His dominions consisted at first only of Bokhāra, which was given him by his father Sultan Mahmūd Mirza. On his father’s death the Begs held a consultation, and agreed on making him king of Samarkand also. He continued in possession of Bokhāra as well as Samarkand for some time; [A.D. 1496.] but he lost the former after the insurrection of the Terkhāns. [A.D. 1497.] When I took Samarkand, he retired to Khosrou Shah; and when Khosrou Shah took Hissār, he gave it to Baiesanghar.
His family.He left no offspring. When he first went to Khosrou Shah, he married the daughter of his paternal uncle, Sultan Khalīl Mirza. He had no other wife or concubine.
He never exercised the powers of an independent prince, even so far as to promote any one of the men of consequence about him to the rank of a Beg of the higher class. All his Begs were those of his father and paternal uncle.
Bābur’s After the death of Baiesanghar, Sultan Ahmed Karāwel,*
the father of Kūch Beg, with his brothers and relations,
and their families and dependants, came through the
country of Karatigīn,*
and joined me, after giving me notice
of their intentions. Kamber Ali, who had been sick in Ush,
having recovered from his disorder, now also returned.
Hailing as a good omen this unlooked-for arrival of Sultan
Ahmed Karāwel and his party to my assistance, I next
morning drew out my army in array, and moved against
Tambol
retreats in
disorder,
the enemy; who, not finding themselves strong enough to
maintain their position at Āb-khan, marched off from their
ground. A number of tents and carpets, and a quantity
of baggage, fell into the hands of my soldiers. We advanced
and occupied the same ground which the enemy had left.
That same evening Tambol, taking Jehāngīr with him,
and
occupies
Khūbān.
passed on my left and entered Khūbān, a village on my
flank, about three farsangs off, towards Andejān.
Early next morning, having drawn up my army in regular
battle array, with right and left wing, centre and advance,
and covered the horses with their housings of mail, accoutred
my men in their armour, formed them into lines, and sent
forward the infantry that carried the tūras, we proceeded
towards the enemy. Ali Dost Taghāi and his followers
formed my right. On the left wing were stationed Ibrahīm
Sāru, Weis Lāghari, Sayyidī Kāra, Muhammed Ali Mubasher,
Kūchik Beg*
the elder brother of Khwājeh Kalān, and
a number of others connected with Sultan Ahmed Karāwel
and Kūch Beg, with their followers.*
Kāsim Beg was with
me in the centre. Kamber Ali, who had the advanced
guard, with several of my adherents and young nobility,
had reached Sākeh, a village to the south-east of Khūbān,
and about a kos from it, when the enemy marched out of
the village of Khūbān in battle array. Upon this we hastened
our march as much as was compatible with prudence and
the preservation of our order of battle. The tūras and
infantry had, however, fallen somewhat behind when
we engaged. By the divine favour their services were not
required in the battle; for, at the instant of closing, the
right wing of the enemy and my left having engaged hand
to hand, Kūchik Beg, the elder brother of Khwājeh Kalān,
and defeats
him.
smote so lustily that the enemy, unable to maintain their
ground, took to flight: and the flankers*
and right wing
of my army had not an opportunity of coming into action.*
We took a number of prisoners, whose heads I ordered to be
struck off. My Begs, such as Kāsim Beg and Ali Dost Beg,
but particularly Ali Dost, restrained the pursuit, being
apprehensive of some danger from following the fugitives
too far, by which means the greater part of them escaped.
I halted at the village of Khūbān. This was my first battle,
and Almighty God of his bounty and favour vouchsafed
me the victory. I accepted it as a favourable omen. The
day after we halted in this place my maternal grandmother,
Shah Sultan Begum, came from Andejān for the purpose
of begging off Jehāngīr Mirza if she had found him a prisoner.
As the winter was at hand, and no grain or forage remained
in the fields, I did not deem it advisable to advance against
Uzkend, but returned to Andejān.
After some days I held a council, in which it was determined
that my wintering in Andejān would in no degree
tend to the injury of the enemy; that it was rather to be
feared that it would increase their force, by leaving the
fields open to their ravages and enterprise; that it was
Huts his
army for
the winter.
necessary to hut my troops in winter quarters, that my men
might not be distressed for grain or provisions; and that
we might straiten the enemy by keeping them in some
measure blocked up. In pursuance of this plan, having
proceeded to Rabātiki-Urchīni, which is named Suārasī*
from being between two rivers, I decamped from Andejān,
and moved into the neighbourhood of Armiān and Nūshāb,
with the intention of constructing winter cantonments in
that vicinity, which we accordingly did. Around these
villages there is excellent sporting ground, and good cover
for game. Near the river Ilāmish,*
in the jungle, there are
great plenty of mountain-goats, stags, and wild hogs. In
the smaller jungle, which is scattered and in clumps, there
are abundance of excellent jungle-fowl*
and hares. The
foxes possess more fleetness than those of any other place.*
While I remained in these winter quarters I rode a-hunting
every two or three days. After scouring the larger forests,
where we roused and hunted the mountain-goat and stags,
we hawked in the smaller jungle for the jungle-fowl, and
also shot them with forked arrows.*
The jungle-fowl are
here very fat. While we remained in these winter quarters
we had the flesh of jungle-fowl in great abundance.
During my stay in these cantonments, Khuda-berdi the
standard-bearer, whom I had lately honoured with the rank
of Beg, two or three times fell on Tambol’s foragers, routed
them and cut off a number of their heads, which he brought
back to the camp. The young men of the territory of
Andejān and Ush also went out incessantly to plunder the
enemy’s country, drove away their herds of horses, killed
their men, and reduced them to great distress. Had
I remained the whole winter in these cantonments, there is
every reason to believe that, by the return of spring, the
enemy would have been reduced to the last extremity
without fighting a battle; but at the moment when I had
brought them to this state of distress and embarrassment,
Kamber
Ali returns
to his
govern-
ment.
Kamber Ali asked leave to go to his government; and,
whatever pains I took to impress these views on his mind,
and though I forbade him to leave me, the brutal fellow
persisted in his resolutions. He was a wonderfully fickle
and perverse man. Compelled by necessity, I finally gave
him permission to return to his country. His first government
was Khojend; and recently when I took Andejān
I had given him Asfera and Kandbādām; so that, of all my
Begs, Kamber Ali had the greatest number of retainers and
the greatest extent of country; no other equalled him in
either of these respects. We remained forty or fifty days
Bābur dis-
misses his
troops.
in these winter quarters. Being obliged to give leave to
a number of men to go off, in the same way as I had done to
Kamber Ali, in the end I myself found it expedient to return
to Andejān.
While I stayed in the winter cantonments,* some of Tambol’s people were going back and forward without intermission to and from the Khan at Tāshkend. Ahmed Beg, who was the Governor* of Sultan Muhammed Sultan, the son of Sultan Mahmūd Khan, and who, of all his Begs, had been distinguished by the most conspicuous marks of his favour, was paternal uncle of the full blood to Tambol. Beg Tīlbeh, who was the Khan’s Chamberlain,* was the elder brother of Tambol. By coming and going about the Khan, they wrought upon him to send a body of men to Tambol’s assistance. Beg Tīlbeh, from his infancy, had been in Moghulistān, and had grown up to manhood among the Moghuls, but had never come into our countries, nor taken service with any of our princes, having always remained in the employment of the Khans. On the present occasion, before this reinforcement was sent, he left his wife and family in Tāshkend, and went and joined his younger brother Tambol.
Kāsim