The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

(March 21st) Marching thence at midnight, we made an excursion to the ford1434 we had crossed when on our way to Bhīra. A great raft of grain had stuck in the mud of that same ford and, do what its owners would, could not be made to move. The corn was seized and shared out to those with us. Timely indeed was that corn!

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

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

(March 24th) On Thursday at sunrise we marched from the river’s bank. That day confection was eaten. While under its influence1436 wonderful fields of flowers were enjoyed. In some places sheets of yellow flowers bloomed in plots; in others sheets of red (arghwānī) flowers in plots, in some red and yellow bloomed together. We sat on a mound near the camp to enjoy the sight. There were flowers on all sides of the mound, yellowFol. 232b. here, red there, as if arranged regularly to form a sextuple. On two sides there were fewer flowers but as far as the eye reached, flowers were in bloom. In spring near Parashāwar the fields of flowers are very beautiful indeed.

(March 25th) We marched from that ground at dawn. At one place on the road a tiger came out and roared. On hearing it, the horses, willy-nilly, flung off in terror, carrying their riders in all directions, and dashing into ravines and hollows. The tiger went again into the jungle. To bring it out, we ordered a buffalo brought and put on the edge of the jungle. The tiger again came out roaring. Arrows were shot at it from all sides1437; I shot with the rest. Khalwī (var. Khalwā) a foot-soldier, pricked it with a spear; it bit the spear and broke off the spearhead. After tasting of those arrows, it went into the bushes (būta) and stayed there. Bābā the waiting-man [yasāwal] went with drawn sword close up to it; it sprang; he chopped at its head; ‘Alī Sīstānī1438 chopped at its loins; it plunged into the river and was killed right in the water. It was got out and ordered to be skinned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

(April 3rd) At dawn on Saturday we went on board a boat and took our morning.1441 Nūr Beg, then not obedient (tā’īb), played the lute at this gathering. At the Mid-day Prayer we left the boat to visit the garden made between Kul-kīna1442 and the mountain (Shāh-i-kābul). At the Evening Prayer we went to the Violet-garden where there was drinking again. From Kul-kīna I got in by the rampart and went into the citadel.

Dost Beg had been a very good brave (yīkīt) and he was still rising in rank as a beg. Before he was made a beg, he did excellent things several times as one of the household. One time was at Rabāt̤-i-zauraq,1444 one yīghāch from Andijān when Sl. Aḥmad Taṃbal attacked me at night (908 AH.). I, with 10 to 15 men, by making a stand, had forced his gallopers back; when we reached his centre, he made a stand with as many as 100 men; there were then three men with me, i.e. there were four counting myself. Nāṣir’s Dost (i.e. Dost Beg) was one of the three; another was Mīrzā Qulī Kūkūldāsh; Karīm-dād Turkmān was the other. I was just in my jība1445; Taṃbal and another were standing like gate-wards in front of his array; I came face to face with Taṃbal, shot an arrow striking his helm; shot another aiming at the attachment of his shield;1446 they shot one through my leg (būtūm); Taṃbal chopped at my head. It was wonderful! The (under)-cap of my helm was on my head; not a thread of it was cut, but on the head itself was a very bad wound. Of other help came none; no-one was left with me; of necessity I brought myself to gallop back. Dost Beg had been a little in my rear; (Taṃbal) on leaving me alone, chopped at him.1447

Fol. 234b.Again, when we were getting out of Akhsī [908 AH.],1448 Dost Beg chopped away at Bāqī Ḥīz1449 who, although people called him Ḥīz, was a mighty master of the sword. Dost Beg was one of the eight left with me after we were out of Akhsī; he was the third they unhorsed.

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

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

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

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

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