Chapter XVI: Section I: Farghāna (5)

Acting on this decision, we rode out of Yār-yīlāq after the Mid-day Prayer, and on through the dark till mid-night when we reached Khān-yūrtī. Here we had word that the Samarkandīs knew of our coming; for this reason we went no nearer to the town but made straight back from Khān-yūrtī. It was dawn when, after crossing the Kohik-water below Rabāṯ-i-khwāja, we were once more in Yār-yīlāq.

One day in Fort Asfīdik a household party was sitting in my presence; Dost-i-nāṣir and Nuyān[543] _Kūkūldāsh_ and Khān-qulī-i-Karīm-dād and Shaikh Darwesh and Mīrīm-i-nāṣir were all there. Words were crossing from all sides when (I said), 'Come now! say when, if God bring it right, we shall take [Sidenote: Fol. 83b.] Samarkand.' Some said, 'We shall take it in the heats.' It was then late in autumn. Others said, 'In a month,' 'Forty days,' 'Twenty days.' Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_ said, 'We shall take it in 14.' God shewed him right! we did take it in exactly 14 days.

Just at that time I had a wonderful dream;—His Highness Khwāja `Ubaid'l-lāh (_Aḥrārī_) seemed to come; I seemed to go out to give him honourable meeting; he came in and seated himself; people seemed to lay a table-cloth before him, apparently without sufficient care and, on account of this, something seemed to come into his Highness Khwāja's mind. Mullā Bābā (? _Pashāgharī_) made me a sign; I signed back, 'Not through me! the table-layer is in fault!' The Khwāja understood and accepted the excuse.[544] When he rose, I escorted him out. In the hall of that house he took hold of either my right or left arm and lifted me up till one of my feet was off the ground, saying, in Turkī, 'Shaikh Maṣlaḥat has given (Samarkand).'[545] I really took Samarkand a few days later.

(_d. Bābur takes Samarkand by surprise._)

In two or three days move was made from Fort Asfīdik to Fort Wasmand. Although by our first approach, we had let [Sidenote: Fol. 84.] our plan be known, we put our trust in God and made another expedition to Samarkand. It was after the Mid-day Prayer that we rode out of Fort Wasmand, Khwāja Abū'l-makāram accompanying us. By mid-night we reached the Deep-fosse-bridge in the Avenue. From there we sent forward a detachment of 70 or 80 good men who were to set up ladders opposite the Lovers'-cave, mount them and get inside, stand up to those in the Turquoise Gate, get possession of it and send a man to me. Those braves went, set their ladders up opposite the Lovers'-cave, got in without making anyone aware, went to the Gate, attacked Fāẓil Tarkhān, chopped at him and his few retainers, killed them, broke the lock with an axe and opened the Gate. At that moment I came up and went in.

(_Author's note on Fāẓil Tarkhān._) He was not one of those
(Samarkand) Tarkhāns; he was a merchant-tarkhān of Turkistān.
He had served Shaibānī Khān in Turkistān and had found favour
with him.[546]

Abū'l-qāsim _Kohbur_ himself had not come with us but had sent 30 or 40 of his retainers under his younger brother, Aḥmad-i-qāsim. No man of Ibrāhīm Tarkhān's was with us; his younger brother, Aḥmad Tarkhān came with a few retainers after I had entered the town and taken post in the Monastery. [Sidenote: Fol. 84b.]

The towns-people were still slumbering; a few traders peeped out of their shops, recognized me and put up prayers. When, a little later, the news spread through the town, there was rare delight and satisfaction for our men and the towns-folk. They killed the Aūzbegs in the lanes and gullies with clubs and stones like mad dogs; four or five hundred were killed in this fashion. Jān-wafā, the then governor, was living in Khwāja Yaḥya's house; he fled and got away to Shaibāq Khān.[547]

On entering the Turquoise Gate I went straight to the College and took post over the arch of the Monastery. There was a hubbub and shouting of 'Down! down!' till day-break. Some of the notables and traders, hearing what was happening, came joyfully to see me, bringing what food was ready and putting up prayers for me. At day-light we had news that the Aūzbegs were fighting in the Iron Gate where they had made themselves fast between the (outer and inner) doors. With 10, 15 or 20 men, I at once set off for the Gate but before I came up, the town-rabble, busy ransacking every corner of the newly-taken town for loot, had driven the Aūzbegs out through [Sidenote: Fol. 85.] it. Shaibāq Khān, on hearing what was happening, hurried at sun-rise to the Iron Gate with 100 or 140 men. His coming was a wonderful chance but, as has been said, my men were very few. Seeing that he could do nothing, he rode off at once. From the Iron Gate I went to the citadel and there dismounted, at the Bū-stān palace. Men of rank and consequence and various head-men came to me there, saw me and invoked blessings on me.

Samarkand for nearly 140 years had been the capital of our dynasty. An alien, and of what stamp! an Aūzbeg foe, had taken possession of it! It had slipped from our hands; God gave it again! plundered and ravaged, our own returned to us.

Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took Harāt[548] as we took Samarkand, by surprise, but to the experienced, and discerning, and just, it will be clear that between his affair and mine there are distinctions and differences, and that his capture and mine are things apart.

Firstly there is this;—He had ruled many years, passed through much experience and seen many affairs.

Secondly;—He had for opponent, Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā, [Sidenote: Fol. 85b.] an inexperienced boy of 17 or 18.

Thirdly;—(Yādgār Mīrzā's) Head-equerry, Mīr `Alī, a person well-acquainted with the particulars of the whole position, sent a man out from amongst Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's opponents to bring him to surprise them.

Fourthly;—His opponent was not in the fort but was in the Ravens'-garden. Moreover Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā and his followers are said to have been so prostrate with drink that three men only were in the Gate, they also drunk.

Fifthly;—he surprised and captured Harāt the first time he approached it.

On the other hand: firstly;—I was 19 when I took Samarkand.

Secondly;—I had as my opponent, such a man as Shaibāq Khān, of mature age and an eye-witness of many affairs.

Thirdly;—No-one came out of Samarkand to me; though the heart of its people was towards me, no-one could dream of coming, from dread of Shaibāq Khān.

Fourthly;—My foe was in the fort; not only was the fort taken but he was driven off.

Fifthly;—I had come once already; my opponent was on his guard about me. The second time we came, God brought it right! Samarkand was won.

In saying these things there is no desire to be-little the reputation of any man; the facts were as here stated. In [Sidenote: Fol. 86.] writing these things, there is no desire to magnify myself; the truth is set down.

The poets composed chronograms on the victory; this one remains in my memory;—Wisdom answered, 'Know that its date is the _Victory_ (_Fatḥ_) _of Bābur Bahādur_.'

Samarkand being taken, Shavdār and Soghd and the _tūmāns_ and nearer forts began, one after another, to return to us. From some their Aūzbeg commandants fled in fear and escaped; from others the inhabitants drove them and came in to us; in some they made them prisoner, and held the forts for us.

Just then the wives and families of Shaibāq Khān and his Aūzbegs arrived from Turkistān;[549] he was lying near Khwāja Dīdār and `Alī-ābād but when he saw the forts and people returning to me, marched off towards Bukhārā. By God's grace, all the forts of Soghd and Miyān-kāl returned to me within three or four months. Over and above this, Bāqī Tarkhān seized this opportunity to occupy Qarshī; Khuzār and Qarshī (? Kesh) both went out of Aūzbeg hands; Qarā-kūl [Sidenote: Fol. 86b.] also was taken from them by people of Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā (_Bāī-qarā_), coming up from Merv. My affairs were in a very good way.

(_e. Birth of Bābur's first child._)

After our departure (last year) from Andijān, my mothers and my wife and relations came, with a hundred difficulties and hardships, to Aūrātīpā. We now sent for them to Samarkand. Within a few days after their arrival, a daughter was born to me by `Āyisha-sulṯān Begīm, my first wife, the daughter of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā. They named the child Fakhru'n-nisā' (Ornament of women); she was my first-born, I was 19. In a month or 40 days, she went to God's mercy.

(_f. Bābur in Samarkand._)

On taking Samarkand, envoys and summoners were sent off at once, and sent again and again, with reiterated request for aid and reinforcement, to the khāns and sulṯāns and begs and marchers on every side. Some, though experienced men, made foolish refusal; others whose relations towards our family had been discourteous and unpleasant, were afraid for themselves and took no notice; others again, though they sent help, sent it insufficient. Each such case will be duly mentioned.

When Samarkand was taken the second time, `Alī-sher Beg [Sidenote: Fol. 87.] was alive. We exchanged letters once; on the back of mine to him I wrote one of my Turkī couplets. Before his reply reached me, separations (_tafarqa_) and disturbances (_ghūghā_) had happened.[550] Mullā Binā'ī had been taken into Shaibāq Khān's service when the latter took possession of Samarkand; he stayed with him until a few days after I took the place, when he came into the town to me. Qāsim Beg had his suspicions about him and consequently dismissed him towards Shahr-i-sabz but, as he was a man of parts, and as no fault of his came to light, I had him fetched back. He constantly presented me with odes (_qaṣīda u ghazal_). He brought me a song in the Nawā mode composed to my name and at the same time the following quatrain;—[551]

No grain (_ghala_) have I by which I can be fed (_noshīd_);
No rhyme of grain (_mallah_, nankeen) wherewith I can be
clad (_poshīd_);
The man who lacks both food and clothes,
In art or science where can he compete (_koshīd_)?

In those days of respite, I had written one or two couplets but had not completed an ode. As an answer to Mullā Binā'ī I made up and set this poor little Turkī quatrain;—[552]

As is the wish of your heart, so shall it be (_būlghūsīdūr_);
For gift and stipend both an order shall be made (_buyurūlghūsīdūr_);
I know the grain and its rhyme you write of;
The garments, you, your house, the corn shall fill (_tūlghūsīdūr_).

The Mullā in return wrote and presented a quatrain to me in [Sidenote: Fol. 87b.] which for his refrain, he took a rhyme to (the _tūlghūsīdūr_ of) my last line and chose another rhyme;—

Mīrzā-of-mine, the Lord of sea and land shall be (_yīr būlghūsīdūr_);
His art and skill, world o'er, the evening tale shall be
(_samar būlghūsīdūr_);
If gifts like these reward one rhyming (_or_ pointless) word;
For words of sense, what guerdon will there be (_nilār būlghūsīdūr_)?

Abū'l-barka, known as _Farāqi_ (Parted), who just then had come to Samarkand from Shahr-i-sabz, said Binā'ī ought to have rhymed. He made this verse;—

Into Time's wrong to you quest shall be made (_sūrūlghūsīdūr_);
Your wish the Sulṯān's grace from Time shall ask (_qūlghūsīdūr_);
O Ganymede! our cups, ne'er filled as yet,
In this new Age, brimmed-up, filled full shall be (_tūlghūsīdūr_).

Though this winter our affairs were in a very good way and Shaibāq Khān's were on the wane, one or two occurrences were somewhat of a disservice; (1) the Merv men who had taken Qarā-kūl, could not be persuaded to stay there and it went back into the hands of the Aūzbegs; (2) Shaibāq Khān besieged Ibrāhīm Tarkhān's younger brother, Aḥmad in Dabūsī, stormed the place and made a general massacre of its inhabitants before the army we were collecting was ready to march.

With 240 proved men I had taken Samarkand; in the next [Sidenote: Fol. 88.] five or six months, things so fell out by the favour of the Most High God, that, as will be told, we fought the arrayed battle of Sar-i-pul with a man like Shaibāq Khān. The help those round-about gave us was as follows;—From The Khān had come, with 4 or 5000 Bārīns, Ayūb _Begchīk_ and Qashka Maḥmūd; from Jahāngīr Mīrzā had come Khalīl, Taṃbal's younger brother, with 100 or 200 men; not a man had come from Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, that experienced ruler, than whom none knew better the deeds and dealings of Shaibāq Khān; none came from Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā; none from Khusrau Shāh because he, the author of what evil done,—as has been told,—to our dynasty! feared us more than he feared Shaibāq Khān.

(_g. Bābur defeated at Sar-i-pul._)

I marched out of Samarkand, with the wish of fighting Shaibāq Khān, in the month of Shawwāl[553] and went to the New-garden where we lay four or five days for the convenience of gathering our men and completing our equipment. We took the precaution of fortifying our camp with ditch and branch. From the New-garden we advanced, march by march, to beyond Sar-i-pul (Bridge-head) and there dismounted. [Sidenote: Fol. 88b.] Shaibāq Khān came from the opposite direction and dismounted at Khwāja Kārdzan, perhaps one _yīghāch_ away (? 5 m.). We lay there for four or five days. Every day our people went from our side and his came from theirs and fell on one another. One day when they were in unusual force, there was much fighting but neither side had the advantage. Out of that engagement one of our men went rather hastily back into the entrenchments; he was using a standard; some said it was Sayyidī Qarā Beg's standard who really was a man of strong words but weak sword. Shaibāq Khān made one night-attack on us but could do nothing because the camp was protected by ditch and close-set branches. His men raised their war-cry, rained in arrows from outside the ditch and then retired.

In the work for the coming battle I exerted myself greatly and took all precautions; Qaṃbar-`alī also did much. In Kesh lay Bāqī Tarkhān with 1000 to 2000 men, in a position to join us after a couple of days. In Diyūl, 4 _yīghāch_ off (? 20 m.), lay Sayyid Muḥ. Mīrzā _Dūghlāt_, bringing me 1000 to 2000 men from my Khān dādā; he would have joined me at [Sidenote: Fol. 89.] dawn. With matters in this position, we hurried on the fight!

Who lays with haste his hand on the sword,
Shall lift to his teeth the back-hand of regret.[554]

The reason I was so eager to engage was that on the day of battle, the Eight stars[555] were between the two armies; they would have been in the enemy's rear for 13 or 14 days if the fight had been deferred. I now understand that these considerations are worth nothing and that our haste was without reason.

As we wished to fight, we marched from our camp at dawn, we in our mail, our horses in theirs, formed up in array of right and left, centre and van. Our right was Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, Ibrāhīm Jānī, Abū'l-qāsim _Kohbur_ and other begs. Our left was Muḥ. Mazīd Tarkhān, Ibrāhīm Tarkhān and other Samarkandī begs, also Sl. Ḥusain _Arghūn_, Qarā (Black) _Barlās_, Pīr Aḥmad and Khwāja Ḥusain. Qāsim Beg was (with me) in the centre and also several of my close circle and household. In the van were inscribed Qaṃbar-`alī the Skinner, Banda-`alī, Khwāja `Alī, Mīr Shāh _Qūchīn_, Sayyid Qāsim, Lord of the Gate,—Banda-`alī's younger brother Khaldar (mole-marked) and Ḥaidar-i-qāsim's son Qūch, together with all the good braves there were, and the rest of the household.

Thus arrayed, we marched from our camp; the enemy, also in array, marched out from his. His right was Maḥmūd and Jānī and Tīmūr Sulṯāns; his left, Ḥamza and Mahdī and some [Sidenote: Fol. 89b.] other sulṯāns. When our two armies approached one another, he wheeled his right towards our rear. To meet this, I turned; this left our van,—in which had been inscribed what not of our best braves and tried swordsmen!—to our right and bared our front (_i.e._ the front of the centre). None-the-less we fought those who made the front-attack on us, turned them and forced them back on their own centre. So far did we carry it that some of Shaibāq Khān's old chiefs said to him, 'We must move off! It is past a stand.' He however held fast. His right beat our left, then wheeled (again) to our rear.

(As has been said), the front of our centre was bare through our van's being left to the right. The enemy attacked us front and rear, raining in arrows on us. (Ayūb _Begchīk's_) Mughūl army, come for our help! was of no use in fighting; it set to work forthwith to unhorse and plunder our men. Not this [Sidenote: Fol. 90.] once only! This is always the way with those ill-omened Mughūls! If they win, they grab at booty; if they lose, they unhorse and pilfer their own side! We drove back the Aūzbegs who attacked our front by several vigorous assaults, but those who had wheeled to our rear came up and rained arrows on our standard. Falling on us in this way, from the front and from the rear, they made our men hurry off.

This same turning-movement is one of the great merits of Aūzbeg fighting; no battle of theirs is ever without it. Another merit of theirs is that they all, begs and retainers, from their front to their rear, ride, loose-rein at the gallop, shouting as they come and, in retiring, do not scatter but ride off, at the gallop, in a body.

Ten or fifteen men were left with me. The Kohik-water was close by,—the point of our right had rested on it. We made straight for it. It was the season when it comes down in flood. We rode right into it, man and horse in mail. It was just fordable for half-way over; after that it had to be swum. For more than an arrow's flight[556] we, man and mount in mail! made our horses swim and so got across. Once out of the water, we cut off the horse-armour and let it lie. By thus [Sidenote: Fol. 90b.] passing to the north bank of the river, we were free of our foes, but at once Mughūl wretches were the captors and pillagers of one after another of my friends. Ibrāhīm Tarkhān and some others, excellent braves all, were unhorsed and killed by Mughūls.[557] We moved along the north bank of the Kohik-river, recrossed it near Qulba, entered the town by the Shaikh-zāda's Gate and reached the citadel in the middle of the afternoon.

Begs of our greatest, braves of our best and many men perished in that fight. There died Ibrāhīm Tarkhān, Ibrāhīm _Sārū_ and Ibrāhīm Jānī; oddly enough three great begs named Ibrāhīm perished. There died also Ḥaidar-i-qāsim's eldest son, Abū'l-qāsim _Kohbur_, and Khudāī-bīrdī _Tūghchī_ and Khalīl, Taṃbal's younger brother, spoken of already several times. Many of our men fled in different directions; Muḥ. Mazīd Tarkhān went towards Qūndūz and Ḥiṣār for Khusrau Shāh. [Sidenote: Fol. 91.] Some of the household and of the braves, such as Karīm-dad-i-Khudāī-bīrdī _Turkmān_ and Jānaka _Kūkūldāsh_ and Mullā Bābā of Pashāghar got away to Aūrā-tīpā. Mullā Bābā at that time was not in my service but had gone out with me in a guest's fashion. Others again, did what Sherīm T̤aghāī and his band did;—though he had come back with me into the town and though when consultation was had, he had agreed with the rest to make the fort fast, looking for life or death within it, yet spite of this, and although my mothers and sisters, elder and younger, stayed on in Samarkand, he sent off their wives and families to Aūrā-tīpā and remained himself with just a few men, all unencumbered. Not this once only! Whenever hard work had to be done, low and double-minded action was the thing to expect from him!

(_h. Bābur besieged in Samarkand._)

Next day, I summoned Khwāja Abū'l-makāram, Qāsim and the other begs, the household and such of the braves as were admitted to our counsels, when after consultation, we resolved to make the fort fast and to look for life or death within it. I and Qāsim Beg with my close circle and household were the reserve. For convenience in this I took up quarters in the middle of the town, in tents pitched on the roof of Aūlūgh Beg [Sidenote: Fol. 91b.] Mīrzā's College. To other begs and braves posts were assigned in the Gates or on the ramparts of the walled-town.

Two or three days later, Shaibāq Khān dismounted at some distance from the fort. On this, the town-rabble came out of lanes and wards, in crowds, to the College gate, shouted good wishes for me and went out to fight in mob-fashion. Shaibāq Khān had got to horse but could not so much as approach the town. Several days went by in this fashion. The mob and rabble, knowing nothing of sword and arrow-wounds, never witnesses of the press and carnage of a stricken field, through these incidents, became bold and began to sally further and further out. If warned by the braves against going out so incautiously, they broke into reproach.

One day when Shaibāq Khān had directed his attack towards the Iron Gate, the mob, grown bold, went out, as usual, daringly and far. To cover their retreat, we sent several braves towards the Camel's-neck,[558] foster-brethren and some of the close household-circle, such as Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_, Qul-naẕar (son of Sherīm?) T̤aghāī Beg, and Mazīd. An Aūzbeg or two [Sidenote: Fol. 92.] put their horses at them and with Qul-naẕar swords were crossed. The rest of the Aūzbegs dismounted and brought their strength to bear on the rabble, hustled them off and rammed them in through the Iron Gate. Qūch Beg and Mīr Shāh _Qūchīn_ had dismounted at the side of Khwāja Khiẓr's Mosque and were making a stand there. While the townsmen were being moved off by those on foot, a party of mounted Aūzbegs rode towards the Mosque. Qūch Beg came out when they drew near and exchanged good blows with them. He did distinguished work; all stood to watch. Our fugitives below were occupied only with their own escape; for them the time to shoot arrows and make a stand had gone by. I was shooting with a slur-bow[559] from above the Gate and some of my circle were shooting arrows (_aūq_). Our attack from above kept the enemy from advancing beyond the Mosque; from there he retired.

During the siege, the round of the ramparts was made each night; sometimes I went, sometimes Qāsim Beg, sometimes one of the household Begs. Though from the Turquoise to the Shaikh-zāda's Gate may be ridden, the rest of the way must be [Sidenote: Fol. 92b.] walked. When some men went the whole round on foot, it was dawn before they had finished.[560]

One day Shaibāq Khān attacked between the Iron Gate and the Shaikh-zāda's. I, as the reserve, went to the spot, without anxiety about the Bleaching-ground and Needle-makers' Gates. That day, (?) in a shooting wager (_aūq aūchīdā_), I made a good shot with a slur-bow, at a Centurion's horse.[561] It died at once (_aūq bārdī_) with the arrow (_aūq bīla_). They made such a vigorous attack this time that they got close under the ramparts. Busy with the fighting and the stress near the Iron Gate, we were entirely off our guard about the other side of the town. There, opposite the space between the Needle-makers' and Bleaching-ground Gates, the enemy had posted 7 or 800 good men in ambush, having with them 24 or 25 ladders so wide that two or three could mount abreast. These men came from their ambush when the attack near the Iron Gate, by occupying all our men, had left those other posts empty, and quickly set up their ladders between the two Gates, [Sidenote: Fol. 93.] just where a road leads from the ramparts to Muḥ. Mazīd Tarkhān's houses. That post was Qūch Beg's and Muḥammad-qulī _Qūchīn's_, with their detachment of braves, and they had their quarters in Muḥ. Mazīd's houses. In the Needle-makers' Gate was posted Qarā (Black) _Barlās_, in the Bleaching-ground Gate, Qūtlūq Khwāja _Kūkūldāsh_ with Sherīm T̤aghāī and his brethren, older and younger. As attack was being made on the other side of the town, the men attached to these posts were not on guard but had scattered to their quarters or to the bazar for necessary matters of service and servants' work. Only the begs were at their posts, with one or two of the populace. Qūch Beg and Mūhammad-qulī and Shāh Ṣufī and one other brave did very well and boldly. Some Aūzbegs were on the ramparts, some were coming up, when these four men arrived at a run, dealt them blow upon blow, and, by energetic drubbing, forced them all down and put them to flight. Qūch Beg did best; this was his out-standing and approved good deed; twice during this siege he got his hand into the work. Qarā _Barlās_ had been left alone in the Needle-makers' Gate; he also held out well to the end. Qūtlūq Khwāja and Qul-naẕar Mīrzā were also at their posts in the Bleaching-ground Gate; they held out well too, and charged the foe in his rear.

Another time Qāsim Beg led his braves out through the [Sidenote: Fol. 93b.] Needle-makers' Gate, pursued the Aūzbegs as far as Khwāja Kafsher, unhorsed some and returned with a few heads.

It was now the time of ripening rain but no-one brought new corn into the town. The long siege caused great privation to the towns-people;[562] it went so far that the poor and destitute began to eat the flesh of dogs and asses and, as there was little grain for the horses, people fed them on leaves. Experience shewed that the leaves best suiting were those of the mulberry and elm (_qarā-yīghāch_). Some people scraped dry wood and gave the shavings, damped, to their horses.

For three or four months Shaibāq Khān did not come near the fort but had it invested at some distance and himself moved round it from post to post. Once when our men were off their guard, at mid-night, the enemy came near to the Turquoise [Sidenote: Fol. 94.] Gate, beat his drums and flung his war-cry out. I was in the College, undressed. There was great trepidation and anxiety. After that they came night after night, disturbing us by drumming and shouting their war-cry.

Although envoys and messengers had been sent repeatedly to all sides and quarters, no help and reinforcement arrived from any-one. No-one had helped or reinforced me when I was in strength and power and had suffered no sort of defeat or loss; on what score would any-one help me now? No hope in any-one whatever recommended us to prolong the siege. The old saying was that to hold a fort there must be a head, two hands and two legs, that is to say, the Commandant is the head; help and reinforcement coming from two quarters are the two arms and the food and water in the fort are the two legs. While we looked for help from those round about, their thoughts were elsewhere. That brave and experienced ruler, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, gave us not even the help of an encouraging message, but none-the-less he sent Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain _Gāzur-gāhī_[563] as an envoy to Shaibāq Khān.

(_i. Taṃbal's proceedings in Farghāna._)[564]

(This year) Taṃbal marched from Andijān to near Bīsh-kīnt.[565] Aḥmad Beg and his party, thereupon, made The Khān move out against him. The two armies came face to face near [Sidenote: Fol. 94b.] Lak-lakān and the Tūrāk Four-gardens but separated without engaging. Sl. Maḥmūd was not a fighting man; now when opposed to Taṃbal, he shewed want of courage in word and deed. Aḥmad Beg was unpolished[566] but brave and well-meaning. In his very rough way, he said, 'What's the measure of this person, Taṃbal? that you are so tormented with fear and fright about him. If you are afraid to look at him, bandage your eyes before you go out to face him.'

907 AH.—JULY 17TH. 1501 TO JULY 7TH. 1502 AD.[567]

(_a. Surrender of Samarkand to Shaibānī._)

The siege drew on to great length; no provisions and supplies came in from any quarter, no succour and reinforcement from any side. The soldiers and peasantry became hopeless and, by ones and twos, began to let themselves down outside[568] the walls and flee. On Shaibāq Khān's hearing of the distress in the town, he came and dismounted near the Lovers'-cave. I, in turn, went to Malik-muḥammad Mīrzā's dwellings in Low-lane, over against him. On one of those days, Khwāja Ḥusain's brother, Aūzūn Ḥasan[569] came into the town with 10 or 15 of his men,—he who, as has been told, had been the cause of Jahāngīr Mīrzā's rebellion, of my exodus from Samarkand (903 AH.—March 1498 AD.) and, again! of what an amount of sedition and [Sidenote: Fol. 95.] disloyalty! That entry of his was a very bold act.[570]

The soldiery and townspeople became more and more distressed. Trusted men of my close circle began to let themselves down from the ramparts and get away; begs of known name and old family servants were amongst them, such as Pīr Wais, Shaikh Wais and Wais _Lāgharī_.[571] Of help from any side we utterly despaired; no hope was left in any quarter; our supplies and provisions were wretched, what there was was coming to an end; no more came in. Meantime Shaibāq Khān interjected talk of peace.[572] Little ear would have been given to his talk of peace, if there had been hope or food from any side. It had to be! a sort of peace was made and we took our departure from the town, by the Shaikh-zāda's Gate, somewhere about midnight.

(_b. Bābur leaves Samarkand._)

I took my mother Khānīm out with me; two other women-folk went too, one was Bīshka (var. Peshka)-i-Khalīfa, the other, Mīnglīk _Kūkūldāsh_.[573] At this exodus, my elder sister, Khān-zāda Begīm fell into Shaibāq Khān's hands.[574] In the darkness of that night we lost our way[575] and wandered about amongst the main irrigation channels of Soghd. At shoot of dawn, after a hundred difficulties, we got past Khwāja Dīdār. At the Sunnat Prayer we scrambled up the rising-ground of Qarā-būgh. [Sidenote: Fol. 95b.] From the north slope of Qarā-būgh we hurried on past the foot of Judūk village and dropped down into Yīlān-aūtī. On the road I raced with Qāsim Beg and Qaṃbar-`alī (the Skinner); my horse was leading when I, thinking to look at theirs behind, twisted myself round; the girth may have slackened, for my saddle turned and I was thrown on my head to the ground. Although I at once got up and remounted, my brain did not steady till the evening; till then this world and what went on appeared to me like things felt and seen in a dream or fancy. Towards afternoon we dismounted in Yīlān-aūtī, there killed a horse, spitted and roasted its flesh, rested our horses awhile and rode on. Very weary, we reached Khalīla-village before the dawn and dismounted. From there it was gone on to Dīzak.

In Dīzak just then was Ḥāfiẓ Muḥ. _Dūldāī's_ son, T̤āhir. There, in Dīzak, were fat meats, loaves of fine flour, plenty of sweet melons and abundance of excellent grapes. From what privation we came to such plenty! From what stress to what repose!

From fear and hunger rest we won (_amānī tāptūq_);
A fresh world's new-born life we won (_jahānī tāptūq_).
From out our minds, death's dread was chased [Sidenote: Fol. 96.]
(_rafa` būldī_);
From our men the hunger-pang kept back (_dafa` būldī_).[576]

Never in all our lives had we felt such relief! never in the whole course of them have we appreciated security and plenty so highly. Joy is best and more delightful when it follows sorrow, ease after toil. I have been transported four or five times from toil to rest and from hardship to ease.[577] This was the first. We were set free from the affliction of such a foe and from the pangs of hunger and had reached the repose of security and the relief of abundance.

(_c. Bābur in Dikh-kat._)

After three or four days of rest in Dīzak, we set out for Aūrā-tīpā. Pashāghar is a little[578] off the road but, as we had occupied it for some time (904 AH.), we made an excursion to it in passing by. In Pashāghar we chanced on one of Khānīm's old servants, a teacher[579] who had been left behind in Samarkand from want of a mount. We saw one another and on questioning her, I found she had come there on foot.

Khūb-nigār Khānīm, my mother Khānīm's younger sister[580] already must have bidden this transitory world farewell; for they let Khānīm and me know of it in Aūrā-tīpā. My father's mother also must have died in Andijān; this too they let us [Sidenote: Fol. 96b.] know in Aūrā-tīpā.[581] Since the death of my grandfather, Yūnas Khān (892 AH.), Khānīm had not seen her (step-)mother or her younger brother and sisters, that is to say, Shāh Begīm, Sl. Maḥmūd Khān, Sulṯān-nīgār Khānīm and Daulat-sulṯān Khānīm. The separation had lasted 13 or 14 years. To see these relations she now started for Tāshkīnt.

After consulting with Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā, it was settled for us to winter in a place called Dikh-kat[582] one of the Aūrā-tīpā villages. There I deposited my impedimenta (_aūrūq_); then set out myself in order to visit Shāh Begīm and my Khān dādā and various relatives. I spent a few days in Tāshkīnt and waited on Shāh Begīm and my Khān dādā. My mother's elder full-sister, Mihr-nigār Khānīm[583] had come from Samarkand and was in Tāshkīnt. There my mother Khānīm fell very ill; it was a very bad illness; she passed through mighty risks.

His Highness Khwājaka Khwāja, having managed to get out of Samarkand, had settled down in Far-kat; there I visited him. I had hoped my Khān dādā would shew me affection and kindness and would give me a country or a district (_pargana_). He did promise me Aūrā-tīpā but Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā. did not make it over, whether acting on his own account [Sidenote: Fol. 97.] or whether upon a hint from above, is not known. After spending a few days with him (in Aūrā-tīpā), I went on to Dikh-kat.

Dikh-kat is in the Aūrā-tīpā hill-tracts, below the range on the other side of which is the Macha[584] country. Its people, though Sārt, settled in a village, are, like Turks, herdsmen and shepherds. Their sheep are reckoned at 40,000. We dismounted at the houses of the peasants in the village; I stayed in a head-man's house. He was old, 70 or 80, but his mother was still alive. She was a woman on whom much life had been bestowed for she was 111 years old. Some relation of hers may have gone, (as was said), with Tīmūr Beg's army to Hindūstān;[585] she had this in her mind and used to tell the tale. In Dikh-kat alone were 96 of her descendants, hers and her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and grandchildren's grandchildren. Counting in the dead, 200 of her descendants were reckoned up. Her grandchild's grandson was a strong young man of 25 or 26, with full black beard. While in Dikh-kat, I constantly made excursions amongst the mountains round [Sidenote: Fol. 97b.] about. Generally I went bare-foot and, from doing this so much, my feet became so that rock and stone made no difference to them.[586] Once in one of these wanderings, a cow was seen, between the Afternoon and Evening prayers, going down by a narrow, ill-defined road. Said I, 'I wonder which way that road will be going; keep your eye on that cow; don't lose the cow till you know where the road comes out.' Khwāja Asadu'l-lāh made his joke, 'If the cow loses her way,' he said, 'what becomes of us?'

In the winter several of our soldiers asked for leave to Andijān because they could make no raids with us.[587] Qāsim Beg said, with much insistance, 'As these men are going, send something special of your own wear by them to Jahāngīr Mīrzā.' I sent my ermine cap. Again he urged, 'What harm would there be if you sent something for Taṃbal also?' Though I was very unwilling, yet as he urged it, I sent Taṃbal a large broad-sword which Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_ had had made for himself in Samarkand. This very sword it was which, as will be told with the events of next year, came down on my own head![588]

A few days later, my grandmother, Aīsān-daulat Begīm, who, when I left Samarkand, had stayed behind, arrived in Dikh-kat [Sidenote: Fol. 98.] with our families and baggage (_aūrūq_) and a few lean and hungry followers.

(_d. Shaibāq Khān raids in The Khān's country._)

That winter Shaibāq Khān crossed the Khujand river on the ice and plundered near Shāhrukhiya and Bīsh-kīnt. On hearing news of this, we gallopped off, not regarding the smallness of our numbers, and made for the villages below Khujand, opposite Hasht-yak (One-eighth). The cold was mightily bitter,[589] a wind not less than the Hā-darwesh[590] raging violently the whole time. So cold it was that during the two or three days we were in those parts, several men died of it. When, needing to make ablution, I went into an irrigation-channel, frozen along both banks but because of its swift current, not ice-bound in the middle, and bathed, dipping under 16 times, the cold of the water went quite through me. Next day we crossed the river on the ice from opposite Khaṣlār and went on through the dark to Bīsh-kīnt.[591] Shaibāq Khān, however, must have gone straight back after plundering the neighbourhood of Shāhrukhiya.

(_e. Death of Nuyān Kūkūldāsh._)

Bīsh-kīnt, at that time, was held by Mullā Ḥaidar's son, `Abdu'l-minān. A younger son, named Mūmin, a worthless and dissipated person, had come to my presence in Samarkand and had received all kindness from me. This sodomite, Mūmin, for what sort of quarrel between them is not known, cherished [Sidenote: Fol. 98b.] rancour against Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_. At the time when we, having heard of the retirement of the Aūzbegs, sent a man to The Khān and marched from Bīsh-kīnt to spend two or three days amongst the villages in the Blacksmith's-dale,[592] Mullā Ḥaidar's son, Mūmin invited Nuyān _Kūkūldāsh_ and Aḥmad-i-qāsim and some others in order to return them hospitality received in Samarkand. When I left Bīsh-kīnt, therefore they stayed behind. Mūmin's entertainment to this party was given on the edge of a ravine (_jar_). Next day news was brought to us in Sām-sīrak, a village in the Blacksmith's-dale, that Nuyān was dead through falling when drunk into the ravine. We sent his own mother's brother, Ḥaq-naẕar and others, who searched out where he had fallen. They committed Nuyān to the earth in Bīsh-kīnt, and came back to me. They had found the body at the bottom of the ravine an arrow's flight from the place of the entertainment. Some suspected that Mūmin, nursing his trumpery rancour, had taken Nuyān's life. None knew the truth. His death made me strangely sad; for few men have I felt such grief; I wept unceasingly for a week or [Sidenote: Fol. 99.] ten days. The chronogram of his death was found in _Nuyān is dead_.[593]

With the heats came the news that Shaibāq Khān was coming up into Aūrā-tīpā. Hereupon, as the land is level about Dikh-kat, we crossed the Āb-burdan pass into the Macha hill-country.[594] Āb-burdan is the last village of Macha; just below it a spring sends its water down (to the Zar-afshān); above the stream is included in Macha, below it depends on Palghar. There is a tomb at the spring-head. I had a rock at the side of the spring-head shaped (_qātīrīb_) and these three couplets inscribed on it;—

I have heard that Jamshīd, the magnificent,
Inscribed on a rock at a fountain-head[595]
'Many men like us have taken breath at this fountain,
And have passed away in the twinkling of an eye;
We took the world by courage and might,
But we took it not with us to the tomb.'

There is a custom in that hill-country of cutting verses and things[596] on the rocks.

While we were in Macha, Mullā Hijrī,[597] the poet, came from Ḥiṣār and waited on me. At that time I composed the following opening lines;—

Let your portrait flatter you never so much, than it you are more
(_āndīn artūqsīn_);
Men call you their Life (_Jān_), than Life, without doubt, you are
more (_jāndīn artūqsīn_).[598]

After plundering round about in Aūrā-tīpā, Shaibāq Khān retired.[599] While he was up there, we, disregarding the fewness [Sidenote: Fol. 99b.] of our men and their lack of arms, left our impedimenta (_aūrūq_) in Macha, crossed the Āb-burdan pass and went to Dikh-kat so that, gathered together close at hand, we might miss no chance on one of the next nights. He, however, retired straightway; we went back to Macha.

It passed through my mind that to wander from mountain to mountain, homeless and houseless, without country or abiding-place, had nothing to recommend it. 'Go you right off to The Khān,' I said to myself. Qāsim Beg was not willing for this move, apparently being uneasy because, as has been told, he had put Mughūls to death at Qarā-būlāq, by way of example. However much we urged it, it was not to be! He drew off for Ḥiṣār with all his brothers and his whole following. We for our part, crossed the Āb-burdan pass and set forward for The Khān's presence in Tāshkīnt.

(_f. Bābur with The Khān._)

In the days when Taṃbal had drawn his army out and gone into the Blacksmith's-dale,[600] men at the top of his army, such as Muḥ. _Dūghlāt_, known as _Ḥiṣārī_, and his younger brother Ḥusain, and also Qaṃbar-`alī, the Skinner, conspired to attempt his life. When he discovered this weighty matter, they, unable to remain with him, had gone to The Khān.

The Feast of Sacrifices (`Īd-i-qurbān) fell for us in Shāh-rukhiya (Ẕū'l-ḥijja 10th.-June 16th. 1502).

I had written a quatrain in an ordinary measure but was in some doubt about it, because at that time I had not studied [Sidenote: Fol. 100.] poetic idiom so much as I have now done. The Khān was good-natured and also he wrote verses, though ones somewhat deficient in the requisites for odes. I presented my quatrain and I laid my doubts before him but got no reply so clear as to remove them. His study of poetic idiom appeared to have been somewhat scant. Here is the verse;—

One hears no man recall another in trouble (_miḥnat-ta kīshī_);
None speak of a man as glad in his exile (_ghurbat-ta kīshī_);
My own heart has no joy in this exile;
Called glad is no exile, man though he be (_albatta kīshī_).

Later on I came to know that in Turkī verse, for the purpose of rhyme, _ta_ and _da_ are interchangeable and also _ghain_, _qāf_ and _kāf_.[601]

(_g. The acclaiming of the standards._)

When, a few days later, The Khān heard that Taṃbal had gone up into Aūrā-tīpā, he got his army to horse and rode out from Tāshkīnt. Between Bīsh-kīnt and Sām-sīrak he formed up into array of right and left and saw the count[602] of his men. This done, the standards were acclaimed in Mughūl fashion.[603] The Khān dismounted and nine standards were set up in front of him. A Mughūl tied a long strip of white cloth to the thigh-bone (_aūrta aīlīk_) of a cow and took the other end in his hand. Three other long strips of white cloth were tied to the staves of three of the (nine) standards, just below the yak-tails, and their other ends were brought for The Khān to stand on one and for me and Sl. Muḥ. Khānika to stand each on one of the two others. The Mughūl who had hold of the strip of cloth [Sidenote: Fol. 100b.] fastened to the cow's leg, then said something in Mughūl while he looked at the standards and made signs towards them. The Khān and those present sprinkled _qumīz_[604] in the direction of the standards; hautbois and drums were sounded towards them;[605] the army flung the war-cry out three times towards them, mounted, cried it again and rode at the gallop round them.

Precisely as Chīngīz Khān laid down his rules, so the Mughūls still observe them. Each man has his place, just where his ancestors had it; right, right,—left, left,—centre, centre. The most reliable men go to the extreme points of the right and left. The Chīrās and Begchīk clans always demand to go to the point in the right.[606] At that time the Beg of the Chīrās tūmān was a very bold brave, Qāshka (Mole-marked) Maḥmud and the beg of the renowned Begchīk tūmān was Ayūb _Begchīk_. These two, disputing which should go out to the point, drew swords on one another. At last it seems to have been settled that one should take the highest place in the hunting-circle, the other, in the battle-array.

Next day after making the circle, it was hunted near Sāmsīrak; [Sidenote: Fol. 101.] thence move was made to the Tūrāk Four-gardens. On that day and in that camp, I finished the first ode I ever finished. Its opening couplet is as follows;—

Except my soul, no friend worth trust found I (_wafādār tāpmādīm_);
Except my heart, no confidant found I (_asrār tāpmādīm_).

There were six couplets; every ode I finished later was written just on this plan.

The Khān moved, march by march, from Sām-sīrak to the bank of the Khujand-river. One day we crossed the water by way of an excursion, cooked food and made merry with the braves and pages. That day some-one stole the gold clasp of my girdle. Next day Bayān-qulī's Khān-qulī and Sl. Muḥ. Wais fled to Taṃbal. Every-one suspected them of that bad deed. Though this was not ascertained, Aḥmad-i-qāsim _Kohbur_ asked leave and went away to Aūrā-tīpā. From that leave he did not return; he too went to Taṃbal.

908 AH.—JULY 7TH. 1502 TO JUNE 26TH. 1503 AD.[607]

(_a. Bābur's poverty in Tāshkīnt._)

This move of The Khān's was rather unprofitable; to take no fort, to beat no foe, he went out and went back.

During my stay in Tāshkīnt, I endured much poverty and humiliation. No country or hope of one! Most of my retainers dispersed, those left, unable to move about with me because of their destitution! If I went to my Khān dādā's Gate,[608] I went sometimes with one man, sometimes with two. It was well he was no stranger but one of my own blood. [Sidenote: Fol. 101b.] After showing myself[609] in his presence, I used to go to Shāh Begīm's, entering her house, bareheaded and barefoot, just as if it were my own.

This uncertainty and want of house and home drove me at last to despair. Said I, 'It would be better to take my head[610] and go off than live in such misery; better to go as far as my feet can carry me than be seen of men in such poverty and humiliation.' Having settled on China to go to, I resolved to take my head and get away. From my childhood up I had wished to visit China but had not been able to manage it because of ruling and attachments. Now sovereignty itself was gone! and my mother, for her part, was re-united to her (step)-mother and her younger brother. The hindrances to my journey had been removed; my anxiety for my mother was dispelled. I represented (to Shāh Begīm and The Khān) through Khwāja Abū'l-makāram that now such a foe as Shaibāq Khān had made his appearance, Mughūl and Turk[611] alike must guard against him; that thought about him must be taken while he had not well-mastered the (Aūzbeg) horde or grown very strong, for as they have said;—[612]

To-day, while thou canst, quench the fire,
Once ablaze it will burn up the world;
Let thy foe not fix string to his bow,
While an arrow of thine can pierce him;

that it was 20 or 25 years[613] since they had seen the Younger Khān (Aḥmad _Alacha_) and that I had never seen him; should I be able, if I went to him, not only to see him myself, but to bring about the meeting between him and them?

[Sidenote: Fol. 102.] Under this pretext I proposed to get out of those surroundings;[614] once in Mughūlistān and Turfān, my reins would be in my own hands, without check or anxiety. I put no-one in possession of my scheme. Why not? Because it was impossible for me to mention such a scheme to my mother, and also because it was with other expectations that the few of all ranks who had been my companions in exile and privation, had cut themselves off with me and with me suffered change of fortune. To speak to them also of such a scheme would be no pleasure.

The Khwāja, having laid my plan before Shāh Begīm and The Khān, understood them to consent to it but, later, it occurred to them that I might be asking leave a second time,[615] because of not receiving kindness. That touching their reputation, they delayed a little to give the leave.

(_b. The Younger Khān comes to Tāshkīnt._)

At this crisis a man came from the Younger Khān to say that he was actually on his way. This brought my scheme to naught. When a second man announced his near approach, we all went out to give him honourable meeting, Shāh Begīm and his younger sisters, Sulṯān-nigār Khānīm and Daulat-sulṯān Khānīm, and I and Sl. Muḥ. Khānika and Khān Mīrzā (Wais).

Between Tāshkīnt and Sairām is a village called Yagha (var. Yaghma), with some smaller ones, where are the tombs of Father Abraham and Father Isaac. So far we went out. Knowing nothing exact about his coming,[616] I rode out for an [Sidenote: Fol. 102b.] excursion, with an easy mind. All at once, he descended on me, face to face. I went forward; when I stopped, he stopped. He was a good deal perturbed; perhaps he was thinking of dismounting in some fixed spot and there seated, of receiving me ceremoniously. There was no time for this; when we were near each other, I dismounted. He had not time even to dismount;[617] I bent the knee, went forward and saw him. Hurriedly and with agitation, he told Sl. Sa`īd Khān and Bābā Khān Sl. to dismount, bend the knee with (_bīla_) me and make my acquaintance.[618] Just these two of his sons had come with him; they may have been 13 or 14 years old. When I had seen them, we all mounted and went to Shāh Begīm's presence. After he had seen her and his sisters, and had renewed acquaintance, they all sat down and for half the night told one another particulars of their past and gone affairs.

Next day, my Younger Khān dādā bestowed on me arms of his own and one of his own special horses saddled, and a Mughūl head-to-foot dress,—a Mughūl cap,[619] a long coat of Chinese satin, with broidering of stitchery,[620] and Chinese armour; in the old fashion, they had hung, on the left side, a haversack (_chantāī_) and an outer bag,[621] and three or four things such as women usually hang on their collars, perfume-holders and various receptacles;[622] in the same way, three or four things hung on the right side also.

[Sidenote: Fol. 103.] From there we went to Tāshkīnt. My Elder Khān dādā also had come out for the meeting, some 3 or 4 _yīghāch_ (12 to 15 m.) along the road. He had had an awning set up in a chosen spot and was seated there. The Younger Khān went up directly in front of him; on getting near, fetched a circle, from right to left, round him; then dismounted before him. After advancing to the place of interview (_kūrūshūr yīr_), he nine times bent the knee; that done, went close and saw (his brother). The Elder Khān, in his turn, had risen when the Younger Khān drew near. They looked long at one another (_kūrūshtīlār_) and long stood in close embrace (_qūchūshūb_). The Younger Khān again bent the knee nine times when retiring, many times also on offering his gift; after that, he went and sat down.