On Friday the 29th, I felt some symptoms of an intermittent fever, and got myself let blood. At that time there was an interval sometimes of two days, sometimes of three days, between the return of its attacks. At each attack the fever continued till a perspiration arose, when I was relieved. After ten or twelve days, Mulla Khwāja prescribed wine mixed with narcissus flowers. I took it once or twice, but it did me no good.
A. D. 1519.On Sunday, the 15th of the first Jumāda, Khwājeh Muhammed Ali came from Khost.* He brought a saddled horse as tribute, and also some money as an offering. Muhammed Sherīf munajjim,* and some sons of the Mirzas of Khost, accompanied Khwājeh Muhammed Ali, and tendered their services.
May 16.Next morning, being Monday, Mulla Kabīr arrived from Kāshghar. He had gone from Andejān to Kāshghar, and had thence come on to Kābul.
May 23.On Monday the 23rd, Malik Shah Mansūr Yūsefzai, with five or six chiefs of the Yūsefzais, came from Sawād, and waited on me.
May 30.On Monday, the first of the latter Jumāda, I bestowed dresses of honour on the Afghan Yūsefzai chiefs who had accompanied Shah Mansūr; I gave Shah Mansūr a silken robe with rich buttons; presented another with a robe of waved silk,* and gave other six persons robes of silk, after which I dismissed them. It was settled that they should never enter the country of Sawād higher up than Anūheh; and should strike out the contributions of the inhabitants from the rolls of their usual collections*; and further, that the Afghans who cultivate lands in Bajour and Sewād should pay six thousand kharwār* or loads of rice to the government.
June 1.On Wednesday the 3rd, I took a julep.*
June 6.On Monday, the 8th of the month, they brought the wedding present of Hamzah, the younger son of Kāsim Beg, who was married to the eldest daughter of Khalīfeh. It consisted of a thousand shahrokhis,* with a saddled horse.
June 7.On Tuesday, Shah Hassan Beg sent to ask my permission to have a drinking party. He carried Muhammed Ali, and other Begs of my court, to his house. Yunis Ali and Gadāi Taghāi were with me. I still abstained from the use of wine.* I said, ‘I never in my life sat sober while my friends were getting merry, nor remained cool and observant while they were quaffing wine and getting jovial. Come, therefore, and drink near me, that I may observe for a while the different progress and effects of society on the sober and the drunk.’* On the south-east of the Picture-gallery,* which was built at the gate of the Chenār-bāgh, was a small set of tents, in which I sometimes sat. The party was held there. Ghiās, the buffoon, made his appearance; they several times in sport turned him out of the party; but at last, after much wrangling in jest, he forced his way into the meeting. We sent for Tardi Muhammed Kipchāk and Mulla Kitābdar. I composed extempore, and sent to Shah Hassan and his party, the following verses:
| (Tūrki)— | My friends enjoy the rose-garden of beauty in this banquet, While I am deprived of the delights of their society. Yet since the charms of social bliss are theirs, I breathe a hundred prayers that no evil may betide them. |
I sent these lines by Ibrahīm Chihreh. Between noon-day and afternoon prayers, the party got drunk, and began to be guilty of follies.* While they were in this state of intoxication,* I made myself be carried out in my takht-rawān.* For several days before this I had drunk the wine mixture, but afterwards, in consequence of its doing me no service, I had given up using it. Towards the close of my illness, I made a party to the south-west of Tālār-chemiti,* under an apple tree, when we drank the medicated wine.
June 10.On Friday the 12th, Ahmed Beg and Sultan Muhammed Duldāi, who had been left in Bajour to assist in the defence of the country, rejoined me.
June 15.On Wednesday, the 17th of the month, Tengri Berdi, with some Begs and young officers, gave a party in Haider Tāki’s garden. I too went to the party, and drank wine. After bed-time prayers, we rose, left the place, and sat down to drink together in the Grand Public Tents.*
June 23.On Thursday, the 25th of the month, Mulla Mahmūd was appointed to read the fikh-e-seifī.*
June 28.On Tuesday, the last day of the month, Abū Muslim Gokultāsh arrived from Shah Shujaa Arghūn,* as ambassador. He brought a Tipchāk horse as a peshkesh. This same day Yūsef Ali Rikābdār having swum across the water-plot of the Bāgh-e-chenār a hundred times, received a dress of honour and a saddled horse* as a present.
July 6.On Wednesday, the 8th of Rajeb, I went to Shah Hassan’s house, where we had a drinking party. Many of my nobles and courtiers were present.
July 9.On Saturday the 11th, there was a party between afternoon and evening prayers. We went out to the terrace of the Pigeon-house, and sat down to our wine. When it was rather late, some horsemen were observed coming along the Deh-Afghānān road, proceeding to the city. I ascertained that they were Derwīsh Muhammed Sārbān and his people, who were coming on an embassy from Mirza Khan; we sent for him up to the terrace. ‘Put aside the form and state of an ambassador,’ said I, ‘and sit down and join us without ceremony.’ Derwīsh Muhammed accordingly came, and, having placed before me a few articles of the presents which he had brought,* sat down beside us. At that time he was strict in his deportment, and did not drink wine. We, however, got extremely drunk. Next morning, when I was sitting in the hall of audience, he came with all due state and ceremony, and having been introduced, presented the tributary offerings which Mirza Khan had sent.
Last year, with extreme difficulty, and by unceasing exertions and management,* all the natives in the neighbouring tracts, along with the Aimāks, had been moved and brought down into Kābul. Kābul is but a small country. It has not sufficient room for the range of their flocks of sheep and brood-mares,* and the Aimāks and Turks have not there any proper situations for their summer and winter residences. The tribes who inhabit the desert and wilds, if they have their own will, never will settle in Kābul. Through Kāsim Beg, they begged leave to pass into another country. Kāsim Beg pleaded hard for them, and at last procured leave for the Aimāks to go over to Kunduz and Baghlān.*
A. D. 1519.Hāfiz, Mīr Kātib’s elder brother, had come from Samarkand. I now gave him leave to return. I sent by him my diwān for Pūlād Sultan, and on the back of it I wrote the following verses:
| (Persian)— | O Zephyr, if thou enter the sanctuary of that cypress, Remind him of this heart-broken victim of separation— The object of my love thinks not of Bābur; yet I cherish a hope That God will pour pity into his iron heart—(or Pūlād’s* heart). |
On Friday, the 17th of the month, Muhammed Zemān Mirza brought an offering, and a horse, as tribute from Shah Mazīd Gokultāsh,* and was introduced to me.
The same day, having arrayed Abū Muslim Gokultāsh, the ambassador of Shah Beg, in a dress of honour, and given him some presents,* I gave him his audience of leave.