To prevent the necessity of hereafter interrupting the
narrative, it may be proper, in addition to these remarks,
to observe that Sheibāni Khan, a name which occurs in
every page of the earlier part of the following history, was
still in the deserts of Tartary. He was descended from
Chingiz Khan, by his eldest son, Tūshi or Jūji Khan,
The elder
Sheibāni.
the sovereign of Kipchāk. Bātu, the eldest son of Tūshi,
having returned from his expedition into the north of
Europe, bestowed on one of his younger brothers, Sheibāni
Khan, a large party of Moghuls and Tūrks, who fed
their flocks in the champaign between the Ural hills and the
sea of Aral, and along the river Jaik, or Yaik, which flows
into the Caspian; and he became the founder of the
Khanate of Tūra, which, in process of time, extended its
conquests considerably into Siberia. One of his descendants,
Uzbek
Khan.
Uzbek Khan, was so much beloved by his tribes
that they are said to have assumed his name, and hence the
Abulkhair
Khan.
origin of the Uzbek nations. Abulkhair Khan, the grandfather
of the second Sheibāni, was a contemporary of
Abusaīd Mirza. When that monarch had expelled Muhammed
Jūki Mirza from Samarkand, the young prince,
as has already been mentioned, had fled for protection to
Abulkhair Khan, who sent him back, accompanied by one
1460.
of his sons, with a powerful army, which took Tāshkend
and Shahrokhīa,*
and occupied all the open country of
Māweralnaher. The approach of Abusaīd compelled them
to retire beyond the Sirr.
The ambition and power of Abulkhair Mirza were so
formidable as to justify a combination of all the neighbouring
His death
[1465].
Tartar princes against him, by which he was
defeated and put to death with several of his sons; the
others saved themselves by flight. But his grandson
Sheibāni
Khan.
Sheibāk or Sheibāni Khan, the son of Borāk or Budāk,
regained at least a part of his hereditary dominions, and
not only retrieved the honour, but greatly extended the
power of the family. The confused state of the country
between the Amu and the Sirr, soon after attracted him
1494.
into the territories of Samarkand; an expedition to which
the Uzbeks were probably equally called by the invitation
of the contending princes of the country, and by the
remembrance of the plunder and spoil which they had carried
off from these rich and ill-defended countries twenty-four
years before. From some expressions used by Bābur, it
seems pretty clear that, in spite of the extent of his conquests
along the banks of the Oxus, Sheibāni Khan had
never regained the power enjoyed by his grandfather in his
native deserts, and was confined to the range of territory
around the town and country of Turkestān, to the north-west
of Tāshkend, which was a recent conquest made by that
division of his tribe that adhered to his interests. His
subjects were a mass of tribes of Tūrki, Moghul, and probably
of Finnic race, moulded down into one people, but
with a great preponderance of Tūrks. His army was latterly
swelled by volunteers from all the Tūrki and Moghul tribes
from Kāshghar to the Volga;*
and he appears, even under
the partial colouring of his enemy Bābur, as a prince of
great vigour of mind, and of no contemptible military
talents.
Such was the general division of the neighbouring countries when Zehīr-ed-dīn Muhammed, surnamed Bābur, or the Tiger, ascended the throne. Immediately before the death of his father Sultan Omer-Sheikh Mirza, his neighbours Sultan Ahmed Mirza of Samarkand and Sultan Mahmūd Khan of Tāshkend, displeased with some parts of his conduct, had entered into a coalition, in consequence of which they had invaded his country.
Few incidents of the life of Bābur previous to his mounting
the throne are known. It may be remarked, however,
Feb. 14,
1483.
that he was born*
on the 6th Muharrem 888, and that
when a boy of five years of age he had paid a visit to his
paternal uncle, Sultan Ahmed Mirza, at Samarkand, on
which occasion he was betrothed to his cousin, Āisha Sultān
Begum, the daughter of that prince. This lady he afterwards
married.
Bābur ascended the throne about two years after the discovery of America by Columbus, and four years before Vasco de Gama reached India. The year in which he mounted the throne was that of the celebrated expedition of Charles VIII of France against Naples. His contemporaries in England were Henry VII and Henry VIII; in France, Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I; in Germany, the Emperors Maximilian and Charles V; in Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, and Charles. The discovery of America, and of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, the increase of the power of France by the union of the great fiefs to the crown, and of Spain by the similar union of its different kingdoms under Charles, the destruction of the empire of Constantinople, and the influence of the art of printing, introduced about that time a new system into the west of Europe, which has continued with little change down to our times. The rise and progress of the Reformation formed the most interesting event in Europe during the reign of Bābur.