IN the month of Muharrem* I set out for Khorasān, in order to oppose the invasion of the Uzbeks, and advanced by way of Ghūrbend and Shibertū. As Jehāngīr Mirza had taken some disgust and fled from the country of Ghazni, I judged it proper, for the purpose of reducing the Aimāks to order, and to prevent the disaffected from rising in revolt,* to separate from our baggage and camp-followers in Ushter-sheher,* (leaving Wali Khāzin* and Doulet Kadam to guard and bring them on,) and to push forward with the great body of the army, in light array, with all practicable speed. That same day we reached the fort of Zahāk. Having proceeded thence by the kotal or hill pass of Gumbazek, and descended by Saekān,* we surmounted the Dandān-shiken* pass, and encamped in the valley of Kahmerd. I sent on Sultan Muhammed Duldāi, and Syed Afzal Khāb-bīn,* with a letter to Sultan Hussain Mirza, to inform him of my approach from Kābul.
Jehāngīr Mirza having lagged behind his men, when he came opposite to Bāmiān, went to see it, accompanied by twenty-three* attendants. On approaching the place he observed the tents of my household,* which had been left behind, and thinking that I was along with them, set off full speed, returned back to his camp, and without suffering himself to be delayed by any consideration whatever, marched away, never looking behind him till he had reached the territory of Yake-auleng.*
Sheibāni Meanwhile Sheibāni Khan had laid siege to Balkh.
Sultan Kalinjāk commanded in the place. Sheibāni Khan
sent out two or three Sultans, with three or four thousand
men, to plunder the country of Badakhshān. At that time
Mubārek Shah Wazīr had gone and joined Nāsir Mirza.*
Although formerly there had been some discussions and
bad blood between them, they had now in concert collected
an army, and were encamped below Kishem,*
in Shakhdān,*
when the Uzbeks,*
towards morning, came by surprise on
Nāsir Mir-
za defeats
a party of
Uzbeks.
Nāsir Mirza. Nāsir Mirza drew off his men to the summit of
a rising ground, and having rallied his troops, and blown
his trumpets, attacked the Uzbeks at the moment they
were advancing, and put them to the rout; the Kishem
river, which they had crossed in their advance, was now
swollen. Many of them were slain by the sword and by
arrows, numbers were taken prisoners, and many perished
in the river. Mubārek Shah Wazīr was encamped higher
up than the Mirza, towards Kishem. The Uzbeks, who
had divided, in order to attack them both at the same time,
had put his troops to flight, and forced them to take refuge
on a rising ground. When Nāsir Mirza had defeated those
opposed to him, he learned this situation of things, and
marched to attack the other division. The Amirs of the
hill-country too, having collected their whole strength of
horse and foot, poured down from above, and joined him.
In these circumstances, the Uzbeks found themselves
unable to stand their ground, and took to flight. Of this
body too, many were made prisoners, many were slain by
arrows and the sword, and others perished in the river.
Perhaps a thousand or fifteen hundred Uzbeks fell. This
was a good exploit of Nāsir Mirza. One of his men brought
us the news when we were in the valley of Kahmard.
While we continued in that neighbourhood, my troops went out to forage, and collected grain from Ghuri and Dehāneh. In this same valley of Kahmard, I received letters from Syed Afzal and Sultan Muhammed Duldāi, whom I had sent into Khorasān, containing intelligence of the death of Sultan Hussain Mirza. Nevertheless, I continued to advance to Khorasān, from a regard to the reputation of our family, though I had also other motives for advancing. Having passed through the valley of Tūb* and Mandaghān, and by the hill-passes* of Balkh-āb, we ascended the hill-country of Sāf.* Here, having learned that the Uzbeks were plundering Sān and Chāryak,* I dispatched Kāsim Beg with a body of troops to chastise the marauders. He fell in with them, gave them a complete defeat, and brought back a number of their heads.
As some of our men had been sent out to get information of Jehāngīr Mirza and the Aimāks, I remained for some days in the Ilāgh* of the hill of Sāf, waiting for their return. In this neighbourhood there are numbers of deer. I hunted once. In a few days all the Aimāks came out and acknowledged me. Though Jehāngīr Mirza had sent different persons to the Aimāks, and on one occasion had deputed Imād ed dīn Masaūd to work upon them, they could not be induced to go over to him, but joined me; so that at length the Mirza was compelled, from sheer necessity, to leave the mountain of Sāf, and* to come down to the valley of Pai, to meet me and make his submission. As I was occupied with the troubles of Khorasān, I did not see* the Mirza, and did not care about the Aimāks. Having passed by Gurzewān,* Almār, Kysār, and Chichiktū, and proceeded by Ulūm* Fakhr ed dīn, we reached a place called the valley of Bām in the dependence of Badghīs.* As the world was all in disorder, every one pillaging and usurping from another, my people took some plunder from the cultivated country, as well as from the Īls and Ulūses. We imposed* a contribution on the Tūrks and Aimāks of that quarter, and levied part of it. In the course of a month or two, we perhaps levied three hundred kepki tumāns.*
The Mirzas A few days before my arrival, a plundering detachment
of the Uzbeks had been attacked in Pandeh and Maruchāk,*
by a light armed force sent from Khorasān by
Zūlnūn Beg,*
and completely routed. A number of the
Uzbeks were slain. Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza, Muzaffer
Hussain Mirza, Muhammed Berendūk Birlās, and Zūlnūn
Arghūn, with Shah Beg, Zūlnūn’s son, having at length
come to the resolution of marching against Sheibāni Khan,
who was besieging Sultan Kalenjāk in Balkh, dispatched
messengers to invite all the sons of Sultan Hussain Mirza
to join them, and marched out of Heri in prosecution of
this enterprise. By the time they reached Badghīs, Abul
Muhsin Mirza advanced from Merv, and joined them at
Chihil-dukhterān. Ibn Hussain Mirza, too, soon after
joined them from Tūn, and Kāen.*
Kūpek Mirza, who was
in Meshhad, though they sent to invite him, returned an
unwise answer, and in a cowardly way declined coming.
He bore hostility to Muzaffer Mirza, and alleged, that to
join him as King would be an acknowledgement of his
sovereignty.*
Having made up his mind, he persisted in
indulging this ill-timed grudge, and would not come even
at this period, when all the brothers, great and small, had
united, and were marching in concert, and sparing no
efforts to oppose an enemy so formidable as Sheibāni
Khan. This refusal of his to join the confederacy, though
he himself chose to put it on the footing of private pique,
every one else will ascribe to cowardice. Indeed, as the
memory of such proceedings remains in the world, how can
any man of understanding pursue such a line of conduct
as, after his death, must stain his fair fame? How much
better is it for every man, who has the common feeling of
his nature, to push forward in a career that, when closed,
may conduct him to renown and glory! The wise have
well called fame a second existence. Ambassadors came
also to invite me, and soon after Muhammed Berendūk
Birlās himself arrived. What was to hinder me from
joining them? I had marched two hundred farsangs*
for
that very purpose. I therefore went on along with Muhammed
Beg. By this time the Mirzas had advanced as
far as the Murghāb, where they were now encamped. On
Nov. 6,
1506.
Bābur
meets the
Mirzas.
Monday, the 8th of the latter Jumāda, I waited on them.
Abul Muhsin Mirza came out half a kos to receive me.
When we came near each other, I on the one side dismounted,
as he did on the other; after which, we advanced
and embraced, and then both mounted again. When we
had gone on a little, and were come near the camp, Muzaffer
Mirza and Ibn Hussain Mirza met me. They were younger
than Abul Muhsin Mirza, and ought therefore to have
come out farther than he did to receive me. Probably
their delay was owing to their last night’s excess in wine,
rather than to pride, and arose from the effects of their
over indulgence in dissipation and pleasure, and not from
any intentional slight. Muzaffer Mirza having complimented
me, we embraced and saluted each other on horseback.
I then saluted Ibn Hussain Mirza in the same way;
after which, we proceeded to Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza’s Hall
of Audience, where we alighted. Here there was an
excessive crowd and gathering of people. There was such
a press that many persons were lifted off their feet for
three or four paces together, and many who were anxious
to get out on account of business or duty, were carried four
or five paces in, without being able to help themselves.
Is intro-
duced to
Badīa-ez-
zemān
Mirza.
At length, however, we reached Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza’s
Hall of State. It had been settled, that immediately on
entering, I was to bow, whereupon Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza
was to rise up, and come forward to the extremity of the
elevated platform on which he sat, where we were to
embrace. As soon as I entered the Hall of State I bowed,
and then without stopping, advanced to meet Badīa-ez-zemān
Mirza, who rose up rather tardily to come to meet
me. Kāsim Beg, who was keenly alive to my honour, and
regarded my consequence as his own, laid hold of my
girdle, and gave me a tug; I instantly understood him,
and advancing more deliberately, we embraced on the
spot that had been arranged. In this large state-tent,
carpets*
were spread in four places. In the state-tents*
of Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza, on one side of the hall, there
was a porch or recess, in which the Mirza always sat.
A carpet*
was spread in it, on which he sat along with
Muzaffer Hussain Mirza. Another carpet was spread on
the right of the porch in a kind of pavilion;*
Abul Muhsin
Mirza and myself sat on it. Lower than Badīa-ez-zemān’s
carpet, on the left, was another carpet, on which Kāsim
Sultan Uzbek, one of the Shābān Sultans, who was the
Mirza’s son-in-law, and father of Kāsim Hussain Sultan,
sat along with Ibn Hussain Mirza. On my right, but
lower down than the carpet which they had spread for
me, another carpet was spread, on which Jehāngīr Mirza
and Abdal Razāk Mirza*
were seated. Muhammed Berendūk
Beg, Zūlnūn Beg, and Kāsim Beg sat on the right,
a little lower than Kāsim Sultan and Ibn Hussain Mirza.
Public en-
tertain??
ment.
An entertainment was given. Although it was not a
drinking party, wine was put down along with the meat.
Drinking goblets of silver and gold were placed beside the
food. My forefathers and family had always sacredly
observed the rules of Chingiz. In their parties, their
courts, their festivals, and their entertainments, in their
sitting down and rising up, they never acted contrary to
the institutions of Chingiz.*
The institutions of Chingiz
certainly possessed no divine authority, so that any one
should be obliged to conform to them; every man who
has a good rule of conduct ought to observe it. If the
father has done what is wrong, the son ought to change it
for what is right. After dining we mounted our horses, and
alighted where we had pitched our camp. There was
a shiraa kos between my army and that of the Mirzas.