From Khwājeh zaid, by three or four marches, we reached Ghūrbend.* On coming to our ground at Ushter-sheher, we got intelligence that Sherkeh Arghūn, the Beg in whom Mukīm reposed the greatest confidence, still ignorant of my approach, had advanced with an army, and taken post on the river Bārān, for the purpose of intercepting any who might attempt, by the route of Penjhīr,* to join Abdal Razāk Mirza,* who had fled at that time from Kābul, and was then among the Turkolāni Afghans in the territory of Lamghān. The instant I received this information, which was between mid-day and afternoon prayers, we set out, and marching all night, ascended the hill-pass of Hupiān.** Till this time I had never seen the star Soheil* (Canopus), but on reaching the top of a hill, Soheil appeared below,* bright to the south. I said, ‘This cannot be Soheil!’ They answered, ‘It is indeed Soheil.’ Bāki Cheghāniāni recited the following verse:
O Soheil, how far dost thou shine, and where dost thou rise?
Thine eye is an omen of good fortune to him on whom it falls.
The sun was a spear’s length high when we reached the foot of the valley of Sanjed and alighted. The party whom we had sent on in advance to reconnoitre, with a number of enterprising young warriors, fell in with Sherkeh below Karabāgh,* in the territory of Aikeri-yār, and instantly attacked him; they kept harassing him for some time in a skirmishing fight, till reinforcements came up, when they made a vigorous charge, and completely routed his troops. Sherkeh himself was dismounted and made prisoner, with seventy, eighty, or a hundred of his best men. I spared his life, and he entered into my service.
is joined by When Khosrou Shah abandoned Kunduz, and set out
for Kābul, without troubling himself about his Īls and
Ulūses (the wandering Tūrki and Moghul tribes), the
troops in his service, including the Īls and Ulūses, formed
five or six bodies. One of these bodies was composed of
the men from the hill-country of Badakhshān. Sīdīm Ali
Darbān,*
with the Hazāras of the desert,*
having passed
the straits of Penjhīr,*
joined me at this stage, and entered
into my service. Another of these bodies, under Yūsef
Ayūb and Behlūl Ayūb, joined me in like manner at the
same place. Other two of these bodies, the one from
Wali de-
feated, and
put to
death.
Khutlān, under the command of Wali, the brother of
Khosrou; the other from Ilānchuk, Nūkderi, and Kākshāl,
with the Aimāks*
that had settled in Kunduz, advanced
by the route of Anderāb and Seirāb,*
with an intention of
passing by the straits of Penjhīr. The Aimāks reached
Seirab first; and as Wali was advancing in their rear,
they took possession of the road, engaged and defeated
him. Wali himself, after his discomfiture, fled for refuge
to the Uzbeks; but his head was struck off in the
public market*
of Samarkand by the orders of Sheibāni
Khan; all the rest of his servants and officers, being discomfited,
plundered, and destitute, came and joined me,
along with the Aimāks, at this same stage. Syed Yūsef Beg
Oghlākchi also came along with the Aimāks to this place.
Marching thence, we halted in the auleng, or meadow, of Āk-serāi,* which is situated close upon Karabāgh: Khosrou Shah’s men, who had long been inured to the practice of violence, and to disregard of discipline, now began to oppress the people of the country. At last an active retainer of Sīdīm Ali Darbān having carried off a jar of oil from some person by force, I ordered him to be brought out* and beaten with sticks. He expired under the punishment. This example put an end to such practices.
We here held a consultation whether or not it was
advisable to proceed against Kābul. Syed Yūsef Beg and
others were of opinion that, as the winter was at hand, we
should proceed to Lamghān, and there act as circumstances
might require. Bāki Cheghāniāni and several others
were for marching directly on Kābul; and that plan being
finally adopted, we marched off from our station, and
stopped at the kūrūgh (or Park) of Āma. I was here joined
by my mother the Khanum, and the rest of the household
that had been left behind at Kahmerd. They had endured
Khosrou
Shah ex-
pelled from
Kahmerd.
great hardships in their march to meet me. The incidents
were as follows: I had sent Shīrīm Taghāi to conduct
Khosrou Shah on the route to Khorasān, and directed him
afterwards to bring on my household. By the time,
however, that they reached Dehāneh, Shīrīm Taghāi found
that he was not his own master, and Khosrou Shah took
the resolution of accompanying him to Kahmerd. Ahmed
Kāsim, the sister’s son of Khosrou Shah, was then in
Kahmerd. Khosrou Shah prevailed upon Ahmed Kāsim to
behave very ill to the families left in the place. Many of
the Moghul retainers of Bāki Cheghāniāni were in Kahmerd
along with these families. They privately, in concert with
Shīrīm Taghāi, prepared to seize both Khosrou Shah and
Ahmed Kāsim, who, however, taking the alarm, fled away
by the road which leads by the skirts of the valley of Ajer,
and took the route of Khorasān. The effect of this firmness
of the Moghuls having been to rid themselves of these
enemies, the guard which was with the families being now
freed from any danger from Khosrou Shah, left Ajer. By
the time they reached Kahmerd, however, the Saghānchi
clan were up in arms, seized the passes on the road, and
plundered a number of the families, and of the Īls and
Ulūses (or wandering clans), who had followed the fortunes
of Bāki Beg. The son of Kūl Bayezīd Tūrk,*
who was
young, was made a prisoner by them. He came to Kābul
three or four years after. The families which had been
plundered and dispersed came on by way of the pass of
Kipchāk, the same by which I had come, and joined me
in the kūrūgh of Āma.
Leaving this station, the second march brought us to
Bābur re-
solves to
besiege
Kābul.
the auleng (or pasture grounds)*
of Chālāk, where we
halted. Having held a consultation, in which the siege of
Kābul was determined on, we marched forward. I, with
the main body, halted between Haider Tāki’s garden and
the tomb of Kūl Bayezīd, the cup-bearer. Jehāngīr Mirza,
with the right wing, took his station at my great Chārbāgh.*
Nāsir Mirza, with the left wing, took post in an auleng (or
meadow) behind the tomb of Kūtluk Kadem. I repeatedly
sent persons to confer with Mukīm; they sometimes brought
back insincere excuses, sometimes conciliatory answers.
But his real object, all the while, was to gain time; for,
when I took Sherkeh prisoner, he had dispatched expresses
to his father and elder brother, and he now attempted to
create delays, in hopes of getting succour from them.
One day I ordered that the whole host, main body, right wing, and left, after arraying themselves in complete armour, and clothing their horses in mail, should advance close up to the city, display their arms, and inflict a little chastisement on the town’s people. Jehāngīr Mirza, with the right wing, marched forward towards the Kūcheh bāgh.* As there was a river in front of the main body, I proceeded by the tomb of Kūtluk kadem, and stationed myself on an eminence in front of a rising ground. The advanced body spread themselves out above Kūtluk kadem’s bridge; at that time, however, there was no bridge there. Our troops galloped insultingly close up to the Currier’s* gate. The men who had advanced out of the town, being few in number, could not stand their ground, but took to flight, and sought shelter in the city. A number of the town’s people of Kābul had gone out on the glacis of the citadel, on the side of an eminence, in order to witness the sight. As they fled, a great dust arose, and many of them were thrown down. Between the gate and the bridge, on a rising ground, and in the high road, pits had been dug, in which pointed stakes had been fixed,* and then the whole covered over with grass. Sultan Kuli Chanāk, and several other cavaliers, fell into these pits as they pushed on at full speed. On the right wing, one or two cavaliers exchanged a few sabre blows with a part of the garrison who sallied out on the side of the Kūcheh bāgh, but soon returned, as they had no orders to engage.
Mukīm sur-