The Khan had three daughters by Isān Doulet Begum, of
whom the eldest was Meher Nigār Khanum, whom Sultan
Abūsaīd Mirza took for his eldest son Sultan Ahmed Mirza.
By the Mirza she had neither son nor daughter. In the
succeeding wars she fell into the hands of Sheibāni Khan;
but after I went to Kābul, she accompanied Shah Begum
from Samarkand to Khorasān, and thence to Kābul. When
Sheibāni Khan invested Nāsir Mirza in Kandahār, I proceeded
to Lamghān, and Khan Mirza, Shah Begum, and
Yunis
Khan’s
children.
Meher Nigār Khanum, set out for Badakhshan. Mubārek-shah
having invited Khan Mirza to the fortress of Zafer,*
they were met on the road, attacked and plundered by one
of Ababeker Kāshghari’s marauding parties, and Shah
Meher
Nigār Kha-
num.
Begum and Meher Nigār Khanum, with their whole family and
attendants, were taken prisoners; and, in the prisons of that
wicked miscreant, they departed from this perishable world.
The second daughter, Kūtluk Nigār Khanum, was my mother, and accompanied me in most of my wars and expeditions. Five or six months after the taking of Kābul A.D. 1505. she departed to God’s mercy, in the year 911.
KhūbThe third daughter was Khūb Nigār Khanum, who was married to Muhammed Hussain Korkān Dughlet.* He had [A.D. 1511.] by her one daughter and one son. The daughter married Ubeid Khan, and when I took Bokhāra and Samarkand, was residing there, and being unable to effect her escape, stayed behind: when her paternal uncle Syed Muhammed Mirza came to me in Samarkand as ambassador from Sultan A.D. 1503. Saīd Khan,* she accompanied him back, and was married to Sultan Saīd Khan. She had a son, Haider Mirza,* who, after his father was slain by the Uzbeks, entered my service and remained in it three or four years; he then took leave of me and went to Kāshghar to the Khan; but as
Everything returns to its original principles,
Whether pure gold, or silver, or tin;
it is said that he has now adopted a commendable course of life and become reformed. He excels in penmanship, in painting, in fletchery, in making arrow-heads, and thumblets for drawing the bow-string. He is remarkably neat at all kinds of handiwork. He has also a turn for poetry, and I have received an epistle from him, the style* of which is by no means bad.
Shah Another of the Khan’s wives was Shah Begum; though
he had other wives besides these, yet he had children by
these two only. Shah Begum was the daughter of Shah
Sultan Muhammed, King of Badakhshān. The Kings of
Badakhshān are said to trace back their descent to Sikander
Filkūs.*
This Sultan Muhammed had also another daughter,
elder than Shah Begum, who was married to Sultan Abūsaīd
Mirza, and bore to him Ababeker Mirza. Yunis Khan had
two sons and two daughters by Shah Begum. Among these,
Sultan
Mahmūd
Khan.
Sultan Mahmūd Khan was younger than the three daughters
who have been mentioned, and elder than the other three
children. In Samarkand and these quarters he is generally
Sultan Ah-
med Khan.
called Khānikeh Khan. Sultan Ahmed Khan was younger
than Sultan Mahmūd Khan, and is well known by the name
of Ilcheh Khan.*
He received this denomination from the
following circumstance: In the language of the Kilmāks*
and Moghols, they call a slayer Ilaji; and, as he several
times overcame the Kilmāks with great slaughter, he on
that account was generally spoken of under the name of
Ilaji, which, in pronunciation, was converted into Ilcheh.
It will often be necessary to make mention of these Khans
in this history, when their transactions and affairs shall be
fully detailed. Sultan Nigār Khanum was the youngest of
Sultan
Nigār
Khanum.
all the family, except one daughter. She was given in
marriage to Sultan Mahmūd Mirza (the son of Sultan
Abūsaīd Mirza), by whom she had one son, named Sultan
Weis, who will be mentioned in the sequel. After the death
[A.D. 1495.]
of Sultan Mahmūd Mirza, this princess, having taken her son
along with her, without giving any notice of her intention,
proceeded to Tāshkend to her brothers. A few years afterwards,
her brother married her to Uzbek Sultan,*
one of the
Sultans of the Kazāks,*
who was descended of Juji Khan, the
eldest son of Chinghiz Khan. When Sheibāni Khan defeated
[A.D. 1502.]
the Khans, and took Tāshkend and Shahrokhīa, she fled
with ten or twelve of her Moghul attendants to Uzbek
Sultan, by whom she had two daughters: one of them was
given to one of the Sheibāni Sultans, and the other to
Rashīd Sultan, a son of Sultan Saīd Khan.*
After the death
of Usbek Sultan, she married Kāsim Khan,*
the chief of the
horde of the Kazāks. It is said that no one of the Khans or
Sultans of the Kazāks ever kept the horde in such complete
order as Kāsim Khan. His army amounted to nearly three
hundred thousand fighting men. After the death of Kāsim
Khan, she went to Kāshghar to Sultan Saīd Khan Kāshghari.
Doulet Sul-
tan Kha-
num.
Doulet Sultan Khanum, who was the youngest daughter
of all, at the sack of Tāshkend fell into the hands of Taimūr
Sultan, the son of Sheibāni Khan. By him she had one
daughter. She left Samarkand along with me, and lived
three or four years in Badakhshān, after which she went to
Kāshghar to Sultan Saīd Kāshghari.
Another of Omer-Sheikh Mirza’s wives was Ulūs Aghāi, the daughter of Khwājeh Hussain Beg; by her he had one daughter, who died young. A year, or a year and a half after her marriage, she was removed from the haram.
Fātima Sul-Another of his wives was Fātima Sultan Agha, who was the daughter of one of the Begs of the Moghul Tumāns. Omer-Sheikh Mirza married her first of all his wives.
KaragūzThere was yet another named Karagūz Begum (or the black-eyed Princess), whom he married towards the end of his days. She was tenderly beloved by Omer-Sheikh Mirza, and, in order to flatter him, they affected to derive her origin from Manucheher Mirza, the elder brother of Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza.
His concu-He had many women and concubines. One of them was Omeid Aghācheh, who died before the Mirza. In the Mirza’s latter days he had one called Yūn Sultan, of Moghul extraction. Another was Agha Sultan.
His Amīrs.Of his Amīrs, one was Khuda-berdi Taimūrtāsh,* who was of the family of the elder brother of Akbugha Beg, the Hākim* of Heri. When Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza besieged [A.D.1464.] Juki Mirza in Shahrokhīah, he gave the country of Ferghāna to Omer-Sheikh Mirza, and sent Khuda-berdi Taimūrtāsh with him as Master of his Household.* At that time Khuda-berdi Taimūrtāsh was only about twenty-five years of age, but young as he was, his method, his arrangements, and regulations were excellent. One or two years afterwards, when Ibrahīm Begchik ravaged the territory of Ush, Khuda-berdi Taimūrtāsh having pursued and overtaken him, a severe battle ensued, in which Khuda-berdi was defeated and slain. When this event occurred, Sultan Ahmed Mirza was among the yailāk (or summer habitations) of Uratippa, called Ak Kechghai, eighteen farsangs to the east of Samarkand, and Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza was at Babakhāki, which is twelve farsangs to the east of Heri, when this intelligence was transmitted to him express by Abdal Wahāb Shaghāwel. The messenger accomplished this distance, which is one hundred and twenty-six farsangs, on horseback in four days.
Hāfiz Beg