THIS expedition of the Khan’s was rather a useless sort of expedition. He took no fort, he beat no enemy, he went and came back again.
Bābur’sWhile I remained at Tāshkend at this time, I endured great distress and misery. I had no country, nor hopes of a country. Most of my servants had left me from absolute want; the few who still remained with me were unable to accompany me on my journeys from sheer poverty. When I went to my uncle the Khan’s Divān,* I was attended sometimes by one person, sometimes by two; but I was fortunate in one respect, that this did not happen among strangers, but with my own kinsmen. After having paid my compliments to the Khan my uncle, I went in to wait on Shah Begum,* bare-headed and bare-foot, with as much freedom as a person would do at home in his own house.
He resolvesAt length, however, I was worn out with this unsettled state, and with having no house nor home, and became tired of living. I said to myself, rather than pass my life in such wretchedness and misery, it were better to take my way and retire into some corner where I might live unknown and undistinguished; and rather than exhibit myself in this distress and debasement, far better were it to flee away from the sight of man, as far as my feet can carry me. I thought of going to Khitā,* and resolved to shape my course in that direction; as from my infancy I had always had a strong desire to visit Khitā, but had never been able to accomplish my wish, from my being a King, and from my duty to my relations and connexions. Now my kingship was gone, my mother was safe with her mother and younger brother; in short, every obstacle to my journey was removed, and all my difficulties were at an end.* By means of Khwājeh Abul Makāram, I made some ideas to be suggested,* that when an enemy so formidable as Sheibāni Khan had started up, from whom Tūrks and Moghuls had equal cause of apprehension, it was but prudent to watch with jealousy his progress at this moment, before he had completely subjected the Ulūses,* and while he was not yet grown too powerful to be restrained; as it is said,
Extinguish to-day the flame while yet you can;
For when it blazes forth, it will consume the world.
Let not your foe apply his arrow to the bowstring,
When you can pierce him with your shaft.*
Besides that it was twenty-four or twenty-five years since
the Khan had seen my younger uncle,*
and I had never seen
him at all; that it would be well if I went and visited my
younger uncle, and acted as mediator, using my endeavours
to procure an interview between them. My purpose was to
escape from my relations*
under these pretexts; and I had
now fully made up my mind to visit Moghulistān and Tarfān,
after which the reins were in my own hand. I, however,
acquainted no person with my plan, nor could I impart it
to any one, not only because my mother could not have
supported the mention of such a proposition; but also
because I had about me a number of persons who had
attached themselves to me with very different hopes, and
supported by them had shared with me my wanderings and
distresses. It was unpleasant to communicate such a project
to them. Khwājeh Abul Makāram started the subject
to Shah Begum and my uncle the Khan, and gained their
acquiescence; but it afterwards came into their head, that
I had asked permission to go in consequence of the poor
Sultan Ah-
med Khan
visits his el-
der brother.
reception they had given me; and this suspicion made them
delay some time before granting me liberty to depart. At
this very crisis, a messenger came from the Khan, my
younger maternal uncle, bringing certain information that
he was himself coming. My plan, therefore, was totally
disconcerted. A second messenger followed immediately
after, with news that he was close at hand. Shah Begum,
with the younger Khan’s younger sisters, Sultan Nigār
Khanum, Doulet Sultan Khanum, myself, Sultan Muhammed
Khanekeh, and Mirza Khan, all of us set out to
meet my uncle.
Between Tāshkend and Seirām there is a village named
Yaghma, as well as some other small villages, where are the
tombs of Ibrahīm Ātā and Ishāk Ātā. We advanced as far
as these villages, and not knowing precisely the time that
the younger Khan would arrive, I had ridden out carelessly
Is met by
Bābur.
to see the country, when all at once I found myself face to
face with him. I immediately alighted and advanced to
meet him; at the moment I dismounted the Khan knew me,
and was greatly disturbed; for he had intended to alight
somewhere, and having seated himself, to receive and
embrace me with great form and decorum: but I came too
quick upon him, and dismounted so rapidly, that there was
no time for ceremony; as, the moment I sprang from my
horse, I kneeled down and then embraced. He was a good
deal agitated and disconcerted. At length he ordered Sultan
Saīd Khan and Baba Khan Sultan to alight, kneel, and
embrace me. Of the Khan’s children, these two Sultans
alone accompanied him, and might be of the age of thirteen
or fourteen years. After embracing these two Sultans
I mounted, and we proceeded to join Shah Begum. The
Little Khan my uncle soon after met, and embraced Shah
Begum and the other Khanums, after which they sat down,
and continued talking about past occurrences and old stories
till after midnight.
On the morrow, my uncle the younger Khan, according
to the custom of the Moghuls, presented me with a dress
complete from head to foot, and one of his own horses ready
saddled. The dress consisted of a Moghul cap, embroidered
with gold thread; a long frock of satin of Khitā,*
ornamented
with flowered needle-work; a cuirass of Khitā of
the old fashion, with a whetstone and a purse-pocket; from
this purse-pocket were suspended three or four things like
the trinkets which women wear at their necks, such as an
abīrdān (or box for holding perfumed earth*),
and its little
bag. On the left hand in like manner three or four things
dangled. From this place we returned towards Tāshkend
Interview
of the two
Khans.
My uncle the elder Khan came three or four farsangs out
from Tāshkend, and having erected an awning, seated
himself under it. The younger Khan advanced straight up,
and on coming near him in front, turned to the left of the
elder Khan, fetching a circle round him, till he again
presented himself in front, when he alighted; and when he
came to the distance at which the kornish*
is performed, he
knelt nine times, and then came up and embraced him.
The elder Khan, immediately on the younger Khan’s coming
near, stood up and embraced him; they stood a long time
clasping each other in their arms. The younger Khan, while
retiring, again knelt nine times, and when he presented his
peshkesh (or tributary offering), he again knelt many times;
after which he went and sat down. All the younger Khan’s
men had dressed themselves out after the Moghul fashion.
They had Moghul caps, frocks of Khitā satin, embroidered
with flowers after the same fashion, quivers and saddles of
green shagreen, and Moghul horses dressed up and adorned
in a singular style.
The younger Khan came with but few followers; they might be more than one thousand, and less than two. He was a man of singular manners. He was a stout, courageous man, and powerful with the sabre, and of all his weapons he relied most on it. He used to say that the shashper (or mace with six divisions), the rugged mace, the javelin, the battle-axe, or broad axe, if they hit, could only be relied on for a single blow.* His trusty keen sword he never allowed to be away from him; it was always either at his waist, or in his hand. As he had been educated, and had grown up, in a remote and out of the way country, he had something of rudeness in his manner, and of harshness in his speech. When I returned back with my uncle the younger Khan, tricked out in all the Moghul finery that has been mentioned, Khwājeh Abdal Makāram, who was along with the elder Khan, did not know me, and asked what Sultan that was, and it was not till I spoke that he recognized me.
The two Having come to Tāshkend, they speedily marched against
Sultan Ahmed Tambol.*
They advanced by way of Bānī.*
On reaching the dale of Ahengerān, the little Khan and
myself were sent*
on in advance. After having crossed
the hill-pass of Dābān, the two Khans met again in the
neighbourhood of Zarkān and Karnān. In the vicinity of
Karnān they one day had the vīm*
or muster of the army,
and found it amount to about thirty thousand horse.
Reports reached us from the country in our front, that
Bābur de
tached
against Ush
and Uz-
kend.
Tambol had also collected his forces and advanced to
Akhsi. The Khans, after consultation, determined to give
me a detachment of the army, with which I should pass the
river of Khojend, advance towards Ush and Uzkend, and
take him in rear. This being arranged, they sent with me
Ayūb Begchik with his tumān (or tribe), Jān Hassan Bārīn
with his Bārīns, as well as Muhammed Hissāri Dughlet,
Sultan Hussain Dughlet, and Sultan Ahmed Mirza Dughlet,
but the Tumān of the Dughlets did not accompany them;
Kamber Ali Sārīk-bāsh*
Mirza, the Steward,*
was made the
Dārogha or Commander of the Army.*
Having separated
from the Khans at Karnān, I passed the river of Khojend
at Sakan on rafts, and proceeding by the Rabāt*
of Khukān,
and having reduced Kaba, advanced upon Ush by a rapid
march by the route of Rabāt-e-Alā-balūk. At sunrise
I came upon the fort of Ush while the garrison were off their
guard, being totally ignorant of our approach; seeing no
Takes Ush,
remedy, they were forced to surrender. The inhabitants of
the country, who were warmly attached to me, had longed
much for my arrival: but, partly from dread of Tambol,
partly from the distance at which I had been, had no means
of doing anything; no sooner, however, had I arrived in
Ush, than all the Īls and Ulūses poured in from the east
and south of Andejān, from the hills and plains. The
Uzkend and
Marghinān.
inhabitants of Uzkend, a fortress of great strength, which
had formerly been the capital of Ferghāna, and lay on the
frontier, declared for me, and sent a person to tender their
allegiance. A few days after, the people of Marghinān
having attacked and driven out their Governor, joined my
party. The whole population on the Andejān side of the
river of Khojend, with all the fortified places, except
Andejān itself, declared for me. All this time, although so
many forts were falling into my hands, and though such
a spirit of insurrection and revolt had overrun the country,
Tambol
maintains
his post.
Tambol, without being in the least disconcerted, lay with
his cavalry and infantry facing the Khans, between Akhsi
and Karnān,*
where he encamped and fortified his position
with a trench guarded by a chevaux-de-frise. A number
of skirmishes and affairs took place, but without any visible
advantage on either side.