a sword-belt,[1940] a tīpūchāq horse with saddle mounted in gold; on Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān, Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā chār-qabs, sword-belts and dagger-belts; and to the begs and [Sidenote: Fol. 297.] braves, to each according to his rank, were given sword-belts, dagger-belts, and dresses of honour, in all to the number specified below:—

2 items (rā's) of tīpūchāq horses with saddles. 16 items (qabẓa) of poinards, set with jewels, etc. 8 items (qabẓa) of purpet over-garments. 2 items (tob) of jewelled sword-belts. —— items (qabẓa) of broad daggers (jamd'kar) set with jewels. 25 items of jewelled hangers (khanjar). —— items of gold-hilted Hindī knives (kārd). 51 pieces of purpet.

On the day of this party it rained amazingly, rain falling thirteen times. As outside places had been assigned to a good many people, they were drowned out (gharaq).

(i. Of various forts and postings.)

Samāna (in Patīāla) had been given to Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh and it had been arranged for him to make swift descent on Saṃbal (Saṃbhal), but Saṃbal was now bestowed on Humāyūn, in addition to his guerdon of Ḥiṣār-fīrūza, and in his service was Hindū Beg. To suit this, therefore, Hindū Beg was sent to make the incursion in Muḥammadī's place, and with him Kitta Beg, Bābā Qashqa's (brother) Malik Qāsim and his elder and younger brethren, Mullā Apāq and Shaikh Gūran (G'hūran) with the quiver-wearers from Between-two-waters (Mīān-dū-āb). [Sidenote: Fol. 297b.] Three or four times a person had come from Qāsim Saṃbalī, saying, "The renegade Bīban is besieging Saṃbal and has brought it to extremity; come quickly." Bīban, with the array and the preparation (hayāt) with which he had deserted us,[1941] had gone skirting the hills and gathering up Afghān and Hindūstānī deserters, until, finding Saṃbal at this juncture ill-garrisoned, he laid siege to it. Hindū Beg and Kitta Beg and the rest of those appointed to make the incursion, got to the Ahār-passage[1942] and from there sent ahead Bābā Qashqa's Malik Qāsim with his elder and younger brethren, while they themselves were getting over the water. Malik Qāsim crossed, advanced swiftly with from 100 to 150 men—his own and his brethren's—and reached Saṃbal by the Mid-day Prayer. Bīban for his part came out of his camp in array. Malik Qāsim and his troop moved rapidly forward, got the fort in their rear, and came to grips. Bīban could make no stand; he fled. Malik Qāsim cut off the heads of part of his force, took many horses, a few elephants and a mass of booty. Next day when the other begs arrived, Qāsim Saṃbalī came out and saw them, but not liking to surrender the fort, made them false pretences. One day Shaikh Gūran (G'hūran) and Hindū Beg having talked the matter over with them, got Qāsim Saṃbalī out to the presence of the begs, and took men of ours into the fort. They brought Qāsim's wife and dependents safely out, and sent Qāsim (to Court).[1943]

Qalandar the foot-man was sent to Niẕām Khān in Bīāna with royal letters of promise and threat; with these was sent [Sidenote: Fol. 298.] also the following little off-hand (Persian) verse:—[1944]

Strive not with the Turk, o Mīr of Bīāna! His skill and his courage are obvious. If thou come not soon, nor give ear to counsel,— What need to detail (bayān) what is obvious?

Bīāna being one of the famous forts of Hindūstān, the senseless mannikin, relying on its strength, demanded what not even its strength could enforce. Not giving him a good answer, we ordered siege apparatus to be looked to.

Bābā Qulī Beg was sent with royal letters of promise and threat to Muḥammad Zaitūn (in Dūlpūr); Muḥammad Zaitūn also made false excuses.

While we were still in Kābul, Rānā Sangā had sent an envoy to testify to his good wishes and to propose this plan: "If the honoured Pādshāh will come to near Dihlī from that side, I from this will move on Āgra." But I beat Ibrāhīm, I took Dihlī and Āgra, and up to now that Pagan has given no sign soever of moving. After a while he went and laid siege to Kandār[1945] a fort in which was Makan's son, Ḥasan by name. This Ḥasan-of-Makan had sent a person to me several times, but had not shewn himself. We had not been able to detach [Sidenote: Fol. 298b.] reinforcement for him because, as the forts round-about—Atāwa (Etāwa), Dūlpūr, and Bīāna—had not yet surrendered, and the Eastern Afghāns were seated with their army in obstinate rebellion two or three marches on the Āgra side of Qanūj, my mind was not quite free from the whirl and strain of things close at hand. Makan's Ḥasan therefore, becoming helpless, had surrendered Kandār two or three months ago.

Ḥusain Khān (Nuḥānī) became afraid in Rāprī, and he abandoning it, it was given to Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang.

To Quṯb Khān in Etāwa royal letters of promise and threat had been sent several times, but as he neither came and saw me, nor abandoned Etāwa and got away, it was given to Mahdī Khwāja and he was sent against it with a strong reinforcement of begs and household troops under the command of Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī, Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang and `Abdu'l-`azīz the Master of the Horse. Qanūj was given to Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī; he was also (as mentioned) appointed against Etāwa; so too were Fīrūz Khān, Maḥmūd Khān, Shaikh Bāyazīd and Qāẓī Jīā, highly favoured commanders to whom Eastern parganas had been given.

[Sidenote: Fol. 299.] Muḥammad Zaitūn, who was seated in Dūlpūr, deceived us and did not come. We gave Dūlpūr to Sl. Junaid Barlās and reinforced him by appointing `Ādil Sulṯān, Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Qūtlūq-qadam, Treasurer Walī, Jān Beg, `Abdu'l-lāh, Pīr-qulī, and Shāh Ḥasan Yāragī (or Bāragī), who were to attack Dūlpūr, take it, make it over to Sl. Junaid Barlās and advance on Bīāna.

(j. Plan of operations adopted.)

These armies appointed, we summoned the Turk amīrs[1946] and the Hindūstān amīrs, and tossed the following matters in amongst them:—The various rebel amīrs of the East, that is to say, those under Nāṣir Khān Nuḥānī and Ma`rūf Farmūlī, have crossed Gang (Ganges) with 40 to 50,000 men, taken Qanūj, and now lie some three miles on our side of the river. The Pagan Rānā Sangā has captured Kandār and is in a hostile and mischievous attitude. The end of the Rains is near. It seems expedient to move either against the rebels or the Pagan, since the task of the forts near-by is easy; when the great foes are got rid of, what road will remain open for the rest? Rānā Sangā is thought not to be the equal of the rebels.

To this all replied unanimously, "Rānā Sangā is the most distant, and it is not known that he will come nearer; the enemy who is closest at hand must first be got rid of. We are for riding against the rebels." Humāyūn then represented, [Sidenote: Fol. 299b.] "What need is there for the Pādshāh to ride out? This service I will do." This came as a pleasure to every-one; the Turk and Hind amīrs gladly accepted his views; he was appointed for the East. A Kābulī of Aḥmad-i-qāsim's was sent galloping off to tell the armies that had been despatched against Dūlpūr to join Humāyūn at Chandwār;[1947] also those sent against Etāwa under Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. M. were ordered to join him.

(August 21st) Humāyūn set out on Thursday the 13th of Ẕū'l-qa´da, dismounted at a little village called Jilīsīr (Jalesar) some 3 kurohs from Āgra, there stayed one night, then moved forward march by march.

(k. Khwāja Kalān's departure.)

(August 28th) On Thursday the 20th of this same month, Khwāja Kalān started for Kābul.

(l. Of gardens and pleasaunces.)

One of the great defects of Hindūstān being its lack of running-waters,[1948] it kept coming to my mind that waters should be made to flow by means of wheels erected wherever I might settle down, also that grounds should be laid out in an orderly and symmetrical way. With this object in view, we crossed the Jūn-water to look at garden-grounds a few days after entering Āgra. Those grounds were so bad and unattractive that we traversed them with a hundred disgusts and repulsions. So ugly and displeasing were they, that the idea of making a [Sidenote: Fol. 300.] Chār-bāgh in them passed from my mind, but needs must! as there was no other land near Āgra, that same ground was taken in hand a few days later.

The beginning was made with the large well from which water comes for the Hot-bath, and also with the piece of ground where the tamarind-trees and the octagonal tank now are. After that came the large tank with its enclosure; after that the tank and tālār[1949] in front of the outer(?) residence[1950]; after that the private-house (khilwat-khāna) with its garden and various dwellings; after that the Hot-bath. Then in that charmless and disorderly Hind, plots of garden[1951] were seen laid out with order and symmetry, with suitable borders and parterres in every corner, and in every border rose and narcissus in perfect arrangement.

(m. Construction of a chambered-well.)

Three things oppressed us in Hindūstān, its heat, its violent winds, its dust. Against all three the Bath is a protection, for in it, what is known of dust and wind? and in the heats it is so chilly that one is almost cold. The bath-room in which the heated tank is, is altogether of stone, the whole, except for the īzāra (dado?) of white stone, being, pavement and roofing, of red Bīāna stone.

Khalīfa also and Shaikh Zain, Yūnas-i-`alī and whoever got [Sidenote: Fol. 300b.] land on that other bank of the river laid out regular and orderly gardens with tanks, made running-waters also by setting up wheels like those in Dīpālpūr and Lāhor. The people of Hind who had never seen grounds planned so symmetrically and thus laid out, called the side of the Jūn where (our) residences were, Kābul.

In an empty space inside the fort, which was between Ibrāhīm's residence and the ramparts, I ordered a large chambered-well (wāīn) to be made, measuring 10 by 10,[1952] a large well with a flight of steps, which in Hindūstān is called a wāīn.[1953] This well was begun before the Chār-bāgh[1954]; they were busy digging it in the true Rains (`aīn bīshkāl, Sāwan and Bhadon); it fell in several times and buried the hired workmen; it was finished after the Holy Battle with Rānā Sangā, as is stated in the inscription on the stone that bears the chronogram of its completion. It is a complete wāīn, having a three-storeyed house in it. The lowest storey consists of three rooms, each of which opens on the descending steps, at intervals of three steps from one another. When the water is at its lowest, it is one step below the bottom chamber; when it rises in the Rains, it sometimes goes into the top storey. In the middle storey an inner chamber has been excavated which connects with the domed building in which the bullock turns the well-wheel. The [Sidenote: Fol. 301.] top storey is a single room, reached from two sides by 5 or 6 steps which lead down to it from the enclosure overlooked from the well-head. Facing the right-hand way down, is the stone inscribed with the date of completion. At the side of this well is another the bottom of which may be at half the depth of the first, and into which water comes from that first one when the bullock turns the wheel in the domed building afore-mentioned. This second well also is fitted with a wheel, by means of which water is carried along the ramparts to the high-garden. A stone building (tāshdīn `imārat) stands at the mouth of the well and there is an outer(?) mosque[1955] outside (tāshqārī) the enclosure in which the well is. The mosque is not well done; it is in the Hindūstānī fashion.

(n. Humāyūn's campaign.)

At the time Humāyūn got to horse, the rebel amīrs under Naṣīr Khān Nuḥānī and Ma`rūf Farmūlī were assembled at Jājmāū.[1956] Arrived within 20 to 30 miles of them, he sent out Mūmin Ātāka for news; it became a raid for loot; Mūmin Ātāka was not able to bring even the least useful information. The rebels heard about him however, made no stay but fled and got away. After Mūmin Ātāka, Qusm-nāī(?) was sent for news, with Bābā Chuhra[1957] and Būjka; they brought it of the breaking-up and flight of the rebels. Humāyūn advancing, took Jājmāū [Sidenote: Fol. 301b.] and passed on. Near Dilmāū[1958] Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī came and saw him, and was sent to me with Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā.

(o. News of the Aūzbegs.)

This year 'Ubaidu'l-lāh Khān (Aūzbeg) led an army out of Bukhārā against Marv. In the citadel of Marv were perhaps 10 to 15 peasants whom he overcame and killed; then having taken the revenues of Marv in 40 or 50 days,[1959] he went on to Sarakhs. In Sarakhs were some 30 to 40 Red-heads (Qīzīl-bāsh) who did not surrender, but shut the Gate; the peasantry however scattered them and opened the Gate to the Aūzbeg who entering, killed the Red-heads. Sarakhs taken, he went against T̤ūs and Mashhad. The inhabitants of Mashhad being helpless, let him in. T̤ūs he besieged for 8 months, took possession of on terms, did not keep those terms, but killed every man of name and made their women captive.

(p. Affairs of Gujrāt.)

In this year Bahādur Khān,—he who now rules in Gujrāt in the place of his father Sl. Muz̤affar Gujrātī—having gone to Sl. Ibrāhīm after quarrel with his father, had been received without honour. He had sent dutiful letters to me while I was near Pānī-pat; I had replied by royal letters of favour and kindness summoning him to me. He had thought of coming, but changing his mind, drew off from Ibrāhīm's army towards Gujrāt. Meantime his father Sl. Muz̤affar had died (Friday Jumāda II. 2nd AH.-March 16th 1526 AD.); his elder brother Sikandar Shāh who was Sl. Muz̤affar's eldest son, had become ruler in their father's place and, owing to his evil disposition, [Sidenote: Fol. 302.] had been strangled by his slave `Imādu'l-mulk, acting with others (Sha`ban 14th—May 25th). Bahādur Khān, while he was on his road for Gujrāt, was invited and escorted to sit in his father's place under the style Bahādur Shāh (Ramẓān 26th—July 6th). He for his part did well; he retaliated by death on `Imādu'l-mulk for his treachery to his salt, and killed some others of his father's begs.[1960] People point at him as a dreadnaught (bī bāk) youth and a shedder of much blood.

933 AH.-OCT. 8TH 1526 TO SEP. 27TH 1527 AD.[1961]

(a. Announcement of the birth of a son.)

In Muḥarram Beg Wais brought the news of Fārūq's birth; though a foot-man had brought it already, he came this month for the gift to the messenger of good tidings.[1962] The birth must have been on Friday eve, Shawwāl 23rd (932 AH.-August 2nd 1526 AD.); the name given was Fārūq.

(b. Casting of a mortar.)

(October 22nd-Muḥarram 15th) Ustād `Alī-qulī had been ordered to cast a large mortar for use against Bīāna and other forts which had not yet submitted. When all the furnaces and materials were ready, he sent a person to me and, on Monday the 15th of the month, we went to see the mortar cast. Round the mortar-mould he had had eight furnaces made in which [Sidenote: Fol. 302b.] were the molten materials. From below each furnace a channel went direct to the mould. When he opened the furnace-holes on our arrival, the molten metal poured like water through all these channels into the mould. After awhile and before the mould was full, the flow stopped from one furnace after another. Ustād `Alī-qulī must have made some miscalculation either as to the furnaces or the materials. In his great distress, he was for throwing himself into the mould of molten metal, but we comforted him, put a robe of honour on him, and so brought him out of his shame. The mould was left a day or two to cool; when it was opened, Ustād `Alī-qulī with great delight sent to say, "The stone-chamber (tāsh-awī) is without defect; to cast the powder-compartment (dārū-khāna) is easy." He got the stone-chamber out and told off a body of men to accoutre[1963] it, while he busied himself with casting the powder-compartment.

(c. Varia.)

Mahdī Khwāja arrived bringing Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī from Humāyūn's presence, they having parted from him in Dilmāū. I looked with favour on Fatḥ Khān, gave him the parganas that had been his father `Aẕam-humāyūn's, and other lands also, one pargana given being worth a krūr and 60 laks.[1964]

In Hindūstān they give permanent titles [muqarrarī khiṯāblār] to highly-favoured amīrs, one such being `Aẕam-humāyūn (August Might), one Khān-i-jahān (Khan-of-the-world), another [Sidenote: Fol. 303.] Khān-i-khānān (Khān-of-khāns). Fatḥ Khān's father's title was `Aẕam-humāyūn but I set this aside because on account of Humāyūn it was not seemly for any person to bear it, and I gave Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī the title of Khān-i-jahān.

(November 14th) On Wednesday the 8th of Ṣafar[1965] awnings were set up (in the Chār-bāgh) at the edge of the large tank beyond the tamarind-trees, and an entertainment was prepared there. We invited Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī to a wine-party, gave him wine, bestowed on him a turban and head-to-foot of my own wearing, uplifted his head with kindness and favour[1966] and allowed him to go to his own districts. It was arranged for his son Maḥmūd to remain always in waiting.

(d. Various military matters.)

(November 30th) On Wednesday the 24th of Muḥarram[1967] Muḥammad `Alī (son of Mihtar) Ḥaidar the stirrup-holder was sent (to Humāyūn) with this injunction, "As—thanks be to God!—the rebels have fled, do you, as soon as this messenger arrives, appoint a few suitable begs to Jūnpūr, and come quickly to us yourself, for Rānā Sangā the Pagan is conveniently close; let us think first of him!"

After (Humāyūn's) army had gone to the East, we appointed, to make a plundering excursion into the Bīāna neighbourhood, Tardī Beg (brother) of Qūj Beg with his elder brother Sher-afgan, Muḥammad Khalīl the master-gelder (akhta-begī) with his brethren and the gelders (akhtachīlār),[1968] Rustam Turkmān with his brethren, and also, of the Hindūstānī people, Daud Sarwānī. [Sidenote: Fol. 303b.] If they, by promise and persuasion, could make the Bīāna garrison look towards us, they were to do so; if not, they were to weaken the enemy by raid and plunder.

In the fort of Tahangar[1969] was `Ālam Khān the elder brother of that same Niẕām Khān of Bīāna. People of his had come again and again to set forth his obedience and well-wishing; he now took it on himself to say, "If the Pādshāh appoint an army, it will be my part by promise and persuasion to bring in the quiver-weavers of Bīāna and to effect the capture of that fort." This being so, the following orders were given to the braves of Tardī Beg's expedition, "As `Ālam Khān, a local man, has taken it on himself to serve and submit in this manner, act you with him and in the way he approves in this matter of Bīāna." Swordsmen though some Hindūstānīs may be, most of them are ignorant and unskilled in military move and stand (yūrūsh u tūrūsh), in soldierly counsel and procedure. When our expedition joined `Ālam Khān, he paid no attention to what any-one else said, did not consider whether his action was good or bad, but went close up to Bīāna, taking our men with him. Our expedition numbered from 250 to 300 Turks with somewhat over 2000 Hindūstānīs and local people, while Niẕām Khān of Bīāna's Afghāns and sipāhīs[1970] were an army of over 4000 horse and of [Sidenote: Fol. 304.] foot-men themselves again, more than 10,000. Niẕām Khān looked his opponents over, sallied suddenly out and, his massed horse charging down, put our expeditionary force to flight. His men unhorsed his elder brother `Ālam Khān, took 5 or 6 others prisoner and contrived to capture part of the baggage. As we had already made encouraging promises to Niẕām Khān, we now, spite of this last impropriety, pardoned all earlier and this later fault, and sent him royal letters. As he heard of Rānā Sangā's rapid advance, he had no resource but to call on Sayyid Rafī`[1971] for mediation, surrender the fort to our men, and come in with Sayyid Rafī`, when he was exalted to the felicity of an interview.[1972] I bestowed on him a pargana in Mīān-dū-āb worth 20 laks.[1973] Dost, Lord-of-the-gate was sent for a time to Bīāna, but a few days later it was bestowed on Madhī Khwāja with a fixed allowance of 70 laks,[1974] and he was given leave to go there.

Tātār Khān Sārang-khānī, who was in Gūālīār, had been sending constantly to assure us of his obedience and good-wishes. After the pagan took Kandār and was close to Bīāna, Dharmankat, one of the Gūālīār rājas, and another pagan styled Khān-i-jahān, went into the Gūālīār neighbourhood and, coveting the fort, began to stir trouble and tumult. Tātār Khān, thus placed in difficulty, was for surrendering Gūālīār (to us). Most of our begs, household and best braves being away with (Humāyūn's) army or on various raids, we joined to Raḥīm-dād [Sidenote: Fol. 304b.] a few Bhīra men and Lāhorīs with Hastachī[1975] tūnqiṯār and his brethren. We assigned parganas in Gūālīār itself to all those mentioned above. Mullā Apāq and Shaikh Gurān (G'hurān) went also with them, they to return after Raḥīm-dād was established in Gūālīār. By the time they were near Gūālīār however, Tātār Khān's views had changed, and he did not invite them into the fort. Meantime Shaikh Muḥammad Ghaus̤ (Helper), a darwīsh-like man, not only very learned but with a large following of students and disciples, sent from inside the fort to say to Raḥīm-dād, "Get yourselves into the fort somehow, for the views of this person (Tātār Khān) have changed, and he has evil in his mind." Hearing this, Raḥīm-dād sent to say to Tātār Khān, "There is danger from the Pagan to those outside; let me bring a few men into the fort and let the rest stay outside." Under insistence, Tātār Khān agreed to this, and Raḥīm-dād went in with rather few men. Said he, "Let our people stay near this Gate," posted them near the Hātī-pul (Elephant-gate) and through that Gate during that same night brought in the whole of his troop. Next day, Tātār Khān, reduced to helplessness, willy-nilly, made over the fort, and set out to come and wait on me in Āgra. A subsistence allowance of 20 laks was assigned to him on Bīānwān pargana.[1976]

[Sidenote: Fol. 305.] Muḥammad Zaitūn also took the only course open to him by surrendering Dūlpūr and coming to wait on me. A pargana worth a few laks was bestowed on him. Dūlpūr was made a royal domain (khālṣa) with Abū'l-fatḥ Turkmān[1977] as its military-collector (shiqdār).

In the Ḥiṣār-fīrūza neighbourhood Ḥamīd Khān Sārang-khānī with a body of his own Afghāns and of the Panī Afghāns he had collected—from 3 to 4,000 in all—was in a hostile and troublesome attitude. On Wednesday the 15th Ṣafar (Nov. 21st) we appointed against him Chīn-tīmūr Sl. (Chaghatāī) with the commanders Secretary Aḥmadī, Abū'l-fatḥ Turkmān, Malik Dād Kararānī[1978] and Mujāhid Khān of Multān. These going, fell suddenly on him from a distance, beat his Afghāns well, killed a mass of them and sent in many heads.

(e. Embassy from Persia.)

In the last days of Ṣafar, Khwājagī Asad who had been sent to Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp[1979] in `Irāq, returned with a Turkmān named Sulaimān who amongst other gifts brought two Circassian girls (qīzlār).

(f. Attempt to poison Bābur.)

(Dec. 21st) On Friday the 16th of the first Rabī` a strange event occurred which was detailed in a letter written to Kābul. That letter is inserted here just as it was written, without addition or taking-away, and is as follows:—[1980]

"The details of the momentous event of Friday the 16th of the first Rabī` in the date 933 [Dec. 21st 1526 AD.] are as follows:—The ill-omened old woman[1981] Ibrāhim's mother heard [Sidenote: Fol. 305b.] that I ate things from the hands of Hindūstānīs—the thing being that three or four months earlier, as I had not seen Hindūstānī dishes, I had ordered Ibrāhīm's cooks to be brought and out of 50 or 60 had kept four. Of this she heard, sent to Atāwa (Etāwa) for Aḥmad the chāshnīgīr—in Hindūstān they call a taster (bakāwal) a chāshnīgīr—and, having got him,[1982] gave a tūla of poison, wrapped in a square of paper,—as has been mentioned a tūla is rather more than 2 mis̤qāls[1983]—into the hand of a slave-woman who was to give it to him. That poison Aḥmad gave to the Hindūstānī cooks in our kitchen, promising them four parganas if they would get it somehow into the food. Following the first slave-woman that ill-omened old woman sent a second to see if the first did or did not give the poison she had received to Aḥmad. Well was it that Aḥmad put the poison not into the cooking-pot but on a dish! He did not put it into the pot because I had strictly ordered the tasters to compel any Hindūstānīs who were present while food was cooking in the pots, to taste that food.[1984] Our graceless tasters were neglectful when the food (āsh) was being dished up. Thin slices of bread were put on a porcelain dish; on these less than half of the paper packet of poison was sprinkled, and over this buttered [Sidenote: Fol. 306.] fritters were laid. It would have been bad if the poison had been strewn on the fritters or thrown into the pot. In his confusion, the man threw the larger half into the fire-place."

"On Friday, late after the Afternoon Prayer, when the cooked meats were set out, I ate a good deal of a dish of hare and also much fried carrot, took a few mouthfuls of the poisoned Hindūstānī food without noticing any unpleasant flavour, took also a mouthful or two of dried-meat (qāq). Then I felt sick. As some dried meat eaten on the previous day had had an unpleasant taste, I thought my nausea due to the dried-meat. Again and again my heart rose; after retching two or three times I was near vomiting on the table-cloth. At last I saw it would not do, got up, went retching every moment of the way to the water-closet (āb-khāna) and on reaching it vomited much. Never had I vomited after food, used not to do so indeed while drinking. I became suspicious; I had the cooks put in ward and ordered some of the vomit given to a dog and the dog to be watched. It was somewhat out-of-sorts near the first watch of the next day; its belly was swollen and however much people threw stones at it and turned it over, it did not get up. In that state it remained till mid-day; it then got up; it did not die. [Sidenote: Fol. 306b.] One or two of the braves who also had eaten of that dish, vomited a good deal next day; one was in a very bad state. In the end all escaped. (Persian) 'An evil arrived but happily passed on!' God gave me new-birth! I am coming from that other world; I am born today of my mother; I was sick; I live; through God, I know today the worth of life!"[1985]

"I ordered Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad to watch the cook; when he was taken for torture (qīn), he related the above particulars one after another."

"Monday being Court-day, I ordered the grandees and notables, amīrs and wazīrs to be present and that those two men and two women should be brought and questioned. They there related the particulars of the affair. That taster I had cut in pieces, that cook skinned alive; one of those women I had thrown under an elephant, the other shot with a match-lock. The old woman (būā) I had kept under guard; she will meet her doom, the captive of her own act."[1986]

"On Saturday I drank a bowl of milk, on Sunday `araq in which stamped-clay was dissolved.[1987] On Monday I drank milk in which were dissolved stamped-clay and the best theriac,[1988] a strong purge. As on the first day, Saturday, something very dark like parched bile was voided."

"Thanks be to God! no harm has been done. Till now I had not known so well how sweet a thing life can seem! As the line has it, 'He who has been near to death knows the worth of life.' Spite of myself, I am all upset whenever the dreadful [Sidenote: Fol. 307.] occurrence comes back to my mind. It must have been God's favour gave me life anew; with what words can I thank him?"

"Although the terror of the occurrence was too great for words, I have written all that happened, with detail and circumstance, because I said to myself, 'Don't let their hearts be kept in anxiety!' Thanks be to God! there may be other days yet to see! All has passed off well and for good; have no fear or anxiety in your minds."

"This was written on Tuesday the 20th of the first Rabī`, I being then in the Chār-bāgh."

When we were free from the anxiety of these occurrences, the above letter was written and sent to Kābul.

(g. Dealings with Ibrāhīm's family.)

As this great crime had raised its head through that ill-omened old woman (būā-i-bad-bakht), she was given over to Yūnas-i-`alī and Khwājagī Asad who after taking her money and goods, slaves and slave-women (dādūk), made her over for careful watch to `Abdu'r-raḥīm shaghāwal.[1989] Her grandson, Ibrāhīm's son had been cared for with much respect and delicacy, but as the attempt on my life had been made, clearly, by that family, it did not seem advisable to keep him in Agra; he was joined therefore to Mullā Sarsān—who had come from Kāmrān on important business—and was started off with the Mullā to Kāmrān on Thursday Rabī` I. 29th (Jan. 3rd 1527 AD.).[1990]

(h. Humāyūn's campaign.)

[Sidenote: Fol. 307b.] Humāyūn, acting against the Eastern rebels[1991] took Jūna-pūr (sic), went swiftly against Naṣīr Khān (Nūḥānī) in Ghāzī-pūr and found that he had gone across the Gang-river, presumably on news* of Humāyūn's approach. From Ghāzī-pūr Humāyūn went against Kharīd[1992] but the Afghāns of the place had crossed the Sārū-water (Gogra) presumably on the news* of his coming. Kharīd was plundered and the army turned back.

Humāyūn, in accordance with my arrangements, left Shāh Mīr Ḥusain and Sl. Junaid with a body of effective braves in Jūna-pūr, posted Qāẓī Jīā with them, and placed Shaikh Bāyazīd [Farmūlī] in Aude (Oude). These important matters settled, he crossed Gang from near Karrah-Mānikpūr and took the Kālpī road. When he came opposite Kālpī, in which was Jalāl Khān Jik-hat's (son) `Ālam Khān who had sent me dutiful letters but had not waited on me himself, he sent some-one to chase fear from `Ālam Khān's heart and so brought him along (to Āgra).

Humāyūn arrived and waited on me in the Garden of Eight-paradises[1993] on Sunday the 3rd of the 2nd Rabī` (Jan. 6th 1527 AD.). On the same day Khwāja Dost-i-khāwand arrived from Kābul.

(i. Rānā Sangā's approach.)[1994]

Meantime Mahdī Khwāja's people began to come in, treading on one another's heels and saying, "The Rānā's advance is certain. Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī is heard of also as likely to join him. They must be thought about above all else. It would favour our fortune, if a troop came ahead of the army to reinforce Bīāna." [Sidenote: Fol. 308.]

Deciding to get to horse, we sent on, to ride light to Bīāna, the commanders Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, Yūnas-i-`alī, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās, Kitta Beg, Qismatī[1995] and Būjka.

In the fight with Ibrāhīm, Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī's son Nāhar Khān had fallen into our hands; we had kept him as an hostage and, ostensibly on his account, his father had been making comings-and-goings with us, constantly asking for him. It now occurred to several people that if Ḥasan Khān were conciliated by sending him his son, he would thereby be the more favourably disposed and his waiting on me might be the better brought about. Accordingly Nāhar Khān was dressed in a robe of honour; promises were made to him for his father, and he was given leave to go. That hypocritical mannikin [Ḥasan Khān] must have waited just till his son had leave from me to go, for on hearing of this and while his son as yet had not joined him, he came out of Alūr (Alwar) and at once joined Rānā Sangā in Toda(bhīm, Āgra District). It must have been ill-judged to let his son go just then.

Meantime much rain was falling; parties were frequent; even Humāyūn was present at them and, abhorrent though it was to him, sinned[1996] every few days.

(j. Tramontane affairs.)

One of the strange events in these days of respite[1997] was this:—When Humāyūn was coming from Fort Victory. (Qila`-i-ẕafar) to join the Hindūstān army, (Muḥ. 932 AH.-Oct. 1525 AD.) [Sidenote: Fol. 308b.] Mullā Bābā of Pashāghar (Chaghatāī) and his younger brother Bābā Shaikh deserted on the way, and went to Kītīn-qarā Sl. (Aūzbeg), into whose hands Balkh had fallen through the enfeeblement of its garrison.[1998] This hollow mannikin and his younger brother having taken the labours of this side (Cis-Balkh?) on their own necks, come into the neighbourhood of Aībak, Khurram and Sār-bāgh.[1999]

Shāh Sikandar—his footing in Ghūrī lost through the surrender of Balkh—is about to make over that fort to the Aūzbeg, when Mullā Bābā and Bābā Shaikh, coming with a few Aūzbegs, take possession of it. Mīr Hamah, as his fort is close by, has no help for it; he is for submitting to the Aūzbeg, but a few days later Mullā Bābā and Bābā Shaikh come with a few Aūzbegs to Mīr Hamah's fort, purposing to make the Mīr and his troop march out and to take them towards Balkh. Mīr Hamah makes Bābā Shaikh dismount inside the fort, and gives the rest felt huts (aūtāq) here and there. He slashes at Bābā Shaikh, puts him and some others in bonds, and sends a man galloping off to Tīngrī-bīrdī (Qūchīn, in Qūndūz). Tīngrī-bīrdī sends off Yār-i-`alī and `Abdu'l-laṯīf with a few effective braves, but before they reach Mīr Hamah's fort, Mullā Bābā has arrived there with his Aūzbegs; he had thought of a hand-to-hand fight (aūrūsh-mūrūsh), but he can do nothing. Mīr Hamah and his men joined Tīngrī-bīrdī's and came to Qūndūz. Bābā Shaikh's wound must have been severe; they cut his head off and Mīr Hamah brought [Sidenote: Fol. 309.] it (to Āgra) in these same days of respite. I uplifted his head with favour and kindness, distinguishing him amongst his fellows and equals. When Bāqī shaghāwal went [to Balkh][2000] I promised him a ser of gold for the head of each of the ill-conditioned old couple; one ser of gold was now given to Mīr Hamah for Bābā Shaikh's head, over and above the favours referred to above.[2001]

(k. Action of part of the Bīāna reinforcement.)

Qismatī who had ridden light for Bīāna, brought back several heads he had cut off; when he and Būjka had gone with a few braves to get news, they had beaten two of the Pagan's scouting-parties and had made 70 to 80 prisoners. Qismatī brought news that Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī really had joined Rānā Sangā.

(l. Trial-test of the large mortar of f. 302.)

(Feb. 10th) On Sunday the 8th of the month (Jumāda I.), I went to see Ustād `Alī-qulī discharge stones from that large mortar of his in casting which the stone-chamber was without defect and which he had completed afterwards by casting the powder-compartment. It was discharged at the Afternoon Prayer; the throw of the stone was 1600 paces. A gift was made to the Master of a sword-belt, robe of honour, and tīpūchāq (horse).

(m. Bābur leaves Āgra against Rānā Sangā.)

(Feb. 11th) On Monday the 9th of the first Jumāda, we got out of the suburbs of Āgra, on our journey (safar) for the Holy War, and dismounted in the open country, where we remained three or four days to collect our army and be its rallying-point.[2002] As little confidence was placed in Hindūstānī people, the Hindūstān amīrs were inscribed for expeditions to this or to that side:—`Ālam Khān (Tahangarī) was sent hastily to Gūālīār to [Sidenote: Fol. 309b.] reinforce Raḥīm-dād; Makan, Qāsim Beg Sanbalī (Saṃbhalī), Ḥamīd with his elder and younger brethren and Muḥammad Zaitūn were inscribed to go swiftly to Sanbal.

(n. Defeat of the advance-force.)

Into this same camp came the news that owing to Rānā Sangā's swift advance with all his army,[2003] our scouts were able neither to get into the fort (Bīāna) themselves nor to send news into it. The Bīāna garrison made a rather incautious sally too far out; the enemy fell on them in some force and put them to rout.[2004] There Sangur Khān Janjūha became a martyr. Kitta Beg had galloped into the pell-mell without his cuirass; he got one pagan afoot (yāyāglātīb) and was overcoming him, when the pagan snatched a sword from one of Kitta Beg's own servants and slashed the Beg across the shoulder. Kitta Beg suffered great pain; he could not come into the Holy-battle with Rānā Sangā, was long in recovering and always remained blemished.

Whether because they were themselves afraid, or whether to frighten others is not known but Qismatī, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās and all from Bīāna praised and lauded the fierceness and valour of the pagan army.

Qāsim Master-of-the-horse was sent from the starting-ground (safar qīlghān yūrt) with his spadesmen, to dig many wells where the army was next to dismount in the Madhākūr pargana.

(Feb. 16th) Marching out of Āgra on Saturday the 14th of the first Jumāda, dismount was made where the wells had been [Sidenote: Fol. 310.] dug. We marched on next day. It crossed my mind that the well-watered ground for a large camp was at Sīkrī.[2005] It being possible that the Pagan was encamped there and in possession of the water, we arrayed precisely, in right, left and centre. As Qismatī and Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān in their comings and goings had seen and got to know all sides of Bīāna, they were sent ahead to look for camping-ground on the bank of the Sīkrī-lake (kūl). When we reached the (Madhākūr) camp, persons were sent galloping off to tell Mahdī Khwāja and the Bīāna garrison to join me without delay. Humāyūn's servant Beg Mīrak Mughūl was sent out with a few braves to get news of the Pagan. They started that night, and next morning brought word that he was heard of as having arrived and dismounted at a place one kuroh (2 miles) on our side (aīlkārāk) of Basāwar.[2006] On this same day Mahdī Khwāja and Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā rejoined us with the troops that had ridden light to Bīāna.

(o. Discomfiture of a reconnoitring party.)

The begs were appointed in turns for scouting-duty. When it was `Abdu'l-`azīz's turn, he went out of Sīkrī, looking neither before nor behind, right out along the road to Kanwā which is 5 kuroh (10 m.) away. The Rānā must have been marching forward; he heard of our men's moving out in their reinless (jalāū-sīz) way, and made 4 or 5,000 of his own fall suddenly on them. With `Abdu'l-`azīz and Mullā Apāq may have been 1000 to 1500 men; they took no stock of their opponents but just [Sidenote: Fol. 310b.] got to grips; they were hurried off at once, many of them being made prisoner.

On news of this, we despatched Khalīfa's Muḥibb-i-`alī with Khalīfa's retainers. Mullā Ḥusain and some others aūbrūqsūbrūq[2007]* were sent to support them,[2008] and Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang also. Presumably it was before the arrival of this first, Muḥibb-i-`alī's, reinforcement that the Pagan had hurried off `Abdu'l-`azīz and his men, taken his standard, martyred Mullā Ni`mat, Mullā Dāūd and the younger brother of Mullā Apāq, with several more. Directly the reinforcement arrived the pagans overcame T̤āhir-tibrī, the maternal uncle of Khalīfa's Muḥibb-i-`alī, who had not got up with the hurrying reinforcement[?].[2009] Meantime Muḥibb-i-`alī even had been thrown down, but Bāltū getting in from the rear, brought him out. The enemy pursued for over a kuroh (2 m.), stopped however at the sight of the black mass of Muḥ. `Alī Jang-jang's troops.

Foot upon foot news came that the foe had come near and nearer. We put on our armour and our horses' mail, took our arms and, ordering the carts to be dragged after us, rode out at the gallop. We advanced one kuroh. The foe must have turned aside.

(p. Bābur fortifies his camp.)

For the sake of water, we dismounted with a large lake (kūl) on one side of us. Our front was defended by carts chained together*, the space between each two, across which the chains stretched, being 7 or 8 qārī (circa yards). Musṯafa Rūmī had [Sidenote: Fol. 311.] had the carts made in the Rūmī way, excellent carts, very strong and suitable.[2010] As Ustād `Alī-qulī was jealous of him, Musṯafa was posted to the right, in front of Humāyūn. Where the carts did not reach to, Khurāsānī and Hindūstānī spadesmen and miners were made to dig a ditch.

Owing to the Pagan's rapid advance, to the fighting-work in Bīāna and to the praise and laud of the pagans made by Shāh Manṣūr, Qismatī and the rest from Bīāna, people in the army shewed sign of want of heart. On the top of all this came the defeat of `Abdu'l-`azīz. In order to hearten our men, and give a look of strength to the army, the camp was defended and shut in where there were no carts, by stretching ropes of raw hide on wooden tripods, set 7 or 8 qārī apart. Time had drawn out to 20 or 25 days before these appliances and materials were fully ready.[2011]

(q. A reinforcement from Kābul.)

Just at this time there arrived from Kābul Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sl. (Aūzbeg Shaibān) who is the son of a daughter of Sl. Ḥusain M. (Bāī-qarā), and with him Aḥmad-i-yūsuf (Aūghlāqchī), Qawwām-i-aūrdū Shāh and also several single friends of mine, counting up in all to 500 men. Muḥammad Sharīf, the astrologer of ill-augury, came with them too, so did Bābā Dost the water-bearer (sūchī) who, having gone to Kābul for wine, had there [Sidenote: Fol. 311b.] loaded three strings of camels with acceptable Ghaznī wines.

At a time such as this, when, as has been mentioned, the army was anxious and afraid by reason of past occurrences and vicissitudes, wild words and opinions, this Muḥammad Sharīf, the ill-augurer, though he had not a helpful word to say to me, kept insisting to all he met, "Mars is in the west in these days;[2012] who comes into the fight from this (east) side will be defeated." Timid people who questioned the ill-augurer, became the more shattered in heart. We gave no ear to his wild words, made no change in our operations, but got ready in earnest for the fight.

(Feb. 24th) On Sunday the 22nd (of Jumāda 1.) Shaikh Jamāl was sent to collect all available quiver-wearers from between the two waters (Ganges and Jumna) and from Dihlī, so that with this force he might over-run and plunder the Mīwāt villages, leaving nothing undone which could awaken the enemy's anxiety for that side. Mullā Tark-i-`alī, then on his way from Kābul, was ordered to join Shaikh Jamāl and to neglect nothing of ruin and plunder in Mīwāt; orders to the same purport were given also to Maghfūr the Dīwān. They went; they over-ran and raided a few villages in lonely corners (būjqāq); they took some prisoners; but their passage through did not arouse much anxiety!

(r. Bābur renounces wine.)

On Monday the 23rd of the first Jumāda (Feb. 25th), when [Sidenote: Fol. 312.] I went out riding, I reflected, as I rode, that the wish to cease from sin had been always in my mind, and that my forbidden acts had set lasting stain upon my heart. Said I, "Oh! my soul!"

(Persian) "How long wilt thou draw savour from sin? Repentance is not without savour, taste it!"[2013]

(Turkī) Through years how many has sin defiled thee? How much of peace has transgression given thee? How much hast thou been thy passions' slave? How much of thy life flung away?

With the Ghāzī's resolve since now thou hast marched, Thou hast looked thine own death in the face! Who resolves to hold stubbornly fast to the death, Thou knowest what change he attains,

That far he removes him from all things forbidden, That from all his offences he cleanses himself. With my own gain before me, I vowed to obey, In this my transgression,[2014] the drinking of wine.[2015]

The flagons and cups of silver and gold, the vessels of feasting, I had them all brought; I had them all broken up[2016] then and there. Thus eased I my heart by renouncement of wine.

The fragments of the gold and silver vessels were shared out to deserving persons and to darwīshes. The first to agree in renouncing wine was `Asas;[2017] he had already agreed also about leaving his beard untrimmed.[2018] That night and next day some [Sidenote: Fol. 312b.] 300 begs and persons of the household, soldiers and not soldiers, renounced wine. What wine we had with us was poured on the ground; what Bābā Dost had brought was ordered salted to make vinegar. At the place where the wine was poured upon the ground, a well was ordered to be dug, built up with stone and having an almshouse beside it. It was already finished in Muḥarram 935 (AH.-Sep. 1528 AD.) at the time I went to Sīkrī from Dūlpūr on my way back from visiting Gūālīār.

(s. Remission of a due.)

I had vowed already that, if I gained the victory over Sangā the pagan, I would remit the tamghā[2019] to all Musalmāns. Of this vow Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān and Shaikh Zain reminded me at the time I renounced wine. Said I, "You do well to remind me."

*The tamghā was remitted to all Musalmāns of the dominions I held.[2020] I sent for the clerks (munshīlār), and ordered them to write for their news-letters (akhbar) the farmān concerning the two important acts that had been done. Shaikh Zain wrote the farmān with his own elegance (inshāsī bīla) and his fine letter (inshā) was sent to all my dominions. It is as follows:—[2021]

FARMĀN ANNOUNCING BĀBUR'S RENUNCIATION OF WINE.[2022]

[2023] Let us praise the Long-suffering One who loveth the penitent and who loveth the cleansers of themselves; and let thanks be rendered to the Gracious One who absolveth His debtors, and forgiveth those who seek forgiveness. Blessings be upon Muḥammad the Crown of Creatures, on the Holy family, on the pure Companions, and on the mirrors of the glorious congregation, to wit, the Masters of Wisdom who are treasure-houses of the pearls of purity and who bear the impress of the sparkling jewels of this purport:—that the nature of man is prone to evil, and that the abandonment of sinful appetites is only feasible by Divine aid [Sidenote: Fol. 313.] and the help that cometh from on high. "Every soul is prone unto evil,"[2024] (and again) "This is the bounty of God; He will give the same unto whom He pleaseth; and God is endued with great bounty."[2025]

Our motive for these remarks and for repeating these statements is that, by reason of human frailty, of the customs of kings and of the great, all of us, from the Shāh to the sipāhī, in the heyday of our youth, have transgressed and done what we ought not to have done. After some days of sorrow and repentance, we abandoned evil practices one by one, and the gates of retrogression became closed. But the renunciation of wine, the greatest and most indispensable of renunciations, remained under a veil in the chamber of deeds pledged to appear in due season, and did not show its countenance until the glorious hour when we had put on the garb of the holy warrior and had encamped with the army of Islām over against the infidels in order to slay them. On this occasion I received a secret inspiration and heard an infallible voice say "Is not the time yet come unto those who believe, that their hearts should humbly submit to the admonition of God, and that truth which hath been revealed?"[2026] Thereupon we set ourselves to extirpate the things of wickedness, and we earnestly knocked at the gates of repentance. The Guide of Help assisted us, according to the saying "Whoever knocks and re-knocks, to him it will be opened", and an order was given that with the Holy War there should [Sidenote: Fol. 313b.] begin the still greater war which has to be waged against sensuality. In short, we declared with sincerity that we would subjugate our passions, and I engraved on the tablet of my heart "I turn unto Thee with repentance, and I am the first of true believers".[2027] And I made public the resolution to abstain from wine, which had been hidden in the treasury of my breast. The victorious servants, in accordance with the illustrious order, dashed upon the earth of contempt and destruction the flagons and the cups, and the other utensils in gold and silver, which in their number and their brilliance were like the stars of the firmament. They dashed them in pieces, as, God willing! soon will be dashed the gods of the idolaters,—and they distributed the fragments among the poor and needy. By the blessing of this acceptable repentance, many of the courtiers, by virtue of the saying that men follow the religion of their kings, embraced abstinence at the same assemblage, and entirely renounced the use of wine, and up till now crowds of our subjects hourly attain this auspicious happiness. I hope that in accordance with the saying "He who incites to good deeds has the same reward as he who does them" the benefit of this action will react on the royal fortune and increase it day by day by victories.

After carrying out this design an universal decree was issued that in the imperial dominions—May God protect them from [Sidenote: Fol. 314.] every danger and calamity—no-one shall partake of strong drink, or engage in its manufacture, nor sell it, nor buy it or possess it, nor convey it or fetch it. "Beware of touching it." "Perchance this will give you prosperity."[2028]

In thanks for these great victories,[2029] and as a thank-offering for God's acceptance of repentance and sorrow, the ocean of the royal munificence became commoved, and those waves of kindness, which are the cause of the civilization of the world and of the glory of the sons of Adam, were displayed,—and throughout all the territories the tax (tamghā) on Musalmāns was abolished,—though its yield was more than the dreams of avarice, and though it had been established and maintained by former rulers,—for it is a practice outside of the edicts of the Prince of Apostles (Muḥammad). So a decree was passed that in no city, town, road, ferry, pass, or port, should the tax be levied or exacted. No alteration whatsoever of this order is to be permitted. "Whoever after hearing it makes any change therein, the sin of such change will be upon him."[2030]

The proper course (sabīl) for all who shelter under the shade of the royal benevolence, whether they be Turk, Tājik, `Arab, Hindī, or Fārsī (Persian), peasants or soldiers, of every nation or tribe of the sons of Adam, is to strengthen themselves by the tenets of religion, and to be full of hope and prayer for the dynasty which is linked with eternity, and to adhere to these ordinances, and not in any way to transgress them. It behoves all to act according to this farmān; they are to accept it as authentic when it comes attested by the Sign-Manual.

Written by order of the Exalted one,—May his excellence endure for ever! on the 24th of Jumāda I. 933 (February 26th 1527).

(t. Alarm in Bābur's camp.)

[Sidenote: Fol. 314b.] In these days, as has been mentioned, (our people) great and small, had been made very anxious and timid by past occurrences. No manly word or brave counsel was heard from any one soever. What bold speech was there from the wazīrs who are to speak out (dīgūchī), or from the amīrs who will devour the land (wilāyat-yīghūchī)?[2031] None had advice to give, none a bold plan of his own to expound. Khalīfa (however) did well in this campaign, neglecting nothing of control and supervision, painstaking and diligence.

At length after I had made enquiry concerning people's want of heart and had seen their slackness for myself, a plan occurred to me; I summoned all the begs and braves and said to them, "Begs and braves!

(Persian) Who comes into the world will die; What lasts and lives will be God.

(Turkī) He who hath entered the assembly of life, Drinketh at last of the cup of death.

He who hath come to the inn of life, Passeth at last from Earth's house of woe.

"Better than life with a bad name, is death with a good one.

(Persian) Well is it with me, if I die with good name! A good name must I have, since the body is death's.[2032]

"God the Most High has allotted to us such happiness and has created for us such good-fortune that we die as martyrs, we kill as avengers of His cause. Therefore must each of you take oath [Sidenote: Fol. 315.] upon His Holy Word that he will not think of turning his face from this foe, or withdraw from this deadly encounter so long as life is not rent from his body." All those present, beg and retainer, great and small, took the Holy Book joyfully into their hands and made vow and compact to this purport. The plan was perfect; it worked admirably for those near and afar, for seërs and hearers, for friend and foe.

(u. Bābur's perilous position.)

In those same days trouble and disturbance arose on every side:—Ḥusain Khān Nuḥānī went and took Rāprī; Quṯb Khān's man took Chandwār[2033]; a mannikin called Rustam Khān who had collected quiver-wearers from Between-the-two-waters (Ganges and Jamna), took Kūl (Koel) and made Kīchīk 'Alī prisoner; Khwāja Zāhid abandoned Saṃbal and went off; Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī came from Qanūj to me; the Gūālīār pagans laid siege to that fort; 'Ālam Khān when sent to reinforce it, did not go to Gūālīār but to his own district. Every day bad news came from every side. Desertion of many Hindūstānīs set in; Haibat Khān Karg-andāz[2034] deserted and went to Saṃbal; Ḥasan Khān of Bārī deserted and joined the Pagan. We gave attention to none of them but went straight on with our own affair.

(v. Bābur advances to fight.)

The apparatus and appliances, the carts and wheeled tripods being ready, we arrayed in right, left and centre, and marched forward on New Year's Day,[2035] Tuesday, the 9th of the second [Sidenote: Fol. 315b.] Jumāda (March 13th), having the carts[2036] and wheeled tripods moving in front of us, with Ustād `Alī-qulī and all the matchlock-men ranged behind them in order that these men, being on foot, should not be left behind the array but should advance with it.

When the various divisions, right, left and centre, had gone each to its place, I galloped from one to another to give encouragement to begs, braves, and sipāhīs. After each man had had assigned to him his post and usual work with his company, we advanced, marshalled on the plan determined, for as much as one kuroh (2 m.)[2037] and then dismounted.

The Pagan's men, for their part, were on the alert; they came from their side, one company after another.

The camp was laid out and strongly protected by ditch and carts. As we did not intend to fight that day, we sent a few unmailed braves ahead, who were to get to grips with the enemy and thus take an omen. They made a few pagans prisoner, cut off and brought in their heads. Malik Qāsim also cut off and brought in a few heads; he did well. By these successes the hearts of our men became very strong.

When we marched on next day, I had it in my mind to fight, but Khalīfa and other well-wishers represented that the camping-ground previously decided on was near and that it would favour our fortunes if we had a ditch and defences made there and went there direct. Khalīfa accordingly rode off to get [Sidenote: Fol. 316.] the ditch dug; he settled its position with the spades-men, appointed overseers of the work and returned to us. (w. The battle of Kānwa.)[2038]

On Saturday the 13th of the second Jumāda (March 17th, 1527 AD.) we had the carts dragged in front of us (as before), made a kuroh (2 m.) of road, arrayed in right, left and centre, and dismounted on the ground selected.

A few tents had been set up; a few were in setting up when news of the appearance of the enemy was brought. Mounting instantly, I ordered every man to his post and that our array should be protected with the carts.[2039]

*As the following Letter-of-victory (Fatḥ-nāma) which is what Shaikh Zain had indited, makes known particulars about the army of Islām, the great host of the pagans with the position of their arrayed ranks, and the encounters had between them and the army of Islām, it is inserted here without addition or deduction.[2040]

SHAIKH ZAIN'S LETTER-OF-VICTORY.

(a. Introduction.)

Praise be to God the Faithful Promiser, the Helper of His servants, the Supporter of His armies, the Scatterer of hostile hosts, the One alone without whom there is nothing. [Sidenote: Fol. 316b.]

O Thou the Exalter of the pillars of Islām, Helper of thy faithful minister, Overthrower of the pedestals of idols, Overcomer of rebellious foes, Exterminator to the uttermost of the followers of darkness!

Lauds be to God the Lord of the worlds, and may the blessing of God be upon the best of His creatures Muḥammad, Lord of ghāzīs and champions of the Faith, and upon his companions, the pointers of the way, until the Day of judgment.

The successive gifts of the Almighty are the cause of frequent praises and thanksgivings, and the number of these praises and thanksgivings is, in its turn, the cause of the constant succession of God's mercies. For every mercy a thanksgiving is due, and every thanksgiving is followed by a mercy. To render full thanks is beyond men's power; the mightiest are helpless to discharge their obligations. Above all, adequate thanks cannot be rendered for a benefit than which none is greater in the world and nothing is more blessed, in the world to come, to wit, victory over most powerful infidels and dominion over wealthiest heretics, "these are the unbelievers, the wicked."[2041] In the eyes of the judicious, no blessing can be greater than this. Thanks be to God! that this great blessing and mighty boon, which from the cradle until now has been the real object of this right-thinking mind (Bābur's), has now manifested itself by the graciousness of the King of the worlds; the Opener who dispenses his treasures without awaiting solicitation, hath opened them with a master-key before our victorious Nawāb (Bābur),[2042] so that the names of our[2043] conquering heroes have been emblazoned in the records of glorious ghāzīs. By the help of our victorious soldiers the [Sidenote: Fol. 317.] standards of Islām have been raised to the highest pinnacles. The account of this auspicious fortune is as follows:—

(b. Rānā Sangā and his forces.)

When the flashing-swords of our Islām-guarded soldiers had illuminated the land of Hindūstān with rays of victory and conquest, as has been recorded in former letters-of-victory,[2044] the Divine favour caused our standards to be upreared in the territories of Dihlī, Āgra, Jūn-pūr, Kharīd,[2045] Bihār, etc., when many chiefs, both pagans and Muḥammadans submitted to our generals and shewed sincere obedience to our fortunate Nawāb. But Rānā Sangā the pagan who in earlier times breathed submissive to the Nawāb,[2046] now was puffed up with pride and became of the number of unbelievers.[2047] Satan-like he threw back his head and collected an army of accursed heretics, thus gathering a rabble-rout of whom some wore the accursed torque (ṯauq), the zīnār,[2048] on the neck, some had in the skirt the calamitous thorn of apostacy.[2049] Previous to the rising in Hindūstān of the Sun of dominion and the emergence there of the light of the Shāhanshāh's Khalīfate [i.e. Bābur's] the authority of that execrated pagan (Sangā)—at the Judgment Day he shall have no friend,[2050] was such that not one of all the exalted sovereigns of this wide realm, such as the Sulṯān of Dihlī, the [Sidenote: Fol. 317b.] Sulṯān of Gujrāt and the Sulṯān of Mandū, could cope with this evil-dispositioned one, without the help of other pagans; one and all they cajoled him and temporized with him; and he had this authority although the rājas and rāīs of high degree, who obeyed him in this battle, and the governors and commanders who were amongst his followers in this conflict, had not obeyed him in any earlier fight or, out of regard to their own dignity, been friendly with him. Infidel standards dominated some 200 towns in the territories of Islām; in them mosques and shrines fell into ruin; from them the wives and children of the Faithful were carried away captive. So greatly had his forces grown that, according to the Hindū calculation by which one lak of revenue should yield 100 horsemen, and one krūr of revenue, 10,000 horsemen, the territories subject to the Pagan (Sangā) yielding 10 krūrs, should yield him 100,000 horse. Many noted pagans who hitherto had not helped him in battle, now swelled his ranks out of hostility to the people of Islām. Ten powerful chiefs, each the leader of a pagan host, uprose in rebellion, as smoke rises, and linked themselves, as though [Sidenote: Fol. 318.] enchained, to that perverse one (Sangā); and this infidel decade who, unlike the blessed ten,[2051] uplifted misery-freighted standards which denounce unto them excruciating punishment,[2052] had many dependants, and troops, and wide-extended lands. As, for instance, Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn[2053] had territory yielding 30,000 horse, Rāwal Ūdai Sīngh of Bāgar had 12,000, Medinī Rāī had 12,000, Ḥasan Khān of Mīwāt had 12,000, Bār-mal of Īdr had 4,000, Narpat Hāra had 7,000, Satrvī of Kach (Cutch) had 6,000, Dharm-deo had 4,000, Bīr-sing-deo had 4,000, and Maḥmūd Khān, son of Sl. Sikandar, to whom, though he possessed neither district nor pargana, 10,000 horse had gathered in hope of his attaining supremacy. Thus, according to the calculation of Hind, 201,000 was the total of those sundered from salvation. In brief, that haughty pagan, inwardly blind, and hardened of heart, having joined with other pagans, dark-fated and doomed to perdition, advanced to contend with the followers of Islām and to destroy the foundations of the law of the Prince of Men (Muḥammad), on whom be God's blessing! The protagonists of the royal forces fell, like divine destiny, on that one-eyed Dajjāl[2054] who, to understanding men, shewed the truth of the saying, When Fate arrives, the eye becomes blind, and, setting before their eyes the scripture which saith, Whosoever striveth to promote the true religion, striveth for the good of his own soul,[2055] [Sidenote: Fol. 318b.] they acted on the precept to which obedience is due, Fight against infidels and hypocrites.

(c. Military movements.)

(March 17th, 1527) On Saturday the 13th day of the second Jumāda of the date 933, a day blessed by the words, God hath blessed your Saturday, the army of Islām was encamped near the village of Kānwa, a dependency of Bīāna, hard by a hill which was 2 kurohs (4 m.) from the enemies of the Faith. When those accursed infidel foes of Muḥammad's religion heard the reverberation of the armies of Islām, they arrayed their ill-starred forces and moved forward with one heart, relying on their mountain-like, demon-shaped elephants, as had relied the Lords of the Elephant[2056] who went to overthrow the sanctuary (ka`ba) of Islām.

"Having these elephants, the wretched Hindus Became proud, like the Lords of the Elephant; Yet were they odious and vile as is the evening of death, Blacker[2057] than night, outnumbering the stars, All such as fire is[2058] but their heads upraised In hate, as rises its smoke in the azure sky, Ant-like they come from right and from left, Thousands and thousands of horse and foot."

They advanced towards the victorious encampment, intending [Sidenote: Fol. 319.] to give battle. The holy warriors of Islām, trees in the garden of valour, moved forward in ranks straight as serried pines and, like pines uplift their crests to heaven, uplifting their helmet-crests which shone even as shine the hearts of those that strive in the way of the Lord; their array was like Alexander's iron-wall,[2059] and, as is the way of the Prophet's Law, straight and firm and strong, as though they were a well-compacted building;[2060] and they became fortunate and successful in accordance with the saying, They are directed by their Lord, and they shall prosper.[2061]

In that array no rent was frayed by timid souls; Firm was it as the Shāhanshāh's resolve, strong as the Faith; Their standards brushed against the sky; Verily we have granted thee certain victory.[2062]

Obeying the cautions of prudence, we imitated the ghāzīs of Rūm[2063] by posting matchlockmen (tufanchīān) and cannoneers (ra`d-andāzān) along the line of carts which were chained to one another in front of us; in fact, Islām's army was so arrayed and so steadfast that primal Intelligence[2064] and the firmament (`aql-i-pīr u charkh-i-as̤īr) applauded the marshalling thereof. To effect this arrangement and organization, Niẕāmu'd-dīn `Alī Khalīfa, the pillar of the Imperial fortune, exerted himself strenuously; his efforts were in accord with Destiny, and were approved by his sovereign's luminous judgment.

(d. Commanders of the centre.)

His Majesty's post was in the centre. In the right-hand of the centre were stationed the illustrious and most upright [Sidenote: Fol. 319b.] brother, the beloved friend of Destiny, the favoured of Him whose aid is entreated (i.e. God), Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān,[2065]—the illustrious son, accepted in the sight of the revered Allāh, Sulaimān Shāh,[2066]—the reservoir of sanctity, the way-shower, Khwāja Kamālu'd-dīn (Perfect-in-the Faith) Dost-i-khāwand,—the trusted of the sulṯānate, the abider near the sublime threshold, the close companion, the cream of associates, Kamālu'd-dīn Yūnas-i-`alī,—the pillar of royal retainers, the perfect in friendship, Jalālu'd-dīn (Glory-of-the-Faith) Shāh Manṣūr Barlās,—the pillar of royal retainers, most excellent of servants, Niẕāmu'd-dīn (Upholder-of-the-Faith) Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān,—the pillars of royal retainers, the sincere in fidelity, Shihābu'd-dīn (Meteor-of-the-Faith) `Abdu'l-lāh the librarian and Nīẕāmu'd-dīn Dost Lord-of-the-Gate.

In the left-hand of the centre took each his post, the reservoir of sovereignty, ally of the Khalīfate, object of royal favour, Sulṯān `Alā'u'd-dīn `Ālam Khān son of Sl. Bahlūl Lūdī,—the intimate of illustrious Majesty, the high priest (dastūr) of ṣadrs amongst men, the refuge of all people, the pillar of Islām, Shaikh Zain of Khawāf,[2067]—the pillar of the nobility, Kamālu'd-dīn Muḥibb-i-`alī, son of the intimate counsellor named above (i.e. Khalīfa),—the pillar of royal retainers, Niẕāmu'd-dīn Tardī Beg brother of Qūj (son of) Aḥmad, whom God hath taken into His mercy,—Shīrafgan [Sidenote: Fol. 320.] son of the above-named Qūj Beg deceased,—the pillar of great ones, the mighty khān, Ārāīsh Khān,[2068]—the wazīr, greatest of wazīrs amongst men, Khwāja Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain,—and a number of other attendants at Court (dīwanīān).

(e. Commanders of the right wing.)

In the right wing was the exalted son, honourable and fortunate, the befriended of Destiny, the Star of the Sign of sovereignty and success, Sun of the sphere of the Khalīfate, lauded of slave and free, Muḥammad Humāyūn Bahādur. On that exalted prince's right hand there were, one whose rank approximates to royalty and who is distinguished by the favour of the royal giver of gifts, Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān,—the pillar of the nobility Niẕāmu'd-dīn Aḥmad-ī-yūsuf Aūghlāqchī,[2069]—the trusted of royalty, most excellent of servants, Jalālu'd-dīn Hindū Beg qūchīn,[2070]—the trusted of royalty, perfect in loyalty, Jalālu'd-dīn Khusrau Kūkūldāsh,—the trusted of royalty, Qawām (var. Qiyām) Beg Aūrdū-shāh,—the pillar of royal retainers, of perfect sincerity, Walī Qarā-qūzī the treasurer,[2071]—the pillar of royal retainers, Niẕāmu'd-dīn Pīr-qulī of Sīstān,—the pillar of wazīrs, Khwāja Kamālu'd-dīn pahlawān (champion) of Badakhshān,—the pillar of royal retainers, `Abdu'l-sḥakūr,—the pillar of the nobility, most excellent of servants, the envoy from `Irāq Sulaimān Āqā,—and Ḥusain Āqā the envoy from Sīstān. On [Sidenote: Fol. 320b.] the victory-crowned left of the fortunate son already named there were, the sayyid of lofty birth, of the family of Murtiẓā (`Alī), Mīr Hama (or Hāma),—the pillar of royal retainers, the perfect in sincerity, Shamsu'd-dīn Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh and Niẕāmu'd-dīn Khwājagī Asad jān-dār.[2072] In the right wing there were, of the amīrs of Hind,—the pillar of the State, the Khān-of-Khāns, Dilāwar Khān,[2073]—the pillar of the nobility, Malik Dād Kararānī,—and the pillar of the nobility, the Shaikh-of-shaikhs, Shaikh Gūran, each standing in his appointed place.

(f. Commanders of the left wing.)

In the left wing of the armies of Islām there extended their ranks,—the lord of lofty lineage, the refuge of those in authority, the ornament of the family of T̤a Ha and Ya Sin,[2074] the model for the descendants of the prince of ambassadors (Muḥammad), Sayyid Mahdī Khwāja,—the exalted and fortunate brother, the well-regarded of his Majesty, Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā,[2075]—the personage approximating to royalty, the descended of monarchs, `Ādil Sulṯān son of Mahdī Sulṯān,[2076]—the trusted in the State, perfect in attachment, `Abdu'l-'azīz Master of the Horse,—the trusted in the State, the pure in friendship, Shamsu'd-dīn Muḥammad `Ali Jang-jang,[2077]—the pillar of royal retainers, Jalālu'd-dīn Qūtlūq-qadam qarāwal (scout),—the pillar of royal retainers, the perfect in sincerity, Jalālu'd-dīn Shāh Ḥusain yārāgī Mughūl Ghānchī(?),[2078]—and Niẕāmu'd-dīn Jān-i-muḥammad Beg Ātāka.

Of amīrs of Hind there were in this division, the scions of sulṯāns, Kamāl Khān and Jamāl Khān sons of the Sl. `Alā'u'd-dīn [Sidenote: Fol. 321.] above-mentioned,—the most excellent officer `Alī Khān Shaikh-zāda of Farmūl,—and the pillar of the nobility, Niẕām Khān of Bīāna.

(g. The flanking parties.)

For the flank-movement (tūlghāma) of the right wing there were posted two of the most trusted of the household retainers, Tardīka[2079] and Malik Qāsim the brother of Bābā Qashqa, with a body of Mughūls; for the flank-movement of the left wing were the two trusted chiefs Mūmin Ātāka and Rustam Turkmān, leading a body of special troops.

(h. The Chief of the Staff.)

The pillar of royal retainers, the perfect in loyalty, the cream of privy-counsellors, Niẕāmu'd-dīn Sulṯān Muḥammad Bakhshī, after posting the ghāzīs of Islām, came to receive the royal commands. He despatched adjutants (tawāchī) and messengers (yasāwal) in various directions to convey imperative orders concerning the marshalling of the troops to the great sulṯāns and amīrs. And when the Commanders had taken up their positions, an imperative order was given that none should quit his post or, uncommanded, stretch forth his arm to fight.

(i. The battle.)

One watch[2080] of the afore-mentioned day had elapsed when the opposing forces approached each other and the battle began. As Light opposes Darkness, so did the centres of the two [Sidenote: Fol. 321b.] armies oppose one another. Fighting began on the right and left wings, such fighting as shook the Earth and filled highest Heaven with clangour.

The left wing of the ill-fated pagans advanced against the right wing of the Faith-garbed troops of Islām and charged down on Khusrau Kūkūldāsh and Bābā Qashqa's brother Malik Qāsim. The most glorious and most upright brother Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān, obeying orders, went to reinforce them and, engaging in the conflict with bold attack, bore the pagans back almost to the rear of their centre. Guerdon was made for the brother's glorious fame.[2081] The marvel of the Age, Muṣṯafa of Rūm, had his post in the centre (of the right wing) where was the exalted son, upright and fortunate, the object of the favourable regard of Creative Majesty (i.e. God), the one distinguished by the particular grace of the mighty Sovereign who commands to do and not to do (i.e. Bābur), Muḥammad Humāyūn Bahādur. This Muṣṯafa of Rūm had the carts (arābahā)[2082] brought forward and broke the ranks of pagans with matchlock and culverin dark like their hearts(?).[2083] In the thick of the fight, the most glorious brother Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān and the pillars of royal retainers, Niẕāmu'd-dīn Aḥmad-i-yūsuf and Qawām Beg, obeying orders, hastened to their help. And since band after band of pagan troops followed each other to help their men, so we, in our turn, sent the trusted in the State, the glory of the Faith, Hindū Beg, and, after him, the pillars of the nobility, Muhammadī Kūkūldāsh and Khwājagī Asad jān-dār, and, after them, the trusted in [Sidenote: Fol. 322.] the State, the trustworthy in the resplendent Court, the most confided-in of nobles, the elect of confidential servants, Yūnas-i-'alī, together with the pillar of the nobility, the perfect in friendship, Shāh Manṣūr Barlās and the pillar of the grandees, the pure in fidelity, `Abdu'l-lāh the librarian, and after these, the pillar of the nobles, Dost the Lord-of-the-Gate, and Muḥammad Khalil the master-gelder (akhta-begī).[2084]

The pagan right wing made repeated and desperate attack on the left wing of the army of Islām, falling furiously on the holy warriors, possessors of salvation, but each time was made to turn back or, smitten with the arrows of victory, was made to descend into Hell, the house of perdition; they shall be thrown to burn therein, and an unhappy dwelling shall it be.[2085] Then the trusty amongst the nobles, Mūmin Ātāka and Rustam Turkmān betook themselves to the rear[2086] of the host of darkened pagans; and to help them were sent the Commanders Khwāja Maḥmūd and `Alī Ātāka, servants of him who amongst the royal retainers is near the throne, the trusted of the Sulṯānate, Niẕāmu'd-din `Alī Khalīfa.

Our high-born brother[2087] Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, and the representative of royal dignity, `Ādil Sulṯān, and the trusted in the State, the strengthener of the Faith, `Abdu'l-`azīz, the Master of the Horse, and the glory of the Faith, Qūtlūq-qadam qarāwal, and the meteor of the Faith, Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang, and the pillar of royal retainers, Shāh Ḥusain yāragī Mughūl Ghānchī(?) stretched out the arm to fight and stood firm. To support them we sent the Dastūr, the highest of wazīrs, Khwāja [Sidenote: Fol. 322b.] Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain with a body of dīwānīs.[2088] Every holy warrior was eager to show his zeal, entering the fight with desperate joy as if approving the verse, Say, Do you expect any other should befall us than one of the two most excellent things, victory or martyrdom?[2089] and, with display of life-devotion, uplifted the standard of life-sacrifice.

As the conflict and battle lasted long, an imperative order was issued that the special royal corps (tābīnān-i-khāṣa-i-pādshāhī)[2090] who, heroes of one hue,[2091] were standing, like tigers enchained, behind the carts,[2092] should go out on the right and the left of the centre,[2093] leaving the matchlockmen's post in-between, and join battle on both sides. As the True Dawn emerges from its cleft in the horizon, so they emerged from behind the carts; they poured a ruddy crepuscule of the blood of those ill-fated pagans on the nadir of the Heavens, that battle-field; they made fall from the firmament of existence many heads of the headstrong, as stars fall from the firmament of heaven. The marvel of the Age, Ustād `Alī-qulī, who with his own appurtenances stood in front of the centre, did deeds of valour, discharging against the iron-mantled forts of the infidels[2094] stones of such size that were (one) put into a scale of the Balance in which actions are weighed, that scale shall be heavy with good works and he (i.e. its owner) shall lead a pleasing life[2095]; and were such stones discharged against a hill, broad of base and high of summit, it would become like carded wool.[2096] Such stones Ustād `Alī-qulī discharged at the iron-clad fortress of the pagan ranks and by this discharge of stones, and abundance of culverins and matchlocks(?)[2097] destroyed many of the builded bodies of the [Sidenote: Fol. 323.] pagans. The matchlockmen of the royal centre, in obedience to orders, going from behind the carts into the midst of the battle, each one of them made many a pagan taste of the poison of death. The foot-soldiers, going into a most dangerous place, made their names to be blazoned amongst those of the forest-tigers (i.e. heroes) of valour and the champions in the field of manly deeds. Just at this time came an order from his Majesty the Khāqān that the carts of the centre should be advanced; and the gracious royal soul (i.e. Bābur) moved towards the pagan soldiers, Victory and Fortune on his right, Prestige and Conquest on his left. On witnessing this event, the victorious troops followed from all sides; the whole surging ocean of the army rose in mighty waves; the courage of all the crocodiles[2098] of that ocean was manifested by the strength of their deeds; an obscuring cloud of dust o'erspread the sky(?). The dust that gathered over the battle-field was traversed by the lightning-flashes of the sword; the Sun's face was shorn of light as is a mirror's back; the striker and the struck, the victor and the vanquished were commingled, all distinction between them lost. The Wizard of Time produced such a night that its only planets were arrows,[2099] its only constellations of fixed stars were the steadfast squadrons.

Upon that day of battle sank and rose Blood to the Fish and dust-clouds to the Moon, While through the horse-hoofs on that spacious plain, [Sidenote: Fol. 323b.] One Earth flew up to make another Heaven.[2100]

At the moment when the holy warriors were heedlessly flinging away their lives, they heard a secret voice say, Be not dismayed, neither be grieved, for, if ye believe, ye shall be exalted above the unbelievers,[2101] and from the infallible Informer heard the joyful words, Assistance is from God, and a speedy victory! And do thou bear glad tidings to true believers.[2102] Then they fought with such delight that the plaudits of the saints of the Holy Assembly reached them and the angels from near the Throne, fluttered round their heads like moths. Between the first and second Prayers, there was such blaze of combat that the flames thereof raised standards above the heavens, and the right and left of the army of Islām rolled back the left and right of the doomed infidels in one mass upon their centre.

When signs were manifest of the victory of the Strivers and of the up-rearing of the standards of Islām, those accursed infidels and wicked unbelievers remained for one hour confounded. At length, their hearts abandoning life, they fell upon the right and left of our centre. Their attack on the left was the more vigorous and there they approached furthest, but the holy warriors, their minds set on the reward, planted shoots (nihāl) of arrows in the field of the breast of each one of them, and, such being their gloomy fate, overthrew them. In this state of affairs, the breezes of victory and fortune blew over the meadow of our [Sidenote: Fol. 324.] happy Nawāb, and brought the good news, Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory.[2103] And Victory the beautiful woman (shāhid) whose world-adornment of waving tresses was embellished by God will aid you with a mighty aid,[2104] bestowed on us the good fortune that had been hidden behind a veil, and made it a reality. The absurd (bāṯil) Hindūs, knowing their position perilous, dispersed like carded wool before the wind, and like moths scattered abroad.[2105] Many fell dead on the field of battle; others, desisting from fighting, fled to the desert of exile and became the food of crows and kites. Mounds were made of the bodies of the slain, pillars of their heads.

(j. Hindū chiefs killed in the battle.)

Ḥasan Khān of Mīwāt was enrolled in the list of the dead by the force of a matchlock (ẓarb-i-tufak); most of those headstrong chiefs of tribes were slain likewise, and ended their days by arrow and matchlock (tīr u tufak). Of their number was Rāwal Ūdī Sīngh of Bāgar,[2106] ruler (wālī) of the Dungarpūr country, who had 12,000 horse, Rāī Chandrabān Chūhān who had 4,000 horse, Bhūpat Rāo son of that Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn already mentioned, who was lord of Chandīrī and had 6,000 horse, Mānik-chand Chūhān and Dilpat Rāo who had each 4,000 horse, Kankū (or Gangū) and Karm Sīngh and Dankūsī(?)[2107] who had each 3,000 horse, and a number of others, each one of whom was leader of a great [Sidenote: Fol. 324b.] command, a splendid and magnificent chieftain. All these trod the road to Hell, removing from this house of clay to the pit of perdition. The enemy's country (dāru'l-ḥarb) was full, as Hell is full, of wounded who had died on the road. The lowest pit was gorged with miscreants who had surrendered their souls to the lord of Hell. In whatever direction one from the army of Islām hastened, he found everywhere a self-willed one dead; whatever march the illustrious camp made in the wake of the fugitives, it found no foot-space without its prostrate foe.

All the Hindūs slain, abject (khwār, var. zār) and mean, By matchlock-stones, like the Elephants' lords,[2108] Many hills of their bodies were seen, And from each hill a fount of running blood. Dreading the arrows of (our) splendid ranks, Passed[2109] they in flight to each waste and hill.

They turn their backs. The command of God is to be performed. Now praise be to God, All-hearing and All-wise, for victory is from God alone, the Mighty, the Wise.[2110] Written Jumāda II. 25th 933 (AH.-March 29th 1527 A.D.).[2111]

MINOR SEQUELS OF VICTORY.

(a. Bābur assumes the title of Ghāzī.)

After this success Ghāzī (Victor in a Holy-war) was written amongst the royal titles.

Below the titles (ṯughrā)[2112] entered on the Fatḥ-nāma, I wrote the following quatrain:—[2113]

For Islām's sake, I wandered in the wilds, Prepared for war with pagans and Hindūs, Resolved myself to meet the martyr's death. [Sidenote: Fol. 325.] Thanks be to God! a ghāzī I became.

(b. Chronograms of the victory.)

Shaikh Zain had found (tāpīb aīdī) the words Fatḥ-i-pādshāḥ-i-islām[2114] (Victory of the Pādshāh of the Faith) to be a chronogram of the victory. Mīr Gesū, one of the people come from Kābul, had also found these same words to be a chronogram, had composed them in a quatrain and sent this to me. It was a coincidence that Shaikh Zain and Mīr Gesū should bring forward precisely the same words in the quatrains they composed to embellish their discoveries.[2115] Once before when Shaikh Zain found the date of the victory at Dībālpūr in the words Wasaṯ-i-shahr Rabī`u'l-awwal[2116] (Middle of the month Rabī` I.), Mīr Gesū had found it in the very same words.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RESUMED.

(a. After the victory.)

The foes beaten, we hurried them off, dismounting one after another. The Pagan's encirclement[2117] may have been 2 kurohs from our camp (aūrdū); when we reached his camp (aūrdū), we sent Muḥammadī, `Abdu'l-`azīz, `Alī Khān and some others in pursuit of him. There was a little slackness;[2118] I ought to have gone myself, and not have left the matter to what I expected from other people. When I had gone as much as a kuroh (2 m.) beyond the Pagan's camp, I turned back because it was late in the day; I came to our camp at the Bed-time Prayer.

With what ill-omened words Muḥammad Sharīf the astrologer had fretted me! Yet he came at once to congratulate me! I emptied my inwards[2119] in abuse of him, but, spite of his being heathenish, ill-omened of speech, extremely self-satisfied, and a most disagreeable person, I bestowed a lak upon him because there had been deserving service from him in former times, and, [Sidenote: Fol. 325b.] after saying he was not to stay in my dominions, I gave him leave to go.

(b. Suppression of a rebellion.)

(March 17th) We remained next day (Jumāda II. 14th) on that same ground. Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang and Shaikh Gūran and `Abdu'l-malik[2120] the armourer were sent off with a dense (qālīn) army against Ilīās Khān who, having rebelled in Between-the-two-waters (Ganges and Jumna), had taken Kūl (Koel) and made Kīchīk `Alī prisoner.[2121] He could not fight when they came up; his force scattered in all directions; he himself was taken a few days later and brought into Āgra where I had him flayed alive.

(c. A trophy of victory.)

An order was given to set up a pillar of pagan heads on the infant-hill (koh-bacha) between which and our camp the battle had been fought.

(d. Bīāna visited.)

(March 20th) Marching on from that ground, and after halting on two nights, we reached Bīāna (Sunday, Jumāda II. 17th). Countless numbers of the bodies of pagans and apostates[2122] who had fallen in their flight, lay on the road as far as Bīāna, indeed as far as Alūr and Mīwāt.[2123]

(e. Discussion of plans.)

On our return to camp, I summoned the Turk amīrs and the amīrs of Hind to a consultation about moving into the Pagan (Sangā)'s country; the plan was given up because of the little water and much heat on the road.

(f. Mīwāt.)

Near Dihlī lies the Mīwāt country which yields revenue of 3 or 4 krūrs.[2124] Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī[2125] and his ancestors one after another had ruled it with absolute sway for a hundred years or two. They must have made[2126] imperfect submission to the Dihlī Sulṯāns; the Sulṯāns of Hind,[2127] whether because their [Sidenote: Fol. 326.] own dominions were wide, or because their opportunity was narrow, or because of the Mīwāt hill-country,[2128] did not turn in the Mīwāt direction, did not establish order in it, but just put up with this amount of (imperfect) submission. For our own part, we did after the fashion of earlier Sulṯāns; having conquered Hind, we shewed favour to Ḥasan Khān, but that thankless and heathenish apostate disregarded our kindness and benefits, was not grateful for favour and promotion, but became the mover of all disturbance and the cause of all misdoing.

When, as has been mentioned, we abandoned the plan (against Rānā Sangā), we moved to subdue Mīwāt. Having made 4 night-halts on the way, we dismounted on the bank of the Mānas-nī[2129] 6 kurohs (12 m.) from Alūr, the present seat of government in Mīwāt. Ḥasan Khān and his forefathers must have had their seat[2130] in Tijāra, but when I turned towards Hindūstan, beat Pahār (or Bihār) Khān and took Lāhor and Dībālpūr (930 AH.-1524 AD.), he bethought himself betimes and busied himself for a residence (`imārat) in Fort Alūr (Alwar).

His trusted man, Karm-chand by name, who had come from him to me in Āgra when his son (Nāhar i.e. Tiger) was with me there,[2131] came now from that son's presence in Alūr and asked [Sidenote: Fol. 326b.] for peace. `Abdu'r-raḥīm shaghāwal went with him to Alūr, conveying letters of royal favour, and returned bringing Nāhar Khān who was restored to favour and received parganas worth several laks for his support.

(g. Rewards to officers.)

Thinking, "What good work Khusrau did in the battle!" I named him for Alūr and gave him 50 laks for his support, but unluckily for himself, he put on airs and did not accept this. Later on it [khẉud, itself] came to be known that Chīn-tīmūr must have done[2132] that work; guerdon was made him for his renown(?);[2133] Tijāra-town, the seat of government in Mīwāt, was bestowed on him together with an allowance of 50 laks for his support.

Alūr and an allowance of 15 laks was bestowed on Tardīka (or, Tardī yakka) who in the flanking-party of the right-hand (qūl) had done better than the rest. The contents of the Alūr treasury were bestowed on Humāyūn.

(h. Alwar visited.)

(April 13th) Marching from that camp on Wednesday the 1st of the month of Rajab, we came to within 2 kurohs (4 m.) of Alūr. I went to see the fort, there spent the night, and next day went back to camp.

(i. Leave given to various followers.)

When the oath before-mentioned[2134] was given to great and small before the Holy-battle with Rānā Sangā, it had been mentioned[2135] that there would be nothing to hinder leave after [Sidenote: Fol. 327.] this victory, and that leave would be given to anyone wishing to go away (from Hindūstān). Most of Humāyūn's men were from Badakhshān or elsewhere on that side (of Hindū-kūsh); they had never before been of an army led out for even a month or two; there had been weakness amongst them before the fight; on these accounts and also because Kābul was empty of troops, it was now decided to give Humāyūn leave for Kābul.

(April 11th) Leaving the matter at this, we marched from Alūr on Thursday the 9th of Rajab, did 4 or 5 kurohs (8-10 m.) and dismounted on the bank of the Mānas-water.

Mahdī Khwāja also had many discomforts; he too was given leave for Kābul. The military-collectorate of Bīāna [he held] was bestowed on Dost Lord-of-the-gate, and, as previously Etāwa had been named for Mahdī Khwāja,[2136] Mahdī Khwāja's son Ja`far Khwāja was sent there in his father's place when (later) Quṯb Khān abandoned it and went off.[2137]

(j. Despatch of the Letter-of-victory.)

Because of the leave given to Humāyūn, two or three days were spent on this ground. From it Mūmin-i-`alī the messenger (tawāchī) was sent off for Kābul with the Fatḥ-nāma.

(k. Excursions and return to Āgra.)

Praise had been heard of the Fīrūzpūr-spring and of the great lake of Kūtila.[2138] Leaving the camp on that same ground, I rode out on Sunday (Rajab 12th-April 14th) both to visit [Sidenote: Fol. 327b.] these places and to set Humāyūn on his way. After visiting Fīrūzpūr and its spring on that same day, ma'jūn was eaten. In the valley where the spring rises, oleanders (kanīr) were in bloom; the place is not without charm but is over-praised. I ordered a reservoir of hewn stone, 10 by 10[2139] to be made where the water widened, spent the night in that valley, next day rode on and visited the Kūtila lake. It is surrounded by mountain-skirts. The Mānas-nī is heard-say to go into it.[2140] It is a very large lake, from its one side the other side is not well seen. In the middle of it is rising ground. At its sides are many small boats, by going off in which the villagers living near it are said to escape from any tumult or disturbance. Even on our arrival a few people went in them to the middle of the lake.

On our way back from the lake, we dismounted in Humāyūn's camp. There we rested and ate food, and after having put robes of honour on him and his begs, bade him farewell at the Bed-time Prayer, and rode on. We slept for a little at some place on the road, at shoot of day passed through the pargana of Kharī, again slept a little, and at length got to our camp which had dismounted at Toda-(bhim).[2141] After leaving Toda, we dismounted at Sūnkār; there Ḥasan Khān Mīwātī's son [Sidenote: Fol. 328.] Nāhar Khān escaped from `Abdu'r-raḥīm's charge.

Going on from that place, we halted one night, then dismounted at a spring situated on the bill of a mountain between Busāwar and Chausa[2142] (or Jūsa); there awnings were set up and we committed the sin of ma'jūn. When the army had passed by this spring, Tardī Beg khāksār had praised it; he (or we) had come and seen it from on horse-back (sar-asbgi) and passed on. It is a perfect spring. In Hindūstān where there are never running-waters,[2143] people seek out the springs themselves. The rare springs that are found, come oozing drop by drop (āb-zih) out of the ground, not bubbling up like springs of those lands.[2144] From this spring comes about a half-mill-water. It bubbles up on the hill-skirt; meadows lie round it; it is very beautiful. I ordered an octagonal reservoir of hewn stone made above[2145] it. While we were at the border of the spring, under the soothing influence of ma'jūn, Tardī Beg, contending for its surpassing beauty, said again and again, (Persian) "Since I am celebrating the beauty of the place,[2146] a name ought to be settled for it". `Abdu'l-lāh said, "It must be called the Royal-spring approved of by Tardī Beg." This saying caused much joke and laughter.

Dost Lord-of-the-gate coming up from Bīāna, waited on me at this spring-head. Leaving this place, we visited Bīāna again, [Sidenote: Fol. 328b.] went on to Sīkrī, dismounted there at the side of a garden which had been ordered made, stayed two days supervising the garden, and on Thursday the 23rd of Rajab (April 25th), reached Āgra.

(l. Chandwār and Rāprī regained.)

During recent disturbances, the enemy, as has been mentioned,[2147] had possessed themselves of Chandwār[2148] and Rāprī. Against those places we now sent Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang, Qūj Beg's (brother) Tardī Beg, `Abdu'l-malik the armourer, and Ḥasan Khān with his Daryā-khānīs. When they were near Chandwār, Quṯb Khān's people in it got out and away. Our men laid hands on it, and passed on to Rāprī. Here Ḥusain Khān Nūḥānī's people came to the lane-end[2149] thinking to fight a little, could not stand the attack of our men, and took to flight. Ḥusain Khān himself with a few followers went into the Jūn-river (Jumna) on an elephant and was drowned. Quṯb Khān, for his part, abandoned Etāwa on hearing these news, fled with a few and got away. Etāwa having been named for Mahdī Khwāja, his son Ja`far Khwāja was sent there in his place.[2150]

(m. Apportionment of fiefs.)

When Rānā Sangā sallied out against us, most Hindūstānīs and Afghāns, as has been mentioned,[2151] turned round against us and took possession of their parganas and districts.[2152]

Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī who had abandoned Qanūj and come [Sidenote: Fol. 329.] to me, would not agree to go there again, whether from fear or for his reputation's sake; he therefore exchanged the 30 laks of Qanūj for the 15 of Sihrind, and Qanūj was bestowed with an allowance of 30 laks on Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā. Badāūn[2153] was given to Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān and he was sent against Bīban who had laid siege to Luknūr[2154] during the disturbance with Rānā Sangā, together with Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, and, of Turk amīrs, Bābā Qashqa's Malik Qāsim with his elder and younger brethren and his Mughūls, and Abū'l-muḥammad the lance-player, and Mu'yad with his father's Daryā-khānīs and those of Ḥusain Khān Daryā-khānī and the retainers of Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī, and again, of amīrs of Hind, `Alī Khān Farmūlī and Malik Dād Kararānī and Shaikh Muḥammad of Shaikh Bhakhārī(?) and Tātār Khān Khān-i-jahān.

At the time this army was crossing the Gang-river (Ganges), Bīban, hearing about it, fled, abandoning his baggage. Our army followed him to Khairābād,[2155] stayed there a few days and then turned back.

(n. Appointments and dispersion for the Rains.)

After the treasure had been shared out,[2156] Rānā Sangā's great affair intervened before districts and parganas were apportioned. During the respite now from Holy-war against the Pagan (Sangā), this apportionment was made. As the Rains were near, it was settled for every-one to go to his pargana, get equipment [Sidenote: Fol. 329b.] ready, and be present when the Rains were over.

(o. Misconduct of Humāyūn.)

Meantime news came that Humāyūn had gone into Dihlī, there opened several treasure-houses and, without permission, taken possession of their contents. I had never looked for such a thing from him; it grieved me very much; I wrote and sent off to him very severe reproaches.[2157]

(p. An embassy to `Irāq.)

Khwājagī Asad who had already gone as envoy to `Irāq and returned with Sulaimān Turkmān,[2158] was again joined with him and on the 15th of Sha`bān (May 17th) sent with befitting gifts to Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp.

(q. Tardī Beg khāksār resigns service.)

I had brought Tardī Beg out from the darwīsh-life and made a soldier of him; for how many years had he served me! Now his desire for the darwīsh-life was overmastering and he asked for leave. It was given and he was sent as an envoy to Kāmrān conveying 3 laks from the Treasury for him.[2159]

(r. Lines addressed to deserting friends.)

A little fragment[2160] had been composed suiting the state of those who had gone away during the past year; I now addressed it to Mullā `Alī Khān and sent it to him by Tardī Beg. It is as follows:—[2161]

Ah you who have gone from this country of Hind, [Sidenote: Fol. 330.] Aware for yourselves of its woe and its pain, With longing desire for Kābul's fine air, You went hot-foot forth out of Hind. The pleasure you looked for you will have found there With sociable ease and charm and delight; As for us, God be thanked! we still are alive, In spite of much pain and unending distress; Pleasures of sense and bodily toil Have been passed-by by you, passed-by too by us.

(s. Of the Ramẓān Feast.)

Ramẓān was spent this year with ablution and tarāwiḥ[2162] in the Garden-of-eight-paradises. Since my 11th year I had not kept the Ramẓān Feast for two successive years in the same place; last year I had kept it in Āgra; this year, saying, "Don't break the rule!" I went on the last day of the month to keep it in Sīkrī. Tents were set up on a stone platform made on the n.e. side of the Garden-of-victory which is now being laid out at Sīkrī, and in them the Feast was held.[2163]

(t. Playing cards.)

The night we left Āgra Mīr `Alī the armourer was sent to Shāh Ḥasan (Arghūn) in Tatta to take him playing-cards [ganjīfa] he much liked and had asked for.[2164]

(u. Illness and a tour.)

(August 3rd) On Sunday the 5th of Ẕū'l-qa`da I fell ill; the illness lasted 17 days.

(August 24th) On Friday the 24th of the same month we set out to visit Dūlpūr. That night I slept at a place half-way; [Sidenote: Fol. 330b.] reached Sikandar's dam[2165] at dawn, and dismounted there.

At the end of the hill below the dam the rock is of building-stone. I had Ustād Shāh Muḥammad the stone-cutter brought and gave him an order that if a house could be cut all in one piece in that rock, it was to be done, but that if the rock were too low for a residence (`imārat), it was to be levelled and have a reservoir, all in one piece, cut out of it.

From Dūlpūr we went on to visit Bārī. Next morning (August 26th) I rode out from Bārī through the hills between it and the Chaṃbal-river in order to view the river. This done I went back to Bārī. In these hills we saw the ebony-tree, the fruit of which people call tindū. It is said that there are white ebony-trees also and that most ebony-trees in these hills are of this kind.[2166] On leaving Bārī we went to Sīkrī; we reached Āgra on the 29th of the same month (August 28th).

(v. Doubts about Shaikh Bāyazīd Farmūlī.)

As in these days people were telling wild news about Shaikh Bāyazīd, Sl. Qulī Turk was sent to him to give him tryst[2167] in 20 days.

(w. Religious and metrical exercises.)

(August 28th) On Friday the 2nd of Ẕū'l-ḥijja I began what one is made to read 41 times.[2168]

In these same days I cut up [taqṯi`] the following couplet of mine into 504 measures[2169]:—

"Shall I tell of her eye or her brow, her fire or her speech? Shall I tell of her stature or cheek, of her hair or her waist?"

On this account a treatise[2170] was arranged.

(x. Return of illness.)

[Sidenote: Fol. 331.] On this day (i.e. 2nd Ẕū'l-ḥijja) I fell ill again; the illness lasted nine days.

(y. Start for Saṃbal.)

(Sep. 24th) On Thursday the 29th of Ẕū'l-ḥijja we rode out for an excursion to Kūl and Saṃbal.

934 AH.-SEP. 27TH 1527 TO SEP. 15TH 1528 AD.[2171]

(a. Visit to Kūl (Aligarh) and Saṃbal.)

(Sep. 27th) On Saturday the 1st of Muḥarram we dismounted in Kūl (Koel). Humāyūn had left Darwīsh(-i-`alī) and Yūsuf-i-`alī[2172] in Saṃbal; they crossed one river,[2173] fought Quṯb Sīrwānī[2174] and a party of rājas, beat them well and killed a mass of men. They sent a few heads and an elephant into Kūl while we were there. After we had gone about Kūl for two days, we dismounted at Shaikh Gūran's house by his invitation, where he entertained us hospitably and laid an offering before us.

(Sep. 30th-Muḥ. 4th) Riding on from that place, we dismounted at Aūtrūlī (Atrauli).[2175]

(Oct. 1st-Muḥ. 5th) On Wednesday we crossed the river Gang (Ganges) and spent the night in villages of Saṃbal.

(Oct. 2nd-Muḥ. 6th) On Thursday we dismounted in Saṃbal. After going about in it for two days, we left on Saturday.

(Oct. 5th-Muḥ. 9th) On Sunday we dismounted in Sikandara[2176]

at the house of Rāo Sīrwānī who set food before us and served us. When we rode out at dawn, I made some pretext to leave the rest, and galloped on alone to within a kuroh of Āgra where they overtook me. At the Mid-day Prayer we dismounted in Āgra.

(b. Illness of Bābur.)

(Oct. 12th) On Sunday the 16th of Muḥarram I had fever and ague. This returned again and again during the next 25 or 26 days. I drank operative medicine and at last relief came. I suffered much from thirst and want of sleep.

[Sidenote: Fol. 331b.] While I was ill, I composed a quatrain or two; here is one of them:—[2177]

Fever grows strong in my body by day, Sleep quits my eyes as night comes on; Like to my pain and my patience the pair, For while that goes waxing, this wanes.

(c. Arrival of kinswomen.)

(Nov. 23rd) On Saturday the 28th of Ṣafar there arrived two of the paternal-aunt begīms, Fakhr-i-jahān Begīm and Khadīja-sulṯān Begīm.[2178] I went to above Sikandarābād to wait on them.[2179]

(d. Concerning a mortar.)

(Nov. 24th-Ṣafar 29th) On Sunday Ustād `Alī-qulī discharged a stone from a large mortar; the stone went far but the mortar broke in pieces, one of which, knocking down a party of men, killed eight.

(e. Visit to Sīkrī.)

(Dec. 1st) On Monday the 7th of the first Rabī` I rode out to visit Sīkrī. The octagonal platform ordered made in the middle of the lake was ready; we went over by boat, had an awning set up on it and elected for ma'jūn.

(f. Holy-war against Chandīrī.)

(Dec. 9th) After returning from Sīkrī we started on Monday night the 14th of the first Rabī`,[2180] with the intention of making Holy-war against Chandīrī, did as much as 3 kurohs (6 m.) and dismounted in Jalīsīr.[2181] After staying there two days for people to equip and array, we marched on Thursday (Dec. 12th-Rabī` I. 17th) and dismounted at Anwār. I left Anwār by boat, and disembarked beyond Chandwār.[2182]

(Dec. 23rd) Advancing march by march, we dismounted at the Kanār-passage[2183] on Monday the 28th.

(Dec. 26th) On Thursday the 2nd of the latter Rabī` I crossed the river; there was 4 or 5 days delay on one bank or the other before the army got across. On those days we went more than [Sidenote: Fol. 332.] once on board a boat and ate ma'jūn. The junction of the river Chaṃbal is between one and two kurohs (2-4 m.) above the Kanār-passage; on Friday I went into a boat on the Chaṃbal, passed the junction and so to camp.

(g. Troops sent against Shaikh Bāyazīd Farmūlī.)

Though there had been no clear proof of Shaikh Bāyazīd's hostility, yet his misconduct and action made it certain that he had hostile intentions. On account of this Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang was detached from the army and sent to bring together from Qanūj Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā and the sulṯāns and amīrs of that neighbourhood, such as Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān, Bī-khūb (or, Nī-khūb) Sulṯān, Malik Qāsim, Kūkī, Abū'l-muḥammad the lancer, and Minūchihr Khān with his elder and younger brethren and Daryā-khānīs, so that they might move against the hostile Afghāns. They were to invite Shaikh Bāyazīd to go with them; if he came frankly, they were to take him along; if not, were to drive him off. Muḥammad `Alī asking for a few elephants, ten were given him. After he had leave to set off, Bābā Chuhra (the Brave) was sent to and ordered to join him.

(h. Incidents of the journey to Chandīrī.)

From Kanār one kuroh (2 m.) was done by boat.

(Jan. 1st 1528 AD.) On Wednesday the 8th of the latter Rabī` we dismounted within a kuroh of Kālpī. Bābā Sl. came to wait on me in this camp; he is a son of Khalīl Sl. who is a younger brother of the full-blood of Sl. Sa`īd Khān. Last [Sidenote: Fol. 332b.] year he fled from his elder brother[2184] but, repenting himself, went back from the Andar-āb border; when he neared Kāshghar, The Khān (Sa`īd) sent Ḥaidar M. to meet him and take him back.

(Jan. 2nd-Rabī` II. 9th) Next day we dismounted at `Ālam Khān's house in Kālpī where he set Hindūstānī food before us and made an offering.

(Jan. 6th) On Monday the 13th of the month we marched from Kālpī.

(Jan. 10th-Rabī` II. 17th) On Friday we dismounted at Īrij.[2185]

(Jan. 11th) On Saturday we dismounted at Bāndīr.[2186]

(Jan. 12th) On Sunday the 19th of the month Chīn-tīmūr Sl. was put at the head of 6 or 7000 men and sent ahead against Chandīrī. With him went the begs Bāqī mīng-bāshī (head of a thousand), Qūj Beg's (brother) Tardī Beg, `Āshiq the taster, Mullā Apāq, Muḥsin[2187] Dūldāī and, of the Hindūstānī begs, Shaikh Gūran.

(Jan 17th) On Friday the 24th of the month we dismounted near Kachwa. After encouraging its people, it was bestowed on the son of Badru'd-dīn.[2188]

Kachwa[2189] is a shut-in place, having lowish hills all round it. A dam has been thrown across between hills on the south-east of it, and thus a large lake made, perhaps 5 or 6 kurohs (10-12 m.) round. This lake encloses Kachwa on three sides; on the north-west a space of ground is kept dry;[2190] here, therefore is its Gate. On the lake are a great many very small boats, able to hold 3 or 4 persons; in these the inhabitants go out on the lake, if they have to flee. There are two other lakes before Kachwa is [Sidenote: Fol. 333.] reached, smaller than its own and, like that, made by throwing a dam across between hills.

(Jan. 18th) We waited a day in Kachwa in order to appoint active overseers and a mass of spadesmen to level the road and cut jungle down, so that the carts and mortar[2191] might pass along it easily. Between Kachwa and Chandīrī the country is jungly.

(Jan. 19th-Rabī` II. 26th) After leaving Kachwa we halted one night, passed the Burhānpūr-water (Bhurānpūr)[2192] and dismounted within 3 kurohs (6 m.) of Chandīrī.

(i. Chandīrī and its capture.)

The citadel of Chandīrī stands on a hill; below it are the town (shahr) and outer-fort (tāsh-qūrghān), and below these is the level road along which carts pass.[2193] When we left Burhānpūr (Jan. 10th) we marched for a kuroh below Chandīrī for the convenience of the carts.[2194]

(Jan. 21st) After one night's halt we dismounted beside Bahjat Khān's tank[2195] on the top of its dam, on Tuesday the 28th of the month.

(Jan. 22nd-Rabī` II. 29th) Riding out at dawn, we assigned post after post (būljār, būljār),[2196] round the walled town (qūrghān) to centre, right, and left. Ustād `Alī-qulī chose, for his stone-discharge, ground that had no fall[2197]; overseers and spadesmen were told off to raise a place (m:ljār) for the mortar to rest on, and the whole army was ordered to get ready appliances for taking a fort, mantelets, ladders[2198] and ... -mantelets (tūra).[2199]

Formerly Chandīrī will have belonged to the Sulṯāns of Mandāū (Mandū). When Sl. Nāṣiru'd-dīn passed away,[2200] one [Sidenote: Fol. 333b.] of his sons Sl. Maḥmūd who is now holding Mandū, took possession of it and its neighbouring parts, and another son called Muḥammad Shāh laid hands on Chandīrī and put it under Sl. Sikandar (Lūdī)'s protection, who, in his turn, took Muḥammad Shāh's side and sent him large forces. Muḥammad Shāh survived Sl. Sikandar and died in Sl. Ibrāhīm's time, leaving a very young son called Aḥmad Shāh whom Sl. Ibrāhīm drove out and replaced by a man of his own. At the time Rānā Sangā led out an army against Sl. Ibrāhīm and Ibrāhīm's begs turned against him at Dūlpūr, Chandīrī fell into the Rānā's hands and by him was given to Medinī [Mindnī] Rāo[2201] the greatly-trusted pagan who was now in it with 4 or 5000 other pagans.

As it was understood there was friendship between Medinī Rāo and Ārāīsh Khān, the latter was sent with Shaikh Gūran to speak to Medinī Rāo with favour and kindness, and promise Shamsābād[2202] in exchange for Chandīrī. One or two of his trusted men got out(?).[2203] No adjustment of matters was reached, it is not known whether because Medinī Rāo did not trust what was said, or whether because he was buoyed up by delusion about the strength of the fort.

(Jan. 28th) At dawn on Tuesday the 6th of the first Jumāda we marched from Bahjat Khān's tank intending to assault Chandīrī. We dismounted at the side of the middle-tank near [Sidenote: Fol. 334.] the fort.

(j. Bad news.)

On this same morning after reaching that ground, Khalīfa brought a letter or two of which the purport was that the troops appointed for the East[2204] had fought without consideration, been beaten, abandoned Laknau, and gone to Qanūj. Seeing that Khalīfa was much perturbed and alarmed by these news, I said,[2205] (Persian) "There is no ground for perturbation or alarm; nothing comes to pass but what is predestined of God. As this task (Chandīrī) is ahead of us, not a breath must be drawn about what has been told us. Tomorrow we will assault the fort; that done, we shall see what comes."

(k. Siege of Chandīrī, resumed.)

The enemy must have strengthened just the citadel, and have posted men by twos and threes in the outer-fort for prudence' sake. That night our men went up from all round; those few in the outer-fort did not fight; they fled into the citadel.

(Jan. 29th) At dawn on Wednesday the 7th of the first Jumāda, we ordered our men to arm, go to their posts, provoke to fight, and attack each from his place when I rode out with drum and standard.

I myself, dismissing drum and standard till the fighting should grow hot, went to amuse myself by watching Ustād `Alī-qulī's stone-discharge.[2206] Nothing was effected by it because his ground had no fall (yāghdā) and because the fort-walls, being entirely [Sidenote: Fol. 334b.] of stone, were extremely strong.

That the citadel of Chandīrī stands on a hill has been said already. Down one side of this hill runs a double-walled road (dū-tahī) to water.[2207] This is the one place for attack; it had been assigned as the post of the right and left hands and royal corps of the centre.[2208] Hurled though assault was from every side, the greatest force was here brought to bear. Our braves did not turn back, however much the pagans threw down stones and flung flaming fire upon them. At length Shāhīm the centurion[2209] got up where the dū-tahī wall touches the wall of the outer fort; braves swarmed up in other places; the dū-tahī was taken.

Not even as much as this did the pagans fight in the citadel; when a number of our men swarmed up, they fled in haste.[2210] In a little while they came out again, quite naked, and renewed the fight; they put many of our men to flight; they made them fly (āuchūrdīlār) over the ramparts; some they cut down and killed. Why they had gone so suddenly off the walls seems to have been that they had taken the resolve of those who give up a place as lost; they put all their ladies and beauties (ṣūratīlār) to death, then, looking themselves to die, came naked out to fight. Our men attacking, each one from his post, drove [Sidenote: Fol. 335.] them from the walls whereupon 2 or 300 of them entered Medinī Rāo's house and there almost all killed one another in this way:—one having taken stand with a sword, the rest eagerly stretched out the neck for his blow.[2211] Thus went the greater number to hell.

By God's grace this renowned fort was captured in 2 or 3 garīs[2212] (cir. an hour), without drum and standard,[2213] with no hard fighting done. A pillar of pagan-heads was ordered set up on a hill north-west of Chandīrī. A chronogram of this victory having been found in the words Fatḥ-i-dāru'l-ḥarb[2214] (Conquest of a hostile seat), I thus composed them:—

Was for awhile the station Chandīrī Pagan-full, the seat of hostile force; By fighting, I vanquished its fort, The date was Fatḥ-i-dāru'l-ḥarb.

(l. Further description of Chandīrī.)

Chandīrī is situated (in) rather good country,[2215] having much running-water round about it. Its citadel is on a hill and inside it has a tank cut out of the solid rock. There is another large tank[2216] at the end of the dū-tahī by assaulting which the fort was taken. All houses in Chandīrī, whether of high or low, are built of stone, those of chiefs being laboriously carved;[2217] those of the lower classes are also of stone but are not carved. They are covered in [Sidenote: Fol. 335b.] with stone-slabs instead of with earthen tiles. In front of the fort are three large tanks made by former governors who threw dams across and made tanks round about it; their ground lies high.[2218] It has a small river (daryācha), Betwa[2219] by name, which may be some 3 kurohs (6 m.) from Chandīrī itself; its water is noted in Hindūstān as excellent and pleasant drinking. It is a perfect little river (daryā-ghīna). In its bed lie piece after piece of sloping rock (qīālār)[2220] fit for making houses.[2221] Chandīrī is 90 kurohs (180 m.) by road to the south of Āgra. In Chandīrī the altitude of the Pole-star (?) is 25 degrees.[2222]

(m. Enforced change of campaign.)

(Jan. 30th-Jumāda I. 8th) At dawn on Thursday we went round the fort and dismounted beside Mallū Khān's tank.[2223]

We had come to Chandīrī meaning, after taking it, to move against Rāīsīng, Bhīlsān, and Sārangpūr, pagan lands dependent on the pagan Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn, and, these taken, to move on Rānā Sangā in Chītūr. But as that bad news had come, the begs were summoned, matters were discussed, and decision made that the proper course was first to see to the rebellion of those malignants. Chandīrī was given to the Aḥmad Shāh already mentioned, a grandson of Sl. Nāṣiru'd-dīn; 50 laks from it were made khalṣa;[2224] Mullā Apāq was entrusted with its military-collectorate, and left to reinforce Aḥmad Shāh with from 2 to 3000 Turks and Hindūstānīs.

[Sidenote: Fol. 336.] (Feb. 2nd) This work finished, we marched from Mallū Khān's tank on Sunday the 11th of the first Jumāda, with the intention of return (north), and dismounted on the bank of the Burhānpūr-water.

(Feb. 9th) On Sunday again, Yakka Khwāja and Ja`far Khwāja were sent from Bāndīr to fetch boats from Kālpī to the Kanār-passage.

(Feb. 22nd) On Saturday the 24th of the month we dismounted at the Kanār-passage, and ordered the army to begin to cross.

(n. News of the rebels.)

News came in these days that the expeditionary force[2225] had abandoned Qanūj also and come to Rāprī, and that a strong body of the enemy had assaulted and taken Shamsābād although Abū'l-muḥammad the lancer must have strengthened it.[2226] There was delay of 3 or 4 days on one side or other of the river before the army got across. Once over, we moved march by march towards Qanūj, sending scouting braves (qāzāq yīgītlār) ahead to get news of our opponents. Two or three marches from Qanūj, news was brought that Ma`rūf's son had fled on seeing the dark mass of the news-gatherers, and got away. Bīban, Bāyazīd and Ma`rūf, on hearing news of us, crossed Gang (Ganges) and seated themselves on its eastern bank opposite Qanūj, thinking to prevent our passage.

(o. A bridge made over the Ganges.)

(Feb. 27th) On Thursday the 6th of the latter Jumāda we passed Qanūj and dismounted on the western bank of Gang. Some of the braves went up and down the river and took boats [Sidenote: Fol. 336b.] by force,[2227] bringing in 30 or 40, large or small. Mīr Muḥammad the raftsman was sent to find a place convenient for making a bridge and to collect requisites for making it. He came back approving of a place about a kuroh (2 m.) below the camp. Energetic overseers were told off for the work. Ustād `Alī-qulī placed the mortar for his stone-discharge near where the bridge was to be and shewed himself active in discharging it. Muṣṯafa Rūmī had the culverin-carts crossed over to an island below the place for the bridge, and from that island began a culverin-discharge. Excellent matchlock fire was made from a post[2228] raised above the bridge. Malik Qāsim Mughūl and a very few men went across the river once or twice and fought excellently (yakhshīlār aūrūshtīlār). With equal boldness Bābā Sl. and Darwīsh Sl. also crossed, but went with the insufficient number of from 10 to 15 men; they went after the Evening Prayer and came back without fighting, with nothing done; they were much blamed for this crossing of theirs. At last Malik Qāsim, grown bold, attacked the enemy's camp and, by shooting arrows into it, drew him out (?);[2229] he came with a mass of men and an elephant, fell on Malik Qāsim and hurried him off. Malik Qāsim got into a boat, but before it could put off, the elephant [Sidenote: Fol. 337.] came up and swamped it. In that encounter Malik Qāsim died.

In the days before the bridge was finished Ustād `Alī-qulī did good things in stone-discharge (yakhshīlār tāsh aītī), on the first day discharging 8 stones, on the second 16, and going on equally well for 3 or 4 days. These stones he discharged from the Ghāzī-mortar which is so-called because it was used in the battle with Rānā Sangā the pagan. There had been another and larger mortar which burst after discharging one stone.[2230] The matchlockmen made a mass (qālīn) of discharges, bringing down many men and horses; they shot also slave-workmen running scared away (?) and men and horses passing-by.[2231]

(March 11th) On Wednesday the 19th of the latter Jumāda the bridge being almost finished, we marched to its head. The Afghāns must have ridiculed the bridge-making as being far from completion.[2232]

(March 12th) The bridge being ready on Thursday, a small body of foot-soldiers and Lāhorīs went over. Fighting as small followed.

(p. Encounter with the Afghāns.)

(March 13th) On Friday the royal corps, and the right and left hands of the centre crossed on foot. The whole body of Afghāns, armed, mounted, and having elephants with them, attacked us. They hurried off our men of the left hand, but our centre itself (i.e. the royal corps) and the right hand stood [Sidenote: Fol. 337b.] firm, fought, and forced the enemy to retire. Two men from these divisions had galloped ahead of the rest; one was dismounted and taken; the horse of the other was struck again and again, had had enough,[2233] turned round and when amongst our men, fell down. On that day 7 or 8 heads were brought in; many of the enemy had arrow or matchlock wounds. Fighting went on till the Other Prayer. That night all who had gone across were made to return; if (more) had gone over on that Saturday's eve,[2234] most of the enemy would probably have fallen into our hands, but this was in my mind:—Last year we marched out of Sīkrī to fight Rānā Sangā on Tuesday, New-year's-day, and crushed that rebel on Saturday; this year we had marched to crush these rebels on Wednesday, New-year's-day,[2235] and it would be one of singular things, if we beat them on Sunday. So thinking, we did not make the rest of the army cross. The enemy did not come to fight on Saturday, but stood arrayed a long way off.

(Sunday March 15th-Jumāda II. 23rd) On this day the carts were taken over, and at this same dawn the army was ordered to cross. At beat of drum news came from our scouts that the enemy had fled. Chīn-tīmūr Sl. was ordered to lead his army in pursuit and the following leaders also were made pursuers who should move with the Sulṯān and not go beyond his word:—Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang, Ḥusamu'd-dīn `Alī (son) of Khalīfa, Muḥibb-i-`alī (son) of Khalīfa, Kūkī (son) of Bābā Qashqa, Dost-i-muḥammad (son) of Bābā Qashqa, Bāqī of [Sidenote: Fol. 338.] Tāshkīnt, and Red Walī. I crossed at the Sunnat Prayer. The camels were ordered to be taken over at a passage seen lower down. That Sunday we dismounted on the bank of standing-water within a kuroh of Bangarmāwū.[2236] Those appointed to pursue the Afghāns were not doing it well; they had dismounted in Bangarmāwū and were scurrying off at the Mid-day Prayer of this same Sunday.

(March 16th-Jumāda II. 24th) At dawn we dismounted on the bank of a lake belonging to Bangarmāwū.

(q. Arrival of a Chaghatāī cousin.)

On this same day (March 16th) Tūkhtā-būghā Sl. a son of my mother's brother (dādā) the Younger Khān (Aḥmad Chaghatāī) came and waited on me.

(March 21st) On Saturday the 29th of the latter Jumāda I visited Laknau, crossed the Gūī-water[2237] and dismounted. This day I bathed in the Gūī-water. Whether it was from water getting into my ear, or whether it was from the effect of the climate, is not known, but my right ear was obstructed and for a few days there was much pain.[2238]

(r. The campaign continued.)

One or two marches from Aūd (Oudh) some-one came from Chīn-tīmūr Sl. to say, "The enemy is seated on the far side of the river Sīrd[a?];[2239] let His Majesty send help." We detached a reinforcement of 1000 braves under Qarācha.

(March 28th) On Saturday the 7th of Rajab we dismounted [Sidenote: Fol. 338b.] 2 or 3 kurohs from Aūd above the junction of the Gagar (Gogra) and Sīrd[a]. Till today Shaikh Bāyazīd will have been on the other side of the Sīrd[a] opposite Aūd, sending letters to the Sulṯān and discussing with him, but the Sulṯān getting to know his deceitfulness, sent word to Qarācha at the Mid-day Prayer and made ready to cross the river. On Qarācha's joining him, they crossed at once to where were some 50 horsemen with 3 or 4 elephants. These men could make no stand; they fled; a few having been dismounted, the heads cut off were sent in.

Following the Sulṯān there crossed over Bī-khūb (var. Nī-khūb) Sl. and Tardī Beg (the brother) of Qūj Beg, and Bābā Chuhra (the Brave), and Bāqī shaghāwal. Those who had crossed first and gone on, pursued Shaikh Bāyazīd till the Evening Prayer, but he flung himself into the jungle and escaped. Chīn-tīmūr dismounted late on the bank of standing-water, rode on at midnight after the rebel, went as much as 40 kurohs (80 m.), and came to where Shaikh Bāyazīd's family and relations (nisba?) had been; they however must have fled. He sent gallopers off in all directions from that place; Bāqī shaghāwal and a few braves drove the enemy like sheep before them, overtook the family and brought in some Afghān prisoners.

We stayed a few days on that ground (near Aūd) in order to settle the affairs of Aūd. People praised the land lying along the Sīrd[a] 7 or 8 kurohs (14-16 m.) above Aūd, saying it was hunting-ground. Mīr Muḥammad the raftsman was sent out and returned after looking at the crossings over the Gagar-water (Gogra) and the Sīrd[a]-water (Chauka?).

[Sidenote: Fol. 339.] (April 2nd) On Thursday the 12th of the month I rode out intending to hunt.[2240]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

Here, in all known texts of the Bābur-nāma there is a break of the narrative between April 2nd and Sep. 18th 1528 AD.-Jumāda II. 12th 934 AH. and Muḥarram 3rd 935 AH., which, whether intentional or accidental, is unexplained by Bābur's personal circumstances. It is likely to be due to a loss of pages from Bābur's autograph manuscript, happening at some time preceding the making of either of the Persian translations of his writings and of the Elphinstone and Ḥaidarābād transcripts. Though such a loss might have occurred easily during the storm chronicled on f. 376_b_, it seems likely that Bābur would then have become aware of it and have made it good. A more probable explanation of the loss is the danger run by Humāyūn's library during his exile from rule in Hindūstān, at which same time may well have occurred the seeming loss of the record of 936 and 937 AH.

(a. Transactions of the period of the lacuna.)

Mr. Erskine notes (Mems. p. 381 n.) that he found the gap in all MSS. he saw and that historians of Hindūstān throw no light upon the transactions of the period. Much can be gleaned however as to Bābur's occupations during the 5-1/2 months of the lacuna from his chronicle of 935 AH. which makes several references to occurrences of "last year" and also allows several inferences to be drawn. From this source it becomes known that the Afghān campaign the record of which is broken by the gap, was carried on and that in its course Bābur was at Jūn-pūr (f. 365), Chausa (f. 365_b_) and Baksara (f. 366-366_b_); that he swam the Ganges (f. 366_b_), bestowed Sarūn on a Farmūlī Shaikh-zāda (f. 374_b_ and f. 377), negociated with Rānā Sangā's son Bikramājīt (f. 342_b_), ordered a Chār-bāgh laid out (f. 340), and was ill for 40 days (f. 346_b_). It may be inferred too that he visited Dūlpūr (f. 353_b_) recalled `Askarī (f. 339), sent Khwāja Dost-i-khāwand on family affairs to Kābul (f. 345_b_), and was much pre-occupied by the disturbed state of Kābul (see his letters to Humāyūn and Khwāja Kālan written in 935 AH.).[2241]

It is not easy to follow the dates of events in 935 AH. because in many instances only the day of the week or a "next day" is entered. I am far from sure that one passage at least now found s.a. 935 AH. does not belong to 934 AH. It is not in the Ḥai. Codex (where its place would have been on f. 363_b_), and, so far as I can see, does not fit with the dates of 935 AH. It will be considered with least trouble with its context and my notes (q.v. f. 363_b_ and ff. 366-366_b_).

(b. Remarks on the lacuna.)

One interesting biographical topic is likely to have found mention in the missing record, viz. the family difficulties which led to `Askarī's supersession by Kāmrān in the government of Multān (f. 359).

Another is the light an account of the second illness of 934 AH. might have thrown on a considerable part of the Collection of verses already written in Hindūstān and now known to us as the Rāmpūr Dīwān. The Bābur-nāma allows the dates of much of its contents to be known, but there remain poems which seem prompted by the self-examination of some illness not found in the B.N. It contains the metrical version of Khwāja `Ubaidu'l-lāh's Wālidiyyah of which Bābur writes on f. 346 and it is dated Monday Rabī` II. 15th 935 AH. (Dec. 29th 1528 AD.). I surmise that the reflective verses following the Wālidiyyah belong to the 40 days' illness of 934 AH. i.e. were composed in the period of the lacuna. The Collection, as it is in the "Rāmpūr Dīwān", went to a friend who was probably Khwāja Kalān; it may have been the only such collection made by Bābur. No other copy of it has so far been found. It has the character of an individual gift with verses specially addressed to its recipient. Any light upon it which may have vanished with pages of 934 AH. is an appreciable loss.

935 AH.-SEP. 15TH 1528 TO SEP. 5TH 1529 AD.[2242]

(a. Arrivals at Court.)

(Sep. 18th) On Friday the 3rd[2243] of Muḥarram, `Askarī whom I had summoned for the good of Multān[2244] before I moved out for Chandīrī, waited on me in the private-house.[2245]

(Sep. 19th) Next day waited on me the historian Khwānd-amīr, Maulānā Shihāb[2246] the enigmatist, and Mīr Ibrāhīm the harper a relation of Yūnas-i-`alī, who had all come out of Herī long before, wishing to wait on me.[2247]

(b. Bābur starts for Gūālīār.)[2248]

(Sep. 20th) With the intention of visiting Gūālīār which in books they write Gālīūr,[2249] I crossed the Jūn at the Other Prayer of Sunday the 5th of the month, went into the fort of Āgra to bid farewell to Fakhr-i-jahān Begīm and Khadīja-sulṯān Begīm who were to start for Kābul in a few days, and got to horse. Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā asked for leave and stayed behind in Āgra. That night we did 3 or 4 kurohs (6-8 m.) of the road, dismounted near a large lake (kūl) and there slept.

(Sep. 21st) We got through the Prayer somewhat before time (Muḥ. 6th) and rode on, nooned[2250] on the bank of the Gamb[h]īr-water[2251], and went on shortly after the Mid-day Prayer. On the way we ate[2252] powders mixed with the flour of parched [Sidenote: Fol. 339b.] grain,[2253] Mullā Rafī` having prepared them for raising the spirits. They were found very distasteful and unsavoury. Near the Other Prayer we dismounted a kuroh (2 m.) west of Dūlpūr, at a place where a garden and house had been ordered made.[2254]

(c. Work in Dūlpūr (Dhūlpūr).)

That place is at the end of a beaked hill,[2255] its beak being of solid red building-stone (`imārat-tāsh). I had ordered the (beak of the) hill cut down (dressed down?) to the ground-level and that if there remained a sufficient height, a house was to be cut out in it, if not, it was to be levelled and a tank (ḥauẓ) cut out in its top. As it was not found high enough for a house, Ūstād Shāh Muḥammad the stone-cutter was ordered to level it and cut out an octagonal, roofed tank. North of this tank the ground is thick with trees, mangoes, jāman (Eugenia jambolana), all sorts of trees; amongst them I had ordered a well made, 10 by 10; it was almost ready; its water goes to the afore-named tank. To the north of this tank Sl. Sikandar's dam is flung across (the valley); on it houses have been built, and above it the waters of the Rains gather into a great lake. On the east of this lake is a garden; I ordered a seat and four-pillared platform (tālār) to be cut out in the solid rock on that same side, and a mosque [Sidenote: Fol. 340.] built on the western one.

(Sept. 22nd and 23rd—Muḥ. 7th and 8th) On account of these various works, we stayed in Dūlpūr on Tuesday and Wednesday.

(d. Journey to Gūālīār resumed.)

(Sep. 24th) On Thursday we rode on, crossed the Chaṃbal-river and made the Mid-day Prayer on its bank, between the two Prayers (the Mid-day and the Afternoon) bestirred ourselves to leave that place, passed the Kawārī and dismounted. The Kawārī-water being high through rain, we crossed it by boat, making the horses swim over.

(Sep. 25th) Next day, Friday which was 'Āshūr (Muḥ. 10th), we rode on, took our nooning at a village on the road, and at the Bed-time Prayer dismounted a kuroh north of Gūālīār, in a Chār-bāgh ordered made last year.[2256]

(Sep. 26th) Riding on next day after the Mid-day Prayer, we visited the low hills to the north of Gūālīār, and the Praying-place, went into the fort[2257] through the Gate called Hātī-pūl which joins Mān-sing's buildings (`imārāt[2258]), and dismounted, close to the Other Prayer, at those (`imāratlār)[2259] of Rāja Bikramājīt in which Raḥīm-dād[2260] had settled himself.

To-night I elected to take opium because of ear-ache; another reason was the shining of the moon.[2261]

(e. Visit to the Rājas' palaces.)

(Sep. 27th) Opium sickness gave me much discomfort next day (Muḥ. 12th); I vomited a good deal. Sickness notwithstanding, I visited the buildings (`imāratlār) of Mān-sing and [Sidenote: Fol. 340b.] Bikramājīt thoroughly. They are wonderful buildings, entirely of hewn stone, in heavy and unsymmetrical blocks however.[2262] Of all the Rājas' buildings Mān-sing's is the best and loftiest.[2263] It is more elaborately worked on its eastern face than on the others. This face may be 40 to 50 qārī (yards) high,[2264] and is entirely of hewn stone, whitened with plaster.[2265] In parts it is four storeys high; the lower two are very dark; we went through them with candles.[2266] On one (or, every) side of this building are five cupolas[2267] having between each two of them a smaller one, square after the fashion of Hindūstān. On the larger ones are fastened sheets of gilded copper. On the outside of the walls is painted-tile work, the semblance of plantain-trees being shewn all round with green tiles. In a bastion of the eastern front is the Hātī-pūl,[2268] hātī being what these people call an elephant, pūl, a gate. A sculptured image of an elephant with two drivers (fīl-bān)[2269] stands at the out-going (chīqīsh) of this Gate; it is exactly like an elephant; from it the gate is called Hātī-pūl. A window in the [Sidenote: Fol. 341.] lowest storey where the building has four, looks towards this elephant and gives a near view of it.[2270] The cupolas which have been mentioned above are themselves the topmost stage (murtaba) of the building;[2271] the sitting-rooms are on the second storey (ṯabaqat), in a hollow even;[2272] they are rather airless places although Hindūstānī pains have been taken with them.[2273] The buildings of Mān-sing's son Bikramājīt are in a central position (aūrta dā) on the north side of the fort.[2274] The son's buildings do not match the father's. He has made a great dome, very dark but growing lighter if one stays awhile in it.[2275] Under it is a smaller building into which no light comes from any side. When Raḥīm-dād settled down in Bikramājīt's buildings, he made a rather small hall [kīchīkrāq tālārghīna] on the top of this dome.[2276] From Bikramājīt's buildings a road has been made to his father's, a road such that nothing is seen of it from outside and nothing known of it inside, a quite enclosed road.[2277]

After visiting these buildings, we rode to a college Raḥīm-dād [Sidenote: Fol. 341b.] had made by the side of a large tank, there enjoyed a flower-garden[2278] he had laid out, and went late to where the camp was in the Chārbāgh.

(f. Raḥīm-dād's flower-garden.)

Raḥīm-dād has planted a great numbers of flowers in his garden (bāghcha), many being beautiful red oleanders. In these places the oleander-flower is peach,[2279] those of Gūālīār are beautiful, deep red. I took some of them to Āgra and had them planted in gardens there. On the south of the garden is a large lake[2280] where the waters of the Rains gather; on the west of it is a lofty idol-house,[2281] side by side with which Sl. Shihābu'd-dīn Aīltmīsh (Altamsh) made a Friday mosque; this is a very lofty building (`imārat), the highest in the fort; it is seen, with the fort, from the Dūlpūr-hill (cir. 30 m. away). People say the stone for it was cut out and brought from the large lake above-mentioned. Raḥīm-dād has made a wooden (yīghāch) tālār in his garden, and porches at the gates, which, after the Hindūstānī fashion, are somewhat low and shapeless.

(g. The Urwāh-valley.)

(Sep. 28th) Next day (Muḥ. 13th) at the Mid-day Prayer we rode out to visit places in Gūālīār we had not yet seen. We saw the `imārat called Bādalgar[2282] which is part of Mān-sing's fort (qila`), went through the Hātī-pūl and across the fort to a place called Urwā (Urwāh), which is a valley-bottom (qūl) on its western side. Though Urwā is outside the fort-wall running along the top of the hill, it has two stages (murtaba) of high wall at its mouth. The higher of these walls is some 30 or 40 qārī (yards) high; this is the longer one; at each end it joins [Sidenote: Fol. 342.] the wall of the fort. The second wall curves in and joins the middle part of the first; it is the lower and shorter of the two. This curve of wall will have been made for a water-thief;[2283] within it is a stepped well (wā'īn) in which water is reached by 10 or 15 steps. Above the Gate leading from the valley to this walled-well the name of Sl. Shihābu'd-dīn Aīltmīsh (Altamsh) is inscribed, with the date 630 (AH.-1233 AD.). Below this outer wall and outside the fort there is a large lake which seems to dwindle (at times) till no lake remains; from it water goes to the water-thief. There are two other lakes inside Urwā the water of which those who live in the fort prefer to all other.

Three sides of Urwā are solid rock, not the red rock of Bīāna but one paler in colour. On these sides people have cut out idol-statues, large and small, one large statue on the south side being perhaps 20 qārī (yds.) high.[2284] These idols are shewn quite naked without covering for the privities. Along the sides of [Sidenote: Fol. 342b.] the two Urwā lakes 20 or 30 wells have been dug, with water from which useful vegetables (sabzī kārlīklār), flowers and trees are grown. Urwā is not a bad place; it is shut in (T. tūr); the idols are its defect; I, for my part, ordered them destroyed.[2285]

Going out of Urwā into the fort again, we enjoyed the window[2286] of the Sultānī-pūl which must have been closed through the pagan time till now, went to Raḥīm-dād's flower-garden at the Evening Prayer, there dismounted and there slept.

(h. A son of Rānā Sangā negociates with Bābur.)

(Sep. 29th) On Tuesday the 14th of the month came people from Rānā Sangā's second son, Bikramājīt by name, who with his mother Padmāwatī was in the fort of Rantanbūr. Before I rode out for Gūālīār,[2287] others had come from his great and trusted Hindū, Asūk by name, to indicate Bikramājīt's submission and obeisance and ask a subsistence-allowance of 70 laks for him; it had been settled at that time that parganas to the amount he asked should be bestowed on him, his men were given leave to go, with tryst for Gūālīār which we were about to visit. They came into Gūālīār somewhat after the trysting-day. The Hindū Asūk[2288] is said to be a near relation of Bikramājīt's mother Padmāwatī; he, for his part, set these particulars forth father-like [Sidenote: Fol. 343.] and son-like;[2289] they, for theirs, concurring with him, agreed to wish me well and serve me. At the time when Sl. Maḥmūd (Khīljī) was beaten by Rānā Sangā and fell into pagan captivity (925 AH.-1519 AD.) he possessed a famous crown-cap (tāj-kula) and golden belt, accepting which Sangā let him go free. That crown-cap and golden belt must have become Bikramājīt's; his elder brother Ratan-sī, now Rānā of Chītūr in his father's place, had asked for them but Bikramājīt had not given them up,[2290] and now made the men he sent to me, speak to me about them, and ask for Bīāna in place of Rantanbūr. We led them away from the Bīāna question and promised Shamsābād in exchange for Rantanbūr. To-day (Muḥ. 14th) they were given a nine days' tryst for Bīāna, were dressed in robes of honour, and allowed to go.

(i. Hindū temples visited.)

We rode from the flower-garden to visit the idol-houses of Gūālīār. Some are two, and some are three storeys high, each storey rather low, in the ancient fashion. On their stone plinths (izāra) are sculptured images. Some idol-houses, College-fashion, have a portico, large high cupolas[2291] and madrāsa-like cells, each topped by a slender stone cupola.[2292] In the lower cells are idols carved in the rock. [Sidenote: Fol. 343b.]

After enjoying the sight of these buildings (`imāratlār) we left the fort by the south Gate,[2293] made an excursion to the south, and went (north) to the Chār-bāgh Raḥim-dād had made over-against the Hātī-pūl.[2294] He had prepared a feast of cooked-meat (āsh) for us and, after setting excellent food before us, made offering of a mass of goods and coin worth 4 laks. From his Chār-bāgh I rode to my own.

(j. Excursion to a waterfall.)

(Sep. 30th.) On Wednesday the 15th of the month I went to see a waterfall 6 kurohs (12 m.) to the south-east of Gūālīār. Less than that must have been ridden;[2295] close to the Mid-day Prayer we reached a fall where sufficient water for one mill was coming down a slope (qīā) an arghamchī[2296] high. Below the fall there is a large lake; above it the water comes flowing through solid rock; there is solid rock also below the fall. A lake forms wherever the water falls. On the banks of the water lie piece after piece of rock as if for seats, but the water is said not always to be there. We sat down above the fall and ate ma`jūn, went up-stream to visit its source (badayat), returned, got out on higher ground, and stayed while musicians played and reciters [Sidenote: Fol. 344.] repeated things (nīma aītīlār). The Ebony-tree which Hindīs call tindū, was pointed out to those who had not seen it before. We went down the hill and, between the Evening and Bed-time Prayers, rode away, slept at a place reached near the second watch (midnight), and with the on-coming of the first watch of day (6 a.m. Muḥ. 16th-Oct. 1st) reached the Chār-bāgh and dismounted.

(k. Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn's birth-place.)[2297]

(Oct. 2nd) On Friday the 17th of the month, I visited the garden of lemons and pumeloes (sadā-fal) in a valley-bottom amongst the hills above a village called Sūkhjana (?)[2298] which is Ṣalāḥu'd-dīn's birth-place. Returning to the Chār-bāgh, I dismounted there in the first watch.[2299]

(l. Incidents of the march from Gūālīār.)

(Oct. 4th) On Sunday the 19th of the month, we rode before dawn from the Chār-bāgh, crossed the Kawārī-water and took our nooning (tūshlāndūk). After the Mid-day Prayer we rode on, at sunset passed the Chaṃbal-water, between the Evening and Bed-time Prayers entered Dulpūr-fort, there, by lamp-light, visited a Hot-bath which Abū'l-fatḥ had made, rode on, and dismounted at the dam-head where the new Chār-bāgh is in making.

(Oct. 5th) Having stayed the night there, at dawn (Monday 20th) I visited what places had been ordered made.[2300] The face (yūz) of the roofed-tank, ordered cut in the solid rock, was not being got up quite straight; more stone-cutters were sent for who were to make the tank-bottom level, pour in water, and, by help of the water, to get the sides to one height. They got the face up straight just before the Other Prayer, were then ordered to fill the tank with water, by help of the water made the sides [Sidenote: Fol. 344b.] match, then busied themselves to smooth them. I ordered a water-chamber (āb-khāna) made at a place where it would be cut in the solid rock; inside it was to be a small tank also cut in the solid rock.

(Here the record of 6 days is wanting.)[2301]

(Oct. 12th?) To-day, Monday (27th?), there was a ma`jūn party. (Oct. 13th) On Tuesday I was still in that same place. (Oct. 14th) On the night of Wednesday,[2302] after opening the mouth and eating something[2303] we rode for Sīkrī. Near the second watch (midnight), we dismounted somewhere and slept; I myself could not sleep on account of pain in my ear, whether caused by cold, as is likely, I do not know. At the top of the dawn, we bestirred ourselves from that place, and in the first watch dismounted at the garden now in making at Sīkrī. The garden-wall and well-buildings were not getting on to my satisfaction; the overseers therefore were threatened and punished. We rode on from Sīkrī between the Other and Evening Prayers, passed through Marhākūr, dismounted somewhere and slept.

(Oct. 15th) Riding on (Thursday 30th), we got into Āgra during the first watch (6-9 a.m.). In the fort I saw the honoured Khadīja-sulṯān Begīm who had stayed behind for several reasons when Fakhr-i-jahān Begīm started for Kābul. Crossing Jūn (Jumna), I went to the Garden-of-eight paradises.[2304]

(m. Arrival of kinswomen.)

(Oct. 17th) On Saturday the 3rd of Ṣafar, between the Other and Evening Prayers, I went to see three of the great-aunt begīms,[2305] Gauhar-shād Begīm, Badī`u'l-jamāl Begīm, and Āq Begīm, with also, of lesser begīms,[2306] Sl. Maṣ`ūd Mīrzā's daughter Khān-zāda Begīm, and Sulṯān-bakht Begīm's daughter, and my yīnkā chīcha's grand-daughter, that is to say, Zaināb-sulṯān Begīm.[2307] They had come past Tūta and dismounted at a small [Sidenote: Fol. 345.] standing-water (qarā sū) on the edge of the suburbs. I came back direct by boat.

(n. Despatch of an envoy to receive charge of Ranthaṃbhor.)

(Oct. 19th) On Monday the 5th of the month of Ṣafar, Hāmūsī son of Dīwa, an old Hindū servant from Bhīra, was joined with Bikramājīt's former[2308] and later envoys in order that pact and agreement for the surrender of Ranthanbūr and for the conditions of Bikramājīt's service might be made in their own (hindū) way and custom. Before our man returned, he was to see, and learn, and make sure of matters; this done, if that person (i.e. Bikramājīt) stood fast to his spoken word, I, for my part, promised that, God bringing it aright, I would set him in his father's place as Rānā of Chitūr.[2309]

(Here the record of 3 days is wanting.)

(o. A levy on stipendiaries.)

(Oct. 22nd) By this time the treasure of Iskandar and Ibrāhīm in Dihlī and Āgra was at an end. Royal orders were given therefore, on Thursday the 8th of Ṣafar, that each stipendiary (wajhdār) should drop into the Dīwān, 30 in every 100 of his allowance, to be used for war-material and appliances, for equipment, for powder, and for the pay of gunners and matchlockmen.

(p. Royal letters sent into Khurāsān.)

(Oct. 24th) On Saturday the 10th of the month, Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad's foot-man Shāh Qāsim who once before had taken letters of encouragement to kinsfolk in Khurāsān,[2310] was sent to Herī with other letters to the purport that, through God's grace, our hearts were at ease in Hindūstān about the rebels and [Sidenote: Fol. 345b.] pagans of east and west; and that, God bringing it aright, we should use every means and assuredly in the coming spring should touch the goal of our desire.[2311] On the margin of a royal letter sent to Ahmad Afshār (Turk) a summons to Farīdūn the qabūz-player was written with my own hand.

(Here the record of 11 days is wanting.)

In today's forenoon (Tuesday 20th?) I made a beginning of eating quicksilver.[2312]

(q. News from Kābul and Khurāsān.)[2313]

(Nov. 4th) On Wednesday the 21st of the month (Ṣafar) a Hindūstānī foot-man (pīāda) brought dutiful letters (`arẓ-dāshtlār) from Kāmrān and Khwāja Dost-i-khāwand. The Khwāja had reached Kābul on the 10th of Ẕū'l-ḥijja[2314] and will have been anxious to go on[2315] to Humāyūn's presence, but there comes to him a man from Kāmrān, saying, "Let the honoured Khwāja come (to see me); let him deliver whatever royal orders there may be; let him go on to Humāyūn when matters have been talked over."[2316] Kāmrān will have gone into Kābul on the 17th of Ẕū'l-ḥijja (Sep. 2nd), will have talked with the Khwāja and, on the 28th of the same month, will have let him go on for Fort Victory (Qila'-i-ẕafar).

There was this excellent news in the dutiful letters received:—that Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp, resolute to put down the Aūzbeg,[2317] had overcome and killed Rīnīsh (var. Zīnīsh) Aūzbeg in Dāmghān and made a general massacre of his people; that 'Ubaid Khān, getting sure news about the Qīzīl-bāsh (Red-head) had risen from round Herī, gone to Merv, called up to him there all the sulṯāns of Samarkand and those parts, and that all the sulṯāns of Mā warā'u'n-nahr had gone to help him.[2318]

[Sidenote: Fol. 346.] This same foot-man brought the further news that Humāyūn was said to have had a son by the daughter of Yādgār T̤aghāī, and that Kāmrān was said to be marrying in Kābul, taking the daughter of his mother's brother Sl. `Alī Mīrzā (Begchīk).[2319]

(r. Honours for an artificer.)[2320]

On this same day Sayyid Daknī of Shīrāz the diviner (ghaiba-gar?) was made to wear a dress of honour, given presents, and ordered to finish the arched(?) well (khwāralīq-chāh) as he best knew how.

(s. The Wālidiyyah-risāla (Parental-tract).)

(Nov. 6th) On Friday the 23rd of the month[2321] such heat[2322] appeared in my body that with difficulty I got through the Congregational Prayer in the Mosque, and with much trouble through the Mid-day Prayer, in the book-room, after due time, and little by little. Thereafter[2323] having had fever, I trembled less on Sunday (Nov. 28th). During the night of Tuesday[2324] the 27th of the month Ṣafar, it occurred to me to versify (naẕm qīlmāq)

the Wālidiyyah-risāla of his Reverence Khwāja 'Ubaidu'l-lāh.[2325] I laid it to heart that if I, going to the soul of his Reverence[2326] for protection, were freed from this disease, it would be a sign that my poem was accepted, just as the author of the Qaṣīdatu'l-būrda[2327] was freed from the affliction of paralysis when his poem [Sidenote: Fol. 346b.] had been accepted. To this end I began to versify the tract, using the metre[2328] of Maulānā 'Abdu´r-raḥīm Jāmī's Subḥatu'l-abrār (Rosary of the Righteous). Thirteen couplets were made in that same night. I tasked myself not to make fewer than 10 a day; in the end one day had been omitted. While last year every time such illness had happened, it had persisted at least a month or 40 days,[2329] this year, by God's grace and his Reverence's favour, I was free, except for a little depression (afsurda), on Thursday the 29th of the month (Nov. 12th). The end of versifying the contents of the tract was reached on Saturday the 8th of the first Rabī' (Nov. 20th). One day 52 couplets had been made.[2330]

(t. Troops warned for service.)

(Nov. 11th) On Wednesday the 28th of the month royal orders were sent on all sides for the armies, saying, "God bringing it about, at an early opportunity my army will be got to horse. Let all come soon, equipped for service."

(Here the record of 9 days is wanting.)[2331]

(u. Messengers from Humāyūn.)

(Nov. 21st) On Sunday the 9th of the first Rabī`, Beg Muḥammad ta`alluqchī[2332] came, who had been sent last year (934 AH.) at the end of Muḥarram to take a dress of honour and a horse to Humāyūn.[2333]

(Nov. 22nd) On Monday the 10th of the month there came from Humāyūn's presence Wais Lāgharī's (son) Beg-gīna (Little Beg) and Bīān Shaikh, one of Humāyūn's servants who had come as the messenger of the good tidings of the birth of Humāyūn's son whose name he gave as Al-amān. Shaikh Abū'l-wajd found Shăh sa`ādatmand[2334] to be the date of his birth. [Sidenote: Fol. 347.]

(v. Rapid travel.)

Bīān Shaikh set out long after Beg-gīna. He parted from Humāyūn on Friday the 9th of Ṣafar (Oct. 23rd) at a place below Kishm called Dū-shaṃba (Monday); he came into Āgra on Monday the 10th of the first Rabī` (Nov. 23rd). He came very quickly! Another time he actually came from Qila`-i-ẕafar to Qandahār in 11 days.[2335]

(w. News of T̤ahmāsp's victory over the Aūzbegs.)

Bīān Shaikh brought news about Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp's advancing out of `Irāq and defeating the Aūzbeg.[2336] Here are his particulars:—Shāh-zāda T̤ahmāsp, having come out of `Irāq with 40,000 men arrayed in Rūmī fashion of matchlock and cart,[2337] advances with great speed, takes Basṯām, slaughters Rīnīsh (var. Zīnīsh) Aūzbeg and his men in Dāmghān, and from there passes right swiftly on.[2338] Kīpīk Bī's son Qaṃbar-i-`alī Beg is beaten by one of the Qīzīl-bāsh (Red-head)'s men, and with his few followers goes to `Ubaid Khān's presence. `Ubaid Khān finds it undesirable to stay near Herī, hurriedly sends off gallopers to all the sulṯāns of Balkh, Ḥiṣār, Samarkand, and Tāshkend (Tāshkīnt) and goes himself to Merv. Sīūnjak Sl.'s younger son Bārāq Sl. from Tāshkend, Kūchūm Khān, with (his sons) Abū-sa`īd Sl. and Pūlad Sl., and Jānī Beg Sl. with his sons, from [Sidenote: Fol. 347b.] Samarkand and Mīān-kāl, Mahdī Sl.'s and Ḥamza Sl.'s sons from Ḥiṣār, Kītīn-qarā Sl. from Balkh, all these sulṯāns assemble right swiftly in Merv. To them their informers (tīl-chī) take news that Shāh-zāda, after saying, "`Ubaid Khān is seated near Herī with few men only," had been advancing swiftly with his 40,000 men, but that when he heard of this assembly (i.e. in Merv), he made a ditch in the meadow of Rādagān[2339] and seated himself there.[2340] Here-upon the Aūzbegs, with entire disregard of their opponents,[2341] left their counsels at this:—"Let all of us sulṯāns and khāns seat ourselves in Mashhad;[2342] let a few of us be told off with 20,000 men to go close to the Qīzīl-bāsh camp[2343] and not let them put head out; let us order magicians[2344] to work their magic directly Scorpio appears;[2345] by this stratagem the enemy will be enfeebled, and we shall overcome." So said, they march from Merv. Shāh-zāda gets out of Mashhad.[2346] He confronts them near Jām-and-Khirgird.[2347] There defeat befalls the Aūzbeg side.[2348] A mass of sulṯāns are overcome and slaughtered.

In one letter it (khūd) was written, "It is not known for certain [Sidenote: Fol. 348.] that any sulṯān except Kūchūm Khān has escaped; not a man who went with the army has come back up to now." The sulṯāns who were in Ḥiṣār abandoned it. Ibrāhīm Jānī's son Chalma, whose real name is Ismā`īl, must be in the fort.[2349]

(x. Letters written by Bābur.)

(Nov. 27th and 28th) This same Bīān Shaikh was sent quite quickly back with letters. for Humāyūn and Kāmrān. These and other writings being ready by Friday the 14th of the month (Nov. 27th) were entrusted to him, his leave was given, and on Saturday the 15th he got well out of Āgra.

COPY OF A LETTER TO HUMĀYŪN.[2350]

"The first matter, after saying, 'Salutation' to Humāyūn whom I am longing to see, is this:—

"Exact particulars of the state of affairs on that side and on this[2351] have been made known by the letters and dutiful representations brought on Monday the 10th of the first Rabī` by Beg-gīna and Bīān Shaikh.

(Turkī) Thank God! a son is born to thee! A son to thee, to me a heart-enslaver (dil-bandī).

"May the Most High ever allot to thee and to me tidings as joyful! So may it be, O Lord of the two worlds!"

"Thou sayest thou hast called him Al-amān; God bless and prosper this! Thou writest it so thyself (i.e. Al-amān), but hast over-looked that common people mostly say alāmā or aīlāmān.[2352] [Sidenote: Fol. 348b.] Besides that, this Al is rare in names.[2353] May God bless and prosper him in name and person; may He grant us to keep Al-amān (peace) for many years and many decades of years![2354] May He now order our affairs by His own mercy and favour; not in many decades comes such a chance as this!"[2355]

"Again:—On Tuesday the 11th of the month (Nov. 23rd) came the false rumour that the Balkhīs had invited and were fetching Qurbān[2356] into Balkh."

"Again:—Kāmrān and the Kābul begs have orders to join thee; this done, move on Ḥiṣār, Samarkand, Herī or to whatever side favours fortune. Mayst thou, by God's grace, crush foes and take lands to the joy of friends and the down-casting of adversaries! Thank God! now is your time to risk life and slash swords.[2357] Neglect not the work chance has brought; slothful life in retirement befits not sovereign rule:—

(Persian) He grips the world who hastens; Empire yokes not with delay; All else, confronting marriage, stops, Save only sovereignty.[2358]

"If through God's grace, the Balkh and Ḥiṣār countries be won and held, put men of thine in Ḥiṣār, Kāmrān's men in Balkh. Should Samarkand also be won, there make thy seat. Ḥiṣār, [Sidenote: Fol. 349.] God willing, I shall make a crown-domain. Should Kāmrān regard Balkh as small, represent the matter to me; please God! I will make its defects good at once out of those other countries."

"Again:—As thou knowest, the rule has always been that when thou hadst six parts, Kāmrān had five; this having been constant, make no change."

"Again:—Live well with thy younger brother. Elders must bear the burden![2359] I have the hope that thou, for thy part, wilt keep on good terms with him; he, who has grown up an active and excellent youth, should not fail, for his part, in loyal duty to thee."[2360]

"Again:—Words from thee are somewhat few; no person has [Sidenote: Fol. 349b.] come from thee for two or three years past; the man I sent to thee (Beg Muḥammad ta`alluqchī) came back in something over a year; is this not so?"

"Again:—As for the "retirement", "retirement", spoken of in thy letters,—retirement is a fault for sovereignty; as the honoured (Sa`dī) says:—[2361]

(Persian) If thy foot be fettered, choose to be resigned; If thou ride alone, take thou thine own head.

"No bondage equals that of sovereignty; retirement matches not with rule."

"Again:—Thou hast written me a letter, as I ordered thee to do; but why not have read it over? If thou hadst thought of reading it, thou couldst not have done it, and, unable thyself to read it, wouldst certainly have made alteration in it. Though by taking trouble it can be read, it is very puzzling, and who ever saw an enigma in prose?[2362] Thy spelling, though not bad, is not quite correct; thou writest iltafāt with ṯā (iltafāṯ) and qūlinj with yā (qīlinj?).[2363] Although thy letter can be read if every sort of pains be taken, yet it cannot be quite understood because of that obscure wording of thine. Thy remissness in letter-writing seems to be due to the thing which makes thee obscure, that is to say, to elaboration. In future write without elaboration; use plain, clear words. So will thy trouble and thy reader's be less."

"Again:—Thou art now to go on a great business;[2364] take counsel with prudent and experienced begs, and act as they say. If thou seek to pleasure me, give up sitting alone and avoiding society. Summon thy younger brother and the begs twice daily to thy presence, not leaving their coming to choice; be the business what it may, take counsel and settle every word and act in agreement with those well-wishers."

"Again:—Khwāja Kalān has long had with me the house-friend's intimacy; have thou as much and even more with him. [Sidenote: Fol. 350.] If, God willing, the work becomes less in those parts, so that thou wilt not need Kāmrān, let him leave disciplined men in Balkh and come to my presence."

"Again:—Seeing that there have been such victories, and such conquests, since Kābul has been held, I take it to be well-omened; I have made it a crown-domain; let no one of you covet it."

"Again:—Thou hast done well (yakhshī qīlīb sīn); thou hast won the heart of Sl. Wais;[2365] get him to thy presence; act by his counsel, for he knows business."

"Until there is a good muster of the army, do not move out."

"Bīān Shaikh is well-apprized of word-of-mouth matters, and will inform thee of them. These things said, I salute thee and am longing to see thee."—

The above was written on Thursday the 13th of the first Rabi` (Nov. 26th). To the same purport and with my own hand, I wrote also to Kāmrān and Khwāja Kalān, and sent off the letters (by Bīān Shaikh).

(Here the record fails from Rabī` 15th to 19th.)

(y. Plans of campaign.)

(Dec. 2nd) On Wednesday the 19th of the month (Rabī` I.) the mīrzās, sulṯāns, Turk and Hind amīrs were summoned for counsel, and left the matter at this:—That this year the army must move in some direction; that `Askarī should go in advance towards the East, be joined by the sulṯāns and amīrs from beyond Gang (Ganges), and march in whatever direction favoured fortune. These particulars having been written down, Ghīāṣu'd-dīn the [Sidenote: Fol. 350b.] armourer was given rendezvous for 16 days,[2366] and sent galloping off, on Saturday the 22nd of the month, to the amīrs of the East headed by Sl. Junaid Barlās. His word-of-mouth message was, that `Askarī was being sent on before the fighting apparatus, culverin, cart and matchlock, was ready; that it was the royal order for the sulṯāns and amīrs of the far side of Gang to muster in `Askarī's presence, and, after consultation with well-wishers on that side, to move in whatever direction, God willing! might favour fortune; that if there should be work needing me, please God! I would get to horse as soon as the person gone with the (16 days) tryst (mī`ād) had returned; that explicit representation should be made as to whether the Bengali (Nas̤rat Shāh) were friendly and single-minded; that, if nothing needed my presence in those parts, I should not make stay, but should move elsewhere at once;[2367] and that after consulting with well-wishers, they were to take `Askarī with them, and, God willing! settle matters on that side.

(Here the record of 5 days is wanting.)

(z. `Askarī receives the insignia and rank of a royal commander.)

(Dec. 12th) On Saturday the 29th of the first Rabī`, `Askarī was made to put on a jewelled dagger and belt, and a royal dress of honour, was presented with flag, horse-tail standard, [Sidenote: Fol. 351.] drum, a set (6-8) of tīpūchāq (horses), 10 elephants, a string of camels, one of mules, royal plenishing, and royal utensils. Moreover he was ordered to take his seat at the head of a Dīwān. On his mullā and two guardians were bestowed jackets having buttons[2368]; on his other servants, three sets of nine coats.

(aa. Bābur visits one of his officers.)

(Dec. 13th) On Sunday the last day of the month (Rabī` I. 30th)[2369] I went to Sl. Muḥammad Bakhshī's house. After spreading a carpet, he brought gifts. His offering in money and goods was more than 2 laks.[2370] When food and offering had been set out, we went into another room where sitting, we ate ma`jūn. We came away at the 3rd watch (midnight?), crossed the water, and went to the private house.

(bb. The Āgra-Kābul road measured.)

(Dec. 17th) On Thursday the 4th of the latter Rabī`, it was settled that Chīqmāq Beg with Shāhī ṯamghāchī's[2371] clerkship, should measure the road between Āgra and Kābul. At every 9th kuroh (cir. 18m.), a tower was to be erected 12 qārīs high[2372] and having a chār-dara[2373] on the top; at every 18th kuroh (cir. 36m.),[2374] 6 post-horses were to be kept fastened; and arrangement was to be made for the payment of post-masters and grooms, and for horse-corn. The order was, "If the place where the horses are fastened up,[2375] be near a crown-domain, let those there provide for the matters mentioned; if not, let the cost be charged on the beg in whose pargana the post-house may be." Chīqmāq Beg got out of Āgra with Shāhī on that same day.

[Sidenote: Fol. 351b.] (Author's note on the kuroh.) These kurohs were established in relation to the mīl, in the way mentioned in the Mubīn:—[2376]

(Turkī) Four thousand paces (qadam) are one mīl; Know that Hind people call this a kuroh; The pace (qadam) they say is a qārī and a half (36 in.); Know that each qārī (24 in.) is six hand-breadths (tūtām) That each tūtām is four fingers (aīlīk), Each aīlīk, six barley-corns. Know this knowledge.[2377]

The measuring-cord (ṯanāb)[2378] was fixed at 40 qārī, each being the one-and-a-half qārī mentioned above, that is to say, each is 9 hand-breadths.

(cc. A feast.)

(Dec. 18th) On Saturday the 6th of the month (Rabī` II.) there was a feast[2379] at which were present Qīzīl-bāsh (Red-head), and Aūzbeg, and Hindū envoys.[2380] The Qīzīl-bāsh envoys sat under an awning placed some 70-80 qārīs[2381] on my right, of the begs Yūnas-i-`alī being ordered to sit with them. On my left the Aūzbeg envoys sat in the same way, of the begs `Abdu'l-lāh being ordered to sit with them. I sat on the north side of a newly-erected octagonal pavilion (tālār) covered in with khas[2382]. Five or six qārīs on my right sat Tūkhtā-būgha Sl. and `Askarī, with Khwāja `Abdu'sh-shahīd and Khwāja Kalān, descendants of his Reverence the Khwāja,[2383] and Khwāja Chishtī (var. Ḥusainī), and Khalīfa, together with the ḥāfiẕes and mullās dependent on the Khwājas who had come from Samarkand. Five or six qārīs on my left sat Muḥammad-i-zamān M. and Tāng-ātmīsh Sl.[2384] [Sidenote: Fol. 352.] and Sayyid Rafī`, Sayyid Rūmī, Shaikh Abū'l-fatḥ, Shaikh Jamālī, Shaikh Shihābu'd-dīn `Arab and Sayyid Daknī (var.Zaknī, Ruknī). Before food all the sulṯāns, khāns, grandees, and amīrs brought gifts[2385] of red, of white, of black,[2386] of cloth and various other goods. They poured the red and white on a carpet I had ordered spread, and side by side with the gold and silver piled plenishing, white cotton piece-cloth and purses (badra) of money. While the gifts were being brought and before food, fierce camels and fierce elephants[2387] were set to fight on an island opposite,[2388] so too a few rams; thereafter wrestlers grappled. After the chief of the food had been set out, Khwāja `Abdu'sh-shahīd and Khwāja Kalān were made to put on surtouts (jabbah) of fine muslin,[2389] spotted with gold-embroidery, and suitable dresses of honour, and those headed by Mullā Farrūkh and Ḥāfiẕ[2390] had jackets put on them. On Kūchūm Khān's envoy[2391] and on Ḥasan Chalabi's younger brother[2392] were bestowed silken head-wear (bāshlīq) and gold-embroidered surtouts of fine muslin, with suitable dresses of honour. Gold-embroidered jackets and silk coats were presented to the envoys of Abū-sa`īd Sl. (Aūzbeg), of Mihr-bān Khānīm and her son Pulād Sl., and of Shāh Ḥasan [Sidenote: Fol. 352b.] (Arghūn). The two Khwājas and the two chief envoys, that is to say Kūchūm Khān's retainer and Ḥasan Chalabī's younger brother, were presented with a silver stone's weight of gold and a gold stone's weight of silver.

(Author's note on the Turkī stone-weight.) The gold stone (tāsh) is 500 mis̤qāls, that is to say, one Kābul sīr; the silver stone is 250 mis̤qāls, that is to say, half a Kābul sīr.[2393]

To Khwāja Mīr Sulṯān and his sons, to Ḥāfiẕ of Tāshkīnt, to Mullā Farrūkh at the head of the Khwājas' servants, and also to other envoys, silver and gold were given with a quiver.[2394] Yādgār-i-nāṣir[2395] was presented with a dagger and belt. On Mīr Muḥammad the raftsman who was deserving of reward for the excellent bridge he had made over the river Gang (Ganges),[2396] a dagger was bestowed, so too on the matchlockmen Champion [pahlawān] Ḥājī Muḥammad and Champion Buhlūl and on Walī the cheeta-keeper (pārschī); one was given to Ustād `Alī's son also. Gold and silver were presented to Sayyid Daud Garmsīrī. Jackets having buttons,[2397] and silk dresses of honour were presented to the servants of my daughter Ma`ṣūma[2398] and my son Hind-āl. Again:—presents of jackets and silk dresses of honour, of gold and silver, of plenishing and various goods were given to those from Andijān, and to those who had come from Sūkh and Hushīār, the places whither we had gone landless and homeless.[2399] Gifts of the same kind were given to the servants of Qurbān and Shaikhī and the peasants of Kāhmard.[2400] [Sidenote: Fol. 353.]

After food had been sent out, Hindūstānī players were ordered to come and show their tricks. Lūlīs came.[2401] Hindūstānī performers shew several feats not shewn by (Tramontane) ones. One is this:—They arrange seven rings, one on the forehead, two on the knees, two of the remaining four on fingers, two on toes, and in an instant set them turning rapidly. Another is this:—Imitating the port of the peacock, they place one hand on the ground, raise up the other and both legs, and then in an instant make rings on the uplifted hand and feet revolve rapidly. Another is this:—In those (Tramontane) countries two people grip one another and turn two somersaults, but Hindūstānī lūlīs, clinging together, go turning over three or four times. Another is this:—a lūlī sets the end of a 12 or 14 foot pole on his middle and holds it upright while another climbs up it and does his [Sidenote: Fol. 353b.] tricks up there. Another is this:—A small lūlī gets upon a big one's head, and stands there upright while the big one moves quickly from side to side shewing his tricks, the little one shewing his on the big one's head, quite upright and without tottering. Many dancing-girls came also and danced.

A mass of red, white, and black was scattered (sāchīldī) on which followed amazing noise and pushing. Between the Evening and Bed-time Prayers I made five or six special people sit in my presence for over one watch. At the second watch of the day (9 a.m., Sunday, Rabi` II. 7th) having sat in a boat, I went to the Eight-Paradises.

(dd. `Askarī starts eastwards.)

(Dec. 20th) On Monday (8th) `Askarī who had got (his army) out (of Āgra) for the expedition, came to the Hot-bath, took leave of me and marched for the East.

(ee. A visit to Dhūlpūr.)

(Dec. 21st) On Tuesday (Rabī` II. 9th) I went to see the buildings for a reservoir and well at Dūlpūr.[2402] I rode from the (Āgra) garden at one watch (pahr) and one garī (9.22 a.m.), and I entered the Dūlpūr garden when 5 garīs of the 1st night-watch (pās)[2403] had gone (7.40 p.m.).[2404]

(Dec. 23rd) On Thursday the 11th day of the month the stone-well (sangīn-chāh), the 26 rock-spouts (tāsh-tār-nau) and rock-pillars (tāsh-sitūn), and the water-courses (ārīqlār) cut on the solid slope (yak pāra qīā) were all ready.[2405] At the 3rd watch (pahr) of this same day preparation for drawing water from the well was made. On account of a smell (aīd) in the water, it was ordered, for prudence' sake, that they should turn the well-wheel without rest for 15 days-and-nights, and so draw off the water. Gifts were made to the stone-cutters, and labourers, [Sidenote: Fol. 354.] and the whole body of workmen in the way customary for master-workmen and wage-earners of Āgra.

(Dec. 24th) We rode from Dūlpūr while one garī of the 1st watch (pahr) of Friday remained (cir. 8.40 a.m.), and we crossed the river (Jumna) before the Sun had set.

(Here the record of 3 days is wanting.)[2406]

(ff. A Persian account of the battle of Jām.)

(Dec. 28th) On Tuesday the 16th of the month (Rabī` II.) came one of Dīv Sl.'s[2407] servants, a man who had been in the fight between the Qīzīl-bāsh and Aūzbeg, and who thus described it:—The battle between the Aūzbegs and Turkmāns[2408] took place on `Āshūr-day (Muḥ. 10th) near Jām-and-Khirgird.[2409] They fought from the first dawn till the Mid-day Prayer. The Aūzbegs were 300,000; the Turkmāns may have been (as is said?) 40 to 50,000; he said that he himself estimated their dark mass at 100,000; on the other hand, the Aūzbegs said they themselves were 100,000. The Qīzīl-bāsh leader (ādam) fought after arraying cart, culverin and matchlockmen in the Rūmī fashion, and after protecting himself.[2410] Shāh-zāda[2411] and Jūha Sl. stood behind the carts with 20,000 good braves. The rest of the begs were posted right and left beyond the carts. [Sidenote: Fol. 354b.] These the Aūzbeg beat at once on coming up, dismounted and overcame many, making all scurry off. He then wheeled to the (Qīzīl-bāsh) rear and took loot in camel and baggage. At length those behind the carts loosed the chains and came out. Here also the fight was hard. Thrice they flung the Aūzbeg back; by God's grace they beat him. Nine sulṯāns, with Kūchūm Khān, `Ubaid Khān and Abū-sa`īd Sl. at their head, were captured; one, Abū-sa`īd Sl. is said to be alive; the rest have gone to death.[2412] `Ubaid Khān's body was found, but not his head. Of Aūzbegs 50,000, and of Turkmāns 20,000 were slain.[2413]

(Here matter seems to have been lost.)[2414]

(gg. Plan of campaign.)

(Dec. 30th) On this same day (Thursday Rabī` II. 18th) came Ghīāṣu'd-dīn the armourer[2415] who had gone to Jūna-pūr (Jūnpūr) with tryst of 16 days,[2416] but, as Sl. Junaid and the rest had led out their army for Kharīd,[2417] he (Ghīāṣu'd-dīn) was not able to be back at the time fixed.[2418] Sl. Junaid said, by word-of-mouth, "Thank God! through His grace, no work worth the Pādshāh's attention has shewn itself in these parts; if the honoured Mīrzā (`Askarī) come, and if the sulṯāns, khāns and amīrs here-abouts be ordered to move in his steps, there is hope that everything in these parts will be arranged with ease." Though such was Sl. [Sidenote: Fol. 355.] Junaid's answer,yet, as people were saying that Mullā Muḥammad Maẕhab, who had been sent as envoy to Bengal after the Holy-battle with Sangā the Pagan,[2419] would arrive today or tomorrow, his news also was awaited.

(Dec. 31st) On Friday the 19th of the month I had eaten ma`jūn and was sitting with a special few in the private house, when Mullā Maẕhab who had arrived late, that is to say, in the night of Saturday,[2420] came and waited on me. By asking one particular after another, we got to know that the attitude of the Bengalī[2421] was understood to be loyal and single-minded.

(Jan. 2nd) On Sunday (Rabī` II. 21st), I summoned the Turk and Hind amīrs to the private house, when counsel was taken and the following matters were brought forward:—As the Bengalī (Naṣrat Shāh) has sent us an envoy[2422] and is said to be loyal and single-minded, to go to Bengal itself would be improper; if the move be not on Bengal, no other place on that side has treasure helpful for the army; several places to the west are both rich and near,

(Turkī) Abounding wealth, a pagan people, a short road; Far though the East lie, this is near.

At length the matter found settlement at this:—As our westward road is short, it will be all one if we delay a few days, so that our minds may be at ease about the East. Again Ghīāṣu'd-dīn [Sidenote: Fol. 355b.] the armourer was made to gallop off, with tryst of 20 days,[2423] to convey written orders to the eastern amīrs for all the sulṯāns, khāns, and amīrs who had assembled in `Askarī's presence, to move against those rebels.[2424] The orders delivered, he was to return by the trysted day with what ever news there might be.

(hh. Balūchī incursions.)

In these days Muḥammadī Kūkūldāsh made dutiful representation that again Balūchīs had come and overrun several places. Chīn-tīmūr Sl. was appointed for the business; he was to gather to his presence the amīrs from beyond Sihrind and Samāna and with them, equipped for 6 months, to proceed against the Balūchīs; namely, such amīrs as `Ādil Sulṯān, Sl. Muḥ. Dūldāī, Khusrau Kūkūldāsh, Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang, `Abdu'l-`azīz the Master-of-the-horse, Sayyid `Alī, Walī Qīzil, Qarācha, Halāhil, `Āshiq the House-steward, Shaikh `Alī, Kitta (Beg Kuhbur), Gujūr Khān, Ḥasan `Alī Sīwādī. These were to present themselves at the Sulṯān's call and muster and not to transgress his word by road or in halt.[2425] The messenger[2426] appointed to carry these orders was `Abdu'l-ghaffār; he was to deliver them first to Chīn-tīmūr Sl., [Sidenote: Fol. 356.] then to go on and shew them to the afore-named begs who were to present themselves with their troops at whatever place the Sulṯān gave rendezvous (būljār);[2427] `Abdu'l-ghaffār himself was to remain with the army and was to make dutiful representation of slackness or carelessness if shewn by any person soever; this done, we should remove the offender from the circle of the approved (muwajjah-jīrgāsī) and from his country or pargana. These orders having been entrusted to `Abdu'l-ghaffār, words-of-mouth were made known to him and he was given leave to go.

(The last explicit date is a week back.)

(ii. News of the loss of Bihār reaches Dhūlpūr.)

(Jan. 9th) On the eve of Sunday the 28th of the month (Rabi` II.) we crossed the Jūn (Jumna) at the 6th garī of the 3rd watch (2.15 a.m.) and started for the Lotus-garden of Dūlpūr. The 3rd watch was near[2428] (Sunday mid-day) when we reached it. Places were assigned on the border of the garden, where begs and the household might build or make camping-grounds for themselves.

(Jan. 13th) On Thursday the 3rd of the first Jumāda, a place was fixed in the s.e. of the garden for a Hot-bath; the ground was to be levelled; I ordered a plinth(?) (kursī) erected on the levelled ground, and a Bath to be arranged, in one room of which was to be a reservoir 10 X 10.

On this same day Khalīfa sent from Āgra dutiful letters of Qāẓī Jīā and Bīr-sing Deo, saying it had been heard said that Iskandar's son Maḥmūd (Lūdī) had taken Bihār (town). This news decided for getting the army to horse.

(Jan. 14th) On Friday (Jumāda I. 4th), we rode out from the Lotus-garden at the 6th garī (8.15 a.m.); at the Evening Prayer we reached Āgra. We met Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā on the road who would have gone to Dūlpūr, Chīn-tīmūr also who must have been coming into Agra.[2429]

(Jan. 15th) On Saturday (5th) the counselling begs having been summoned, it was settled to ride eastwards on Thursday the 10th of the month (Jan. 21st).

(jj. News of Badakhshān.)

On this same Saturday letters came from Kābul with news [Sidenote: Fol. 356b.] that Humāyūn, having mustered the army on that side (Tramontana), and joined Sl. Wais to himself, had set out with 40,000 men for Samarkand;[2430] on this Sl. Wais' younger brother Shāh-qūlī goes and enters Ḥiṣār, Tarsūn Muḥammad leaves Tirmiẕ, takes Qabādīān and asks for help; Humāyūn sends Tūlik Kūkūldāsh and Mīr Khẉurd[2431] with many of his men and what Mughūls there were, then follows himself.[2432]

(Here 4 days record is wanting.)

(kk. Bābur starts for the East.)

(Jan. 20th) On Thursday the 10th of the first Jumāda, I set [Sidenote: Fol. 357.] out for the East after the 3rd garī (cir. 7.10 a.m.), crossed Jūn by boat a little above Jalīsīr, and went to the Gold-scattering-garden.[2433] It was ordered that the standard (tūgh), drum, stable and all the army-folk should remain on the other side of the water, opposite to the garden, and that persons coming for an interview[2434] should cross by boat.

(ll. Arrivals.)

(Jan. 22nd) On Saturday (12th) Ismā`īl Mītā, the Bengal envoy brought the Bengalī's offering (Naṣrat Shāh's), and waited on me in Hindūstān fashion, advancing to within an arrow's flight, making his reverence, and retiring. They then put on him the due dress of honour (khi`lat) which people call * * * *[2435], and brought him before me. He knelt thrice in our fashion, advanced, handed Naṣrat Shāh's letter, set before me the offering he had brought, and retired.

(Jan. 24th) On Monday (14th) the honoured Khwāja `Abdu'l-ḥaqq having arrived, I crossed the water by boat, went to his tents and waited on him.[2436]

(Jan. 25th) On Tuesday (15th) Ḥasan Chalabī arrived and waited on me.[2437]

(mm. Incidents of the eastward march.)

On account of our aims (chāpdūq) for the army,[2438] some days were spent in the Chār-bāgh.

(Jan. 27th) On Thursday the 17th of the month, that ground was left after the 3rd garī (7.10 a.m.), I going by boat. It was dismounted 7 kurohs (14 m.) from Āgra, at the village of Anwār.[2439]

(Jan. 30th) On Sunday (Jumāda I. 20th), the Aūzbeg envoys were given their leave. To Kūchūm Khān's envoy Amīn Mīrzā were presented a dagger with belt, cloth of gold,[2440] and 70,000 tankas.[2441] Abū-sa`īd's servant Mullā T̤aghāī and the servants of [Sidenote: Fol. 357b.] Mihr-bān Khānim and her son Pūlād Sl. were made to put on dresses of honour with gold-embroidered jackets, and were presented also with money in accordance with their station.

(Jan. 31st?) Next morning[2442] (Monday 21st?) leave was given to Khwāja `Abdu'l-ḥaqq for stay in Āgra and to Khwāja Yaḥyā's grandson Khwāja Kalān for Samarkand, who had come by way of a mission from Aūzbeg khāns and sulṯāns.[2443]

In congratulation on the birth of Humāyūn's son and Kāmrān's marriage, Mullā Tabrīzī and Mīrzā Beg T̤aghāī[2444] were sent with gifts (sāchāq) to each Mīrzā of 10,000 shāhrukhīs, a coat I had worn, and a belt with clasps. Through Mullā Bihishtī were sent to Hind-āl an inlaid dagger with belt, an inlaid ink-stand, a stool worked in mother-o'pearl, a tunic and a girdle,[2445] together with the alphabet of the Bāburī script and fragments (qiṯa`lār) written in that script. To Humāyūn were sent the translation (tarjuma) and verses made in Hindūstān.[2446] To Hind-āl and Khwāja Kalān also the translation and verses were sent. They were sent too to Kāmrān, through Mīrzā Beg T̤aghāī, together with head-lines (sar-khaṯ) in the Bāburī script.[2447]

(Feb. 1st) On Tuesday, after writing letters to be taken by those going to Kābul, the buildings in hand at Āgra and Dūlpūr [Sidenote: Fol. 358.] were recalled to mind, and entrusted to the charge of Mullā Qāsim, Ustād Shāh Muḥammad the stone-cutter, Mīrak, Mīr Ghīāṣ, Mīr Sang-tarāsh (stone-cutter) and Shāh Bābā the spadesman. Their leave was then given them.

(Feb. 2nd) The first watch (6 a.m.) was near[2448] when we rode out from Anwār (Wednesday, Jumāda I. 23rd); in the end,[2449] we dismounted, at the Mid-day Prayer, in the village of Ābāpūr, one kuroh (2 m.) from Chandawār.[2450]

(Feb. 3rd) On the eve of Thursday (24th)[2451] `Abdu'l-malūk the armourer[2452] was joined with Ḥasan Chalabī and sent as envoy to the Shāh[2453]; and Chāpūq[2454] was joined with the Aūzbeg envoys and sent to the Aūzbeg khāns and sulṯāns.

We moved from Ābāpūr while 4 garīs of the night remained (4.30 a.m.). After passing Chandawār at the top of the dawn, I got into a boat. I landed in front of Rāprī and at the Bed-time Prayer got to the camp which was at Fatḥpūr.[2455]

(Feb. 4th and 5th) Having stayed one day (Friday) at Fatḥpūr, we got to horse on Saturday (26th) after making ablution (waẓū) at dawn. We went through the Morning Prayer in assembly near Rāprī, Maulānā Muḥammad of Fārāb being the leader (imām). At sun-rise I got into a boat below the great crook[2456] of Rāprī.

Today I put together a line-marker (misṯar) of eleven lines[2457] in order to write the mixed hands of the translation.[2458] Today the words of the honoured man-of-God admonished my heart.[2459]

(Feb. 6th) Opposite Jākīn,[2460] one of the Rāprī parganas, we [Sidenote: Fol. 358b.] had the boats drawn to the bank and just spent the night in them. We had them moved on from that place before the dawn (Sunday 27th), after having gone through the Morning Prayer. When I was again on board, Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad came, bringing a servant of Khwāja Kalān, Shamsu'd-dīn Muḥammad, from whose letters and information particulars about the affairs of Kābul became known.[2461] Mahdī Khwāja also came when I was in the boat.[2462] At the Mid-day Prayer I landed in a garden opposite Etāwa, there bathed (ghusl) in the Jūn, and fulfilled the duty of prayer. Moving nearer towards Etāwa, we sat down in that same garden under trees on a height over-looking the river, and there set the braves to amuse us.[2463] Food ordered by Mahdī Khwāja, was set before us. At the Evening Prayer we crossed the river; at the bed-time one we reached camp.

There was a two or three days' delay on that ground both to collect the army, and to write letters in answer to those brought by Shamsu'd-dīn Muḥammad.

(nn. Letters various.)

(Feb. 9th) On Wednesday the last day (30th) of the 1st Jumāda, we marched from Etāwa, and after doing 8 kurohs (16m.), dismounted at Mūrī-and-Adūsa.[2464]

Several remaining letters for Kābul were written on this same ground. One to Humāyūn was to this purport:—If the work have not yet been done satisfactorily, stop the raiders and thieves thyself; do not let them embroil the peace now descending amongst the peoples.[2465] Again, there was this:—I have made [Sidenote: Fol. 359.] Kābul a crown-domain, let no son of mine covet it. Again:—that I had summoned Hind-āl.

Kāmrān, for his part, was written to about taking the best of care in intercourse with the Shāh-zāda,[2466] about my bestowal on himself of Multān, making Kābul a crown-domain, and the coming of my family and train.[2467]

As my letter to Khwāja Kalān makes several particulars known, it is copied in here without alteration:—[2468]

[COPY OF A LETTER TO KHWĀJA KALĀN.]

"After saying 'Salutation to Khwāja Kalān', the first matter is that Shamsu'd-dīn Muḥammad has reached Etāwa, and that the particulars about Kābul are known."

"Boundless and infinite is my desire to go to those parts.[2469] Matters are coming to some sort of settlement in Hindūstān; there is hope, through the Most High, that the work here will soon be arranged. This work brought to order, God willing! my start will be made at once."

"How should a person forget the pleasant things of those countries, especially one who has repented and vowed to sin no more? How should he banish from his mind the permitted flavours of melons and grapes? Taking this opportunity,[2470] a melon was brought to me; to cut and eat it affected me strangely; I was all tears!"

"The unsettled state[2471] of Kābul had already been written of [Sidenote: Fol. 359b.] to me. After thinking matters over, my choice fell on this:—How should a country hold together and be strong (marbūṯ u maẓbūṯ), if it have seven or eight Governors? Under this aspect of the affair, I have summoned my elder sister (Khān-zāda) and my wives to Hindūstān, have made Kābul and its neighbouring countries a crown-domain, and have written in this sense to both Humāyūn and Kāmrān. Let a capable person take those letters to the Mīrzās. As you may know already, I had written earlier to them with the same purport. About the safe-guarding and prosperity of the country, there will now be no excuse, and not a word to say. Henceforth, if the town-wall[2472] be not solid or subjects not thriving, if provisions be not in store or the Treasury not full, it will all be laid on the back of the inefficiency of the Pillar-of-the State."[2473]

"The things that must be done are specified below; for some of them orders have gone already, one of these being, 'Let treasure accumulate.' The things which must be done are these:—First, the repair of the fort; again:—the provision of stores; again:—the daily allowance and lodging[2474] of envoys going backwards and forwards[2475]; again:—let money, taken legally from revenue,[2476] be spent for building the Congregational Mosque; again:—the repairs of the Kārwan-sarā (Caravan-sarai) and the Hot-baths; again:—the completion of the unfinished building [Sidenote: Fol. 360.] made of burnt-brick which Ūstād Ḥasan `Alī was constructing in the citadel. Let this work be ordered after taking counsel with Ūstād Sl. Muḥammad; if a design exist, drawn earlier by Ūstād Ḥasan `Alī, let Ūstād Sl. Muḥammad finish the building precisely according to it; if not, let him do so, after making a gracious and harmonious design, and in such a way that its floor shall be level with that of the Audience-hall; again:—the Khẉurd-Kābul dam which is to hold up the But-khāk-water at its exit from the Khẉurd-Kābul narrows; again:—the repair of the Ghaznī dam[2477]; again:—the Avenue-garden in which water is short and for which a one-mill stream must be diverted[2478]; again:—I had water brought from Tūtūm-dara to rising ground south-west of Khwāja Basta, there made a reservoir and planted young trees. The place got the name of Belvedere,[2479] because it faces the ford and gives a first-rate view. The best of young trees must be planted there, lawns arranged, and borders set with sweet-herbs and with flowers of beautiful colour and scent; again:—Sayyid Qāsim has been named to reinforce thee; again:—do not neglect the condition of matchlockmen and of Ūstād Muḥammad Amīn the armourer[2480]; again:—directly this letter arrives, thou must get my elder sister (Khān-zāda Begīm) and my wives right out of Kābul, and escort them to Nīl-āb. However averse they may still be, they most certainly must start within a week of the arrival of [Sidenote: Fol. 360b.] this letter. For why? Both because the armies which have gone from Hindūstān to escort them are suffering hardship in a cramped place (tār yīrdā), and also because they[2481] are ruining the country."

"Again:—I made it clear in a letter written to `Abdu'l-lāh (`asas), that there had been very great confusion in my mind (dúghdugha), to counterbalance being in the oasis (wādī) of penitence. This quatrain was somewhat dissuading (mānī`):—[2482]

Through renouncement of wine bewildered am I; How to work know I not, so distracted am I; While others repent and make vow to abstain, I have vowed to abstain, and repentant am I.

"A witticism of Banāī's came back to my mind:—One day when he had been joking in `Alī-sher Beg's presence, who must have been wearing a jacket with buttons,[2483] `Alī-sher Beg said, 'Thou makest charming jokes; but for the buttons, I would give thee the jacket; they are the hindrance (māni`).' Said Banāī, 'What hindrance are buttons? It is button-holes (mādagī) that hinder.'[2484] Let responsibility for this story lie on the teller! hold me excused for it; for God's sake do not be offended by it.[2485] Again:—that quatrain was made before last year, and in truth the longing and craving for a wine-party has been infinite and endless for two years past, so much so that sometimes the craving for wine brought me to the verge of tears. Thank God! this year that trouble has passed from my mind, perhaps by virtue of the [Sidenote: Fol. 361.] blessing and sustainment of versifying the translation.[2486] Do thou also renounce wine! If had with equal associates and boon-companions, wine and company are pleasant things; but with whom canst thou now associate? with whom drink wine? If thy boon-companions are Sher-i-aḥmad and Ḥaidar-qulī, it should not be hard for thee to forswear wine. So much said, I salute thee and long to see thee."[2487]

The above letter was written on Thursday the 1st of the latter Jumāda (Feb. 10th). It affected me greatly to write concerning those matters, with their mingling of counsel. The letters were entrusted to Shamsu'd-dīn Muḥammad on Friday night,[2488] he was apprized of word-of-mouth messages and given leave to go.

(oo. Complaints from Balkh.)

(Feb. 11th) On Friday (Jumāda II. 2nd) we did 8 kurohs (16m.) and dismounted at Jumandnā.[2489] Today a servant of Kītīn-qarā Sl. arrived whom the Sulṯān had sent to his retainer and envoy Kamālu'd-din Qīāq,[2490] with things written concerning the behaviour of the begs of the (Balkh) border, their intercourse with himself, and complaints of theft and raid. Leave to go was given to Qīāq, and orders were issued to the begs of the border to put an end to raiding and thieving, to behave well and to maintain intercourse with Balkh. These orders were entrusted to Kītīn-qarā Sl.'s servant and he was dismissed from this ground.

A letter, accepting excuse for the belated arrival of Ḥasan Chalabī,[2491] was sent to the Shāh today by one Shāh-qulī who had [Sidenote: Fol. 361b.] come to me from Ḥasan Chalabī and reported the details of the battle (of Jām).[2492] Shāh-qulī was given his leave on this same day, the 2nd of the month.

(pp. Incidents of the eastward march resumed.)

(Feb. 12th) On Saturday (3rd) we did 8 kurohs (16m.) and dismounted in the Kakūra and Chachāwalī[2493] parganas of Kālpī.

(Feb. 13th) On Sunday the 4th of the month, we did 9 kurohs (18m.) and dismounted in Dīrapūr[2494] a pargana of Kālpī. Here I shaved my head,[2495] which I had not done for the past two months, and bathed in the Sīngar-water (Sengar).

(Feb. 14th) On Monday (5th) we did 14 kurohs (28m.), and dismounted in Chaparkada[2496] one of the parganas of Kālpī.

(Feb. 15th) At the dawn of Tuesday (6th), a Hindūstānī servant of Qarācha's arrived who had taken a command (farmān) from Māhīm to Qarācha from which it was understood that she was on the road. She had summoned escort from people in Lāhor, Bhīra and those parts in the fashion I formerly wrote orders (parwānas) with my own hand. Her command had been written in Kābul on the 7th of the 1st Jumāda (Jan. 17th).[2497]

(Feb. 16th) On Wednesday (7th) we did 7 kurohs (14m.), and dismounted in the Ādampūr pargana.[2498] Today I mounted before dawn, took the road[2499] alone, reached the Jūn (Jumna), and went on along its bank. When I came opposite to Ādampūr, I had awnings set up on an island (ārāl) near the camp and seated there, ate ma`jūn.

Today we set Ṣādiq to wrestle with Kalāl who had come to [Sidenote: Fol. 362.] Āgra with a challenge.[2500] In Āgra he had asked respite for 20 days on the plea of fatigue from his journey; as now 40-50 days had passed since the end of his respite, he was obliged to wrestle. Ṣādiq did very well, throwing him easily. Ṣādiq was given 10,000 tankas, a saddled horse, a head-to-foot, and a jacket with buttons; while Kalāl, to save him from despair, was given 3000 tankas, spite of his fall.

The carts and mortar were ordered landed from the boats, and we spent 3 or 4 days on this same ground while the road was made ready, the ground levelled and the landing effected.

(Feb. 21st) On Monday the 12th of the month (Jumāda II.), we did 12 kurohs (24 m.) and dismounted at Kūrarah.[2501] Today I travelled by litter.

(Feb. 22nd-25th) After marching 12 kurohs (24 m.) from Kūrarah (13th), we dismounted in Kūrīa[2502] a pargana of Karrah. From Kūrīa we marched 8 kurohs (16m.) and dismounted (14th) in Fatḥpūr-Aswa.[2503] After 8 kurohs (16m.) done from Fatḥpūr, we dismounted (15th) at Sarāī Munda.[2504]... Today at the Bedtime Prayer (Friday 16th, after dark), Sl. Jalālu'd-dīn (Sharqī)[2505] came with his two young sons to wait on me.

(Feb. 26th) Next day, Saturday the 17th of the month, we did 8 kurohs (16m.), and dismounted at Dugdugī a Karrah pargana on the bank of the Gang.[2506]

(Feb. 27th) On Sunday (18th) came to this ground Muḥammad Sl. M., Nī-khūb (or, Bī-khūb) Sl. and Tardīka (or, Tardī yakka, [Sidenote: Fol. 362b.] champion).

(Feb. 28th) On Monday (19th) `Askarī also waited on me. They all came from the other side of Gang (Ganges). `Askarī and his various forces were ordered to march along the other bank of the river keeping opposite the army on this side, and wherever our camp might be, to dismount just opposite it.

(qq. News of the Afghāns.)

While we were in these parts news came again and again that Sl. Maḥmūd (Lūdī) had collected 10,000 Afghāns; that he had detached Shaikh Bāyazīd and Bīban with a mass of men towards Sarwār [Gorakhpūr]; that he himself with Fatḥ Khān Sarwānī was on his way along the river for Chunār; that Sher Khān Sūr whom I had favoured last year with the gift of several parganas and had left in charge of this neighbourhood,[2507] had joined these Afghāns who thereupon had made him and a few other amīrs cross the water; that Sl. Jalālu'd-dīn's man in Benares had not been able to hold that place, had fled, and got away; what he was understood to have said being, that he had left soldiers (sipahīlār) in Benares-fort and gone along the river to fight Sl. Maḥmūd.[2508]

(rr. Incidents of the march resumed.)

(March 1st) Marching from Dugdugī (Tuesday, Jumāda II. 20th) the army did 6 kurohs (12m.) and dismounted at Kusār,[2509] 3 or 4 kurohs from Karrah. I went by boat. We stayed here 3 or 4 [Sidenote: Fol. 363.] days because of hospitality offered by Sl. Jalālu'd-dīn.

(March 4th) On Friday (23rd), I dismounted at Sl. Jalālu'd-dīn's house inside Karrah-fort where, host-like, he served me a portion of cooked meat and other viands.[2510] After the meal, he and his sons were dressed in unlined coats (yaktāī jāmah) and short tunics (nīmcha).[2511] At his request his elder son was given the style Sl. Maḥmūd.[2512] On leaving Karrah, I rode about one kuroh (2m.) and dismounted on the bank of Gang.

Here letters were written and leave was given to Shahrak Beg who had come from Māhīm to our first camp on Gang (i.e. Dugdugī). As Khwāja Yaḥyā's grandson Khwāja Kalān had been asking for the records I was writing,[2513] I sent him by Shahrak a copy I had had made.

(March 5th) On Saturday move was made at dawn (24th), I going by boat direct, and after 4 kurohs done (8m.), halt was made at Koh.[2514] Our ground, being so near, was reached quite early. After awhile, we seated ourselves inside[2515] a boat where we ate ma`jūn. We invited the honoured Khwāja `Abdu'sh-shahīd[2516] who was said to be in Nūr Beg's quarters (awī), invited also Mullā Maḥmūd (Farābī?), bringing him from Mullā `Alī Khān's. After staying for some time on that spot, we crossed the river, and on the other side, set wrestlers to wrestle. In opposition to the rule of gripping the strongest first, Dost-i-yāsīn-khair [Sidenote: Fol. 363b.] was told not to grapple with Champion Ṣādiq, but with others; he did so very well with eight.

(ss. News of the Afghān enemy.)

At the Afternoon Prayer, Sl. Muḥammad the Pay-master came by boat from the other side of the river, bringing news that the army of Sl. Iskandar's son Maḥmūd Khān whom rebels style Sl. Maḥmūd,[2517] had broken up. The same news was brought in by a spy who had gone out at the Mid-day Prayer from where we were; and a dutiful letter, agreeing with what the spy had reported, came from Tāj Khān Sārang-khānī between the Afternoon and Evening Prayers. Sl. Muḥammad gave the following particulars:—that the rebels on reaching Chunār seemed to have laid siege to it and to have done a little fighting, but had risen in disorderly fashion when they heard of our approach; that Afghāns who had crossed the river for Benares, had turned back in like disorder; that two of their boats had sunk in crossing and a body of their men been drowned.

(tt. Incidents of the eastward march resumed.)

(March 6th) After marching at Sunday's dawn (25th) and doing 6 kurohs (12m.), Sīr-auliya,[2518] a pargana of Pīāg*[2519] was reached. I went direct by boat.

Aīsan-tīmūr Sl. and Tūkhta-būghā Sl. had dismounted half-way, and were waiting to see me.[2520] I, for my part, invited them into the boat. Tūkhta-būghā Sl. must have wrought magic, for a bitter wind rose and rain began to fall. It became quite windy(?)[2521] on which account I ate ma`jūn, although I had done so on the previous day. Having come to the encamping-ground....[2522]

(March 7th?) Next day (Monday 26th?) we remained on the same ground.

(March 8th?) On Tuesday (27th?) we marched on.

Opposite the camp was what may be an island,[2523] large and verdant. I went over by boat to visit it, returning to the boat during the 1st watch (6-9 a.m.). While I rode carelessly along the ravine (jar) of the river, my horse got to where it was fissured and had begun to give way. I leapt off at once and flung myself on the bank; even the horse did not go down; probably, however, if I had stayed on its back, it and I would have gone down together.

On this same day, I swam the Gang-river (Ganges), counting every stroke;[2524] I crossed with 33, then, without resting, swam back. I had swum the other rivers, Gang had remained to do.[2525]

We reached the meeting of the waters of Gang and Jūn at the Evening Prayer, had the boat drawn to the Pīāg side, and got to camp at 1 watch, 4 garīs (10.30 p.m.).

(March 9th) On Wednesday (Jumāda II. 28th) from the 1st watch onwards, the army began to cross the river Jūn; there were 420 boats.[2526]

(March 11th) On Friday, the 1st of the month of Rajab, I crossed the river.

(March 14th) On Monday, the 4th of the month, the march for Bihār began along the bank of Jūn. After 5 kurohs (10m.) done, halt was made at Lawāīn.[2527] I went by boat. The people of the army were crossing the Jūn up to today. They were ordered to put the culverin-carts[2528] which had been landed at Ādampūr, into boats again and to bring them on by water from Pīāg.

On this ground we set wrestlers to wrestle. Dost-i-yāsīn-khair gripped the boatman Champion of Lāhor; the contest was stubborn; it was with great difficulty that Dost gave the throw. A head-to-foot was bestowed on each.

(March 15th and 16th) People said that ahead of us was a swampy, muddy, evil river called Tūs.[2529] In order to examine the ford*[2530] and repair the road, we waited two days (Tuesday Ramzān 5th and Wednesday 6th) on this ground. For the horses and camels a ford was found higher up, but people said laden carts could not get through it because of its uneven, stony bottom. [Sidenote: Fol. 364.] They were just ordered to get them through.

(March 17th) On Thursday (7th) we marched on. I myself went by boat down to where the Tūs meets the Gang (Ganges), there landed, thence rode up the Tūs, and, at the Other Prayer, reached where the army had encamped after crossing the ford. Today 6 kurohs (12 m.) were done.

(March 18th) Next day (Friday 8th), we stayed on that ground.

(March 19th) On Saturday (9th), we marched 12 kurohs and got to the bank of Gang again at Nulibā.[2531]

(March 20th) Marching on (Sunday 10th), we did 6 kurohs of road, and dismounted at Kintit.[2532]

(March 21st) Marching on (Monday 11th), we dismounted at Nānāpur.[2533] Tāj Khān Sārang-khānī came from Chunār to this ground with his two young sons, and waited on me.

In these days a dutiful letter came from Pay-master Sl. Muḥammad, saying that my family and train were understood to be really on their way from Kābul.[2534]

(March 23rd) On Wednesday (13th) we marched from that ground. I visited the fort of Chunār, and dismounted about one kuroh beyond it.

During the days we were marching from Pīāg, painful boils had come out on my body. While we were on this ground, an Ottoman Turk (Rūmī) used a remedy which had been recently discovered in Rūm. He boiled pepper in a pipkin; I held the sores in the steam and, after steaming ceased, laved them with the hot water. The treatment lasted 2 sidereal hours.

While we were on this ground, a person said he had seen tiger and rhinoceros on an ārāl[2535] by the side of the camp.

(March 24th?) In the morning (14th?), we made the hunting-circle[2536] [Sidenote: Fol. 364b.] on that ārāl, elephants also being brought. Neither tiger nor rhino appeared; one wild buffalo came out at the end of the line. A bitter wind rising and the whirling dust being very troublesome, I went back to the boat and in it to the camp which was 2 kurohs (4m.) above Banāras.

(uu. News of the Afghāns.)

(March 25th (?) and 26th) Having heard there were many elephants in the Chunār jungles, I had left (Thursday's) ground thinking to hunt them, but Tāj Khān bringing the news (Friday 15th(?)) that Maḥmūd Khān (Lūdi) was near the Son-water, I summoned the begs and took counsel as to whether to fall upon him suddenly. In the end it was settled to march on continuously, fast[2537] and far.

(March 27th) Marching on (Sunday 17th), we did 9 kurohs (18m.), and dismounted at the Bilwah-ferry.[2538]

(March 28th) On Monday night[2539] the 18th of the month, T̤āhir was started for Āgra from this camp (Bilwah-ferry), taking money-drafts for the customary gifts of allowance and lodging[2540] to those on their way from Kābul.

Before dawn next morning (Monday) I went on by boat. When we came to where the Gūī-water (Gūmtī) which is the water of Jūnpūr, meets the Gang-water (Ganges), I went a little [Sidenote: Fol. 365.] way up it and back. Narrower[2541] though it is, it has no ford; the army-folk crossed it (last year) by boat, by raft, or by swimming their horses.

To look at our ground of a year ago,[2542] from which we had started for Jūnpūr,[2543] I went to about a kuroh lower than the mouth of the Jūnpūr-water (Gūmtī). A favourable wind getting up behind, our larger boat was tied to a smaller Bengalī one which, spreading its sail, made very quick going. Two garīs of day remained (5.15 p.m.) when we had reached that ground (Sayyidpur?), we went on without waiting there, and by the Bed-time Prayer had got to camp, which was a kuroh above Madan-Benāres,[2544] long before the boats following us. Mughūl Beg had been ordered to measure all marches from Chunār on the direct road, Luṯfī Beg to measure the river's bank whenever I went by boat. The direct road today was said to be 11 kurohs (22m.), the distance along the river, 18 (36m.).

(March 29th) Next day (Tuesday 19th), we stayed on that ground.

(March 30th) On Wednesday (20th), we dismounted a kuroh (2m.) below Ghāzīpūr, I going by boat.

(March 31st) On Thursday (21st) Maḥmūd Khān Nuḥānī[2545] waited on me on that ground. On this same day dutiful letters[2546] came from Bihār Khān Bihārī's son Jalāl Khān (Nuḥānī),[2547] from Naṣīr Khān (Nūḥānī)'s son Farīd Khān,[2548] from Sher Khān Sūr, from `Alāūl Khān Sūr also, and from other Afghān amīrs. Today [Sidenote: Fol. 365b.] came also a dutiful letter from `Abdu'l-`azīz Master-of-the-horse, which had been written in Lāhor on the 20th of the latter Jumāda (Feb. 29th), the very day on which Qarācha's Hindūstānī servant whom we had started off from near Kālpī,[2549] reached Lāhor. `Abdu'l-`azīz wrote that he had gone with the others assigned to meet my family at Nīl-āb, had met them there on the 9th of the latter Jumāda (Feb. 18th), had accompanied them to Chīn-āb (Chan-āb), left them there, and come ahead to Lāhor where he was writing his letter.

(April 1st) We moved on, I going by boat, on Friday (Rajab 22nd). I landed opposite Chausā to look at the ground of a year ago[2550] where the Sun had been eclipsed and a fast kept.[2551] After I got back to the boat, Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, coming up behind by boat, overtook me; at his suggestion ma`jūn was eaten.

The army had dismounted on the bank of the Karmā-nā['s]ā-river, about the water of which Hindūs are understood to be extremely scrupulous. They do not cross it, but go past its mouth by boat along the Gang (Ganges). They firmly believe that, if its water touch a person, the merit of his works is destroyed; with this belief its name accords.[2552] I went some way up it by [Sidenote: Fol. 366.] boat, turned back, went over to the north bank of Gang, and tied up. There the braves made a little fun, some wrestling. Muḥsin the cup-bearer challenged, saying, "I will grapple with four or five." The first he gripped, he threw; the second, who was Shādmān (Joyous), threw him, to Muḥsin's shame and vexation. The (professional) wrestlers came also and set to.

(April 2nd) Next morning, Saturday (23rd) we moved, close to the 1st watch (6 a.m.), in order to get people off to look at the ford through the Karmā-nā['s]ā-water. I rode up it for not less than a kuroh (2 m.), but the ford being still far on,[2553] took boat and went to the camp below Chausā.

Today I used the pepper remedy again; it must have been somewhat hotter than before, for it blistered (qāpārdī) my body, giving me much pain.

(April 3rd) We waited a day for a road to be managed across a smallish, swampy rivulet heard to be ahead.[2554]

(April 4th) On the eve of Monday (25th),[2555] letters were written and sent off in answer to those brought by the Hindūstānī footman of `Abdu'l-`azīz.

The boat I got into at Monday's dawn, had to be towed because of the wind. On reaching the ground opposite Baksara (Buxar) [Sidenote: Fol. 366b.] where the army had been seated many days last year,[2556] we went over to look at it. Between 40 and 50 landing-steps had been then made on the bank; of them the upper two only were left, the river having destroyed the rest. Ma`jūn was eaten after return to the boat. We tied up at an ārāl[2557] above the camp, set the champions to wrestle, and went on at the Bed-time Prayer. A year ago (yīl-tūr), an excursion had been made to look at the ground on which the camp now was, I passing through Gang swimming (? dastak bīla),[2558] some coming mounted on horses, some on camels. That day I had eaten opium.

(vv. Incidents of the military operations.)

(April 5th) At Tuesday's dawn (26th), we sent out for news not under 200 effective braves led by Karīm-bīrdī and Ḥaidar the stirrup-holder's son Muḥammad `Alī and Bābā Shaikh.

While we were on this ground, the Bengal envoy was commanded to set forth these three articles:—[2559]

(April 6th) On Wednesday (27th) Yūnas-i-`alī who had been sent to gather Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā's objections to Bihār, brought back rather a weak answer.

Dutiful letters from the (Farmūlī) Shaikh-zādas of Bihār gave news that the enemy had abandoned the place and gone off.

(April 7th) On Thursday (28th) as many as 2000 men of the Turk and Hind amīrs and quiver-wearers were joined to Muḥammad `Alī Jang-jang's son Tardī-muḥammad, and he was [Sidenote: Fol. 367.] given leave to go, taking letters of royal encouragement to people in Bihār. He was joined also by Khwāja Murshid `Irāqī who had been made Dīwān of Bihār.

(April 8th (?)) Muḥammad-i-zamān M. who had consented to go to Bihār, made representation of several matters through Shaikh Zain and Yūnas-i-`alī. He asked for reinforcement; for this several braves were inscribed and several others were made his own retainers.

(April 9th)[2560] On Saturday the 1st of the month of Sha`bān, we left that ground where we had been for 3 or 4 days. I rode to visit Bhūjpūr and Bihiya,[2561] thence went to camp.

Muḥammad `Alī and the others, who had been sent out for news, after beating a body of pagans as they went along, reached the place where Sl. Maḥmūd (Lūdī) had been with perhaps 2000 men. He had heard of our reconnaissance, had broken up, killed two elephants of his, and marched off. He seemed to have left braves and an elephant[2562] scout-fashion; they made no stand when our men came up but took to flight. Ours unhorsed a few of his, cut one head off, brought in a few good men alive.

(ww. Incidents of the eastward march resumed.)

(April 10th) We moved on next day (Sunday 2nd), I going by boat. From our today's ground Muḥammad-i-zamān M. crossed (his army) over the river (Son), leaving none behind. We spent 2 or 3 days on this ground in order to put his work through and [Sidenote: Fol. 367b.] get him off.

(April 13th) On Wednesday the 4th[2563] of the month, Muḥammad-i-zamān M. was presented with a royal head-to-foot, a sword and belt, a tīpūchāq horse and an umbrella.[2564] He also was made to kneel (yūkūndūrūldī) for the Bihār country. Of the Bihār revenues one krūr and 25 laks were reserved for the Royal Treasury; its Dīwānī was entrusted to Murshid `Irāqī.

(April 14th) I left that ground by boat on Thursday (6th). I had already ordered the boats to wait, and on getting up with them, I had them fastened together abreast in line.[2565] Though all were not collected there, those there were greatly exceeded the breadth of the river. They could not move on, however, so-arranged, because the water was here shallow, there deep, here swift, there still. A crocodile (gharīāl) shewing itself, a terrified fish leaped so high as to fall into a boat; it was caught and brought to me.

When we were nearing our ground, we gave the boats names:—a [Sidenote: Fol. 368.] large[2566] one, formerly the Bāburī,[2567] which had been built in Āgra before the Holy-battle with Sangā, was named Asāīsh (Repose).[2568] Another, which Arāīsh Khān had built and presented to me this year before our army got to horse, one in which I had had a platform set up on our way to this ground, was named Arāīsh (Ornament). Another, a good-sized one presented to me by Jalālu'd-dīn Sharqī, was named the Gunjāīsh (Capacious); in it I had ordered a second platform set up, on the top of the one already in it. To a little skiff, having a chaukandī,[2569] one used for every task (har āīsh) and duty, was given the name Farmāīsh (Commissioned).

(April 15th) Next day, Friday (7th), no move was made. Muḥammad-i-zamān M. who, his preparations for Bihār complete, had dismounted one or two kurohs from the camp, came today to take leave of me.[2570]

(xx. News of the army of Bengal.)

Two spies, returned from the Bengal army, said that Bengalīs[2571] under Makhdūm-i-`ālam were posted in 24 places on the Gandak and there raising defences; that they had hindered the Afghāns from carrying out their intention to get their families across the river (Ganges?), and had joined them to themselves.[2572] This news making fighting probable, we detained Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, and sent Shāh Iskandar to Bihār with 3 or 400 men.

(yy. Incidents of the eastward march resumed.)

[Sidenote: Fol. 368b.] (April 16th) On Saturday (8th) a person came in from Dūdū and her son Jalāl Khān (son) of Bihār Khān[2573] whom the Bengalī (Naṣrat Shāh) must have held as if eye-bewitched.[2574] After letting me know they were coming,[2575] they had done some straight fighting to get away from the Bengalīs, had crossed the river,[2576] reached Bihār, and were said now to be on their way to me.

This command was given today for the Bengal envoy Ismā`īl Mītā:—Concerning those three articles, about which letters have already been written and despatched, let him write that an answer is long in coming, and that if the honoured (Naṣrat Shāh) be loyal and of single-mind towards us, it ought to come soon.

(April 17th) In the night of Sunday (9th)[2577] a man came in from Tardī-muḥammad Jang-jang to say that when, on Wednesday the 5th of the month Sha`bān, his scouts reached Bihār from this side, the Shiqdār of the place went off by a gate on the other side.

On Sunday morning we marched on and dismounted in the pargana of Ārī (Ārrah).[2578]

(zz. News and negotiations.)

To this ground came the news that the Kharīd[2579] army, with 100-150 boats, was said to be on the far side of the Sarū near the meeting of Sarū and Gang (Ghogrā and Ganges). As a sort of peace existed between us and the Bengalī (Naṣrat Shāh Afghān), and as, for the sake of a benediction, peace was our first endeavour whenever such work was toward as we were now on, we kept to our rule, notwithstanding his unmannerly conduct in setting himself on our road;[2580] we associated Mullā Maẕhab with his envoy Ismā`īl Mītā, spoke once more about those three articles [Sidenote: Fol. 369.] (faṣl soz), and decided to let the envoy go.

(April 18th) On Monday (10th) when the Bengal envoy came to wait on me, he was let know that he had his leave, and what follows was mentioned:[2581]—"We shall be going to this side and that side, in pursuit of our foe, but no hurt or harm will be done to any dependency of yours. As one of those three articles said,[2582] when you have told the army of Kharīd to rise off our road and to go back to Kharīd, let a few Turks be joined with it to reassure these Kharīd people and to escort them to their own place.[2583] If they quit not the ferry-head, if they cease not their unbecoming words, they must regard as their own act any ill that befalls them, must count any misfortune they confront as the fruit of their own words."

(April 20th) On Wednesday (12th) the usual dress of honour was put on the Bengal envoy, gifts were bestowed on him and his leave to go was given.

(April 21st) On Thursday (13th) Shaikh Jamālī was sent with royal letters of encouragement to Dūdū and her son Jalāl Khān.

Today a servant of Māhīm's came, who will have parted from the Wālī(?)[2584] on the other side of the Bāgh-i-ṣafā.

(April 23rd) On Saturday (15th) an envoy from `Irāq, Murād Qajar[2585] the life-guardsman, was seen.

(April 24th) On Sunday (16th) Mullā Maẕhab received his usual keepsakes (yādgārlār) and was given leave to go.

[Sidenote: Fol. 369b.] (April 25th) On Monday (17th) Khalīfa was sent, with several begs, to see where the river (Ganges) could be crossed.

(April 27th) On Wednesday, (19th) Khalīfa again was sent out, to look at the ground between the two rivers (Ganges and Ghogrā).

On this same day I rode southward in the Ārī (Ārrah) pargana to visit the sheets of lotus[2586] near Ārī. During the excursion Shaikh Gūran brought me fresh-set lotus-seeds, first-rate little things just like pistachios. The flower, that is to say, the nīlūfar (lotus), Hindūstānīs call kuwul-kikrī (lotus-pistachio), and its seed dūdah (soot).

As people said, "The Son is near," we went to refresh ourselves on it. Masses of trees could be seen down-stream; "Munīr is there," said they, "where the tomb is of Shaikh Yaḥyā the father of Shaikh Sharafu'd-dīn Munīrī."[2587] It being so close, I crossed the Son, went 2 or 3 kurohs down it, traversed the Munīr orchards, made the circuit of the tomb, returned to the Son-bank, made ablution, went through the Mid-day Prayer before time, and made for camp. Some of our horses, being fat,[2588] had fallen behind; some were worn out; a few people were left to gather them together, water them, rest them, and bring them on without pressure; but for this many would have been ruined.

When we turned back from Munīr, I ordered that some-one [Sidenote: Fol. 370.] should count a horse's steps between the Son-bank and the camp. They amounted to 23,100, which is 46,200 paces, which is 11-1/2 kurohs (23m.).[2589] It is about half a kuroh from Munīr to the Son; the return journey from Munīr to the camp was therefore 12 kurohs (24m.). In addition to this were some 15-16 kurohs done in visiting this and that place; so that the whole excursion was one of some 30 kurohs (60m.). Six garīs of the 1st night-watch had passed [8.15 p.m.] when we reached the camp.

(April 28th) At the dawn of Thursday (Sha`bān 19th) Sl. Junaid Barlās came in with the Jūnpūr braves from Jūnpūr. I let him know my blame and displeasure on account of his delay; I did not see him. Qāẓī Jīā I sent for and saw.

(aaa. Plan of the approaching battle with the Bengal army.)

On the same day the Turk and Hind amīrs were summoned for a consultation about crossing Gang (Ganges), and matters found settlement at this[2590]:—that Ūstād `Alī-qulī should collect mortar, firingī,[2591] and culverin[2592] to the point of rising ground between the rivers Sarū and Gang, and, having many matchlockmen with him, should incite to battle from that place;[2593] that Muṣṯafa, he also having many matchlockmen, should get his material and implements ready on the Bihār side of Gang, a little below the meeting of the waters and opposite to where on an island the Bengalīs had an elephant and a mass of boats tied up, and that he should engage battle from this place;[2594] that Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā and the others inscribed for the work should take post behind Muṣṯafa as his reserve; that both for Ūstād `Alī-qulī and Muṣṯafa shelters (muljār) for the culverin-firers should be raised by a mass of spadesmen and coolies (kahār) [Sidenote: Fol. 370b.] under appointed overseers; that as soon as these shelters were ready, `Askarī and the sulṯāns inscribed for the work should cross quickly at the Haldī-passage[2595] and come down on the enemy; that meantime, as Sl. Junaid and Qāẓī Jīā had given information about a crossing-place[2596] 8 kurohs (16 m.) higher up,[2597] Zard-rūī(Pale-face?) should go with a few raftsmen and some of the people of the Sulṯān, Maḥmūd Khān Nūḥānī and Qāẓī Jīā to look at that crossing; and that, if crossing there were, they should go over at once, because it was rumoured that the Bengalīs were planning to post men at the Haldī-passage.

A dutiful letter from Maḥmūd Khān the Military-collector (shiqdār) of Sikandarpūr now came, saying that he had collected as many as 50 boats at the Haldī-passage and had given wages to the boatmen, but that these were much alarmed at the rumoured approach of the Bengalīs.

(April 30th) As time pressed[2598] for crossing the Sarū, I did not wait for the return of those who had gone to look at the passage, but on Saturday (21st) summoned the begs for consultation and said, "As it has been reported that there are (no?) crossing-places (fords?) along the whole of the ground from Chatur-mūk in Sikandarpūr to Barāīch and Aūd,[2599] let us, while seated here, assign the large force to cross at the Haldī-passage by boat and from there [Sidenote: Fol. 371.] to come down on the enemy; let Ūstād `Alī-qulī and Muṣṯafa engage battle with gun (top), matchlock, culverin and firingī, and by this draw the enemy out before `Askarī comes up.[2600] Let us after crossing the river (Ganges) and assigning reinforcement to Ūstād `Alī-qulī, take our stand ready for whatever comes; if `Askarī's troops get near, let us fling attack from where we are, cross over and assault; let Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā and those appointed to act with him, engage battle from near Muṣṯafa on the other side of Gang."

The matter having been left at this, the force for the north of the Gang was formed into four divisions to start under `Askarī's command for the Haldī-passage. One division was of `Askarī and his retainers; another was Sl. Jalālu'd-dīn Sharqī; another was of the Aūzbeg sulṯāns Qāsim-i-ḥusain Sulṯān, Bī-khūb Sulṯān and Tāng-aītmīsh Sulṯān, together with Maḥmūd Khān Nūḥānī of Ghāzīpūr, Bābā Qashqa's Kūkī, Tūlmīsh Aūzbeg, Qurbān of Chīrkh, and the Daryā-khānīs led by Ḥasan Khān; another was of Mūsā Sl. (Farmūlī) and Sl. Junaid with what-not of the Jūnpūr army, some 20,000 men. Officers were appointed to oversee the getting of the force to horse that very night, that is to say, the [Sidenote: Fol. 371b.] night of Sunday.[2601]

(May 1st) The army began to cross Gang at the dawn of Sunday (Sha`bān 22nd); I went over by boat at the 1st watch (6a.m.). Zard-rūī and his party came in at mid-day; the ford itself they had not found but they brought news of boats and of having met on the road the army getting near them.[2602]

(May 3rd) On Tuesday (Sha`bān 24th) we marched from where the river had been crossed, went on for nearly one kuroh (2 m.) and dismounted on the fighting-ground at the confluence.[2603] I myself went to enjoy Ūstād `Alī-qulī's firing of culverin and firingī; he hit two boats today with firingī-stones, broke them and sank them. Muṣṯafa did the same from his side. I had the large mortar[2604] taken to the fighting-ground, left Mullā Ghulām to superintend the making of its position, appointed a body of vasāwals[2605] and active braves to help him, went to an island facing the camp and there ate ma`jūn.

Whilst still under the influence of the confection[2606] I had the boat taken to near the tents and there slept. A strange thing happened in the night, a noise and disturbance arising about the 3rd watch (midnight) and the pages and others snatching up pieces of wood from the boat, and shouting "Strike! strike!" [Sidenote: Fol. 372.] What was said to have led to the disturbance was that a night-guard who was in the Farmāīsh along-side the Asāīsh in which I was sleeping,[2607] opening his eyes from slumber, sees a man with his hand on the Asāīsh as if meaning to climb into her. They fall on him;[2608] he dives, comes up again, cuts at the night-guard's head, wounding it a little, then runs off at once towards the river.[2609] Once before, on the night we returned from Munīr, one or two night-guards had chased several Hindūstānīs from near the boats, and had brought in two swords and a dagger of theirs. The Most High had me in His Keeping!

(Persian) Were the sword of the world to leap forth, It would cut not a vein till God will.[2610]

(May 4th) At the dawn of Wednesday (25th), I went in the boat Gunjāīsh to near the stone-firing ground (tāsh-ātār-yīr) and there posted each soever to his work.

(bbb. Details of the engagement.)

Aūghān-bīrdī Mughūl, leading not less than 1,000 men, had been sent to get, in some way or other, across the river (Sarū) one, two, three kurohs (2, 4, 6m.) higher up. A mass of foot-soldiers, crossing from opposite `Askarī's camp,[2611] landed from 20-30 boats on his road, presumably thinking to show their superiority, but Aūghān-bīrdī and his men charged them, put them to flight, took a few and cut their heads off, shot many with arrows, and got possession of 7 or 8 boats. Today also Bengalīs crossed in a few boats to Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā's side, there landed and [Sidenote: Fol. 372b.] provoked to fight. When attacked they fled, and three boat-loads of them were drowned. One boat was captured and brought to me. In this affair Bābā the Brave went forward and exerted himself excellently.

Orders were given that in the darkness of night the boats Aūghān-bīrdī had captured should be drawn[2612] up-stream, and that in them there should cross Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā, Yakka Khwāja, Yūnas-i-`alī, Aūghān-bīrdī and those previously assigned to go with them.

Today came a man from `Askarī to say that he had crossed the [Sarū]-water, leaving none behind, and that he would come down on the enemy at next day's dawn, that is to say, on Thursday's. Here-upon those already ordered to cross over were told to join `Askarī and to advance upon the enemy with him.

At the Mid-day Prayer a person came from Ūstā, saying "The stone is ready; what is the order?" The order was, "Fire this stone off; keep the next till I come." Going at the Other Prayer in a very small Bengalī skiff to where shelter (muljār) had been raised, I saw Ūstā fire off one large stone and several small firingī ones. Bengalīs have a reputation for fire-working;[2613] we tested it now; they do not fire counting to hit a particular spot, but fire at random.

At this same Other Prayer orders were given to draw a few boats up-stream along the enemy's front. A few were got past without a "God forbid!"[2614] from those who, all unprotected, drew [Sidenote: Fol. 373.] them up. Aīsān-tīmūr Sl. and Tūkhta-būghā Sl. were ordered to stay at the place those boats reached, and to keep watch over them. I got back to camp in the 1st night-watch of Thursday.[2615]

Near midnight came news from (Aūghān-bīrdī's) boats which were being drawn up-stream, "The force appointed had gone somewhat ahead; we were following, drawing the boats, when the Bengalīs got to know where we were drawing them and attacked. A stone hit a boatman in the leg and broke it, we could not pass on."

(May 5th) At dawn on Thursday (Sha`bān 26th) came the news from those at the shelter, "All the boats have come from above.[2616] The enemy's horse has ridden to meet our approaching army." On this, I got our men mounted quickly and rode out to above those boats[2617] that had been drawn up in the night. A galloper was sent off with an order for Muḥammad Sl. M. and those appointed to cross with him, to do it at once and join `Askarī. The order for Aīsān-tīmūr Sl. and Tūkhta-būghā Sl. who were above these boats,[2618] was that they should busy themselves to cross. Bābā Sl. was not at his post.[2619]

Aīsān-tīmūr Sl. at once crosses, in one boat with 30-40 of his retainers who hold their horses by the mane at the boat-side. [Sidenote: Fol. 373b.] A second boat follows. The Bengalīs see them crossing and start off a mass of foot-soldiers for them. To meet these go 7 or 8 of Aīsān-tīmūr Sl.'s retainers, keeping together, shooting off arrows, drawing those foot-soldiers towards the Sulṯān who meantime is getting his men mounted; meantime also the second boat is moving (rawān). When his 30-35 horsemen charge those foot-soldiers, they put them well to flight. Aīsān-tīmūr did distinguished work, first in crossing before the rest, swift, steady, and without a "God forbid!", secondly in his excellent advance, with so few men, on such a mass of foot, and by putting these to flight. Tūkhta-būghā Sl. also crossed. Then boats followed one after another. Lāhorīs and Hindūstānīs began to cross from their usual posts[2620] by swimming or on bundles of reeds.[2621] Seeing how matters were going, the Bengalīs of the boats opposite the shelter (Muṣṯafa's), set their faces for flight down-stream.