The Bābur-nāma

(i. His wazīrs.)

One was Majdu’d-dīn Muḥammad, son of Khwāja Pīr Aḥmad of Khwāf, the one man (yak-qalam) of Shāhrukh Mīrzā’s Finance-office.1109 In Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s Finance-office there was not at first proper order or method; waste and extravagance resulted; the peasant did not prosper, and the soldier was not satisfied. Once while Majdu’d-dīn Muḥammad was still parwānchī1110 and styled Mīrak (Little Mīr), it became a matter of importance to the Mīrzā to have some money; when he asked the Finance-officials for it, they said none had been collected and that there was none. Majdu’d-dīn Muḥammad must have heard this and have smiled, for the Mīrzā asked him why he smiled; privacy was made and he told Mīrzā what was in his mind. Said he, “If the honoured Mīrzā will pledge himself to strengthen my hands by not opposing my orders, it shall so be before long that the country shall prosper, the peasant be content, the soldier well-off, and the Treasury full.” The Mīrzā for his part gave the pledge desired, put Majdu’d-dīn Muḥammad in authority throughout Khurāsān, and entrusted all public business to him. He in his turn by using all possible diligence and effort, before long had made soldier and peasant grateful and content, filled the Treasury to abundance, and made the districts habitable and cultivated. He did all this however in face of opposition from the begs and men high in place, all being led by ‘Alī-sher Beg, all out of temper with what Majdu’d-dīn Muḥammad had effected. By their effort and evil suggestion he was arrested and dismissed.1111 In succession to him Niz̤āmu’l-mulk of Khwāf was made Dīwān but in a short time they got him arrested also, and him they got put to death.1112 They then brought Khwāja Afẓal out of ‘Irāq and made him Dīwān; he had just been made a beg when I came to Kābul (910 AH.), and he also impressed the Seal in Dīwān.

Khwāja ‘Atā1113 was another; although, unlike those already mentioned, he was not in high office or Finance-minister (dīwān), nothing was settled without his concurrence the whole Khura-sānāt over. He was a pious, praying, upright (mutadaiyin) person; he must have been diligent in business also.

(j. Others of the Court.)

Those enumerated were Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s retainers and followers.1114 His was a wonderful Age; in it Khurāsān, and Herī above all, was full of learned and matchless men. Whatever the work a man took up, he aimed and aspired at bringing that work to perfection. One such man was Maulānā ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān Jāmī, who was unrivalled in his day for esoteric and exoteric knowledge. Famous indeed are his poems! The Mullā’s dignity it is out of my power to describe; it has occurred to me merely to mention his honoured name and one atom of his excellence, as a benediction and good omen for this part of my humble book.

Shaikhu’l-islām Saifu’d-dīn Aḥmad was another. He was of the line of that Mullā Sa‘du’d-dīn (Mas‘ūd) Taftazānī1115 whose descendants from his time downwards have given the Shaikhu’l-islām to Khurāsān. He was a very learned man, admirably versed in the Arabian sciences1116 and the Traditions, most God-fearing and orthodox. Himself a Shafi‘ī,1117 he was tolerant of all the sects. People say he never once in 70 years omitted the Congregational Prayer. He was martyred when Shāh Ismā‘īl took Herī (916 AH.); there now remains no man of his honoured line.1118

Maulānā Shaikh Ḥusain was another; he is mentioned here, although his first appearance and his promotion were under Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā, because he was living still under Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā. Being well-versed in the sciences of philosophy, logic and rhetoric, he was able to find much meaning in a few words and to bring it out opportunely in conversation. Being very intimate and influential with Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā, he took part in all momentous affairs of the Mīrzā’s dominions; there was no better muḥtasib1119; this will have been why he was so much trusted. Because he had been an intimate of that Mīrzā, the incomparable man was treated with insult in Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s time.

Mullā-zāda Mullā ‘Us̤mān was another. He was a native of Chīrkh, in the Luhūgur tūmān of the tūmān of Kābul1120 and was called the Born Mullā (Mullā-zāda) because in Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā’s time he used to give lessons when 14 years old. He went to Herī on his way from Samarkand to make the circuit of the ka‘ba, was there stopped, and made to remain by Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā. He was very learned, the most so of his time. People say he was nearing the rank of Ijtihād1121 but he did not reach it. It is said of him that he once asked, “How should a person forget a thing heard?” A strong memory he must have had!

Mīr Jamālu’d-dīn the Traditionalist1122 was another. He had no equal in Khurāsān for knowledge of the Muḥammadan Traditions. He was advanced in years and is still alive (934 to 937 AH.).

Mīr Murtāẓ was another. He was well-versed in the sciences of philosophy and metaphysics; he was called murtāẓ (ascetic) because he fasted a great deal. He was madly fond of chess, so much so that if he had met two players, he would hold one by the skirt while he played his game out with the other, as much as to say, “Don’t go!”

Mīr Mas‘ūd of Sherwān was another.1123

Mīr ‘Abdu’l-ghafūr of Lār was another. Disciple and pupil both of Maulānā ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān Jāmī, he had read aloud most of the Mullā’s poems (mas̤nawī) in his presence, and wrote a plain exposition of the Nafaḥāt.1124 He had good acquaintance with the exoteric sciences, and in the esoteric ones also was very successful. He was a curiously casual and unceremonious person; no person styled Mullā by any-one soever was debarred from submitting a (Qorān) chapter to him for exposition; moreover whatever the place in which he heard there was a darwīsh, he had no rest till he had reached that darwīsh’s presence. He was ill when I was in Khurāsān (912 AH.); I went to enquire for him where he lay in the Mullā’s College,1125 after I had made the circuit of the Mullā’s tomb. He died a few days later, of that same illness.

Mīr ‘Atā’u’l-lāh of Mashhad was another.1126 He knew the Arabian sciences well and also wrote a Persian treatise on rhyme. That treatise is well-done but it has the defect that he brings into it, as his examples, couplets of his own and, assuming them to be correct, prefixes to each, “As must be observed in the following couplet by your slave” (banda). Several rivals of his find deserved comment in this treatise. He wrote another on the curiosities of verse, entitled Badāi‘u’s-sanāi; a very well-written treatise. He may have swerved from the Faith.

Qāẓī Ikhtiyār was another. He was an excellent Qāẓī and wrote a treatise in Persian on Jurisprudence, an admirable treatise; he also, in order to give elucidation (iqtibās), made a collection of homonymous verses from the Qorān. He came with Muḥammad-i-yūsuf to see me at the time I met the Mīrzās on the Murgh-āb (912 AH.). Talk turning on the Bāburī script,1127 he asked me about it, letter by letter; I wrote it out, letter by letter; he went through it, letter by letter, and having learned its plan, wrote something in it there and then.

Mīr Muḥammad-i-yūsuf was another; he was a pupil of the Shaikhu’l-islām1128 and afterwards was advanced to his place. In some assemblies he, in others, Qāẓī Ikhtiyār took the higher place. Towards the end of his life he was so infatuated with soldiering and military command, that except of those two tasks, what could be learned from his conversation? what known from his pen? Though he failed in both, those two ambitions ended by giving to the winds his goods and his life, his house and his home. He may have been a Shī‘a.

(k. The Poets.)

The all-surpassing head of the poet-band was Maulānā ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān Jāmī. Others were Shaikhīm Suhailī and Ḥasan of ‘Alī Jalāīr1129 whose names have been mentioned already as in the circle of the Mīrzā’s begs and household.

Āṣafī was another,1130 he taking Āṣafī for his pen-name because he was a wazīr’s son. His verse does not want for grace or sentiment, but has no merit through passion and ecstacy. He himself made the claim, “I have never packed up (būlmādī) my odes to make the oasis (wādī) of a collection.”1131 This was affectation, his younger brothers and his intimates having collected his odes. He wrote little else but odes. He waited on me when I went into Khurāsān (912 AH.).

Banā’i was another; he was a native of Herī and took such a pen-name (Banā’i) on account of his father Ustād Muḥammad Sabz-banā.1132 His odes have grace and ecstacy. One poem (mas̤nawī) of his on the topic of fruits, is in the mutaqārib

measure;1133 it is random and not worked up. Another short

poem is in the khafīf measure, so also is a longer one finished towards the end of his life. He will have known nothing of music in his young days and ‘Alī-sher Beg seems to have taunted him about it, so one winter when the Mīrzā, taking ‘Alī-sher Beg with him, went to winter in Merv, Banā’i stayed behind in Herī and so applied himself to study music that before the heats he had composed several works. These he played and sang, airs with variations, when the Mīrzā came back to Herī in the heats. All amazed, ‘Alī-sher Beg praised him. His musical compositions are perfect; one was an air known as Nuh-rang (Nine modulations), and having both the theme (tūkānash) and the variation (yīla) on the note called rāst(?). Banā’i was ‘Alī-sher Beg’s rival; it will have been on this account he was so much ill-treated. When at last he could bear it no longer, he went into Aẕarbāījān and ‘Irāq to the presence of Ya’qūb Beg; he did not remain however in those parts after Ya‘qūb Beg’s death (896 AH. -1491 AD.) but went back to Herī, just the same with his jokes and retorts. Here is one of them: – ‘Alī-sher at a chess-party in stretching his leg touched Banā’i on the hinder-parts and said jestingly, “It is the sad nuisance of Herī that a man can’t stretch his leg without its touching a poet’s backside.” “Nor draw it up again,” retorted Banā’i.1134 In the end the upshot of his jesting was that he had to leave Herī again; he went then to Samarkand.1135 A great many good new things used to be made for ‘Alī-sher Beg, so whenever any-one produced a novelty, he called it ‘Alī-sher’s in order to give it credit and vogue.1136 Some things were called after him in compliment e. g. because when he had ear-ache, he wrapped his head up in one of the blue triangular kerchiefs women tie over their heads in winter, that kerchief was called ‘Alī-sher’s comforter. Then again, Banā’i when he had decided to leave Herī, ordered a quite new kind of pad for his ass and dubbed it ‘Alī-sher’s.

Maulānā Saifī of Bukhārā was another;1137 he was a Mullā complete1138 who in proof of his mullā-ship used to give a list of the books he had read. He put two dīwāns together, one being for the use of tradesmen (ḥarfa-kar), and he also wrote many fables. That he wrote no mas̤nawī is shewn by the following quatrain: —

Though the mas̤nawī be the orthodox verse,I know the ode has Divine command;Five couplets that charm the heartI know to outmatch the Two Quintets.1139

A Persian prosody he wrote is at once brief and prolix, brief in the sense of omitting things that should be included, and prolix in the sense that plain and simple matters are detailed down to the diacritical points, down even to their Arabic points.1140 He is said to have been a great drinker, a bad drinker, and a mightily strong-fisted man.

‘Abdu’l-lāh the mas̤nawī-writer was another.1141 He was from Jām and was the Mullā’s sister’s son. Hātifī was his pen-name. He wrote poems (mas̤nawī) in emulation of the Two Quintets,1142 and called them Haft-manẕar (Seven-faces) in imitation of the Haft-paikar (Seven-faces). In emulation of the Sikandar-nāma he composed the Tīmūr-nāma. His most renowned mas̤nawī is Laila and Majnūn, but its reputation is greater than its charm.

Mīr Ḥusain the Enigmatist1143 was another. He seems to have had no equal in making riddles, to have given his whole time to it, and to have been a curiously humble, disconsolate (nā-murād) and harmless (bī-bad) person.

Mīr Muḥammad Badakhshī of Ishkīmīsh was another. As Ishkīmīsh is not in Badakhshān, it is odd he should have made it his pen-name. His verse does not rank with that of the poets previously mentioned,1144 and though he wrote a treatise on riddles, his riddles are not first-rate. He was a very pleasant companion; he waited on me in Samarkand (917 AH.).

Yūsuf the wonderful (badī)1145 was another. He was from the Farghāna country; his odes are said not to be bad.

Āhī was another, a good ode-writer, latterly in Ibn-i-ḥusain Mīrzā’s service, and ṣāḥib-i-dīwān.1146

Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ was another.1147 His odes are tasty but better-flavoured than correct. There is Turkī verse of his also, not badly written. He went to Shaibāq Khān later on and found complete favour. He wrote a Turkī poem (mas̤nawī), named from Shaibāq Khān, in the raml masaddas majnūn measure, that is to say the metre of the Subḥat.1148 It is feeble and flat; Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ’s reader soon ceases to believe in him.1149 Here is one of his good couplets: —

A fat man (Taṃbal) has gained the land of Farghāna,

Making Farghāna the house of the fat-man (Taṃbal-khāna).

Farghāna is known also as Taṃbal-khāna.1150 I do not know whether the above couplet is found in the mas̤nawī mentioned.

Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ was a very wicked, tyrannical and heartless person.1151

Maulānā Shāh Ḥusain Kāmī1152 was another. There are not-bad verses of his; he wrote odes, and also seems to have put a dīwān together.

Hilālī (New-moon) was another; he is still alive.1153 Correct and graceful though his odes are, they make little impression. There is a dīwān of his;1154 and there is also the poem (mas̤nawī) in the khafīf measure, entitled Shāh and Darwīsh of which, fair though many couplets are, the basis and purport are hollow and bad. Ancient poets when writing of love and the lover, have represented the lover as a man and the beloved as a woman; but Hilālī has made the lover a darwīsh, the beloved a king, with the result that the couplets containing the king’s acts and words, set him forth as shameless and abominable. It is an extreme effrontery in Hilālī that for a poem’s sake he should describe a young man and that young man a king, as resembling the shameless and immoral.1155 It is heard-said that Hilālī had a very retentive memory, and that he had by heart 30 or 40,000 couplets, and the greater part of the Two Quintets, – all most useful for the minutiae of prosody and the art of verse.

Ahlī1156 was another; he was of the common people (‘āmī), wrote verse not bad, even produced a dīwān.

(l. Artists.)

Of fine pen-men there were many; the one standing-out in nakhsh ta‘līq was Sl. ‘Alī of Mashhad1157 who copied many books for the Mīrzā and for ‘Alī-sher Beg, writing daily 30 couplets for the first, 20 for the second.

Of the painters, one was Bih-zād.1158 His work was very dainty but he did not draw beardless faces well; he used greatly to lengthen the double chin (ghab-ghab); bearded faces he drew admirably.

Shāh Muz̤affar was another; he painted dainty portraits, representing the hair very daintily.1159 Short life was granted him; he left the world when on his upward way to fame.

Of musicians, as has been said, no-one played the dulcimer so well as Khwāja ‘Abdu’l-lāh Marwārīd.

Qul-i-muḥammad the lutanist (‘aūdī) was another; he also played the guitar (ghichak) beautifully and added three strings to it. For many and good preludes (peshrau) he had not his equal amongst composers or performers, but this is only true of his preludes.

Shaikhī the flautist (nāyī) was another; it is said he played also the lute and the guitar, and that he had played the flute from his 12th or 13th year. He once produced a wonderful air on the flute, at one of Badī‘u’z-zamān Mīrzā’s assemblies; Qul-i-muḥammad could not reproduce it on the guitar, so declared this a worthless instrument; Shaikhī Nāyī at once took the guitar from Qul-i-muḥammad’s hands and played the air on it, well and in perfect tune. They say he was so expert in music that having once heard an air, he was able to say, “This or that is the tune of so-and-so’s or so-and-so’s flute.”1160 He composed few works; one or two airs are heard of.

Shāh Qulī the guitar-player was another; he was of ‘Irāq, came into Khurāsān, practised playing, and succeeded. He composed many airs, preludes and works (nakhsh, peshrau u aīshlār).

Ḥusain the lutanist was another; he composed and played with taste; he would twist the strings of his lute into one and play on that. His fault was affectation about playing. He made a fuss once when Shaibāq Khān ordered him to play, and not only played badly but on a worthless instrument he had brought in place of his own. The Khān saw through him at once and ordered him to be well beaten on the neck, there and then. This was the one good action Shaibāq Khān did in the world; it was well-done truly! a worse chastisement is the due of such affected mannikins!

Ghulām-i-shādī (Slave of Festivity), the son of Shādī the reciter, was another of the musicians. Though he performed, he did it less well than those of the circle just described. There are excellent themes (ṣūt) and beautiful airs (nakhsh) of his; no-one in his day composed such airs and themes. In the end Shaibāq Khān sent him to the Qāzān Khān, Muḥammad Amīn; no further news has been heard of him.

Mīr Azū was another composer, not a performer; he produced few works but those few were in good taste.

Banā’i was also a musical composer; there are excellent airs and themes of his.

An unrivalled man was the wrestler Muḥammad Bū-sa‘īd; he was foremost amongst the wrestlers, wrote verse too, composed themes and airs, one excellent air of his being in chār-gāh (four-time), – and he was pleasant company. It is extraordinary that such accomplishments as his should be combined with wrestling.1161

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE RESUMED

(a. Burial of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā.)

At the time Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took his departure from the world, there were present of the Mīrzās only Badī’u’z-zamān Mīrzā and Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā. The latter had been his father’s favourite son; his leading beg was Muḥammad Barandūq Barlās; his mother Khadīja Begīm had been the Mīrzā’s most influential wife; and to him the Mīrzā’s people had gathered. For these reasons Badī‘u’z-zamān Mīrzā had anxieties and thought of not coming,1162 but Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā and Muḥammad Barandūq Beg themselves rode out, dispelled his fears and brought him in.

Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā was carried into Herī and there buried in his own College with royal rites and ceremonies.

(b. A dual succession.)

At this crisis Ẕū’n-nūn Beg was also present. He, Muḥ. Barandūq Beg, the late Mīrzā’s begs and those of the two (young) Mīrzās having assembled, decided to make the two Mīrzās joint-rulers in Herī. Ẕū’n-nūn Beg was to have control in Badī‘u’z-zamān Mīrzā’s Gate, Muḥ. Barandūq Beg, in Muz̤affar-i-ḥusain Mīrzā’s. Shaikh ‘Alī T̤aghāī was to be dārogha in Herī for the first, Yūsuf-i-‘alī for the second. Theirs was a strange plan! Partnership in rule is a thing unheard of; against it stand Shaikh Sa’dī’s words in the Gulistān: – “Ten darwishes sleep under a blanket (gilīm); two kings find no room in a clime” (aqlīm).1163

912 AH. – MAY 24th 1506 to MAY 13th 1507 AD.1164

(a. Bābur starts to join Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā.)

In the month of Muḥarram we set out by way of Ghūr-bund and Shibr-tū to oppose the Aūzbeg.

As Jahāngīr Mīrzā had gone out of the country in some sort of displeasure, we said, “There might come much mischief and trouble if he drew the clans (aīmāq) to himself;” and “What trouble might come of it!” and, “First let’s get the clans in hand!” So said, we hurried forward, riding light and leaving the baggage (aūrūq) at Ushtur-shahr in charge of Walī the treasurer and Daulat-qadam of the scouts. That day we reached Fort Ẓaḥāq; from there we crossed the pass of the Little-dome (Guṃbazak-kūtal), trampled through Sāīghān, went over the Dandān-shikan pass and dismounted in the meadow of Kāhmard. From Kāhmard we sent Sayyid Afẓal the Seer-of-dreams (Khwāb-bīn) and Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā with a letter giving the particulars of our start from Kābul.1165

Jahāngīr Mīrzā must have lagged on the road, for when he got opposite Bāmīān and went with 20 or 30 persons to visit it, he saw near it the tents of our people left with the baggage. Thinking we were there, he and his party hurried back to their camp and, without an eye to anything, without regard for their own people marching in the rear, made off for Yaka-aūlāng.1166

(b. Action of Shaibāq Khān.)

When Shaibāq Khān had laid siege to Balkh, in which was Sl. Qul-i-nachāq,1167 he sent two or three sult̤āns with 3 or 4000 men to overrun Badakhshān. At the time Mubārak Shāh and Zubair had again joined Nāṣir Mīrzā, spite of former resentments and bickerings, and they all were lying at Shakdān, below Kishm and east of the Kishm-water. Moving through the night, one body of Aūzbegs crossed that water at the top of the morning and advanced on the Mīrzā; he at once drew off to rising-ground, mustered his force, sounded trumpets, met and overcame them. Behind the Aūzbegs was the Kishm-water in flood, many were drowned in it, a mass of them died by arrow and sword, more were made prisoner. Another body of Aūzbegs, sent against Mubārak Shāh and Zubair where they lay, higher up the water and nearer Kishm, made them retire to the rising-ground. Of this the Mīrzā heard; when he had beaten off his own assailants, he moved against theirs. So did the Kohistān begs, gathered with horse and foot, still higher up the river. Unable to make stand against this attack, the Aūzbegs fled, but of this body also a mass died by sword, arrow, and water. In all some 1000 to 1500 may have died. This was Nāṣir Mīrzā’s one good success; a man of his brought us news about it while we were in the dale of Kāhmard.

(c. Bābur moves on into Khurāsān.)

While we were in Kāhmard, our army fetched corn from Ghūrī and Dahāna. There too we had letters from Sayyid Afẓal and Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī whom we had sent into Khurāsān; their news was of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s death.

This news notwithstanding, we set forward for Khurāsān; though there were other grounds for doing this, what decided us was anxious thought for the reputation of this (Tīmūrid) dynasty. We went up the trough (aīchī) of the Ājar-valley, on over Tūp and Mandaghān, crossed the Balkh-water and came out on Ṣāf-hill. Hearing there that Aūzbegs were overrunning Sān and Chār-yak,1168 we sent a force under Qāsim Beg against them; he got up with them, beat them well, cut many heads off, and returned.

We lay a few days in the meadow of Ṣāf-hill, waiting for news of Jahāngīr Mīrzā and the clans (aīmāq) to whom persons had been sent. We hunted once, those hills being very full of wild sheep and goats (kiyīk). All the clans came in and waited on me within a few days; it was to me they came; they had not gone to Jahāngīr Mīrzā though he had sent men often enough to them, once sending even ‘Imādu’d-dīn Mas‘ūd. He himself was forced to come at last; he saw me at the foot of the valley when I came down off Ṣāf-hill. Being anxious about Khurāsān, we neither paid him attention nor took thought for the clans, but went right on through Gurzwān, Almār, Qaiṣār, Chīchīk-tū, and Fakhru’d-dīn’s-death (aūlūm) into the Bām-valley, one of the dependencies of Bādghīs.

The world being full of divisions,1169 things were being taken from country and people with the long arm; we ourselves began to take something, by laying an impost on the Turks and clans of those parts, in two or three months taking perhaps 300 tūmāns of kipkī.1170