IN the month of Muharrem,*
my mother, Kūtluk Nigār
Death of
Bābur’s
mother.
Khanum, was seized with the pustulous eruption, termed
hasbeh,*
and blood was let without effect. A Khorasān
physician, named Syed Tabīb, attended her; he gave her
water-melons, according to the practice of Khorasān;
but as her time was come, she expired, after six days’
illness, on a Saturday, and was received into the mercy of
God. Ulugh Beg Mirza had built a garden palace on the
side of a hill, and called it Bāgh-e-Nourozi (the Garden
of the New Year). Having got the permission of his heirs,*
we conveyed her remains to this garden; and on Sunday
I and Kāsim Gokultāsh committed them to the earth.
During the period of mourning for my mother, the news
of the death of the younger Khan, my uncle Alāchah
Khan,*
and of my grandmother Īsān Doulet Begum, also
arrived. The distribution of food on the fortieth day after
the Khanum’s decease was near at hand, when the mother
of the Khans, Shah Begum, my maternal grandmother,
Meher Nigār Khanum, the widow of Sultan Ahmed Mirza,
with Muhammed Hussain Gurkān Dughlet, arrived from
Khorasān. Our lamentation and mourning now broke out
afresh. Our grief for the separations we had suffered was
unbounded. After completing the period of mourning,*
food and victuals were dressed and doled out to the poor
and needy. Having directed readings of the Korān, and
prayers to be offered up for the souls of the departed,
and eased the sorrows of our hearts by these demonstrations
of love, I returned to my political enterprises
which had been interrupted,*
and by the advice of Bāki
Cheghāniāni, led my army against Kandahār. We had
marched as far as the auleng (or meadow) of Kūsh-Nādir,
where we had halted, when I was seized with a fever. It
came most unseasonably. Whatever*
efforts they made
to keep me awake, my eyes constantly fell back into sleep.
After four or five days, I got somewhat better.*
At this period there was such an earthquake that many ramparts of fortresses, the summits of some hills,* and many houses, both in the towns and villages, were violently shaken and levelled with the ground. Numbers of persons lost their lives by their houses and terraces falling on them. The whole houses of the village of Pamghān* fell down, and seventy or eighty respectable householders were buried under the ruins. Between Pamghān and Bektūt, a piece of ground, about a stone’s throw in breadth, separated itself, and descended for the length of a bowshot; and springs burst out and formed a well in the place that it had occupied. From Isterghach to the plain,* being a distance of about six or seven farsangs, the whole space was so rent and fractured, that in some places the ground was elevated to the height of an elephant above its old level, and in other places as much depressed; and in many places it was so split that a person might have hid himself in the gaps. During the time of the earthquake,* a great cloud of dust rose from the tops of the mountains. Nūr-allah, the lutanist, happened to be playing before me on the mandolin, and had also another instrument with him; he instantly caught up both the instruments in his hands, but had so little command of himself, that they knocked against each other. Jehāngīr Mirza was at Tībah, in the upper veranda of a palace built by Ulugh Beg Mirza. The moment the earth began to quake, he threw himself down, and escaped without injury. One of his domestics was in the same story, when the terrace* of this upper floor fell on him. God preserved him, and he did not sustain the slightest harm. Many rising-grounds* were levelled. That same day there were thirty-three shocks; and for the space of a month, the earth shook two or three times every day and night. The Begs and soldiers had orders to repair the rents and breaches in the walls and fortifications* of the fortress. By great diligence and exertions, in twenty days or a month, all the parts of the walls that had been damaged or thrown down were repaired and rebuilt.
ExpeditionMy expedition against Kandahār had been delayed by my sickness and the earthquake; but as soon as I had regained my health, and restored the defences of the fortress, I immediately resumed my former plan. When we halted below Shnīz,* we had not yet finally decided between marching against Kandahār, and sending out detachments to scour the hills and plains. I called Jehāngīr Mirza and the Begs to a council of war; when Jehāngīr Mirza and Bāki Cheghāniāni warmly supporting the proposition for proceeding against Kalāt, it was settled that we should move and attack it. On reaching Tāzi, I gained information that Sher Ali Chihreh and Kūchek Bāki Diwāneh, with some others, had formed the plan of deserting. I instantly had them seized; and as Sher Ali Chihreh had been notoriously guilty of various seditious and mutinous practices, both while in my service, and when in the service of others, and in various countries, he was delivered over to the executioner. Having deprived the others of their arms and horses, I let them go.
Kalāt takenWhen we reached Kalāt,* without having arrayed ourselves in armour, or erected any engines for an attack, we instantly made an assault. The conflict was severe. Kūchek Beg, the elder brother of Khwājeh Kalān, was a most courageous and gallant man, and had many a time wielded his sword with great effect in my presence, as has already been mentioned in these Memoirs. He had clambered up a tower on the south-west of Kalāt, and had nearly gained the top, when he was wounded in the eye with a spear; and he died of this wound two or three days after Kalāt was taken. Kūchek Bāki Diwāneh, who had been seized while attempting to desert with Sher Ali, here atoned for that act of treachery, being killed with a stone under the rampart, while attempting to enter. Two or three other persons of note were killed. The fight continued in this way till about the time of afternoon prayers; when, just as the assailants, who had fought bravely, and exerted all their vigour, were almost exhausted, the garrison demanded quarter, and surrendered. Zūlnūn Arghūn had bestowed Kalāt on Mukīm, and two of Mukīm’s partisans, Farrukh Arghūn and Kara Bilūt, held it at this time on his part. They came out with their bows,* quivers, and scimitars hanging round their necks, and I forgave them. It was not my wish to treat this family harshly; for had anything severe been practised among us at a time when such an enemy as the Uzbeks was close at hand, what would not have been said, both far and near, by those who either saw or heard of it? As this enterprise had been undertaken at the instance of Jehāngīr Mirza and Bāki Beg, I gave up Kalāt to the charge of the Mirza, but he would not accept of it; neither would Bāki Beg undertake to keep it, though he could offer no satisfactory excuse for declining; so that all our exertions and our success in the assault and taking of the place, were completely thrown away.
Bābur re-Proceeding southward from Kalāt, we plundered the Afghans of Sawa-Sang, Alatāgh,* and that neighbourhood, and then returned to Kābul. The night that I arrived in Kābul, I proceeded to the fortress, leaving my tents and horses at the Chārbāgh. That same night a Khirilchi thief came and stole from the Chārbāgh a bay horse of mine, caparisoned as it was, and one of my own sabres.*
Bāki Che-From the time that Bāki Cheghāniāni had joined me on the banks of the Amu, no person about me had been in higher estimation or authority than himself. Whatever was done or said, was said or done by his ascendancy; although I had never experienced from him that duty which was to have been expected, or that propriety of conduct which is indispensably necessary. Indeed, on the contrary, he had done many unjustifiable acts, and shown me many marks of disrespect. He was mean, sordid, malicious, narrow-minded, envious, and cross-tempered. He carried his meanness to such a length, that when he broke up from Termez, and came and joined me with his family and property, though his own flock of sheep amounted to thirty or forty thousand, and though every march numbers of them passed before our face, while my servants and retainers were tortured with hunger, he did not give us a single sheep; at last, when we reached Kahmerd,* he then gave them fifty sheep! Although he had himself acknowledged me as his King, he used to have the nagarets beaten before his tent. He liked nobody, and could see no one prosper. The revenue of Kābul arises from a tamgha* (or stamp-tax). This tamgha I bestowed on him; and made him at the same time Dārogha of Kābul and Penjhīr; gave him the property-tax levied from the Hazāras,* and conferred on him the office of Captain of my Guards,* with absolute power in my household. Though distinguished by such marks of favour, he was never either thankful or contented; but, on the contrary, cherished the most wicked and dangerous projects of treason, as has been mentioned. I never, however, upbraided him with them, nor mentioned them to him. He constantly affected great chariness, and asked leave to go away. I gave in to his dissimulation, and in a tone of apology, refused him the permission he solicited.
Has leave