Kāsim Beg, on hearing what had passed as to urging me to take wine, sent to remonstrate on the subject with Zūlnūn Beg, who took the Mirzas to task, and reprimanded them most severely, so that they wholly laid aside any idea of urging me further to drink. Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza, having heard of Muzaffer’s entertainment to me, made a party in the Bāgh-e-jehān-ārā, in the Makauvi-khāneh,* and invited me. Many of my young nobles and retinue were likewise invited. My courtiers could not drink wine, out of respect to me. If they were desirous of indulging at any time, perhaps once in a month, or forty days, they used to shut their doors, and sit down to drink, in the greatest alarm, lest they should be discovered. Such were the men who were now invited. On the present occasion, when by any chance they found me not attending, they would hide their goblet with their hands, and take a draught in great dread; although such precautions were altogether unnecessary, as, at a party, I allowed my people to follow the common usages, and this party I regarded as one given by my father, or elder brother. They brought in branching willow trees.* I do not know if they were in the natural state of the tree, or if the branches were formed artificially, but they had small twigs cut the length of the ears of a bow, and inserted between them, so that they had a very fanciful appearance.* In the course of the party, a roast goose was put down before me. As I was ignorant of the mode of cutting it up, or carving it, I let it alone, and did not touch it. Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza asked me if I did not like it. I told him frankly that I did not know how to carve it. The Mirza immediately cut up the goose, and, dividing it into small bits, placed it again before me.* Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza was unequalled in such kind of attentions. Towards the close of the party, he presented me with a rich enamelled dagger, a chārkob, or kerchief of cloth of gold, and a Tipchāk horse.
BāburDuring the twenty days that I stayed in Heri, I every day rode out to visit some new place that I had not seen before. My guide and provider in these visits was Yūsef Ali Gokultāsh, who always got ready a sort of collation, in some suitable place where we stopped. In the course of these twenty days, I saw perhaps everything worthy of notice, except the Khānekah (or monastery) of Sultan Hussain Mirza. I saw the Bleaching-ground,* the garden of Ali Sher Beg, the Paper-mills, the Takht-Astāneh (or Royal Throne)*; the bridge of Gāh; the Kah-dastān; the Bāgh-e-nazer-gāh*; the Niāmet-ābād*; the Khiāban, or public pleasure-walks at the Bleaching-ground; the Khatīrat of Sultan Ahmed Mirza; the Takht-e-safer (or Safer Palace); the Takht-e-nawāi; the Takht-e-barkīr; the Takht-e-Hāji Beg; and the Takhts of Sheikh Behā ed dīn of Moulāna Abdal Rahmān Jāmi; the Namāzgah-e-Mukhtār*; of Moulāna Abdal Rahmān Jāmi; the Namāzgah-e-Mukhtār1; the Fish-pond; the Sāk-e-Suleimān*; Bulūri,* which was originally called Abul Walīd; the Imām Fakhr*; the Bāgh-e-khiābān; the Colleges and Tombs of the Mirza; the College of Gauher-shād-begum,* her Tomb, and her Grand Mosque; the Bāgh-e-zāghān (or Raven-Garden); the Bāgh-e-nou (or New Garden); the Bāgh-e-Zobeideh, or Zobeideh’s Garden; the Akserai (or White Palace), built by Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza, which is situated close by* the Irāk-Gate; Pūrān* and Suffah-e-sarendāzān (the Warrior’s Seat); Chirgh Alāg* and Mīr Wāhid; the Bridge of Mālān*; the Khwājeh-tāk (Khwājeh’s Porch), and Bāgh-e-sefīd (White Garden); the Tarebkhāneh (Pleasure-House); the Bāgh-e-jehān-ārā*; the Kūshk* and Makauvi-khāneh (or Mansion of Enjoyment); the Sūsani-khāneh (or Lily Palace); the Dwāzdeh-burj, or Twelve Towers; the Great Reservoir, on the north of the Jehān-ārā; the four edifices on its four sides; the five gates of the town walls, the King’s Gate, the Irāk Gate, the Firozābād Gate, the Khush* Gate, and the Kipchāk Gate; the King’s bazar; the Chārsū (or great Public Market); the College of Sheikh-ul-Islām; the Grand Mosque of the Kings; the Bāgh-e-shaher (or City Garden); the College of Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza, which is built on the banks of the river Anjīl; Ali Sher Beg’s dwelling-house, which they call Unsīa (or the Palace of Ease); his Tomb and Great Mosque, which they call Kudasīa (or the Holy); his College and Khānekah (or monastery), which they call Khalāsīa and Akhlāsīa (or the Pure); his Baths and Hospital, which they call Safaīa and Shafaīa (the Purifying and Healthy); all these I saw in the short space that I had to spare.
Bābur en-Some time before, while the country was in confusion, the younger daughter of Sultan Ahmed Mirza,* Maasūmeh Sultan Begum, had been brought into Khorasān by her mother Habībeh Sultan Begum. One day that I went to see my Aka,* the young princess called along with her mother and saw me. She no sooner saw me than she conceived a strong attachment, and employed persons secretly to communicate her feelings to my Aka and my Yanka. I called Payandeh Sultan Begum, Akām, and Habībeh Sultan Begum, Yankām.* After some conversation, it was agreed that my Yanka should follow me with her daughter, and come to Kābul.
Leaves Muhammed Berendūk and Zūlnūn Beg had used every
kind of entreaty, and exerted all their endeavours, to prevail
on me to winter in Khorasān, but did not provide me
with either proper quarters or suitable conveniences to
enable me to do so. The winter was come, and the snow
began to fall in the mountains that separated me from my
dominions. I still felt considerable alarm as to the situation
of things in Kābul, and yet they neither gave me a place in
which I could construct winter quarters for myself, nor one
ready fitted up for that purpose. At length, compelled by
necessity, and unable to explain my real motives, I left Heri
on the 8th of Shābān, under pretence of going into winter-quarters.
Dec. 24,
1506.
I marched to the neighbourhood of Bādghīs,*
halting a day or two at every station, and then resuming my
route, in order that such of my men as had gone to collect
money, or who had dispersed on any other business or
employment over the country, might have time to return
and join me. We lingered and tarried so long, that, in our
second or third march after passing Langer-Mīr-Ghiās, we
saw the moon of Ramzān.*
Many of those who had gone
out on business or with other objects, had now come back
and joined me; many did not return for twenty days or
a month afterwards, when they came to me at Kābul;
several stayed behind altogether, and entered into the Mirzas’
service. Of this last number was Sīdīm Ali Darbān,*
who
remained behind, and took service with Badīa-ez-zemān
Mirza. I had shown none of Khosrou Shah’s servants
such attention as him. When Jehāngīr Mirza went off and
abandoned Ghazni, I had given it to Sīdīm Ali, who had
left his wife’s brother, Dost Angū Sheikh, behind in that
city, while he himself accompanied the army. In truth,
among all the servants of Khosrou Shah, there were no
better men than Sīdīm Ali Darbān and Muhibb Ali Korchi.*
Sīdīm had an excellent temper and manners. He was a man
of valour in war, and was never without a party or entertainment
at his house. Though extremely liberal, he was
careful to confine his expenses within his income; yet he
always had everything necessary. He had a polished manner
and address, and his style of conversation and of telling
a story was peculiarly agreeable. He was lively, witty, and
humorous. His great fault was that he was addicted to
pederasty. He was rather heterodox in his religious
opinions, and was accused of being somewhat of a double
dealer. Many of the charges brought against him on that
head, however, were really owing to his ironical manner;
yet no doubt there was some truth in the charge. When
Badīa-ez-zemān surrendered Heri to the enemy,*
and went
to Shah Beg, Sīdīm Ali, in consequence of some double
dealing of his between Shah Beg and the Mirza, was put to
death and thrown into the river Helmand. Muhibb Ali will
be mentioned hereafter.