Shaikh ‘Abdu-r-Raḥmān, son of Shaikh Abū-l-faẓl, was promoted to the rank of 2,000 personal and 1,500 horse, and obtained the title of Afẓal Khān. 15,000 rupees were presented to ‘Arab Khān, and 20,000 rupees more for the repair of the fort of Pesh Bulāgh.* I bestowed Sarkār Khānpūr* in fief on Dilāwar Khān Afghān. On Thursday, the 17th, from the Mastān bridge as far as the Shahr-ārā garden, which was the encamping place for the royal standards, scattering rupees, half-rupees, and quarter-rupees to faqirs and indigent persons on both sides of the road, I entered the aforesaid garden. It appeared to be very green and fresh. As it was a Thursday I gave a wine entertainment to my intimates, and on account of hilarity and excitement ordered those who were of equal age to myself and had been my playfellows to jump over the stream that flowed through the middle of the garden and was about four gaz in width. Most of them could not jump it, and fell on the bank or into the stream. Although I jumped it, yet now that I was 40 years of age I could not jump it with the activity that I had shown in the presence of my revered father when I was 30. On this day I perambulated seven of the famous gardens of Kabul. I do not think that I ever walked so far before.

First of all I walked round the Shahr - ārā (city-adorning), then the Mahtāb (moonlight) garden, then the garden that Bīka Begam, grandmother of my father, had made, then passed through the Ūrta-bāgh (middle garden), then a garden that Maryam-makānī, my own grandmother, had prepared, then the Ṣūrat-khāna garden, which has a large chanār-tree, the like of which there is not in the other gardens of Kabul. Then, having seen the Chārbāgh, which is the largest of the city gardens, I returned to my own abode. There were abundance of cherries on the trees, each of which looked as it were a round ruby, hanging like globes on the branches. The Shahr-ārā garden was made by Shahr-bānū* Begam, daughter of Mīrzā Abū Sa‘īd, who was own aunt to the late king Bābar. From time to time it has been added to, and there is not a garden like it for sweetness in Kabul. It has all sorts of fruits and grapes, and its softness is such that to put one's sandalled* feet on it would be far from propriety or good manners. In the neighbourhood of this garden an excellent plot of land came to view, which I ordered to be bought from the owners. I ordered a stream that flows from the guzargāh (ferry, also bleaching green) to be diverted into the middle of the ground so that a garden might be made such that in beauty and sweetness there should not be in the inhabited world another like it. I gave it the name of Jahān-ārā (world - adorning). Whilst I was at Kabul I had several entertainments in the Shahr-ārā garden, sometimes with my intimates and courtiers and sometimes with the ladies of the harem. At nights I ordered the learned and the students of Kabul to hold the cooking entertainment,* bughra, and the throwing of bughra, together with arghushtak dances.

To each of the band of Bughrā'iyān I gave a dress of honour, and also gave 1,000 rupees to divide amongst themselves. To twelve of the trustworthy courtiers I ordered 12,000 rupees to be given, to be bestowed every Thursday, as long as I was in Kabul, on the poor and needy. I gave an order that between two plane-trees that were on the canal bank in the middle of the garden—to one of which I had given the name of Farāḥ-ba khsh (joy-giver) and the other Sāya-bakhsh (shade-giver)—they should set up a piece of white stone (marble?) one gaz in length and three-quarters of a gaz in breadth, and engrave my name thereon (and those of my ancestors) up to Tīmūr. It was set forth on the other side that I had done away with the whole of the customs dues and charges of Kabul, and whichever of my descendants and successors should do anything contrary to this would be involved in the wrath and displeasure of God. Up to the time of my accession these were fixed and settled, and every year they took large sums on this account from the servants of God (the Muhammadan people in general). The abolition of this oppression was brought about during my reign. On this journey to Kabul complete relief and contentment were brought about in the circumstances of my subjects and the people of that place. The good and leading men of Ghaznīn and that neighbourhood were presented with robes of honour and dealt kindly with, and had their desires excellently gratified.

It is a strange coincidence that (the words) rūz-i-panj shanba hīzhdaham-i-Ṣafar,* Thursday, 18th Ṣafar, which is the date of my entry into Kabul, give the Hijra date thereof.

I ordered them to inscribe this date on the stone. Near a seat (takht) on the slope of a hill to the south of the city of Kabul, and which is known as Takht-i-shāh, they have made a stone terrace where Firdūs-makānī (Bābar) used to sit and drink wine. In one corner of this rock they have excavated a round basin which could contain about two Hindustani maunds of wine. He caused his own blessed name with the date to be carved on the wall of the terrace which is next to the hill. The wording is, “The seat of the king, the asylum of the world, ahīru-d­dīn Muḥammad Bābar, son of ‘Umar Shaikh Gūrgān, may God perpetuate his kingdom, 914 (1508 – 9).” I also ordered them to cut out of stone another throne parallel to this, and dig another basin of the same fashion on its side, and engrave my name there, together with that of Ṣāḥib-qirānī (Tīmūr). Every day that I sat on that throne I ordered them to fill both of the basins with wine and give it to the servants who were present there. One of the poets of Ghaznin found the date of my coming to Kabul in this chronogram—“The king of the cities of the seven climes” (1016). I gave him a dress of honour and a present, and ordered them to engrave this date on the wall near the aforesaid seat. Fifty thousand rupees were given to Parwīz; Wazīr-al-mulk was made Mir Bakhshi. A firman was sent to Qilīj Khān to despatch 170,000 rupees from the Lahore treasury for expenses of the army at Qandahar. After visiting the Khiyābān (avenue) of Kabul and the Bībī Māh-rū, I ordered the governor of that city to plant other trees in the place of those cut down by Ḥusain Beg Rū-siyāh (the black-faced). I also visited the Ūlang-yūrt of Chālāk and found it a very pleasant place. The Ra'is of Chikrī (Jigrī?) shot with an arrow a rang* and brought it to me. Up to this time I had never seen a rang. It is like a mountain goat, and there is a difference only in its horns. The horns of the rang are bent, and those of the goat are straight and convoluted.

In connection with the account of Kabul the com­mentaries of Bābar* passed in view before me. These were in his own handwriting, except four sections (juz'* ) that I wrote myself. At the end of the said sections a sentence was written by me also in the Turkī character, so that it might be known that these four sections were written by me in my own hand. Notwithstanding that I grew up in Hindustan, I am not ignorant of Turkī speech and writing.* On the 25th Ṣafar I with the people of the harem visited the julgāh (plain) of Safīd-sang, a very bright and enjoyable place. On Friday, the 26th, I enjoyed the blessing of a pilgrimage to (the tomb of) H.M. Firdūs-makānī (Bābar). I ordered much money and food, bread, and sweetmeats for the souls of the departed to be distributed to faqirs. Ruqayya Sulān Begam, daughter of Mīrzā Hindāl, had not performed a pilgrimage to her father's tomb, and on that day had the honour to do so. On Thursday, 3rd Rabī‘u-l-awwal, I ordered them to bring my racehorses (āspān-i-dawanda) to the Khiyābān (avenue). The princes and the Amirs raced them. A bay Arab horse, which ‘Ādil Khān, the ruler of the Deccan, had sent to me, ran better than all the other horses. At this time the son of Mīrzā Sanjar Hazāra and the son of Mīrzā Māshī, who were the chief leaders of the Hazāras, came to wait on me. The Hazāras of the village of Mīrdād produced before me two rangs* that they had killed with arrows. I had never seen a rang of this size; it was larger by 20 per cent. than a large mārkhūr (?).