However the sword of man may strike,*
It injures not a single vein, without the will of God.
I had repeated a prayer, by virtue of which it was that Almighty God averted my danger, and removed from me the risk to which I was exposed. It was as follows: (Arabic)—‘O His prayer. my God! Thou art my Creator; except Thee there is no God. On Thee do I repose my trust; Thou art the Lord of the mighty throne. What God wills comes to pass; and what He does not will, comes not to pass; and there is no power nor strength but through the High and Exalted God; and, of a truth, in all things God is Almighty; and verily He comprehends all things by His knowledge, and has taken account of everything. O my Creator! as I sincerely trust in Thee, do Thou seize by the forelock all evil proceeding from within myself, and all evil coming from without, and all evil proceeding from every man who can be the occasion of evil, and all such evil as can proceed from any living thing, and remove them far from me; since, of a truth, thou art the Lord of the exalted throne!’
He at-Proceeding thence, I went to the Bāgh-e-behisht, where Muhammed Hussain Mirza resided; but he had fled, and had escaped and hid himself. In a breach in the wall of the Bāghcheh (or Little Garden), in which Muhammed Hussain Mirza had resided, seven or eight archers kept their post. I galloped and spurred my horse at them; they durst not stand, but ran off. I came up with one of them, and cut him down. He went spinning off in such a way, that I imagined his head had been severed from his body, and passed on. The person whom I had hit was Tūlik Gokultāsh, the foster brother of Khan Mirza; I struck him on the arm.* Just as I had reached the door of Muhammed Hussain Mirza’s house, there was a Moghul sitting on the terrace, who had been in my service, and I recognized him. He fitted an arrow to his bow, and aimed at me.* A cry rose on all sides, ‘That is the King!’ he turned from his aim, discharged the arrow, and ran off. As the time for shooting was gone by, and as the Mirza and his officers had fled away or were prisoners, what purpose was to be answered by his shooting? While I was at this palace, Sultan Sanjer Birlās, whom I had distinguished by favours, and to whom I had given the Tumān of Nangenhār, but who had nevertheless engaged in this rebellion, was taken, and dragged before me with a rope round his neck. Being in great agitation he called out, ‘What fault have I done?’ ‘Is there a greater crime than for a man of note like you to associate and conspire with insurgents and rebels?’ As Shah Begum,* the mother of my maternal uncle the Khan, was his sister’s daughter,* I ordered them not to drag him in this shameful way along the ground, but spared his life, and did him no more harm.
Leaving this place, I directed Ahmed Kāsim Kohbur, who
was one of the chiefs that had been in the fort, to pursue
Khan Mirza with a body of troops. Close by the Bāgh-e-behisht,*
Shah Begum and the Khanum*
dwelt, in palaces
Bābur
visits the
Begums.
which they had themselves erected. On leaving the palace,*
I went to visit Shah Begum and the Khanum. The town’s-people
and the rabble of the place had taken to their clubs,
and were making a riot. They were eager to lay hold of
men in corners, to plunder property, and profit by the confusion.
I therefore stationed parties in different places, to
chastise and disperse them, and to drive them away. Shah
Begum and the Khanum were sitting together in the same
house. I alighted where I had always done, and went up
and saluted them with the same respect and form as I had
been accustomed to use. Shah Begum and the Khanum
were out of all measure alarmed, confounded, dismayed, and
ashamed. They could neither stammer out an excuse, nor
make the inquiries which politeness required. It was not
my wish that they should feel uneasy*;
yet the faction
which had been guilty of such excesses was composed of
persons who, beyond all doubt, were not disposed to neglect
the suggestions of the Begum and the Khanum. Khan
Mirza was the grandson of Shah Begum, and night and day
with the Begums. If he did not pursue their advice, it was
in their power to have prevented his leaving them, and they
could have kept him near them under their own eye. On
several occasions, too, when, from adverse circumstances
and ill fortune, I was separated from my country, my
throne, my servants, and dependants, I had fled to them
for refuge and shelter, and my mother had also gone to
them, but we experienced no sort of kindness or support.
Khan Mirza, my younger brother,*
and his mother. Sultan
Nigār Khanum, at that time possessed valuable and
populous countries, while I and my mother had not even a
single village, nor a few fowls. My mother was a daughter
of Yunis Khan, and I was his grandson. But whether I was
or not, every one of that connexion who happened to come
in my way was sure to benefit by it, and was treated as
a relation or cousin. When Shah Begum came to live with
me, I bestowed on her Pamghān, which is one of the most
desirable places in Kābul. Indeed, I never failed in my
duty or service towards any of them.*
Sultan Saīd Khan,
the Khan of Kāshghar,*
came to me with five or six naked
followers on foot; I received them like my own brothers, and
gave him the Tumān of Mandrāwar, one of the districts of
Lamghān. When Shah Ismāel overthrew and slew Sheibāni
Khan in Merv,*
and I passed over into Kunduz, the men of
Andejān began to turn their eyes towards me. Several of
them displaced their Dāroghas, while others held their
towns on my account, and sent to give me notice of their
proceedings. I dispatched Sultan Saīd Khan, with my
Bāburi servants and an additional reinforcement, to hold
the government of my own native country of Andejān,
and raised him to the rank of Khan; and, down to this
moment, I have always continued to treat every man of
that family, who places himself under my protection,
with as much kindness as my own paternal relations; as, for
example, Chīn Taimūr Sultan, Īsān Taimūr Sultan, Tukhteh
Būgha Sultan, and Bāba Sultan, are at this instant with
me, and I have received and treated them with more distinction
and favour than my own paternal cousins. I have no
intention, by what I have written, to reflect on any one;
all that I have said is only the plain truth: and I have not
mentioned it with the least design to praise myself; I have
only spoken of things as they happened. In all that I have
written, down to the present moment, I have in every word
most scrupulously followed the truth. I have spoken of
occurrences precisely as they really passed; I have consequently
described every good or bad act, were it of my
father or elder brother, just as it occurred, and have set
forth the merit or demerit of every man, whether friend or
stranger, with the most perfect impartiality. Let the
reader therefore excuse me, and let not the hearer judge
with too much severity.
Leaving their palace, I went to the Chār-bāgh, which had been occupied by Khan Mirza. On reaching it I wrote letters to different parts of the country, as well as to the Aimāks and wandering tribes,* announcing my victory. I then mounted my horse and entered the citadel.
Muham-Muhammed Hussain Mirza, after making his escape, had in his fright taken refuge in the Khanum’s wardrobe, and hid himself among the carpets.* Mīrim Diwānch and some others were sent from the fort, to search the house and bring him out.* On coming to the Khanum’s palace-gate, they made use of rough, and not very polite language. They, however, discovered Muhammed Hussain Mirza hid among the carpets, and conveyed him into the citadel. I behaved to him with my wonted respect, rose on his coming in, and showed no symptoms of harshness in my manner. Muhammed Hussain Mirza had conducted himself in such a criminal and guilty way, and had been actively engaged in such mutinous and rebellious proceedings, that, had he been cut in pieces, or put to a painful death, he would only have met with his deserts. As we were in some degree of relationship to each other, he having sons and daughters by my mother’s sister, Khūb Nigār Khanum, I took that circumstance into consideration, and gave him his liberty, allowing him to set out for Khorasān. Yet this ungrateful, thankless man, this coward, who had been treated by me with such lenity, and whose life I had spared, entirely forgetful of this benefit, abused me and scandalized my conduct to Sheibāni Khan. It was but a short time, however, before Sheibāni Khan put him to death, and thus sufficiently avenged me: