The Bābur-nāma

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 27th) When we dismounted at ‘Alī-masjid, a Dilazāk Afghān of the Yaq‘ūb-khail, named Ma‘rūf, brought an offering of 10 sheep, two ass-loads of rice and eight large cheeses.

(March 28th) Marching on from ‘Alī-masjid, we dismounted at Yada-bīr; from Yada-bīr Jūī-shāhī was reached by the Midday Prayer and we there dismounted. Today Dost Beg was attacked by burning fever.

(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.).

After crossing the Sūrkh-āb, we dismounted at Kark and took a sleep.

(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.

When we reached Qarā-tū, Shāh Beg Arghūn’s commissary (tawāchī) Qīzīl (Rufus) brought word that Shāh Beg had taken Kāhān, plundered it and retired.

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.1433 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 2nd) At the Other Prayer of Friday the 1st of the second Rabī‘ there was a wine-party at which a special head-to-foot (bāsh-ayāq) was bestowed on Shāh Ḥasan.

(April 3rd) At dawn on Saturday we went on board a boat and took our morning.1434 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-kīna1435 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.

(u. Dost Beg’s death.)

(April 6th) On the night of Tuesday the 5th of the month,1436 Dost Beg, who on the road had had fever, went to God’s mercy.

Sad and grieved enough we were! His bier and corpse were carried to Ghaznī where they laid him in front of the gate of the Sult̤ān’s garden (rauza).

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,1437 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 jība1438; 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;1439 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.1440

Again, when we were getting out of Akhsī [908 AH.],1441 Dost Beg chopped away at Bāqī Ḥīz1442 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.],1443 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,1444 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,1445 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.

Again, his men were first over the ramparts at the fort of Bajaur (925 AH.). At Parhāla, again, he advanced, beat Hātī, put him to flight, and won Parhāla.

After Dost Beg’s death, I bestowed his district on his younger brother Nāṣir’s Mīrīm.1446

(v. Various incidents.)

(April 9th) On Friday the 8th of the second Rabī‘, the walled-town was left for the Chār-bāgh.

(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,1447 she had settled down in Khwārizm where Yīlī-pārs 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 18th) On Sunday the 17th, that traitor to his salt, Bābā Shaikh1448 was released from his long imprisonment, forgiven his offences and given an honorary dress.

(w. Visit to the Koh-dāman.)

(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 21st) On Wednesday we went to Khwāja Sih-yārān.

(April 22nd) On Thursday the 22nd of the month, we had a large round seat made in the garden under construction on the mountain-naze.1449

(April 23rd) On Friday we got on a raft from the bridge. On our coming opposite the fowlers’ houses, they brought a dang (or ding)1450 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.1451

(April 24th) On Saturday the 23rd of the month cuttings were planted, partly of plane, partly of tāl,1452 above the round seat. At the Mid-day Prayer there was a wine-party at the place.

(April 25th) At dawn we took our morning on the new seat. At noon we mounted and started for Kābul, reached Khwāja Ḥasan quite drunk and slept awhile, rode on and by midnight got to the Chār-bāgh. At Khwāja Ḥasan, ‘Abdu’l-lāh, in his drunkenness, threw himself into water just as he was in his tūn aūfrāghī.1453 He was frozen with cold and could not go on with us when we mounted after a little of the night had passed. He stayed on Qūtlūq Khwāja’s estate that night. Next day, awakened to his past intemperance, he came on repentant. Said I, “At once! will this sort of repentance answer or not? Would to God you would repent now at once in such a way that you would drink nowhere except at my parties!” He agreed to this and kept the rule for a few months, but could not keep it longer.

(x. Hindū Beg abandons Bhīra.)

(April 26th) On Monday the 25th came Hindū Beg. There having been hope of peace, he had been left in those countries with somewhat scant support. No sooner was our back turned than a mass of Hindūstānīs and Afghāns gathered, disregarded us and, not listening to our words, moved against Hindū Beg in Bhīra. The local peoples also went over to the Afghāns. Hindū Beg could make no stand in Bhīra, came to Khūsh-āb, came through the Dīn-kot country, came to Nīl-āb, came on to Kābul. Sīktū’s son Dīwa Hindū and another Hindū had been brought prisoner from Bhīra. Each now giving a considerable ransom, they were released. Horses and head-to-foot dresses having been given them, leave to go was granted.

(April 30th) On Friday the 29th of the month, burning fever appeared in my body. I got myself let blood. I had fever with sometimes two, sometimes three days between the attacks. In no attack did it cease till there had been sweat after sweat. After 10 or 12 days of illness, Mullā Khwāja gave me narcissus mixed with wine; I drank it once or twice; even that did no good.

(May 15th) On Sunday the 15th of the first Jumāda1454 Khwāja Muḥammad ‘Alī came from Khwāst, bringing a saddled horse as an offering and also taṣadduq money.1455 Muḥ. Sharīf the astrologer and the Mīr-zādas of Khwāst came with him and waited on me.

(May 16th) Next day, Monday, Mullā Kabīr came from Kāshghar; he had gone round by Kāshghar on his way from Andijān to Kābul.

(May 23rd) On Monday the 23rd of the month, Malik Shāh Manṣūr Yūsuf-zāī arrived from Sawād with 6 or 7 Yūsuf-zāī chiefs, and did obeisance.

(May 31st) On Monday the 1st of the second Jumāda, the chiefs of the Yūsuf-zāī Afghāns led by Malik Shāh Manṣūr were dressed in robes of honour (khil‘at). To Malik Shāh Manṣūr was given a long silk coat and an under-coat (? jība) with its buttons; to one of the other chiefs was given a coat with silk sleeves, and to six others silk coats. To all leave to go was granted. Agreement was made with them that they were not to reckon as in the country of Sawād what was above Abuha (?), that they should make all the peasants belonging to it go out from amongst themselves, and also that the Afghān cultivators of Bajaur and Sawād should cast into the revenue 6000 ass-loads of rice.

(June 2nd) On Wednesday the 3rd, I drank jul-āb.1456

(June 5th) On Saturday the 6th, I drank a working-draught (dārū-i-kār).

(June 7th) On Monday the 8th, arrived the wedding-gift for the marriage of Qāsim Beg’s youngest son Ḥamza with Khalīfa’s eldest daughter. It was of 1000 shāhrukhī; they offered also a saddled horse.

(June 8th) On Tuesday Shāh Beg’s Shāh Ḥasan asked for permission to go away for a wine-party. He carried off to his house Khwāja Muḥ. ‘Alī and some of the household-begs. In my presence were Yūnas-i-‘alī and Gadāī T̤aghāī. I was still abstaining from wine. Said I, “Not at all in this way is it (hech andāq būlmāī dūr) that I will sit sober and the party drink wine, I stay sane, full of water, and that set (būlāk) of people get drunk; come you and drink in my presence! I will amuse myself a little by watching what intercourse between the sober and the drunk is like.”1457 The party was held in a smallish tent in which I sometimes sat, in the Plane-tree garden south-east of the Picture-hall. Later on Ghiyāṣ the house-buffoon (kīdī) arrived; several times for fun he was ordered kept out, but at last he made a great disturbance and his buffooneries found him a way in. We invited Tardī Muḥammad Qībchāq also and

Mullā kitāb-dār (librarian). The following quatrain, written impromptu, was sent to Shāh Ḥasan and those gathered in his house: —

In your beautiful flower-bed of banquetting friends,Our fashion it is not to be;If there be ease (ḥuzūr) in that gathering of yours,Thank God! there is here no un-ease [bī ḥuzūr].1458

It was sent by Ibrāhīm chuhra. Between the two Prayers (i. e. afternoon) the party broke up drunk.

I used to go about in a litter while I was ill. The wine-mixture was drunk on several of the earlier days, then, as it did no good I left it off, but I drank it again at the end of my convalescence, at a party had under an apple-tree on the south-west side of the Tālār-garden.

(June 11th) On Friday the 12th came Aḥmad Beg and Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī who had been left to help in Bajaur.

(June 16th) On Wednesday the 17th of the month, Tīngrī-bīrdī and other braves gave a party in Ḥaidar Tāqi’s garden; I also went and there drank. We rose from it at the Bed-time Prayer when a move was made to the great tent where again there was drinking.

(June 23rd) On Thursday the 25th of the month, Mullā Maḥmūd was appointed to read extracts from the Qorān1459 in my presence.

(June 28th) On Tuesday the last day of the month, Abū’l-muslim Kūkūldāsh arrived as envoy from Shāh Shujā‘ Arghūn bringing a tīpūchāq. After bargain made about swimming the reservoir in the Plane-tree garden, Yūsuf-i-‘alī the stirrup-holder swam round it today 100 times and received a gift of a head-to-foot (dress), a saddled horse and some money.

(July 6th) On Wednesday the 8th of Rajab, I went to Shāh Ḥasan’s house and drank there; most of the household and of the begs were present.

(July 9th) On Saturday the 11th, there was drinking on the terrace-roof of the pigeon-house between the Afternoon and Evening Prayers. Rather late a few horsemen were observed, going from Dih-i-afghān towards the town. It was made out to be Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Sārbān, on his way to me as the envoy of Mīrzā Khān (Wais). We shouted to him from the roof, “Drop the envoy’s forms and ceremonies! Come! come without formality!” He came and sat down in the company. He was then obedient and did not drink. Drinking went on till the end of the evening. Next day he came into the Court Session with due form and ceremony, and presented Mīrzā Khān’s gifts.

(y. Various incidents.)

Last year1460 with 100 efforts, much promise and threats, we had got the clans to march into Kābul from the other side (of Hindū-kush). Kābul is a confined country, not easily giving summer and winter quarters to the various flocks and herds of the Turks and (Mughūl?) clans. If the dwellers in the wilds follow their own hearts, they do not wish for Kābul! They now waited (khidmat qīlīb) on Qāsim Beg and made him their mediator with me for permission to re-cross to that other side. He tried very hard, so in the end, they were allowed to cross over to the Qūndūz and Bāghlān side.

Ḥāfiz̤ the news-writer’s elder brother had come from Samarkand; when I now gave him leave to return, I sent my Dīwān by him to Pūlād Sult̤ān.1461 On the back of it I wrote the following verse: —

O breeze! if thou enter that cypress’ chamber (ḥarīm)Remind her of me, my heart reft by absence;She yearns not for Bābur; he fosters a hopeThat her heart of steel God one day may melt.1462

(July 15th) On Friday the 17th of the month, Shaikh Mazīd Kūkūldāsh waited on me from Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, bringing taṣadduq tribute and a horse.1463 Today Shāh Beg’s envoy Abū’l-muslim Kūkūldāsh was robed in an honorary dress and given leave to go. Today also leave was given for their own districts of Khwāst and Andar-āb to Khwāja Muḥammad ‘Alī and Tīngrī-bīrdī.

(July 21st) On Thursday the 23rd came Muḥ. ‘Alī Jang-jang who had been left in charge of the countries near Kacha-kot and the Qārlūq. With him came one of Hātī’s people and Mīrzā-i-malū-i-qārlūq’s son Shāh Ḥasan. Today Mullā ‘Alī-jān waited on me, returned from fetching his wife from Samarkand.

(z. The ‘Abdu’r-raḥman Afghāns and Rustam-maidān.)

(July 27th) The ‘Abdu’r-raḥman Afghāns on the Gīrdīz border were satisfactory neither in their tribute nor their behaviour; they were hurtful also to the caravans which came and went. On Wednesday the 29th of Rajab we rode out to over-run them. We dismounted and ate food near Tang-i-waghchān,1464 and rode on again at the Mid-day Prayer. In the night we lost the road and got much bewildered in the ups and downs of the land to the south-east of Pātakh-i-āb-i-shakna.1465 After a time we lit on a road and by it crossed the Chashma-i-tūra1466 pass.

(July 28th) At the first prayer (farẓ-waqt) we got out from the valley-bottom adjacent1467 to the level land, and the raid was allowed. One detachment galloped towards the Kar-māsh1468 mountain, south-east of Gīrdīz, the left-hand of the centre led by Khusrau, Mīrzā Qulī and Sayyid ‘Alī in their rear. Most of the army galloped up the dale to the east of Gīrdīz, having in their rear men under Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate, Mīr Shāh Qūchīn, Qayyām (Aūrdū-shāh Beg?), Hindū Beg, Qūtlūq-qadam and Ḥusain [Ḥasan?]. Most of the army having gone up the dale, I followed at some distance. The dalesmen must have been a good way up; those who went after them wore their horses out and nothing to make up for this fell into their hands.

Some Afghāns on foot, some 40 or 50 of them, having appeared on the plain, the rear-reserve went towards them. A courier was sent to me and I hastened on at once. Before I got up with them, Ḥusain Ḥāsan, all alone, foolishly and thoughtlessly, put his horse at those Afghāns, got in amongst them and began to lay on with his sword. They shot his horse, thus made him fall, slashed at him as he was getting up, flung him down, knifed him from all sides and cut him to pieces, while the other braves looked on, standing still and reaching him no helping hand! On hearing news of it, I hurried still faster forward, and sent some of the household and braves galloping loose-rein ahead under Gadāī T̤aghāī, Payānda-i-muḥammad Qīplān, Abū’l-ḥasan the armourer and Mūmin Ātāka. Mūmin Ātāka was the first of them to bring an Afghān down; he speared one, cut off his head and brought it in. Abū’l-ḥasan the armourer, without mail as he was, went admirably forward, stopped in front of the Afghāns, laid his horse at them, chopped at one, got him down, cut off and brought in his head. Known though both were for bravelike deeds done earlier, their action in this affair added to their fame. Every one of those 40 or 50 Afghāns, falling to the arrow, falling to the sword, was cut in pieces. After making a clean sweep of them, we dismounted in a field of growing corn and ordered a tower of their heads to be set up. As we went along the road I said, with anger and scorn, to the begs who had been with Ḥusain, “You! what men! there you stood on quite flat ground, and looked on while a few Afghāns on foot overcame such a brave in the way they did! Your rank and station must be taken from you; you must lose pargana and country; your beards must be shaved off and you must be exhibited in towns; for there shall be punishment assuredly for him who looks on while such a brave is beaten by such a foe on dead-level land, and reaches out no hand to help!” The troop which went to Kar-māsh brought back sheep and other spoil. One of them was Bābā Qashqa1469 Mughūl; an Afghān had made at him with a sword; he had stood still to adjust an arrow, shot it off and brought his man down.

(July 29th) Next day at dawn we marched for Kābul. Pay-aster Muḥammad, ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz Master of the Horse, and Mīr Khūrd the taster were ordered to stop at Chashma-tūra, and get pheasants from the people there.

As I had never been along the Rustam-maidān road,1470 I went with a few men to see it. Rustam-plain (maidān) lies amongst mountains and towards their head is not a very charming place. The dale spreads rather broad between its two ranges. To the south, on the skirt of the rising-ground is a smallish spring, having very large poplars near it. There are many trees also, but not so large, at the source on the way out of Rustam-maidān for Gīrdīz. This is a narrower dale, but still there is a plot of green meadow below the smaller trees mentioned, and the little dale is charming. From the summit of the range, looking south, the Karmāsh and Bangash mountains are seen at one’s feet; and beyond the Karmāsh show pile upon pile of the rain-clouds of Hindūstān. Towards those other lands where no rain falls, not a cloud is seen.

We reached Hūnī at the Mid-day Prayer and there dismounted.

(July 30th) Dismounting next day at Muḥammad Āghā’s village,1471 we perpetrated (irtqāb) a ma’jūn. There we had a drug thrown into water for the fish; a few were taken.1472

(July 31st) On Sunday the 3rd of Sha‘bān, we reached Kābul.

(August 2nd) On Tuesday the 5th of the month, Darwīsh-i-muḥammad Faẓlī and Khusrau’s servants were summoned and, after enquiry made into what short-comings of theirs there may have been when Ḥusain was overcome, they were deprived of place and rank. At the Mid-day Prayer there was a wine-party under a plane-tree, at which an honorary dress was given to Bābā Qashqa Mughūl.

(August 5th) On Friday the 8th Kīpa returned from the presence of Mīrzā Khān.

(aa. Excursion to the Koh-dāman.)

(August 11th) On Thursday at the Other Prayer, I mounted for an excursion to the Koh-dāman, Bārān and Khwāja Sih-yārān.1473 At the Bed-time Prayer, we dismounted at Māmā Khātūn.1474

(August 12th) Next day we dismounted at Istālīf; a confection was eaten on that day.

(August 13th) On Saturday there was a wine-party at Istālīf.

(August 14th) Riding at dawn from Istālīf, we crossed the space between it and the Sinjid-valley. Near Khwāja Sih-yārān a great snake was killed as thick, it may be, as the fore-arm and as long as a qūlāch.1475 From its inside came out a slenderer snake, that seemed to have been just swallowed, every part of it being whole; it may have been a little shorter than the larger one. From inside this slenderer snake came out a little mouse; it too was whole, broken nowhere.1476

On reaching Khwāja Sih-yārān there was a wine-party. Today orders were written and despatched by Kīch-kīna the night-watch (tūnqt̤ār) to the begs on that side (i. e. north of Hindū-kush), giving them a rendezvous and saying, “An army is being got to horse, take thought, and come to the rendezvous fixed.”

(August 15th) We rode out at dawn and ate a confection. At the infall of the Parwān-water many fish were taken in the local way of casting a fish-drug into the water.1477 Mīr Shāh Beg set food and water (āsh u āb) before us; we then rode on to Gul-bahār. At a wine-party held after the Evening Prayer, Darwīsh-i-muḥammad (Sārbān) was present. Though a young man and a soldier, he had not yet committed the sin (irtqāb) of wine, but was in obedience (tā’ib). Qūtlūq Khwāja Kūkūldāsh had long before abandoned soldiering to become a darwīsh; moreover he was very old, his very beard was quite white; nevertheless he took his share of wine at these parties. Said I to Darwīsh-i-muḥammad, “Qūtlūq Khwāja’s beard shames you! He, a darwīsh and an old man, always drinks wine; you, a soldier, a young man, your beard quite black, never drink! What does it mean?” My custom being not to press wine on a non-drinker, with so much said, it all passed off as a joke; he was not pressed to drink.