Some poets amused themselves in making memorial verses expressive of the date of the transaction. I still recollect a couplet of one of them:
Shādwār,Tell me, then, my soul! what is its date?
Know, that it is ‘The Victory of Bābur Bahāder’.**
After the conquest of Samarkand, Shādwār, Soghd, and
the people who were in the forts in the Tumāns,*
began to
come over to me one after another. The Uzbeks abandoned,
from terror, some of the forts which they held, and made
their escape. In others, the inhabitants attacked the
Uzbeks, drove them out, and declared for me. Many seized
on their Dāroghas, and put their towns in a state of defence
on my account. At this time, Sheibāni Khan’s wife and
family, with his heavy baggage, as well as that of the other
Uzbeks, arrived from Tūrkestān. Sheibāni Khan had
remained till now in the vicinity of Khwājeh-Dīdār and Aliābād;
but, perceiving such a disposition in the garrisons to
surrender the forts, and in the inhabitants to come over
spontaneously to my side, he marched off from his encampment
Sheibāni
Khan
retreats to
Bokhāra.
towards Bokhāra. By the divine favour, before the
end of three or four months, most of the fortified places
of Soghd and Miānkār*
had come under my allegiance.
Bāki Terkhān, too, seized a favourable opportunity, and
entered the fort of Karshi. Khozār and Karshi*
were both
lost to the Uzbeks. Karakūl was also taken by Abul
Hassan Mirza’s men, who came from Merv. My affairs
succeeded everywhere prosperously.
After my departure from Andejān, my mother and grandmother,* with my family and household,* had set out after me, and with great difficulty, and after enduring many hardships, had reached Uratippa. I now sent and brought them to Samarkand. About this time I had a daughter by Āisha Sultan Begum, the daughter of Sultan Ahmed Mizra, the first wife whom I had married. She received the name of Fakher-al-nissa (the Ornament of Women). This was my first child, and at this time I was just nineteen. In a month or forty days she went to share the mercy of God.
He sends toNo sooner had I got possession of Samarkand, than I repeatedly dispatched ambassadors and messengers, one after another, to all the Khans and Sultans, Amirs and chiefs,* on every hand round about, to request their aid and assistance. These messengers I kept going back and forward without intermission. Some of the neighbouring princes, although men of experience, gave me an unceremonious refusal. Others, who had been guilty of insults and injuries to my family, remained inactive out of apprehension; while the few that did send me assistance, did not afford me such as the occasion demanded, as will be particularly mentioned in its place.
Corre-At the time when I took Samarkand this second time, Ali Sher Beg* was still alive. I had a letter from him, which I answered. On the back of the letter which I addressed to him, I wrote a couplet that I had composed in the Tūrki language; but before his reply could arrive, the commotions and troubles had begun.
Mulla BināiSheibāni Khan, after taking Samarkand, had received Mulla Bināi into his service, since which time the Mulla had attended him. A few days after I took the place, the Mulla came to Samarkand. Kāsim Beg having suspicions of him, ordered him to retire to Shahr-i-sabz; but soon after, as he was a man of great knowledge, and as the charges against him were not established, I invited him to return to the capital. He was constantly composing kasīdehs and ghazels.* He addressed to me a ghazel adapted to a musical air, in the Nawa measure; and about the same time composed and sent me the following quatrain:
I neither possess grain to eat,
Nor the perversion of grain* to put on;
Without food nor raiment,
How can one display his learning and genius?
About this period, I sometimes amused myself with composing a couplet or two, but did not venture on the perfect ghazel, or ode. I composed and sent him a rubāi (or quatrain), in the Tūrki language:
Your affairs shall all succeed to your heart’s content;
Presents and a settled allowance shall be ordered for your reward.
I comprehend your allusion to the grain and its perversion;
Your person shall fill the cloth, and the grain shall fill your house.
Mulla Bināi composed and sent me a rubāi, in which he assumed the rhyme of my quatrain for the redīf* of his own, and gave it another rhyme:
My Mirza, who shall be sovereign by sea and land,
Shall be distinguished in the world for his genius;
If my reward was such for a single unmeaning word,* What would it have been had I spoken with understanding!*
At this time Khwājeh Abul-barka, surnamed Ferāki, came from Shahr-i-sabz.* He said, ‘You* should have kept the same rhyme’; and recited the following rubāi:
Bābur’sThis tyranny which the sphere exercises shall be inquired into;
This generous Sultan shall redress her misdeeds;
O cup-bearer! if hitherto thou hast not brimmed my cup,
At this turn (or reign) shall it be filled to the brim.
This winter my affairs were in the most prosperous state,
while those of Sheibāni Khan were at a low ebb. At this
very period, however, one or two rather unfortunate
incidents occurred. The party from Merv, that had taken
possession of Karakūl, proved unable to maintain it, so that
it fell again into the hands of the Uzbeks. Ahmed Terkhān,
the younger brother of Ibrahīm Terkhān, held the fortress
of Dabūsi. Sheibāni Khan came and invested it; and
before I could collect my army and march to its relief, took
it by storm, and made an indiscriminate massacre of the
garrison. At the taking of Samarkand, I had with me in
all only two hundred and forty men. In the course of five
or six months, by the favour of God, they had so much
increased, that I could venture to engage so powerful
a chief as Sheibāni Khan in a pitched battle at Sir-e-pul, as
shall be mentioned. Of all the princes in my vicinity, from
whom I had asked assistance, none afforded me any except
the Khan, who sent Ayūb Begchik and Kashkeh Mahmūd,
with about four or five hundred men. From Jehāngīr Mirza,
Tambol’s younger brother*
brought a hundred men to my
He receives
no rein-
forcements
from his
neighbours.
assistance. From Sultan Hussain Mirza, a prince of power
and talent, a monarch of experience, and than whom none
was better acquainted with the temper and views of Sheibāni
Khan, not a man appeared; nor did I receive a single man
from Badīa-ez-zemān Mirza. Khosrou Shah, from terror,
did not send any; for, as my family had suffered much
from his unprincipled conduct, as has been mentioned, he
entertained great apprehensions of me.
In the month of Shawāl*
I marched out of the city to
meet Sheibāni Khan, and fixed my head-quarters in the
Bāgh-e-nou,*
where I halted five or six days for the purpose
of collecting the troops, and getting ready all the necessaries
of war. Setting out from the Bāgh-e-nou, I proceeded
by successive marches to Sir-e-pul,*
after passing which
I halted and encamped, strongly fortifying our camp with
a palisade and ditch. Sheibāni Khan moved forward from
They meet
near
Kārzīn.
the opposite direction to meet us, and encamped near the
town of Khwājeh Kārzīn. There was about a farsang
between his camp and mine.