The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)

Qaṃbar-‘alī Mughūl of the Equerries (akhtachī) was another. People called him The Skinner because his father, on first coming into the (Farghāna) country, worked as a skinner. Qaṃbar-‘alī had been Yūnas Khān’s water-bottle bearer,175 later on he became a beg. Till he was a made man, his conduct was excellent; once arrived, he was slack. He was full of talk and of foolish talk,—a great talker is sure to be a foolish one,—his capacity was limited and his brain muddy.

At the time of ‘Umar Shaikh Mīrzā’s accident, I was in the Four Gardens (Chār-bāgh) of Andijān.176 The news reached Andijān on Tuesday, Ramẓan 5 (June 9th); I mounted at once, with my followers and retainers, intending to go into the fort but, on our getting near the Mīrzā’s Gate, Shīrīm T̤aghāī177 took hold of my bridle and moved off towards the Praying Place.178 It had crossed his mind that if a great ruler like Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā came in force, the Andijān begs would make over to himFol. 16. me and the country,179 but that if he took me to Aūzkīnt and the foothills thereabouts, I, at any rate, should not be made over and could go to one of my mother’s (half-) brothers, Sl. Maḥmūd Khān or Sl. Aḥmad Khān.180 When Khwāja Maulānā-i-qāẓī181 and the begs in the fort heard of (the intended departure), they sent after us Khwāja Muḥammad, the tailor,184 an old servant (bāyrī) of my father and the foster-father of one of his daughters. He dispelled our fears and, turning back from near the Praying Fol. 16b.Place, took me with him into the citadel (ark) where I dismounted. Khwāja Maulānā-i-qāẓī and the begs came to my presence there and after bringing their counsels to a head,185 busied themselves in making good the towers and ramparts of the fort.186 A few days later, Ḥasan, son of Yaq‘ūb, and Qāsim Qūchīn, arrived, together with other begs who had been sent to reconnoitre in Marghīnān and those parts.187 They also, after waiting on me, set themselves with one heart and mind and with zeal and energy, to hold the fort.

(Author’s note on Khwāja Maulānā-i-qāẓī.) He was the son of Sl. Aḥmad Qāẓī, of the line of Burhānu’d-dīn ‘Alī Qīlīch182 and through his mother, traced back to Sl. Aīlīk Māẓī.183 By hereditary right (yūsūnlūq) his high family (khānwādalār) must have come to be the Refuge (marji‘) and Pontiffs (Shaikhu’l-islām) of the (Farghāna) country.

Meantime Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā took Aūrā-tīpā, Khujand and Marghīnān, came on to Qabā,188 4 yīghāch from Andijān and there made halt. At this crisis, Darwesh Gau, one of the Andijān notables, was put to death on account of his improper proposals; his punishment crushed the rest.

Khwāja Qāẓī and Aūzūn (Long) Ḥasan,189 (brother) of Khwāja Ḥusain, were then sent to Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā to say in effect that, as he himself would place one of his servants in the country and as I was myself both a servant and (as) a son, he would attain his end most readily and easily if he entrusted the service to me. He was a mild, weak man, of few words who, without his begs, decided no opinion or compact (aun), action or move; they paid attention to our proposal, gave it a harsh answer and moved forward.

But the Almighty God, who, of His perfect power and without mortal aid, has ever brought my affairs to their right issue, made such things happen here that they became disgusted at having advanced (i.e. from Qabā), repented indeed that they had ever set out on this expedition and turned back with nothing done.

One of those things was this: Qabā has a stagnant, morass-like Water,190 passable only by the bridge. As they were many, there was crowding on the bridge and numbers of horses andFol. 17. camels were pushed off to perish in the water. This disaster recalling the one they had had three or four years earlier when they were badly beaten at the passage of the Chīr, they gave way to fear. Another thing was that such a murrain broke out amongst their horses that, massed together, they began to die off in bands.191 Another was that they found in our soldiers and peasants a resolution and single-mindedness such as would not let them flinch from making offering of their lives192 so long as there was breath and power in their bodies. Need being therefore, when one yīghāch from Andijān, they sent Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān193 to us; Ḥasan of Yaq’ūb went out from those in the fort; the two had an interview near the Praying Place and a sort of peace was made. This done, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā’s force retired.

Meantime Sl. Maḥmūd Khān had come along the north of the Khujand Water and laid siege to Akhsī.194 In Akhsī was Jahāngīr Mīrzā (aet. 9) and of begs, ‘Alī-darwesh Beg, Mīrzā Qulī Kūkūldāsh, Muḥ. Bāqir Beg and Shaikh ‘Abdu’l-lāh, Lord of the Gate. Wais Lāgharī and Mīr Ghiyās̤ T̤aghāī had been there too, but being afraid of the (Akhsī) begs had gone off to Kāsān, Wais Lāgharī’s district, where, he being Nāṣir Mīrzā’s guardian, the Mīrzā was.195 They went over to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān when he got near Akhsī; Mīr Ghiyās̤ entered his service; Fol. 17b.Wais Lāgharī took Nāṣir Mīrzā to Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā, who entrusted him to Muh. Mazīd Tarkhān’s charge. The Khān, though he fought several times near Akhsī, could not effect anything because the Akhsī begs and braves made such splendid offering of their lives. Falling sick, being tired of fighting too, he returned to his own country (i.e. Tāshkīnt).

For some years, Ābā-bikr Kāshgharī Dūghlāt,196 bowing the head to none, had been supreme in Kāshgar and Khutan. He now, moved like the rest by desire for my country, came to the neighbourhood of Aūzkīnt, built a fort and began to lay the land waste. Khwāja Qāzī and several begs were appointed to drive him out. When they came near, he saw himself no match for such a force, made the Khwāja his mediator and, by a hundred wiles and tricks, got himself safely free.

Throughout these great events, ‘Umar Shaikh Mīrzā’s former begs and braves had held resolutely together and made daring offer of their lives. The Mīrzā’s mother, Shāh Sult̤ān Begīm,197 and Jaḥāngīr Mīrzā and the ḥaram household and the begs came from Akhsī to Andijān; the customary mourning was fulfilled and food and victuals spread for the poor and destitute.198

Fol. 18.In the leisure from these important matters, attention was given to the administration of the country and the ordering of the army. The Andijān Government and control of my Gate were settled (mukarrar) for Ḥasan (son) of Yaq’ūb; Aūsh was decided on (qarār) for Qāsim Qūchīn; Akhsī and Marghīnān assigned (ta’īn) to Aūzun Ḥasan and ‘Alī-dost T̤aghāī. For the rest of ‘Umar Shaikh Mīrzā’s begs and braves, to each according to his circumstances, were settled and assigned district (wilāyat) or land (yīr) or office (mauja) or charge (jīrga) or stipend (wajh).

When Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā had gone two or three stages on his return-march, his health changed for the worse and high fever appeared. On his reaching the Āq Sū near Aūrā-tīpā, he bade farewell to this transitory world, in the middle of Shawwāl of the date 899 (mid July 1494 AD.) being then 44 (lunar) years old.

He was born in 855 AH. (1451 AD.) the year in which his father took the throne (i.e. Samarkand). He was Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā’s eldest son; his mother was a daughter of Aūrdū-būghā Tarkhān (Arghūn), the elder sister of Darwesh Muḥammad Tarkhān, and the most honoured of the Mīrzā’s wives.

He was a tall, stout, brown-bearded and red-faced man. He had beard on his chin but none on his cheeks. He had veryFol. 18b. pleasing manners. As was the fashion in those days, he wound his turban in four folds and brought the end forward over his brows.

He was a True Believer, pure in the Faith; five times daily, without fail, he recited the Prayers, not omitting them even on drinking-days. He was a disciple of his Highness Khwāja ‘Ubaidu’l-lāh (Aḥrārī), his instructor in religion and the strengthener of his Faith. He was very ceremonious, particularly when sitting with the Khwāja. People say he never drew one knee over the other199 at any entertainment of the Khwāja. On one occasion contrary to his custom, he sat with his feet together. When he had risen, the Khwāja ordered the place he had sat in to be searched; there they found, it may have been, a bone.200 He had read nothing whatever and was ignorant (‘amī), and though town-bred, unmannered and homely. Of genius he had no share. He was just and as his Highness the Khwāja was there, accompanying him step by step,201 most of his affairs found lawful settlement. He was true and faithful to his vow and word; nothing was ever seen to the contrary. He had courage, and though he never happened to get in his own hand to work, gave sign of it, they say, in some of his encounters. Fol. 19.He drew a good bow, generally hitting the duck202 both with his arrows (aūq) and his forked-arrows (tīr-giz), and, as a rule, hit the gourd203 in riding across the lists (maidān). Latterly, when he had grown stout, he used to take quail and pheasant with the goshawks,204 rarely failing. A sportsman he was, hawking mostly and hawking well; since Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā, such a sporting pādshāh had not been seen.

He was extremely decorous; people say he used to hide his feet even in the privacy of his family and amongst his intimates. Once settled down to drink, he would drink for 20 or 30 days at a stretch; once risen, would not drink again for another 20 or 30 days. He was a good drinker;205 on non-drinking days he ate without conviviality (basīt̤). Avarice was dominant in his character. He was kindly, a man of few words whose will was in the hands of his begs.

He fought four battles. The first was with Ni’mat Arghūn, Shaikh Jamāl Arghūn’s younger brother, at Āqār-tūzī, near Zamīn. This he won. The second was with ‘Umar Shaikh Mīrzā at Khwaṣ; this also he won. The third affair was when he encountered Sl. Maḥmūd Khān on the Chīr, near Tāshkīnt Fol. 19b.(895 AH.-1469 AD.). There was no real fighting, but some Mughūl plunderers coming up, by ones and twos, in his rear and laying hands on his baggage, his great army, spite of its numbers, broke up without a blow struck, without an effort made, without a coming face to face, and its main body was drowned in the Chīr.206 His fourth affair was with Ḥaidar Kūkūldāsh (Mughūl), near Yār-yīlāq; here he won.

Samarkand and Bukhārā his father gave him; Tāshkīnt and Sairām he took and held for a time but gave them to his younger brother, ‘Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, after ‘Abdu’l-qadūs (Dūghlāt) slew Shaikh Jamāl (Arghūn); Khujand and Aūrātīpā were also for a time in his possession.

Rābi‘a-sult̤ān Begīm, known as the Dark-eyed Begīm, was his eldest. The Mīrzā himself made her go forth to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān;208 she had one child, a nice little boy, called Bābā Khān. The Aūzbegs killed him and several others of age as unripe as his when they martyred (his father) The Khān, in Khujand, (914 AH.-1508 AD.). At that time she fell to Jānī Beg Sult̤ān (Aūzbeg).Fol. 20.

Ṣāliḥa-sult̤ān (Ṣalīqa) Begīm was his second daughter; people called her the Fair Begīm. Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā, after her father’s death, took her for his eldest son, Sl. Mas‘ūd Mīrzā and made the wedding feast (900 AH.). Later on she fell to the Kāshgharī with Shāh Begīm and Mihr-nigār Khānim.

‘Āyisha-sult̤ān Begīm was the third. When I was five and went to Samarkand, they set her aside for me; in the guerilla times209 she came to Khujand and I took her (905 AH.); her one little daughter, born after the second taking of Samarkand, went in a few days to God’s mercy and she herself left me at the instigation of an older sister.

Ma‘sūma-sult̤ān Begīm was the youngest of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā’s daughters. Her mother, Ḥabība-sult̤ān Begīm, was of the Arghūns, a daughter of Sl. Ḥusain Arghūn’s brother. I saw her when I went to Khurāsān (912 AH.-1506 AD.), liked her, asked for her, had her brought to Kābul and took her (913 AH.-1507 AD.). She had one daughter and there and then, went to God’s mercy, through the pains of the birth. Her name was at once given to her child.

Qātāq Begīm was another, the foster-sister of the Tarkhān Begīm just mentioned. Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā took her par amours (‘āshiqlār bīlā): she was loved with passion and was very dominant. She drank wine. During the days of her ascendancy (tīrīklīk), he went to no other of his ḥaram; at last he took up a proper position (aūlnūrdī) and freed himself from his reproach.210

Lat̤īf Begīm was another, a daughter’s child of Aḥmad Ḥājī Beg Dūldāī (Barlās). After the Mīrzā’s death, Ḥamza Sl. took her and she had three sons by him. They with other sult̤āns’ children, fell into my hands when I took Ḥiṣār (916 AH.-1510 AD.) after defeating Ḥamza Sult̤ān and Tīmūr Sult̤ān. I set all free.

Jānī Beg Dūldāī (Barlās) was a younger brother of Sl. Malik Kāshgharī. Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā gave him the Government of Samarkand and Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā gave him the control of his own Gate.212 He must have had singular habits andFol. 21. manners;213 many strange stories are told about him. One is this:—While he was Governor in Samarkand, an envoy came to him from the Aūzbegs renowned, as it would seem, for his strength. An Aūzbeg, is said to call a strong man a bull (būkuh). “Are you a būkuh?” said Jānī Beg to the envoy, “If you are, come, let’s have a friendly wrestle together (kūrāshālīng).” Whatever objections the envoy raised, he refused to accept. They wrestled and Jānī Beg gave the fall. He was a brave man.