A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED IN THE END OF A.H. 908 AND IN A.H. 909*
THE narrative of Bābur is here broken off, at one of the most interesting moments of his history. Whether this defect be owing to the imperfection of the copies or to design in the author, it is not easy to decide; though, from A D. 1508. a similar interruption at the beginning of the year 914 of the Hijira, when Bābur appears to be on the point of falling into the hands of a desperate band of conspirators, it seems probable that it was intentional; and, we may be almost tempted to believe, that the Imperial author derived a sort of dramatic pleasure from working up to a very high pitch the curiosity of his reader or hearer, and leaving the mind in a state of awakened suspense by a sudden break in the narrative. All the three copies which I have had an opportunity of comparing, break off precisely at the same period in both instances. This holds in the original Tūrki as well as in the translation; and it is hardly conceivable that a translator would have deserted his hero in the most memorable passages of his life. The copy which Dr. Leyden followed was evidently, in this respect, exactly like the others. The blank which Bābur has left in his own Memoirs it is difficult to supply, in spite of the great number of authors who have written the details of his reign; as they have in general confined themselves to the grand military and political actions of his times, and give us little assistance where Bābur, who is his own best biographer, happens to fail in detailing the earlier, which are by no means the least interesting events of his life.
The KhansThe Memoirs break off in A. H. 908, and are resumed in A. H. 910.* Whether Bābur was delivered into the hands of Sheikh Bayezīd, or whether he effected his escape from the painful custody in which he was held at Karnān, I have not been able to discover. The narrative of Abul-Fazel* is here very imperfect. It would appear, however, from the brief account of Ferishta,* and of Khāfi Khan,* that Bābur had succeeded in rejoining his maternal uncles the two Khans; but, if this was the case, the advantage derived from this junction was of short continuance. Sheibāni Khan, whom Ahmed Tambol had invited to his assistance, arrived soon after with an army more in number than the rain-drops, says Mīr Khāwend Shah,* attacked the Moghuls, defeated them in a bloody battle,* made both the brothers prisoners, and compelled Bābur to fly into Moghulistān. Immediately after the battle, Sheibāni Khan dispatched a messenger to Tāshkend, to communicate information that the two Khans were in his hands, and that Bābur had been obliged to abandon the country; and with instructions to add that, if the inhabitants had any wish to save their princes, they must prevent the escape of Khwājeh Abul Makāram and detain him in custody. Sheibāni Khan, after having kept the Khans a few days as his prisoners, dismissed them to go where they would; ‘and they came by their end’, continues Mīr Khāwend Shah, ‘in the way mentioned in the Account of the family of Chaghatāi Khan.’ The particulars of their death I have not been able to ascertain, and there is some disagreement among historians on the subject.* By some, Sheibāni Khan* is represented as having used his victory with considerable lenity. He is said to have set the brothers at liberty, prompted by the recollection that he had formerly been in their service, and that he had been received and kindly treated by Yunis Khan, their father. We are told by Ferishta that Sultan Mahmūd Khan, the elder brother, fell into a deep melancholy; when advised by one of his friends to use a famous antidote brought from China, for the purpose of averting the effects of poison, which it was suggested might have been administered by Sheibāni Khan, he is said to have replied, ‘Yes; Sheibāni has indeed poisoned me! He has taken away my kingdom, which your antidote cannot restore.’* But these accounts are not very consistent with the narrative of Bābur himself, who informs us that Sheibāni Khan put Sultan Mahmūd Khan to death in Khojend, with his son Baba Khan, and many other princes of his family. It is not improbable that Sheibāni Khan affected to set the Khan at liberty a few days after the battle, as is mentioned by Mīr Khāwend Shah, and that he gave orders to pursue, and put him to death privately, along with his family; a policy which he appears to have followed on other occasions, in order to avoid part of the odium likely to arise from an unpopular act.
Fate ofKhwājeh Abul Mukāram was thrown into prison at Tāshkend, but in two or three days effected his escape and set out from that city on foot. That he might not be recognized, he submitted to the mortification of cutting off his beard: but being unable, from his age and infirmities, to reach any place of safety, he was compelled to take refuge with a man who lived in a neighbouring village. This person concealed him for a day or two, but having afterwards informed against him, he was seized and carried before Sheibāni Khan. The Khan, on seeing him, inquired, ‘What have you done with your beard?’ to which the Khwājeh answered in two Persian verses, the sense of which is, that he who puffs at the lamp which God has lighted, singes his beard. But the felicity of this allusion did not avail him, and he* was put to death. Sheibāni Khan, following up the advantages which he had gained, took possession of Tāshkend, Shahrokhīa, and all the dominions of Sultan Mahmūd Khan, as well probably as of the territories of his younger brother Alacheh Khan, so that his territories now extended along both sides of the Sirr or Jaxartes, and stretched southward to the banks of the Amu. He fixed the seat of his government at Samarkand, and gave his brother Mahmūd Sultan the charge of Bokhāra. Tāshkend, with the dominions of the two Khans, he gave to his paternal uncles, Gujenjeh Khan and Sanjek Sultan, whose mother was the daughter of the celebrated Mirza Ulugh Beg Gurgān. The office of Dārogha of Shahrokhīa he bestowed on Amīr Yākub, who was one of the chief of his nobles.
Bābur flies Bābur is said to have taken refuge after this disaster in
Moghulistān, an incident to which he himself never refers.
This at least is certain, that he was soon after fortunate
enough to escape from the north side of the Sirr, and to
gain the hill country of Sūkh and Hūshiār, villages which
lie in the district of Asfera, among the mountains that
separate Ferghāna from Hissār and Karatigīn, where he
wandered for nearly a year as a fugitive, often reduced to
A. D. 1503-
4.
the greatest difficulties.*
Finding his partisans completely
dispersed, however, and all hopes gone of recovering his
hereditary kingdom, after consulting with his few remaining
adherents, he resolved to try his fortune in Khorasān, which
was at that time held by Sultan Hussain Mirza, a sovereign
of great power and reputation, and beyond comparison the
most distinguished prince then living of the family of
Taimūr.
When Bābur bade adieu for the last time to his native
country, which he appears to have regarded during all the
future years of his life with the fondness which a man of
warm attachments feels for the scenes of his early affections,
he crossed the high range of hills to the south of Ferghāna,
and came down west of Karatigīn on the country of Cheghāniān
and Hissār, territories at that time belonging to
His conduct
to Khosrou
Shah.
Khosrou Shah, to whom Bābur always professes a deep-rooted
hatred. The murder of Baiesanghar Mirza, and the
blinding of Sultan Masaūd Mirza, both cousins of Bābur,
and the latter the full brother of one of his wives, were
certainly sufficient to justify the terms of strong detestation
in which that prince always speaks of him; but Ferishta
seems to insinuate that he hated the man whom he had
injured; and that Bābur, though treated by Khosrou Shah
with great hospitality, stirred up a faction in his court,
seduced the affections of his army, and by his intrigues
forced him to abandon his troops, his treasure, and his
dominions. Whether or not Bābur was aware that such
charges had been made, or were likely to be brought against
him, is uncertain; but the narrative in his Memoirs is
certainly fitted to meet accusations of this nature; and he
appears throughout to show uncommon solicitude to justify
himself in regard to Khosrou Shah, whose general character
for hospitality and generosity to others he acknowledges,
while he pointedly accuses him of niggardliness and want of
common civility to himself, in the two different instances in
which he was obliged to pass through the country of that
chieftain. That he intrigued with the army of Khosrou
Shah, particularly with the Moghul troops, Bābur boldly
avows, but appears to regard his conduct in that respect as
only an act of fair hostility towards an inveterate foe.
Ulugh Beg Mirza, Bābur’s paternal uncle, the King of
Kābul and Ghazni, had died in the year A. H. 907, leaving
his territories to his son Abdal Razāk Mirza, who was still
young. The whole power was usurped by one of his
ministers, Shīrīm Ziker, who soon rendered himself odious
to the chief men of the country. A conspiracy, headed by
Muhammed Kāsim Beg and Yunis Ali, was formed against
Confused
state of that
kingdom.
the minister, in consequence of which the conspirators,
entering Kābul with a formidable band of adherents, put
Ziker to death while sitting in state at a grand festival,
which was held for celebrating the Id.*
The kingdom for
some time was a prey to disorder and tumult. Muhammed
Mukīm Beg, the son of Zūlnūn Arghūn and brother of Shah
A. H. 908.
A. D. 1502-
3.
Beg, names which often occur in the following pages, availing
himself of this situation of things, marched without
orders from the Garmsīr,*
which he held for his father, and
appeared suddenly before Kābul, which opened its gates.
Zūlnūn Beg, without professing to approve of the proceedings
of Mukīm, sanctioned his retaining possession of
A. H. 910.
A. D. 1504.
his conquest. Abdal Razāk Mirza had retired among the
hills, and was still making ineffectual efforts for the recovery
of his capital, when Bābur entered the territories of
Khosrou Shah.*
It is necessary then to recollect that, at this period, when Bābur resumes the history of his own adventures, Sheibāni Khan had conquered Samarkand and Bokhāra, Ferghāna and Uratippa, Tāshkend and Shahrokhīa; Sultan Hussain Mirza governed Khorasān; Khosrou Shah still held Hissār, Khutlān, Kunduz, and Badakhshān; and Zūlnūn Beg, though he acknowledged Sultan Hussain Mirza, had the chief and almost independent power in Kandahār and Zamīn-dāwer, the country of the Hazāras* and Nukderis*, the Garmsīr, and great part of Sīstān, and the country south of Kandahār.