He had five sons and eleven daughters. The eldest of his
sons was Sultan Masaūd Mirza, whose mother was Khanzādeh
Begum, a daughter of Mīr Buzūrg of Termez; another
of his sons was Baiesanghar Mirza, whose mother was
Pasheh Begum; a third was Sultan Ali Mirza, whose mother,
Zuhreh Beghi Agha, was an Uzbek and a concubine.
Another son was Sultan Hussain Mirza, whose mother was
Khanzādeh Begum, the grand daughter*
of Mīr Buzūrg.
He went to the mercy of the Almighty in his father’s lifetime,
Sultan Weis
Mirza.
at the age of thirteen. The other son was Sultan Weis
Mirza, whose mother, Sultan Nigār Khanum, was a daughter
of Yunis Khan, and the younger sister of my mother. The
transactions of these four Mirzas will be detailed in the
succeeding years.
Of the daughters, three were by the same mother with Baiesanghar Mirza; the eldest of whom Sultan Mahmūd Mirza gave in marriage to Malik Muhammed Mirza, the son of his paternal uncle Manucheher Mirza. By Khanzādeh Begum, the grand-daughter of Mīr Buzūrg, he had five daughters, the eldest of whom, after the death of Sultan Mahmūd Mirza, was given to Ababeker Kāshghari. The second daughter was Begeh Begum, whom Sultan Hussain Mirza, when he besieged Hissār, engaged to Haider Mirza, his son by Payandeh Sultan Begum, a daughter of Abūsaīd Mirza; after which he made peace and raised the siege. The third daughter was Ak Begum. When Sultan Hussain Mirza advanced against Kunduz, Omer-Sheikh Mirza sent his son Jehāngīr Mirza with the army of Andejān to succour the place; at which time the fourth princess* was betrothed A.D. 1504. to Jehāngīr Mirza. In the year 910, when Bāki Cheghāniāni came and met me on the banks of the Amu, these Begums were with their mothers in Termez, and they all of them came along with the wife of Bāki Cheghāniāni and accompanied me; and, on our reaching Kahmerd, Jehāngīr Mirza married his bride. They had one daughter, who is at present with her grandmother Khanzādeh Begum in Badakhshān. The fifth daughter was Zeineb Sultan Begum, whom, when I took Kābul, I married, at the instance of my mother, Kūtluk Nigār Khanum. We did not agree very well; two or three years after our marriage she was seized with the small-pox, which carried her off. Another of Sultan Mahmūd Mirza’s daughters was Makhdūm Sultan Begum, who was the elder sister of Sultan Ali Mirza, by the same mother. She is now in Badakhshān. His other two daughters were by concubines; the name of the one was Rajeb Sultan, that of the other Muhibb Sultan.
His wives. The chief of his wives was Khanzādeh Begum, the
daughter of Mīr Buzūrg of Termez, to whom the Mirza was
strongly attached, and who was the mother of Sultan
Masaūd Mirza. The Mirza was deeply afflicted at her death.
Another
Khanzādeh
Begum.
After that event he married the grand-daughter of Mīr
Buzūrg, the daughter of a brother of Khanzādeh Begum.
She also was called Khanzādeh Begum, and she was the
mother of five daughters and one son. Another of his wives
Pasheh
Begum.
was Pasheh Begum, the daughter of Ali Sher Beg Behārlu,
one of the Begs of the Turkomān Horde of the Black Sheep.
She had been married before to Muhammed Mirza, the son
of Jehānshāh Mirza Barāni, a Turkomān of the Black
Sheep. At the period when Uzūn Hassan, who was a Turkomān
of the White Sheep, took Azarbāijān and Irāk from the
family of Jehānshāh Mirza, the sons of Ali Sher Beg, with
four or five thousand families of the Turkomāns of the Black
Sheep, entered the service of Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza. After
the defeat of the Sultan, they found their way to the
countries north of the Amu: and when Sultan Mahmūd
Mirza went from Samarkand to Hissār, they entered his
service. It was at that time that the Mirza married this
Pasheh Begum, who was the mother of one of his sons and
three of his daughters. Another of his wives was Sultan
Sultan
Nigār
Khanum.
His con-
cubines.
Nigār Khanum, whose extraction has already been mentioned
in the account of the Khans.
He had many concubines and handmaids, the principal of whom was Zuhreh Begi Agha, an Uzbek, whom he had taken in the lifetime of Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza. She was the mother of one son and one daughter. By two of his numerous handmaids, he had the two daughters who have already been mentioned.
His Begs.The first of his Begs was Khosrou Shah,* who was from Turkestān, of a tribe of Kipchāk. In his youth he had been in the service of the Terkhān Begs, nay, had been a catamite. He next was in the service of Mazīd Beg Arghūn, who treated him with great favour. He accompanied Sultan Mahmūd Mirza in the disastrous expedition into Irāk; and during the course of the retreat did him such acceptable service, that the Mirza gave him high marks of his regard. He afterwards rose to an exceeding height of power. In the time of Sultan Mahmūd Mirza, his dependants amounted to the number of five or six thousand. From the banks of the Amu to the mountain Hindū-kūsh, the whole country, except Badakhshān, depended on him,* and he enjoyed the whole revenues of it. He was remarkable for making a very extensive distribution of victuals,* and for his liberality. Though a Tūrk,* he applied his attention to the mode of raising his revenues, and he spent them liberally as they were collected. After the death of Sultan Mahmūd Mirza, in the reign of that prince’s sons, he reached the highest pitch of greatness, and indeed became independent,* and his retainers rose to the number of twenty thousand. Though he prayed regularly, and abstained from forbidden foods, yet he was black-hearted and vicious, of mean understanding, and slender talents, faithless, and a traitor. For the sake of the short and fleeting pomp of this vain world, he put out the eyes of one, and murdered another of the sons of the benefactor, in whose service he had been, and by whom he had been patronized and protected; rendering himself accursed of God, abhorred of men, and worthy of execration and shame till the day of final retribution. These crimes he perpetrated merely to secure the enjoyment of some poor worldly vanities; yet with all the power of his many and populous territories, in spite of his magazines of warlike stores,* and the multitude of his servants, he had not the spirit to face a barn-door chicken. He will be often mentioned again in these memoirs.
Pīr Mu-Another was Pīr Muhammed Ilchi Būgha, a Kuchīn. In the war of Hazārasp, near the gates of Balkh, he did great [A.D. 1453.] execution with his fists by way of bravado, in the presence of Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza. He was a brave man, and always remained in the employment of the Mirza, who was much influenced by his opinions. When Sultan Hussain Mirza besieged Kunduz, Pīr Muhammed, from rivalry to Khosrou Shah, made a night attack on the enemy with a handful of unarmed men, contrary to all rule, but accomplished nothing; and indeed what could be expected from an attempt made on a mighty army with such inferior force? Being hotly pursued by some light-armed horse, he threw himself into the river, and was drowned.
Ayūb.Another was Ayūb, who had served Sultan Abūsaīd Mirza in the band of Khorasān Youths. He was a man of courage, and was Beg-atkeh (or governor) to Baiesanghar Mirza. He was moderate* in his table and dress, and of a humorous, lively turn. Sultan Mahmūd Mirza having called him Bīhayā (or shameless), the epithet stuck to him.
Wali.Wali was another of them, the younger brother of the full blood of Khosrou Shah. He took good care of his servants. It was, however, at the instigation of this man, that Sultan Masaūd Mirza was blinded, and Baiesanghar Mirza put to death. He was in the habit of speaking ill of everybody behind their backs. He was a foul-tongued, scurrilous, self-conceited, scatter-brained fellow. He never approved of any thing or any person, but himself or his own. When I separated Khosrou Shah from his servants in the country of Kunduz, in the vicinity of Kīlkāi and Dūshi,* and dismissed him, Wali, from dread of the Uzbeks, went to Anderāb and Sirāb. The Aimaks of these quarters defeated and plundered him, and he afterwards came to Kābul with my permission. Wali subsequently went to Muhammed Sheibāni Khan, who ordered his head to be struck off in Samarkand.
Sheikh