What diminished his ultimate chance of success was
a marked disaffection to his government, which had manifested
itself from Hissār to Bokhāra. When he first entered
the country on the defeat of Sheibāni Khan, the news of
his approach was received with the strongest demonstrations
of joy, both in the territories of Hissār and of Samarkand;
and he was hailed as a deliverer. But causes of
mutual disgust speedily arose. As he relied much on the
assistance of Shah Ismāel, the King of Persia, for reconquering
his dominions, in order to gratify that prince, he is said
to have dressed himself and his troops in the Persian fashion,
and to have issued an order that all his troops should wear
a red cloth in their caps like Kizilbāshes. The principal
men of Samarkand and Bokhāra were highly offended
at this order, which, with the general distinction shown
to the Persian auxiliaries, and perhaps some acts of Bābur
implying a dependence on the Persian king, appeared like
a preparation for their becoming subjects of Persia. Their
hostility to the Persians was now increased by difference of
religion, Shah Ismāel being a warm and zealous apostle of
the Shīa faith, while Māweralnaher, from the earliest ages
of the Islām, was always famous for the orthodoxy of
its doctors and inhabitants. The detestation which the
orthodox Sunnis of Māweralnaher then bore to the heretical
Shīas of Persia was certainly increased by the persecutions
at Herāt; and it continues undiminished at the present
hour, particularly among the Uzbeks, one of whom seldom
willingly enters the territories of Persia*
except as an
enemy. The nobles and religious men of Samarkand and
Bokhāra had expressed great indignation that their soldiers
should be disguised as Kizilbāshes. The usual weapons
of ridicule and abuse were plentifully lavished on the king
and his army, to expose these innovations to derision.*
The massacre at Karshi, though it occurred in spite of
Bābur’s efforts to prevent it, probably produced its natural
consequences. Such an execution inevitably generates
alienation and hatred; and unless supported by an overwhelming
force, so as to keep alive feelings of terror, is sure
to be fatal by the detestation it produces. The contempt
and hatred excited against the invaders spread in all
directions, and finally extended to the king and all his
Bābur in
despair
returns to
Kābul.
measures. Bābur, in the end, seeing all hope of recovering
Hissār and Samarkand totally vanished, once more recrossed
the Hindū-kūsh mountains, attended by a few
faithful followers, who still adhered to his fortunes, and
again arrived in the city of Kābul.*
From this time he seems
to have abandoned all views*
on the country of Māweralnaher;
and he was ‘led by divine inspiration’, says the
courtly Abulfazl, writing in the reign of his grandson,
‘to turn his mind to the conquest of Hindustān’.
But his arms were previously employed for several years
in attempting a conquest nearer to his capital. When
A. H. 913.
A. D. 1507.
Sheibāni Khan was obliged to raise the siege of the citadel
of Kandahār, to return to the rescue of his family in Nirehtu,*
Nāsir Mirza, Bābur’s youngest brother, who defended the
place, had been reduced to great difficulties. The departure
of Sheibāni Khan did not much improve his situation; for
Shah Beg and Mukīm remained in the neighbourhood,
and, in a short time, so much straitened the young prince,
who, from the first, was but ill prepared for a siege, that
he soon found it necessary to abandon the citadel of
Kandahār, and return to the court of his brother. Bābur
bestowed on him the government of Ghazni, an incident
mentioned among the events of the year 913. The year
in which Bābur came back from Kunduz to Kābul,*
I have
not discovered; but his return was probably in the course
A. D. 1515.
of 921.*
Of the transactions of the three following years,
our accounts are very imperfect. There is reason to believe
that they were chiefly spent in an annual invasion of the
territory of Kandahār, the forts of which were defended
by Shah Beg, though he did not venture to oppose the
invaders in the field.
The fragment of Bābur’s Memoirs which follows describes his first invasion of India, and also what Khāfi Khan and Ferishta regard as the second. It includes a period of only one year and a month. The Memoirs here assume the form of a journal.