After marching from Dūn we came to Rūpar.*
While we
stayed at Rūpar, it rained incessantly, and was so extremely
cold, that many of the starving and hungry Hindustānis
died. After marching from Rūpar, we had halted at Keril,
Arrives
near
Sirhind.
opposite to Sirhind,*
when a Hindustāni presented himself,
assuming the style of an ambassador from Sultan Ibrahīm.
Though he had no letters or credentials, yet as he requested
that one of my people might accompany him back as my
ambassador, I accordingly did send back a sawādi tunketār**
along with him. These poor men had no sooner
arrived in Ibrahīm’s camp than he ordered them both to be
thrown into prison. The very day that we defeated Ibrahīm,
the sawādi was set at liberty, and waited on me.
After two marches more, we halted on the banks of the
stream of Banūr*
and Sanūr.*
This is a running water, of
which there are few in Hindustān, except large rivers. They
call it the stream of Kagar.*
Chiter stands on its banks.
We rode up this stream to view the country. Three or four
kos above Chiter, it comes flowing down from a number of
little springs. Higher up than the stream by which we had
ridden,*
there issues from an open valley a rivulet fit to turn
four or five mills. It is an extremely beautiful and delightful
place, with a charming climate. On the banks of this rivulet,
where it issues from the spreading valley, I directed a Chār-bāgh
(or large garden) to be laid out. The rivulet, after
reaching the plain, goes on for a kos or two, and falls into
the first-mentioned river. The place where the stream of
Kagar issues, and is formed from the junction of the small
springs that have been mentioned, may be three or four kos
higher up than the place where this rivulet falls into it.
During the rainy season, the water of the rivulet, swelling
extremely, flows down united with the stream of the Kagar,
Hears of
Sultan
Ibrahīm’s
approach.
to Samāneh*
and Sanām. At this station we had information
that Sultan Ibrahīm, who lay on this side of Delhi, was
A. D. 1526.
advancing, and that the Shikdār of Hissār-Firozeh,*
Hamīd
Khan, khāseh-khail, had also advanced ten or fifteen kos towards
us with the army of Hissār-Firozeh, and of the neighbouring
districts. I sent on Kitteh Beg towards Ibrahīm’s
camp to procure intelligence, and dispatched Mūmin Atkeh towards
the army of Hissār-Firozeh to get notice of its motions.
On Sunday, the 13th of the first Jumāda, I marched from
Ambāla,*
and had halted on the margin of a tank, when
Mūmin Atkeh and Kitteh Beg both returned on the same
Detaches
Humāiūn
towards
Hissār-Fi-
rozeh.
day. The command of the whole right wing I gave to
Humāiūn, who was accompanied by Khwājeh Kalān, Sultan
Muhammed Duldāi, Wali Khāzin, with some of the Begs
who had stayed in Hindustān, such as Khosrou, Hindu Beg,
Abdal-azīz, and Muhammed Ali Jeng-Jeng. I also strengthened
this force by adding to it several of the inferior Begs,
and of my immediate dependants from the centre, such as
Mansūr Birlās, Kitteh Beg, Muhibb Ali, with a large body of
troops, and directed him to march against Hamīd Khan.
It was at this station, too, that Bīban came and made his
submission. These Afghans are provokingly rude and
stupid.*
Although Dilāwer Khan, who was his superior,
both in the number of his retainers and in rank, did not sit
in the presence, and although the sons of Ālim Khan stood,
though they were princes,*
this man asked to be allowed to
sit, and expected me to listen to his unreasonable demand.
Next morning, being Monday the 14th, Humāiūn set out with his light force to attack Hamīd Khan by surprise. Humāiūn dispatched on before him a hundred or a hundred and fifty select men, by way of advanced guard. On coming near the enemy, this advanced body went close up to them, hung upon their flanks,* and had one or two rencounters, when the troops of Humāiūn appeared in sight following them. No sooner were they perceived than the enemy took to flight. Our troops brought down one hundred or two hundred of their men, cut off the heads of the one half, and brought the other half alive into the camp, along with seven or eight elephants. Beg Mīrak Moghul brought the news of this victory of Humāiūn to the camp at this station on March 2. Friday, the 18th of the month. On the spot, I directed a complete dress of honour, a horse from my own stable, with a reward in money, to be given to him.
March 5. On Monday the 21st, Humāiūn reached the camp that
was still at the same station, with a hundred prisoners, and
seven or eight elephants, and waited on me. I ordered
Ustād Ali Kuli and the matchlockmen to shoot all the
prisoners as an example. This was Humāiūn’s first expedition,
and the first service he had seen. It was a very good
Hissār-Fi-
rozeh taken.
omen. Some light troops having followed the fugitives, took
Hissār-Firozeh the moment they reached it, and returned
after plundering it. Hissār-Firozeh, which, with its dependencies
and subordinate districts, yielded a kror,*
I bestowed
on Humāiūn, with a kror in money as a present.
Marching from that station, we reached Shahābād.* I sent fit persons* towards Sultan Ibrahīm’s camp to procure intelligence, and halted several days in this station. From this place also I dispatched Rahmet Piādeh to Kābul, with letters announcing my victory.
Humāiūn’s(At this same station, and this same day, the razor, or scissors, were first applied to Humāiūn’s beard.* As my honoured father mentions in these commentaries the time of his first using the razor, in humble emulation of him, I have commemorated the same circumstance regarding myself. I was then eighteen years of age. Now that I am forty-six, I, Muhammed Humāiūn, am transcribing a copy of these Memoirs from the copy in his late Majesty’s own handwriting.*)*
March 12. In this station, on Monday the 28th of the first Jumāda,
the sun entered Aries; we now began also to receive repeated
information from Ibrahīm’s camp, that he was advancing
slowly by a kos or two at a time, and halting two or three
days at each station. I, on my side, likewise moved on to
meet him, and after the second march from Shahābād, encamped
on the banks of the Jumna,*
opposite to Sirsāweh.**
Bābur en-
camps near
Sirsāweh.
Haider Kuli, a servant of Khwājeh Kalān, was sent out to
procure intelligence. I crossed the Jumna by a ford, and
went to see Sirsāweh. That same day I took a maajūn. At
Sirsāweh there is a fountain, from which a small stream flows.
It is rather a pretty place. Terdi Beg Khaksār praised it
highly. I said, ‘Yours be it’; and in consequence of these
praises, I bestowed it on Terdi Beg Khaksār. Having raised
an awning*
in a boat, we sometimes sailed about on the
broad stream of the river, and sometimes entered the creeks
in the boat.*
From this station we held down the river for two marches,
keeping close along its banks, when Haider Kuli, who had
been sent out to collect intelligence, returned, bringing
information that Daūd Khan and Hātim Khan had been
sent across the river into the Doāb with six or seven thousand*
April 1.
Attempts
to surprise
the enemy.
horse, and had encamped three or four kos in advance
of Ibrahīm’s position on the road towards us. On Sunday
the 18th of the second Jumāda, I dispatched against this
column Chin Taimūr Sultan,*
Mahdi Khwājeh, Sultan
Mirza, Ādil Sultan, with the whole left wing, commanded
by Sultan Juneid, Shah Mīr Hūssain, Kūtluk Kadem; as
well as part of the centre under Yunis Ali, Abdallah,
Ahmedi, and Kitteh Beg, with instructions to advance
rapidly and fall upon them by surprise. About noon-day
prayers, they crossed the river near our camp; and between
April 2.
afternoon and evening prayers set out from the opposite
bank. Next morning, about the time of early prayers,*
they arrived close upon the enemy, who put themselves
in some kind of order, and marched out to meet them; but
our troops no sooner came up, than the enemy fled, and
were followed in close pursuit, and slaughtered all the
way to the limits of Ibrahīm’s camp. The detachment
took Hātim Khan, Daūd Khan’s eldest brother, and one
of the generals, with seventy or eighty prisoners, and six
or eight elephants, all of which they brought in when they
waited on me. Several*
of the prisoners were put to death,
to strike terror into the enemy.