Marching thence, having drawn up his right and left wings and centre,* King Bābar reviewed them in person. Eight hundred ^334. gun-carriages* had been prepared in one day. Ustā* ‘Alī Qulī the Artillerist, acting upon my orders, had followed the custom of the Turkish artillery, and bound together the gun-carriages with chains and raw-hide thongs, twisting them into the form of a whip­lash. * And in the interval between each pair of gun-carriages six or seven shelter parapets* were placed, so that on the day of the battle the riflemen might be able to fire in safety from the shelter of the guns and parapets. He had determined* to march, and en­camp with the city of Pānipath in the rear of his army, and to use the line of gun-carriages as a front line of defence for his troops,* while the cavalry and infantry should come into action from behind the gun-carriages with* arrow and musketry fire, while the remain­der of the cavalry should advance on both sides, and keep up a constant attack,* and in case of necessity should retire to the cover afforded by the gun-carriages.* Accordingly on Thursday the last day of Jumaidu-l-Ākhir* 932 H., he encamped in the vicinity of the city of Pānīpath, at a distance of six krohs from the camp of Sulān Ibrāhīm, whose force was composed of a hundred thousand cavalry and a thousand elephants, while the army of Bābar Pādishāh* com­prised fifteen thousand cavalry and infantry on a rough estimate.* The troops under Bābar used to make daily sallies from unexpected quarters, and attack the Afghān army, bringing in several heads: in spite of which Sulān Ibrāhīm and his men did not dare to make a single attempt at any counter attack during all this time.* At last one night Mahdī Khwāja, Muḥammad Sulān Mīrzā and cer­tain other Āmīrs, with five or six* thousand men made a night attack* upon Sulān Ibrāhīm's army, and after killing a large number of them returned in safety. In spite of the consternation into which this threw them, the enemy were not put upon their guard,* and on Friday the eighth of the honoured month Rajab* in the aforesaid year, Sulān Ibrāhīm with a large army, strong as the brazen rampart of Sikandar,* clad in iron armour came out to the fight.

Bābar Padishāh also, having arrayed his army with all the pomp and circumstance of war, and shewing a firm unbroken front, gave orders detailing from the left wing Amīr Qarā Qūrchī and Amīr Shaikh ‘Alī, with certain other Amīrs, and from the right wing, Walī Qizil and Bāba Qushqah, with the whole force of Mu-ghūls, to form two parties and attack the enemy in the rear, while the Amīrs of the right and left wings in a body, and from the picked troops,* Amīr Muḥammad Gokultāsh, and Amīr Yūnas ‘Alī, and Amīr Shāh Manṣūr Birlās, with other famous Amīrs, should lead the front attack: and since the Afghāns [were specially ob­servant of the right wing, Amīr ‘Abdu-l-‘azīz, who was with the reserve, was ordered by king Bābar to reinforce the right wing],* and when he got within bowshot of the enemy,* the bodies of the enemies took to themselves wings, and the bird of the soul of many of them took flight from the cage of the body, while the wings of others* were clipped by the shears of the two-edged sword.

Verse.

So vast was the river of blood which flowed on that battle
field
That the feet of the warriors could not stand against its flood;
The breeze which blew from that battle field at morning time
Brought to the nostrils the odour of the heart's blood.

The slain lay in heaps,* while those who escaped death by the sword became the portion for kites and ravens. A period of two qarns* has elapsed since this event up to the time of the com­position of this Muntakhab, but up to the present, the noise of conflict and shouts of combatants proceeding from that field of battle reach the ears of travellers at night.

In the year 997 H. (1588 A.D.) the writer of these pages* was proceeding one day at early morning* from the city of ^336. Lāhor towards Fatḥpūr, and had to cross that plain, when these terrifying noises reached his ears, and the people who were with him imagined that some enemy was upon them. I also witnessed with my own eyes what I had heard related. Submitting this divine mystery to the Almighty we went on our way.

Sulān Ibrāhīm together with a party of attendants was taken in an unknown desert and put to the sword, his head* was brought into the presence of Bābar Pādishāh, and* about five or six thou­sand who formed Sulān Ibrāhīm's retinue were put to death in the one spot.

Verse.

It is plainly evident* to thee that this dark world is a snare
of calamity,
Thou knowest* now that the world is full of guile, and des­perately deceitful.
That man from fear of whom no one would enter the water
He himself is drowned in the ocean, an ocean without bounds.*

Bābar Pādishāh after gaining this* signal victory departed thence, and reached Dihlī* on the same day and encamped there. He then caused the Khubah to be read in his name,* despatching Shāhzāda Muḥammad Humāyūn Mīrzā and all the Amīrs to Āgra, with orders to make forced marches, and to seize the treasure* belonging to Ibrāhīm, which was of untold value, and divide it among the soldiery.*

Verse.

He who sacrifices his life upon the field of battle
Sacrifice thy gold to him by way of generosity.
However brave-hearted a man may be
He cannot be eager to fight when he is without food.*

This event took place in the year 932 H. (1525 A.D.), and the Hindūs invented this date Shahīd shudan-i-Ibrāhīm* (the martyr­dom of Ibrāhīm) to commemorate it. From that time the empire once more passed from the Afghān Lodī family, and rested on the descendants of Amīr Tīmūr Sāḥibqirān. The duration of the reign of Sulān Ibrāhīm was nine years.