Meanwhile, having left in Ajer such of the men and
horses that had accompanied me as had been worn out
with hunger and fatigue, together with the family, women,
effects, and baggage of Bāki Cheghāniāni, of Ahmed
Kāsim’s son, of the troops that accompanied them, and of
the Aimāks who adhered to them, as well as everything on
which they set a value, we marched out and took the field.
Persons now arrived in uninterrupted succession from the
The Mo-
ghuls in
Khosrou
Shah’s ser-
vice declare
for Bābur.
Moghuls in Khosrou Shah’s service, announcing that the
whole Moghul tribes, desirous of professing their allegiance
to the King, were on their march from Taikhān,*
towards
Ishkamish and Felūl; that it was necessary, therefore,
that his Majesty should move with the utmost speed to
join them; that many of Khosrou Shah’s followers were
much distracted,*
and would embrace the King’s service.
At this very period, information arrived that Sheibāni Khan had taken Andejān, and was advancing against Hissār and Kunduz. On hearing this news, Khosrou Shah, unable to support himself in Kunduz, took the route of Kābul with his whole force. No sooner had he left Kunduz, than Mulla Muhammed Tūrkestāni, one of his old and confidential servants, occupied that fortress, and declared for Sheibāni Khan. Just as I reached the Kizil-sū* (the Red River), by the route of Shamtū, three or four thousand heads of houses of the Moghul clans, who had been dependent on Khosrou Shah, and who had been in Hissār and Kunduz, came and joined me, with their whole families. Here, in order to gratify Bāki Beg, I was obliged to discharge Kamber Ali, the Moghul, who has been so often mentioned. He was a thoughtless and rude talker; and Bāki Beg could not put up with his manners. From this time forward, his son Abdal Shakūr continued in the service of Jehāngīr Mirza.
Khosrou When Khosrou Shah learned that the Moghul tribes had
joined me, he felt his own helplessness; and, seeing no
remedy left, sent his son-in-law, Yākūb Ayūb, as his
envoy, to make professions of submission and allegiance,
and to assure me that, if I would enter into terms with
him, he would come and submit himself. As Bāki Cheghāniāni,
a man of much weight, though steadily attached
to my service, yet was not without a natural bias in favour
of his brother, he recommended a compromise to be made,
on condition that Khosrou’s life should be spared, and his
property left entirely to his own disposal. A treaty was
accordingly concluded on these terms. After Yākūb had
and visits
Bābur.
taken leave, we marched down the Kizil-sū, and encamped
near its conflux with the river of Anderāb.
Next morning (it was about the middle of the first Rabīa*) I passed the Anderāb with a few attendants, and took my seat under the shade of a lofty palm-tree,* in the territory of Dūshi.* From the opposite quarter Khosrou Shah advanced with great pomp and retinue; according to the custom and usage, he dismounted at a considerable distance, and walked up on foot. In approaching to salute, he bowed three times, and as often when he retired back. He also bowed once on the usual inquiries being made, and when he presented his offering; and he showed the same marks of respect to Jehāngīr Mirza, and Mirza Khan. This pompous man,* who for years had acted according to his own will and pleasure, and who wanted nothing of royalty, except that he had not caused the Khutbeh to be read in his own name, now bent himself for twenty-five or twenty-six times successively, and went and came back and forward, till he was so tired that he nearly fell right forward. The visions of empire and authority in which for years he had indulged, vanished from his view. After he had saluted me and presented his tributary offering, I desired him to be seated. He sat down and for one or two garis* we conversed on various subjects and incidents. Besides being of an unmanly and perfidious character, he showed also great want of propriety, and a sneering turn in his conversation.* He made two remarks, in particular, which appeared singular as coming from him, at the moment when his most trusty and confidential servants were going over in troops before his eyes, and taking service with me; and when his affairs had arrived at such a pass, that though a man who in his day had enacted the sovereign, he yet was compelled, sore against his will, to come in this wretched and miserable way, and submit himself in a very paltry manner. One of these was when I was consoling him for the desertion of his servants; he replied, ‘These fellows have already left me four times, and always come back again.’ The other was on my asking after his younger brother, Wali; when he would come, and by what ford he would cross the Amu? he answered, ‘If he can find a ford he will come over speedily; but when a river comes down in flood, the fords change; as the proverb runs, “the river has carried down its fords.”’ At the very moment of the change of his fortune and of the desertion of his servants, Almighty God brought these words out of his own mouth. After one or two garis, I mounted and returned back to the camp, and he also returned to his encampment. That same day, great and small, good and bad, officers and servants, began to forsake him, and came and joined me with their families and effects; so that, on the morrow, between mid-day and afternoon prayers, not a man remained with him. (Arabic) ‘Say, O my Lord! Thou art the King of kings! Thou givest empire unto whom thou pleasest, and takest empire from whom thou pleasest; and increasest whom thou pleasest, and reducest whom thou pleasest: Beneficence is in thy hand; for, verily, thou art powerful over all things.’* The Lord is wonderful in his might! A man who was master of twenty or thirty thousand retainers, and who possessed the whole tract of country formerly subject to Sultan Mahmūd Mirza, extending from Kalūgheh,* which is also termed Derbend-e-āheni (the Iron-gate), as far as the Hindū-kūsh mountains, and one of whose tax-gatherers, named Hassan Birlās, an aged man, had conducted me, in the surliest manner, from Ilāk to Ubāj, giving me orders how far I was to march, and where I was to encamp; that this very person, in the space of half a day, without battle, without contest, should be reduced to appear in such a state of distress and wretchedness before a needy and reduced fugitive like me, who had only two hundred or two hundred and fifty tatterdemalions, all in the greatest want; that he should no longer have any power over his own servants, nor over his wealth, nor even his life, was a wonderful dispensation of the Omnipotent!
He is The evening of the same day in which I returned from
the interview with Khosrou Shah, Mirza Khan*
came into
my presence and accused him of*
the murder of his
brothers. Many among us were for receiving the charge;
and, indeed, it was conformable to every law, human and
divine, that such a man should meet with condign punishment;
but as an agreement had been entered into with
butsuffered
to depart.
Khosrou Shah, he was left free and unmolested, and orders
were given that he might carry off as much of his property
as he chose. He accordingly loaded three or four strings*
of mules, and as many camels as he had, with jewels,
gold and silver utensils, and other valuables, and set out
with them. I directed Shīrīm Taghāi to conduct Khosrou
Shah by the route of Ghūri*
and Dehāneh towards
Khorasān, and then to proceed himself to Kahmerd and
bring my family after me to Kābul.
I now left my encampment and marched against Kābul. I halted at Khwājeh zaid. That same day, as Hamzah-bī Mangfat, who headed a plundering party of Uzbeks, had made an incursion, and was ravaging the territory of Dūshi,* I dispatched Syed Kāsim, the chamberlain, and Ahmed Kāsim Kohbur, with a party of horse, who fell upon the pillagers, completely routed them, and brought in a number of their heads. At this station the arms and armour which were left in the stores of Khosrou Shah were divided among the troops. There were about seven or eight hundred coats of mail, and suits of horse furniture. These were one part of the articles which Khosrou Shah left behind*; there were many others beside, but nothing of consequence.