After our return to Andejān, the manners and deportment of Ali Dost Beg underwent a complete change. He began to conduct himself with great hostility towards those who had adhered to me in all my dangers and difficulties. He first of all dismissed Khalīfeh. He then imprisoned and plundered Ibrahīm Sāru and Weis Lāghari without fault or pretext; and dismissed them, after stripping them of their governments. He next fell upon Kāsim Beg, and got quit of him. He published a proclamation, that Khalīfeh and Ibrahīm Sāru were staunch friends of Khwājeh Kazi, and had intended to murder him in revenge for the Kazi’s blood. His son Muhammed Dost began to assume the state of a sovereign. His style of intercourse,* his entertainments, his levee, his furniture, were all those of a king. The father and son ventured on such doings, relying on the support of Tambol. Nor did I retain sufficient authority or power to be able to check them in their outrageous proceedings; for, while I had close at hand an enemy so powerful as Tambol, who was always eager to afford them his aid, and to bear them out in any act, however violent, they might safely do whatever their hearts desired. My situation was singularly delicate, and I was forced to be silent. Many were the indignities which I suffered at that time, both from the father and son.
Bābur mar-Āisha Sultan Begum, the daughter of Sultan Ahmed Mirza, to whom I had been betrothed in the lifetime of my father and uncle, having arrived in Khojend, I now married her, in the month of Shābān. In the first period of my being a married man, though I had no small affection for her, yet, from modesty and bashfulness, I went to her only once in ten, fifteen, or twenty days. My affection afterwards declined, and my shyness increased; insomuch, that my mother the Khanum, used to fall upon me and scold me with great fury, sending me off like a criminal to visit her once in a month or forty days.
His attach-At this time there happened to be a lad belonging to the camp-bazaar, named Bāburi. There was an odd sort of coincidence in our names:—
| (Tūrki verse)— | I became wonderfully fond of him; Nay, to speak the truth, mad and distracted after him. |
Before this I never had conceived a passion for any one; and indeed had never been so circumstanced as either to hear or witness any words spoken expressive of love or amorous passion.** In this situation I composed a few verses in Persian,* of which the following is a couplet:
Never was lover so wretched, so enamoured, so dishonoured as I;
And may fair never be found so pitiless, so disdainful as thou!
Sometimes it happened that Bāburi came to visit me; when, from shame and modesty, I found myself unable to look him direct in the face. How then is it to be supposed that I could amuse him with conversation or a disclosure of my passion? From intoxication and confusion of mind I was unable to thank him for his visit; it is not therefore to be imagined that I had power to reproach him with his departure. I had not even self-command enough to receive him with the common forms of politeness. One day while this affection and attachment lasted, I was by chance passing through a narrow lane with only a few attendants, when, of a sudden, I met Bāburi face to face. Such was the impression produced on me by this rencounter, that I almost fell to pieces. I had not the power to meet his eyes, or to articulate a single word. With great confusion and shame I passed on and left him, remembering the verses of Muhammed Sālih:
I am abashed whenever I see my love;
My companions look to me, and I look another way.
The verses were wonderfully suited to my situation. From the violence of my passion and the effervescence of youth and madness, I used to stroll bare-headed and barefoot through lane and street, garden and orchard, neglecting the attentions due to friend and stranger; and the respect due to myself and others:
| (Tūrki verse)— | During the fit of passion, I was mad and deranged;
nor did I know That such is his state who is enamoured of a fairy face. |
Sometimes, like a distracted man, I roamed alone over the mountains and deserts; sometimes I went wandering about from street to street in search of mansions* and gardens. I could neither sit nor go; I could neither stand nor walk.
| (Tūrki verse)— | I had neither strength to go nor power to stay; To such a state did you reduce me, O my heart! |
This same year a quarrel broke out between Sultan Ali
Mirza*
and Muhammed Mazīd Terkhān, originating in the
high state and overbearing influence attained by the
Terkhāns. They*
had taken complete possession of the
whole of Bokhāra, and did not give any one a single dang*
from its revenues. Muhammed Mazīd Terkhān had in like
manner gained unbounded influence in Samarkand, and
conferred all the districts belonging to it on his own sons,
his followers, and adherents: and, excepting a small
provision settled on him from the revenue of the city, not
a fils*
from any other quarter reached Sultan Ali Mirza.
The Sultan had now grown up to man’s estate, and it was
not to be expected that he could continue to submit to such
Muhammed
Mazīd Ter-
khān flies
from Sa-
markand.
treatment. In conjunction with some of his most attached
servants, he formed a design against Muhammed Mazīd
Terkhān, who, having got notice of the plot, left the city
with his domestics and servants, his adherents and retainers,
along with such of the Begs as were intimately connected
with him, such as Sultan Hussain Arghūn, Pīr Ahmed,
Khwajeh Hussain, the younger brother of Ūzūn Hassan,
Kāra Birlās, Sālih Muhammed, and several other Begs and
cavaliers.
At this period, Sultan Mahmūd Khan dispatched Khan
Mirza,*
accompanied by Muhammed Hussain Dughlet,
Ahmed Beg, and a number of his Moghuls,*
against Samarkand.
Hāfiz Beg Duldāi, with his son, Tāhir Beg, were the
governors of Khan Mirza. Hassan Nabīreh, Hindū Beg,
and a great many cavaliers, from attachment to Hāfiz Beg
and Tāhir Beg, deserted from Sultan Ali Mirza and joined
Mirza Khan. Muhammed Mazīd Terkhān sent messengers
to invite Khan Mirza and the Moghul army; and himself,
advancing to the territory of Shādwār, had a conference
with Mirza Khan and the Moghul Begs. The Moghul Begs,
however, agreed so ill with Muhammed Beg and the others,
that they even formed the design of seizing upon him; but
he and his Begs having discovered the plot, made their
escape from the Moghul army by stratagem. After the
defection of this force, the Moghuls found themselves unable
to maintain their ground alone. Sultan Ali Mirza, accompanied
by a small force which he had with him at the time,
pushed on by rapid marches from Samarkand, and overtook
and fell upon Khan Mirza and the Moghul army, as they
but is de-
feated by
Sultan Ali
Mirza.
reached their ground at Yār-ailāk. The Moghuls were
unable to sustain the attack, and fled in confusion. Thus,
towards the close of his life, Sultan Ali Mirza performed
one tolerably fair achievement.
Muhammed Mazīd Terkhān, and the rest of his party,
seeing that they had now nothing to expect from Sultan
Ali Mirza, or the Mirzas his brothers,*
dispatched Abdal
Wahāb (a Moghul, who had formerly been in my service,
and who, at the siege of Andejān, had gallantly exerted
himself, and freely hazarded his life to support Khwājeh
Kazi), for the purpose of inviting me to their assistance.
I was at that time in the sad condition which has been
mentioned. I was fully resolved to attempt Samarkand,
and, in making peace, this had been the view held out to me.
I now, therefore, immediately sent the Moghul to Akhsi to
Jehāngīr Mirza, post, with relays of horses, while I myself
set out against Samarkand with such troops as were along
with me. It was the month of Zilkaadeh when I marched on
June 1500.
the expedition. On the fourth day I reached Kaba,**
and
halted. About the time of afternoon prayers, I received
Hears of the
loss of Ush.
intelligence that Khalīl, Sultan Ahmed Tambol’s younger
brother, had surprised the fortress of Ush.