Chapter XXXVIII: Section III: Hindūstān (12)

[26] But for present difficulties of intercourse with
Petrograd, I would have re-examined with Kehr's the collateral
Codex of 1742 (copied in 1839 and now owned by the Petrograd
University). It might be useful; as Kehr's volume has lost
pages and may be disarranged here and there.

The list of Kehr's items is as follows:—

1 (_not in the Imprint_). A letter from Babur to Kamran the
date of which is fixed as 1527 by its committing Ibrahim
_Ludi's_ son to Kamran's charge (p. 544). It is heard of again
in the Bukhara Compilation, is lost from Kehr's Codex, and
preserved from his archetype by Klaproth who translated it.
Being thus found in Bukhara in the first decade of the
eighteenth century (our earliest knowledge of the Compilation
is 1709), the inference is allowed that it went to Bukhara as
loot from the defeated Kamran's camp and that an endorsement
its companion Babur-nama (proper) bears was made by the Auzbeg
of two victors over Kamran, both of 1550, both in
Tramontana.(1)

2 (_not in Imp._). Timur-pulad's memo. about the purchase of
his Codex in cir. 1521 (_eo cap. post_).

3 (_Imp. 1_). Compiler's Preface of Praise (JRAS. 1900, p.
474).

4 (_Imp. 2_). Babur's Acts in Farghana, in diction such as to
seem a re-translation of the Persian translation of 1589. How
much of Kamran's MS. was serviceable is not easy to decide,
because the Turki fettering of `Abdu'r-rahim's Persian lends
itself admirably to re-translation.(2)

5 (_Imp. 3_). The "Rescue-passage" (App. D) attributable to
Jahangir.

6 (_Imp. 4_). Babur's Acts in Kabul, seeming (like No. 4) a
re-translation or patching of tattered pages. There are also
passages taken verbatim from the Persian.

7 (_Imp. omits_). A short length of Babur's Hindustan Section,
carefully shewn damaged by dots and dashes.

8 (_Imp. 5_). Within 7, the spurious passage of App. L and
also scattered passages about a feast, perhaps part of 7.

9 (_Imp. separates off at end of vol._). Translated passage
from the _Akbar-nāma_, attributable to Jahangir, briefly
telling of Kanwa (1527), Babur's latter years (both changed to
first person), death and court.(3)

[Babur's history has been thus brought to an end, incomplete
in the balance needed of 7. In Kehr's volume a few pages are
left blank except for what shews a Russian librarian's opinion
of the plan of the book, "Here end the writings of Shah
Babur."]

10 (_Imp. omits_). Preface to the history of Humayun,
beginning at the Creation and descending by giant strides
through notices of Khans and Sultans to "Babur Mirza who was
the father of Humayun Padshah". Of Babur what further is said
connects with the battle of Ghaj-davan (918-1512 _q.v._). It
is ill-informed, laying blame on him as if he and not Najm
Sani had commanded—speaks of his preference for the counsel of
young men and of the numbers of combatants. It is noticeable
for more than its inadequacy however; its selection of the
Ghaj-davan episode from all others in Babur's career supports
circumstantially what is dealt with later, the Ghaj-davani
authorship of the Compilation.

11 (_Imp. omits_). Under a heading "Humayun Padshah" is a
fragment about (his? Accession) Feast, whether broken off by
loss of his pages or of those of his archetype examination of
the P. Univ. Codex may show.

12 (_Imp. 6_). An excellent copy of Babur's Hindustan Section,
perhaps obtained from the Ahrari house. [This Ilminski places
(I think) where Kehr has No. 7.] From its position and from
its bearing a scribe's date of completion (which Kehr brings
over), _viz._ _Tamt shud 1126_ (Finished 1714), the compiler
may have taken it for Humayun's, perhaps for the account of
his reconquest of Hind in 1555.

[The remaining entries in Kehr's volume are a quatrain which
may make jesting reference to his finished task, a librarian's
Russian entry of the number of pages (831), and the words
_Etablissement Orientale, Fr. v. Adelung_, 1825 (the Director
of the School from 1793).(4)]

[27] That Babur-nama of the "Kamran-docket" is the mutilated
and tattered basis, allowed by circumstance, of the compiled
history of Babur, filled out and mended by the help of the
Persian translation of 1589. Cf. Kehr's Latin Trs. fly-leaf
entry; Klaproth _s.n._; A.N. trs. H.B., p. 260; JRAS. 1908,
1909, on the "Kamran-docket" where are defects needing
Klaproth's second article (1824).

[28] For an analysis of an illustrative passage _see_ JRAS.
1906; for facilities of re-translation _see_ _eo cap._ p.
xviii, where Erskine is quoted.

[29] _See_ A.N. trans., p. 260; Prefaces of Ilminski and de
Courteille; ZDMG. xxxvii, Teufel's art.; JRAS. 1906.

[30] For particulars about Kehr's Codex see Smirnov's
Catalogue of the School Library and JRAS. 1900, 1906. Like
others who have made statements resting on the mistaken
identity of the Bukhara Compilation, many of mine are now
given to the winds.

[31] _See_ Gregorief's "Russian policy regarding Central
Asia", quoted in Schuyler's Turkistan, App. IV.

[32] The Mission was well received, started to return to
Petrograd, was attacked by Turkmans, went back to Bukhara, and
there stayed until it could attempt the devious route which
brought it to the capital in 1725.

[33] One might say jestingly that the spirit in the book had
rebelled since 1725 against enforced and changing masquerade
as a phantasm of two other books!

[34] Neither Ilminski nor Smirnov mentions another
"Babur-nama" Codex than Kehr's.

[35] A Correspondent combatting my objection to publishing a
second edition of the _Memoirs_, backed his favouring opinion
by reference to `Umar Khayyam and Fitzgerald. Obviously no
analogy exists; Erskine's redundance is not the flower of a
deft alchemy, but is the prosaic consequence of a secondary
source.

[36] The manuscripts relied on for revising the first section
of the Memoirs, (_i.e._ 899 to 908 AH.-1494 to 1502 AD.) are
the Elphinstone and the Ḥaidarābād Codices. To variants from
them occurring in Dr. Kehr's own transcript no authority can
be allowed because throughout this section, his text appears
to be a compilation and in parts a retranslation from one or
other of the two Persian translations (_Wāqi`āt-i-bāburī_) of
the _Bābur-nāma_. Moreover Dr. Ilminsky's imprint of Kehr's
text has the further defect in authority that it was helped
out from the Memoirs, itself not a direct issue from the Turkī
original.

Information about the manuscripts of the _Bābur-nāma_ can be
found in the JRAS for 1900, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908.

The foliation marked in the margin of this book is that of the
Ḥaidarābād Codex and of its facsimile, published in 1905 by
the Gibb Memorial Trust.

[37] Bābur, born on Friday, Feb. 14th. 1483 (Muḥarram 6, 888
AH.), succeeded his father, `Umar Shaikh who died on June 8th.
1494 (Ramẓān 4, 899 AH.).

[38] _pād-shāh_, protecting lord, supreme. It would be an
anachronism to translate _pādshāh_ by King or Emperor,
previous to 913 AH. (1507 AD.) because until that date it was
not part of the style of any Tīmūrid, even ruling members of
the house being styled Mīrzā. Up to 1507 therefore Bābur's
correct style is Bābur Mīrzā. (_Cf._ f. 215 and note.)

[39] See _Āyīn-i-akbarī_, Jarrett, p. 44.

[40] The Ḥai. MS. and a good many of the W.-i-B. MSS. here
write Aūtrār. [Aūtrār like Tarāz was at some time of its
existence known as Yāngī (New).] Tarāz seems to have stood
near the modern Auliya-ātā; Ālmālīgh,—a Metropolitan see of
the Nestorian Church in the 14th. century,—to have been the
old capital of Kuldja, and Ālmātū (var. Ālmātī) to have been
where Vernoe (Vierny) now is. Ālmālīgh and Ālmātū owed their
names to the apple (_ālmā_). _Cf._ Bretschneider's Mediæval
Geography p. 140 and T.R. (Elias and Ross) _s.nn._

[41] _Mughūl u Aūzbeg jihatdīn._ I take this, the first
offered opportunity of mentioning (1) that in transliterating
Turkī words I follow Turkī lettering because I am not
competent to choose amongst systems which _e.g._ here,
reproduce Aūzbeg as Ūzbeg, Özbeg and Euzbeg; and (2) that
style being part of an autobiography, I am compelled, in
pressing back the Memoirs on Bābur's Turkī mould, to retract
from the wording of the western scholars, Erskine and de
Courteille. Of this compulsion Bābur's bald phrase _Mughūl u
Aūzbeg jihatdīn_ provides an illustration. Each earlier
translator has expressed his meaning with more finish than he
himself; `Abdu'r-raḥīm, by _az jihat `ubūr-i_ (_Mughūl u_)
_Aūzbeg_, improves on Bābur, since the three towns lay in the
tideway of nomad passage (_`ubūr_) east and west; Erskine
writes "in consequence of the incursions" etc. and de C.
"_grace aux ravages commis_" etc.

[42] Schuyler (ii, 54) gives the extreme length of the valley
as about 160 miles and its width, at its widest, as 65 miles.

[43] Following a manifestly clerical error in the Second
W.-i-B. the _Akbar-nāma_ and the Mems. are without the
seasonal limitation, "in winter." Bābur here excludes from
winter routes one he knew well, the Kīndīrlīk Pass; on the
other hand Kostenko says that this is open all the year round.
Does this contradiction indicate climatic change? (_Cf._ f.
54b and note; A.N. Bib. Ind. ed. i, 85 (H. Beveridge i, 221)
and, for an account of the passes round Farghāna, Kostenko's
_Turkistān Region_, Tables of Contents.)

[44] Var. Banākat, Banākas̤, Fīākat, Fanākand. Of this place
Dr. Rieu writes (Pers. cat. i, 79) that it was also called
Shāsh and, in modern times, Tāshkīnt. Bābur does not identify
Fanākat with the Tāshkīnt of his day but he identifies it with
Shāhrukhiya (_cf._ Index _s.nn._) and distinguishes between
Tāshkīnt-Shāsh and Fanākat-Shāhrukhiya. It may be therefore
that Dr. Rieu's Tāshkīnt-Fanākat was Old Tāshkīnt,—(Does
Fanā-kīnt mean Old Village?) some 14 miles nearer to the
Saiḥūn than the Tāshkīnt of Bābur's day or our own.

[45] _ hech daryā qātīlmās._ A gloss of _dīgar_ (other) in the
Second W.-i-B. has led Mr. Erskine to understand "meeting with
no other river in its course." I understand Bābur to contrast
the destination of the Saiḥūn which he [erroneously] says
sinks into the sands, with the outfall of _e.g._ the Amū into
the Sea of Aral.

_Cf._ First W.-i-B. I.O. MS. 215 f. 2; Second W.-i-B. I.O. MS.
217 f. 1b and Ouseley's Ibn Haukal p. 232-244; also Schuyler
and Kostenko _l.c._

[46] Bābur's geographical unit in Central Asia is the township
or, with more verbal accuracy, the village _i.e._ the
fortified, inhabited and cultivated oasis. Of frontiers he
says nothing.

[47] _i.e._ they are given away or taken. Bābur's interest in
fruits was not a matter of taste or amusement but of food.
Melons, for instance, fresh or stored, form during some months
the staple food of Turkistānīs. _Cf._ T.R. p. 303 and (in
Kāshmīr) 425; Timkowski's _Travels of the Russian Mission_ i,
419 and Th. Radloff's _Réceuils d'Itinéraires_ p. 343.

N.B. At this point two folios of the Elphinstone Codex are
missing.

[48] Either a kind of melon or the pear. For local abundance
of pears _see_ _Āyīn-i-akbarī_, Blochmann p. 6; Kostenko and
Von Schwarz.

[49] _qūrghān_, _i.e._ the walled town within which was the
citadel (_ark_).

[50] _Tūqūz tarnau sū kīrār, bū `ajab tūr kīm bīr yīrdīn ham
chīqmās._ Second W.-i-B. I.O. 217 f. 2, _nuh jū'ī āb dar qila`
dar mī āyid u īn `ajab ast kah hama az yak jā ham na mī bar
āyid_. (_Cf._ Mems. p. 2 and _Méms._ i, 2.) I understand Bābur
to mean that all the water entering was consumed in the town.
The supply of Andijān, in the present day, is taken both from
the Āq Būrā (_i.e._ the Aūsh Water) and, by canal, from the
Qarā Daryā.

[51] _khandaqnīng tāsh yānī._ Second W.-i-B. I.O. 217 f. 2
_dar kīnār sang bast khandaq_. Here as in several other
places, this Persian translation has rendered Turkī _tāsh_,
outside, as if it were Turkī _tāsh_, stone. Bābur's adjective
_stone_ is _sangīn_ (f. 45b l. 8). His point here is the
unusual circumstance of a high-road running round the outer
edge of the ditch. Moreover Andijān is built on and of loess.
Here, obeying his Persian source, Mr. Erskine writes
"stone-faced ditch"; M. de C. obeying his Turkī one, "_bord
extérieur_."

[52] _qīrghāwal āsh-kīnasī bīla. Āsh-kīna_, a diminutive of
_āsh_, food, is the rice and vegetables commonly served with
the bird. Kostenko i, 287 gives a recipe for what seems
_āsh-kīna_.

[53] b. 1440; d. 1500 AD.

[54] Yūsuf was in the service of Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā _Shāhrukhī_
(d. 837 AH.-1434 AD.). _Cf._ Daulat Shāh's _Memoirs of the
Poets_ (Browne) pp. 340 and 350-1. (H.B.)

[55] _gūzlār aīl bīzkāk kūb būlūr._ Second W.-i-B. (I.O. 217
f. 2) here and on f. 4 has read Turkī _gūz_, eye, for Turkī
_gūz_ or _goz_, autumn. It has here a gloss not in the
Ḥaidarābād or Kehr's MSS. (_Cf_. Mems. p. 4 note.) This gloss
may be one of Humāyūn's numerous notes and may have been
preserved in the Elphinstone Codex, but the fact cannot now be
known because of the loss of the two folios already noted.
(_See_ Von Schwarz and Kostenko concerning the autumn fever of
Transoxiana.)

[56] The Pers. trss. render _yīghāch_ by _farsang_; Ujfalvy
also takes the _yīghāch_ and the _farsang_ as having a common
equivalent of about 6 _kilomètres_. Bābur's statements in
_yīghāch_ however, when tested by ascertained distances, do
not work out into the _farsang_ of four miles or the
_kilomètre_ of 8 _kil._ to 5 miles. The _yīghāch_ appears to
be a variable estimate of distance, sometimes indicating the
time occupied on a given journey, at others the distance to
which a man's voice will carry. (_Cf._ Ujfalvy _Expédition
scientifique_ ii, 179; Von Schwarz p. 124 and de C.'s Dict.
_s.n._ _yīghāch_. In the present instance, if Bābur's 4 y.
equalled 4 f. the distance from Aūsh to Andijān should be
about 16 m.; but it is 33 m. 1-3/4 fur. _i.e._ 50 _versts_.
Kostenko ii, 33.) I find Bābur's _yīghāch_ to vary from about
4 m. to nearly 8 m.

[57] _āqār sū_, the irrigation channels on which in Turkistān
all cultivation depends. Major-General Gérard writes, (Report
of the Pamir Boundary Commission, p. 6,) "Osh is a charming
little town, resembling Islāmābād in Kāshmīr,—everywhere the
same mass of running water, in small canals, bordered with
willow, poplar and mulberry." He saw the Āq Būrā, the _White
wolf_, mother of all these running waters, as a "bright,
stony, trout-stream;" Dr. Stein saw it as a "broad, tossing
river." (Buried Cities of Khotan, p. 45.) _Cf_. Réclus vi,
cap. Farghāna; Kostenko i, 104; Von Schwarz _s.nn._

[58] _Aūshnīng faẓīlatīdā khailī aḥādis̤ wārid dūr._ Second
W.-i-B. (I.O. 217 f. 2) _Faẓīlat-i-Aūsh aḥadis̤ wārid ast._
Mems. (p. 3) "The excellencies of Ush are celebrated even in
the sacred traditions." _Méms._ (i, 2) "_On cite beaucoup de
traditions qui célèbrent l'excellence de ce climat._" Aūsh may
be mentioned in the traditions on account of places of
pilgrimage near it; Bābur's meaning may be merely that its
excellencies are traditional. _Cf._ Ujfalvy ii, 172.

[59] Most travellers into Farghāna comment on Bābur's account
of it. One much discussed point is the position of the Barā
Koh. The personal observations of Ujfalvy and Schuyler led
them to accept its identification with the rocky ridge known
as the Takht-i-sulaimān. I venture to supplement this by the
suggestion that Bābur, by Barā Koh, did not mean the whole of
the rocky ridge, the name of which, Takht-i-sulaimān, an
ancient name, must have been known to him, but one only of its
four marked summits. Writing of the ridge Madame Ujfalvy says,
"_Il y a quatre sommets dont le plus élevé est le troisième
comptant par le nord_." Which summit in her sketch (p. 327) is
the third and highest is not certain, but one is so shewn that
it may be the third, may be the highest and, as being a peak,
can be described as symmetrical _i.e._ Bābur's _mauzūn_. For
this peak an appropriate name would be Barā Koh.

If the name Barā Koh could be restricted to a single peak of
the Takht-i-sulaimān ridge, a good deal of earlier confusion
would be cleared away, concerning which have written, amongst
others, Ritter (v, 432 and 732); Réclus (vi. 54); Schuyler
(ii, 43) and those to whom these three refer. For an excellent
account, graphic with pen and pencil, of Farghāna and of Aūsh
_see_ Madame Ujfalvy's _De Paris à Samarcande_ cap. v.

[60] _rūd._ This is a precise word since the Āq Būrā (the
White Wolf), in a relatively short distance, falls from the
Kūrdūn Pass, 13,400 ft. to Aūsh, 3040 ft. and thence to
Andijān, 1380 ft. _Cf._ Kostenko i, 104; Huntingdon in
Pumpelly's _Explorations in Turkistān_ p. 179 and the French
military map of 1904.

[61] Whether Bābur's words, _bāghāt_, _bāghlār_ and _bāghcha_
had separate significations, such as orchard, vineyard and
ordinary garden _i.e._ garden-plots of small size, I am not
able to say but what appears fairly clear is that when he
writes _bāghāt u bāghlār_ he means _all sorts of gardens_,
just as when he writes _begāt u beglār_, he means _begs of all
ranks_.

[62] Madame Ujfalvy has sketched a possible successor.
Schuyler found two mosques at the foot of Takht-i-sulaimān,
perhaps Bābur's Jauza Masjid.

[63] _aūl shāh-jū'īdīn sū qūyārlār._

[64] Ribbon Jasper, presumably.

[65] Kostenko (ii, 30), 71-3/4 versts _i.e._ 47 m. 4-1/2 fur.
by the Postal Road.

[66] Instead of their own kernels, the Second W.-i-B. stuffs
the apricots, in a fashion well known in India by _khūbānī_,
with almonds (_maghz-i badām_). The Turkī wording however
allows the return to the apricots of their own kernels and Mr.
Rickmers tells me that apricots so stuffed were often seen by
him in the Zar-afshān Valley. My husband has shewn me that
Niẕāmī in his Haft Paikar appears to refer to the other
fashion, that of inserting almonds:—

"I gave thee fruits from the garden of my heart,
Plump and sweet as honey in milk;
Their substance gave the lusciousness of figs,
In their hearts were the kernels of almonds."

[67] What this name represents is one of a considerable number
of points in the _Bābur-nāma_ I am unable to decide. _Kīyīk_
is a comprehensive name (_cf._ Shaw's Vocabulary); _āq kīyīk_
might mean _white sheep_ or _white deer_. It is rendered in
the Second W.-i-B., here, by _ahū-i-wāriq_ and on f. 4, by
_ahū-i-safed_. Both these names Mr. Erskine has translated by
"white deer," but he mentions that the first is said to mean
_argālī_ _i.e._ _ovis poli_, and refers to _Voyages de Pallas_
iv, 325.

[68] Concerning this much discussed word, Bābur's testimony is
of service. It seems to me that he uses it merely of those
settled in towns (villages) and without any reference to tribe
or nationality. I am not sure that he uses it always as a
noun; he writes of a _Sārt kīshī_, a Sārt person. His Asfara
Sārts may have been Turkī-speaking settled Turks and his
Marghīnānī ones Persian-speaking Tājiks. _Cf._ Shaw's
Vocabulary; _s.n._ Sārt; Schuyler i, 104 and note; Nalivkine's
_Histoire du Khanat de Khokand_ p. 45 n. Von Schwarz _s.n._;
Kostenko i, 287; Petzbold's _Turkistan_ p. 32.

[69] Shaikh Burhānu'd-dīn `Alī _Qīlīch_: b. _circa_ 530 AH.
(1135 AD.) d. 593 AH. (1197 AD.). _See_ Hamilton's _Hidāyat_.

[70] The direct distance, measured on the map, appears to be
about 65 m. but the road makes _détour_ round mountain spurs.
Mr. Erskine appended here, to the "_farsang_" of his Persian
source, a note concerning the reduction of Tatar and Indian
measures to English ones. It is rendered the less applicable
by the variability of the _yīghāch_, the equivalent for a
_farsang_ presumed by the Persian translator.

[71] Ḥai. MS. _Farsī-gū'ī_. The Elph. MS. and all those
examined of the W.-i-B. omit the word _Farsī_; some writing
_kohī_ (mountaineer) for _gū'ī_. I judge that Bābur at first
omitted the word _Farsī_, since it is entered in the Ḥai. MS.
above the word _gū'ī_. It would have been useful to Ritter
(vii, 733) and to Ujfalvy (ii, 176). _Cf._ Kostenko i, 287 on
the variety of languages spoken by Sārts.

[72] Of the Mirror Stone neither Fedtschenko nor Ujfalvy could
get news.

[73] Bābur distinguishes here between Tāshkīnt and
Shāhrukhiya. _Cf._ f. 2 and note to Fanākat.

[74] He left the hill-country above Sūkh in Muḥarram 910 AH.
(mid-June 1504 AD.).

[75] For a good account of Khujand _see_ Kostenko i, 346.

[76] Khujand to Andijān 187 m. 2 fur. (Kostenko ii, 29-31)
and, helped out by the time-table of the Transcaspian Railway,
from Khujand to Samarkand appears to be some 154 m. 5-1/4 fur.

[77] Both men are still honoured in Khujand (Kostenko i, 348).
For Khwāja Kamāl's Life and _Dīwān_, _see_ Rieu ii, 632 and
Ouseley's Persian Poets p. 192. _Cf._ f. 83b and note.

[78] _kūb artūq dūr_, perhaps brought to Hindūstān where Bābur
wrote the statement.

[79] Turkish arrow-flight, London, 1791, 482 yards.

[80] I have found the following forms of this name,—Ḥai. MS.,
M:nūgh:l; Pers. trans. and Mems., Myoghil; Ilminsky, M:tugh:l;
_Méms._ Mtoughuil; Réclus, Schuyler and Kostenko, Mogul Tau;
Nalivkine, "d'apres Fedtschenko," Mont Mogol; Fr. Map of 1904,
M. Muzbek. It is the western end of the Kurāma Range (Kīndīr
Tau), which comes out to the bed of the Sīr, is 26-2/3 miles
long and rises to 4000 ft. (Kostenko, i, 101). Von Schwarz
describes it as being quite bare; various writers ascribe
climatic evil to it.

[81] Pers. trans. _ahū-i-safed_. _Cf._ f. 3b note.

[82] These words translate into _Cervus marāl_, the Asiatic
Wapiti, and to this Bābur may apply them. Dictionaries explain
_marāl_ as meaning _hind_ or _doe_ but numerous books of
travel and Natural History show that it has wider application
as a generic name, _i.e._ deer. The two words _būghū_ and
_marāl_ appear to me to be used as _e.g._ drake and duck are
used. _Marāl_ and duck can both imply the female sex, but also
both are generic, perhaps primarily so. _Cf._ for further
mention of _būghū-marāl_ f. 219 and f. 276. For uses of the
word _marāl_, _see_ the writings _e.g._ of Atkinson, Kostenko
(iii, 69), Lyddeker, Littledale, Selous, Ronaldshay, Church
(Chinese Turkistan), Biddulph (Forsyth's Mission).

[83] _Cf._ f. 2 and note.

[84] Schuyler (ii, 3), 18 m.

[85] Ḥai. MS. _Hamesha bū deshttā yīl bār dūr. Marghīnānghā
kīm sharqī dūr, hamesha mūndīn yīl bārūr; Khujandghā kīm
gharībī dūr, dā'im mūndīn yīl kīlūr._

This is a puzzling passage. It seems to say that wind always
goes east and west from the steppe as from a generating
centre. E. and de C. have given it alternative directions,
east or west, but there is little point in saying this of wind
in a valley hemmed in on the north and the south. Bābur limits
his statement to the steppe lying in the contracted mouth of
the Farghāna valley (_pace_ Schuyler ii, 51) where special
climatic conditions exist such as (_a_) difference in
temperature on the two sides of the Khujand narrows and
currents resulting from this difference,—(_b_) the heating of
the narrows by sun-heat reflected from the Mogol-tau,—and
(_c_) the inrush of westerly wind over Mīrzā Rabāṯ. Local
knowledge only can guide a translator safely but Bābur's
directness of speech compels belief in the significance of his
words and this particularly when what he says is unexpected.
He calls the Hā Darwesh a whirling wind and this it still is.
Thinkable at least it is that a strong westerly current (the
prevailing wind of Farghāna) entering over Mīrzā Rabāṯ and
becoming, as it does become, the whirlwind of Hā Darwesh on
the hemmed-in steppe,—becoming so perhaps by conflict with the
hotter indraught through the Gates of Khujand—might force that
indraught back into the Khujand Narrows (in the way _e.g._
that one Nile in flood forces back the other), and at Khujand
create an easterly current. All the manuscripts agree in
writing to (_ghā_) Marghīnān and to (_ghā_) Khujand. It may be
observed that, looking at the map, it appears somewhat strange
that Bābur should take, for his wind objective, a place so
distant from his (defined) Hā Darwesh and seemingly so
screened by its near hills as is Marghīnān. But that westerly
winds are prevalent in Marghīnān is seen _e.g._ in
Middendorff's _Einblikke in den Farghāna Thal_ (p. 112). _Cf._
Réclus vi, 547; Schuyler ii, 51; Cahun's _Histoire du Khanat
de Khokand_ p. 28 and Sven Hedin's _Durch Asien's Wüsten s.n.
būrān_.

[86] _bādiy__a_; a word perhaps selected as punning on _bād_,
wind.

[87] _i.e._ Akhsī Village. This word is sometimes spelled
Akhsīkīs̤ but as the old name of the place was Akhsī-kīnt, it
may be conjectured at least that the _s̤ā'ī mas̤allas̤a_ of
Akhsīkīs̤ represents the three points due for the _nūn_ and
_tā_ of _kīnt_. Of those writing Akhsīkīt may be mentioned the
Ḥai. and Kehr's MSS. (the Elph. MS. here has a lacuna) the
_Z̤afar-nāma_ (Bib. Ind. i, 44) and Ibn Haukal (Ouseley p.
270); and of those writing the word with the _s̤ā'ī
muṣallas̤a_ (_i.e._ as Akhsīkīs̤), Yāqūt's Dict, i, 162,
Reinaud's Abū'l-feda I. ii, 225-6, Ilminsky (p. 5) departing
from his source, and I.O. Cat. (Ethé) No. 1029. It may be
observed that Ibn Haukal (Ouseley p. 280) writes Banākaṣ for
Banākat. For As̤īru'd-dīn _Akhsīkītī_, _see_ Rieu ii, 563;
Daulat Shāh (Browne) p. 121 and Ethé I.O. Cat. No. 1029.

[88] Measured on the French military map of 1904, this may be
80 kil. _i.e._ 50 miles.

[89] Concerning several difficult passages in the rest of
Bābur's account of Akhsī, _see_ Appendix A.

[90] The W.-i-B. here translates _būghū-marāl_ by _gazawn_ and
the same word is entered, under-line, in the Ḥai. MS. _Cf._ f.
3b and note and f. 4 and note.

[91] _postīn pesh b:r:h._ This obscure Persian phrase has been
taken in the following ways:—

(_a_) W.-i-B. I.O. 215 and 217 (_i.e._ both versions) reproduce
the phrase.
(_b_) W.-i-B. MS., quoted by Erskine, p. 6 note,
(_postīn-i mīsh burra_).
(_c_) Leyden's MS. Trs., a sheepskin mantle of five lambskins.
(_d_) Mems., Erskine, p. 6, a mantle of five lambskins.
(_e_) The Persian annotator of the Elph. MS., underlining _pesh_,
writes, _panj_, five.
(_f_) Klaproth (Archives, p. 109), _pustini pisch breh, d.h. gieb
den vorderen Pelz_.
(_g_) Kehr, p. 12 (Ilminsky p. 6) _postin bīsh b:r:h_.
(_h_) De. C, i, 9, _fourrure d'agneau de la première qualité_.

The "lambskins" of L. and E. carry on a notion of comfort
started by their having read _sayāh_, shelter, for Turkī
_sā'ī_, torrent-bed; de C. also lays stress on fur and warmth,
but would not the flowery border of a mountain stream prompt
rather a phrase bespeaking ornament and beauty than one
expressing warmth and textile softness? If the phrase might be
read as _postīn pesh perā_, what adorns the front of a coat,
or as _postīn pesh bar rah_, the fine front of the coat, the
phrase would recall the gay embroidered front of some leathern
postins.

[92] Var. _tabarkhūn_. The explanation best suiting its uses,
enumerated here, is Redhouse's second, the Red Willow. My
husband thinks it may be the Hyrcanian Willow.

[93] Steingass describes this as "an arrow without wing or
point" (barb?) and tapering at both ends; it may be the
practising arrow, _t`alīm aūqī_, often headless.

[94] _tabarraklūq._ Cf. f. 48b foot, for the same use of the
word.

[95] _yabrūju'ṣ-ṣannam._ The books referred to by Bābur may
well be the _Rauzatu'ṣ-ṣafā_ and the _Ḥabību's-siyār_, as
both mention the plant.

[96] The Turkī word _āyīq_ is explained by Redhouse as _awake_
and _alert_; and by Meninski and de Meynard as _sobered_ and
as _a return to right senses_. It may be used here as a
equivalent of _mihr_ in _mihr-giyāh_, the plant of love.

[97] Mr. Ney Elias has discussed the position of this group of
seven villages. (_Cf._ T. R. p. 180 n.) Arrowsmith's map
places it (as Iti-kint) approximately where Mr. Th. Radloff
describes seeing it _i.e._ on the Farghāna slope of the Kurāma
range. (_Cf. Réceuil d'Itinéraires_ p. 188.) Mr. Th. Radloff
came into Yītī-kīnt after crossing the Kīndīrlīk Pass from
Tāshkīnt and he enumerates the seven villages as traversed by
him before reaching the Sīr. It is hardly necessary to say
that the actual villages he names may not be those of Bābur's
Yītī-kint. Wherever the word is used in the _Bābur-nāma_ and
the _Tārīkh-i-rashīdī_, it appears from the context allowable
to accept Mr. Radloff's location but it should be borne in
mind that the name Yītī-kīnt (Seven villages or towns) might
be found as an occasional name of Altī-shahr (Six towns).
_See_ T.R. _s.n._ Altī-shahr.

[98] _kīshī_, person, here manifestly fighting men.

[99] Elph. MS. f. 2b; First W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 4b; Second
W.-i-B. I.O. 217 f. 4; Mems. p. 6; Ilminsky p. 7; _Méms._ i.
10.

The rulers whose affairs are chronicled at length in the
Farghāna Section of the B.N. are, (I) of Timūrid Turks,
(always styled Mīrzā), (_a_) the three Mīrān-shāhī brothers,
Aḥmad, Maḥmūd and `Umar Shaikh with their successors,
Bāī-sunghar, `Alī and Bābur; (_b_) the Bāī-qarā, Ḥusain of
Harāt: (II) of Chīngīz Khānīds, (always styled Khān,) (_a_)
the two Chaghatāī Mughūl brothers, Maḥmūd and Aḥmad; (_b_) the
Shaibānid Aūzbeg, Muḥammad Shaibānī (Shāh-i-bakht or Shaibāq
or Shāhī Beg).

In electing to use the name _Shaibānī_, I follow not only the
Ḥai. Codex but also Shaibānī's Boswell, Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Mīrzā.
The Elph. MS. frequently uses _Shaibāq_ but its authority down
to f. 198 (Ḥai. MS. f. 243b) is not so great as it is after
that folio, because not till f. 198 is it a direct copy of
Bābur's own. It may be more correct to write "the Shaibānī
Khān" and perhaps even "the Shaibānī."

[100] _bī murād_, so translated because retirement was caused
once by the overruling of Khwāja `Ubaidu'l-lāh _Aḥrārī_. (T.R.
p. 113.)

[101] Once the Mīrzā did not wish Yūnas to winter in Akhsī;
once did not expect him to yield to the demand of his Mughūls
to be led out of the cultivated country (_wilāyat_). His own
misconduct included his attack in Yūnas on account of Akhsī
and much falling-out with kinsmen. (T.R. _s.nn._)

[102] _i.e._ one made of non-warping wood (Steingass), perhaps
that of the White Poplar. The _Shāh-nāma_ (Turner, Maçon ed.
i, 71) writes of a Chāchī bow and arrows of _khadang_, _i.e._
white poplar. (H.B.)

[103] _i.e._ Rābī`a-sulṯān, married _circa_ 893 AH.-1488 AD.
For particulars about her and all women mentioned in the B.N.
and the T.R. see Gulbadan Begīm's _Humāyūn-nāma_, Or. Trs.
Series.

[104] _jar_, either that of the Kāsān Water or of a
deeply-excavated canal. The palace buildings are mentioned
again on f. 110b. _Cf._ Appendix A.

[105] _i.e._ soared from earth, died. For some details of the
accident _see_ A.N. (H. Beveridge, i, 220.)

[106] Ḥ.S. ii,-192, Firishta, lith. ed. p. 191 and D'Herbélot,
sixth.

It would have accorded with Bābur's custom if here he had
mentioned the parentage of his father's mother. Three times
(fs. 17b, 70b, 96b) he writes of "Shāh Sulṯan Begīm" in a way
allowing her to be taken as `Umar Shaikh's own mother.
Nowhere, however, does he mention her parentage. One even
cognate statement only have we discovered, _viz._
Khwānd-amīr's (Ḥ.S. ii, 192) that `Umar Shaikh was the own
younger brother (_barādar khurdtar khūd_) of Aḥmad and Maḥmūd.
If his words mean that the three were full-brothers, `Umar
Shaikh's own mother was Ābū-sa`īd's Tarkhān wife. Bābur's
omission (f. 21b) to mention his father with A. and M. as a
nephew of Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān would be negative testimony
against taking Khwānd-amīr's statement to mean "full-brother,"
if clerical slips were not easy and if Khwānd-amir's means of
information were less good. He however both was the son of
Maḥmūd's wāzir (Ḥ.S. ii, 194) and supplemented his book in
Bābur's presence.

To a statement made by the writer of the biographies included
in Kehr's B.N. volume, that `U.S.'s family (_aūmāgh_) is not
known, no weight can be attached, spite of the co-incidence
that the Mongol form of _aūmāgh_, _i.e._ _aūmāk_ means
_Mutter-leib_. The biographies contain too many known mistakes
for their compiler to outweigh Khwānd-amīr in authority.

[107] _Cf._ _Rauzatu'ṣ-ṣafā_ vi, 266. (H.B.)

[108] Dara-i-gaz, south of Balkh. This historic feast took
place at Merv in 870 AH. (1465 AD.). As `Umar Shaikh was then
under ten, he may have been one of the Mīrzās concerned.

[109] Khudāī-bīrdī is a Pers.-Turkī hybrid equivalent of
Theodore; _tūghchī_ implies the right to use or (as hereditary
standard-bearer,) to guard the _tūgh_; Timūr-tāsh may mean
_i.a._ Friend of Tīmūr (a title not excluded here as borne by
inheritance. _Cf._ f. 12b and note), Sword-friend (_i.e._
Companion-in-arms), and Iron-friend (_i.e._ stanch). _Cf._
Dict. _s.n._ Tīmūr-bāsh, a sobriquet of Charles XII.

[110] Elph. and Ḥai. MSS. _qūbā yūzlūq_; this is under-lined
in the Elph. MS. by _ya`nī pur ghosht_. _Cf._ f. 68b for the
same phrase. The four earlier trss. _viz._ the two W.-i-B.,
the English and the French, have variants in this passage.

[111] The apposition may be between placing the turban-sash
round the turban-cap in a single flat fold and winding it four
times round after twisting it on itself. _Cf._ f. 18 and
Hughes _Dict. of Islām s.n._ turban.

[112] _qaẓālār_, the prayers and fasts omitted when due,
through war, travel sickness, etc.

[113] _rawān sawādī bār īdī_; perhaps, wrote a running hand.
De C. i, 13, _ses lectures courantes étaient...._

[114] The dates of `Umar Shaikh's limits of perusal allow the
Quintets (_Khamsatīn_) here referred to to be those of Niẕāmī
and Amīr Khusrau of Dihlī. The _Maṣnawī_ must be that of
Jalālu'd-dīn _Rūmī_. (H.B.)

[115] Probably below the Tīrāk (Poplar) Pass, the caravan
route much exposed to avalanches.

Mr. Erskine notes that this anecdote is erroneously told as of
Bābur by Firishta and others. Perhaps it has been confused
with the episode on f. 207b. Firishta makes another mistaken
attribution to Bābur, that of Ḥasan of Yaq`ūb's couplet.
(H.B.) _Cf._ f. 13b and Dow's _Hindustan_ ii, 218.

[116] _yīgītlār_, young men, the modern _jighit_. Bābur uses
the word for men on the effective fighting strength. It
answers to the "brave" of North. American Indian story; here
de C. translates it by _braves_.

[117] _ma`jūn._ _Cf._ Von Schwarz p. 286 for a recipe.

[118] _mutaiyam._ This word, not clearly written in all MSS.,
has been mistaken for _yītīm_. _Cf._ JRAS 1910 p. 882 for a
note upon it by my husband to whom I owe the emendation.

[119] _na'l u dāghī bisyār īdī_, that is, he had inflicted on
himself many of the brands made by lovers and enthusiasts.
_Cf._ Chardin's _Voyages_ ii, 253 and Lady M. Montague's
_Letters_ p. 200.

[120] _tīka sīkrītkū_, lit. likely to make goats leap, from
_sīkrīmāk_ to jump close-footed (Shaw).

[121] _sīkrīkān dūr._ Both _sīkrītkū_ and _sīkrīkān dūr_,
appear to dictate translation in general terms and not by
reference to a single traditional leap by one goat.

[122] _i.e._ Russian; it is the Arys tributary of the Sīr.

[123] The Fr. map of 1904 shows Kas, in the elbow of the Sīr,
which seems to represent Khwāṣ.

[124] _i.e._ the Chīr-chīk tributary of the Sīr.

[125] Concerning his name, _see_ T.R. p. 173.

[126] _i.e._ he was a head-man of a horde sub-division,
nominally numbering 10,000, and paying their dues direct to
the supreme Khān. (T.R. p. 301.)

[127] _ghūnchachī i.e._ one ranking next to the four legal
wives, in Turkī _aūdālīq_, whence odalisque. Bābur and
Gul-badan mention the promotion of several to Begīm's rank by
virtue of their motherhood.

[128] One of Bābur's quatrains, quoted in the _Abūshqa_, is
almost certainly addressed to Khān-zāda. _Cf._ A.Q. Review,
Jan. 1911, p. 4; H. Beveridge's _Some verses of Bābur_. For an
account of her marriage _see Shaibānī-nāma_ (Vambéry) cap.
xxxix.

[129] Kehr's MS. has a passage here not found elsewhere and
seeming to be an adaptation of what is at the top of Ḥai. MS.
f. 88. (Ilminsky, p. 10, _ba wujūd ... tāpīb_.)

[130] _tūshtī_, which here seems to mean that she fell to his
share on division of captives. Muḥ. Ṣaliḥ makes it a
love-match and places the marriage before Bābur's departure.
_Cf._ f. 95 and notes.

[131] _aūgāhlān._ Khurram would be about five when given Balkh
in _circa_ 911 AH. (1505 AD.). He died when about 12. _Cf._
Ḥ.S. ii, 364.

[132] This _fatrat_ (interregnum) was between Bābur's loss of
Farghāna and his gain of Kābul; the _furṣatlār_ were his days
of ease following success in Hindūstān and allowing his book
to be written.

[133] _qīlālīng_, lit. do thou be (setting down), a verbal
form recurring on f. 227b l. 2. With the same form
(_aīt_)_ālīng_, lit. do thou be saying, the compiler of the
_Abūshqa_ introduces his quotations. Shaw's paradigm, _qīlīng_
only. _Cf._ A.Q.R. Jan. 1911, p. 2.

[134] Kehr's MS. (Ilminsky p. 12) and its derivatives here
interpolate the erroneous statement that the sons of Yūnas
were Afāq and Bābā Khāns.

[135] _i.e._ broke up the horde. _Cf._ T.R. p. 74.

[136] _See_ f. 50b for his descent.

[137] Descendants of these captives were in Kāshghar when
Ḥaidar was writing the T.R. It was completed in 953 AH. (1547
AD.). _Cf._ T.R. pp. 81 and 149.

[138] An omission from his Persian source misled Mr. Erskine
here into making Abū-sa`īd celebrate the Khānīm's marriage,
not with himself but with his defeated foe, `Abdu'l-`azīz who
had married her 28 years earlier.

[139] Aīsān-būghā was at Āq Sū in Eastern Turkistān; Yūnas
Khān's head-quarters were in Yītī-kīnt. The Sāghārīchī _tūmān_
was a subdivision of the Kūnchī Mughūls.

[140] _Khān kūtārdīlār._ The primitive custom was to lift the
Khān-designate off the ground; the phrase became metaphorical
and would seem to be so here, since there were two upon the
felt. _Cf._, however, Th. Radloff's _Récueil d'Itinéraires_ p.
326.

[141] _qūyūb īdī_, probably in childhood.

[142] She was divorced by Shaibānī Khān in 907 AH. in order to
allow him to make lawful marriage with her niece, Khān-zāda.

[143] This was a prudential retreat before Shaibānī Khān.
_Cf._ f. 213.

[144] The "Khān" of his title bespeaks his Chaghatāī-Mughūl
descent through his mother, the "Mīrzā," his Tīmūrid-Turkī,
through his father. The capture of the women was facilitated
by the weakening of their travelling escort through his
departure. _Cf._ T.R. p. 203.

[145] Qila`-i-ẕafar. Its ruins are still to be seen on the
left bank of the Kukcha. _Cf._ T.R. p. 220 and Kostenko i,
140. For Mubārak Shāh _Muẓaffarī_ _see_ f. 213 and T.R. _s.n._

[146] Ḥabība, a child when captured, was reared by Shaibānī
and by him given in marriage to his nephew. _Cf._ T.R. p. 207
for an account of this marriage as saving Ḥaidar's life.

[147] _i.e._ she did not take to flight with her husband's
defeated force, but, relying on the victor, her cousin Bābur,
remained in the town. _Cf._ T.R. p. 268. Her case receives
light from Shahr-bānū's (f. 169).

[148] Muḥammad Ḥaidar Mīrzā _Kūrkān Dūghlāt Chaghatāī Mūghūl_,
the author of the _Tārīkh-i-rashīdī_; b. 905 AH. d. 958 AH.
(b. 1499 d. 1551 AD.). Of his clan, the "Oghlāt" (Dūghlāt)
Muḥ. ṣāliḥ says that it was called "Oghlāt" by Mughūls but
Qūngūr-āt (Brown Horse) by Aūzbegs.

[149] _Baz garadad ba aṣl-i-khūd hama chīz,
Zar-i-ṣāfī u naqra u airzīn._

These lines are in Arabic in the introduction to the
_Anwār-i-suhailī_. (H.B.) The first is quoted by Ḥaidar (T.R.
p. 354) and in Field's _Dict. of Oriental Quotations_ (p.
160). I understand them to refer here to Ḥaidar's return to
his ancestral home and nearest kin as being a natural act.

[150] _tā'ib_ and _ṯarīqā_ suggest that Ḥaidar had become an
orthodox Musalmān in or about 933 AH. (1527 AD.).

[151] Abū'l-faẓl adds music to Ḥaidar's accomplishments and
Ḥaidar's own Prologue mentions yet others.

[152] _Cf._ T.R. _s.n._ and Gul-badan's H.N. _s.n._ Ḥaram
Begīm.

[153] _i.e._ Alexander of Macedon. For modern mention of
Central Asian claims to Greek descent _see i.a._ Kostenko, Von
Schwarz, Holdich and A. Durand. _Cf._ Burnes' _Kābul_ p. 203
for an illustration of a silver _patera_ (now in the V. and A.
Museum), once owned by ancestors of this Shāh Sulṯān Muḥammad.

[154] _Cf._ f. 6b note.

[155] _i.e._ Khān's child.

[156] The careful pointing of the Ḥai. MS. clears up earlier
confusion by showing the narrowing of the vowels from _ālāchī_
to _alacha_.

[157] The Elph. MS. (f. 7) writes _Aūng_, Khān's son, Prester
John's title, where other MSS. have Adik. Bābur's brevity has
confused his account of Sulṯān-nigār. Widowed of Maḥmūd in 900
AH. she married Adik; Adik, later, joined Shaibānī Khān but
left him in 908 AH. perhaps secretly, to join his own Qāzāq
horde. He was followed by his wife, apparently also making a
private departure. As Adik died shortly after 908 AH. his
daughters were born before that date and not after it as has
been understood. _Cf._ T.R. and G.B.'s H.N. _s.nn._; also
Mems. p. 14 and _Méms._ i, 24.

[158] Presumably by tribal custom, _yīnkālīk_, marriage with a
brother's widow. Such marriages seem to have been made
frequently for the protection of women left defenceless.

[159] Sa`īd's power to protect made him the refuge of several
kinswomen mentioned in the B.N. and the T.R. This mother and
child reached Kāshghar in 932 AH. (1526 AD.).

Here Bābur ends his [interpolated] account of his mother's
family and resumes that of his father's.

[160] Bābur uses a variety of phrases to express Lordship in
the Gate. Here he writes _aīshīknī bāshlātīb_; elsewhere,
_aīshīk ikhtiyārī qīlmāq_ and _mīnīng aīshīkīmdā ṣāḥib
ikhtiyārī qīlmāq_. Von Schwarz (p. 159) throws light on the
duties of the Lord of the Gate (_Aīshīk Āghāsī_). "Das Thür
... führt in eine grosse, vier-eckige, höhe Halle, deren Boden
etwa 2 m. über den Weg erhoben ist. In dieser Halle, welche
alle passieren muss, der durch das Thor eingeht, reitet oder
fahrt, ist die Thorwache placiert. Tagsüber sind die Thore
beständig öffen, nach Eintritt der Dunkelheit aber werden
dieselben geschlossen und die Schlüssel dem zuständigen
Polizeichef abgeliefert.... In den erwähnten Thorhallen nehmen
in den hoch unabhängigen Gebieten an Bazar-tagen haufig die
Richter Platz, um jedem der irgend ein Anliegen hat, so fort
Recht zu sprechen. Die zudiktierten Strafen werden auch gleich
in diesem selben locale vollzogen und eventuell die zum Hangen
verurteilten Verbrecher an den Deckbalken aufgehängt, so dass
die Besucher des Bazars unter den gehenkten durchpassieren
müssen."

[161] _bu khabarnī `Abdu'l-wahhāb shaghāwaldīn `arẓa-dāsht
qīlīb Mīrzāghā chāptūrdīlār._ This passage has been taken to
mean that the _shaghāwal_, _i.e._ chief scribe, was the
courier, but I think Bābur's words shew that the _shaghāwal's_
act preceded the despatch of the news. Moreover the only
accusative of the participle and of the verb is _khabarnī_.
`Abdu'l-wahhāb had been `Umar Shaikh's and was now Aḥmad's
officer in Khujand, on the main road for Aūrā-tīpā whence the
courier started on the rapid ride. The news may have gone
verbally to `Abdu'l-wahhāb and he have written it on to Aḥmad
and Abū-sa`īd.

[162] Measured from point to point even, the distance appears
to be over 500 miles. Concerning Bābā Khākī _see_ Ḥ.S. ii.
224; for rapid riding _i.a._ Kostenko iii, cap. Studs.

[163] _qūshūqlārnī yakhshī aītūrā īkān dūr._ Elph. MS. for
_qūshūq_, _tūyūk_. _Qūshūq_ is allowed, both by its root and
by usage, to describe improvisations of combined dance and
song. I understand from Bābur's tense, that his information
was hearsay only.

[164] _i.e._ of the military class. _Cf._ Vullers _s.n._ and
T.R. p. 301.

[165] The Hūma is a fabulous bird, overshadowing by whose
wings brings good-fortune. The couplet appears to be addressed
to some man, under the name Hūma, from whom Ḥasan of Yaq`ūb
hoped for benefit.

[166] _khāk-bīla_; the _Sanglākh_, (quoting this passage)
gives _khāk-p:l:k_ as the correct form of the word.

[167] _Cf._ f. 99b.

[168] One of Tīmūr's begs.

[169] _i.e._ uncle on the mother's side, of any degree, here a
grandmother's brother. The title appears to have been given
for life to men related to the ruling House. Parallel with it
are Madame Mère, Royal Uncle, Sulṯān Wālida.

[170] _kīm dīsā būlghāī_, perhaps meaning, "Nothing of service
to me."

[171] Wais the Thin.

[172] _Cf._ Chardin ed. Langlès v, 461 and ed. 1723 AD. v,
183.

[173] n.e. of Kāsān. _Cf._ f. 74. Ḥai MS., erroneously,
Samarkand.

[174] An occasional doubt arises as to whether a _ṯaurī_ of
the text is Arabic and dispraises or Turkī and laudatory.
_Cf._ Mems. p. 17 and _Méms._ i, 3.

[175] Elph. and Ḥai. MSS. _aftābachī_, water-bottle bearer on
journeys; Kehr (p. 82) _aftābchī_, ewer-bearer; Ilminsky (p.
19) _akhtachi_, squire or groom. Circumstances support
_aftābachī_. Yūnas was town-bred, his ewer-bearer would hardly
be the rough Mughūl, Qaṃbar-`alī, useful as an _aftābachī_.

[176] Bābur was Governor of Andijān and the month being June,
would be living out-of-doors. _Cf._ Ḥ.S. ii. 272 and Schuyler
ii, 37.

[177] To the word Sherīm applies Abū'l-ghāzī's explanation of
Nurūm and Ḥājīm, namely, that they are abbreviations of Nūr
and Ḥājī Muḥammad. It explains Sulṯānīm also when used (f. 72)
of Sl. Muḥammad Khānika but of Sulṯānīm as the name is common
with Bābur, Ḥaidar and Gul-badan, _i.e._ as a woman's,
Busbecq's explanation is the better, namely, that it means My
Sulṯān and is applied to a person of rank and means. This
explains other women's titles _e.g._ Khānīm, my Khān and Ākām
(Ākīm), My Lady. A third group of names formed like the last
by enclitic _'m_ (my), may be called names of affection,
_e.g._ Māhīm, My Moon, Jānīm, My Life. (_Cf._ Persian
equivalents.) Cf. Abū'l-ghāzī's _Shajarat-i-Turkī_ (Désmaisons
p. 272); and Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq's _Life and Letters_
(Forster and Daniel i, 38.)

[178] _Namāz-gāh_; generally an open terrace, with a wall
towards the Qibla and outside the town, whither on festival
days the people go out in crowds to pray. (Erskine.)

[179] _Bēglār (nīng) mīnī u wilāyatnī tāpshūrghūlārī dūr_;
a noticeably idiomatic sentence. _Cf._ f. 16b 1. 6 and 1. 7
for a repetition.

[180] Maḥmūd was in Tāshkīnt, Aḥmad in Kāshghār or on the
Āq-sū.

[181] The B.N. contains a considerable number of what are
virtually footnotes. They are sometimes, as here, entered in
the middle of a sentence and confuse the narrative; they are
introduced by _kīm_, a mere sign of parenthetical matter to
follow, and some certainly, known not to be Bābur's own, must
have stood first on the margin of his text. It seems best to
enter them as Author's notes.

[182] _i.e._ the author of the Hidāyat. _Cf._ f. 3b and note;
Blochmann _Āyīn-i-akbarī s.n. qulij_ and note; Bellew's
_Afghan Tribes_ p. 100, _Khilich_.

[183] Ar. dead, gone. The precision of Bābur's words
_khānwādalār_ and _yūsūnlūq_ is illustrated by the existence
in the days of Tīmūr, in Marghīnān, (Burhānu'd-dīn's township)
of a ruler named Aīlīk Khān, apparently a descendant of
Sātūq-būghrā Khān (b. 384 AH.-994 AD.) so that in Khwāja Qāẓī
were united two dynasties, (_khānwādalār_), one priestly,
perhaps also regal, the other of bye-gone ruling Khāns. Cf.
D'Herbélot p. 433; _Yarkand Mission_, Bellew p. 121;
_Taẕkirat-i Sulṯān Sātūq-būghrā Khān Ghāzī Pādshāh_ and
_Tārīkh-i-nāṣirī_ (Raverty _s.n._)

[184] _darzī_; Ḥ.S. _khaiyāṯ_.

[185] _bīr yīrgā_ (_qūyūb_), lit. to one place.

[186] _i.e._ reconstructed the earthern defences. _Cf._ Von
Schwarz _s.n._ loess.

[187] They had been sent, presumably, before `Umar Shaikh's
death, to observe Sl. Aḥmad M.'s advance. _Cf._ f. 6.

[188] The time-table of the Andijān Railway has a station,
Kouwa (Qabā).

[189] Bābur, always I think, calls this man Long Ḥasan;
Khwānd-amīr styles him Khwāja Ḥasan; he seems to be the
brother of one of `Umar Shaikh's fathers-in-law, Khwāja
Ḥusain.

[190] _bātqāq._ This word is underlined in the Elph. MS. by
_dil-dil_ and in the Ḥai. MS. by _jam-jama_. It is translated
in the W.-i-B. by _āb pur hīla_, water full of deceit; it is
our Slough of Despond. It may be remarked that neither Zenker
nor Steingass gives to _dil-dil_ or _jam-jama_ the meaning of
morass; the _Akbar-nāma_ does so. (H.B. ii, 112.)

[191] _ṯawīla ṯawīla ātlār yīghīlīb aūlā kīrīshtī_. I
understand the word _yīghīlīb_ to convey that the massing led
to the spread of the murrain.

[192] _jān tārātmāqlār_ _i.e._ as a gift to their over-lord.

[193] Perhaps, Bābur's maternal great-uncle. It would suit the
privileges bestowed on Tarkhāns if their title meant _Khān of
the Gifts_ (Turkī _tar_, gift). In the _Bāburnāma_, it
excludes all others. Most of Aḥmad's begs were Tarkhāns,
Arghūns and Chīngīz Khānids, some of them ancestors of later
rulers in Tatta and Sind. Concerning the Tarkhāns _see_ T.R.
p. 55 and note; A.N. (H.B. _s.n._) Elliot and Dowson's
_History of India_, 498.

[194] _Cf._ f. 6.

[195] _beg ātākā_, lit. beg for father.

[196] T.R. _s.n._ Ābā-bikr.

[197] _Cf._ f. 6b and note.

[198] _faqra u masākin_, _i.e._ those who have food for one
day and those who have none in hand. (Steingass.)

[199] For fashions of sitting, _see_ _Tawārīkh-i-guzīda
Naṣrat-nāma_ B.M. Or. 3222. Aḥmad would appear to have
maintained the deferential attitude by kneeling and sitting
back upon his heels.

[200] _bīr sūnkāk bār īkān dūr._ I understand that something
defiling must have been there, perhaps a bone.

[201] _Khwājanīng ham āyāghlārī ārādā īdī._

[202] _īlbāsūn_, a kind of mallard (_Abūshqa_), here perhaps a
popinjay. _Cf._ Ḥ.S. ii, 193 for Aḥmad's skill as an archer,
and Payne-Gallwey's _Cross-bow_ p. 225.

[203] _qabāq_, an archer's mark. Abū'l-ghāzī (Kāsān ed. p.
181. 5) mentions a hen (_tūqūq_) as a mark. _Cf._
Payne-Gallwey _l.c._ p. 231.

[204] _qīrghīcha, astar palumbarius._ (Shaw's Voc. Scully.)

[205] Perhaps, not quarrelsome.

[206] The T.R. (p. 116) attributes the rout to Shaibānī's
defection. The Ḥ.S. (ii, 192) has a varied and confused
account. An error in the T.R. trs. making Shaibānī plunder the
Mughūls, is manifestly clerical.

[207] _i.e._ condiment, _ce qu'on ajoute au pain_.

[208] _Cf._ f. 6.

[209] _qāzāqlār_; here, if Bābur's, meaning his conflicts with
Taṃbal, but as the Begīm may have been some time in Khujand,
the _qāzāqlār_ may be of Samarkand.

[210] All the (Turkī) Bābur-nāma MSS. and those examined of
the W.-i-B. by writing _aūltūrdī_ (killed) where I suggest to
read _aūlnūrdī_ (_devenir comme il faut_) state that Aḥmad
killed Qātāq. I hesitate to accept this (1) because the only
evidence of the murder is one diacritical point, the removal
of which lifts Aḥmad's reproach from him by his return to the
accepted rules of a polygamous household; (2) because no
murder of Qātāq is chronicled by Khwānd-amīr or other writers;
and (3) because it is incredible that a mild, weak man living
in a family atmosphere such as Bābur, Ḥaidar and Gul-badan
reproduce for us, should, while possessing facility for
divorce, kill the mother of four out of his five children.

Reprieve must wait however until the word _tīrīklīk_ is
considered. This Erskine and de C. have read, with
consistency, to mean _life-time_, but if _aūlnūrdī_ be read in
place of _aūltūrdī_ (killed), _tīrīklīk_ may be read,
especially in conjunction with Bābur's _`āshīqlīklār_, as
meaning _living power_ or _ascendancy_. Again, if read as from
_tīrik_, a small arrow and a consuming pain, _tīrīklīk_ may
represent Cupid's darts and wounds. Again it might be taken as
from _tīrāmāk_, to hinder, or forbid.

Under these considerations, it is legitimate to reserve
judgment on Aḥmad.

[211] It is customary amongst Turks for a bride, even amongst
her own family, to remain veiled for some time after marriage;
a child is then told to pluck off the veil and run away, this
tending, it is fancied, to the child's own success in
marriage. (Erskine.)

[212] Bābur's anecdote about Jānī Beg well illustrates his
caution as a narrator. He appears to tell it as one who
knowing the point of a story, leads up to it. He does not
affirm that Jānī Beg's habits were strange or that the envoy
was an athlete but that both things must have been (_īkān
dūr_) from what he had heard or to suit the point of the
anecdote. Nor does he affirm as of his own knowledge that
Aūzbegs calls a strong man (his _zor kīshī_) a _būkuh_ (bull)
but says it is so understood (_dīr īmīsh_).

[213] _Cf._ f. 170.

[214] The points of a _tīpūchāq_ are variously stated. If the
root notion of the name be movement (_tīp_), Erskine's
observation, that these horses are taught special paces, is to
the point. To the verb _tīprāmāq_ dictionaries assign the
meaning of _movement with agitation of mind_, an explanation
fully illustrated in the B.N. The verb describes fittingly the
dainty, nervous action of some trained horses. Other meanings
assigned to _tūpūchāq_ are roadster, round-bodied and swift.

[215] _Cf._ f. 37b.

[216] _Cf._ f. 6b and note.

[217] _mashaf kitābat qīlūr īdī._

[218] _Cf._ f. 36 and Ḥ.S. ii. 271.

[219] _sīnkīlīsī ham mūndā īdī._

[220] _khāna-wādalār_, _viz._ the Chaghatāī, the Tīmūrid in
two Mīrān-shāhī branches, `Alī's and Bābur's and the Bāī-qarā
in Harāt.

[221] _aūghlāqchī_ _i.e._ player at _kūk-būrā_. Concerning the
game, _see_ Shaw's Vocabulary; Schuyler i, 268; Kostenko iii,
82; Von Schwarz _s.n. baiga_.

[222] Ẕū'l-ḥijja 910 AH.-May 1505 AD. _Cf._ f. 154. This
statement helps to define what Bābur reckoned his expeditions
into Hindūstān.

[223] Aīkū (Ayāgū)-tīmūr _Tarkhān Arghūn_ d. _circa_ 793
AH.-1391 AD. He was a friend of Tīmūr. _See_ Z̤.N. i, 525 etc.

[224] _āndāq ikhlāq u aṯawārī yūq īdī kīm dīsā būlghāī._ The
_Shāh-nāma_ cap. xviii, describes him as a spoiled child and
man of pleasure, caring only for eating, drinking and hunting.
The _Shaibānī-nāma_ narrates his various affairs.

[225] _i.e._, _cutlass_, a parallel sobriquet to _qīlīch_,
sword. If it be correct to translate by "cutlass," the
nickname may have prompted Bābur's brief following comment,
_mardāna īkān dūr_, _i.e._ Qulī Muḥ. must have been brave
because known as the Cutlass. A common variant in MSS. from
_Būghdā_ is Bāghdād; Bāghdād was first written in the Ḥai. MS.
but is corrected by the scribe to _būghdā_.

[226] So pointed in the Ḥai. MS. I surmise it a clan-name.