This year the greater part of the streams and rivers
came down in flood, so violently that we could get no
passage over the river of Deh-Yākūb. I therefore made
them carry a boat, which I caused to be constructed in
a tank of water, and launch it in the river of Deh-Yākūb,
opposite to Kamari,*
and by means of this vessel all the
army was passed over. In this way, after surmounting
the hill pass of Sajāwend,*
we proceeded directly forward,
Reaches
Kābul,
May 1505.
and passing the Kamari river in boats,*
reached Kābul, in
the month of Zilhijeh.
A few days before our arrival, Syed Yūsef Beg had been carried off by a colic, and departed to enjoy the mercy of God.
MisconductNāsir Mirza, as was formerly mentioned, after providing his people with some necessaries from his government, had obtained leave to stay behind in Kūsh-gumbez, promising to follow me in two or three days. But we had no sooner separated, than, under pretence of quelling the refractory spirit of the men of Dareh-Nūr, though in reality the matter of complaint was very slight, he dispatched his whole army towards Dareh-Nūr. Fazli, who was the general of the army, did not keep up proper discipline, nor act with sufficient circumspection, considering the strength of the fort of Dareh-Nūr, that it was surrounded with rice-fields, and situated on the brow of a hill, as has been described. For in that mountainous tract, and in sight of the fortified hill, he divided his force and sent out a detachment to plunder. The men of Dareh-Nūr, immediately sallying forth, attacked the plunderers who were scattered for pillage, and routed them; and no sooner were they discomfited, than the rest of the army, unable to maintain their ground, also took to flight. Many were slain, and many horses and arms taken. Such will always be the fate of an army that has a general like Fazli. Whether it was from this circumstance, or whether some disaffection influenced Nāsir Mirza, he did not follow me, but stayed behind. Another circumstance, which had some influence on his conduct, was that I had bestowed Alingār on Yūsef, and Alisheng on Bahlol, the two sons of Ayūb, than whom more wicked, more seditious, more arrogant or haughty persons, were nowhere to be found. They also were to have made some levies from their governments, and to have come along with Nāsir Mirza to join me; but as Nāsir Mirza did not come, they also stayed behind, and were the favourite bottle companions and friends of Nāsir Mirza all that winter.
During the course of this winter he made one excursion against the Turkolāni Afghans, and ravaged their country. All the Aimāks, Īls, and Ulūses, from the upper country, who had descended into Nangenhār and Lamghānāt, he attacked and drove up, and then* encamped on the banks of the Bārān. While Nāsir Mirza was on that river, and in its neighbourhood, the tidings arrived of the defeat and slaughter of the Uzbeks, by the inhabitants of Badakhshān, and of the general rising of that country, which took place in the following manner.
Revolt of Sheibāni Khan, having entrusted Kunduz to Kamber Bī,
proceeded himself to Khwārizm. Kamber Bī, for the purpose
of securing the submission of*
the inhabitants of
Badakhshān, had sent into that country Mahmūd, the son
of Muhammed Makhdūmi; but Mubārek Shah, whose
ancestors had been Begs of the Kings of Badakhshān,
having rebelled, cut off the heads of Mahmūd, the son of
Makhdūmi, and of several more of the Uzbeks, and seizing
on the fort of Zafer,*
formerly known by the name of
Shāf-tiwār, fortified himself in it. He was the person who
gave this fortress the name of Zafer. Besides this, Muhammed
Korchi, who was one of the Korchis*
of Khosrou
Shah, and at this time had the command of Khamalangān,
likewise rebelled; and having slain the Sader (or Justiciary)
of Sheibāni Khan, with a number of Uzbeks in Rustāk,
fortified himself in Khamalangān. An inhabitant of Rāgh,*
too, whose forefathers had been nobles in the court of the
kings of Badakhshān, at the same time rose in Rāgh.
Jehāngīr Turkomān, who was one of the retainers of Wali,
the brother of Khosrou Shah, and who, during the late
confusions, had separated from his lord, having collected
some fugitive soldiers, besides stragglers and Aimāks,
Nāsir Mir-
za attempts
to subdue
it.
drew off and revolted. Nāsir Mirza, on receiving this
intelligence, inspired with the ambition of acquiring
Badakhshān, at the instigation of certain senseless and
short-sighted flatterers, passed over into that quarter by
the route of Shibertū and Ābdareh, accompanied by some
bodies of these Īls and Ulūses, who, on being expelled from
the other side of the hills, had come hither and were moving
about with their whole families and property.*
Khosrou Shah, after flying from Ajer with Ahmed Kāsim, had proceeded with him to Khorasān; and having met with Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza and Zūlnūn Beg by the way, they all went together to Heri, and paid their court to Sultan Hussain Mirza. I alone was the cause that these men, who for a series of years had been at open enmity with the Mirza, and had subjected him to many insults, the old sores of which were still rankling in his heart, now all went in such a state of distress and humility, to present themselves before him. For had I not deprived Khosrou Shah of his army and retainers, and reduced him to his present helpless condition, and had not I taken Kābul from Mukīm, Zūlnūn’s son, they never would have thought of going to wait upon the Mirza. Badīa-ez-zemān was only as dough in the hands of the other two, and never attempted to swerve from their advice. Sultan Hussain Mirza received them all in a gracious manner, without reminding them of their offences, and made them a variety of presents. After some time Khosrou Shah asked permission to return to his own country, alleging that, if he were allowed to go, he could now reduce the whole of it to subjection. As, however, he was without arms, and without any means of success for such an enterprise, objections were made to his return. On perceiving this, he only persevered with the greater importunity to be allowed to take his leave. As his importunities increased, Muhammed Berandūk retorted on him sharply: ‘When you had thirty thousand men, and the whole country in your hands, what did you effect, that now you are so anxious to set out with five hundred men, and the country in the hands of the Uzbeks?’ However judicious the remonstrances made to him were, as his destined end was drawing near, he refused to listen to them. The urgency of his representations increasing, he was at last permitted to take his departure; and, attended by three or four hundred men, he advanced directly to the confines of Dahāneh.
At this very juncture Nāsir Mirza had passed over to
the same quarter. He had a conference with Nāsir Mirza
in the territory of Dehāneh.*
The chiefs of Badakhshān
had invited Nāsir Mirza alone, and did not wish for
Khosrou Shah’s return; but all the efforts that Nāsir
Mirza made to prevail on him to separate from him, and
proceed to the hill-country, had no influence on Khosrou
Shah, who saw the Mirza’s motives. Khosrou Shah’s
plan was to employ Nāsir Mirza’s name as a cover to his
designs, and after acting in his name so as to get possession
of these countries, to seize and put him to death.*
As,
however, they could not come to an understanding, each
of them put his adherents in array in the territory of
Ishkamish,*
and having clothed them in armour, and drawn
them out ready for action, they separated from each other,
Khosrou
Shah ad-
vances to
Kunduz,
and Nāsir Mirza proceeded towards Badakhshān; while
Khosrou Shah, having collected a naked and disorderly
rabble, to the amount of a thousand men, good and bad,
went to lay siege to Kunduz, and took post at Khwājeh
Chārtāk, one or two farsangs distant from that city.
After Muhammed Sheibāni Khan had taken Sultan
Ahmed Tambol in Andejān, he had advanced against Hissār,
upon which Khosrou Shah, without either battle or effort,
had abandoned his territories and fled. Sheibāni Khan
reached Hissār, in which was Shīrīm Chihreh with some
brave soldiers, who, although deserted by their superiors,
who had fled the country, would not surrender the fortress,
but made every exertion for its defence. Sheibāni Khan
left Hamzeh Sultan and Mahdi Sultan to conduct the
blockade of Hissār, and himself proceeded against Kunduz;
he conferred the government of Kunduz on his younger
brother Mahmūd Sultan, and himself without delay marched
for Khwārizm against Chīn Sūfi. He had not yet reached
Samarkand, when his brother Mahmūd Sultan died in
Kunduz, on which he gave the command in Kunduz to
Kamber Bī of Merv. When Khosrou Shah arrived, Kamber
Bī was in Kunduz; and instantly dispatched messengers
to Hamzeh Sultan and the other Sultans who had been
left behind, to call them in to his aid. Hamzeh Sultan
having himself advanced as far as Serāi,*
on the banks of
the river Amu, sent on his army to Kunduz, under the
command of his sons and Begs, who marched on to battle
is defeated
the instant they arrived. Khosrou Shah could not stand
his ground, and his gross body was not sufficiently alert
for flight; so that Hamzeh Sultan’s men unhorsed him,
and brought him in as a prisoner. They also slew Ahmed
Kāsim, his sister’s son, Shīrīm Chihreh, and a number of
his best troops. They then carried Khosrou Shah to
and put to
death.
Kunduz, where they struck off his head, which they sent
to Sheibāni Khan at Khwārizm. Khosrou Shah had no
sooner entered the Kunduz territory, than, as he had
predicted, the conduct and demeanour of his old followers
and retainers, who had taken service with me, was visibly
changed. Numbers of them began to draw off, and marched
for Khwājeh Riwāj and the country in its vicinity. The
greater part of my force at this time consisted of his old
retainers. Several Moghuls of note went off, and the rest
had begun to form combinations together; the moment
the news of his death arrived, the spirit of discontent was
quenched, as when water is thrown on fire.