Another of his chiefs was Sheikh Abdallah Birlās. He married Shah Sultan Muhammed’s daughter,* who, by the mother’s side, was aunt to Sultan Mahmūd Khan and Ababeker Mirza. He wore his frock very strait and tightened by a belt. He was an upright, unaffected man.
MahmūdAnother was Mahmūd Birlās, who was of the Birlāses of Nundāk. He had attained the rank of Beg in Sultan Abusaīd Mirza’s time. When that prince subdued the territories of Irāk, he gave Kermān to this Mahmūd Birlās; and at a later period, when Ababeker Mirza, accompanied by Mazīd Beg Arghūn, and the Begs of the Turkomāns of the Black Sheep, came against Sultan Mahmūd Mirza at Hissār, and the Mirza fled to Samarkand to his elder brother, Mahmūd Birlās refused to surrender Hissār, and manfully held it out. He was a poet, and composed a diwān.
Khosrou After Sultan Mahmūd Mirza’s death, Khosrou Shah
wished to conceal the event, and seized upon the treasure.
How was it possible that such an event could remain concealed?
It was instantly noised about among all the townspeople
and inhabitants of Samarkand. That day happened
to be a great festival; the soldiery and citizens, rising
tumultuously, fell upon Khosrou Shah. Ahmed Hāji Beg
and the Terkhān Begs, having allayed the tumult, sent off
Khosrou Shah towards Hissār. Sultan Mahmūd Mirza, in
his lifetime, had given Hissār to his eldest son Sultan
Masaūd Mirza, and Bokhāra to Baiesanghar Mirza, and
sent them away to their governments, so that, at this time,
neither of them was at hand. After the expulsion of
Khosrou Shah, the Begs of Samarkand and Hissār having
Baiesan-
ghar
Mirza is
raised to
the throne.
met and consulted together, sent an express to Baiesanghar
Mirza, who was in Bokhāra, and, bringing him to Samarkand,
placed him on the throne. When Baiesanghar became king
he was only eighteen years of age.
At this crisis, Sultan Mahmūd Khan, at the instigation
and by the advice of Sultan Juneid Birlās*
and some of the
chief men of Samarkand, advanced with an army against
that capital, as far as Kānbāi, which lies in the territory of
Samarkand. Baiesanghar Mirza, with the utmost activity
and vigour, led out a strong and well-appointed body of
troops, and engaged him not far from Kānbāi. Haider
Gokultāsh, who was the great pillar of the Moghul army,
and commanded the advanced guard, had dismounted with
all his men, who were actively employed in shooting their
arrows.*
The instant that the resolute mailed warriors of
Samarkand and Hissār charged keenly on horseback, the
whole of Haider Gokultāsh’s division, which had dismounted,
was ridden down and trampled under the horses’ feet. After
the discomfiture of this body, the rest of the army no longer
but is
defeated
made a stand, but were totally defeated. A vast number
of Moghuls perished; so many of them were beheaded in
the presence of Baiesanghar Mirza, that they were forced
three several times to shift his pavilion, in consequence of
the heaps of slain that lay before it.*
At this time Ibrahīm Sāru, who was of the tribe of
Minkaligh, who had been brought up from his infancy in
my mother’s*
service, and had attained the dignity of
Beg, but who had afterwards been dismissed on account of
some misdemeanour, now entered the fort of Asfera,*
read
the khutbeh (or public prayer for the Prince) in the name
of Baiesanghar Mirza, and commenced open hostilities
May 1495.
against me. In the month of Shābān I made the army
mount, and marched to quell the revolt of Ibrāhim Sāru;
and in the end of the month I came to my ground and
Is besieged
by Bābur;
invested the place. The very day of our arrival, the young
warriors, in the wantonness of enterprise, immediately
on reaching the foot of the walls, mounted a rampart that
had been recently built, and entered and took an outwork
that had just been finished.*
Syed Kāsim, the chamberlain,
this day acted the most distinguished part, pushed on before
the other assailants, and laid about him with his scimitar.
Sultan Ahmed Tambol, and Muhammed Dost Taghāi, also
wielded their scimitars gallantly; but Syed Kāsim gained
the ulūsh*
(or prize of valour). The ulūsh (or prize of
valour) is an ancient usage that is retained among the
Moghuls. In every entertainment and feast, he who has
most distinguished himself by the gallant use of his sword,
takes the ulūsh, or prize of valour. When I went to
Shahrokhīa to visit my maternal uncle Sultan Mahmūd
Khan, Syed Kāsim claimed and received the ulūsh. In
this first day’s action, Khuda-berdi, my governor, was
struck with an arrow from a cross-bow and died. As the
troops had rushed into the enterprise without armour,
several of them were slain, and a great many wounded.
Ibrahīm Sāru had with him a cross-bow man, who shot
astonishingly well; I never met with his equal; he wounded
a great many of my people. After the surrender of the
castle, he entered into my service.
As the siege drew out to some length, orders were given
to construct, in two or three places, the works called Sir-kob,*
to run mines, and to use every exertion to get ready whatever
machines or works were wanted for pushing on the
siege. The siege lasted forty days; but, at last, Ibrahīm
Sāru, being reduced to the last extremity, made his offers of
and taken.
unlimited submission through the medium of Khwājeh
June,
A.D. 1495.
Moulāna Kazi; and, in the month of Shawāl, having come
out and presented himself before me with a scimitar*
suspended from his neck,*
delivered up the fort.
Khojend had, for a long period, belonged to Omer-Sheikh Mirza, but, during the wars at the close of his reign, it had been occupied by Sultan Ahmed Mirza. As I had advanced so near it, I determined, situated as matters were, to proceed against it.* Abdal Wahāb Shaghāwel, the father of Mīr Moghul, commanded in the place; and, immediately on my approach, without making any difficulty, surrendered the fortress.
and visitsAt this period, Sultan Mahmūd Khan happened to be in Shahrokhīa. Some time before, when Sultan Ahmed Mirza advanced into the territory of Andejān, the Khan, on his side, laid siege to Akhsi, as has been mentioned. It occurred to me, that, as we were now so near, and as he stood in the relation of a father and elder brother to me,* I ought to go and pay him my respects, and dispel from his mind any misunderstanding that might exist in consequence of past events;* a line of conduct which I perceived would be attended with this further advantage, that it would enable me to form a nearer and better idea of the real state of things at his court.
Having formed this resolution, I went on, and waited on
the Khan in the neighbourhood of Shahrokhīa,*
in a garden
which had been laid out by Haider Beg. The Khan was
seated in a pavilion erected in the middle of the garden.
Immediately on entering it, I made three low bows. The
Khan returned my salutation by rising from his seat and
embracing me; after which I went back and again bowed
once; when the Khan, inviting me forward, placed me by
his side, showing me every mark of affection and kindness.
In the course of one or two days afterwards, I set out by
way of Kundezlik and Amāni, and*
proceeded towards
Akhsi and Andejān. When I arrived at Akhsi, I went and
Returns by
way of
Akhsi.
visited the tomb of my father. Leaving Akhsi, on a Friday,
about noon-day prayers, I proceeded towards Andejān, by
the route of Bendsālār, and arrived between evening and
bed-time prayers. The road by Bendsālār is nine farsangs.