Chapter XLII: Section III: Hindūstān (16)

[1121] Amongst noticeable omissions from Bābur's list of Herī
celebrities are Mīr Khwānd Shāh ("Mirkhond"), his grandson
Khwānd-amīr, Ḥusain _Kashifī_ and Muinu'd-dīn al Zamjī, author
of a _History of Harāt_ which was finished in 897 AH.

[1122] Sa'du`d-dīn Mas`ūd, son of `Umar, was a native of Taft
in Yazd, whence his cognomen (Bahār-i-`ajam); he died in 792
AH.-1390 AD. (Ḥ.S. iii, 59, 343; T.R. p. 236; Rieu's Pers.
Cat. pp. 352, 453).

[1123] These are those connected with grammar and rhetoric
(Erskine).

[1124] This is one of the four principal sects of
Muḥammadanism (Erskine).

[1125] T.R. p. 235, for Shāh Ismā`īl's murders in Herī.

[1126] Superintendent of Police, who examines weights,
measures and provisions, also prevents gambling, drinking and
so on.

[1127] f. 137.

[1128] The rank of Mujtahid, which is not bestowed by any
individual or class of men but which is the result of slow and
imperceptible opinion, finally prevailing and universally
acknowledged, is one of the greatest peculiarities of the
religion of Persia. The Mujtahid is supposed to be elevated
above human fears and human enjoyments, and to have a certain
degree of infallibility and inspiration. He is consulted with
reverence and awe. There is not always a Mujtahid necessarily
existing. _See_ Kaempfer, _Amoenitates Exoticae_ (Erskine).

[1129] _muḥaddas̤_, one versed in the traditional sayings and
actions of Muḥammad.

[1130] Ḥ.S. iii, 340.

[1131] B.M. Or. 218 (Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 350). The Commentary
was made in order to explain the _Nafaḥāt_ to Jāmī's son.

[1132] He was buried by the Mullā's side.

[1133] Amīr Burhānu'd-dīn `Atā'u'l-lāh bin Maḥmūdu'l-ḥusainī
was born in Nishāpūr but known as Mashhadī because he retired
to that holy spot after becoming blind.

[1134] f. 144_b_ and note. Qāẓī Ikhtiyāru'd-dīn Ḥasan (Ḥ.S.
iii, 347) appears to be the Khwāja Ikhtiyār of the
_Āyīn-i-akbarī_, and, if so, will have taken professional
interest in the script, since Abū'l-faẓl describes him as a
distinguished calligrapher in Sl. Ḥusain M.'s presence
(Blochmann, p. 101).

[1135] Saifu'd-dīn (Sword of the Faith) Aḥmad, presumably.

[1136] A sister of his, Apāq Bega, the wife of `Alī-sher's
brother Darwīsh-i-`alī _kitābdār_, is included as a poet in
the _Biography of Ladies_ (Sprenger's Cat. p. 11). Amongst the
20 women named one is a wife of Shaibāq Khān, another a
daughter of Hilālī.

[1137] He was the son of Khw. Ni`amatu'l-lāh, one of Sl.
Abū-sa`īd M.'s wazīrs. When dying _aet._ 70 (923 AH.), he made
this chronogram on his own death, "With 70 steps he measured
the road to eternity." The name Āsaf, so frequent amongst
wazīrs, is that of Solomon's wazīr.

[1138] Other interpretations are open; _wādī_, taken as
_river_, might refer to the going on from one poem to another,
the stream of verse; or it might be taken as _desert_, with
disparagement of collections.

[1139] Maulānā Jamālu'd-dīn _Banā'i_ was the son of a
_sabz-banā_, an architect, a good builder.

[1140] Steingass's Dictionary allows convenient reference for
examples of metres.

[1141] Other jokes made by _Banā'i_ at the expense of Nawā'i
are recorded in the various sources.

[1142] Bābur saw Banā'i in Samarkand at the end of 901 AH.
(1496 AD. f. 38).

Here Dr. Leyden's translation ends; one other fragment which
he translated will be found under the year 925 AH. (Erskine).
This statement allows attention to be drawn to the inequality
of the shares of the work done for the Memoirs of 1826 by
Leyden and by Erskine. It is just to Mr. Erskine, but a
justice he did not claim, to point out that Dr. Leyden's share
is slight both in amount and in quality; his essential
contribution was the initial stimulus he gave to the great
labours of his collaborator.

[1143] So of Lope de Vega (b. 1562; d. 1635 AD.), "It became a
common proverb to praise a good thing by calling it _a Lope_,
so that jewels, diamonds, pictures, _etc._ were raised into
esteem by calling them his" (Montalvan in Ticknor's _Spanish
Literature_ ii, 270).

[1144] Maulānā Saifī, known as 'Arūẓī from his mastery in
prosody (Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 525).

[1145] Here pedantry will be implied in the mullahood.

[1146] _Khamsatīn_ (_infra_ f. 180_b_ and note).

[1147] This appears to mean that not only the sparse
diacritical pointing common in writing Persian was dealt with
but also the fuller Arabic.

[1148] He is best known by his pen-name Hātifī. The B.M. and
I.O. have several of his books.

[1149] _Khamsatīn._ Hātifī regarded himself as the successor
of Niẕāmī and Khusrau; this, taken with Bābur's use of the
word _Khamsatīn_ on f. 7 and here, and Saifī's just above,
leads to the opinion that the _Khamsatīn_ of the _Bābur-nāma_
are always those of Niẕāmī and Khusrau, _the_ Two Quintets
(Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 653).

[1150] Maulānā Mīr Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain of Nishāpūr (Rieu l.c.
index s.n.; Ethé's I.O. Cat. pp. 433 and 1134).

[1151] One of his couplets on good and bad fortune is
striking; "The fortune of men is like a sand-glass; one hour
up, the next down." _See_ D'Herbélot in his article (Erskine).

[1152] Ḥ.S. iii, 336; Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 1089.

[1153] Āhī (sighing) was with Shāh-i-gharīb before
Ibn-i-ḥusain and to him dedicated his _dīwān_. The words
_sāḥib-i-dīwān_ seem likely to be used here with double
meaning _i.e._ to express authorship and finance office.
Though Bābur has made frequent mention of authorship of a
_dīwān_ and of office in the _Dīwān_, he has not used these
words hitherto in either sense; there may be a play of words
here.

[1154] Muḥammad _Ṣāliḥ_ Mīrzā _Khwārizmī_, author of the
_Shaibānī-nāma_ which manifestly is the poem (_mas̤nawī_)
mentioned below. This has been published with a German
translation by Professor Vambéry and has been edited with
Russian notes by Mr. Platon Melioransky (Rieu's Turkish Cat.
p. 74; Ḥ.S. iii, 301).

[1155] Jāmī's _Subḥatu'l-abrār_ (Rosary of the righteous).

[1156] The reference may be to things said by Muḥ. _Ṣāliḥ_ the
untruth of which was known to Bābur through his own part in
the events. A crying instance of misrepresentation is Ṣāliḥ's
assertion, in rhetorical phrase, that Bābur took booty in
jewels from Khusrau Shāh; other instances concern the affairs
of The Khāns and of Bābur in Transoxiana (f. 124b and index
_s.nn._ Aḥmad and Maḥmūd _Chaghatāī_ _etc._; T.R. index
_s.nn._)

[1157] The name Fat-land (Taṃbal-khāna) has its parallel in
Fat-village (Sīmīz-kīnt) a name of Samarkand; in both cases
the nick-name is accounted for by the fertility of irrigated
lands. We have not been able to find the above-quoted couplet
in the _Shaibānī-nāma_ (Vambéry); needless to say, the pun is
on the nick-name (_taṃbal_, fat) of Sl. Aḥmad _Taṃbal_.

[1158] Muḥ. Ṣāliḥ does not show well in his book; he is
sometimes coarse, gloats over spoil whether in human captives
or goods, and, his good-birth not-forbidding, is a servile
flatterer. Bābur's word "heartless" is just; it must have had
sharp prompting from Ṣāliḥ's rejoicing in the downfall of The
Khāns, Bābur's uncles.

[1159] the Longer (Ḥ.S. iii, 349).

[1160] Maulānā Badru'd-dīn (Full-moon of the Faith) whose
pen-name was Hilālī, was of Astarābād. It may be noted that
two dates of his death are found, 936 and 939 AH. the first
given by de Saçy, the second by Rieu, and that the second
seems to be correct (_Not. et Extr._ p. 285; Pers. Cat. p.
656; Hammer's _Geschichte_ p. 368).

[1161] B.M. Add. 7783.

[1162] Opinions differ as to the character of this
work:—Bābur's is uncompromising; von Hammer (p. 369) describes
it as "_ein romantisches Gedicht, welches eine sentimentale
Männerliebe behandelt_"; Sprenger (p. 427), as a mystical
_mas̤nawī_ (poem); Rieu finds no spiritual symbolism in it and
condemns it (Pers. Cat. p. 656 and, quoting the above passage
of Bābur, p. 1090); Ethé, who has translated it, takes it to
be mystical and symbolic (I.O. Cat. p. 783).

[1163] Of four writers using the pen-name Ahlī
(Of-the-people), _viz._ those of Turān, Shīrāz, Tarshīz (in
Khurāsān), and 'Irāq, the one noticed here seems to be he of
Tarshīz. Ahlī of Tarshīz was the son of a locally-known pious
father and became a Superintendent of the Mint; Bābur's `_āmī_
may refer to Ahlī's first patrons, tanners and shoe-makers by
writing for whom he earned his living (Sprenger, p. 319).
Erskine read _'ummī_, meaning that Ahlī could neither read nor
write; de Courteille that he was _un homme du commun_.

[1164] He was an occasional poet (Ḥ.S. iii, 350 and iv, 118;
Rieu's Pers. Cat. p. 531; Ethé's I.O. Cat. p. 428).

[1165] Ustād Kamālu'd-dīn Bih-zād (well-born; Ḥ.S. iii, 350).
Work of his is reproduced in Dr. Martin's _Painting and
Painters of Persia_ of 1913 AD.

[1166] This sentence is not in the Elph. MS.

[1167] Perhaps he could reproduce tunes heard and say where
heard.

[1168] M. Belin quotes quatrains exchanged by `Alī-sher and
this man (_J. Asiatique_ xvii, 199).

[1169] _i.e._ from his own camp to Bābā Ilāhī.

[1170] f. 121 has a fuller quotation. On the dual succession,
_see_ T.R. p. 196.

[1171] Elph. MS. f. 144; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 148_b_ and 217 f.
125_b_; Mems. p. 199.

[1172] News of Ḥusain's death in 911 AH. (f. 163b) did not
reach Bābur till 912 AH. (f. 184_b_).

[1173] Lone-meadow (f. 195_b_). Jahāngīr will have come over
the `Irāq-pass, Bābur's baggage-convoy, by Shibr-tū. Cf. T. R.
p. 199 for Bābur and Jahāngīr at this time.

[1174] Servant-of-the-mace; but perhaps, Qilinj-chāq,
swords-man.

[1175] One of four, a fourth. Chār-yak may be a component of
the name of the well-known place, n. of Kābul, "Chārikār"; but
also the _Chār_ in it may be Hindūstānī and refer to the
permits-to-pass after tolls paid, given to caravans halted
there for taxation. Raverty writes it Chārlākār.

[1176] Amongst the disruptions of the time was that of the
Khānate of Qībchāq (Erskine).

[1177] The nearest approach to _kipkī_ we have found in
Dictionaries is _kupaki_, which comes close to the Russian
_copeck_. Erskine notes that the _casbeké_ is an oval copper
coin (Tavernier, p. 121); and that a _tūmān_ is a myriad
(10,000). _Cf._ Manucci (Irvine), i, 78 and iv, 417 note;
Chardin iv, 278.

[1178] Muḥarram 912 AH.-June 1506 AD. (Ḥ.S. iii, 353).

[1179] I take Murgh-āb here to be the fortified place at the
crossing of the river by the main n.e. road; Bābur when in
Dara-i-bām was on a tributary of the Murgh-āb. Khwānd-amīr
records that the information of his approach was hailed in the
Mīrzās' camp as good news (Ḥ.S. iii, 354).

[1180] Bābur gives the Mīrzās precedence by age, ignoring
Muz̤affar's position as joint-ruler.

[1181] _mubālgha qīldī_; perhaps he laid stress on their
excuse; perhaps did more than was ceremonially incumbent on
him.

[1182] _`irq_, to which estrade answers in its sense of a
carpet on which stands a raised seat.

[1183] Perhaps it was a recess, resembling a gate-way (W.-i-B.
I.O. 215 f. 151 and 217 f. 127_b_). The impression conveyed by
Bābur's words here to the artist who in B.M. Or. 3714, has
depicted the scene, is that there was a vestibule opening into
the tent by a door and that the Mīrzā sat near that door. It
must be said however that the illustration does not closely
follow the text, in some known details.

[1184] _shīra_, fruit-syrups, sherbets. Bābur's word for wine
is _chāghīr_ (_q.v._ index) and this reception being public,
wine could hardly have been offered in Sunnī Herī. Bābur's
strictures can apply to the vessels of precious metal he
mentions, these being forbidden to Musalmāns; from his
reference to the Tūra it would appear to repeat the same
injunctions. Bābur broke up such vessels before the battle of
Kanwāha (f. 315). Shāh-i-jahān did the same; when sent by his
father Jahāngīr to reconquer the Deccan (1030 AH.-1621 AD.) he
asked permission to follow the example of his ancestor Bābur,
renounced wine, poured his stock into the Chaṃbal, broke up
his cups and gave the fragments to the poor (_`Amal-i-ṣāliḥ_,
Hughes' _Dict. of Islām_ quoting the _Hidāyah_ and _Mishkāt_,
_s.nn._ Drinkables, Drinking-vessels, and Gold; Lane's _Modern
Egyptians_ p. 125 n.).

[1185] This may be the Rabāṯ-i-sanghī of some maps, on a near
road between the "Forty-daughters" and Harāt; or Bābur may
have gone out of his direct way to visit Rabāṯ-i-sang-bast, a
renowned halting place at the Carfax of the Herī-T̤ūs and
Nishāpūr-Mashhad roads, built by one Arslān _Jazāla_ who lies
buried near, and rebuilt with great magnificence by `Alī-sher
_Nawā'i_ (Daulat-shāh, Browne, p. 176).

[1186] The wording here is confusing to those lacking family
details. The paternal-aunt begīms can be Pāyanda-sulṯān
(named), Khadīja-sulṯān, Apāq-sulṯān, and Fakhr-jahān Begīms,
all daughters of Abū-sa`īd. The Apāq Begīm named above (also
on f. 168_b_ _q.v._) does not now seem to me to be Abū-sa`īd's
daughter (Gul-badan, trs. Bio. App.).

[1187] _yūkūnmāī._ Unless all copies I have seen reproduce a
primary clerical mistake of Bābur's, the change of salutation
indicated by there being no kneeling with Apāq Begīm, points
to a _nuance_ of etiquette. Of the verb _yūkūnmāk_ it may be
noted that it both describes the ceremonious attitude of
intercourse, _i.e._ kneeling and sitting back on both heels
(Shaw), and also the kneeling on meeting. From Bābur's phrase
_Begīm bīla yūkūnūb_ [having kneeled with], it appears that
each of those meeting made the genuflection; I have not found
the phrase used of other meetings; it is not the one used when
a junior or a man of less degree meets a senior or superior in
rank (_e.g._ Khusrau and Bābur f. 123, or Bābur and
Badī`u'z-zamān f. 186).

[1188] Musalmāns employ a set of readers who succeed one
another in reading (reciting) the Qorān at the tombs of their
men of eminence. This reading is sometimes continued day and
night. The readers are paid by the rent of lands or other
funds assigned for the purpose (Erskine).

[1189] A suspicion that Khadīja put poison in Jahāngīr's wine
may refer to this occasion (T.R. p. 199).

[1190] These are _jharokha-i-darsān_, windows or balconies
from which a ruler shews himself to the people.

[1191] Mas`ūd was then blind.

[1192] Bābur first drank wine not earlier than 917 AH. (f. 49
and note), therefore when nearing 30.

[1193] _aīchkīlār_, French, _intérieur_.

[1194] The obscure passage following here is discussed in
Appendix I, _On the weeping-willows of_ f. 190_b_.

[1195] Here this may well be a gold-embroidered garment.

[1196] This, the tomb of Khwāja `Abdu'l-lāh _Anṣari_ (d. 481
AH.) stands some 2m. north of Herī. Bābur mentions one of its
numerous attendants of his day, Kamālu'd-dīn Ḥusain
_Gāzur-gāhī_. Mohan Lall describes it as he saw it in 1831;
says the original name of the locality was Kār-zār-gāh,
place-of-battle; and, as perhaps his most interesting detail,
mentions that Jalālu'd-dīn _Rūmī's Maṣnawī_ was recited every
morning near the tomb and that people fainted during the
invocation (_Travels in the Panj-āb_ etc. p. 252). Colonel
Yate has described the tomb as he saw it some 50 years later
(JASB 1887); and explains the name Gāzur-gāh (lit.
bleaching-place) by the following words of an inscription
there found; "His tomb (Anṣarī's) is a washing-place
(_gāzur-gāh_) wherein the cloud of the Divine forgiveness
washes white the black records of men" (p. 88 and p. 102).

[1197] _juāz-i-kaghazlār_ (f. 47_b_ and note).

[1198] The _Ḥabību's-siyār_ and Ḥai. MS. write this name with
medial "round _hā_"; this allows it to be Kahad-stān, a
running-place, race-course. Khwānd-amīr and Daulat-shāh call
it a meadow (_aūlāng_); the latter speaks of a feast as held
there; it was Shaibānī's head-quarters when he took Harāt.

[1199] _var._ Khatīra; either an enclosure (_qūrūq_?) or a
fine and lofty building.

[1200] This may have been a usual halting-place on a journey
(_safar_) north. It was built by Ḥusain _Bāī-qarā_, overlooked
hills and fields covered with _arghwān_ (f. 137_b_) and seems
once to have been a Paradise (Mohan Lall, p. 256).

[1201] Jāmī's tomb was in the `Īd-gah of Herī (Ḥ.S. ii, 337),
which appears to be the Muṣalla (Praying-place) demolished by
Amīr `Abdu'r-raḥmān in the 19th century. Col. Yate was shewn a
tomb in the Muṣalla said to be Jāmī's and agreeing in the age,
81, given on it, with Jāmī's at death, but he found a _crux_
in the inscription (pp. 99, 106).

[1202] This may be the Muṣalla (Yate, p. 98).

[1203] This place is located by the Ḥ.S. at 5 _farsakh_ from
Herī (de Meynard at 25 _kilomètres_). It appears to be rather
an abyss or fissure than a pond, a crack from the sides of
which water trickles into a small bason in which dwells a
mysterious fish, the beholding of which allows the attainment
of desires. The story recalls Wordsworth's undying fish of
Bow-scale Tarn. (_Cf._ Ḥ.S. Bomb. ed. ii, _Khatmat_ p. 20 and
de Meynard, _Journal Asiatique_ xvi, 480 and note.)

[1204] This is on maps to the north of Herī.

[1205] d. 232 AH. (847 AD.). _See_ Yate, p. 93.

[1206] Imām Fakhru'd-dīn _Raẓī_ (de Meynard, _Journal
Asiatique_ xvi, 481).

[1207] d. 861 AH.-1457 AD. Guhār-shād was the wife of Tīmūr's
son Shāhrukh. _See_ Mohan Lall, p. 257 and Yate, p. 98.

[1208] This Marigold-garden may be named after
Hārūnu'r-rashīd's wife Zubaida.

[1209] This will be the place n. of Herī from which Maulānā
Jalālu'd-dīn _Pūrānī_ (d. 862 AH.) took his cognomen, as also
Shaikh Jamālu'd-dīn Abū-sa`īd _Pūrān_ (f. 206) who was visited
there by Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, ill-treated by Shaibānī (f. 206),
left Herī for Qandahār, and there died, through the fall of a
roof, in 921 AH. (Ḥ.S. iii, 345; _Khazīnatu'l-asfiya_ ii,
321).

[1210] His tomb is dated 35 or 37 AH. (656 or 658 AD.; Yate,
p. 94).

[1211] Mālān was a name of the Herī-rūd (_Journal Asiatique_
xvi, 476, 511; Mohan Lall, p. 279; Ferrier, p. 261; _etc._).

[1212] Yate, p. 94.

[1213] The position of this building between the Khūsh and
Qībchāq Gates (de Meynard, l.c. p. 475) is the probable
explanation of the variant, noted just below, of Kushk for
Khūsh as the name of the Gate. The _Tārīkh-i-rashīdī_ (p.
429), mentions this kiosk in its list of the noted ones of the
world.

[1214] var. Kushk (de Meynard, l.c. p. 472).

[1215] The reference here is, presumably, to Bābur's own
losses of Samarkand and Andijān.

[1216] Ākā or Āgā is used of elder relations; a _yīnkā_ or
_yīngā_ is the wife of an uncle or elder brother; here it
represents the widow of Bābur's uncle Aḥmad _Mīrān-shāhī_.
From it is formed the word _yīnkālīk_, levirate.

[1217] The almshouse or convent was founded here in Tīmūr's
reign (de Meynard, l.c. p. 500).

[1218] _i.e._ No smoke without fire.

[1219] This name may be due to the splashing of water. A
Langar which may be that of Mīr Ghiyās̤, is shewn in maps in
the Bām valley; from it into the Herī-rūd valley Bābur's route
may well have been the track from that Langar which, passing
the villages on the southern border of Gharjistān, goes to
Ahangarān.

[1220] This escape ought to have been included in the list of
Bābur's transportations from risk to safety given in my note
to f. 96.

[1221] The right and wrong roads are shewn by the Indian
Survey and French Military maps. The right road turns off from
the wrong one, at Daulat-yār, to the right, and mounts
diagonally along the south rampart of the Herī-rūd valley, to
the Zirrīn-pass, which lies above the Bakkak-pass and carries
the regular road for Yaka-aūlāng. It must be said, however,
that we are not told whether Yaka-aūlāng was Qāsim Beg's
objective; the direct road for Kābul from the Herī-rūd valley
is not over the Zirrīn-pass but goes from Daulat-yār by
"Āq-zarat", and the southern flank of Koh-i-bābā (bābār) to
the Unai-pass (Holdich's _Gates of India_ p. 262).

[1222] _circa_ Feb. 14th 1507, Bābur's 24th birthday.

[1223] The Hazāras appear to have been wintering outside their
own valley, on the Ghūr-bund road, in wait for travellers
[_cf._ T.R. p. 197]. They have been perennial highwaymen on
the only pass to the north not closed entirely in winter.

[1224] The Ghūr-bund valley is open in this part; the Hazāras
may have been posted on the naze near the narrows leading into
the Janglīk and their own side valleys.

[1225] Although the verses following here in the text are with
the Turkī Codices, doubt cannot but be felt as to their
authenticity. They do not fit verbally to the sentence they
follow; they are a unique departure from Bābur's plain prose
narrative and nothing in the small Hazāra affair shews cause
for such departure; they differ from his usual topics in their
bombast and comment on his men (_cf._ f. 194 for comment on
shirking begs). They appear in the 2nd Persian translation
(217 f. 134) in Turkī followed by a prose Persian rendering
(_khalāṣa_). They are not with the 1st Pers. trs. (215 f.
159), the text of which runs on with a plain prose account
suiting the size of the affair, as follows:—"The braves,
seeing their (the Hazāras) good soldiering, had stopped
surprised; wishing to hurry them I went swiftly past them,
shouting 'Move on! move on!' They paid me no attention. When,
in order to help, I myself attacked, dismounting and going up
the hill, they shewed courage and emulation in following.
Getting to the top of the pass, we drove that band off,
killing many, capturing others, making their families prisoner
and plundering their goods." This is followed by "I myself
collected" _etc._ as in the Turkī text after the verse. It
will be seen that the above extract is not a translation of
the verse; no translator or even summariser would be likely to
omit so much of his original. It is just a suitably plain
account of a trivial matter.

[1226] _Gulistān_ Cap. I. Story 4.

[1227] Bābur seems to have left the Ghūr-bund valley, perhaps
pursuing the Hazāras towards Janglīk, and to have come "by
ridge and valley" back into it for Ushtur-shahr. I have not
located Tīmūr Beg's Langar. As has been noted already (_q.v._
index) the Ghūr-bund narrows are at the lower end of the
valley; they have been surmised to be the fissured rampart of
an ancient lake.

[1228] Here this may represent a guard- or toll-house (Index
_s.n._).

[1229] As _yūrūn_ is a patch, the bearer of the sobriquet
might be Black Aḥmad the repairing-tailor.

[1230] _Second Afghān War_, Map of Kābul and its environs.

[1231] I understand that the arrival undiscovered was a result
of riding in single-file and thus shewing no black mass.

[1232] or _gharbīcha_, which Mr. Erskine explains to be the
four plates of mail, made to cover the back, front and sides;
the _jība_ would thus be the wadded under-coat to which they
are attached.

[1233] This prayer is composed of extracts from the Qorān
(_Méms_, i, 454 note); it is reproduced as it stands in Mr.
Erskine's wording (p. 216).

[1234] Bābur's reference may well be to Sanjar's birth as well
as to his being the holder of Nīngnahār. Sanjar's father had
been thought worthy to mate with one of the six Badakhshī
begīms whose line traced back to Alexander (T. R. p. 107); and
his father was a Barlās, seemingly of high family.

[1235] It may be inferred that what was done was for the
protection of the two women.

[1236] Not a bad case could have been made out for now putting
a Tīmūrid in Bābur's place in Kābul; _viz._ that he was
believed captive in Herī and that Mīrzā Khān was an effective
_locum tenens_ against the Arghūns. Haidar sets down what in
his eyes pleaded excuse for his father Muḥ. Ḥusain (T.R. p.
198).

[1237] _qūsh_, not even a little plough-land being given
(_chand qulba dihya_, 215 f. 162).

[1238] They were sons of Sl. Aḥmad Khān _Chaghatāī_.

[1239] f. 160.

[1240] Ḥaidar's opinion of Bābur at this crisis is of the more
account that his own father was one of the rebels let go to
the mercy of the "avenging servitor". When he writes of Bābur,
as being, at a time so provoking, gay, generous, affectionate,
simple and gentle, he sets before us insight and temper in
tune with Kipling's "If...."

[1241] Bābur's distinction, made here and elsewhere, between
Chaghatāī and Mughūl touches the old topic of the right or
wrong of the term "Mughūl dynasty". What he, as also Ḥaidar,
allows said is that if Bābur were to describe his mother in
tribal terms, he would say she was half-Chaghatāī,
half-Mughūl; and that if he so described himself, he would say
he was half-Tīmūrid-Turk, half-Chaghatāī. He might have called
the dynasty he founded in India Turkī, might have called it
Tīmūriya; he would never have called it Mughūl, after his
maternal grandmother.

Ḥaidar, with imperfect classification, divides Chīngīz Khān's
"Mughūl horde" into Mughūls and Chaghatāīs and of this
Chaghatāī offtake says that none remained in 953 _AH._ (1547
_AD._) except the rulers, _i.e._ sons of Sl. Aḥmad Khan (T.R.
148). Manifestly there was a body of Chaghatāīs with Bābur and
there appear to have been many near his day in the Herī
region,—`Alī-sher _Nawā`i_ the best known.

Bābur supplies directions for naming his dynasty when, as
several times, he claims to rule in Hindūstān where the "Turk"
had ruled (f. 233_b_, f. 224_b_, f. 225). To call his dynasty
Mughūl seems to blot out the centuries, something as we should
do by calling the English Teutons. If there is to be such
blotting-out, Abū'l-ghāzī would allow us, by his tables of
Turk descent, to go further, to the primal source of all the
tribes concerned, to Turk, son of Japhet. This traditional
descent is another argument against "Mughūl dynasty."

[1242] They went to Qandahār and there suffered great
privation.

[1243] Bārān seems likely to be the Baian of some maps.
Gul-i-bahār is higher up on the Panjhīr road. Chāsh-tūpa will
have been near-by; its name might mean _Hill of the heap of
winnowed-corn_.

[1244] f. 136.

[1245] Answer; Visions of his father's sway.

[1246] Elph. MS. f. 161; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 164 and 217 f.
139_b_; Mems. p. 220.

[1247] The narrative indicates the location of the tribe, the
modern Ghilzāī or Ghilzī.

[1248] Sih-kāna lies s.e. of Shorkach, and near Kharbīn.
Sar-i-dih is about 25 or 30 miles s. of Ghaznī (Erskine). A
name suiting the pastoral wealth of the tribe _viz._
Mesh-khail, Sheep-tribe, is shewn on maps somewhat s. from
Kharbīn. _Cf._ Steingass _s.n._ Masht.

[1249] _yāghrūn_, whence _yāghrūnchī_, a diviner by help of
the shoulder-blades of sheep. The defacer of the Elphinstone
Codex has changed _yāghrūn_ to _yān_, side, thus making Bābur
turn his side and not his half-back to the north, altering his
direction, and missing what looks like a jesting reference to
his own divination of the road. The Pole Star was seen,
presumably, before the night became quite black.

[1250] From the subsequent details of distance done, this must
have been one of those good _yīghāch_ of perhaps 5-6 miles,
that are estimated by the ease of travel on level lands (Index
_s.v._ _yīghāch_).

[1251] I am uncertain about the form of the word translated by
"whim". The Elph. and Ḥai. Codices read _khūd d:lma_ (altered
in the first to _y:lma_); Ilminsky (p. 257) reads _khūd l:ma_
(de C. ii, 2 and note); Erskine has been misled by the Persian
translation (215 f. 164_b_ and 217 f. 139_b_). Whether
_khūd-dilma_ should be read, with the sense of "out of their
own hearts" (spontaneously), or whether _khūd-yalma_, own pace
(Turkī, _yalma_, pace) the contrast made by Bābur appears to
be between an unpremeditated gallop and one premeditated for
haste. Persian _dalama_, tarantula, also suggests itself.

[1252] _chāpqūn_, which is the word translated by gallop
throughout the previous passage. The Turkī verb _chāpmāq_ is
one of those words-of-all-work for which it is difficult to
find a single English equivalent. The verb _qūīmāq_ is
another; in its two occurrences here the first may be a
metaphor from the pouring of molten metal; the second
expresses that permission to gallop off for the raid without
which to raid was forbidden. The root-notion of _qūīmāq_ seems
to be letting-go, that of _chāpmāq_, rapid motion.

[1253] _i.e._ on the raiders' own road for Kābul.

[1254] f. 198_b_.

[1255] The Fifth taken was manifestly at the ruler's
disposition. In at least two places when dependants send gifts
to Bābur the word [_tassaduq_] used might be rendered as
"gifts for the poor". Does this mean that the _pādshāh_ in
receiving this stands in the place of the Imām of the Qorān
injunction which orders one-fifth of spoil to be given to the
Imām for the poor, orphans, and travellers,—four-fifths being
reserved for the troops? (Qorān, Sale's ed. 1825, i, 212 and
Hidāyat, Book ix).

[1256] This may be the sum of the separate items of sheep
entered in account-books by the commissaries.

[1257] Here this comprehensive word will stand for deer, these
being plentiful in the region.

[1258] Three Turkī MSS. write _ṣīghīnīb_, but the Elph. MS.
has had this changed to _yītīb_, having reached.

[1259] _bāsh-sīz_, lit. without head, doubtless a pun on
Aūz-beg (own beg, leaderless). B.M. Or. 3714 shows an artist's
conception of this _tart-part_.

[1260] Bābā Khākī is a fine valley, some 13 _yīghāch_ e. of
Herī (f. 13) where the Herī sulṯāns reside in the heats (_J.
Asiatique_ xvi, 501, de Meynard's article; Ḥ.S. iii, 356).

[1261] f. 172_b_.

[1262] _aūkhshātā almādī._ This is one of many passages which
Ilminsky indicates he has made good by help of the Memoirs (p.
261; _Mémoires_ ii, 6).

[1263] They are given also on f. 172.

[1264] This may be Sirakhs or Sirakhsh (Erskine).

[1265] _Tūshlīq tūshdīn yūrdī bīrūrlār._ At least two meanings
can be given to these words. Circumstances seem to exclude the
one in which the Memoirs (p. 222) and _Mémoires_ (ii, 7) have
taken them here, _viz._ "each man went off to shift for
himself", and "chacun s'en alla de son côté et s'enfuit comme
il put", because Ẕū'n-nūn did not go off, and the Mīrzās broke
up after his defeat. I therefore suggest another reading, one
prompted by the Mīrzās' vague fancies and dreams of what they
might do, but did not.

[1266] The encounter was between "Belāq-i-marāl and
Rabāṯ-i-`alī-sher, near Bādghīs" (Raverty's _Notes_ p. 580).
For particulars of the taking of Herī _see_ Ḥ.S. iii, 353.

[1267] One may be the book-name, the second the name in common
use, and due to the colour of the buildings. But Bābur may be
making an ironical jest, and nickname the fort by a word
referring to the defilement (_ālā_) of Aūzbeg possession. (Cf.
Ḥ.S. iii, 359.)

[1268] Mr. Erskine notes that Badī`u'z-zamān took refuge with
Shāh Ismā`īl _Ṣafawī_ who gave him Tabrīz. When the Turkish
Emperor Sālim took Tabrīz in 920 AH. (1514 AD.), he was taken
prisoner and carried to Constantinople, where he died in 923
AH. (1517 AD.).

[1269] In the fort were his wife Kābulī Begīm, d. of Aūlūgh
Beg M. _Kābulī_ and Ruqaiya Āghā, known as the Nightingale. A
young daughter of the Mīrzā, named the Rose-bud (Chūchak), had
died just before the siege. After the surrender of the fort,
Kābulī Begīm was married by Mīrzā Kūkūldāsh (perhaps
`Āshiq-i-muḥammad _Arghūn_); Ruqaiya by Tīmūr Sl. _Aūzbeg_
(Ḥ.S. iii, 359).

[1270] The _Khuṯba_ was first read for Shaibāq Khān in Herī on
Friday Muḥarram 15th 913 AH. (May 27th 1507 AD.).

[1271] There is a Persian phrase used when a man engages in an
unprofitable undertaking _Kīr-i-khar gerift_, _i.e._ _Asini
nervum deprehendet_ (Erskine). The Ḥ.S. does not mention
Banā'i as fleecing the poets but has much to say about one
Maulānā `Abdu'r-raḥīm a Turkistānī favoured by Shaibānī, whose
victim Khwānd-amīr was, amongst many others. Not infrequently
where Bābur and Khwānd-amīr state the same fact, they
accompany it by varied details, as here (Ḥ.S. iii, 358, 360).

[1272] _`adat._ Muḥammadan Law fixes a term after widowhood or
divorce within which re-marriage is unlawful. Light is thrown
upon this re-marriage by Ḥ.S. iii, 359. The passage, a
somewhat rhetorical one, gives the following details:—"On
coming into Her[i.] on Muḥarram 11th, Shaibānī at once set
about gathering in the property of the Tīmūrids. He had the
wives and daughters of the former rulers brought before him.
The great lady Khān-zāda Begīm (f. 163_b_) who was daughter of
Aḥmad Khān, niece of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, and wife of Muz̤affar
Mīrzā, shewed herself pleased in his presence. Desiring to
marry him, she said Muz̤affar M. had divorced her two years
before. Trustworthy persons gave evidence to the same effect,
so she was united to Shaibānī in accordance with the glorious
Law. Mihr-angez Begīm, Muẓaffar M.'s daughter, was married to
`Ubaidu'llāh Sl. (_Aūzbeg_); the rest of the chaste ladies
having been sent back into the city, Shaibānī resumed his
search for property." Manifestly Bābur did not believe in the
divorce Khwānd-amīr thus records.

[1273] A sarcasm this on the acceptance of literary honour
from the illiterate.

[1274] f. 191 and note; Pul-i-sālār may be an irrigation-dam.

[1275] Qalāt-i-nādirī, the birth-place of Nādir Shāh, n. of
Mashhad and standing on very strong ground (Erskine).

[1276] This is likely to be the road passing through the
Carfax of Rabāṯ-i-sangbast, described by Daulat-shāh (Browne,
p. 176).

[1277] This will mean that the Arghūns would acknowledge his
suzerainty; Ḥaidar Mīrzā however says that Shāh Beg had higher
views (T. R. p. 202). There had been earlier negotiations
between Ẕū'n-nūn with Badī`u'z-zamān and Bābur which may have
led to the abandonment of Bābur's expedition in 911 AD. (f.
158; Ḥ.S. iii, 323; Raverty's account (_Notes_ p. 581-2) of
Bābur's dealings with the Arghūn chiefs needs revision).

[1278] They will have gone first to Tūn or Qāīn, thence to
Mashhad, and seem likely to have joined the Begīm after
cross-cutting to avoid Herī.

[1279] _yāghī wilāyatī-ghā kīlādūrghān._ There may have been
an accumulation of caravans on their way to Herāt, checked in
Qalāt by news of the Aūzbeg conquest.

[1280] Jahāngīr's son, thus brought by his mother, will have
been an infant; his father had gone back last year with Bābur
by the mountain road and had been left, sick and travelling in
a litter, with the baggage when Bābur hurried on to Kābul at
the news of the mutiny against him (f. 197); he must have died
shortly afterwards, seemingly between the departure of the two
rebels from Kābul (f. 201_b_-202) and the march out for
Qandahār. Doubtless his widow now brought her child to claim
his uncle Bābur's protection.

[1281] Persians pay great attention in their correspondence
not only to the style but to the kind of paper on which a
letter is written, the place of signature, the place of the
seal, and the situation of the address. Chardin gives some
curious information on the subject (Erskine). Bābur marks the
distinction of rank he drew between the Arghūn chiefs and
himself when he calls their letter to him, _`arẓ-dāsht_, his
to them _khat̤t̤_. His claim to suzerainty over those chiefs
is shewn by Ḥaidar Mīrzā to be based on his accession to
Tīmūrid headship through the downfall of the Bāī-qarās, who
had been the acknowledged suzerains of the Arghūns now
repudiating Bābur's claim. Cf. Erskine's _History of India_ i,
cap. 3.

[1282] on the main road, some 40 miles east of Qandahār.

[1283] var. Kūr or Kawar. If the word mean _ford_, this might
well be the one across the Tarnak carrying the road to Qarā
(maps). Here Bābur seems to have left the main road along the
Tarnak, by which the British approach was made in 1880 AD.,
for one crossing west into the valley of the Argand-āb.

[1284] Bābā Ḥasan _Abdāl_ is the Bābā Walī of maps. The same
saint has given his name here, and also to his shrine east of
Atak where he is known as Bābā Walī of Qandahār. The torrents
mentioned are irrigation off-takes from the Argand-āb, which
river flows between Bābā Walī and Khalishak. Shāh Beg's force
was south of the torrents (cf. Murghān-koh on S.A.W. map).

[1285] The narrative and plans of _Second Afghan War_ (Murray
1908) illustrate Bābur's movements and show most of the places
he names. The end of the 280 mile march, from Kābul to within
sight of Qandahār, will have stirred in the General of 1507
what it stirred in the General of 1880. Lord Roberts speaking
in May 1913 in Glasgow on the rapid progress of the movement
for National Service thus spoke:—"A memory comes over me which
turns misgiving into hope and apprehension into confidence. It
is the memory of the morning when, accompanied by two of
Scotland's most famous regiments, the Seaforths and the
Gordons, at the end of a long and arduous march, _I saw in the
distance the walls and minarets of Qandahar, and knew that the
end of a great resolve and a great task was near._"

[1286] _mīn tāsh `imārat qāzdūrghān tūmshūghī-nīng alīdā_; 215
f. l68_b_, _`imarātī kah az sang yak pāra farmūda būdīm_; 217
f. 143_b_, _jāy kah man `imāratī sākhtam_; Mems. p. 226, where
I have built a palace; _Méms._ ii, 15, _l'endroit même où j'ai
bâti un palais_. All the above translations lose the sense of
_qāzdūrghān_, am causing to dig out, to quarry stone. Perhaps
for coolness' sake the dwelling was cut out in the living
rock. That the place is south-west of the main _ạrīqs_, near
Murghān-koh or on it, Bābur's narrative allows. Cf. Appendix
J.

[1287] _sic_, Ḥai. MS. There are two Lakhshas, Little Lakhsha,
a mile west of Qandahār, and Great Lakhsha, about a mile s.w.
of Old Qandahār, 5 or 6 m. from the modern one (Erskine).

[1288] This will be the main irrigation channel taken off from
the Argand-āb (Maps).

[1289] _tamām aīlīkīdīn—aīsh-kīlūr yīkītlār_, an idiomatic
phrase used of `Alī-dost (f. 14_b_ and n.), not easy to
express by a single English adjective.

[1290] The _tawāchī_ was a sort of adjutant who attended to
the order of the troops and carried orders from the general
(Erskine). The difficult passage following gives the Turkī
terms Bābur selected to represent Arabic military ones.

[1291] Ar. _aḥad_ (_Āyīn-i-akbarī_, Blochmann, index _s.n._).
The word _būī_ recurs in the text on f. 210.

[1292] _i.e._ the _būī tīkīnī_ of f. 209_b_, the _khāṣa
tābīn_, close circle.

[1293] As Mughūls seem unlikely to be descendants of Muḥammad,
perhaps the title Sayyid in some Mughūl names here, may be a
translation of a Mughūl one meaning Chief.

[1294] _Arghūn-nīng qarāsī_, a frequent phrase.

[1295] in sign of submission.

[1296] f. 176. It was in 908 AH. [1502 AD.].

[1297] This word seems to be from _sānjmāq_, to prick or stab;
and here to have the military sense of _prick_, _viz._ riding
forth. The Second Pers. trs. (217 f. 144_b_) translates it by
_ghauta khūrda raft_, went tasting a plunge under water (215
f. 170; Muḥ. _Shīrāzī_'s lith. ed. p. 133). Erskine (p. 228),
as his Persian source dictates, makes the men sink into the
soft ground; de Courteille varies much (ii, 21).

[1298] Ar. _akhmail_, so translated under the known presence
of trees; it may also imply soft ground (Lane p. 813 col. b)
but soft ground does not suit the purpose of _arīqs_
(channels), the carrying on of water to the town.

[1299] The S.A.W. map is useful here.

[1300] That he had a following may be inferred.

[1301] Ḥai. MS. _qāchār_; Ilminsky, p. 268; and both Pers.
trss. _rukhsār_ or _rukhsāra_ (f. 25 and note to _qāchār_).

[1302] So in the Turkī MSS. and the first Pers. trs. (215 f.
170_b_). The second Pers. trs. (217 f. 145_b_) has a gloss of
_ātqū u tika_; this consequently Erskine follows (p. 229) and
adds a note explaining the punishment. Ilminsky has the gloss
also (p. 269), thus indicating Persian and English influence.

[1303] No MS. gives the missing name.

[1304] The later favour mentioned was due to Saṃbhal's
laborious release of his master from Aūzbeg captivity in 917
AH. (1511 AD.) of which Erskine quotes a full account from the
_Tārīkh-i-sind_ (History of India i, 345).

[1305] Presumably he went by Sabzār, Daulatābād, and Washīr.

[1306] f. 202 and note to _Chaghatāī_.

[1307] This will be for the Nīngnahār _tūmān_ of Lamghān.

[1308] He was thus dangerously raised in his father's place of
rule.

[1309] ff. 10_b_, 11_b_. Ḥaidar M. writes, "Shāh Begīm laid
claim to Badakhshān, saying, "It has been our hereditary
kingdom for 3000 years; though I, being a woman, cannot myself
attain sovereignty, yet my grandson Mīrzā Khān can hold it"
(T. R. p. 203).

[1310] _tībrādīlār._ The agitation of mind connoted, with
movement, by this verb may well have been, here, doubt of
Bābur's power to protect.

[1311] _tūshlūq tūshdīn tāghghā yūrūkāīlār._ Cf. 205_b_ for
the same phrase, with supposedly different meaning.

[1312] _qāngshār_ lit. ridge of the nose.

[1313] _bīr aūq ham qūīā-ālmādīlār_ (f. 203_b_ note to
_chāpqūn_).

[1314] This will have been news both of Shaibāq Khān and of
Mīrzā Khān. The Pers. trss. vary here (215 f. 173 and 217 f.
148).

[1315] Index _s.n._

[1316] Māh-chūchūk can hardly have been married against her
will to Qāsim. Her mother regarded the alliance as a family
indignity; appealed to Shāh Beg and compassed a rescue from
Kābul while Bābur and Qāsim were north of the Oxus [_circa_
916 AH.]. Māh-chūchūk quitted Kābul after much hesitation, due
partly to reluctance to leave her husband and her infant of 18
months, [Nāhīd Begīm,] partly to dread less family honour
might require her death (Erskine's _History_, i, 348 and
Gul-badan's _Humāyūn-nāma_).

[1317] Erskine gives the fort the alternative name "Kaliūn",
locates it in the Bādghīs district east of Herī, and quotes
from Abū'l-ghāzī in describing its strong position (_History_
i, 282). Ḥ.S. Tīrah-tū.

[1318] f. 133 and note. Abū'l-faẓl mentions that the
inscription was to be seen in his time.

[1319] This fief ranks in value next to the Kābul _tūmān_.

[1320] Various gleanings suggest motives for Bābur's assertion
of supremacy at this particular time. He was the only Tīmūrid
ruler and man of achievement; he filled Ḥusain _Bāī-qarā_'s
place of Tīmūrid headship; his actions through a long period
show that he aimed at filling Tīmūr Beg's. There were those
who did not admit his suzerainty,—Tīmūrids who had rebelled,
Mughūls who had helped them, and who would also have helped
Sa`īd Khān _Chaghatāī_, if he had not refused to be
treacherous to a benefactor; there were also the Arghūns,
Chīngīz-khānids of high pretensions. In old times the Mughūl
Khāqāns were _pādshāh_ (supreme); Pādshāh is recorded in
history as the style of at least Sātūq-būghra Khān Pādshāh
Ghāzī; no Tīmūrid had been lifted by his style above all
Mīrzās. When however Tīmūrids had the upper hand, Bābur's
Tīmūrid grandfather Abū-sa`īd asserted his _de facto_
supremacy over Bābur's Chaghatāī grandfather Yūnas (T. R. p.
83). For Bābur to re-assert that supremacy by assuming the
Khāqān's style was highly opportune at this moment. To be
Bābur Supreme was to declare over-lordship above Chaghatāī and
Mughūl, as well as over all Mīrzās. It was done when his sky
had cleared; Mīrzā Khān's rebellion was scotched; the Arghūns
were defeated; he was the stronger for their lost possessions;
his Aūzbeg foe had removed to a less ominous distance; and
Kābul was once more his own.

Gul-badan writes as if the birth of his first-born son Humāyūn
were a part of the uplift in her father's style, but his
narrative does not support her in this, since the order of
events forbids.

[1321] The "Khān" in Humāyūn's title may be drawn from his
mother's family, since it does not come from Bābur. To whose
family Māhīm belonged we have not been able to discover. It is
one of the remarkable omissions of Bābur, Gul-badan and
Abū'l-faẓl that they do not give her father's name. The topic
of her family is discussed in my Biographical Appendix to
Gul-badan's _Humāyūn-nāma_ and will be taken up again, here,
in a final Appendix on Bābur's family.

[1322] Elph. MS. f. 172_b_; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 174_b_ and 217
f. 148_b_; Mems. p. 234.

[1323] on the head-waters of the Tarnak (R.'s _Notes_ App. p.
34).

[1324] Bābur has made no direct mention of his half-brother's
death (f. 208 and n. to Mīrzā).

[1325] This may be Darwesh-i-`alī of f. 210; the Sayyid in his
title may merely mean chief, since he was a Mughūl.

[1326] Several of these mutineers had fought for Bābur at
Qandahār.

[1327] It may be useful to recapitulate this Mīrzā's
position:—In the previous year he had been left in charge of
Kābul when Bābur went eastward in dread of Shaibānī, and, so
left, occupied his hereditary place. He cannot have hoped to
hold Kābul if the Aūzbeg attacked it; for its safety and his
own he may have relied, and Bābur also in appointing him, upon
influence his Arghūn connections could use. For these, one was
Muqim his brother-in-law, had accepted Shaibānī's suzerainty
after being defeated in Qandahār by Bābur. It suited them
better no doubt to have the younger Mīrzā rather than Bābur in
Kābul; the latter's return thither will have disappointed them
and the Mīrzā; they, as will be instanced later, stood ready
to invade his lands when he moved East; they seem likely to
have promoted the present Mughūl uprising. In the battle which
put this down, the Mīrzā was captured; Bābur pardoned him; but
he having rebelled again, was then put to death.

[1328] Bāgh-i-yūrūnchqā may be an equivalent of Bāgh-i-safar,
and the place be one of waiting "up to" (_ūnchqā_) the journey
(_yūr_). _Yūrūnchqā_ also means _clover_ (De Courteille).

[1329] He seems to have been a brother or uncle of Humāyūn's
mother Māhīm (Index; A. N. trs. i, 492 and note).

[1330] In all MSS. the text breaks off abruptly here, as it
does on f. 118_b_ as though through loss of pages, and a blank
of narrative follows. Before the later gap of f. 251_b_
however the last sentence is complete.

[1331] Index _s. n. Bābur-nāma_, date of composition and gaps.

[1332] _ibid._

[1333] Jumāda I, 14th 968 AH.-Jan. 31st 1561 AD. Concerning
the book _see_ Elliot and Dowson's _History of India_ vi, 572
and JRAS 1901 p. 76, H. Beveridge's art. _On Persian MSS. in
Indian Libraries_.

[1334] The T. R. gives the names of two only of the champions
but Firishta, writing much later gives all five; we surmise
that he found his five in the book of which copies are not now
known, the _Tārīkh-i Muḥ. `Ārif Qandahārī_. Firishta's five
are `Ali _shab-kūr_ (night-blind), `Alī _Sīstānī_, Naẕar
Bahādur _Aūzbeg_, Ya`qūb _tez-jang_ (swift in fight), and
Aūzbeg Bahādur. Ḥaidar's two names vary in the MSS. of the T.
R. but represent the first two of Firishta's list.

[1335] There are curious differences of statement about the
date of Shaibānī's death, possibly through confusion between
this and the day on which preliminary fighting began near
Merv. Ḥaidar's way of expressing the date carries weight by
its precision, he giving _roz-i-shakk_ of Ramẓān, _i.e._ a day
of which there was doubt whether it was the last of Sha`bān or
the first of Ramẓān (Lane, _yauma'u'l-shakk_). As the sources
support Friday for the day of the week and on a Friday in the
year 915 AH. fell the 29th of Sha`bān, the date of Shaibānī's
death seems to be Friday Sha`bān 29th 915 AH. (Friday December
2nd 1510 AD.).

[1336] If my reading be correct of the Turkī passage
concerning wines drunk by Bābur which I have noted on f. 49
(_in loco_ p. 83 n. 1), it was during this occupation of Kābul
that Bābur first broke the Law against stimulants.

[1337] Mr. R. S. Poole found a coin which he took to be one
struck in obedience to Bābur's compact with the Shāh (B.M.Cat.
of the coins of Persian Shāhs 1887, pp. xxiv _et seq._; T.R.
p. 246 n.).

[1338] It was held by Aḥmad-i-qāsim _Kohbur_ and is referred
to on f. 234_b_, as one occasion of those in which Dost Beg
distinguished himself.

[1339] Schuyler's _Turkistān_ has a good account and picture
of the mosque. `Ubaid's vow is referred to in my earlier
mention of the _Sūlūku'l-mulūk_. It may be noted here that
this MS. supports the spelling _Bābur_ by making the second
syllable rhyme to _pūr_, as against the form _Bābar_.

[1340] _aūrūq._ Bābur refers to this exodus on f. 12_b_ when
writing of Daulat-sulṯān Khānīm.

[1341] It is one recorded with some variation, in Niyāz
Muḥammad _Khukandī's Tārīkh-i-shāhrukhī_ (Kazan, 1885) and
Nalivkine's _Khānate of Khokand_ (p. 63). It says that when
Bābur in 918 AH. (1512 AD.) left Samarkand after defeat by the
Aūzbegs, one of his wives, Sayyida Āfāq who accompanied him in
his flight, gave birth to a son in the desert which lies
between Khujand and Kand-i-badām; that Bābur, not daring to
tarry and the infant being too young to make the impending
journey, left it under some bushes with his own girdle round
it in which were things of price; that the child was found by
local people and in allusion to the valuables amongst which it
lay, called Altūn bīshik (golden cradle); that it received
other names and was best known in later life as Kḥudāyān
Sulṯān. He is said to have spent most of his life in Akhsī; to
have had a son Tīngrī-yār; and to have died in 952 AH. (1545
AD.). His grandson Yār-i-muḥammad is said to have gone to
India to relations who was descendants of Bābur (JASB 1905 p.
137 H. Beveridge's art. _The Emperor Bābur_). What is against
the truth of this tradition is that Gul-badan mentions no such
wife as Sayyida Āfāq. Māhīm however seems to have belonged to
a religious family, might therefore be styled Sayyida, and, as
Bābur mentions (f. 220), had several children who did not live
(a child left as this infant was, might if not heard of, be
supposed dead). There is this opening allowed for considering
the tradition.

[1342] Bābur refers to this on f. 265.

[1343] The _Lubbu't-tawārīkh_ would fix Ramẓān 7th.

[1344] Mr. Erskine's quotation of the Persian original of the
couplet differs from that which I have translated (_History of
India_ ii, 326; _Tārīkh-i-badāyūnī_ Bib. Ind. ed. f. 444).
Perhaps in the latter a pun is made on Najm as the leader's
name and as meaning _fortune_; if so it points the more
directly at the Shāh. The second line is quoted by Badāyūnī on
his f. 362 also.

[1345] Some translators make Bābur go "naked" into the fort
but, on his own authority (f. 106_b_), it seems safer to
understand what others say, that he went stripped of
attendance, because it was always his habit even in times of
peace to lie down in his tunic; much more would he have done
so at such a crisis of his affairs as this of his flight to
Ḥiṣār.

[1346] Ḥaidar gives a graphic account of the misconduct of the
horde and of their punishment (T.R. p. 261-3).

[1347] One of the mutineers named as in this affair (T.R. p.
257) was Sl. Qulī _chūnāq_, a circumstance attracting
attention by its bearing on the cause of the _lacunae_ in the
_Bābur-nāma_, inasmuch as Bābur, writing at the end of his
life, expresses (f. 65) his intention to tell of this man's
future misdeeds. These misdeeds may have been also at Ḥiṣār
and in the attack there made on Bābur; they are known from
Ḥaidar to have been done at Ghaznī; both times fall within
this present gap. Hence it is clear that Bābur meant to write
of the events falling in the gap of 914 AH. onwards.

[1348] In 925 AH. (ff. 227 and 238) mention is made of
courtesies exchanged between Bābur and Muḥammad-i-zamān in
Balkh. The Mīrzā was with Bābur later on in Hindūstān.

[1349] Mīr Ma`ṣūm's _Tārīkh-i-sind_ is the chief authority for
Bābur's action after 913 AH. against Shāh Beg in Qandahār; its
translation, made in 1846 by Major Malet, shews some
manifestly wrong dates; they appear also in the B. M. MS. of
the work.

[1350] f. 216_b_ and note to "Monday".

[1351] Elph. MS. f. 173_b_; W.-i-B. I.O. 215 f. 178 and 217 f.
149; Mems. p. 246. The whole of the Ḥijra year is included in
1519 AD. (Erskine). What follows here and completes the Kābul
section of the _Bābur-nāma_ is a diary of a little over 13
months' length, supplemented by matter of later entry. The
product has the character of a draft, awaiting revision to
harmonize it in style and, partly, in topic with the composed
narrative that breaks off under 914 AH.; for the diary,
written some 11 years earlier than that composed narrative,
varies, as it would be expected _à priori_ to vary, in style
and topic from the terse, lucid and idiomatic output of
Bābur's literary maturity. A good many obscure words and
phrases in it, several new from Bābur's pen, have opposed
difficulty to scribes and translators. Interesting as such
_minutiae_ are to a close observer of Turkī and of Bābur's
diction, comment on all would be tedious; a few will be found
noted, as also will such details as fix the date of entry for
supplementary matter.

[1352] Here Mr. Erskine notes that Dr. Leyden's translation
begins again; it broke off on f. 180_b_, and finally ends on
f. 223_b_.

[1353] This name is often found transliterated as Chandul or
[mod.] Jandul but the Ḥai. MS. supports Raverty's opinion that
Chandāwal is correct.