IN the early part of Ramazán of the year 916 [1510 A.D.] a person came to Kábul with a letter from Mirzá Khán to the Emperor. The passes were blocked with snow, for it was the season of the beginning of Capricorn. The letter contained the news that Sháh Ismail, having come from Irák, had engaged and defeated Sháhi Beg Khán at Merv. It had not been fully ascertained whether Sháhi Beg Khán had been killed or not.* All the Uzbeg had recrossed the river Amu, and fled to Kunduz, where Amir Urus Durman then was.*
Nearly 20,000 Moghuls, having separated from the Uzbeg, had also gone to Kunduz from Merv. “I, myself,” he added, “have gone over to Kunduz. If you will quickly turn the reins of your power in the direction of Kunduz, I will attach myself to you, and I have the firmest hope that you may soon recover your hereditary kingdom.”
[As soon as the Emperor had read the contents of this letter] he set out with all possible speed [although it was] in the depth of winter. [He took the route] of Ab Dara* [since by that route] there were no high passes to cross. He kept the Feast of Ramazán* in the Bamián district, and at the beginning of Shawál reached Kunduz, where he was received by Mirzá Khán, and by the Moghuls who had been with the Uzbeg. Having reposed for a few days in Kunduz, after the fatigues of the journey, it was proposed that they should proceed against Hisár, where Hamza Sultán and Mahdi Sultán, two of the most eminent of the Uzbeg Sultáns, were ruling. The winter was nearly over when they passed the River Amu, at the ford of Tukuz Tárám. When Hamza Sultán heard of their approach, he rode out of Hisár and repaired to Vakhsh, while the Emperor advanced to the plain [dasht] of Kulak,* which is one of the most noted localities in Khatlán. There he learnt that Hamza Sultán was in Vakhsh. That same night he set out by the higher road to surprise Sultán Hamza, and at sunrise reached his camp. Nobody was there. They searched on every side, and found a few peasants, who gave them the following information concerning Hamza Sultán: “Yesterday, at the hour of midday prayers, news came that the Emperor had pitched his camp in the plain of Kulak, whereupon [Hamza Sultán] immediately set out for that place, by the lower road.” The Emperor at once started in pursuit, along the road which Hamza Sultán had taken, and at noontide prayers again found himself at his quarters of the night before. Hamza Sultán, for his part, had reached the camp at dawn, and found a precisely similar state of affairs; he, too, set out in the track of our army, and at midday prayer time re-entered his own camp.
The Emperor and his men believed that Hamza Sultán would not be able to resist them; while Hamza Sultán, on the other hand, thought that [the Emperor] had only brought a few men with him from Kábul, and that the Moghul army, having only just arrived, would not yet have made sufficient preparations to be able to fight. As both sides entertained such ideas as these, they became afraid of one another.* That same night the Emperor pressed on to Kunduz, while Hamza Sultán fled to Hisár. After a few days, they each received the news of the other's flight, and both of them repeated, in thankfulness for their escape, the verse “Praise be to God who has averted from us an affliction.” The Emperor, on reaching Kunduz, found that an ambassador had arrived from Sháh Ismail, bearing tenders of friendship. In the meantime Khánzáda Begum, the Emperor's sister, had come from Khorásán [having been sent by Sháh Ismail]. It has been already related how the Emperor, at the siege of Samarkand, had given his sister, Khánzáda Begum, to Sháhi Beg Khán, as a ransom for his own life, and had thus escaped. The Begum was taken into Sháhi Beg Khán's haram, and by him, had a son named Khurram Sháh Sultán. After this, the Khán [Sháhi Beg] began to fear that she might, in concert with her brother, plot against his life; he therefore divorced her, and gave her to Sayyid Hádi, one of the most eminent Sayyids of the Sayyidátái* —a man who was held in the greatest respect and honour by himself and the Sultáns and all the Uzbeg. Sayyid Hádi had been killed in the battle of Merv, and the Begum and her son had fallen into the hands of the Turkománs. When Sháh Ismail discovered that she was Babar Pádisháh's sister, he treated her with great attention, and sent her back, with an ambassador bearing costly gifts, to the Emperor. When Khánzáda Begum arrived [the Emperor was overjoyed] and despatched Mirzá Khán to Sháh Ismail laden with presents, and charged with protestations of submission, good faith, and entreaties for support and assistance. Sháh Ismail received him well, and having acceded to his requests, speedily gave him leave to return.
During this interval, a messenger came from my uncle to
announce that he had entirely cleared Farghána of the Uzbeg, and
that he had brought that country under his complete control, so
that the extermination of the Uzbeg and the conquest of Mavará-