The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

I myself collected a few of the Hazāras’ sheep, gave them into Yārak T̤aghāī’s charge, and went to the front. By ridge and valley, driving horses and sheep before us, we went to Tīmūr Beg’s Langar and there dismounted. Fourteen or fifteen Hazāra thieves had fallen into our hands; I had thought of having them put to death when we next dismounted, with various torture, as a warning to all highwaymen and robbers, but Qāsim Beg came across them on the road and, with mistimedFol. 197. compassion, set them free.

News came while we were raiding the Turkmān Hazāras, that Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā Dūghlāt and Sl. Sanjar Barlās had drawn over to themselves the Mughūls left in Kābul, declared Mīrzā Khān (Wais) supreme (pādshāh), laid siege to the fort and spread a report that Badī‘u’z-zamān Mīrzā and Muz̤affar Mīrzā had sent me, a prisoner, to Fort Ikhtiyāru’d-dīn, now known as Ālā-qūrghān.

From Tīmūr Beg’s Langar we sent Qāsim Beg’s servant, Muḥ. of Andijān, a Tūqbāī, to the Kābul begs, with written details of our arrival and of the following arrangements:—“When we are out of the Ghūr-bund narrows,1227 we will fall on them suddenly; let our signal to you be the fire we will light directly we have passed Minār-hill; do you in reply light one in the citadel, on Fol. 197b.the old Kūshk (kiosk),” now the Treasury, “so that we may be sure you know of our coming. We will come up from our side; you come out from yours; neglect nothing your hands can find to do!” This having been put into writing, Muḥammad Andijānī was sent off.

Riding next dawn from the Langar, we dismounted over against Ushtur-shahr. Early next morning we passed the Ghūr-bund narrows, dismounted at Bridge-head, there watered and rested our horses, and at the Mid-day Prayer set forward again. Till we reached the tūtqāwal,1228 there was no snow, beyond that, the further we went the deeper the snow. The cold between Ẕamma-yakhshī and Minār was such as we had rarely felt in our lives.

We sent on Aḥmad the messenger (yāsāwal) and Qarā Aḥmad yūrūnchī1229 to say to the begs, “Here we are at the time promised; be ready! be bold! “After crossing Minār-hill1230 and dismounting on its skirt, helpless with cold, we lit fires to warm ourselves. It was not time to light the signal-fire; we just lit these because we were helpless in that mighty cold. Near shoot of dawn we rode on from Minār-hill; between it and Kābul the snow was up to the horses’ knees and had hardened, so off the road to move was difficult. Riding single-file the whole way, we got to Kābul Fol. 198.in good time undiscovered.1231 Before we were at Bībī Māh-rūī (Lady Moon-face), the blaze of fire on the citadel let us know that the begs were looking out.

On reaching Sayyid Qāsim’s bridge, Sherīm T̤aghāī and the men of the right were sent towards Mullā Bābā’s bridge, while we of the left and centre took the Bābā Lūlī road. Where Khalīfa’s garden now is, there was then a smallish garden made by Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā for a Langar (almshouse); none of its trees or shrubs were left but its enclosing wall was there. In this garden Mīrzā Khān was seated, Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā being in Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā’s great Bāgh-i-bihisht. I had gone as far along the lane of Mullā Bābā’s garden as the burial-ground when four men met us who had hurried forward into Mīrzā Khān’s quarters, been beaten, and forced to turn back. One of the four was Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate, another was Qāsim Beg’s son Qaṃbar-i-‘alī, another was Sher-qulī the scout, another was Sl. Aḥmad Mughūl one of Sher-qulī’s band. These four, without a “God forbid!” (taḥāshī) had gone right into Mīrzā Khān’s quarters; thereupon he, hearing an uproar, had mounted and got away. Abū’l-ḥasan the armourer’s younger brother even, Muḥ. Ḥusain by name, had taken service with Mīrzā Khān; he had slashed at Sher-qulī,Fol. 198b. one of those four, thrown him down, and was just striking his head off, when Sher-qulī freed himself. Those four, tasters of the sword, tasters of the arrow, wounded one and all, came pelting back on us to the place mentioned.

Our horsemen, jammed in the narrow lane, were standing still, unable to move forward or back. Said I to the braves near, “Get off and force a road”. Off got Nāṣir’s Dost, Khwāja Muḥammad ‘Alī the librarian, Bābā Sher-zād (Tiger-whelp), Shāh Maḥmūd and others, pushed forward and at once cleared the way. The enemy took to flight.

We had looked for the begs to come out from the Fort but they could not come in time for the work; they only dropped in, by ones and twos, after we had made the enemy scurry off. Aḥmad-i-yūsuf had come from them before I went into the Chār-bāgh where Mīrzā Khān had been; he went in with me, but we both turned back when we saw the Mīrzā had gone off. Coming in at the garden-gate was Dost of Sar-i-pul, a foot-soldier I had promoted for his boldness to be Kotwāl and had left in Kābul; he made straight for me, sword in hand. I had my cuirass on but had not fastened the gharīcha1232 nor had I put onFol. 199. my helm. Whether he did not recognize me because of change wrought by cold and snow, or whether because of the flurry of the fight, though I shouted “Hāī Dost! hāī Dost!” and though Aḥmad-i-yūsuf also shouted, he, without a “God forbid!” brought down his sword on my unprotected arm. Only by God’s grace can it have been that not a hairbreadth of harm was done to me.

“O my God! Thou art my Creator; except Thee there is no God. On Thee do I repose my trust; Thou art the Lord of the mighty throne. What God wills comes to pass; and what he does not will comes not to pass; and there is no power or strength but through the high and exalted God; and, of a truth, in all things God is almighty; and verily He comprehends all things by his knowledge, and has taken account of everything. O my Creator! as I sincerely trust in Thee, do Thou seize by the forelock all evil proceeding from within myself, and all evil coming from without, and all evil proceeding from every man who can be the occasion of evil, and all such evil as can proceed from any living thing, and remove them far from me; since, of a truth, Thou art the Lord of the exalted throne!”1233

On leaving that garden we went to Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s quarters in the Bāgh-i-bihisht, but he had fled and gone off to hide himself. Seven or eight men stood in a breach of the Fol. 199b.garden-wall; I spurred at them; they could not stand; they fled; I got up with them and cut at one with my sword; he rolled over in such a way that I fancied his head was off, passed on and went away; it seems he was Mīrzā Khān’s foster-brother, Tūlik Kūkūldāsh and that my sword fell on his shoulder.

At the gate of Muḥ. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s quarters, a Mughūl I recognized for one of my own servants, drew his bow and aimed at my face from a place on the roof as near me as a gate-ward stands to a Gate. People on all sides shouted, “Hāi! hāi! it is the Pādshāh.” He changed his aim, shot off his arrow and ran away. The affair was beyond the shooting of arrows! His Mīrzā, his leaders, had run away or been taken; why was he shooting?

There they brought Sl. Sanjar Barlās, led in by a rope round his neck; he even, to whom I had given the Nīngnahār tūmān, had had his part in the mutiny! Greatly agitated, he kept crying out, “Hāi! what fault is in me?” Said I, “Can there be one clearer than that you are higher than the purpose and counsels of this crew?”1234 But as he was the sister’s son of my Khān dādā’s mother, Shāh Begīm, I gave the order, “Do not lead him with such dishonour; it is not death.”

Shāh Begīm and Khānīm were seated in one tent. I dismounted at the usual distance, approached with my former deference and courtesy, and had an interview with them. They were extremely agitated, upset, and ashamed; could neither excuse themselves reasonably1236 nor make the enquiries of affection. I had not expected this (disloyalty) of them; it was not as though that party, evil as was the position it had taken up, consisted of persons who would not give ear to the words of Shāh Begīm and Khānīm; Mīrzā Khān was the begīm’s grandson, in her presence night and day; if she had not fallen in with the affair, she could have kept him with her.

Twice over when fickle Fortune and discordant Fate had parted Fol. 200b.me from throne and country, retainer and following, I, and my mother with me, had taken refuge with them and had had no kindness soever from them. At that time my younger brother (i.e. cousin) Mīrzā Khān and his mother Sult̤ān-nigār Khānīm held valuable cultivated districts; yet my mother and I,—to leave all question of a district aside,—were not made possessors of a single village or a few yoke of plough-oxen.1237 Was my mother not Yūnas Khān’s daughter? was I not his grandson?

In my days of plenty I have given from my hand what matched the blood-relationship and the position of whatsoever member of that (Chaghatāī) dynasty chanced down upon me. For example, when the honoured Shāh Begīm came to me, I gave her Pamghān, one of the best places in Kābul, and failed in no sort of filial duty and service towards her. Again, when Sl. Sa‘īd Khān, Khān in Kāshghar, came [914 AH.] with five or six naked followers on foot, I looked upon him as an honoured guest and gave him Mandrāwar of the Lamghān tūmāns. Beyond this also, when Shāh Ismā‘īl had killed Shaibāq Khān in Marv and I crossed over to Qūndūz (916 AH.-1511 AD.), the Andijānīs, some driving their (Aūzbeg) dāroghas out, some making their places fast, turned their eyes to me and sent me a man; at that time I trusted those old family servants to that same Sl. Sa‘īd Khān, gave him a force, made him Khān and sped him forth. Again, down to the present time (circa 934 AH.) I have not looked upon any member of that family who has come to me, in any other light than as a blood-relation. For example, there Fol. 201.are now in my service Chīn-tīmūr Sult̤ān; Aīsān-tīmūr Sult̤ān, Tūkhtā-būghā Sult̤ān, and Bābā Sult̤ān;1238 on one and all of these I have looked with more favour than on blood-relations of my own.