Humāyūn-nāmah - The Humāyūn-nāmah

IT was in October, 1900, that the late Mr. F. F. Arbuthnot made arrangements with me for the publication of this volume. It has now to put forth bereft of his guidance. I can but trust that he would have given to the finished work the welcome with which he greeted the small portion I was able to show him in print. It is natural to feel towards him what he has expressed in his dedication of the Assemblies of Al Ḥarīrī to Chenery, and to hope he may be glad of the fulfilment of this piece of his work.

The little history which is reproduced in this volume has few, if any, compeers, inasmuch as it is the work of a Musalmānī, and lights up her woman's world. She writes colloquially and without pose, and is unaffected and spontaneous. For these reasons I have tried to make an accurate copy of her text, and to preserve her characteristics of orthography and diction; and this the more that the British Museum MS. may be her very own, unique, and autographic. With a few chosen exceptions, I have reproduced all her deflections from common rule without comment; my additions to the MS. are limited to a few iẓāfats and other signs of which example is given at some place in the MS..

Princess Rose-body has rendered one essential service to history, by giving precise details of relationship in her own and some contemporary families. Up till now, however, no use has been made of her information, and her book has remained, both in India and Europe, a literary parda-nīshīn .

The Biographical Appendix, which I have modelled in admiration of Professor Blochmann's in his Aīn-i-akbarī, will, I hope, be of use to future writers. It is the outcome of the notes of several years, but it is incomplete and over brief. Nevertheless, it discloses the elements of many a romantic story.

One of an author's most agreeable final touches is the expression of thanks to those who have helped his book on its way. My obligation to my husband is too great to be told. I am much indebted to Mr. A. G. Ellis for his unfailing kindness during the long and pleasant time of my work in the British Museum, and to my friends Mr. E. H. Whinfield and Mr. W. Irvine for the expression of their opinions on several perplexing points. As I have said in writing of the plates, I owe all my illustrations but one to Mr. Bourdillon, B.C.S..

The printing of a book so full as is this one of unfamiliar names and of diacritically-marked letters entails a heavy tax upon proof-readers and compositors. I wish to express my sense of this, and to thank Messrs. Billing, their proofreaders and their compositors for what they have done to accomplish a difficult and tiresome task. My thanks are indeed due and are offered to Messrs. Drugelin for the patience and skill with which they have dealt with Persian copy from my untrained hand.

I now venture to express, in Mr. E. Granville Browne's words, the thought which haunts all who make a book, and to beg my critics to listen to their plea:

‘Now, seeing that to fail and fall is the fate of all, and to claim exemption from the lot of humanity a proof of pride and vanity, and somewhat of mercy our common need; therefore let such as read, and errors detect, either ignore or neglect, or correct and conceal them, rather than revile and reveal them.’

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AUTOGRAPH NOTE OF SHĀH-JAHĀN.
[To face p. xiii.

THE page of the MS. selected for reproduction in Plate I. contains several words which I have found difficult, and concerning which explanation will be welcomed. It and Plate No. II. make silent protest against printing, and plead that the sun best shows the grace and beauty of manuscript.

With the exception of the first illustration, all the plates are photographic reproductions from a splendidly illustrated Persian MS., entitled the Tārīkh-i-khāndān-i-tīmūriya, which is the choicest volume in the library with which Maulvī Khūda-baksh Khān Bahādur has enriched the city of Patna.^0-13

The Emperor Shāh-jahān appears to have paid R.8,000 for the illustrations in the volume. The MS. itself is of older date, and Mr. Beveridge has found in it some portions, at least, of the Tārīkh-i-alfī. The title-page is wanting.

The volume has a further distinction, inasmuch as it bears on an opening page an autograph note of Shāh-jahān. This is reproduced (as Plate No. II.) on the opposite page, and by its charm and grace is worthy of that royal fount of creative beauty.

The pictures of Bābar's devotion of himself and the triad connected with the birth of Akbar are admirable; they repay close attention and enlargement under a glass.

I am indebted for these pictures, first to Mr. Beveridge who, when he examined this Tārīkh in 1899, thought of my book, and, secondly, to Mr. Bourdillon, the then Commissioner of Patna, who most kindly photographed them for us.

This history, which contains an abridgment of the affairs of his Majesty, Ṣāḥib-qirān Gītī-sitānī (Tīmūr), and of his glorious descendants, and of the events of the days of 'Arsh-āshyānī (Akbar)—May God make clear his proof!— down to the twenty-second year of his reign, was written in the time of Shāh Bābā (Akbar).

Signed: Shāh-jahān Pādshāh, son of Jahāngīr Pādshāh, son of Akbar Pādshāh.

GUL-BADAN BEGAM (Princess Rose-body) was a daughter of Ẓahru-d-dīn Muḥammad Bābar, in whom were united the lines of highest Central Asian aristocracy—namely, that of Tīmūr the Tūrk, through his son Mīrān-shāh; and that of Chingīz the Mughal, through his son Chaghatāi. He was born on February 14th, 1483, and succeeded to his father's principality of Farghāna when under twelve. He spent ten years of early youth in trying to save his small domain from the clutch of kinsmen, but, being forced to abandon the task, went southwards in 1504 to Afghānistān, where he captured Kābul from its Arghūn usurpers.

Princess Gul-badan was born somewhere about 1523 and when her father had been lord in Kābul for nineteen years; he was master also in Kunduz and Badakhshān; had held Bajaur and Swat since 1519, and Qandahār for a year. During ten of those nineteen years he had been styled pādshāh, in token of headship of the house of Tīmūr and of his independent sovereignty. To translate pādshāh, however, as is often done, by the word emperor would give a wrong impression of Bābar's status amongst rulers at this height of his rising fortunes. Nevertheless, Gul-badan was born the child of a strong and stable chief, and of one who was better followed in war than his nominal domains would allow, because his army was drawn for the most part from tribes not under his government, and was not territorial and of Kābul but personal and inherited.

Bābar says that he cherished the desire to conquer beyond the Indus for nineteen years. At the date of Gul-badan's birth he was engaged in the attempt, and succeeded when she was about two and a half years old. He then became the first Tūrkī sovereign in Hindūstān, and the founder of its miscalled Mughal dynasty.

If the princess had first seen light in London instead of in Kābul, she would have had Henry VIII for king, and the slumbers of her birth-year might have been troubled as men marched forth at Wolsey's will to fight and lose in France. Her personal vicissitudes were the greater that she was a Tīmūrid and Tūrk. She spent her childhood under her father's rule in Kābul and Hindūstān; her girlhood and young wifehood shared the fall and exile of Humāyūn; and her maturity and failing years slipped past under the protection of Akbar.

Her mother was Dil-dār Begam—the Heart-holding Princess—of whose descent, it is noticeable to observe, neither her husband nor her daughter gives any information. This peculiarity of omission she shares with Māham, the wife of Bābar's affection and the mother of his heir; and with Gul-rukh, the mother of Kāmrān and 'Askarī. All three ladies are spoken of by our begam with the style befitting the wives of a king; all were mothers of children, and for this reason, if for no other, it seems natural that something should be said of their birth. Bābar frequently mentions Māham, and calls her by this name tout court. Dil-dār's name occurs in the Tūrkī version of the Memoirs, but not in the Persian, and she is there styled āghācha— i.e., a lady, but not a begam, by birth. Gul-rukh is, I believe, never named by Bābar. This silence does not necessarily imply low birth. It may be an omission of the contemporarily obvious; and also it may indicate that no one of the three women was of royal birth, although all seem to have been of good family.

Three Tīmūrids had been Bābar's wives in childhood and youth. These were: 'Āyisha, who left him before 1504 and who was betrothed to him when he was five; Zainab, who died in 1506 or 1507; and Ma'sūma, whom he married in 1507 and who died at the birth of her first child. Māham was married in Khurāsān, and therefore in 1506; Dil-dār and Gul-rukh probably considerably later, and after the three royal ladies had passed away from the household. The next recorded marriage of Bābar is one of 1519, when a Yusufzāi chief brought him his daughter, Bībī Mubārika, as the seal of submission. She had no children, and was an altogether charming person in the eyes of those who have written of her.

To return now to Dil-dār. She bore five children, three girls and two boys. The eldest was born in an absence of Bābar from Kābul and in Khost. This fixes her birth as occurring somewhere between 1511 and 1515. She was Gul-rang (Rose-hued), named like her sisters from the rose; then came Gul-chihra (Rose-cheeked); and then Abū'n-nāṣir Muḥammad, the Hindāl of history, who was born in 1519; next was Gul-badan (Rose-body); and last a boy, whom his sister calls Alwar, a word which looks like a sobriquet drawn from the Indian town. He died after the migration of the household to Āgra, and in 1529.

Princess Gul-badan was born some two years before Bābar set out on his last expedition across the Indus, so her baby eyes may have seen his troops leave Kābul in November, 1525, for the rallying-place at Jacob's Village (Dih-i-ya qūb). It is not mere word-painting to picture her as looking down from the citadel at what went on below, for she tells of later watching from this view-point which would give the farewell glimpse of the departing army, and, as weeks and years rolled on, the first sight of many a speck on the eastern road which took form as loin-girt runner or mounted courier.

We who live upon the wire, need a kindled imagination to realize what it was to those left behind, to have their men-folk go to India. With us, fancy is checked by maps and books, and has not often to dwell on the unknown and inconceivable. To them, what was not a blank was probably a fear. Distance could have no terrors for them, because they were mostly, by tribe and breeding, ingrain nomads; many of them had come from the far north and thought the great mountains or the desert sands the desirable setting for life. Such experience, however, would not help to understand the place of the Hindūs, with its heats, its rains, strange beasts, and hated and dreaded pagans.

It is not easy to say wherein lies the pleasure of animating the silhouettes which are all that names, without detail of character, bring down from the past. Perhaps its roots run too deep and close to what is dear and hidden in the heart, for them to make way readily to the surface in speech. But it is an undoubted pleasure, and it is what makes it agreeable to linger with these women in Kābul in those hours when our common human nature allows their thoughts and feelings to be clear to us. Sometimes their surroundings are too unfamiliar for us to understand what sentiments they would awaken, but this is not so when there is news of marches, fighting, defeat, or victory. Then the silhouettes round, and breathe, and weep or smile.

Bābar left few fighting men in Kābul, but there remained a great company of women and children, all under the nominal command and charge of Prince Kāmrān, who was himself a child. His exact age I am not able to set down, for Bābar does not chronicle his birth, an omission which appears due to its falling in one of the gaps of the Memoirs. Bābar left the city on November 17th, and was joined on December 3rd by Humāyūn at the Garden of Fidelity (Bāgh-i-wafā). He had to wait for the boy, and was much displeased, and reprimanded him severely. Humāyūn was then seventeen years old, and since 1520 had been governor of Badakhshān. He had now brought over his army to reinforce his father, and it may well be that Māham had something to do with his delayed march from Kābul. She could have seen him only at long intervals since she had accompanied Bābar, in 1520, to console and settle her child of twelve in his distant and undesired post of authority.

Shortly after the army had gone eastwards, disquieting news must have reached Kābul, for three times before the middle of December, 1525, Bābar was alarmingly ill. What he records of drinking and drug-eating may explain this; he thought his illness a chastisement, and set himself to repent of sins which were bred of good-fellowship and by forgetfulness in gay company; but his conflict with them was without victory. He referred his punishment to another cause than these grosser acts, and came to regard the composition of satirical verses as a grave fault. His reflections on the point place him near higher moralists, for he says it was sad a tongue which could repeat sublime words, should occupy itself with meaner and despicable fancies. ‘Oh, my Creator! I have tyrannized over my soul, and if Thou art not bountiful to me, of a truth I shall be numbered amongst the accursed.’ These are some of the thoughts of Bābar which lift our eyes above what is antipathetic in him, and explain why he wins the respect and affection of all who take trouble to know him.

Not long after January 8th, 1526, a messenger would reach Kābul who took more than news, for Bābar had found manuscripts in the captured fort of Milwat, and now sent some for Kāmrān, while he gave others to Humāyūn. They were valuable, but not so much so as he had hoped, and many were theological. This and other records about books remind one that they were few and precious in those days. How many that we now rank amongst the best of the sixteenth century had not yet been written! There was no Tārīkh-i-rashīdī, and the very stuff of the Tūzūk was in the living and making.

On February 26th Humāyūn created news which would be as welcome to Māham as it was to Bābar, for he was successful in his first expedition on active service. This occurred at Ḥiṣār-firoza, and the town and district were given to him with a sum of money. News of the victory was despatched to Kābul from Shāhābād; and immediately after Bābar's record of this in the Memoirs, there occurs a passage of varied interest, although it seems to European ears a somewhat strange commemoration of a detail of toilette: ‘At this same station and this same day the razor or scissors were first applied to Humāyūn's beard.’ Bābar made an entry in June, 1504, of the same act accomplished for himself. It was one which Tūrks celebrated by festivity. The entry quoted above is made as though by Bābar, but it is followed by an explanation that it is inserted by Humāyūn in pious imitation of his father's own. Humāyūn did this in 1553-4, shortly before he set out to recover his father's lost domains in Hindūstān. The date is fixed by his statement that he made the interpolation when he was forty-six.⁶

Humāyūn's little victory would be dwarfed by the next news of the royal army, for April 12th, 1526, brought the battle of Pānīpat and the overthrow of Ibrāhīm Lodī Afghān, the Emperor of Hindūstān. The swiftest of runners would carry these tidings to Kābul in something under a month. On May 11th Bābar distributed the treasures of five kings, and left himself so little that he was jestingly dubbed beggar (qalandar). He forgot no one, but sent gifts far and wide to kinsmen and friends, and to shrines both in Arabia and 'Irāq. Kābul was specially remembered and a small coin sent for every soul within it. Gul-badan tells what was given to the ladies, beginning with the great begams, the aunts of frequent mention. It was certainly a wonderful day when the curiosities and splendid things of Hind were unpacked for their inspection, and very welcome, too, would be the amīr who escorted the precious caravan. He was Bābar's friend, Khwāja Kilān, who had extorted a most unwilling leave from India on the ground that his constitution was not suited to the climate of that country, a delicate assumption of blame to his own defects which it is to be hoped he conveyed to the ladies as a reassurance. After the gay social fashion of the time, no doubt he helped the ladies to run day into night in the tale-telling they loved. It appears probable that there was no such complete seclusion of Tūrkī women from the outside world as came to be the rule in Hindūstān. The ladies may have veiled themselves, but I think they received visitors more freely, and more in accordance with the active life of much-travelling peoples, than is the case in Hindū or Moslim houses in India at the present day.⁷

The little Gul-badan will have had her present with the rest, and probably, like some others, it was chosen by her father specially for her. He sent a list with the gifts so that each person might receive what he had settled upon. This he is said to have done both in allotting the jewels and the dancing-girls, the latter of whom are mentioned as sent to the great begams. Their novel style of dancing ranks them amongst the ‘curiosities of Hind,’ but nothing is said about their views of presentation to foreign ladies in Kābul. Certainly Gul-badan will have seen them dance, and she will also have enjoyed the joke played off by Bābar from Āgra on an old dependent called 'Asas (night-guard). This and all the begam's stories are left for her to tell, as she does later in this volume.

There came with the gifts an injunction which calls out the remark, that at all crises Bābar gave expression to religious feeling and performed due devotional ceremonies. He had desired Khwāja Kilān to arrange for the ladies to go out of the city to the Garden of the Audience-hall, so that they might there make the prostration of thanks for the success of his arms. They were to go in state, and to remain some days. He must have sighed as he planned an excursion so much to his liking and in which he could not share. The act of thanksgiving would be done under a summer heaven, in an enchanting June garden, of which the snowy hills were the distant girdle. Our princes will have gone out with the rest, and with theirs her small figure, bravely attired, will have bowed forehead to the earth in thanks to the Giver of Victory. Tender thoughts will have travelled to the absent, and especially to him who loved his Kābul as Bābar did.

It is remarkable in him that, longing to return home as he did, he should have had endurance to remain and fight on in Hindūstān. His constitution was assuredly not suited to its climate. His men hated it; his closest friend had left it; Humāyūn and other intimates were soon to follow the khwāja on leave; but he resisted all influences, even when he had become so homesick that he wept at sight of fruit from Kābul. Only love of action, desire to be great, and capacity for greatness, could have held and upheld him at his self-chosen post. It cannot be called a small matter on which the history of hundreds of years turns, and yet it was but the innate quality of one man, and that man very human. Bābar stood fast, and India had Akbar and his splendid followers and all the galaxy of their creations in sandstone and marble.

When Gul-badan was about two years old, and therefore shortly before her father left Kābul, she was adopted by Māham Begam to rear and educate. Māham was the chief lady of the royal household and mother of Bābar's eldest son; she was supreme, and had well-defined rights over other inmates. Perhaps this position justified her in taking from Dil-dār two of her children, Hindāl and Gul-badan, as she did in 1519 and 1525. Before 1519 Māham had lost four children younger than Humāyūn; they were three girls and a boy, and all died in infancy. So it may have been heart-hunger that led to the adoptions she made, or they might be the outcome of affection for Bābar (it is said she was to him what 'Āyisha was to Muḥammad), which determined her, if she could not rear her children for him, at least to give him his children with the stamp of her love upon them. In some cases which are mentioned by Bābar, adoptions were made by a childless wife of high degree from a slave or servant, but no such reason seems behind those from Dil-dār. She is spoken of in terms which preclude the supposition that (as Ḥaidar puts it in another place,) she was outside the circle of distinction.

The story of Hindāl's adoption is briefly this: In 1519 Bābar was away from Kābul on the expedition which gave him Bajaur and Swat, and which brought into the royal household Bībī Mubārika Yusufzāi. On January 25th he received a letter from Māham, who was in Kābul, about a topic which had been discussed earlier between them— namely, the adoption by her of a child of which Dil-dār expected the birth. Now she repeated her wishes and, moreover, asked Bābar to take the fates and declare whether it would be a boy or girl. Whether he performed the divination rite himself, or had it done by some of the women who were in camp with the army, (he speaks of it as believed in by women,) it was done, and the result was announced to Māham as promising a boy. The rite is simple: Two pieces of paper are inscribed, one with a boy's name and one with a girl's, and are enwrapped in clay and set in water. The name first disclosed, as the clay opens out in the moisture, reveals the secret. On the 26th Bābar wrote, giving over the child to Māham and communicating the prophecy. On March 4th a boy was born, to whom was given the name of Abū'n-nāṣir with the sobriquet of Hindāl by which he is known in history and which is perhaps to be read as meaning ‘of the dynasty of Hind.’¹⁰ Three days after birth he was taken, whether she would or no, from Dil-dār to be made over to Māham.

It is clear that Dil-dār objected; and although the separation could not have been so complete where the real and adoptive mothers are part of one household as it is under monogamous custom, it was certainly hard to lose her firstborn son in this way. She had still her two elder girls. Gul-badan was born four years later and removed from her care at the age of two, by which date, it may be, she had her son Alwar. In after-years Dil-dār, as a widow, lived with Hindāl, and she had back Gul-badan while the latter was still a young and unmarried girl.

Bābar was separated from his family for over three years after he left Kābul in 1525. The tedium of waiting for news or for his return was broken for the ladies by several interesting home events, and by several items of Indian news which must have stirred the whole community in Kābul. On August 2nd, 1526, Māham gave birth to a son who was named Fārūq, but he too died in babyhood and his father never saw him. In December, 1526, there occurred to Bābar what must have roused anger and dread in all Kābul, for he was poisoned by the mother of Ibrāhīm Lodī Afghān. How Bābar conveyed the news of this to his people at home can be seen, because he has inserted the letter he wrote to allay anxiety, as soon as recovered strength permitted. Gul-badan has given the main points of the crime. She observes that Bābar had called the ‘ill-fated demon,’ mother, and had shown her kindness, a sectional view which leaves out the Afghān mourner, Buw'ā Begam, whose son had been defeated and killed, his dynasty overthrown, and herself pitied by the man on whom she tried to avenge herself. Her fate is worth commemorating. She was first put under contribution—i.e., made over for the exploitation of her fortune to two of Bābar's officers— and then placed in the custody of a trusty man for conveyance to Kābul. Perhaps she dreaded her reception there, for she contrived to elude her guards in crossing the Indus, threw herself into the water, and was drowned.

The letter above-mentioned is full of what one likes in Bābar. He quotes, ‘Whoever comes to the gates of death knows the value of life,’ and says, with thanks to Heaven, that he did not know before how sweet a thing life is. Here, too, he shows that he felt the tie which bound him to the Power in whose hands are the issues of life and death. He, his daughter, and his cousin and literary compeer, Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dughlāt, frequently express religious sentiment; and here Bābar exhibits the human graces of kind thought and solicitude to lessen the anxieties of his distant household and people. He forced himself to live again, in words, the horrible experiences of which he wrote while still in retirement, and four days¹¹ only after their occurrence.

Three months later Kābul had news of an uplifting victory, inasmuch as it had been won from men of alien faith, whose overthrow was a plenary religious duty to the Moslim. It was fought on March 13th, 1527, against Hindū Rājpūts under Rānā Sangā, and at Khānwa, on the skirts of the yet uncrowned hill of Sīkrī. It was preluded by dread amongst the Musalmāns, and by solemn acts which should make them more worthy to be the tools of Heaven and to enforce the stern belief that in battle with the pagan there was vengeance of the cause of God. Men declared repentance for sin and took oaths of abstinence; gold and silver drinking-vessels, probably of Persian handicraft and artistic beauty, were broken up and given to the poor; wine was poured out upon the ground, and some was salted into vinegar. Where the libation of penitence was offered, the earth was dedicated to the uses of an almshouse with chambered well. So strengthened, the Musalmāns went into the fight and made great slaughter of valiant foes.

The victory was followed by change in the personnel of Bābar's army, which had long been wearying for home and murmuring against Hindūstān. This was especially so amongst Humāyūn's Badakhshīs, who were accustomed to short service of one or two months, and it was now almost sixteen since they had left even Kābul. Only promise of immediate leave to follow had induced some men to stay for this one fight, and they had been told that when it was over, all who desired it should have freedom to go. Many amīrs had given ‘stupid and unformed opinions’ against remaining in Hindūstān at all, and down to the humblest followers these views had found acceptance. As has been said, nothing would persuade Bābar's closest friend to stay with him, although before his final decision was acted on, his master had called a council, and had expressed himself with directness and vigour.

‘I told them that empire and conquest could not exist without the material and means of war; that royalty and nobility could not exist without subjects and dependent provinces; that by the labour of many years, after undergoing great hardships, measuring many a toilsome journey, and raising various armies—after exposing myself and my troops to circumstances of great danger, to battle and bloodshed, by the Divine favour I had routed my formidable enemy (Ibrāhīm), and achieved the conquest of numerous provinces and kingdoms which we at present held. And now, what force compels, what hardship obliges us, without visible cause, after having worn out our life in accomplishing the desired achievement, to abandon and fly from our conquests, and to retreat to Kābul with every symptom of disappointment and discomfiture? Let anyone who calls himself my friend never henceforward make such a proposal; but if there is any among you who cannot bring himself to stay, or to give up his purpose of return, let him depart. Having made this fair and reasonable proposal, the discontented were of necessity compelled, however unwillingly, to renounce their seditious purpose.’

After the Rājpūt defeat the time came for the promised leave, but there is no mention in the Memoirs of a general exodus. Humāyūn went with his Badakhshīs, and also, as he seemed ‘uncomfortable,’ Mahdī¹³ Khwāja, Khānzāda's husband. He, but not only he, had been through one hot season in the plains and another was approaching,—a discomposing fact, and one to wing the fancy and the feet to Kābul. He, however, left his son Ja'far in his government of Etāwa, and returned to India himself in 1528.

Humāyūn said farewell on April 16th, 1527, and betook himself to Dihlī, where he broke open the treasury and stole its contents. If he had needed money to pay his men, his act might have taken different colour and have been leniently described; but he had had lavish gifts in money and kind from Bābar, and had been allowed to keep the great diamond which the Rānī of Guālīār had given him as the price of family honour and which, there is good ground to believe, is the Koh-i-nūr. Treated as he had been, his act was a crime, and base and mean. Perhaps it may be set to the credit of the older Humāyūn that the record of his theft has survived 1553-4 and his then perusal and annotation of his father's Memoirs. By that time he had suffered many painful consequences of his own acts, and may have concurred with his father's judgment on his younger self. Bābar was extremely hurt by his unexpected conduct and reproached him severely. There was enough now known of Humāyūn's character to awaken doubt of his fitness to rule, and to need all his father's great affection to veil and forgive. From Dihlī he returned to Badakshān, and is next heard of in the autumn of 1528, when he announced the birth of his first-born son, Al-amān. Al-amān was the child of that Bega (Ḥājī) Begam of whom the histories all speak, when in 1539 she is captured by Shīr Shāh at Chausa.

Together with the news of Al-amān's birth came that of a marriage of Kāmrān with a daughter of Sulṭān 'Alī Begchik. Bābar sent congratulatory gifts to both sons in response; and he has included his covering letter to Humāyūn in his text. It is frank, fault-finding, and affectionate. It objects to the name given to the child; it urges action: ‘The world is his who exerts himself’; it objects to Humāyūn's complaints of the remoteness of Badakhshān, and tells him that no bondage is like the bondage of kings, and that it ill becomes him to complain. It attacks Humāyūn's spelling and composition, and ends this topic with words good to quote: ‘You certainly do not excel in letter-writing; and you fail chiefly because you have too great a desire to show off your acquirements. For the future, write unaffectedly, clearly, and in plain words, which will give less trouble to writer and reader.’ Some remarks about Kāmrān have a coming interest; Bābar faintly praises him as a worthy and correct young man, and enjoins favour for him, without a hint of suspicion that it could ever be in Kāmrān's power to show favour to Humāyūn. Humāyūn is also desired to make friends with Khwāja Kilān and with Sulṭān Wais of Kūlāb. He failed with the khwāja, who on Bābar's death joined the worthy and correct Kāmrān. Humāyūn kept on better terms with Sulṭān Wais (Qibchāq Mughal), and at a later date owed much to his daughter, the inimitable Ḥaram (Khurram), who stands up in history bold, capable, haughty, and altogether strongly outlined.

Something must now be set down about Bābar's third adult son, who was a younger full-brother of Kāmrān and is known in history by his sobriquet of 'Askarī, which indicates a camp as his birthplace. Neither his birth nor Kāmrān's is mentioned in the Memoirs, as we now have them,—an omission which other sources allow to be explained by their falling in one of the gaps of the book. 'Askarī was born in 1516 (922H.), and during a period of storm and of camp life. His name first occurs in the Memoirs as having presents sent to him after the battle of Pānīpat, when he is classed with Hindāl, as suited their ages of nine and seven, and they received various gifts, and not, like their two seniors, sums of money. In 1528 he was in Multān, but there is no entry of an appointment, perhaps because it would fall in the gap which extends from April 2nd to September 18th. On the latter day he was received, in home fashion, by his father in his private apartments at Āgra, and then, having spent till December 2nd with him, he was furnished with munitions of' war for a campaign in the eastern districts. Special injunctions were given to the officers to consult with him as to the conduct of affairs. The interest of these details is their relation to the boy of twelve. Few years were needed in those days to support military command. Humāyūn had gone to Badakhshān at eleven; Bābar had been a fighting king at twelve. Boy chiefs were common when fathers were so apt to die by violent means; so were baby figure-heads of armies such as that few-monthed Persian baby who (like an angel's semblance on an ancient battleship) led his father's army for Humāyūn's help in 1544.

On December 12th other signs of dignity were bestowed on the boy 'Askarī: not only a jewelled dagger, a belt, and royal dress of honour, but the insignia of high command, the standard, horse-tail, and kettle-drums; excellent horses, ten elephants, mules and camels, the equipage of a royal camp, and leave to hold a princely court and sit at the head of a hall of state. The small boy's mind is clear to us about the horses, for where is the child of twelve whom they would not delight? But what was in it about the elephants? and how did he look when he inspected their bulky line?

He bade farewell to his father on the 21st,—the Emperor being in his bath, a statement which exhales the East,—and after this, though there are many details of his campaigning, nothing of living interest is set down in the Memoirs about him. In the future he was Kāmrān's shadow, and displayed a loyalty to mother-blood which was natural under the difficulty of being loyal to Humāyūn, but which made him a Tīmūrid foe to his house, who initiated nothing and walked always in the bad path marked out for him by the ‘worthy and correct’ Kāmrān.

Coming back from this excursion into the future, to the simple topic of Bābar's presents to his children, there can be mentioned a set which is quite delightful in its careful choice and appropriateness. It was sent to Kābul in 1528 for Hindāl, and consisted of a jewelled inkstand, a stool inlaid with mother-of-pearl, a short robe of Bābar's own, and an alphabet. What could be better for the royal schoolboy of ten?

In 1528 an order was issued which brought about an event of extreme importance to the ladies in Kābul,— namely, that they should migrate to Hindūstān. There was delay in the execution of the royal command; and having regard to the number of ladies, the difference of opinion as to the advisability of going at all, discussion as to the details of the journey, and also remembering that (as the facts about the migration come out in the Memoirs,) there would be many who thought their family interest might be better served by remaining in Kābul, it is not remarkable that there was delay in starting the cavalcade.

The migration was amply dictated to many of the party by Bābar's wish to see his own people again; but it is clear that the enforced levée en masse of the ladies was a result of considerations of policy and peace. The city was full of women who, by birth or marriage, were attached to various branches of the Tīmūrids, and there was conflict of aims and palpable friction. It may well be that Kāmrān's government provoked unrest, because he was the son of a mother of less birth than were very many of the resident begams of Kābul.

The Emperor was put in full possession of the state of affairs by a letter from Khwāja Kilān which reached him in camp on February 6th, 1528, and which was brought by a servant who, in addition to the written words, gave him all the news of Kābul by word of mouth. Bābar replied to the khwāja on February 11th by that letter which those who know the time and writer rank amongst the truly interesting epistles of the world. The tenor of the khwāja's own is clear from it, and in part reply the Emperor writes:

You take notice of the unsettled state of Kābul. I have considered the matter very attentively and with the best of my judgment, and have made up my mind that in a country where there are seven or eight chiefs, nothing regular or settled is to be looked for. I have therefore sent for my sisters and the ladies of my family into Hindūstān, and, having resolved on making Kābul and all the neighbouring countries and districts part of the imperial domain, I have written fully on the subject to Humāvun and Kāmrān… Immediately on receiving this letter you will, without loss of time, attend my sisters and the ladies of my family as far as the Nīl-āb (Indus); so that, whatever impediments there may be to their leaving Kābul, they must, at all events, start out within a week after this arrives; for as a detachment has left Hindūstān and is waiting for them, any delay will expose it to difficulty, and the country, too, will suffer.’

Who were these seven or eight chiefs in Kābul? Not men! The fighting chiefs were almost all in India; even Mahdī had rejoined the army before the date of this letter. Bābar's word ‘sisters’ is a guiding light, and it does not altogether exclude the influence of the men who, though in Hindūstān, were in touch with Kābul and its friction and intrigues. First of sisters was Khānzāda, who had certainly a holding for her support; and who had influence of birth and personal, as having sacrificed herself in her earlier marriage to secure Bābar's safety. She was now the wife of a man, Mahdī Khwāja, who, if the story told of him by the author of the Ṭabaqāt is true even in gist, was such as to suggest him as a possible successor of Bābar to the powerful and sensible Khalīfa. There was, since her husband was with Bābar and all great ladies had been left in Kābul, Shahr-bānū, Khānzāda's half-sister, wife of Khalīfa's brother, Junaid Barlās, and mother of a son. There was also, it is probable, another of 'Umar Shaikh's daughters, Yādgār.¹⁸

Besides Bābar's sisters de facto, there were others of courtesy. Such was Sulaimān's mother, whose anxieties for his future were, however, about to find happy end by his reinstatement in 1530 in his hereditary government of Badakhshān. There were the families of three men of Tīmūrid birth, grandsons of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā, all of whom were in India, and all of whom were men of high pretension. They were,—Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā, the arch-rebel of the future; Qāsim Ḥusain Sulṭān Mīrzā, son of an Uzbeg father; and Muḥammad-zāman Mīrzā, son of Ḥusain's son, Badī'u-z-zāman. There were in Kābul the people of Yādgār-nāṣir also, Bābar's half-nephew. These instances will suffice to show the reality of the elements of unrest which conflicting family interests and jealousies might and did foment in Kābul; they do not include the many others furnished by Bābar's personal circle, and by his numerous and influential aunts.

Two Tīmūrid ladies, Fakhr-jahān and Khadīja, both paternal aunts of the Emperor, had gone to Hindūstān so early as November, 1527. With whom they went or why they went is not recorded. The first was the wife of a Tīrmīzī sayyid, member of a religious family with which royal alliance was frequent, and she would find relations of her husband in the army. The second, Khadīja, has no man mentioned as her husband, an omission by Bābar and Gul-badan which surprises, and which the chance word of another writer may easily fill up. Perhaps these aunts joined their nephew in response to his invitation of April, 1526, that kinsfolk and friends would come and see prosperity with him. They brought their children, and were met outside the city by Bābar on November 23rd, and by him conducted in a lucky hour to their assigned palace¹⁹ in Āgra.

Fakhr-jahān and Khadīja stayed eleven months, and were bidden good-bye before their return journey to Kābul on September 20th, 1528. After all, Khadīja did not go, having affairs of her own to detain her, and this delay allowed the Emperor to pay her another of the Friday calls which he habitually made, during the time of his occupation of Hindūstān, on his elder kinswomen. On the 17th three sisters of Fakhr-jahān and Khadīja arrived in the suburbs and were welcomed. From all these Bābar could hear the news and gossip of Kābul, and thus add to the impressions which led to his order for the begams to join him in India.

Apropos of the aunts of frequent mention, it may be said that both Bābar and Ḥaidar convey the opinion that deference to elder women was a permanent trait of their age and set. Comings and goings of aunts are set down; houses and incomes provided; advice is sought; troubles are carried to them for sympathy; they are ambassadors of peace; their nephews vie with one another as to who shall entertain them; in short, both the Tūzūk and the Tārīkh indicate distinct deference to women of an elder generation.

A good deal about the exodus of the ladies can be gleaned from Bābar and from our princess, who now comes on the scene in her small person of five or six. The order for it was given at latest in 1528; this is clear from the royal letter to the khwāja and from the fact that Māham started in January, 1529. Bābar heard on March 22nd that all had really left Kābul, which news, taken with the arrival of the main cavalcade three months after her, suggests that Māham started first and travelled quickly, as being of a small company, and that the rest set off in detachments, as they and their transport were ready. The whole party would get off between January 21st and the end of February; this can be surmised, because the letter of March 22nd would be about a month in reaching Bābar. Most of the journey would be made by horse-litter, and some perhaps by palki with bearers. Men frequently dropped down the Kābul River on rafts, being thus able to do in twelve hours what ten marches covered; but one cannot suppose the ladies would make this adventurous journey, which was attended by risk even when people did not fall off the raft after potations, as some of Bābar's companions had done. Probably the road taken was that by But-khāk (Dust of Idols) and Jagdalik, and by Jalālābād and the Khaibar; but there is no certainty, because there is no information.

Gul-badan travelled with Māham in advance of her sisters, and thus had experiences all her own and a reception by her father unalloyed by numbers. Her liveliness would while away the tedium of the five months' travel, and help to distract Māham's sad thoughts from the loss of Fārūq, her youngest born. Unfortunately, she sets down nothing about the journey until near its end. Letters between the Emperor and the travellers were frequent. One of the couriers, named Shīrak (Little Lion), who was despatched by him on March 5th, carried not only letters to Māham, but was entrusted with a copy of the Memoirs which had been made to send to Samarqand.²¹

On April 1st, and at Ghāzīpūr, Bābar heard that the ladies had been met at the Indus on February 19th by their military escort under his master-of-horse, and by this amīr convoyed to the Chanāb. This might fitly be told of Māham's party, for there are other records of covering the distance to the Indus in about a month.

On the 22nd a servant of Māham brought letters to Arrah from her whom he had left at the Garden of Purity (Bāgh-i-ṣafā), near Pind-dādan Khān, and this is the last such entry. Māham reached Agra on June 27th, and Bābar met her outside the city at midnight.

Gul-badan gives amusing particulars of her own arrival, all of which she shall be left to tell. She followed Māham into Āgra on the 28th, not having been allowed to travel with her through the previous night. Then she saw her father. Of him she can have kept only a dim memory, and it is likely enough she would stand in some awe of him and his deeds, but no word he has written suggests that a child needed to fear him, and she soon experienced ‘happiness such that greater could not be imagined.’ Happy child! and happy father, too! who recovered such a clever and attractive little daughter. It is not only her book that lets us know she had a lively mind, but the fact of its composition at an age when wits are apt to be rusted by domestic peace. Only a light that was strong in childhood would have burned so long to guide her unaccustomed pen after half a century of life, and only a youth of happy thoughts and quick perceptions have buoyed her, still gay and vivacious, across the worries and troubles of Humāyūn's time.

There were pleasant days after the coming to Āgra, when Bābar took Māham, and the child also, to see his works at Dholpūr and Sīkrī. He had always been a builder and a lover of a view, a maker of gardens and planter of trees. Much of the scenery of his new location displeased him; he thought the neighbourhood of Āgra ‘ugly and detestable’ and ‘repulsive and disgusting,’ words which do not now link well with that Āgra which he and his line have made the goal of the pilgrim of beauty. It is difficult to go back in fancy to the city without a Tāj, with no Sikundra near and with Sīkrī uncrowned.

Dholpūr and Sīkrī had much to show of work done by the orders of the Emperor,—‘my royal father,’ as Gul-badan generally calls him, using the home word bābā invariably. At Sīkrī, amongst other buildings, was that in which she says he used to sit and write his book, i.e., the Tūzūk. There, too, the great battle which had been fought in 1527 will not have been ignored to ears so sympathetic as Māham's. Perhaps here the little girl first learnt dimly what it was to be a Ghāzī, and to fight on the side of Heaven. She says that when these excursions had been made, and three months after her own arrival had sped by, the begams, with Khānzāda as their chief, came within meeting distance of the capital, and that the Emperor went out to welcome them. There is nothing of this in the Memoirs, which are silent after the arrival of Māham as to the doings of the royal ladies. The reunion was soon to be clouded by anxieties and loss.

A brief return in the story of Humāyūn must be made here. In the summer of 1529 he heard in Badakhshān of his father's failing health, and, without asking leave, set off for India. He passed through Kābul, and there, to Kāmrān's surprise, met him, who had just come up from Ghaznī. The two conferred, and persuaded the ten-years-old Hindāl, who was under orders for Āgra, to take up the government of Badakhshān. Humāyūn then continued his march, and arrived in Āgra without announcement to his father.

He came to the presence just when, by a coincidence which Māham may have helped to bring about, his parents were talking of him. It would be natural for the mother, who cannot have been ignorant of her son's coming, to stir gentle thoughts of him and to warm his father's heart towards him before they met, and by this to break the shock of the unpermitted absence from duty.

Bābar was greatly angered by the desertion, which in truth placed Badakhshān in difficulty by withdrawing both troops and control. Its consequences were important, and caused him profound regret. To stand fast across the mountains and to push out the royal holdings beyond the Oxus from the vantage - ground of Badakhshān was a cherished dream, and one which he had taken steps through both Humāyūn and Kāmrān to realize. He wished Humā-yūn to return to his post, but the latter, while saying he must go if ordered, was not willing to leave his people again. Bābar then asked Khalīfa to go, but this request was evaded, and there is much to arouse surmise that Khalīfa saw in it the act of someone who wished him absent from the scene of crisis now foreseen as near. In his objection to leave Āgra, affection for his old master would be a natural factor; another was his own supreme influence, the sequel of his character and of Bābar's recent failure in health; and springing from his power was, perhaps the dominant factor of his objection to leave,—a disposition to supplant Humāyūn in the succession by a ruler of less doubtful character.

The fate of Badakhshān was decided by its bestowal on its hereditary chief, Sulaimān Mīrzā, Mīrān-shāhī, now a boy of sixteen, while Humāyūn's youthful locum tenens was ordered to come to India. Humāyūn betook himself to the idle enjoyments of his jāgīr of Sambhal, and was there, in a few months, attacked by illness which threatened life and which led to the remarkable episode of Bābar's self-sacrifice to save him. The narrative of this stands in all the histories and need not be repeated, but for the sake of making our princess' details clear, it is as well to state what was the rite performed by Bābar.

There was and is in the East belief that if offering be made of the thing most precious to the suppliant, and if the offering be accepted, Heaven will give the life of a sick man in exchange. The rite observed is simple: first prayer of intercession is made; then the suppliant walks three times round the sick man's bed. Of Bābar's sincerity there is no doubt; in mind and heart he gave himself; he felt conviction that, after the circuits, he had borne away the illness. Humāyūn was restored and Bābar died,—a return from the gate of death and an entry there which might have occurred without Bābar's rite, but none the less was the self-sacrifice complete because he believed in its efficacy and was willing to die.

His health worsened rapidly after this and he made ready to go. Marriages were arranged for Gul-rang and Gul-chihra; the amīrs were addressed; Humāyūn was counselled and named to the succession. Bābar died on December 26th, 1530. ‘Black fell the day,’ says his daughter; ‘we passed that ill-fated day each in a hidden corner.’

The question of Khalīfa's wish to supersede Humāyūn is of great interest. It is written of by Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad, in the Ṭabaqāt, who had the story he retails from his father, Muqīm, an old retainer of the Court. Abū'l-faẓl repeats the main statement, which is that Khalīfa had had thoughts of superseding Humāyūn by Muḥammad Mahdī Khwāja, the husband of Khānzāda Begam.²⁵

A few of the many points involved in Niẓāmu-d-dīn's story find fitting entry here. Bābar must have been long conscious of the fact that he was not so strong as before he faced the Indian climate; he did not send for Humāyūn; he wished him to leave when he came unasked; he had 'Askarī in the full dignity of a commander near him; as he lay dying, he was fretfully anxious for Hindāl's coming; he and Khalīfa were friends of many years' testing; both knew the faults of Humāyūn; if Khalīfa had planned to set the latter aside, it is likely that the thought was not altogether absent from the mind of Bābar; it is not credible that Khalīfa should have regarded a supersession as practicable, if he had no acquaintance with the Emperor's doubts as to Humāyūn, and without knowing that these were shared by others than his master and himself, for the nomination would be made by Bābar and to his chiefs.

Muḥammad Mahdī Khwāja is one of those men about whose birth and descent particulars are looked for with the sure hope of success in the search. Yet nothing is said on the topic by Bābar or by Gul-badan. When he first appears on the scene (in the Persian version, and presumably also in the Elphinstone text), he is not introduced, as it is customary for Bābar to introduce, with some few words indicating family. This omission may be a result of forgetfulness bred of familiarity, or it may be, and most probably is, that he himself first met Muḥammad Mahdī at a date which falls in one of the gaps of his book.^25a

Niẓāmu-d-dīn's statements must have some corn of truth, and they imply that by birth, as well as by marriage and military rank, Mahdī was a man who, without outrage, might be raised still higher. There are hints which make it seem probable that he was a Tīrmīzī sayyid and the son of a Tīmūrid mother. The suggestion of Tīrmīzī parentage is supported by the burial of Abū'l-ma'ālī Tīrmīzī in the place of interment of Mahdī and Khānzāda.²⁶

It has suggested itself to me as possible that Khalīfa's plan of superseding Humāyūn was meant to apply only to Hindūstān, or at least to a part of Bābar's dominions. Abū-sa'īd had partitioned his lands amongst his sons; provinces so varied as Bābar's seem to demand division even more than his grandfather's had done. We look back to Bābar across Akbar's Indian Empire, and may not give sufficient weight to the fact that Dihlī and Āgra were not the centre or the desired heart of Bābar's. He wanted Farghāna and Samarqand and much more beyond the Oxus, and he had taken decisive steps towards securing his object through both his elder sons, and had given them charge and work of extension in those countries. Kābul was the true centre of his desired empire, and to force the Uzbegs back in widening circle was his persistent wish.

If Mahdī or any other competent man had ruled in Dihlī, by whatever tenure, this would not necessarily have ruined Humāyūn, or have taken from him the lands most coveted by Bābar. All Bābar's plans and orders were such as to keep Humāyūn beyond the Hindū-kush, and to take him across the Oxus. The dislike of the royal army to Hindūstān was a large factor in the question of centralizing government there, and so too would be the temptations to indolence afforded by its climate and customs, to which it was easy to foresee from Humāyūn's life in Sambhal that he would readily succumb.

Kābul was made an imperial domain by Bābar's written command to both elder sons, and his own words leave one in doubt as to his further intentions about it. To whom Hindūstān would have been given if Humāyūn had obeyed orders and had held fast in Badakhshān, there is nothing to show, but weight is due to the gist of the story of the supersession. Kāmrān declared that Kābul was given to his mother Gul-rukh, and Humāyūn gave it in fief to Kāmrān at his accession. There is mist over the scene from which only the accomplished facts emerge. Humāyūn came to India; he was Māham's son; she was there; Khalīfa let Mahdī fall; Humāyūn's personal charm reasserted itself over Bābar's anger, and he became Emperor of Hindūstān and all the imperial domains.

Child though Gul-badan was at her father's death, she must have been impressed by the events that preceded it: Alwar's death; her own accident at Sīkrī; her father's premonitions and dervish-moods; Humāyūn's sudden arrival and the anger it caused; his illness and the dread for his life; her father's awe-inspiring rite and its bewildering success; her sisters' marriages, which could not be joyful; the haunting suspicion of poison; the end and the blank,—all too much for so short a time in strange scenes and in a disabling climate.

Following the death came the forty days of mourning, and of good works and gifts at the tomb in the Garden of Rest at Āgra. Sīkrī furnished a part of the endowment for its readers and reciters, and Māham sent them food twice daily from her own estate. The tomb was put under the guardianship of a man whom our begam calls Khwāja Muḥammad 'Alī 'asas (night-guard), and who may be he that ‘never killed a sparrow,’ and may be Māham's brother. If so, he will be heard of again under other and widely different circumstances in 1547. As is well known, Bābar's body was conveyed to Kābul, and there laid to rest in the spot chosen by himself.

In Bābar's history the man holds the interest and lifts the eyes over his shortcomings to his excellence. No character demanding admiration attracts interest to Humāyūn, but yet his story is one which it needs a master-hand to unfold. A Tolstoi could depict his faults and merits; his qualities and defects rolled a tide of retribution over him and those bound to him as surely and visibly as it does over Anna Karēnine and her associates. From the historic standpoint, Mr. Erskine has told the tale in a way to hold his readers, and it befits this humble introduction to build up only such framework as will support details, some of which concern the ladies of the time, and others of which may interest readers who are not Orientalists.

In order to realize how fully the fate of the ladies was involved in that of the Emperor, it must be remembered that his occupation of Hindūstān was unrooted, military and the sport of war. When we in Britain have to lament a reverse of arms, we do it in safe homes and we brace ourselves to what will come next, in the familiar surroundings of the daily tradesman, the usual postman, and the trivial comforts of the hearth. Even Colonials had a refuge under the flag at measurable distance from their outraged homes in 1899-1900. But when the Tīmūrids were defeated in 1539-40, and driven from Āgra and Dihlī and Lāhōr, there was no refuge open to all. Their head, Humāyūn, had none; a brother took his last. Like the Israelites, he and his followers then wandered in deserts and hungered and thirsted; dwelt in strange lands, pursued and attacked, exiled and humiliated. The course of events was less historic than biographical, was individual and not national. There were no nations behind Bābar and Humāyūn; there were only ruling families who came and went as they could or could not get the upper hand of other houses; and there was the dumb mass whom the earth nourished, and labour of whom fed, in luxury of life and strength of alien arms, whatever dynasty had just struck hardest.

An enumeration of the chief events of the downfall of Humāyūn and of his years of exile will give our required framework. He became Emperor in December, 1530. In the next year Kāmrān took possession of Lāhōr and the Panjāb, in addition to his grant of Kābul, and he was allowed to remain in possession of these wide and potential lands. In 1533 there were rebellions of the ‘mīrzās.’ By 1535 Gujrāt had been overrun, and in 1537 was lost. Years of indifference fostered the growth of Shīr Shāh Afghān's power, and there were campaigns against him in Bengal, which began well and ended ill. There was growing indignation against Humāyūn's character and private life, and this culminated in the attempt to set him aside for Hindāl in 1539. Through months of indolence and folly, he dropped oil on his own descending wheels, and practically abdicated the throne; finally, there were the crushing reverses of Chausa on June 27th, 1539, and of Kanauj on May 17th, 1540. Then came the flight of the Tīmūrids to Lāhōr, and their exodus from the lands that had been theirs east of the Indus.

Māham was spared the worst of these misfortunes; she died before Hindāl's marriage, which Jauhar places in 1537. Her son had certainly addicted himself to drugs before her death, but his worst lapses into sloth followed it, and it was after 1537 that the pace of his descent became rapid. Much can be learned from our princess of the reaction of outside events on the inner circle, and she gives details which could only be gathered in that circle. This is particularly so as to Hindāl's rebellion and the home conference about it, and about the murder in his name, but not by his act, of Humāyūn's favourite, Shaikh Bahlūl. Gul-badan, like the good sister she was, makes excuses for her brother, and those who have not her bias of affection, can add others and stronger. Hindāl was nineteen, a good and successful young general; he was supported by men of rank and age, some of whom had come from Gaur, and had seen Humāyūn's army perishing in that sink of fever and corruption, and Humāyūn buried within its walls. There was no ruler in Hindūstān; Shīr Shāh was between Humāyūn and the capital. The ‘mīrzās’ were lifting up their heads again, and a chief was needed. Hindāl was perhaps always the best of Bābar's sons in character, and certainly so when Humāyūn had become the changeling of opium. He had the Friday prayer (khuṭba) read in his own name; and on his behalf, Nūru-d-dīn Muḥammad, a son-in-law of Bābar and grandson of Sulṭān Ḥusain Bāyqrā, murdered Shaikh Bahlūl. The motive of the crime appears to have been desire to place the death as an impassable barrier between the royal brothers.

The news of Hindāl's rebellion stirred Humāyūn to move from Gaur. His march to Āgra was broken off tragically by the rout at Chausa, where he lost 8,000 of his best Tūrkī troops by sword or river. Here Ma'sūma was widowed, and here a terrible blank was made in the royal household by the loss of several women. Bega's (Ḥājī Begam) capture is known to all the histories, and so, too, is her return to Humāyūn. Shīr Shāh promised safety to all women found in the camp, and there is no reason to doubt that he did his best for them. But there had been fighting round their tents before his guards arrived, and some of Humāyūn's amīrs had perished in trying to defend them. It came about that there were losses of women and of children as to whose fate no word was ever heard again. Amongst them was 'Āyisha Bāyqrā, the wife of Qāsim Ḥusain Sulṭān Mīrzā. The next name in our begam's list takes us far back. It is that of Bachaka, a head-woman servant (khalīfa), and one such and so named had escaped from Samarqand with Bābar's mother in 1501. The one lost at Chausa had been a servant in Bābar's household, and may have been she of the memorable siege. Next are named two children, a foster-child and Bega's 'Aqīqa of six years old. Two of Humāyūn's wives of low degree also disappeared.

When Humāyūn had been rescued from the river by a lowly water-carrier, he made way to Āgra, and there had a conversation with Gul-badan about the loss of 'Aqīqa. The princess was then seventeen years old, and a comment of his, which she sets down, lets it be known that she is now a married woman. Humāyūn told her he did not recognise her at first, because when he went away with the army (1537) she wore the tāq, and now wears the lachak. The tāq is a cap, and the lachak,—a wife's coiffure—is a kerchief folded crossways, tied under the chin by two corners, and capable of much more elaboration and ornament than this simple description would lead one to suppose. This is Gul-badan's nearest approach to informing her readers of her marriage, and she never mentions her husband as such. He was her second cousin, Khiẓr Khwāja Khān, Chaghatāi Mughal, and of the line of the Great Khāns. His father was Aiman Khwāja, and his mother a cousin of Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dughlāt. One ancestor was that Yūnas whose fate as a chief of nomads was in such entertaining contrast to his taste as a lover of cities and books. Khiẓr had many other noteworthy kinsfolk, but to tell of them would lead too far afield. It is useful, however, to say that Gul-rang and Gul-chihra had married two of his uncles, and that his brother Yasīn (Ḥasan or Aīs)-daulat, the Fair Sulṭān, became the husband of Kāmrān's Ḥabība. He had two other brothers in India, namely, Mahdī and Mas'ūd. Their father and one at least of them came from Kāshghar to Āgra just after the death of Bābar.

Shortly after this interview Humāyūn took the field against Shīr Shāh, and Kāmrān, deserting his post, left Āgra and led off his 12,000 troopers towards Lāhōr. Under his escort went an immense convoy of women and helpless people, and he wished to take Gul-badan also. She was extremely unwilling to go and only partially resigned herself when she saw that it was Humāyūn's will. She bewailed herself as parting from those with whom she had grown up, and no uninitiated reader could guess that she was going with her father's son. She was a clever and attractive girl whose society was welcome to all her brothers, but in Kāmrān's wish to take her now there is something more. It is possible that he who liked her, thought of her safety; it is probable that, as he had attached two of her husband's brothers, Yasīn-daulat and Mahdī, and perhaps the third, Mas'ūd, he desired to have Khiẓr too. Gul-badan's departure from the home circle was perhaps her first adventure into the foreign world as a married woman. By going when she did and under the escort of Kāmrān's strong force, she was spared a terrible journey which her mother and the rest of the royal party made under care of Hindāl, with foes in front and behind, and at great peril.

There now followed that amazing battle at Kanauj, in which 40,000 men in armour fled, without a gun fired, before 10,000. Here again, as at Chausa, the deaths in the river were appalling, and here again the Emperor was saved by a lowly man. Again the remnant made its way to Āgra; but, says Ḥaidar, ‘we made no tarry; broken and dispirited, in a state heart-rending to tell, we went on to Lāhōr.’ Their road took them to Sīkrī, of which the memories and witness to Bābar's genius for living must have rubbed salt into the wounds of their spirit. Many ladies had remained in Āgra, and Humāyūn spoke to Hindāl of the difficulty of getting them safe to Lāhōr, and confessed that he had often regretted not killing 'Aqīqa with his own hand. Hindāl combated the suggestion, born of defeat, that a mother and sisters should be killed, and himself fought his way through country folk and Afghāns, and convoyed them safe to Lāhōr.

Here was a mighty gathering of Tīmūrids and their following, and five months slipped by in uncertain counsels and fruitless talk. The four brothers met often to discuss plans, and it seems that the emptiness of this in practical result lay in what was in the mind of Kāmrān and made him object to every course proposed. He wished to make terms for himself with the daily approaching victor, and to keep Lāhōr and the Panjāb; but if this could not be, he meant to hold fast to Kābul and keep Humāyūn out of it. The fief of Kābul had been granted to him by Humāyūn; Humāyūn therefore could resume it. That he would now do so was Kāmrān's expectation; so, when Humāyūn proposed to go to Badakhshān, Kāmrān would not hear of it, because the road thither lay through Käbul, and once in that beloved city, it was highly improbable that Humāyūn would move further.

On October 30th, 1540, something decisive had to be done, for Shīr Shāh had crossed the Biah and might appear at any hour. ‘It was like the Day of Resurrection,’ says our princess; the confusion was extreme, and, like the simile, impossible for us to realize. It has been said that 200,000 souls left Lāhōr in flight on that day; an overtax of all resources of transport.

Happily for the fugitives, the Rāvī was fordable, but the Chanāb required boats and the Jehlam was in flood. Many episodes unfolded themselves in the duāb of the Rāvī and Chanāb. Ḥaidar Mīrzā took his departure for Kashmīr, hoping to secure in it a royal retreat; Hindāl and Yādgārnāṣir deserted and went south for Multān; Humāyūn was urged to put further mischief out of Kāmrān's power by his death; he refused,—a refusal which would be upheld in the ḥaram, ever faithful to the injunctions of Bābar, and knowing these better than the real risks caused by Kāmrān's disloyalty. Penetrating everything was the irritation aroused by Kāmrān's opposition to the royal march for Kābul,—irritation which diffused itself and barely missed a sequel of bloodshed.

The depression and gloom of the men who were the responsible leaders of the fugitive mob must have been deep and painful; but what was in the minds of their dependents,—the ordinary troopers, the helpless women, the comfortless children, and the camp-followers?

There were many striking scenes in the lives of Bābar and Humāyūn, but none more dramatic than that in which the latter's flight through the Panjāb ended. A little west of the Jhelam, at Khushāb, the road runs through a ravine of an outlying spur of the Salt Range. Beyond this it forks, north-west for Kābul and south-west for Sind. Kāmrān asserted his intention to enter the defile first, perhaps with the object of closing the Kābul road. Humāyūn insisted on his right to take precedence, and blows threatened between their followers. Mediation was made by Abū'l-baqā, the man who had led Bābar to offer himself for his son in 1530. He directed Humāyūn's attention to the superior force of Kāmrān, and he told Kāmrān that it was the right of Humāyūn to take precedence. In the end Humāyūn marched first and took the southern road. At the fork of the ways each commander and many a man must have made or confirmed his choice between the brothers. And so the mighty caravan split itself, and followed Kāmrān and 'Askarī or Humāyūn.

With the Kābul section many women went to the safer asylum. They had no choice to make where the roads parted, but those of them who saw their litters turn southwards and themselves carried by a strange road, of which they knew that it took them from the old home in Kābul, must have had some bitter feelings about their destiny. I believe Gul-badan went with Kāmrān. She does not say so, but it comes out with tolerable clearness incidentally. Her mother, Dil-dār, had gone with Hindāl to Multān, and with her was Ḥamīda-bānū, Akbar's mother to be. Khān-zāda seems to have gone with Humāyūn, for her niece mentions her later as an ambassador from him in Sind to Qandahār. No other writer speaks of this embassy, I think; but most tell of her other, made later from Kābul to Qandahār in the service of peace between Kāmrān and Humāyūn, after the latter had returned from his Persian exile (1545).

Khiẓr is not mentioned as with Humāyūn in the desert wanderings, but he was in Qandahār with 'Askari in 1545. On the occasion of her reunion with Humāyūn in Kābul, in 1545, Gul-badan says that there had been a ‘toil and moil of separation’ lasting five years. The lustrum points to a farewell said at the Jhelam. One thing makes for her having gone with the royal party, and this is her lively account of what befell it; but she is equally lively about Persia; where she certainly did not go. She had excellent opportunity of hearing what went on in Sind because she met her mother again in 1543, after she had come to Kābul from Qandahār. She also met Ḥamida in 1545, and could hear from her not only about her wedding, concerning which she has such an excellent passage, but also about her visit to Persia. There was ample and easy opportunity for the two old companions to talk over the past and to refresh their memories when the book was being written in and after 1587 and when they were comfortably installed as the beloved and respected ‘Beneficent Ladies’ of Akbar. Moreover, Gul-badan has a note of acknowledgment to Khwāja Kīsīk for help derived from his writings, as to the early part of the royal wanderings. There is therefore nothing to contradict the probability that she continued under Kāmrān's protection from 1540, the date of her unwilling departure from Āgra, till 1545, when Humāyūn took Kābul.

During the lustrum in which she did not see Humāyūn, his adventures were too many and too remarkable for abbreviation in these pages. Mr. Erskine has told them with evident enjoyment, and Gul-badan supplements his narrative with some material he did not use; it may be interjected here that he had no knowledge of her book. For most of the period of the exile in Sind and Persia, Ḥamīda was a good authority, and more than once Gul-badan has prefaced a statement with ‘Ḥamīda-bānū Begam says.’ She was one in the cruel desert march to Umarkot; it will have been from her that the princess heard that Akbar's birthplace was a beautiful spot where food was very cheap; she was one of the little band which fled from Quetta; she shared the qualified hospitality of the Persian king, and, it should be said, reproduced only a sense of good treatment by him; and she came back to Qandahār with his auxiliary army.

In Kābul Gul-badan did not want for old friends and kinswomen. She had her own home occupations and her children to look after; of these, though she names one only, Sa'ādat-yār, she may have had several; but there is no definite statement as to which of Khiẓr's children were also hers. She was not unkindly treated by Kāmrān, as were the other royal ladies whom he turned out of their usual homes and exploited in purse. Indeed, he wished to regard her as one of his own family and to distinguish between her and her mother; but of this she would not hear.

In 1543 she had again the society of Hindāl who, after losing Qandahār to Kāmrān, came as a prisoner upon parole to Kābul and his mother's house. The movements of Humāyūn were made known from Sind to Kābul with speed and completeness, and the news was acted on to Humāyūn's great detriment. There were domestic reasons why Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn should not be well disposed to Humāyūn, besides the substantial one of the latter's entry and long occupation of his country. Of the more intimate causes of ill-will one was inherited; Bābar had dispossessed the Arghūns from both Kābul and Qandahār, and not only so, but had given in marriage to his foster-brother Qāsim an Arghūn girl, Māh-chūchak, daughter of Muqīm Mīrzā. This was a great offence, because it was a misalliance in Arghūn eyes and because it was enforced and the bride was spoil of battle. The story of her anger and of her rebellion at her fate is delightfully told by Mr. Erskine, and to his pages readers may be safely referred for the sequel of my brief allusion to it.

When Qāsim kūka died, Māh-chūchak married her cousin, Shāh Ḥusain, and she was with him during Humāyūn's miserable stay in Sind.

Another cause of friction lay in the presence of a former wife of Ḥusain with Humāyūn's household. In 1524 Ḥusain had allied himself with Khalīfa's family by marrying his daughter Gul-barg. As the fact adds to the domestic complication, it may be mentioned that at the same time Ḥusain's stepdaughter, Nāhīd, the child of Qāsim and Māh-chūchak, married Khalīfa's son, Muḥibb-'alī. Ḥusain and Gul-barg (Rose-leaf) did not get on well, and she left him after what Mīr Ma'sūm calls two years of wedded life. She then, says the same author, went to India with Jannat-āshyānī (Humāyūn) ‘previous to the fitrat.’ This last word is frequently used of the rout at Chausa in 1539, but the next nearest catastrophe to which it would apply after 1524 is the death of Bābar, because Gul-barg is named by Gul-badan in Humāyūn's household shortly after his accession. She was with him in Sind in 1541 onwards, and so, too, was Sulṭānam,³⁷ who was perhaps her mother, and both were unlikely to make the best of Shāh Ḥusain to Humāyūn.

In 1545 Kābul heard that Humāyūn was on his way back from Persia with the Shāh's army behind him. A first result of this was to bring the little Akbar within reach of Khānzāda and to her charge. All the histories tell of his wintry journey from Qandahār taken with Bakhshī-bānū, the one being under three and the other about four. Their coming adds a touch of tenderness to the historic Khānzāda, who paces through the histories sad and wise and trusted. She kissed the baby feet and hands of Akbar, and declared they were the very hands and feet of Bābar, and that he was like him altogether. Her first marriage with Shaibānī had been made to save Bābar from captivity or death. She was divorced because suspected of leaning to his side when his interests conflicted with her husband's, and she had been restored to him (1511) when she was about thirty-three years old.³⁸ To the reader's fancy she wears a mourning garb; she is mentioned with deference, and is a dignified figure in the turmoil of her day. Her third marriage,—she was doubly widowed at Merv,—takes an impersonal colour, as an alliance which her age, story and loss of her only son make seem rather one contracted to confer honour and afford her a safe home, than on any ground of personal affection. She bore Mahdī no child; she adopted his sister Sulṭānam at the age of two, and reared her to become the wife of Hindāl.

By March 21st Humāyūn was besieging Qandahār, and he then sent an envoy to Kābul, who would be a welcome guest as teller of the events since Humāyūn had left Quetta in 1543. This was Bairām Khān Bahārlū, and with him went Bāyazīd bīyāt. Bairām saw Akbar, and could take back to Ḥamīda news of his welfare; and also a number of princes who were kept in Kābul under Kāmrān's eye. These were Hindāl, Yādgār-nāṣir, some of the ‘mīrzās,’ Sulaimān, Ḥaram and Ibrāhīm.

Bairām spent six weeks waiting till Kāmrān should choose his course now that he knew his brother was the stronger; and when he left the city, he was accompanied by Khānzāda, charged to mollify Humāyūn and smooth the way for 'Askarī when the latter should submit. She went into Qandahār, but her presence did not bring about the immediate surrender, and the weary siege carried on its burden of suffering. Many of the amīrs of the defence began to slip away; the two Khiẓrs, Hazāra and Cha-ghatāi , dropped themselves over the wall. The first got away to the mountains with adventures which fit a Highland setting; the second sought Humāyūn and obtained forgiveness.

Qandahār was surrendered on September 3rd, and Askarī and his amīrs came out with swords hung round their necks, and some having winding-sheets in their hands. He was forgiven, and a feast with wine and talk and music sped the night away. While 'Askarī was gay with the rest, someone laid before him his own letters to the Biluchī chiefs of whom Gul-badan tells, urging them to capture Humāyūn when he was in flight from Quetta. This was Humāyūn's revenge.

Meantime Kāmrān was in singular isolation in Kābul. He heard of the fall of Qandahār, of the move of the royal army for Kābul, of the death of the travel-worn Khānzāda, and of the escape of some of his princely détenus. He was depressed and irritable. He sent troops out to meet Humāyūn, but there was no fighting, and he fled by way of Ghaznī to Sind. Then came the end of the ‘toil and moil’ of separation, and Gul-badan met her brother again after five years, on November 15th, 1545. For awhile there was peace and festivity in Kābul. Ḥamīda followed the army in the spring; she had now a second child, a girl, born in Persia, and she took possession once more of her first-born. Humāyūn wished to see if Akbar, whom his mother had had to desert at Quetta when he was fourteen months old, would remember her now. He had him taken into a room in which a number of ladies had assembled and seated him on the masnad. The child recognized Ḥamīda, and made his way to her arms. Abū'l-faẓl, who tells the story, gives all the credit of the recognition to the boy; but to those not dazzled by the light in which Akbar lived for his historian, it seems extremely probable that the child had some help from the smile which he had known as one of the first happy things of life.

In the spring, too, Humāyūn set out on a campaign in Badakhshān. He sent word back to the governor of Kābul, Uncle Muḥammad 'Ali, that he was to strangle Yādgārnāṣir, who had been tried and condemned to death for treachery. The khwāja declined the office. ‘How should I kill the mīrzā, I who have never killed a sparrow?’ This uncle (ṭaghāī) seems a mild man for his post. Another executioner was found, and the mīrzā ‘was relieved of the pains of existence.’

Humāyūn took 'Askarī with him as a precautionary measure. Of the ladies, Māh-chūchak went, and in attendance, Bībī Fāṭima, the chief armed woman of his ḥaram and mother of Zuhra, whom Ḥamīda's brother was to marry and murder. Near Khishm Humāyūn fell alarmingly ill and lay unconscious for four days. He had nurses at hand whose excellence is attested by the annals, and it adds life to the scene to know that the long watch over the unconscious man was broken by his opening his eyes just when Māh-chūchak was dropping pomegranate-juice into his mouth. He recovered, but it was a perilous time for him and his supremacy, and had a bad sequel.

News of the illness went to Sind, and Kāmrān, reinforced by his father-in-law, Ḥusain, hurried up and seized Kābul. Winter was at its depth on the passes, and the amīrs with the royal force were anxious to get back to protect their families. They had premonitions that he would take the city again, and many slipped away in small parties and went to Kābul, where they found all their anticipations and dread justified. It does not seem right to stigmatize their leaving Humāyūn as traitorous; they had their own people to save, and this might be done by slight show of submission to Kāmrān. No one can consider Humāyūn a man who had claim to fidelity when the lives and honour of wives and children were in the balance. Indeed, to have left Kābul under the charge of Muḥammad 'Alī was to court disaster, and to make reasonable a good deal of independence of action in those whose unarmed people he could not protect.

Every fear of the amīrs was justified. On his northward march Kāmrān passed through Ghaznī, where Zahīd Beg was governor. He it was who when offered a Bengal appointment in 1538, had asked Humāyūn if he could not find another place to kill him in. He had not waited for a reply, but had left Bengal, and helped Hindāl to rebel in Āgra. Kāmrān now answered his question in Ghaznī, and after this murder hurried off towards Kābul. ‘It was morning, and the Kābulīs were off their guard, and grass-cutters and water-carriers were going in and out as usual. Mīrzā Kāmrān went in with all these common people.’ So speaks the princess. The gentle-hearted governor was at the ḥamām, and was brought before Kāmrān, without time given to dress, and there and then sabred. The list of other cruelties and murders is too terrible reading for these pages, and the ensuing siege was full of barbarous acts. Humāyūn crossed the passes as soon as it was practicable, and sat down to take the city. When Kāmrān saw at length that he could not hold it, he escaped through a hole fashioned in the wall, got through the trenches and away to the mountains. Some say Hindāl let him pass the royal lines; others that Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān kūka overtook him later (so destitute that he was being carried by a man), and that Kāmrān appealed to their milk-brotherhood and was allowed to go free. He then joined his hereditary foes, the Uzbegs.

In 1548 Humāyūn entered upon a campaign in Badakh-shān which yielded interesting personal matters, such as this rivulet of the great stream of affairs can convey. He left Kābul on June 12th, and Ḥamīda bore him company with Akbar as far as Gul-bihār. As governor this time a soldier, and a man enraged against Kāmrān, was left in charge of Kābul. The campaign culminated in the capture of Tāliqān, which was made over on August 17th by Kāmrān, who was allowed to go to the refuge of all whose presence was undesired at home, Makka. Piety had no part in Kāmrān's intention to betake himself to the holy city, and when he had heard, with incredulous ears, that Humāyūn was meting out mercy without justice to the revolted amīrs he had captured, he took heart and himself asked forgiveness. It is almost incredible, and would be quite so if one did not know Humāyūn, that he was received with kettle-drums, trumpets, tears and pardon. Certainly Humāyūn never deprived himself of the luxury of tears and the loose rein on his feelings. So wonderful was the following scene that Mr. Erskine's words shall tell it: ‘When Kāmrān approached the Emperor, who was sitting in state in the pavilion of public audience, he took a whip from the girdle of Mu'nim Khān, who stood by, and passing it round his neck, presented himself as a criminal. “Alas, alas!” exclaimed the Emperor, “there is no need of this; throw it away.” The mīrzā made three obeisances, according to the usual etiquette of the Court, after which the Emperor gave him the formal embrace and commanded him to be seated. Kāmrān began to make excuses for his past conduct and to express his regret. “What is past is past,” said the Emperor. “Thus far we have conformed to ceremony; let us now meet as brothers.” They then rose and clasped each other to their breasts in the most affectionate manner, and both burst into tears, sobbing aloud, so as to affect all present. Humāyūn, on resuming his seat, desired his brother to sit next to him on the left, the place of honour, adding kindly in Tūrkī, the language of the family, “Sit close to me.” A cup of sherbet was brought, of which the Emperor, having drunk one half, handed it to his brother, who drank the other. A grand entertainment followed, at which the four brothers (also Sulaimān), who now met for the first time after a long separation, sat on the same carpet and dined, or, to use the words of the historian, ate salt together. The festival was prolonged for two days in the midst of universal rejoicing. As Kāmrān, from the rapidity and hurried nature of his return, had left his tents behind him on the road, the Emperor ordered a set to be pitched close to his own, and, at his desire, consented to 'Askarī's going to stay with him.’

For this historic feast Gul-badan has provided a hors d'œuvre in shape of a story of improper conduct in Sulaimān which, if it expressed derision, as her vague wording does not forbid to be read, was fully justified by both what had been and what was to come. It is a very funny little tale, and readers are commended to it.

To tears and professions were added lands and freedom. Kāmrān received Kūlāb, where Ḥaram Begam's father had once ruled for Bābar and Humāyūn. He was now dead, and his son, Chakr 'Alī, was left with Kāmrān there. The mīrza was not pleased with his fief. ‘What!’ he exclaimed to the bearer of the deed of grant, ‘have I not been king of Kābul and Badakhshān? Kūlāb is a mere district of Badakhshān. How can I serve in it?’ The bearer observed that he had heard Kāmrān was wise, and begged permission to remind him that the wonder was he had received anything at all. 'Askarī, too, was given a fief, and then, leaving them neighbours and at large, Humāyūn went back to Kābul in October, 1548.

A campaign was planned for 1549 against the Uzbegs and Balkh. This was done despite marked instability in the royal following. Instability or, in a plainer word, desertion, was an accident to which Humāyūn was peculiarly liable. One cause of it is more interesting than the common one of personal gain, because it is rooted in theological bias. Humāyūn's coquetry with Shiism in Persia is one of the most entertaining of the episodes of his sojourn there, and it had consequences in arousing distrust of him, which cropped up from time to time. Bābar himself had lost ground because of his tolerance to variety of faith. But to this, both in the father and still more in the son, were added, as causes of desertion, the flux and reflux of weak government which forbid men to know who will keep the upper hand and have power to oppress.

To return to the Balkh campaign: spring was waited for and there was delay for men. Spring came, and the minds of the ladies turned to thoughts of excursions out of town. They remarked more than once to Humāyūn that the riwāj would be coming up in the hills. This is a plant of subacid flavour which some say is like sorrel and some like rhubarb. It was, at least, a plant that people made excursions to eat, much as others go blackberrying. To these hints for change, the royal reply was that the army was going out; that it would pass by the Koh-idāman (which is renowned for its riwāj); and that the ladies should go too. Gul-badan must not be deprived of her story of the picnic, which illuminates the domestic ways of the court. The ladies went so far as to see the waterfall at Farza, and perhaps even to Istālif, twenty miles north of Kābul, and then returned.

There had been bad omens for the start and there followed plenty of bad news from the front to fix attention on them. Kāmrān broke his promise to come to Humāyūn's help. Gul-chihra's second husband, an Uzbeg prince, ran away when he came to know that the army was directed against his people. There was an extraordinary retreat without an enemy, and of which the cause seems to have been fear that, as Kāmrān was not there, he was oppressing Kābul. Humāyūn was left almost alone, and the Uzbegs attacked and killed many fugitives. His horse was wounded and the whole affair was a fiasco. After all, too, when Kābul was reached, there had been no sign of Kāmrān.

It was the expected that Kāmrān should not keep his word, but perhaps the unexpected was behind his conduct on the occasion of the Balkh campaign. Sulaimān and Ibrāhīm were with Humāyūn, and their presence might well have kept him away, for Gul-badan tells of an incident in which the three men had part and which did not make them good company for one another. It is a bit of scandal to which Ḥaram adds salt and vitality. It is repeated here because some little points do not quite stand clear in the begam's wording. While Kāmrān was in Kūlāb—i.e., his last holding,—someone, who from her name of Tarkhān Begam must have been a woman of good birth, advised him to make love to Ḥaram Begam. Good, she said, would come of it. So Kāmrān sent a go-between with a letter and a kerchief to Ḥaram, who, furiously angry, at once summoned husband and son from wherever they were away from home, and told them of the advances made to her. She railed at Sulaimān, saying that it was clear he was thought a coward, and further observed that Kāmrān feared neither her nor her son. Much was packed in the pronoun here; there was ground to fear the energetic and resolute woman who had the army of Badakhshān at her disposal. She was a forceful person and had the go-between torn to pieces. Kāmrān was audacious, and his advances look the more so that Ḥaram's sister was his wife; but they may have been made rather to the charms of her army than to those of its commandante.

The events of 1550 sum up in Jauhar's words: ‘Mīrzā Kāmrān wandered about the country with bad intentions.’ In his course he surprised Humāyūn in the Qibchāq defile, and an engagement took place which was attended by great loss of life. It was witnessed by Kāmrān's wives and daughters from a commanding height. Bāyazīd mentions that the ladies wore turbans (dastār-bastī), a detail which may have been suggested by the great heat of the weather. Why the women were on the scene is perhaps explained by a similar record in the Memoirs which concerns a wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Bāyqrā. Shahr-bānū, a daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā, was, with Ḥusain's other wives, present at a battle between her husband and her brother, Maḥmūd Mīrzā. She did not, as the other ladies did, leave her litter and mount a horse, so as to be ready for flight if necessary, but trusting to her brother, in the case of her husband's defeat, remained comfortably in her litter while the fight went on. This dispassionate composure so much offended Ḥusain that he divorced her. Perhaps Kāmrān's family, too, had prepared for whatever was to be their fate by protecting themselves against the sun and by being ready to mount.

In this encounter Humāyūn was badly wounded. Gul-badan was able to hear the details of the misadventure, because Khiẓr Khwāja was with her brother and, it may be said, fighting against his own, Yasīn-daulat. Khiẓr and Mīr Sayyid Bīrka Tīrmīzī helped to hold the wounded man up on an ambling pony when he could not sit his horse, and so they led him out of the fray, sustaining his courage as they went by tales of other princes who had come through plights as bad. The wound was on the head, and was like one of Bābar's in that it was given through a covering turban and this was uninjured. The pain was great and caused faintness. Humāyūn took off his quilted coat and gave it to a servant. The man finding its weight an encumbrance, left it lying; it was taken to Kāmrān, who posted off with it to Kābul, showed it as evidence of death, and once more took possession of the unfortunate city.

Jauhar has quaint stories of the destitution in which Humāyūn now was, with his camp equipage lost and deprived of all necessaries. He was helped along through the night, cold and weakened, and in the morning was placed in safety by the arrival of a body of reliable troopers under Ḥāji Muḥammad kūka. He warmed himself in the sun, washed his wound, said his prayer kneeling on a scarlet stool, and borrowed a coat from a servant to replace his own, which was blood-stained. Then came an old woman of the place and offered him a pair of silk trousers, that he might discard his blood-stained ones. He accepted, while saying they were not fit for a man's wear, and remitted her taxes for life. This was drawing well in anticipation of the time when his account in those regions would stand to his credit.

It is said that while he sat with his face still to the qibla one of his followers, Sultān Muḥammad qarāwāl, performed again for him the rite his father had observed, and expressed his willingness to die for him. Humāyūn spoke reassuring words and comforted his faithful sacrifice.

For nearly three months Kābul believed Humāyūn dead. These words cover much feeling, sad and joyful; but there is no one to tell the truth and say whether it was thought by some to offer better hope of peace that Humāyūn should be dead. There was always a large following of powerful officers ready to join Kāmrān, and one cannot suppose their changes in allegiance mere folly and fickleness. But no courtly author has told Kāmrān's side of the whole matter, nor his view of his own position.

With Kābul Akbar came again into his uncle's hands. He was kept safe through all the vicissitudes of his father's career, and was well cared for both by Kāmrān and by 'Askarī. It has been said that on one occasion Kāmrān exposed him on the battlements of Kābul to his father's guns, and this charge finds support from our princess. She however, it may be observed, makes no mention of the act attributed by some writers to Māham anaga, of interposing her own body to shield the child; indeed, she never once mentions this latterly influential woman. But this incident notwithstanding, it must be admitted that the boy was well treated. 'Askarī's wife, who took charge of him after his capture at Quetta, is said to have been most kind to him. He was entrusted by Kāmrān to Khānzāda, itself an act of surety and kindness. Again and again he fell into his uncle's hands when Kāmrān was exasperated by foiled attempts to keep Kābul, and yet he survived. Kāmrān had a son; it would have surprised no one to learn that, as complement to his effort to oust Humāyūn from his higher place, he had killed Akbar to give his own son more chance. In this there is what fixes attention in the same way that it is fixed by Gul-badan's record of Kāmrān's anxiety to obtain from the elder ladies of his house sanction to have the khuṭba read in his name. It was in his power to have himself proclaimed ruler in Kābul, but he discussed his wish to be so proclaimed with the other members of the royal family before he did it, and the discussion was prolonged, and referred from Dil-dār to the greatest of the ladies, Khānzāda. In both these points there is something which, if better known, might mitigate the sweeping judgment usually passed upon Kāmrān as altogether wrong in all his doings.

Humāyūn spent some time in Ander-āb while his wound was healing and his army gathering, and here Ḥaram comes again upon the scene. Where Sulaimān and Ibrāhīm were, is not quite clear, but it was to Ḥaram a message went asking her for the army of Badakhshān. It was to come as quickly as possible, and fully equipped. It took the energetic woman only a few days to put some thousands of men in the field. It was she, says our princess, who did it all, took thought, and overlooked everything. Then she led the men to ‘the pass,’—amongst so many possible, one cannot fix on which,—and having done her work, went home. It seems probable that Sulaimān and Ibrāhīm were already with Humāyūn, and that Ḥaram despatched a supplementary force. The battle in which it was to engage was that important fight at Ushtur-grām which Humāyūn tried hard to prevent by previous mediation, and which was forced on by Kāmrān's chief officer, Qarācha Khān.

There was much previous discussion as to terms of peace, but Kāmrān and Qarācha would have nothing less than Kābul. A second embassy offered alliance of the ‘unique pearl of the khilāfat,’ Akbar, with the mīrzā's ‘dear daughter’ (who may be 'Āyisha), and that Kābul should be theirs; and suggested that Humāyūn and Kāmrān should join forces and again attack Hindūstān. All came to nothing, because Qarācha cried, and enforced his cry, ‘Our heads or Kābul.’ The battle that followed was a complete success for the royal arms, and to add to its good results, Akbar, of whose safety there had been doubt, was brought to Humāyūn's camp. His father vowed charitable gifts for his restoration, and also that he would never part from him again.

A pleasant chance befell Humāyūn on the stricken field, for when he had claimed, as his share of booty, two driverless camels, he found in their loads his own books which he had lost at the Qibchāq defile. Many would be MSS. of the Persian poets; Bābar knew these well and often quotes the Gulistān; and Humāyūn was too much of a dilettante and verse-lover not to have made himself familiar with their round.

Happily the tale of the doings of Kāmrān is drawing to a close. He made a night attack, by which Hindāl lost his life, on the royal forces on November 20th, 1551; sued for help in vain from Sālim Shāh, the Emperor of Hindūstān; from Adam Ghakkar, and was surrendered by him to Humāyūn; was blinded by the insistence of the amīrs on August 17, 1553, and allowed to go to Makka. He was accompanied, as all the writers tell, by his Arghūn wife Māh-chūchak, and by her equal in compassion, a servant of Humāyūn, Chilma Beg. He made the ḥaj four times and he died on October 5th, 1557. Māh-chūchak survived him seven months. She only of his wives is commemorated as accompanying him to Makka, but I see no reason why others may not also be accepted as equally faithful. Her father opposed her going, and she roundly upheld her view of her duty and has been taken into the texture of history, but her co-wives may have gone unopposed and unpraised. How interesting Kāmrān might have made a book of Memoirs in which he set down his life from his own point of view, his motives, ambitions, opinions of right and wrong, and above all, if he had spoken his inner mind about the religious duties he was enabled to perform before death, through his defeat and mutilation! We do not know all the truth about him; certain crimes, of murder and of treachery after promise given, could never be palliated, but in the matter of possession of Kābul there may be much brought forward which would place him rather in the position of the defender of rights than their assailant. He had no courtly chronicler, and has borne the blame of much that could plausibly be traced back to Humāyūn's own defects and their outcome of opportunity.

To end the story of the faithful brothers;—'Askarī too received leave to go to Makka from Badakshān in 1551; he died between that city and Damascus in 1558. Both he and Kāmrān thus lived long enough to see their house triumph again in India and their weary thwartings of its elder branch set at naught by the firmer hands of Akbar's chiefs. Of 'Askarī one clear characteristic only comes out: he was true to the blood-tie with his mother's son and own senior, Kāmrān.

A little return must now be made, in order to bring up the tale of home events to the date of those military. In 1551 the first marriage of the younger generation was arranged by the betrothal of Bakhshi-bānū to Ibrāhīm, son of Ḥaram. The Badakhshī trio had certainly deserved well of Humāyūn and, while doing the best they could to strengthen their own position, had given him efficient help. It is good to tell all that is known of Ḥaram. She seems to have had several daughters who played a part in public events as seals of alliance. When Humāyūn had passed a short time of repose in Kābul after his victory of Ushtur-grām, he sent to Ḥaram to ask Shāhzāda Khānam, one of these girls, in marriage for himself. His envoys were two persons whom Ḥaram did not consider worthy of their office. They were members of the royal household, and trusted members too, for one was Khwāja Jalālu-d-dīn Maḥmūd, mīr sāmān,⁵⁰ who, on Akbar's accession, was made commander of 2,500; and the other was Bībī Fāṭima, whom we know as having helped to nurse Humāyūn in his illness of 1546.

Ḥaram, the dominant partner in the command of Badakhshān, mother of a girl in whose veins was reputed to flow the blood of Alexander and of Tīmūr, daughter of a tribal chief, and conscious of intrinsic claim to deference, inquired of the two lowly messengers why no begam or lady (āghācha) had come to prefer the royal request. She must have known that Humāyūn could not mean to affront her; he had just given his daughter to her son and had testified gratitude for help in substantial ways to Sulaimān at the same time. She allowed herself to be mollified on condition that he himself should come to fetch his bride. The wedding does not seem to have taken place and the alliance was handed on to the next generation, in which, besides Ibrāhīm's, there was a betrothal of Muḥammad Hakīm to a daughter of Ḥaram.

While speaking of Ḥaram and the alliances of her family with the royal house, there may be named a highhanded act about another quasi-royal marriage. One of Kāmrān's wives was Muhtarīma Khānam Chaghatāi, and on his death Sulaimān wished to marry her. Of her as co-wife, Ḥaram would not hear, and contrived to make her a daughter-in-law by marrying her to Ibrāhīm.

The death of Hindāl in the night attack of Kāmrān, on November 20th, 1551, was a heavy blow to Gul-badan. She writes of it with feeling, and casts light on the question of rank in the affections of a Musalmān wife. She asks why her son or her husband was not killed rather than her brother. Perhaps she spoke out of feeling born of the fact that no dead father's son can be replaced, and from the deeps of family affection. Dutiful and admirable as were many of the wives of this time, the tie between the husband and a wife can never be so close as it is where the husband's affection is never a divisible factor in the household. Gul-badan shows that Musalmānī affection centred on those of the same blood.

The royal ladies must have felt it hard when, after having mourned Humāyūn through Kāmrān for nearly three months, Hindāl was killed. This happened near Khiẓr Khwāja's fief of Jui-shāhī, which explains why the body was sent there for burial and entrusted to the khwāja. It was removed later to Kābul and laid at Bābar's feet. Hindāl was thirty-two years old, and left one daughter, Ruqaiya, who became the first wife of Akbar and survived him, a childless woman, to the age of eighty-four.

Unfortunately for her readers, our begam's book ends abruptly (just after she has mentioned the blinding of Kāmrān,) in the only MS. of which we have knowledge, i.e., that belonging to the British Museum. The missing pages are a real loss. The narrative breaks off some three years before Akbar's accession, and for the future the best authority on our topics is silent. There is no occurrence of her own name in the histories until she goes to India in the first year of Akbar. Much of supreme importance happened to the royal family in the interval, and this makes regret the keener for the defective MS.

Set free from the burden of his brothers, Humāyūn determined, in 1554, to try his fortune again in Hindūstān. He left Kābul on November 15th,—a date so near that of Bābar's start in 1525 that it looks as if both obeyed the same omen of the heavens,—and with Akbar dropped comfortably down the river from Jalālābād to Peshāwar. The course of his advance beyond the Indus can be followed in Mr. Erskine's pages, and need not be repeated here. He was proclaimed Emperor in Dihlī on July 23rd, 1555.

A little-known episode of the time is the visit to India and the court of Sīdī 'Alī Reis, a Turkish admiral of Sulaimān the Great, who by the exigencies of war and weather found himself obliged to travel with a few officers and fifty sailors from Sūrat to Lāhōr and thence across all the wide intervening lands to Turkey.⁵² He was welcomed by Musalmāns for his master's sake, and he was offered appointments in India, all of which he refused. He was received with great honour by Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn, of whom he says that he had then reigned forty years, and had become so invalided during the last five that he could not sit his horse and used only boats for travel. Elsewhere it is said of Shāh Ḥusain that he was subject to fever of such kind that he could live only on the river, and that he used to spend his time in going up and down from one extremity to the other of his territory in search of ease and health. Probably this is a detail of the admiral's remark. He heard of Māh-chūchak (wife of Ḥusain), whom he calls Ḥaji Begam, as prisoner of 'Īsā Tarkhān, and of her return to Ḥusain. He heard, too, something which is not supported by other writers, namely, that she poisoned Ḥusain, and that he died in consequence ten days after she rejoined him. The improbability of this story is shown by the fact that later on she conveyed Ḥusain's body to Makka for interment, an act which would be incredible if the accusation of murder were true. Much that is interesting is told of the journey to the first place where Sīdī 'Ali's route brought him into contact with Humāyūn's people, i.e., Lāhōr. He arrived early in August, shortly after the Restoration (July 23rd), and there awaited royal orders, because the governor would not let him go on until the Emperor had seen him. When one tries to picture one's self without telegrams or newspapers, one judges that a kindly-disposed amīr would endeavour to forward everyone who could tell a tale for the entertainment of the court. Humāyūn sent for the admiral, and had him received, in the first half of October,⁵³ outside Dihlī by Bairām Khān-i-khānān, other great amīrs, 1,000 men, and 400 elephants. He dined with the Khān-i-khānān, and was then introduced to the presence.

As was natural, the Emperor wished to keep his guest at court permanently, if possible, and if not this, then long enough to ‘calculate solar and lunar eclipses, their degree of latitude and exact date, and to help the court astrologers to study the sun's course and the points of the equator.’ What fastened interest on the Ottoman was that he learned to write verses in Chaghatāi Tūrkī so well that Humāyūn called him a second 'Alī Shīr Nawaī. He had a turn for chronograms, too, and at his first audience presented one of the taking of Dihlī, and made others subsequently which were admired. He was a clever man, and his literary aptitudes suited his royal host and the tone of the entourage. But he had other acquirements than those which ring well the change of words and obtained him his sobriquet of ‘book-man,’ and these others he used to bring about an agreement between the Emperor and his own former host, Sulṭān Maḥmūd Bhakkarī. An official paper was drawn up, to which Humāyūn, literally, set his fist, for he dipped his clenched hand in saffron and laid it on the deed. Maḥmud was much pleased, and both he and his vizier wrote their thanks to the mediator. This incident, and others too, gave occasion for other Tūrkī ghazels and higher praise. Sīdī 'Alī was constantly in the royal circle, and there were contests in verse-making and dilettante amusements which reveal the true and newly-risen Huma once more at ease in untranquillized India. The traveller had not much to coax court favour with in the way of gifts, and this plumed his poetic flights; when he was wearied by his detention, he carried two ghazels to the royal seal-bearer and let them plead for his departure. They were heard, and he got ‘leave to go,’ with gifts and passport.

His affairs were all in order for his start when there happened the fatal accident which ended Humāyūn's life. That Humāyūn should die violently was in keeping with the violent changes of his career; and that he met his death in a building of Shīr Shāh was a singular chance. His last hours of activity were filled by pleasant occupations; old friends had been seen who had just come back from Makka and would bring him news of both pilgrim brothers; letters had been read from home in Kābul; he had gone up to the roof of the Shīr Mandal, which he used as his library, and had shown himself to the crowd assembled below; then he had interested himself in the rising of Venus, with the object of fixing a propitious hour for a reception,—perhaps to include the farewell of the Turkish guest.

The Shīr Mandal is a two-storied building with flat roof in the middle of which rises a small cupola which looks like a shade from the sun. The roof is reached by two discontinuous, steep, and narrow flights of high and shallow granite steps, which are enclosed in walls and the upper one of which emerges through the roof. The Emperor on that Friday evening of January 24th, 1556, had started down the upper flight and was on its second step, when the mu'aẕẕin raised the cry for prayer from the neighbouring mosque. Sīdī 'Ali says, as though it were some individual habit of Humāyūn, that the latter had the custom of kneeling whenever he heard the cry; other writers say that he tried to seat himself. His foot became entangled, some say in his mantle (postīn), his staff slid along the smooth step, and he fell to the bottom of the flight with severe injuries to head and arm. It is professed that a letter went after the fall from him to Akbar, but this may be a part of the well-meaning deception in which the dangerous nature of the injuries was shrouded; it would seem more probable from the admiral's account of the episode, which is silent as to any recovery of consciousness, that the injuries to the head were too severe to allow of restoration to sense. Three days later Humāyūn died, on January 27th, and in the forty-eighth year of his age.

‘We come from God, and to Him we return,’ and ‘There is no guard against fate,’ are the quoted comments of the Turkish admiral. He counselled that the death should be concealed until Akbar's return to Dihlī, and brought forward experience drawn from his own country's similar circumstances. This was done and various fictions were composed. A man personated the dead Emperor in public audience, and there were rejoicings over his recovery from the fall. Sīdī 'Alī took leave of the grandees, and conveyed the false news of Humāyūn's restoration to health in a friendly way along his route. By the time he reached Lāhōr he found that Akbar had been proclaimed, and his name read in the Friday prayers. Here, as before, the traveller had to wait for royal orders, because the governor had, or invented, useful orders for the crisis, that no one should pass to Kābul. Then he was sent to the presence in Kilānūr, where Akbar honoured his father's passport and let the harassed and home - sick man continue his journey, with money for expenses and a strong escort to Kābul.

Before bidding him good-bye on his still lengthy journey, it may be said that he and his four escorting begs and his sailors marched to Peshāwar through the night to escape that Adam Ghakkar who had made over Kāmrān to Humāyūn; that they saw two rhinoceroses, an event which makes one wonder whether there still remained a part of the ancient lake of the plain of Peshāwar to serve as habitat for the huge and now vanished beasts; and that they crossed the many-memoried Khaibar.

In Kābul the admiral saw Humāyūn's two sons, Muḥammad Hakīm and Farrukh-fāl, who were born in the same month of 1553, one being the child of Māh-chūchak and the other of Khānish āghā Khwārizmī. This statement is a surprise, because Bāyazīd says that Farrukh died within a few days of birth. The admiral's information suggests an error in Bāyazīd's MS.

Sīdī 'Alī found Kābul beautiful and speaks of its snowy girdle, its gardens and its running water. He traced pleasure and merriment and feasting everywhere, and even instituted comparison between it and Paradise to the disadvantage of the latter. But he had no time for ‘frivolities,’ and thought only of hurrying home. He saw Mu'nim Khān in the city, and being told by him that he could not cross the passes, observed that men had overcome mountains, and under the care of a local guide whose home was on the road, accomplished the feat with labour and safely. He took the road to Tāliqān and there saw our well-known friends, Sulaimān and Ibrāhīm, but he is silent as to Ḥaram. Here, too, he wrote and offered his ghazel, and was both welcomed and speeded. In Tāliqān we must leave him who has been a welcome new figure amongst familiar actors.

Protected by the capable men who upheld Akbar, the royal ladies had not again to flee before foes or to suffer violent change of fortune. Humāyūn had planned their journey from Kābul to India. Akbar more than once in his first year of rule had to cancel the orders he had given to effect it. Three military affairs disturbed the plan,—the suppression of the revolt of Abū'l-ma'ālī, the operations against Sikandar Afghān, and the encounter with Hīmū at Pānīpat. At length amīrs were named to escort the ladies from Kābul. The officers set out, but on their march received orders to act first against Sulaimān Mīrzā, who, on hearing of Humāyūn's death, had come over from Badakhshān to besiege Kābul. This was the first of a series of his attempts on the city, to which he laid fanciful claim as head of the house of Tīmūr after Humāyūn. The approach of the imperial troops broke up his siege, and his claim having been accommodated by reading his name once in the khuṭba at Kābul, he went home and left the ladies free to start.

They made their journey in time to arrive during the first quarter of 1557 near where lay the royal camp, at Mānkot, in the western Sewāliks. The Emperor came a stage from it to meet them, and was ‘much comforted by the reunion.’ With Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, to whom, as Empress-mother, the chief place must be assigned, were Gul-badan, Gul-chihra, Ḥājī, and Salīma Begams. There was also a large company of officers' wives.

Perhaps the ladies remained near the camp until it broke up and went to Lāhōr. It left that city on its march for Dihlī on December 7th, 1557; at Jalindhar it halted, and here, with pomp and amidst general interest, Bairām Khān-i-khānān married Salīma Sulṭān Begam, a granddaughter of Bābar. She was a half-niece of Humāyūn, and she had with Akbar cousinship of the ‘four-anna’ degree. Bābar was their common ancestor, and their differing grandmothers diluted the cousinly relation.

This alliance had been arranged by Humāyūn, and the use of sipurdan by Abū'l-faẓl when writing of it, shows that what was now celebrated was a marriage, and not a betrothal. This point is mentioned here because some writers fix Salīma's age at this time as five, an estimate which is not supported by known facts of her life. The bride was probably a reward for the surpassing services done by Bairām for Humāyūn, the newest being those of the Restoration. Bairām was a man to whom seems due the largesse of the hand of a king's daughter; he out-topped his contemporaries by his full stature in capacity, culture, faithfulness, and character. Salīma,⁵⁸ though much his junior, was in other respects a fit wife for him. She was an educated woman; ranks amongst verse-makers so completely as to have a pen-name (takhallas), and stands out gently, by birth, character, and attainments.

Khiẓr Khwāja Khān had gone to Hindūstān with Humāyūn in 1554, and early in 1556 had been appointed by Akbar to the government of Lāhōr. He was left to carry on operations against Sikandar Afghān when Akbar was called away by Hīmū's movements, and he was defeated. The few words said about him give the impression that he was not a good soldier, and he is never again named in responsible command. The slight things recorded of him point to subsequent comfortable existence at court as the ‘husband of the Emperor's aunt, Gul-badan Begam.’ Once he made a gift of horses to Akbar; in 1563 he helped to nurse Akbar when the latter was wounded in Dihlī; and there is no record of his death. He was raised to high military rank, and at some time was amīru-l-umara', but the Āīn-i-akbarī does not place him in its list of manṣabdārs. He stands twelfth in the general list of the Ṭabaqāt, and amongst the chiefs of 5,000.

From her coming to India in 1557 to the time of her pilgrimage in 1574, our princess is not mentioned by the historians. The interval held much of deep interest to her and to others of her generation whose lives were slipping away under the safeguarding of Akbar. Some survivors of an older day, witnesses of Bairām's fidelity to Humāyūn, must have felt his downfall keenly. Ḥamīda can hardly have been ignorant of the intrigue which brought this about, because she was related to the chief actors in it,— Māham anaga, Adham Khān, and Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad Nishāpūrī. The last was governor of Dihlī, where she lived, and part of the scheme to separate Akbar from Bairām took him to Dihlī to see her, and thus under the eye of Shihāb. Ḥamīda must have had clear in memory the truly valid services done for her husband by Bairām during the Persian exile. The plot had its nucleus in a sayyid circle and in families religious by inheritance, and it was carried out at the point of the tongue. Muḥammad Bāqī Khān kūka, the anaga's elder son, does not appear as taking part in it. He served the Emperor till 1584, rose to be a chief of 3,000, and of his character nothing is known. His younger brother, Adham, although put to death in 1562, had become chief of 5,000. All that is said of him is bad, and he, like his mother, was fluent in detraction and did all in his power to poison the mind of Akbar against the worthiest of his amīrs.

Many comments have been made upon Māham anaga, both by the Persian writers and by their European commentators. Abū'l-faẓl calls her a cupola of chastity, and it is now possible to wipe from her reputation the stain suggested by Professor Blochmann when writing of the parentage of Adham. She was wife of Nadīm Khān kūka, a faithful servant of Humāyūn. This fragment of useful information was brought to light by Mr. Beveridge, who found it in a MS. of Colonel Hanna, which may yield other valuable matter on quasi-domestic points. Māham anaga may be granted the praise she deserves as a nurse who earned the affection of Akbar to the end of her life; she is entitled to such praise as belongs to a mother who screens a son's every fault and pushes his fortunes with all her influence. She must take the dispraise of not pushing her elder son's as she did Adham's. Bāyazīd bīyāt speaks of her as kind to him, and tells little stories which show her the centre of small affairs. I have not discerned in her any sign of talent. Whatever influence Akbar's affection gave her would be strengthened by her connection with his mother, and perhaps, too, with other women who were descended from Aḥmad Jāmī. Amongst these was Ḥājī Begam, Humāyūn's widow and a person much regarded by the Emperor.

In the year following Bairām's death, Adham Khān, who, says the Ṭabaqāt, held a place higher than the other courtiers because he was his mother's son, was on duty in Mālwa against Bāz Bahādur Sūr. Incidents resulted which emphasize regret that for such as the actors in them Bairām had had to make way. Māham anaga was de facto prime minister; Mu'nim Khān had been made Khān-i-khānān , and it was looked for by his friend the anaga that he should become prime minister de jure. Bāz Bahādur was defeated and fled from Sārangpūr. Aping the Hindūs, he had ordered his servants to kill the women of his household in the event of his defeat. Several had been so killed, many had been wounded, when the sacrifice was interrupted by the imperialists under Adham. Badāyunī says that there followed slaughter by Adham and his colleague, Pīr Muḥammad Khān, of terrible extent, and his own eyes saw that these two regarded God's creation in mankind as leeks, cucumbers, and radishes,—a quaint turn of words which covers awful butchery. When remonstrated with in the name of the law, the murderers asked what was to be done with so many prisoners.

If the order for the death of the women of Bāz Bahādur's household had issued from a Rājpūt heart, there would have been no need for executioners while he was in flight. The victims were, however, not Rājpūtnīs, and they suffered only to gratify the vanity of a Moslim. Amongst those wounded was Rūp-matī, a dancing-girl renowned throughout Hindūstān for beauty, singing, and poetic gifts. Her name seems that of a Hindū. Her wounds, inflicted by Bāz Bahādur's order, were severe and she wished to die. Adham let her know that, if she would care for herself, he would send her to her master when she could travel. She took his promise as true, had her wounds dressed and recovered. When she claimed fulfilment of Adham's word, she was told to consider herself as his slave. He entered her room, raised her veil, and saw her dead by her own act.

Perhaps the point of deepest social degradation in this story is that Rūp-matī was, by men's decree, born to sin without blame, and yet she died because she loved one man. Her heart was single, and yet she was only the most charming, clever and beautiful of a crowd of dancing-girls, purchased slaves, to whom no man's loyalty and no mercy were thought due.

Adham Khān took much booty from Bāz Bahādur, and he disregarded the rule which required the choicest part to be sent to the Emperor; he also comported himself more like an independent ruler than a king's lieutenant. This angered Akbar, and he hurried off to Sārangpūr, outdistanced a messenger of Māham anaga whom she had sent with warnings, and took Adham by surprise. She herself came in next day and counselled surrender of the spoil. This and other matters having been adjusted, the Emperor started for his capital. No sooner was he gone than Adham, with his mother's connivance, regained possession of two of the most coveted of the captive women. News of this went after Akbar, who ordered them to be returned to the royal camp. When they came again within her power, the anaga had them murdered, so that they might not tell the tale of their abduction.

Having spent so many years under the influence of Māham anaga, it is to the credit of Akbar's humanity and mental force that there are not more than the recorded blots on his scutcheon; at nineteen he rebelled against his nurse, when she had set his feet on the primrose path to ruin of person and empire. He did not punish the murder of the captive girls, but he soon manifested his intention to depose his nurse and her son from power. Instead of appointing their friend Mu'nim prime minister, he summoned his foster-father, Shamsu-d-dīn Aḥmad Ghaznavī and gave him the post. Shamsu-d-dīn was an unlettered man, but he was staunch and had sons who were true to Jī-Jī anaga's nursling.

The next episode in which Māham anaga and her son appear, was one to shake the home fabric to its foundations, for Adham murdered Shamsu-d-dīn, bursting in upon him as he sat in business audience and unsuspicious. It was done on the night of May 16th, 1562. The incident is well known, how the murderer rushed to the ḥaram door and on the appearance of Akbar began to palliate his crime, but was struck down by a blow of the royal fist and then killed by royal order.⁶²

It was the Emperor who told Māham anaga of her son's death: ‘Māmā! we have killed Adham,’ are the words put into his mouth by Bāyazīd. She fell ill from anger and grief; this blow shattered her heart's idol and her ambition for him and herself. Badāyunī says that she died after having presented the food of the fortieth day of mourning, and this points to her belief that the souls of the dead take final departure from earth on that day and after partaking of the food of their choice which the care of relations sets for them. Mother and son were buried in one spot, and Akbar placed his shoulder under his nurse's bier in sign of his sentiment to her.

Quite stirring news for discussion through some years, amongst the elder ladies of the royal family, would be the conduct of Māh-chūchak Begam in Kābul. She was the last recorded wife of Humāyūn, and was married in 1546, after the coming of Ḥamīda from Qandahār to Kābul. She was not a woman of birth,—one gathers a general impression that few royal wives married late in life were so,—and her title of begam was probably owed to her having borne a son, Muḥammad Hakīm. In 1554 Humāyūn had left her three-years-old boy as nominal governor of Kābul under charge of Mu'nim Khān, and in 1556 Akbar had confirmed the appointment. When Mu'nim went to court in 1561, his son Ghanī became his locum tenens, but Ghanī had neither ‘suavity nor sense,’ and the begam shut him out of Kābul, one morning when he had gone to walk in the melon gardens. He went to India, and she took up the guidance of her boy's affairs. She chose three men to help her; two soon came by their deaths at her dictation, and the third became supreme. Akbar, and no doubt the ladies also, heard of these doings, and despatched Mu'nim Khān with men to put things straight. Māh-chūchak met Mu'nim at Jalālābād, utterly defeated him, and he fled to court. She then killed the last adviser of her trio and took another, whom she may have married, named Ḥaidar Qāsim Kohbur. These proceedings surprise one in Māh-chūchak, and bring her story down to the first half of 1564, when Abū'l-ma'ālī appears upon her stage.

We cannot enter here into the previous history of Abū'l-ma'ālī,—his rebellions, murders, imprisonment, pilgrimage, and reinvigorated return to wickedness. He now came to Kābul fresh from two assassinations in Hindūstān, a fugitive, and indited a letter to the ruling begam, with profession of affection and devotion to the memory of Humāyūn. She welcomed him, gave him her little daughter Fakhru-n-nisā' in marriage, and let him take the lead. Before long he stabbed Māh-chūchak with his own hand, murdered Ḥaidar Qāsim, and stirred revolt against himself which led to woeful slaughter within the walls of Kābul. Word of all this went from Muḥammad Hakīm to Sulaimān and Ḥaram, with a prayer for help. Ḥaram approving and accompanying, the army of Badakh-shān marched over the passes, met Abū'l-ma'ālī in the Ghurband valley, captured him, and sent him bound to the prince, who had him strangled. Both he and Adham Khān had justified Bairām's distrust, which had prompted him to wish their death early in Akbar's reign.

A little story of Ḥaram may be inserted here, somewhat after date. She had not been always on perfect terms with Sulaimān. Not only, a little earlier, had there been the discussion between them of his wish to take Muhtarīma to wife, which Ḥaram had frustrated by marrying the khanām to Sulaimān's son instead of to himself, but she had been angered extremely by the murder of one of her brothers by her husband and her son. She took the resolution of deserting Sulaimān and went over to Kābul, where then Mu'nim Khān was governor, and she had meant to carry on her complaints to Akbar. Mu'nim, however, who had been begged to mediate by Sulaimān, gave her good advice and pacified her, so that at last she consented to return to Badakhshān. He rode out to bid her farewell; she bade her camel kneel and dismounted; he got off his horse, and there was exchange of friendly greeting. She told him she regarded him as a brother and that for his sake she would never bring the army of Badakhshān against Kābul. It came several times later and with her approval, but Ḥaram could swear and break even ‘awful oaths.’ Bāyazīd bīyāt accompanied her to the Ghurband and was charmed by her suavity and agreeableness.

On the death of Abū'l-ma'ālī, Sulaimān sent home for a daughter and married her to Muḥammad Hakīm, partitioned out some of the lands of Kābul to his own people, and went home to Qila'-i-ẓafar. Irritation against the interlopers led to their expulsion by the Kābulīs, and this brought the Badakhshī forces again to Kābul, in 1564. Muḥammad Hakīm hurried to the Indus and complained to his big brother and Sulaimān was made to retreat.

In 1566 he and Ḥaram and their girls were again before the coveted Kābul, and on this occasion Ḥaram tried to supplement their failing military action by treachery. She got Sulaimān to lay an ambush for Mu-ḥammad Hakīm, whom, with ‘awful oaths’ of amity, she had persuaded to have a meeting with her under profession of desire to adopt him now that her son Ibrāhīm was dead. The end of this affair was, in net result to the Badakh-shīs, nothing; Ḥaram went home and Sulaimān followed. With them went the unfailing daughters, of whom Ḥaram seems to have had many, or who were betrothed and not ‘entrusted,’ so many recorded times. They had been near capture by the Kābulīs in the Four-walled Garden, but the commandant of the city recalled his men and let the girls go free, because he did not think it seemly to capture women.

This is not the place to follow Sulaimān's interesting fortunes to their close, under Akbar's protection, by death in Lāhōr in 1589. For our purpose, it is enough to say that he held Badakhshān so long as Ḥaram's watchful eye was on him, and lost it at her death. It was Muhtarīma's son, Shāh-rukh, his own grandson, who turned him out of his beloved Badakhshān, and in this, too, there may be Ḥaram's hand. Muhtarīma would not be likely to teach her boy dutiful conduct to Ḥaram or to Ḥaram's husband, for the two women were foes, and Ḥaram had tried to separate Muhtarīma from her son, and to expel her from Badakhshān to her parental home in Kāshghar. If Ḥaram had lived, her pride would have found content in two alliances of her grandson with daughters of the royal blood, —one a child of Muḥammad Hakīm, and the other of Akbar himself.

The ill-behaviour of Ḥamīda-bānū's brother, Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam, must have been a frequent annoyance to the inner circle of the elder ladies at court. From boyhood he had been fantastic and mischievous, and perhaps carried always the germ of the madness which overtook his last years. Bairām, the sensible, had exiled him, then had given him some countenance; on Bairām's fall he had received a fief, and, so far, had been favoured. But Akbar did not like him, and the murders he had committed were sufficient to warrant dislike. He was a true parvenu, assertive and relying on his sister to excuse his faults. Ḥamīda had been conscious before her marriage that her lowly birth was a point against her wedding with Humāyūn. The disparity in her case, as in other misalliances of the time, had raised unworthy people to power. Now, in 1564, Bībī Fāṭima lamented to Akbar that Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam had threatened to kill his wife Zuhra, who was her daughter. The Emperor consequently sent the khwāja word that he was coming to his house, and followed the message closely. As he entered, the khwāja stabbed Zuhra and then flung his knife, like a challenge, amongst the royal followers. Abū'l-faẓl says that for punishment the murderer was flung into the river, but ‘would not drown.’ The more sensible Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad says he was beaten and then soused in the river. He died insane, in prison, at Guālīār. All the shortcomings and crimes of the man notwithstanding, Ḥamīda must have cherished some warmth of feeling for the tricksy boy who had lifted suspicion from her in the matter of the stolen rubies of the Persian episode.

In 1571 another old acquaintance comes to the front in the person of Nāhīd Begam, in whom our princess must have maintained interest for the sake of her father Qāsim, Bābar's foster-brother. Nāhīd, as has been said earlier, was the daughter of Qāsim and of Māh-chūchak Arghūn, who must not be confounded with Kāmrān's wife of the same name, one common amongst the Arghūn women of the time. She had married Muḥibb-'alī, son of Niẓāmu-d-dīn 'Alī Khalīfa Barlās, and who had risen to high military rank but now lived remote from soldiering and in reposeful retirement. Nāhīd's mother was now in her (third) widowhood for 'Īsā Tarkhān Arghūn, and she was not well regarded by her last husband's son, Muḥammad Bāqī Tarkhān Arghūn, the ruler of Tatta. Nāhīd, in 1571, went to see her mother, and perhaps conveyed to Bāqī the impression that her visit was something more than filial. He put Māh-chūchak in prison, and so behaved to Nāhīd that she hurried off to court and made bitter complaint of her own wrongs and of the rudeness shown to the royal attendants who had been with her in Sind. She told Akbar, too, that she had talked with Sulṭan Maḥmud Bhakkarī, that old retainer of Shāh Ḥusain who had kept the island-fort against Humāyūn in the forties, and for whom Sīdī 'Alī Reis had negotiated terms in 1555. Maḥmūd had suggested an attack on Tatta, and, supported by him, Nāhīd pleaded for help from Akbar to act against Bāqī. She was very keen about her plan and persuaded the Emperor to give men and money.

Muḥibb-'alī was disturbed from his repose, and put at the head of the force. With him went Nāhīd and also a wife named Sāmīa and her son, Mujāhīd. For Nāhīd's ends the long war that followed was infructuous. An amusing episode of it was that Sāmīa, when things did not go as she wished, went into rebellion against Akbar, and actually held an entrenchment against the royal amīrs a day and a night. In the end, Muḥibb-'alī obtained a comfortable town appointment and nothing more is heard of the ladies. Probably they too accommodated themselves to the tolerant and forgiving atmosphere of Akbar's court.

Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad is somewhat more sober of diction than his fellow-penmen and so, when he says that the Gujrāt campaign of 1572 caused the royal ladies joy enough to last their lives, whole-hearted delight is pictured. This was the campaign which made beautiful Sīkrī the City of Victory (Fatḥ-pūr). Round one incident of the war womanly interest,—and surely compassion also,—will have centred. The veil of historic silence lifts for a brief moment, and shows Gul-rukh, Kāmrān's daughter, in flight with her son.

Gul-badan's long span of unchronicled life was probably spent in the peaceful occupation of a wife and mother, with variety from books, verse-making, festivities, and outside news. She must have found much to exercise her lively mind in Hindūstān. That she went about with the royal camp is shown by the record of the place assigned to her tent in the encampments. It was pitched next to Ḥamīda's, well within the great enclosure, and not far from the Emperor's own. Since she was a woman, she must have found food for observation in the doings and position of her sex under the conditions of their life in Hindūstān. How did satī look to her? What did she think of the jūhar? Both these Hindū customs were far different from those of her traditions in similar crises. She came of a tribe which boasts of the fidelity of its wives to the marriage tie. All the women of her house must have heard of the defiant act of Aīs-daulat, Bābar's grandmother, who had ordered her maids to stab a man to whom her captor had given her, and who then, for sole excuse, had observed that she was the wife of Yūnas Khān. Gul-badan had also in her own family history plenty of examples of the fate of captured girls, for many of her kinswomen had married foes of their tribe; and many too had become contented wives, well treated, and remaining in their foreign homes apparently without constraint.⁶⁸

What Tīmūrid women saw amongst the Hindūs reveals another type of virtue and another standard of wedded life. Our princess must have heard something on the topic through her father's experience when she was a child. Wifehood and motherhood now gave her better insight into the problems which underlie social relations. She would hear that Rājpūtnīs died joyfully rather than be captured; that outmatched Rājpūts killed wives and children and went to certain death themselves,—a holocaust to honour. The early years of Akbar furnished plenty of such records.

How, one would like to know, did the Musalmānī regard the willing death by fire of the Hindū widow, in that exaltation which lifts thought above pain and terror and is admirable, whether in the martyr for faith or for wifely duty? Unfortunately, the barriers of language and habit must have kept Akbar's Rājpūt wives from charming the Musalmānī ladies by recital of the legends of their race. These Hindūs can never have been welcome inmates of the palace to any of the Moslims; but, pagan as they were thought, their conduct as wives must have insinuated the thin edge of conviction that to no one form of faith is committed the nurture of the sense of duty.

One common thought Gul-badan and the rest could have shared with the Hindū ladies,—that of the duty of pilgrimage and of respect for holy places. When next history concerns itself with our begam, it is to tell of her setting out, in 1575, for Makka. The Emperor had been unwilling to part with her, and it may be, even, had delayed with the thought of accompanying her. His heart was now much set upon making the ḥaj, but he did no more than walk a short distance with a caravan from Āgra, dressed in the seamless wrapper of the Arabian ceremonies. Though debarred from leaving Hindūstān himself, he helped many others to fulfil this primary duty of their faith, and opened wide his purse for their expenses. Each year he named a leader of the caravan, and provided him with gifts and ample funds. Sulṭān Khwāja, Gul-badan's cicerone, took, amongst other presents, 12,000 dresses of honour. He did not bring her home again; this duty fell to Khwāja Yaḥyā (John). What circumstance extorted royal consent to Gul-badan's absence is not recorded; her advancing age,—she was past fifty,—and her dislike of the laxity in opinion and practice in matters of the Faith would add warmth to her request for leave to go.

Abū'l-faẓl has preserved the names of the chief ladies of the pilgrim party, but many others went with Gul-badan Begam, and for all the royal purse bore the cost. She was the lady of highest birth, and was probably a widow; next came Salīma Sulṭān Begam, widow of Bairām and wife of Akbar. It was not usual for a wife to make the pilgrimage, but Muḥammadan law stipulates that permission shall be granted to such wives as strongly desire to do so, and Salīma's seems a case in point. Next comes a woman whose presence reveals pleasant things. She was Sulṭānam, widow of Akbar's uncle, 'Askarī, and of her it is recorded in Akbar's babyhood that she cared for him when captured, with tender affection. It is probable that she had spent many years under the care and at the cost of the Emperor. Then come two step-nieces of Gul-badan, daughters of Kāmrān,—Ḥājī and Gul-'iẕār Begams. I do not know which child of his is veiled under the title of Ḥājī. She seems to be making her second ḥaj, and may well have gone on her first when her father was in Arabia. To these two the pilgrimage would have humanly pious significance, as a visitation to their father's tomb and to that of Māh-chūchak Arghūn, whom all his children must have held in reverence. Next comes a grand-daughter of Gul-badan herself, named Um-kūlṯum (Mother of Plumpness), presumably after the daughter of her Prophet. Whether she was the child of Sa'ādat-yār is not said, nor whether the last name on the list, Salīma Khānam, is that of a child of Gul-badan, as well as of Khiẓr Khwāja Khān. Here some of the inconveniences of polygamy show themselves to the seeker after family facts.

An old associate of our princess accompanied her in the person of Gul-nār āghācha, who had been of Bābar's household and was, I think, one of the two Circassians sent as a present to him by Shāh Ṭaḥmāsp in 1526. She was now well on her way through life and considerably older than Gul-badan Begam. Another of the party had also been of Bābar's household, Bībī Sarū-qad, or Sarū-i-sahī (Straight Cypress). She had been, too, in Humāyūn's service and later had married, with full nisbat, Mu'nim Khān-i-khānān. She was a widow, had been a singer and reciter, and was a ‘reliable woman.’ Like her in accomplishments were Bībī Safīya and Shāham āghā, both formerly of Humāyūn's household. Of the first and of Bībī Sarū-qad we have the happy little record that they sang in the moonlight on the road to Laghmān in 1549.

Fatḥpūr-sīkrī seems to have been the rallying-point of the caravan and October 15th, 1575, the day of departure from it. It started earlier than was usual, perhaps because the ladies could not travel fast. Caravans generally left Āgra in the tenth month—this left in the seventh—of the Muḥammadan year. Akbar's second boy, Murād, was told off to escort the ladies to the coast. Sālim met them one stage out to give last greetings. At Gul-badan's request, Murād was excused from his long task of escort to Sūrat, and he went back to Āgra. One smiles to find that the princes were five and four years old. The real charge of the caravan was with several amīrs, one being Muḥammad Bāqī Khān kūka, and another Rūmī Khān of Aleppo, who may have been Bābar's artillery officer.

It is a real loss that there is no record of the journey from our begam's pen. It was to be adventurous; even perilous; and it was of great interest whether as sightseeing travel or pious duty. Sūrat was the port of embarkation, but there are no details of the road taken to reach it. Father Rudolf Acquaviva passed between the same two terminal points in 1580, but the military movements of the interval may well have allowed him to travel where the ladies could not go. When they were first in Sūrat, it had been a royal possession for two years only, and even when the Father took the fairly direct route from it to Fatḥpūrsīkrī, the Rājpūt peasantry was in arms against their new lord. The ladies were probably handed on from one garrisoned place to another as the immediate circumstances of conquest dictated. The main body of their ḥaj joined them by a tedious and weary route, first escorted through Goganda by the army which was on active service, and then passing on to Aḥmadābād, and, perhaps by water, to Sūrat.

The governor of the port, who was to have a good deal of trouble with this caravan, was Qulij Khān Andijānī, a sobriquet of pleasant sound in our begam's ears. He had inherited Tīmūrid service from many generations, and his father had been a grandee of Sulṭān Ḥusain Bāyqrā.

‘There was peace with the isles of the Franks,’ but it took the ladies a year to get to sea. The Akbar-nāma attributes some part of the delay to a foolish panic about the Firingīs which, after the ladies had embarked in their hired Turkish transport, the Salīmī, seized the other pilgrims who were to sail in the royal ship, the Ilāhī. The real ground appears to have been want of a pass. The Portuguese were then masters of the Indian waters, and no ship might dare to put to sea without toll paid and pass obtained. Alarm about the Portuguese was natural, for there were stories that the very pass was sometimes a letter of Bellerophon enjoining capture and death. Abū'l-faẓl says that, although the ladies embarked, they were unwilling to put out and desert their fellow-pilgrims. This may be mere broidery, or the one ship may have had a pass and the other not. Perhaps, too, as theirs was a hired transport, it was also one privileged to sail free. However this may be, Badāyunī makes the difficulty clear by saying that Khwāja Sulṭān's ships lay idle from want of the pass. He also, it may be added, quotes a legal opinion that at this time it was not lawful to make the ḥaj from India because, of the two practicable routes, one lay through the Shiah country of 'Irāq, and the other obliged a pass which bore the idolatrous stamp of the heads of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus Christ (‘on whom be peace’).

The mīr ḥaj sent word to the Emperor of his plight, who at once despatched orders to Qulij Khān, in Īdar, to go to Sūrat and arrange the difficulty. Qulij took with him a Cambayan, who was presumably a man versed in seafaring business,—hurried to Sūrat and overcame the difficulty.

It took the ladies a year to get to sea; they sailed on October 17th, 1576. Their port of debarkation is not mentioned; some pilgrims sailed by the Arabian, some by the Persian Gulf. They spent three and a half years in Arabia, and were able to make the ḥaj four times.

Some day perhaps a pious and enlightened Musalmān will set down the inner meaning he attaches to the rites of the pilgrimage. How interesting it would have been if our princess had told us what it was in her heart that carried her through the laborious duties of piety she accomplished during her long stay in her holy land! She might have given us an essential principle by which to interpret the religious meaning which devout women attach to the rites commanded on the pilgrimage.

The visitation duties are set down in Hughes' ‘Dictionary of Islām,’ where even their brief recital is attractive and adds to the wish of gauging the sentiment of believers in their efficacy. The acts prescribed are exhausting, not only to the body but also, one thinks, to the mind, because the very conception of the pilgrimage as a Divine ordinance keeps brain and heart tense, as all obedience does which sets the human will parallel to the Divine.

The mere recapitulation of the prescribed ceremonies is impressive: The halt six miles from the city to put on the seamless wrapper (iḥrām); the chanting of the pilgrim song; the prayer of intention and of supplication for grace to make the visitation duly; the contemplation, touch, and salutation of the mystic black stone; the sevenfold encompassment of the ka'ba, towards which from distant homes has been directed the prayer of the bygone years; the ascent of the Mount of Purity (Ṣafā), and prayer and confession of faith upon it; the race seven times repeated from its summit to that of the Mount of Marwa; the common worship in the Great Mosque, and the sermon preached to the assemblage of common believers; the various pilgrimages and prayers of the eighth and ninth days; and on the tenth the extraordinary pelting of devils, which is symbolized by the patriarchal rite of the stoning of the pillars of Mina. Later in the same day occurs the final act of the ḥaj, an animal sacrifice. Whether the ladies could pay a substitute to perform this is not said.

During these ten busy days the seamless wrapper is worn; after the sacrifice it is laid aside, and attention may be paid to the neglected toilette. The pilgrim stays three days longer in Makka—days of the ‘drying of the blood of sacrifice,’ ‘three well-earned days of rest after the peripatetic performance of the last four.’ Still, all is not finished; there should be more circuits of the ka'ba, another stoning at Mina, and a draught drunk from the sacred well. Our princess would certainly do everything which was due, and probably would go to Medina, and she would also make visitation to the tombs of many pious persons buried in the desirable soil of Arabia.

In 1579 Khwāja Yaḥyā was mīr ḥaj, a friend of Badāyunī, and the charitable man to whom Ḥusain the Patcher (tukriya) was indebted for decent burial. He was commissioned to escort the ladies home, and also to bring back curiosities and Arab servants,⁷⁴ who may perhaps have been wanted for the Arab saraī, established near the mausoleum of Humāyūn, outside Dihlī.

The return journey was both adventurous and perilous. They were shipwrecked off Aden, and had to stay, some say seven, others twelve, months in that desolate spot, far less habitable then than now, with condensed water, a tide from the Suez Canal, occasional rain, and the British rāj. The governor did not behave well, and quitted the path of good manners, misconduct for which he was punished by his master, Sulṭān Murād of Turkey. One pleasant incident broke the gloom of the long delay. On a day of April, 1580, the rock-bound travellers saw a ship coming up from the south with the wind, and, wishing to know whose it was, sent a boat out to make inquiry. By a pleasant chance Bāyazīd^74a bīyāt with his wife and children were on board, and he shortened sail, though the wind was favourable, and gave and took news. Bāyazīd says that the persons who sent out the boat to him were Gul-badan Begam, Gul-'iẕār Begam, and Khwāja Yaḥyā. Perhaps he was instrumental in getting them ships for return to India.

I do not know when the ladies succeeded in leaving Ạden, nor when they landed in Sūrat. Here they again waited long, and this delay is attributed partly to the rains and partly to the royal absence in Kābul. It was March, 1582, when they reached Fatḥpūr-sīkrī.

On the northward journey they visited the shrines of the Chishtī saints in Ajmīr, and there met Prince Sālim. Day after day there came an amīr with greetings from the Emperor, until he met the caravan at Khānwa. The night of reunion was kept awake by ‘questions and entrancing stories; gifts were shown, and happiness brimmed over.’ One item of home news would cloud the meeting: Bega Begam had died just too soon to welcome her old friends.

Arrived in Fatḥpūr-sīkrī, Gul-badan Begam would find much to ruffle her orthodoxy; for Father Rodolf Acquaviva was installed there and was giving Prince Murād lessons in the Christian faith. She would hear of the reverence shown by her nephew for the sacred things of an alien faith, and of his liking for the society of the pious and learned guest. Ḥamīda-bānū is named by the Father as protesting, with other ladies of the ḥaram, against the royal countenance of Christianity, and assuredly Gul-badan would swell the chorus of complaint, in which, too, Hindū wives would join the Moslim lamentation.⁷⁵ When the Father was leaving Fatḥpūr-sīkrī, he accepted only so much money as would pay his expenses back to Goa, but he asked a favour from Ḥamīda-bānū Begam. She had amongst her household slaves a Russian of Moscow and his Polish wife, with their two children. These four the Father begged to take with him to Goa. ‘The begam, who was no friend to the Firingīs, was most unwilling to give up the slaves; but the Emperor would refuse nothing to the Father,’ and the family was carried off to freedom.

The next thing known of our princess is that she wrote her Humāyūn-nāma. The book is its sole witness, for no one speaks of it. It is not literature, but a simple setting down of what she knew or had heard, for the help of the Akbar-nāma . This was not her only composition, for she followed the fashion of her day and wrote verses. Mīr Mahdī Shīrāzī has preserved in his Taẕkiratu-l-khwātīn two lines of hers, in which her thought seems to be, ‘No love, no fruit of life.’

“Har parī ki au bā 'ashaq khud yār nīst,
Tū yaqīn mīdān ki hech az 'umr bar-khur-dār nīst.”

Nine copies were made of Bāyazīd's Humāyūn-nāma, which was written in obedience to the royal command obeyed by Gul-badan Begam and also by Jauhar the Ewer-bearer. Of these two went to the Emperor's library; three to the princes Sālim, Murād, and Danyal; one to our begam; two to Abū'l-faẓl; and one perhaps was kept by the author. This allotment brings out the little point that Gul-badan collected books. Badāyunī has a curious passage about himself which also discloses something ‘bookish’ of Salīma: ‘On account of the book Khirad-afza, which had disappeared from the library, and concerning Salīma Sulṭān Begam's study of which the Emperor reminded me, an order was issued that my allowance should be stopped, and that they should demand the book of me.’ He adds that Abū'l-faẓl did not lay his refutation before the Emperor, and he does not clear up the awkward doubt as to what he had done with Salīma's desired book.

The remaining records of Gul-badan Begam's life are few and scanty. When she was seventy, her name is mentioned with that of Muḥammad-yār, a son of her daughter, who left the court in disgrace; again, she and Salīma join in intercession to Akbar for Prince Sālim; again, with Ḥamīda, she receives royal gifts of money and jewels. Her charities were large, and it is said of her that she added day unto day in the endeavour to please God, and this by succouring the poor and needy. When she was eighty years old, and in February, 1603, her departure was heralded by a few days of fever. Ḥamīda was with her to the end, and it may be that Ruqaiya, Hindāl's daughter, would also watch her last hours. As she lay with closed eyes, Ḥamīda-bānū spoke to her by the long-used name of affection, ‘Jiu!’ (elder sister). There was no response. Then, ‘Gul-badan!’ The dying woman unclosed her eyes, quoted the verse, ‘I die,—may you live!’ and passed away.

Akbar helped to carry her bier some distance, and for her soul's repose made lavish gifts and did good works. He will have joined in the silent prayer for her soul before committal of her body to the earth, and if no son were there, he, as a near kinsman, may have answered the Imām's injunction to resignation: ‘It is the will of God.’

So ends the long life of a good and clever woman, affectionate and dutiful in her home life, and brought so near us by her sincerity of speech and by her truth of feeling that she becomes a friend even across the bars of time and creed and death.

IT is not generally known to English students of the (so-called) Mughal period of Indian history that Gul-badan Begam wrote a book. It was not known to Mr. Erskine, or he would have given fuller and more accurate accounts of the families of Bābar and Humāyūn. It escaped even Professor Blochmann's wider opportunities of acquaintance with Persian MSS. Until the begam's Humāyūn-nāma was catalogued by Dr. Rieu, it was a literary parda-nishīn, and since that time has been little better. Abū-'l-faẓl, for whose information it was written, does not mention it, but the Akbar-nāma is not without indication of its use.⁷⁸

Bāyazīd's Tārīkh-i-humāyūn was reproduced several times on its completion. Gul-badan Begam's Humāyūn-nāma was written under the same royal order and for the same end. It would have been natural to reproduce it also, but no second example of it can be discovered by us in any of the accessible book-catalogues of Europe or India, and prolonged search, made by advertisement, private inquiry, and in person by my husband in India, has failed to disclose knowledge of its existence which may not conjecturally be traced to my own work upon it. Once hope arose that a second MS. was to reward the search, because a correspondent intimated that he possessed for sale a MS. which was inscribed as being the begam's. On examination this was found to be so, but the MS. was a copy of the Kānūn-i-humāyūn of Khwānd-amīr. It is now in the British Museum.

Hope was again aroused by a mention of Gul-badan's book in a recent work, the Darbār-i-akbarī of Shamsu-l-ulamā' 'Muḥammad Ḥusain āzād. Mr. Beveridge paid two visits to the author in Bombay, but could learn nothing from him. He appeared mentally alienated, denied all knowledge of the work, and that he had ever written of it. His reference may conjecturally be traced to my article in the Calcutta Review upon Gul-badan Begam's writings, and does not, unfortunately, appear to indicate access to a second MS.

The MS. from which I have translated belongs to the Hamilton Collection in the British Museum, and was bought in 1868 from the widow of Colonel George William Hamilton. It is classed by Dr. Rieu amongst the most remarkable of the 352 MSS. which were selected for purchase out of the 1,000 gathered in by Colonel Hamilton from Lucknow and Dihlī. It does not bear the vermilion stamp of the King of Oude, so the surmise is allowed that it came from Dihlī. It has been rebound (not recently, I believe), plainly, in red leather; and it is unadorned by frontispiece, margin, or rubric. Whether there has ever been a colophon cannot be said; the latter pages of the work are lost. The folio which now stands last is out of place, an error apparently made in the rebinding. Catchwords are frequently absent, and there are none on the last folio. There are blank fly-leaves, prefixed and suffixed, of paper unlike that of the MS..

The absence of a second MS., and, still more, the absence of mention of the work, seem to indicate that few copies ever existed.

Dr. Rieu's tentative estimate of the date of the British Museum MS. (seventeenth century) does not, I am counselled, preclude the possibility of transcription so late in the sixteenth century as 1587 (995 H.) onwards. It may be the first and even sole example.

Gul-badan Begam, as is natural, uses many Tūrkī words, and at least one Tūrkī phrase. Her scribe (who may be herself) does not always write these with accuracy; some run naturally from the pen as well-known words do; some are laboured in the writing, as though care had to be taken in the copying or original orthography.

Tūrkī was Gul-badan's native language; it was also her husband's; it would be the home speech of her married life. Persian was an accomplishment. These considerations awaken speculation: Did she compose in Persian? or in Tūrkī? That she read Tūrkī is clear from her upbringing and her references to her father's book. She has one almost verbal reproduction of a passage from it retained in Tūrkī.

The disadvantage of working from a single MS. is felt at every point, and nowhere more than when the MS. itself is under consideration.

Of these there are two:

1. ‘Humāyūn-nāma. Written by Gul-badan Begam, daughter of Bābar Pādshāh.’ This is on the first fly-leaf, which is of paper differing in colour and texture from that of the body of the MS., and identical with that of four blank sheets which are bound up at the end of the MS., perhaps to allow of writing in the missing portion of the work.

2. ‘Accounts of Humāyūn Pādshāh. Put together by Gul-badan Begam, a daughter of Bābar Pādshāh and a paternal aunt of Akbar Pādshāh.’ This stands on the first folio of the MS., which by the original paging is folio 10, and by the British Museum marking folio 2 (a).

(2b of the Persian text.)

There had been an order⁸³ issued, ‘Write down whatever you know of the doings of Firdaus-makānī and Jannat-āshyānī .’^83a

At the time when his Majesty Firdaus-makānī passed from this perishable world to the everlasting home, I, this lowly one, was eight^83b years old, so it may well be that I do not remember much. However, in obedience to the royal command, I set down whatever there is that I have heard and remember.

First of all, by way of invoking a blessing (on my work), and in pious commemoration, a chapter (juzū) is written about my royal father's deeds, although these are told in his memoirs.^83c

From his Majesty Ṣāḥib-qirānī⁸⁴ down to my royal father there was not one of the bygone princes who laboured as he did. He became king in his twelfth^84a year, and the khuṭba^84b was read in his name on June 10th, 1494,^84c in Andijān, the capital of Farghāna. (3a)

For eleven full years his wars and struggles against the Chaghatāi and Tīmūrid and Uzbeg princes^84d in Māwarā'un-nahr (Transoxiana) were such that the tongue of the pen is too feeble and weak to recount them.

The toils and perils which in the ruling of kingdoms befell our prince, have been measured out to few, and of few have been recorded the manliness, courage and endurance which he showed in battle-fields and dangers. Twice he took Samarqand by force of the sword. The first time my royal father was twelve years old, the second nineteen, the third time he was nearly twenty-two.^84e For six months he was besieged^84f (in Samarqand), and neither Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā, his paternal uncle,^84g who

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AMĪR TĪMŪR (ṢĀḤIB-QIRĀN).
[To face p. 84.

(ruled) in Khurāsān, nor Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān, his maternal uncle,⁸⁵ who ruled in Kāshghar, sent him help. When none came from any quarter, he grew desperate.^85a

At this difficult time, Shāhī Beg Khān^85b sent to say: ‘If you would marry your sister Khānzāda Begam^85c to me, (3b) there might be peace and a lasting alliance between us.’ At length it had to be done; he gave the begam to the khān, and came out himself (from Samarqand).^85d With 200 followers on foot, wearing long frocks on their shoulders and peasants' brogues on their feet, and carrying clubs in their hands,—in this plight, unarmed, and relying on God, he went towards the lands of Badakhshān (Badakhshānāt) and Kābul.^85e

Khusrau Shāh's^85f people and army were in Kunduz and the Badakhshānāt. He came and paid his respects to his Majesty,^85g my father, who, being as he was manly and kind and generous, did not in any way touch the question of retaliation, although Khusrau Shāh had committed such crimes as the martyrdom of Bayasanghar Mīrzā and the blinding of Sulṭān Mas'ūd Mīrzā, both of whom were sons of my royal father's paternal uncle. In addition to this, when in the early days of the forays,^85h his Majesty chanced to cross his country, he was watched and rudely driven out. Now he was pleased to command that Khusrau Shāh should take whatever his heart desired of his (own) jewels and golden vessels, and so he got leave to go to Khurāsān in kindness and safety, and took with him five or six strings of camels and five or six of baggage mules.⁸⁶ (4a)

His Majesty now set out for Kābul, which was occupied by Muḥammad Muqīm, a son of Ẕū'l-nūn Arghūn, and grandfather of Nāhīd Begam.^86a He had captured it after Ulugh Beg Mīrzā's^86b death from Mīrzā 'Abdu-r-razzāq, son of his Majesty's paternal uncle (Ulugh Beg).

His Majesty reached Kābul in safety. Muḥammad Muqīm kept command for a few days, and then by pact and agreement made over charge to the royal servants, and went off with goods and chattels to his father in Qandahār. This was in the last ten days of Rabī II., 910H.^86c Being now master of Kābul, his Majesty went to Bangash, took it at a blow, and returned to Kābul.

Her Highness, the khānam,^86d his Majesty's mother, had fever for six days, and then departed from this fleeting world to the eternal home. They laid her in the New Year's Garden. His Majesty paid 1,000 coined misqāl to his kinsmen, the owners of the garden, and laid her there.

At this time urgent letters arrived from Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā, saying: (4b) ‘I am planning a war against the Uzbegs. It would be excellent if you came too.’ My royal father sought counsel of God. At length he set out to join the mīrzā. On the way news came that the mīrzā was dead. His Majesty's amīrs represented that, this being so, it was advisable to return to Kābul, but he replied: ‘As we have come so far, we will carry our condolences to the princes.’ In the end he went on towards Khurāsān.⁸⁷

When the princes^87a heard of the royal visit, they one and all set out to give him honourable meeting, except Badī'u-z-zamān Mīrzā, who did not go because Barandūq Beg and Ẕū'l-nūn Beg—amīrs of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā—said, in effect, that as his Majesty was fifteen years younger than Badī'u-z-zamān Mīrzā, it was right that he should be the first to bow, and that they should then embrace one another. Qāsim Beg^87b rejoined: ‘Younger he is by years, but by the tūra,^87c he has precedence because he has more than once taken Samarqand by force of the sword.’ (5a) At length they agreed that his Majesty should bow on coming in, and that Badī'u-z-zamān should then advance to show him honour, and they should embrace. The mīrzā was not attending when his Majesty came in at the door; Qāsim Beg clutched my royal father's girdle and pulled it, and said to Barandūq Beg and Ẕū'l-nūn Beg: ‘The agreement was that the mīrzā should come forward and that then they should embrace one another.’ The prince then advanced in great agitation and they embraced.

As long as his Majesty was in Khurāsān, each one of the princes showed him hospitality, and feasts were arranged, and excursions to all the gardens and places of interest. They set forth to him the inconvenience of winter, and said: ‘Wait till it is over, and we will fight the Uzbegs.’ But they could not in any way settle about the war. Eighty years⁸⁸ long had Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā kept Khurāsān safe and sound, but the mīrzās could not fill their father's place for six months. When his Majesty saw that they were careless^88a about his expenses and revenue, he went to Kābul on the pretext of seeing the places he had assigned to himself. (5b) Much snow had fallen that year. They took the wrong road. His Majesty and Qāsim Beg chose one^88b because of its shortness, but the amīrs had given other advice, and when this was not taken, they all left him without a thought for him. He and Qāsim Beg and his sons made a road in two or three days by removing the snow, and the people of the army followed. So they reached Ghūrband. Some Hazāra rebels having met his Majesty here, there was fighting; and cattle and sheep and goods without number belonging to the Hazāra fell into the hands of his people. Then they started for Kābul with their enormous booty.

At the skirts of Minār Hill they heard that Mīrzā Khān^88c and Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥusain Gūrkān^88d had rebelled and were holding Kābul. His Majesty sent a comforting and cheering letter (to his friends in the fort), and said: ‘Be of good heart! I too am here. (6a) I will light a fire on the Hill of the Moon-faced Lady; do you light one on the Treasury, so that I may be sure you know of our coming. In the morning we will fall on the enemy, you from that side and we from this.’ But he had fought and won before the people of the fort came out.

Mīrzā Khān hid himself in his mother's house; she was his Majesty's maternal aunt. Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥusain was in his wife's house. She was his Majesty's younger maternal aunt. He flung himself down on a carpet, and in fear of his life cried to a servant, ‘Fasten it up!’ His Majesty's people heard of this. They took him out of the carpet and brought him to the presence. In the end, his Majesty forgave the mīrzās their offences, for the sake of his aunts. He used to go, in his old fashion, in and out of his aunts' houses,⁸⁹ and showed them more and more affection, so that no mist of trouble might dim their hearts. He assigned them places and holdings in the plain-country. (6b)

God the most High, having freed Kābul from the power of Mīrzā Khān, committed it to my royal father's care. He was then twenty-three years old^89a and had no child and greatly desired one. In his seventeenth year a girl^89b had been born to him by 'Āyisha Sulṭān Begam, a daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā, but she had died in a month. The most high God blessed the taking of Kābul, for after it eighteen children were born. (1.) Of my Lady (Akām)^89c who was Māham Begam there were born his Majesty the Emperor Humāyūn, and Bārbūl Mīrzā, and Mihr-jān (jahān) Begam, and Ishān-daulat Begam, and Fārūq Mīrzā.⁹⁰

(2.) Ma'ṣūma Sulṭān Begam, daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā, died in childbed. The mother's name they gave to the daughter.

(3.) Of Gul-rukh Begam were born Kāmrān Mīrzā, and 'Askarī Mīrzā, and Shāh-rukh Mīrzā, and Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā, and Gul-'iẕār Begam.

(4.) Of Dil-dār Begam were born Gul-rang Begam, and Gul-chihra Begam, and Hindāl Mīrzā, and Gul-badan Begam, and Alwar Mīrzā.^90a

In short, in taking Kābul he got a good omen. All his children were born there except two begams who were born in Khost, viz., Mihr-jān Begam, a daughter of Māham Begam, and Gul-rang, a daughter of Dil-dār Begam. (7a)

The blessed birth of the Emperor Humāyūn, the first-born son of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī, occurred in the night of Tuesday, Ẕū'l-qa'da 4th, 913H. (March 6th, 1508), in the citadel of Kābul, and when the sun was in the sign Pisces.

That same year his Majesty was pleased to order the amīrs and the rest of the world to style him emperor (bādshāh). For before the birth of the Emperor Humāyūn he had been named and styled Mīrzā Bābar. All kings' sons were called mīrzās. In the year of his Majesty Humāyūn's birth he styled himself bādshāh.

They found^90b the date of the birth in Sulṭan Humāyūn Khān, and also in Shāh-(i)-fīroz-qadr.^90c

After children had been born to him, news came that Shāh Ismā'īl had killed Shāhī Beg Khān.^90d

His Majesty at this time entrusted Kābul to Nāṣir⁹¹ Mīrzā, and set out^91a for Samarqand, taking with him his people and wives and children, who were Humāyūn Mīrzā, and Mihr-jahān Begam, and Bārbūl Mīrzā, and Ma'ṣūma Begam, and Kāmrān Mīrzā. (7b)

With help from Shāh Ismā'īl, he took Samarqand (October, 1511), and for eight (lunar) months the whole of Māwarā'u-n-nahr (Transoxiana) was in his power. Owing to want of co-operation in his brothers and to the opposition of the Mughals,^91b he was defeated at Kūl Malik by 'Ubaidu-l-lāh Khān. As he could not remain in those parts, he set out for Badakhshān and Kābul, and put out of his head further thought of Māwarā'u-n-nahr.

He had become master of Kābul in 910H. (1504). He had always desired to go into Hindūstān, and had not carried out his wish because of the feeble counsels of his amīrs and the non-agreement of his brothers. When at length these were gone,^91c and there remained no amīr such as could argue against it, he accomplished his desire.

Bajaur^91d he took in two or three hours and ordered a general massacre.

On the same day the father of Afghānī āghācha,^91e Malik Manṣūr Yūsufzai, came in and paid his respects. (8a) His Majesty took his daughter in marriage and then gave him leave to depart. He bestowed on him a horse and a suit of honour befitting a ruler, and said to him: ‘Go and bring men and labourers, etc., to your native land and cultivate it.’

Qāsim Beg,⁹² who was in Kābul, sent a letter saying: ‘Another prince has been born. I have ventured to write as an omen of the conquest of Hind and of taking its throne. As for the rest, the Emperor is master, whatever is his pleasure’^92a (let it be done). In an auspicious hour his Majesty named him Mīrzā Hindāl.

Having subdued Bajaur, his Majesty went towards the Bhīra country, and on his arrival made peace without plundering. He took four laks of shāhrukhīs^92b and gave to his army, dividing them according to the number of his followers. He then set out for Kābul.^92c

Just now came a letter from Badakhshān saying: ‘Mīrzā Khān is dead;^92d Mīrzā Sulaimān is young; the Uzbegs are near; take thought for this kingdom lest (which God forbid) Badakhshān should be lost.’ (8b) Until there should be thought taken, Mīrzā Sulaimān's mother^92e had brought him (to the Emperor). Agreeably to this petition and their wish, the Emperor assigned to Mīrzā Sulaimān the lands and inheritance which had been his father's, and he gave Badakhshān to Mīrzā Humāyūn.

The mīrzā set out for his province. His Majesty and my Lady (Akām) followed and also went to Badakhshān, and there spent several days together. The mīrzā remained and my royal father and my Lady came back to Kābul⁹³ (926H.—1520).

After a time his Majesty set out for Qilāt and Qandahār.^93a He was victorious at once in Qilāt, and went on to Qanda-hār and kept its garrison shut up for a year and a half. Then, by the Divine favour and after great fighting and skirmishing, he captured it. Much gold fell into his hands, and he gave moneys and camels to his soldiers and the people of the army. Qandahār he bestowed on Mīrzā Kāmrān, and himself set off for Kābul.

His advance camp having been set up,^93b he crossed the hill of Yak Langa, and gloriously alighted in the valley of Dīh-i-ya'qūb on Friday, Ṣafar 1st, 932H. (November 17th, 1525), when the sun was in Sagittarius. (9a) He spent the following day there, and on the next set forth, march by march, for Hindūstān. In the seven or eight years since 925H. (1519)^93c the royal army had several times renewed the attempt on Hindūstān. Each time it used to conquer lands and districts, such as Bhīra, Bajaur, Sīālkūt, Dīpālpūr, Lāhōr, etc., up to the fifth time, when on Ṣafar 1st, 932H., his Majesty went, march by march, from his glorious encamping in Dīh-i-ya'qūb towards Hindūstān. He conquered Lāhōr and Sirhind, and every country that lay on his path.

On Friday, Rajab 8th, 932H. (April 20th, 1526), he arrayed battle at Pānīpat⁹⁴ against Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, son of Sulṭān Sikandar, son of Bahlūl Lodī. By God's grace he was victorious, and Sulṭān Ibrāhīm was killed in the fight.

His victory was won purely by the Divine grace, for Sulṭān Ibrāhīm had a lak and 80,000 horse, and as many as 1,500 head of fierce elephants; (9b) while his Majesty's army with the traders and good and all (badr (?) bad, bad) was 12,000 persons and he had, at the outside, 6,000 or 7,000 serviceable men.

The treasures of five kings fell into his hands. He gave everything away. The amīrs of Hind represented that in Hindūstān it was thought disgraceful to expend the treasure of bygone kings, and that people rather added and added to it, while his Majesty, on the contrary, had given all away.^94a

Khwāja^94b Kilān^94c Beg asked leave several times to go to Kābul. He said: ‘My constitution is not fitted for the climate of Hindūstān. If leave were given, I should tarry awhile in Kābul.’ His Majesty was not at all, at all willing for him to go, but at last gave permission because he saw him so very urgent. He said: 'When you go, I shall send some of the valuable presents and curiosities of Hind which fell into our hands through the victory over Sultān Ibrāhīm, to my elder relations⁹⁵ and sisters and each person of the ḥaram. You take them. I shall write a list, and you will distribute them according to it. (10a) You will order a tent with a screen to be set up in the Garden of the Audience Hall for each begam,^95a and when a pleasant meeting-place has been arranged, the begams are to make the prostration of thanks for the complete victory which has been brought about.

‘To each begam is to be delivered as follows: one special dancing-girl of the dancing-girls of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm, with one gold plate full of jewels—ruby and pearl, cornelian and diamond, emerald and turquoise, topaz and cat's-eye—and two small mother-o'-pearl trays full of ashrafīs, and on two other trays shāhrukhās,^95b and all sorts of stuffs by nines— that is, four trays and one plate. Take a dancing-girl and another plate of jewels, and one each of ashrafīs and shāhrukhīs, and present, in accordance with my directions, to my elder relations the very plate of jewels and the selfsame dancing-girl which I have given for them. I have made other gifts;^95c convey these afterwards. (10b) Let them divide and present jewels and ashrafīs and shāh-rukhīs and stuffs to my sisters and children and the ḥarams^95d and kinsmen, and to the begams and āghās^95e and nurses and foster-brethren and ladies, and to all who pray for me.’ The gifts were made according to the list.

Three happy days they remained together in the Audience Hall Garden. They were uplifted by pride, and recited the fātiḥa⁹⁶ for the benediction and prosperity of his Majesty, and joyfully made the prostration of thanks.^96a

The Emperor sent by Khwāja Kilān a large ashrafī,^96b which weighed three imperial sīr, that is, fifteen sīr of Hind, for … 'Asas.^96c He said to the Khwāja: ‘If 'Asas asks you, “What has the Emperor sent for me?” say, “One ashrafī,”’ as there really was only one. 'Asas was amazed, and fretted about it for three days. His Majesty had ordered that a hole should be bored in the ashrafī, and that 'Asas should be blindfolded and the ashrafī hung round his neck, and that then he was to be sent into the ḥaram. The hole was bored and the ashrafī hung round his neck. He was quite helpless with surprise at its weight, and delighted and very, very happy. He took it in both hands, and wondered over it and said, ‘No one shall get my ashrafī.’ Each begam, too, gave (? him) ten or twelve ashrafī, so he had seventy or eighty. (11a)

After Khwāja Kilān Beg had started for Kābul, the Emperor made gifts in Agra to his Majesty Humāyūn and to all the mīrzās and sulṭāns and amīrs. He sent letters in all directions, urgently saying, ‘We shall take into full favour all who enter our service, and especially such as served our father and grandfather and ancestors. If such will come to us, they will receive fitting benefits. Whoever there may be of the families of Ṣāḥib-qirān and Chingīz Khān, let them turn towards our court. The most High has given us sovereignty in Hindūstān; let them come that we may see prosperity together.’

Seven⁹⁷ daughters of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd came (to Hindū-stān): Gūhar-shād Begam, and Fakhr-jahān Begam, and Khadīja Sulṭān Begam, and Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam, and Āq Begam, and Sulṭān Bakht Begam.

(Also) Zainab Sulṭān Kḥānam, daughter of his Majesty's maternal uncle, Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān, and Muḥibb Sulṭān Kḥānam,^97a daughter of Ilācha Khān (Aḥmad), his Majesty's younger maternal uncle.

In short, all the begams and khānams went, ninety-six persons in all, and all received houses and lands and gifts to their heart's desire. (11b)

All through the four years that (my father) was in Āgra he used to go on Fridays to see his paternal aunts. One day it was extremely hot, and her Highness my lady (Akām) said, ‘The wind is very hot, indeed; how would it be if you did not go this one Friday? The begams would not be vexed.’ His Majesty said, ‘Māham! it is astonishing that you should say such things! The daughters of Abū-sa'īd Sulṭān Mīrzā, who have been deprived of father and brothers! If I do not cheer them, how will it be done?’

To the architect, Khwāja Qāsim, his Majesty gave the following order: ‘We command a piece of good service from you. It is this: whatever work, even if it be on a great scale, our paternal aunts may order done in their palace, give it precedence, and carry it out with might and main.’

He commanded buildings to be put up in Āgra on the other side of the river,⁹⁸ and a stone palace to be built for himself between the ḥaram and the garden. He also had one built in the audience court, with a reservoir in the middle and four chambers in the four towers. On the river's bank he had a chaukandī^98a built. (12a)

He ordered a tank made in Dholpūr, ten by ten,^98b out of a single mass of rock, and used to say, ‘When it is finished, I will fill it with wine.” But as he had given up wine before the fight with Rānā Sangā, he filled it with lemonade.

A year after Sulṭān Ibrāhīm's death, the rānā^98c appeared from the Mandū (or Hindū) side with a countless host. Amīrs and rājas and rānās, every one of those who had come earlier and paid duty to his Majesty, now became an enemy and went and joined the rānā, until Kūl-jalālī and Sambhal and Rāprī—every pargana,—and rā'is and rājas and Afghāns became hostile. Nearly two laks of cavalry assembled.

At this time, Muḥammad Sharīf, the astrologer, said to the royal soldiers, ‘It would be best for the Emperor not to fight, for the constellation Sakkiz Yildoz (Eight Stars) is opposite.’ Amazing perturbation fell upon the royal army. They became exceedingly anxious and troubled,^98d and showed signs of cowardice. (12b) When his Majesty saw his army in this state, he thought over the whole position. As the enemy was close at hand, this device occurred to his blessed mind; he ordered the remnant of what remained over and above deserters and enemies, to gather together. One and all came—amīrs and khāns and sulṭāns; plebeian and noble, low and high. Then he addressed them, and said: ‘Do you not know that there lies a journey of some months between us and the land of our birth and our familiar city? If our side is defeated, (God preserve us from that day! God forbid it!) where are we? where is our birthplace? where our city? We have to do with strangers and foreigners. It is in every way best for each man to set resolutely before himself the two alternatives: if we win, we are avengers of the cause of God; if we lose, we die martyrs. In either fate is our salvation; each is a step and upward stage in greatness.’

To this they all agreed. They swore by the divorce of their wives and on the Holy Book; they recited the fātiḥa, and said, ‘O King! God willing, we will not spare ourselves in sacrifice and devotion, so long as there are breath and life in our bodies.’⁹⁹ (13a)

Two days before the battle his Majesty renounced wine, and, indeed, he forswore all forbidden things. Following his example, 400 young men of name, who had given proof of manliness and one-mindedness and friendship, also renounced these things when he did. His Majesty broke up all forbidden utensils,—vessels of gold and of silver, goblets and flasks, etc.; and he gave them to the poor and needy.

He also sent abroad firmāns with the announcement: ‘We exempt (you) from all dues and octroi and tithe on corn, and from all illegal imposts, so that no one, trader or other, may be hampered in his comings and goings, but all may move unmolested and free from interference.’

In the night¹⁰⁰ before the battle word was brought that Qāsim Ḥusain Sulṭān,—a grandson of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā through a daughter, 'Āyisha Sulṭān Begam,—had come to within ten kõs (of the royal camp) on his way from Khurāsān. (13b)

This news delighted his Majesty greatly. He asked, ‘How many men are with him?’ When he heard ‘thirty or forty,’ he at once sent off 1,000 troopers, all armed and equipped, at midnight, so that they might march in again with Qāsim Ḥusain Sulṭān, and in this way the enemy and outsiders be let know that reinforcements had come in good time. Everyone who heard the plan thought it a good one.

Next morning, which was March 16th, 1527 (Jumāda II. [13th], 933H.), his Majesty arrayed battle against Rānā Sangā on the skirts of the hill of Sīkrī, where now Fatḥpūr has been built^100a and peopled. By the Divine grace he was victorious and became an avenger of the cause of God.^100b

A year later my lady (akām), who was Māham Begam, came from Kābul to Hindūstān. I, this insignificant one, came with her in advance of my sisters, and paid my duty to my royal father. When my lady reached Kūl(-jalālī—i.e., 'Alighar), his Majesty had sent two litters with three horsemen. (14a) She went on post-haste from Kūl to Āgra. His Majesty had intended to go as far as Kūl-jalālī to meet her. At evening-prayer time some one came and said to him: ‘I have just passed her Highness on the road, four miles out.’ My royal father did not wait for a horse to be saddled but set out on foot. He met her near the house of Māham's nanacha.¹⁰¹ She wished to alight, but he would not wait, and fell into her train and walked to his own house.^101a

At the time of her meeting his Majesty, she desired me to come on by daylight and pay my respects to him.

… ^101b nine troopers, with two sets of nine horses and the two extra litters which the Emperor had sent, and one litter which had been brought from Kābul, and about a hundred of my lady's Mughal servants, mounted on fine (tipūchāq) horses,^101c all elegance and beauty.^101d

My royal father's Khalīfa^101e with his wife Sulṭānam^101f came as far as Naugrām^101g to meet (us). My māmās^101h had made me alight at the Little Garden, and having spread a small carpet, seated me on it. They instructed me to rise when Khalīfa came in, and to embrace him. When he came, I rose and embraced him. Then his wife Sulṭānam came in too. (14b) I, not knowing, wished to get up, but Khalīfa raised objections, and said: ‘She is your old serving-woman. There is no need to rise for her. Your father has exalted this old servant (? himself) by giving such an order¹⁰² about him. So be it! what power have slaves?’

From Khalīfa I accepted 6,000 shāhrukhīs and five horses, and Sulṭānam gave me 3,000 and three horses. Then she said: ‘A hasty meal (mā ḥaẓarī) is ready. If you will eat you will honour your servants.’ I consented. There was a raised platform in a pleasant spot, and a pavilion of red cloth with lining of Gujrātī brocade, and six canopies of cloth and brocade, each of a (differing) colour, and a square enclosure^102a of cloth with painted poles.

I sat in Khalīfa's quarters. The meal drew out to almost fifty roast sheep,^102b and bread and sherbet and much fruit. Having at length eaten my breakfast, I got into my litter and went and paid my duty to my royal father. (15a)

I fell at his feet; he asked me many questions, and took me for a time in his arms, and then this insignificant person felt such happiness that greater could not be imagined.

When we had been in Āgra three months, the Emperor went to Dholpūr. Her Highness Māham Begam and this lowly person also went. A tank had been made there, ten (gaz) by ten, out of one piece (of rock). From Dholpūr his Majesty went on to Sīkrī. He ordered a great platform made in the middle of the tank, and when it was ready, he used to go and sit on it, or to row about. This platform still exists.

They also made a chaukandī in the Sīkrī garden, and my royal father put up in it a tūr-khāna,¹⁰³ where he used to sit and write his book.^103a

I and Afghānī āghācha were sitting in the front of the lower storey when my lady went to prayers. I said to Afghānī āghācha: ‘Pull my hand.’ She pulled, and my hand came out. My strength went and I cried. (15b) Then they brought the bone-setter and when he had bound up my hand, the Emperor went to Āgra.

After his arrival, word was brought that the begams were on the way from Kābul. My royal father went as far as Naugrām to give honourable reception to my dearest lady (aka-jānam),^103b who was my oldest paternal aunt and my royal father's eldest sister. All the begams who had come with her, paid their duty to the Emperor in her quarters. They were very happy and made the prostration of thanks, and then set off for Āgra. The Emperor gave houses to all the begams.

A few days later he made an excursion to the Gold-scattering Garden (Bāgh-i-zar-afshān). There was a place in it for ablution before prayers. When he saw it, he said: ‘My heart is bowed down by ruling and reigning; I will retire to this garden. As for attendance, Ṭāhir the ewer-bearer will amply suffice. I will make over the kingdom to Humāyūn.’ On this my lady (akām) and all his children broke down, and said with tears: ‘God keep you in His own peace upon the throne many, many years, and may all your children after you reach a good old age!’ (16a)

A few days later Alwar Mīrzā fell ill. His illness led to an affection of the bowels, which grew worse and worse in spite of all that the doctors could do, and at last he passed from this transitory world to the eternal home. His Majesty was very sad and sorry, and Alwar's mother, Dil-dār Begam, was wild with grief for the child, who was a rarity of the world and unique of the age. As her lamentation passed due bounds, his Majesty said to my lady and the begams: ‘Come, let us make an excursion to Dholpūr.’ He himself went comfortably and pleasantly by water, and the begams also begged to go by boat.

Just then there came a letter from Maulānā Muḥammad Farghārī (Parghālī) in Dihlī, saying: ‘Humāyūn Mīrzā is ill and in an extraordinary state. Her Highness the begam should come at once to Dihlī, for the mīrzā is much prostrated.’¹⁰⁴ (16b)

My lady was very much upset on hearing this news, and started for Dihlī, like one athirst who is far from the waters. They met in Mathura. To her experienced eye he seemed ten times weaker and more alarmingly ill than she had heard he was. From Mathura the two, mother and son, like Jesus and Mary, set out for Āgra. When they arrived, this insignificant one went with her own sisters to visit that royal angel of goodness.

He was then growing weaker and weaker. Every time he came to his senses, his pearl-dropping tongue asked for us, and said: ‘Sisters, you are welcome! Come, and let us embrace one another. I have not embraced you.’ It might be three times that he raised his head and that his jewel-dropping tongue let fall these uplifting words.

When his Majesty came and saw how it was, his light-revealing countenance at once became sad and pitiful, and he began more and more to show signs of dread. (17a) On this my lady said: ‘Do not be troubled about my son. You are a king; what griefs have you? You have other sons. I sorrow because I have only this one.’^104a His Majesty rejoined: ‘Māham! although I have other sons, I love none as I love your Humāyūn. I crave that this

>graphic<

BĀBAR IN PRAYER, DEVOTING HIMSELF FOR HIS SON.
[To face p. 105.

During Humāyūn's illness¹⁰⁵ his Majesty walked round him and turned his face (in intercession) to his Reverence, Murtaẓa 'Alī Karīmu-l-lāh. He kept up that going-round from the Wednesday and made intercession from the Tuesday, in anxiety and deep dejection. The weather was extremely hot and his heart and liver burned. While going round he prayed, saying in effect: ‘O God! if a life may be exchanged for a life, I who am Bābar, I give my life and my being for Humāyūn.’^105a

That very day he fell ill, and Humāyūn poured water on his head, and came out and gave audience. (17b) Because of his illness, they carried my royal father within, and he kept his bed for two or three months.

As he grew worse, a messenger was sent to summon his Majesty Humāyūn, who had gone towards Kalinjar. He came post-haste, and on paying his duty to the Emperor, noticed that he was very feeble. Filled with compassion, he began to break down, and kept saying to the attendants: ‘How has he come to such a lamentable pass all at once?’ He sent for the doctors, and said to them: ‘I left him well. What has happened all at once?’ They said this and that in reply.

The whole time my royal father kept repeating: ‘Where is Hindāl? What is he doing?’ Just at this time some-one came in and said: ‘Mīr Bardī Beg, the son of Mīr Khurd Beg,¹⁰⁶ conveys his obeisance.’ My royal father, full of agitation, sent for him at once and asked: ‘Where is Hindāl? When will he come? What trouble waiting gives!’ (18a) Mīr Bardī said: ‘The fortunate prince has reached Dihlī; he will wait on you to-day or to-morrow.’ On this my royal father said to Mīr Bardī Beg: ‘Ill-fated little fellow! I have heard that they married your sister in Kābul, and you in Lāhōr.^106a It is because of the wedding festivities that you have (not)^106b sooner brought my son, and so my weary waiting has been very long.’ He asked: ‘How tall has Hindāl Mīrzā grown?’ and ‘What is he like?’ As Mīr Bardī was wearing one of the mīrzā's dresses, he showed it and said: ‘This is a robe of the prince which he bestowed on his servant.’ His Majesty called him nearer and said: ‘Let me see how tall and how big Hindāl has grown.’^106c He kept repeating, ‘Alas! a thousand times alas! that I do not see Hindāl,’ and asking everyone who came in: ‘When will Hindāl come?’

During his illness, he laid a command on my lady, and said: ‘Marriages ought to be arranged for Gul-rang Begam and Gul-chihra Begam. (18b) When the royal aunt, my elder sister,^106d honours me with a visit, tell her that I say it has occurred to me to give Gul-rang to Isān-tīmūr Sulṭān and Gul-chihra to Tūkhta-būghā Sulṭān.’^106e

Dearest lady, the smiling one,¹⁰⁷ came, and they said to her: ‘The Emperor spoke in this manner, and it has occurred to him in such a way. It now remains to know your pleasure. Let it be as you wish.’ She said the same and, ‘God grant blessing and peace! His idea is very good.’ My chīcha^107a herself and Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam and Āq Begam, both of whom were paternal aunts of his Majesty, were conducted into the hall. Having raised an estrade^107b and spread carpets and chosen a propitious hour, Māham's nanacha made both sulṭāns bow the knee^107c in order to exalt them to the rank of sons-in-law.

Meantime his Majesty's disorder of the bowels increased. The Emperor Humāyūn broke down again when he saw his father's condition worsen, and called the doctors, and said to them: ‘Think it well over and find some remedy.’ (19a) Having consulted together, they said: ‘Small is our luck, for our remedies are of no avail. We hope that God, the most Holy, will soon give one from His invisible treasures.’

When they felt his Majesty's pulse, they came to the opinion that there were symptoms of the same poison as that given him by Sulṭān Ibrāhīm's mother. It was in this way: that ill-fated demon (the mother) gave a tōla of poison to one of her maids, and said: ‘Take this and give it to Aḥmad the taster and tell him to put it in some way or other into the special dishes prepared for the Emperor.’ And she promised him large rewards. The ill-fated demon did this although his Majesty used to call her “mother,” and had assigned her place and lands with every favour, and had been kindly pleased to say: ‘Consider me as in the place of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm.’¹⁰⁸ But as ignorance prevails amongst those people, she did not regard his kindnesses. The (fitting) hemistich is well known:

‘Everything reverts to its original type,
(Whether pure gold, or silver, or tin).’^108a

To cut short the story: the cook (Heaven having made him blind and deaf,) spread the poison which had been brought and given to him, on the Emperor's bread only, and so little was eaten. But the symptoms of this illness were like that one's, seeing that day by day he lost strength and became more and more emaciated. (19b) Every day the disorder increased and his blessed countenance changed.

Next day^108b he called his chiefs together and spoke after this wise: ‘For years it has been in my heart to make over my throne to Humāyūn Mīrzā and to retire to the Gold-scattering Garden. By the Divine grace I have obtained all things but the fulfilment of this wish in health of body. Now, when illness has laid me low, I charge you all to acknowledge Humāyūn in my stead. Fail not in loyalty to him. Be of one heart and one mind with him. I hope to God that Humāyūn also will bear himself well towards men.

‘Moreover, Humāyūn, I commit to God's keeping you and your brothers and all my kinsfolk and your people and my people; and all of these I confide to you.’

At these words hearers and onlookers wept and lamented. His own blessed eyes also filled with tears.

When his family and the people within the ḥaram heard of these occurrences, they were stupefied and overwhelmed, and cried and lamented.

Three days later he passed from this transitory world to the eternal home. The death took place on Monday, December 26th, 1530 (Jumāda I. 5th, 937H.). (20a)

They brought out our paternal aunt¹⁰⁹ and our mothers^109a on the pretence that the doctors were coming to look. All rose. They took all the begams and my mothers to the Great House.^109b

Black fell the day for children and kinsfolk and all. They bewailed and lamented; voices were uplifted in weeping; there was utter dejection. Each passed that ill-fated day in a hidden corner.

The death was kept concealed. After a time Araish Khān,—he was an amīr of Hind,—said: ‘It is not well to keep the death secret, because when such misfortunes befall kings in Hindūstān, it is the custom of the bāzār people to rob and steal; God forbid that the Mughals not knowing, they should come and loot the houses and dwelling-places. It would be best to dress someone in red, and to set him on an elephant, and to let him proclaim that the Emperor Bābar has become a dervish and has given his throne to the Emperor Humāyūn.’ This his Majesty Humāyūn ordered to be done. People were at once reassured by the proclamation, and all offered prayers for his welfare. On Friday, December 29th, 1530 (Jumāda I. 9th, 937H.), the Emperor Humāyūn mounted the throne, and everyone said: ‘May all the world be blessed under his rule.’ (20b)

After that he came to visit his mothers and sisters and his own people, and he made inquiry after their health and offered sympathy, and spoke with kindness and commiseration. He was pleased to order: ‘Let each keep the office, and service, and lands, and residence which he has had, and let him serve in the old way.’

On the same day Hindāl Mīrzā, having come from Kābul, paid his homage to the Emperor, who received him with kindness, and was very happy, and bestowed on him many things from the treasures left by their father.

After my royal father's death, there were the good works and consecrated days of the first assembly¹¹⁰ at his tomb.^110a His Majesty named Muḥammad 'Alī 'asas^110b its guardian, and ordered the appointment of sixty good reciters of the whole Qurān and readers with good voices, so that the congregational prayers might be said five times daily and the whole Qurān recited, and prayer offered for the soul of the royal dweller in Paradise (Firdaus-makānī). (21a) The whole of Sīkrī—now known as Fatḥpūr—together with five laks charged on Bayāna, was given as an endowment to the tomb, for the support of the men of learning ('ulamā) and the reciters who were attached to it.

My lady made an allowance of food twice daily: in the morning an ox and two sheep and five goats, and at afternoon prayer-time five goats. She gave this from her own estate during the two and a half years that she remained in the prison of this world.

During my lady's life I used to see his Majesty in her residence. When she fell into bad health, she said to me: ‘It will be very hard that when I am gone, the Emperor Bābar's daughters should see their brother in Bībī Gul-barg's ¹¹¹ house.’ Just as though her words were in the royal heart and mind, his Majesty used always, so long as he was in Hindūstān, to come to our house. He used to visit us and showed us kindness and affection and favour without stint. He used to come to the house of this insignificant one, and there would come Ma'ṣūma Sulṭān Begam, and Gul-rang Begam, and Gul-chihra Begam,^111a etc. —all the married ladies—and pay their duty to him. (21b)

In short, after the death of my royal father and my lady, his Majesty, in the fulness of his affection, showed this broken one such favour, and spoke with such boundless compassion to this helpless one, that she did not know she was orphaned and headless.^111b

During the ten^111c years after the death of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī that his Majesty Jannat-āshyānī was in Hind, the people dwelt in repose and safety, and obedience and loyalty.^111d

Six months after the death of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī, Biban¹¹² and Bāyazīd advanced from the direction of Gaur. On the news of this, his Majesty at once left Āgra and moved to meet them. He defeated them, and then went to Chanāda (Chunār),^112a took it, and thence returned to Āgra.

My lady, who was Māham Begam, had a great longing and desire to see a son of Humāyūn. Wherever there was a good-looking and nice girl, she used to bring her into his service. Maywa-jān, a daughter of Khadang (? Khazang), the chamberlain (yasāwal),^112b was in my employ. One day (after) the death of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī,^112c my lady said: ‘Humāyūn, Maywa-jān is not bad. Why do you not take her into your service?’ So, at her word, Humāyūn married and took her that very night. (22a)

Three days later Bega Begam^112d came from Kābul. She became in the family way. In due time^112e she had a daughter, whom they named 'Aqīqa. Maywa-jān said to Lady (Aka) Māham Begam, ‘I am in the family way, too.’ Then my lady got ready two sets of weapons, and said: ‘Whichever of you bears a son, I will give him good arms.’ Then she packed up the arms, and got ready gold and silver walnuts. She procured also the (special) arms of a Mughal commander, and was very happy, and

>graphic<

THE EMPEROR HUMĀYŪN (JANNAT-ĀSHYĀNĪ).
(INJURED IN TRANSMISSION.)
[To face p. 112.

kept saying: ‘Perhaps one of them will have a son.’ She kept watch till Bega Begam's 'Aqīqa was born. Then she kept an eye on Maywa-jān. Ten months went by. The eleventh also passed. Maywa-jān said: ‘My maternal aunt was in Mīrzā Ulugh Beg's¹¹³ ḥaram. She had a son in the twelfth month; perhaps I am like her.’ So they sewed tents and filled pillows.^113a But in the end everyone knew she was a fraud.

His Majesty who had gone towards Chanāda (Chunār), returned safe and sound.

My lady who was Māham Begam, gave a great feast. (22b) They lit up the bāzārs.^113b Before that time people used to illuminate the bāzārs (only). Then she gave orders to the better class and to the soldiers also to decorate their places and make their quarters beautiful, and after this illumination became general in India.

… a jewelled throne,^113c ascended by four steps, and above it gold-embroidered hangings, and laid on it a cushion and pillows embroidered in gold.

The covering of the pavilions and of the large audience tent was, inside, European brocade, and outside, Portuguese cloth. The tent-poles were gilded; that was very ornamental.

(My lady) had prepared a tent-lining and a kannat^113d and sar-i-kannat of Gujrātī cloth-of-gold, and a ewer for rose-water, and candlesticks, and drinking-vessels, and rosewater sprinklers,—all of jewelled gold.

With all her stores of plenishing, she made an excellent and splendid feast.

… twelve strings of camels, and twelve of mules, and seventy tipūchāq horses, and one hundred baggage horses. She gave special robes of honour to 7,000 persons. The festivities lasted several days.¹¹⁴

At this time came news that Muḥammad-zamān Mīrzā^114a had killed the father of Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān kūkī,^114b and was meditating rebellion. (23a) His Majesty sent to summon them^114c to the presence, and having laid hands on them, imprisoned them in Bayāna, in charge of Uncle Yādgār. Uncle Yādgār's men sided with Muḥammad-zamān Mīrzā, and let him escape (1533—940H.). At this time it was ordered that Sulṭān Muḥammad Mīrzā^114d and Nai^114e (Walī) Khūb Sulṭān Mīrzā should both be blinded. Nai Khūb Sulṭān lost his sight, but the man who had the blinding of Muḥammad Sulṭān did not injure his eyes.^114f Muḥammad-zamān Mīrzā and Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā, with his sons, Ulugh Mīrzā and Shāh Mīrzā, made their escape a few days later.

There was perpetual disturbance from these people during the years we were in Hind.

When his Majesty returned from the campaign against Biban and Bāyazīd, he was in Āgra¹¹⁵ for about a year. He said to my lady: ‘I am sad at heart in these days. If you approved, I would go with you to Guālīār.’^115a Her Highness my lady, and my mother (ājam),^115b and my sisters Ma'ṣūma^115c Sulṭān Begam, whom we used to call Elder sister^115d Moon, and Gul-rang Begam, whom we used to call Elder sister Rose,—we all were in Guālīār in attendance on the beneficent ladies.^115e

As Gul-chihra Begam was in Oude, and her husband, Tūkhtā-būghā Sulṭān, went to the mercy of God, her attendants wrote to his Majesty from Oude and said: ‘Tūkhtā-būghā Sulṭān is dead. (23b) What is the order about the begam?’ His Majesty said to Mīr Zāycha:^115f ‘Go and bring the begam to Āgra. We also are going there.’

At this time her Highness my lady said: ‘If you approve, I will send for Bega Begam and ‘Aqīqa, so that they also may see Guālīār.’ She despatched Naukār^115g and Khwāja Kabīr, who brought them from Āgra.

They let two months slip by in one another's company in Guālīār, and then set out for Āgra, which they reached in February, 1534 (Sha'bān, 940 H.).¹¹⁶

In April (Shawwāl) my lady was attacked by a disorder of the bowels. On the 27th of the same month (13th Shawwāl) she passed from this transitory life to the eternal home.

The stamp of orphanhood was set anew on my royal father's children, and especially on me, for whom she herself had cared. I felt lonely and helpless and in great affliction. Day and night I wept and mourned and grieved. His Majesty came several times to comfort me, and showed me sympathy and kindness. I was two years old when her Highness my lady took me into her own house and cared for me, and I was ten when she departed from this life. (24a) I remained one year more in her house.^116a When I was eleven, and his Majesty went to Dholpūr, I accompanied my mother.¹¹⁷ This will have been before he went to Guālīār and began to build.^117a

At the end of the mourning for my lady, his Majesty went to Dihlī^117b and began to build the fort of Dīn-panā.^117c He then returned to Āgra.

Dearest lady^117d (Khānzāda Begam) said to his Majesty: ‘When will you make Mīrzā Hindāl's marriage feast?’ His Majesty replied: ‘B'ismu-l-lāh.’ When Mīrzā Hindāl was married, my lady (Māham) was living, but there was delay in arranging the feast. (Khānzāda Begam) said: ‘The things for the Mystic Feast are also ready. Let us first celebrate this, and afterwards Mīrzā Hindāl's.’ His Majesty said: ‘Let whatever my royal aunt wishes be done.’ She replied: ‘May God bless it and make it good.’

DESCRIPTION OF THE HOUSE OF FEASTING WHICH WAS SET UP ON THE RIVER'S BANK, AND WHICH WAS CALLED THE MYSTIC¹¹⁸ HOUSE:

First there was a large octagonal room with an octagonal tank in the centre, and again, in the middle of the reservoir, an octagonal platform on which were spread Persian (wilāyatī) carpets. (24b) Young men and pretty girls and elegant women and musicians and sweet-voiced reciters were ordered to sit in the tank.^118a

The jewelled throne which my lady had given for the feast was placed in the fore-court of the house, and a gold-embroidered divan^118b was laid in front of it, (on which) his Majesty and dearest lady sat together.

On her right sat her paternal aunts, the daughters of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā:

1.^118c Fakhr-jahān Begam.

2. Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam.

3. Āq^118d Begam.

4. Sulṭān Bakht Begam.

5. Gūhar-shād Begam.

6. Khadīja Sulṭān Begam.

Upon another cushion sat our paternal aunts, the sisters of his Majesty, Firdaus-makānī:

7. Shahr-bānū Begam.

8. Yādgār Sulṭān Begam.

(N.B.—Other guests of the right follow).

9. 'Āyisha Sulṭān Begam, daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā.

10. Ulugh Begam, daughter of Zainab Sulṭān Begam, a paternal aunt of his Majesty.

11. 'Āyisha Sulṭān Begam.

12. Sulṭānī Begam, daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā, paternal (great-) uncle of his Majesty¹¹⁹ and mother of Kilān Khān Begam. (25a)

13. Bega Sulṭān Begam, daughter of Sulṭān Khalīl Mīrzā, paternal (grand-)uncle of his Majesty.

14. Māham Begam.^119a

15. Begī Begam, daughter of Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Kābulī, paternal (grand-)uncle of his Majesty.

16. Khānzāda Begam, daughter of Sulṭān Mas'ūd Mīrzā; on her mother's side, grand-daughter of Payanda Muḥam-mad Sulṭān Begam, paternal (grand-)aunt of his Majesty.

17. Shāh Khānam, daughter of Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam (No. 2.).

18. Khānam Begam, daughter of Āq Begam (No. 3.).

19. Zainab Sulṭān Khānam, daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān, eldest maternal (grand-)uncle of his Majesty.

20. Muḥibb Sulṭān Khānam, daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān, — known as Ilācha Khān, the younger maternal uncle of the elder^119b Emperor (Bābar).

21. Khānish, sister of Mīrzā Ḥaidar and daughter of (a) maternal (great-)aunt of his Majesty.

22. Bega Kilān Begam.¹²⁰

23. Kīchak Begam.

24. Shāh Begam, mother of Dil-shād Begam, and daughter of Fakhr-jahān Begam (No. 1.), paternal (great-) aunt of his Majesty.

25. Kīchakna Begam.

26. Apāq (Āfāq) Begam, daughter of Sulṭān Bakht Begam (No. 4.).

27. Mihr-līq (? Mihr-bānū) Begam, paternal aunt of his Majesty.

28. Shād Begam, grand-daughter of Sulṭān Husain Mīrzā, and daughter of a paternal aunt of his Majesty (? No. 22.).

29. Mihr-angez Begam, daughter of Muẓaffar (Ḥusain) Mīrzā, and grandchild of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā. (25b) They had great friendship for one another (? Shād and Mihr-angez), and they used to wear men's clothes and were adorned by varied accomplishments, such as the making of thumb-rings^120a and arrows, playing polo, and shooting with the bow and arrow. They also played many musical instruments.

30. Gul Begam.

31. Fauq Begam.

32. Khān (? Jān) Begam.

33. Āfroz-bānū Begam.

34. Āgha Begam.

35. Fīroza Begam.

36. Barlās Begam.

There were other begams, very many, adding up altogether to ninety-six stipendiaries. There were also some others.

After the Mystic Feast (938 H.) came Mīrzā Hindāl's wedding-feast (Jauhar, 944 H.). Some of the begams already named went away,¹²¹ and (of those) some had sat at the right hand in that assembly (i.e., the Mystic Feast).^121a

Of our begams:

37. Āgha (Āghā,—passim, āgha), Sulṭān āghācha, mother of Yādgār Sulṭān Begam.

38. Ātūn māmā.

39. Salīma.

40. Sakīna.

41. Bībī Ḥabība.

42. Ḥanīfa Bega.

And the others who had sat¹²² at the Emperor's left on embroidered divans.

43. Ma'ṣūma Sulṭān Begam.

44. Gul-rang Begam.

45. Gul-chihra Begam.

46. This insignificant one, the broken Gul-badan.

47. 'Aqīqa Sulṭān Begam.

48. Ājam, our mother, who was Dil-dār Begam.^122a

49. Gul-barg Begam.

50. Bega Begam. (26a)

51. Māham's nanacha.

52. Sulṭānam, the wife of Amīr (Niẓāmu-d-dīn) Khalīfa.

53. Alūsh Begam.

54. Nāhīd Begam.

55. Khurshīd kūka, and the children of my royal father's foster-brothers.

56. Afghānī āghācha.

57.^122b Gul-nār āghācha.

58. Nāz-gul āghācha.

59. Makhdūma āgha, the wife of Hindū Beg.

60. Faṭīma Sulṭān anaga, the mother of Raushan kūka.

61. Fakhru-n-nisā' anaga, the mother of Nadīm kūka.

62. The wife of Muḥammadī kūka.

63. The wife of Mu'yid Beg.

64. The kūkas of his Majesty: Khurshīd kūka.

65. Sharīfu-n-nisā' kūka.

66. Fatḥ kūka.

67. Rabī'a Sulṭān kūka.

68. Māh-liqā kūka.

69. Our nurses (anaga).

70. Our kūkas.

71. The begams' people and the wives of the amīrs.

Those who were on the right.

73. Salīma Bega.

74. Bībī Neka.

75. Khānam āgha, daughter of Khwāja 'Abdu-l-lāh Marwārīd.

76. Nigār āgha, mother of Mughal Beg.

77. Nār Sulṭān āgha.

78. Āgha kūka, wife of Mu'nim Khān.

79. Daughter of Mīr Shāh Ḥusain, (illegible) Bega.

80. Kīsak Māham.

81. Kābulī Māham.

82. Begī āgha.

83. Khānam āgha.

84. Sa'ādat Sulṭān āgha.

85. Bībī Daulat-bakht.

86. Naṣīb āgha.

87. (Illegible) Kābulī.

Other begas and āghas, the wives of the amīrs, sat on this hand, and all were present at the marriage feast. (26b)

This was the fashion of the Mystic House: (there was) a large octagonal room in which they gave the feast, over against this a small room, also octagonal. In both every sort of profusion and splendour appeared. In the large octagonal hall was set the jewelled throne, and above and below it were spread out hangings (adṣaqahāī) embroidered with gold, and wonderful strings of pearls (shadhīhā) hung, each 1 1/2 yards (gaz) in length. At the end of each string (larī) were two glass globes. There had been made and hung some thirty or forty strings.

In the small room, in an alcove, were set a gilded bedstead and pān-dishes,¹²³ and water-vessels and jewelled drinking-vessels, and utensils of pure gold and silver.

Facing west (was) the audience hall; facing east, the garden; on the third side and facing south, the large octagon; and on the side facing north, the small one. In these three houses were three upper rooms. One they named the House of Dominion,¹²⁴ and in it were nine military appurtenances, such as a jewelled scimitar and gilded armour, a broad dagger and a curved dagger, and a quiver, all gilt, and a gold-embroidered overmantle.^124a (27a)

In the second room, called the House of Good Fortune, an oratory had been arranged, and books placed, and gilded pen-cases,^124b and splendid portfolios,^124c and entertaining picture-books written in beautiful character.^124d

In the third room, which they called the House of Pleasure, were set out a gilded bedstead and a coffer of sandal-wood, and all imaginable pillows. Then in front were spread specially choice coverlets,^124e and before these table-cloths, all of gold brocade. Various fruits and beverages had been got ready, and everything for merriment and comfort and pleasure.

On the feast-day of the Mystic House, his Majesty ordered all the mīrzās and begams to bring gifts,^124f and everyone did so. He said: ‘Divide the gifts into three heaps.’ They made three trays of ashrafīs and six of shāhrukhīs. One of ashrafīs and two of shāhrukhīs he gave to Hindū Beg and said: ‘This is the share of Dominion; give it to the mīrzās and chiefs and vazīrs and soldiers.’ (27b)

He gave in the same way to Mullā Muḥammad Farghārī (Parghālī) and said: ‘This is the share of Good Fortune. Give it to those who are eminent and respectable, and to theologians and religious men, to ascetics and graybeards, and dervishes and devotees, and the poor and the needy.’

Concerning one tray of ashrafīs and two of shāhrukhīs he said: ‘This is the portion of Pleasure. This is mine. Bring it forward.’ They did so. He said: ‘What need is there to count?’ First he himself vouchsafed his blessed hand and said: ‘Let them take to the begams on one small tray ashrafīs and on another shāhrukhīs. Let each person take her hands full.’ What was left, that is two trays of shāh-rukhīs ,—which may have been 10,000,—and all the ashrafīs, —about 2,000—he gave in largesse, and scattered¹²⁵ first before the walī 'u-n-ni' matān (beneficent seniors), and then to those present at the entertainment. No one received less than 100 or 150, and those in the tank especially received very much. (28a) His Majesty was pleased to say: ‘Dearest lady! if you approved, they might put water in the tank.’ She replied: ‘Very good,’ and went herself and sat at the top of the steps. People were taking no notice, when all at once (?) the tap was turned and water came. (28a) The young people got very much excited. His Majesty said: ‘There is no harm; each of you will eat a pellet of anise^125a and a bit of comfit^125b and come out of there.’ Upon this, everyone who would eat the comfit came out quickly. The water was as high as their ankles. To end the story, everyone ate the comfit and all came out.

Then the viands of the feast were set forth, and robes of honour were put on,¹²⁶ and gifts bestowed, and head-to-foot dresses given to the comfit-eaters and others.

On the margin of the tank was a room (tālār)^126a fitted with talc windows, and young people sat in the room and players made music. Also a woman's bāzār^126b had been arranged, and boats had been decorated. In one boat was made (?) the semblance of six people (kasī) and six alcoves (kanj); in (another) an upper room, and below it a garden with amaranthus and cockscombs and larkspurs^126c and tulips. In one place there were eight boats, so that there were eight pieces.^126d

In short, everyone was astonished and amazed who beheld what gift of contrivance the great God had bestowed on the blessed mind of his Majesty. (28b)

Sulṭānam Begam (i.e., the bride) was a sister of Mahdī Khwāja.^126f My father's brother-in law (yazna) had no child except Ja'far Khwāja, and there was no child (?) of Khān-zāda Begam).^126g Dearest lady had taken care of Sulṭānam as though she were her child. Sulṭānam was two years old when Khānzāda Begam took charge of her. She (Khānzāda) loved her very much, and thought of her as a brother's child of her own. She made a most entertaining and splendid feast.

A kūshka¹²⁷ and hangings (adṣaqa)^127a and five divans and five pillows for the head (yīstūq), and one large pillow and two round ones (galūla); and girdles (qūshqa) and veils (naqāb), together with a tent^127b … with three gold-embroidered cushions and head-to-foot dresses for a prince, with collar and bordering of gold embroidery, and bath-wrappers (fauṭa) and napkins (rūpāk) and embroidered towels (rūmāl) and an embroidered mantle (qūrposh) to be worn over the armour.

For Sulṭānam Begam: nine jackets (nīm-tana)^127c with garniture of jewelled balls,^127d one of ruby, one of cornelian, one of emerald, one of turquoise, one of topaz, and one of cat's-eye.

Again: of necklaces, nine; and one embroidered collar and bordering, and four short jackets¹²⁸ with ball-trimming (tukma-dār), and one pair of ruby earrings and another of pearls, three fans,^128a and one royal umbrella.

One dirakht^128b and two khuṭb^128c and other furniture and effects, and household goods and chattels and workshops^128d of all sorts. (29a) Khānzāda Begam gave everything she had collected, and she arranged a feast such as had not been made for any other child of my royal father. She planned it all and carried it all out.

… nine tipūchāq horses, with jewelled and gold-embroidered saddles and bridles; and gold and silver vessels and slaves,^128e Tūrkī and Circassian and Arūs (? Rūs) and Abyssinian,—of each (race) a royal gift of nine.

What my royal father's brother-in-law^128f (Mahdī Khwāja) gave to the mīrzā was a set of nine tipūchāq horses, with jewelled and gold-embroidered saddles and bridles; and gold and silver vessels, and two other sets of nine horses, baggage animals, with velvet saddles and bridles; and brocade and Portuguese cloth, and Tūrkī and Ḥabshī and Hindī slaves,—in all, three sets of nine; and three head of elephants.

In his Majesty's leisure after the feast came news that the vazīr of Sulṭān Bahādur, Khurāsān Khān by name, had attacked Bayāna. His Majesty despatched Mīrzā 'Askarī, with several amīrs, Mīr Faqr-'ali Beg and Mīr Tardī Beg, etc.. These went to Bayāna and fought and defeated Khurāsān Khān.¹²⁹ (29b) The Emperor set out for Gujrāt shortly afterwards, in prosperity and safety. It was on the 15th of the revered Rajab 941H.^129a that he quite decided to go himself to Gujrāt. He set up his advance camp in the Gold-scattering Garden, and there spent a month while the forces were gathering in.

On court days, which were Sundays and Tuesdays, he used to go to the other side of the river. During his stay in the garden, ājam (Dil-dār Begam) and my sisters and the ladies (ḥaramān) were often in his company. Of all the tents, Ma'ṣūma Sulṭān Begam's was at the top of the row. Next came Gul-rang Begam's, and ājam's was in the same place. Then the tent of my mother,^129b Gul-barg Begam and of Bega Begam^129c and the others.

They set up the offices (kār-khānahā) and got them into order. When they had put up the pavilions (khaima) and tents (khar-gāh) and the audience tent (bār-gāh), the Emperor came to see the camp and the splendid set-out, and visited the begams and his sisters. As he had dismounted somewhat near Ma'ṣūma Sulṭān Begam's (tent), he honoured her with a visit. All of us, the begams and my sisters, were in his society. (30a) When he went to any begam's or sister's quarters, all the begams and all his sisters used to go with him. Next day he came to the tent¹³⁰ of this lowly person, and the entertainment lasted till the third watch^130a of the night. Many begams were there, and his sisters, and ladies of rank (begahā) and of position (āghāhā), and other ladies (āghāchahā), and musicians and reciters. After the third watch his Majesty was pleased to command repose. His sisters and the begams made resting-places (takīa) in his presence.^130b

Bega Begam woke (us) up, and said: ‘It is time for prayers.’^130c His Majesty ordered water for ablution^130d made ready where he was, and so the begam knew that he was awake. She began a complaint, and said to him: ‘For several days now you have been paying visits in this garden, and on no one day have you been to our^130e house. Thorns have not been planted in the way to it. We hope you will deign to visit our quarters also, and to have a party and a sociable gathering there, too. How long will you think it right to show all these disfavours to us helpless ones? We too have hearts. Three times you have honoured other places by visits, and you have run day and night into one in amusement and conversation.’ (30b)

When she had finished, his Majesty said nothing, and went to prayers. At the first watch of the day he came out and sent for his sisters and the begams, and for Dil-dār Begam, and Afghānī āghācha, and Gul-nār āghācha, and Meywa-jān and Āghā-jān, and the nurses (anagahā). We all went, and he said not a word, so everyone knew he was angry. Then after a little he began: ‘Bībī, what illtreatment at my hands did you complain of this morning?’ and: ‘That was not the place to make a complaint. You all (shumā) know that I have been to the quarters of the elder relations (walī'u-n-ni'matān) of you all (shumāyān). It is a necessity laid on me to make them happy. Nevertheless, I am ashamed before them because I see them so rarely. It has long been in my mind to ask from you all a signed declaration (sijlī), and it is as well that you have brought me to the speaking-point. I am an opium-eater. If there should be delay in my comings and goings, do not be angry with me. Rather, write me a letter, and say: “Whether it please you to come or whether it please you not to come, we are content and are thankful to you.”’

Gul-barg Begam wrote to this effect at once, and he settled it with her.¹³¹ Bega Begam insisted a little, saying: ‘The excuse looked worse than the fault.^131a (31a) We complained in order that your Majesty might lift up our heads by your favour. Your Majesty has carried the matter to this point! What remedy have we? You are Emperor.’ She wrote a letter and gave it to him, and he made it up^131b with her also.

On February 18th, 1534 (Sha'bān 14th, 941 H.), he set out from the Gold-scattering Garden and marched for Gujrāt, to fall upon Sulṭān Bahādur. They confronted one another at Manḥasūr (Mandsūr); a battle was fought, and Sulṭān Bahādur, on his defeat, fled to Champānīr. Then his Majesty resolved to pursue him. Sulṭān Bahādur left Champānīr and went towards Aḥmadābād.¹³² His Majesty took the country of Aḥmadābād also, and portioned out the whole of Gujrāt to his men. Aḥmadābād he bestowed on Mīrzā 'Askarī,^132a Bahrūch on Qāsim Ḥusain Sulṭān,^132b and Patan on Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrzā.^132c

He himself, with a small following, went from Champānīr to visit Kanbāyat^132d (Cambay). A few days later there came a woman with news, and said: ‘Why are you sitting here? The men of Kanbāyat have gathered, and will fall upon you unless your Majesty rides off.’ The royal amīrs attacked the rabble,^132e and got them into their hands and cut them in pieces. (31b)

His Majesty then went to Baroda, and from there towards Champānīr.^132f We had settled down, when there

>graphic<

SHĪR SHĀH AFGHĀN.
[To face p. 133.

was a tumult, and Mīrzā 'Askarī's people left Aḥmadābād and came to the Emperor. They represented to him that Mīrzā 'Askarī¹³³ and Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrzā had conspired, and wished to go to Āgra. On hearing this, he himself was forced to go; he left the important affairs of Gujrāt [(?) its pacification], and turned away and went to Āgra. Here he spent as much as a year.^133a

He then went to Chanāda (Chunār), and took it,^133b and also Benares. Shīr Khān was in Charkanda,^133c and made an offer of service, saying: ‘I am your old servant. Give me a place with a fixed boundary in which I may establish myself.’

His Majesty was considering this, when the king of Gaur Bangāla^133d came wounded and a fugitive. For this reason he gave no attention (to Shīr Khān), but marched towards Gaur Bangāla. Shīr Khān knew that his Majesty had gone there, and went himself also with a large detachment of horse, and joined his son (Jilāl Khān), who was in Gaur with his servant Khawāṣ Khān. Shīr Khān sent them out, and said: ‘Go and fortify Garhī.’^133e (32a)

Both came and occupied Garhī. His Majesty had written to Jahāngīr Beg: ‘Advance a stage, and go up to Garhī.’ There was fighting, and Jahāngīr Beg was wounded and many men were slain.

When the Emperor had spent three or four days in Kohlgānū (Colgong), it became advisable for him to march on and halt near Garhī. He marched forward, and when he came near Garhī, Shīr Khān and Khawāṣ Khān fled by night, and he entered Garhī next day. Thence he went to Gaur Bangāla, and took it.

He was nine months in the far-away country of Gaur, and named it Jannatābād.¹³⁴

He was comfortably and safely in Gaur, when news came that some of the amīrs had deserted and joined Mīrzā Hindāl.^134a

Khusrau Beg^134b (kūkaltāsh) and Zahīd Beg^134c and Sayyīd Amīr^134d paid their respects to the mīrzā, and said: ‘The Emperor has gone comfortably far away, and the mīrzās, Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā and his sons, Ulugh Mīrzā and Shāh Mīrzā, have again raised their heads,^134e and continually keep showing themselves in company.’ (32b)

Just at this time the asylum of shaikhs, the servitor (bandagī) Shaikh Bahlūl, hid^134f armour and horse-accoutrements and military stores in an underground place, and would have loaded them on carts and sent them to Shīr Khān and the mīrzās.¹³⁵ Mīrzā Hindāl would not believe it, so Mīrzā Nūru-d-dīn Muḥammad was sent to inquire into the matter. He found the armour and accoutrements, and had Bandagī Shaikh Bahlūl killed.^135a The Emperor, on hearing news of it, set out for Āgra.

He was coming by that side of the Ganges (i.e., the left bank) opposite Mungīr, when his amīrs represented: ‘You are a great king! Return by the way you came, lest Shīr Khān should say: “Forsaking his road of advance, he took another of retreat.”’^135b The Emperor returned to Mungīr, and brought many of his people and his family by boat up the river as far as Ḥajīpūr-Patna.

When he went (to Bengal) he had left Qāsim (Ḥusain Sulṭān Uzbeg) there. Now came news of Shīr Khān's approach. Whenever there was fighting, the royal troops won.

Just now Bābā Beg (Jalāīr) came from Jaunpūr and Mīrak Beg from Chanāda (Chunār), and Mughal Beg from Oude. (33a) As these three amīrs joined the Emperor, corn became dear.

Then,—such was God's will,—they had halted without precaution, when Shīr Khān came and fell upon them. The army was defeated, and many kinsmen and followers remained in captivity. His Majesty's own blessed hand was wounded. Three days he remained in Chunār, and then came to Araīl.^135c

When his Majesty reached the river's bank, he stopped, bewildered as to the crossing, and said: ‘How to cross without boats!’ Then came the rāja (Bīrbahān) with five or six horsemen and led him through a ford. For four or five days his people were without food or drink. At last the rāja started a bāzār, so that the people of the army lived some days in comfort and repose. The horses also were rested. Many men who were on foot bought fresh mounts. In short, the rāja rendered fitting and dutiful services. Later on his Majesty gave him leave to go, and at the hour of mid-day prayer came himself, safely and comfortably, to the bank of the Jamna. The army crossed at a ford they had found. A few days later they came to Karra, where corn and grass were plentiful, because it was his Majesty's own country. (33b)

When his people were rested, he went on to Kalpī, and then marched on to Āgra.

Before his arrival in Āgra, he heard news that Shīr Khān was coming (from) the direction of Chausa. Great anxiety fell upon his people.

Of many who were in that rout (at Chausa) there was never heard, in any way soever, news or sign. Amongst them were 'Āyisha Sulṭān Begam, daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā¹³⁶ (Bāyqrā); and Bachaka, who was a khalīfa of my royal father;^136a and Bega-jān kūka; and 'Aqīqa Begam;^136b and Chānd Bībī, who was seven months with child, and Shād Bībī, all three¹³⁷ (sic) of whom were of his Majesty's ḥaram. Of these several people, he never heard even a word, as to whether they were drowned or what became of them. In spite of all possible inquiry and search, what had become of them was never found out.

His own illness^137a dragged on for forty days, and he then grew better.

At this time, when Khusrau Beg (kūkultāsh), and Diwāna Beg, and Zahīd Beg, and Sayyid Amīr, had come on in advance of his Majesty, news again arrived that the mīrzās, Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā and his sons, had come to Kanauj. (34a)

After Shaikh Bahlūl's murder, Mīrzā Hindāl went to Dihlī. He took with him Mīr Faqr-'alī and other well-wishers to frustrate and disperse the mīrzās. The mīrzās fled, and came into the Kanauj quarter. Mīr Faqr-'alī brought Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir to Dihlī. As there was neither friendliness nor confidence between Mīrzā Hindāl and Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, Mīrzā Hindāl, when Mīr Faqr-'alī made this mistake, sat down out of sheer annoyance and besieged Dihlī.^137b

When Mīrzā Kāmrān heard these things, there arose in him also a desire of sovereignty. With 12,000 fully equipped horsemen he went to Dihlī. Mīr Faqr-'alī and Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir closed the city gates on his approach. Two or three days later, Mīr Faqr-'alī, having made an agreement, went and saw Mīzrā Kāmrān. He represented: ‘The news heard of his Majesty and Shīr Khān may be so and so.^137c Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, from thought of his own interest, does not wait on you. The advisable course at this crisis is, that you should lay hands on Mīrzā Hindāl, go to Āgra, and not think of establishing yourself in Dihlī.’ (34b)

Mīrzā Kāmrān gave heed to Mīr Faqr-'alī's words, and bestowed on him a head-to-foot dress. He then seized Mīrzā Hindāl and came to Āgra. He visited the tomb of Firdaus-makānī,¹³⁸ saw his mother and sisters, and halted in the Rose-scattering^138a Garden.

At this time Nūr Beg brought word of his Majesty's coming.^138b As Mīrzā Hindāl was excluded from the presence because of the murder of Shaikh Bahlūl, he went to Alwar.^138c

A few days after his Majesty's arrival, Mīrzā Kāmrān came from the Rose-scattering Garden and paid his respects to him. We paid our respects on the evening of the day he came. He took notice of this insignificant one, and was kindly pleased to say: ‘I did not know you at first, because when I led the army (whose footprints are victorious)^138d to Gaur Bangāla, you wore the high cap (ṭāq), and now when I saw the muslin coif^138e I did not recognise you. And oh, my Gul-badan, I used very often to think of you, and was sometimes sorry, and said: “I do wish I had brought her!” But at the time of the disaster (fiṭrāt) I was thankful I had not, and I said: (35a) “Thank God I did not bring Gul-badan!” For although 'Aqīqa^138f was young, I have been consumed by a hundred thousand regrets and cares, and have said: “Why did I take her with the army?”’

A few days later he came to see my mother. He had with him the Holy Book. He commanded the attendants to retire¹³⁹ for awhile, and they rose and there was privacy. Then he said to ājam (Dil-dār Begam) and this insignificant one, and to Afghānī āghācha, and Gul-nār āghācha, and Nār-gul āghācha, and my nurse (anaga): ‘Hindāl is my strength^139a and my spear;^139b the desirable light of my eyes, the might of my arm, the desired, the beloved. May what I do be right! What shall I say to Mīrzā Muḥammad Hindāl about the affair of my^139c Shaikh Bahlūl? What was to be has been! Now there is no anger in my heart against Hindāl. If you do not believe it’ … He had lifted up the Holy Book when her Highness my mother, Dil-dār Begam, and this poor thing snatched it from his hand. All cried, ‘May what you do be right! Why do you say such things?’

Then again he spoke: ‘How would it be, Gul-badan, if you went yourself and fetched your brother, Muḥammad Hindāl Mīrzā?’ (35b) Her Highness, my mother, said: ‘This girlie (dukhtarak) is young. She has never made a journey (alone). If you approved, I would go.’ His Majesty said: ‘If I give you this trouble, it is because it is clearly incumbent on fathers and mothers to feel for their children. If you would honour him with a visit, it would be a healing-balm applied for us all.’

Then he sent Mīr Abū'l-baqā^139d with her Highness my mother, to fetch Mīrzā Hindāl. At once on hearing this news: ‘She has come to see me!’ Muḥammad Hindāl Mīrzā made his mother happy by giving her honourable meeting. He came with her from Alwar, and paid his duty to his Majesty.¹⁴⁰ About Shaikh Bahlūl he said: ‘He used to send arms and military appurtenances to Shīr Khān. When this was ascertained, I killed the shaikh on account of it.’

To put it briefly: in a short time came news that Shīr Khān had come near Lakhnau.

In those days his Majesty had a certain servant, a water-carrier. (36a) As he had been parted from his horse in the river at Chausa and this servant betook himself to his help and got him safe and sound out of the current, his Majesty now seated him on the throne. The name of that me??ial person we did not hear, some said Niẓām, some said Sambal. But to cut the story short, his Majesty made the water-carrier servant sit on the throne, and ordered all the amīrs to make obeisance to him. The servant gave everyone what he wished, and made appointments. For as much as two days the Emperor gave royal power to that menial. Mīrzā Hindāl was not present at his court;^140a he had taken leave, and had again gone to Alwar with the intention of getting arms ready. Neither did Mīrzā Kāmrān appear. He was ill, and sent to say to his Majesty: ‘Gifts and favours of some other kind ought to be the servant's reward. What propriety is there in setting him on the throne? At a time when Shīr Khān is near, what kind of affair is this to engage your Majesty?’

In those days Mīrzā Kāmrān's illness increased amazingly. He became weak and so thin that his face was not in the least his own, and there was no hope of his life. (36b) By the Divine mercy he grew better. He suspected that the Emperor's mothers,¹⁴¹ by his Majesty's advice, had given him poison. His Majesty came to hear of this, and instantly went to see the mīrzā and swore that he had never had such a thought, nor given such an order to any one. Nevertheless, Mīrzā Kāmrān's heart was not purged. Afterwards he got worse, day after day, and he lost power of speech.

When news came that Shīr Khān had left Lakhnau, the Emperor marched towards Kanauj, and left Mīrzā Kāmrān in Āgra to act for him. In a few days the mīrzā heard that he had made a bridge of boats and crossed the Ganges. On this, he himself marched out of Āgra towards Lāhōr.^141a

We had settled down^141b when he sent^141c a farmān like a king's, and said: ‘You^141d are commanded to go with me to Lāhōr.’ He must have said^141e to his Majesty about me something of this sort: ‘I am very ill and very miserable and lonely, and I have no one^141f to sympathize with me. (37a) If you will order Gul-badan Begam to go with me to Lāhōr, it will be a real favour and kindness.’ For his sake his Majesty will have said: ‘She shall go.’ Two or three days after the Emperor had gone towards Lakhnau, the mīrzā sent a farmān,^141g in royal style, to the effect: ‘Most assuredly you will come with me.’ Then my mother must have said: ‘She has never travelled apart from us.’ He replied:^141h ‘If she has not travelled alone, do you also go with her.’ He sent as many as 500 troopers and trusty grooms, and both his foster-father and his foster-brother, and said (to my mother): ‘If she may not go with me (to Lāhōr), come all of you one stage.’ When one stage was reached, he began to declare, on his oath: ‘I will not let you go.’ Then he took me by main force, with a hundred weepings and complaints and laments, away from my mothers, and my own mother and my sisters, and my father's people, and my brothers, and parted us who had all grown up together from infancy.¹⁴²

I saw that the Emperor's command also was in the affair. I was helpless. (37b) I wrote a suppliant letter, saying: ‘I never expected your Majesty to cut off this insignificant one from your service, and to give her to Mīrzā Kāmrān.’ To this humble note he sent a compassionate answer (salām-nāma), to this effect: ‘I had no heart to part with you, but the mīrzā persisted, and was miserable, and begged very hard, and I was obliged to trust you to him. For just now there is important work^142a on hand. God willing, I will send for you when it is settled.’

When the mīrzā was starting, many people, amīrs and traders and so on, made preparation with the intention of letting their wives and families march under his escort to Lāhōr. When we reached (the city) news came of a battle on the Ganges, and that defeat had befallen the royal army.^142b

At least there was this limit to misfortune,—his Majesty and his brothers came safely through the peril.^142c Our other relations^142d came from Āgra by way of Alwar to Lāhōr. (38a) Just now the Emperor said to Mīrzā Hindāl: ‘'Aqīqa Begam disappeared in that first interregnum (fitrat)¹⁴³ and I repented extremely, and said: “Why did I not kill her in my own presence?” Now, again, it is difficult to convey women with us.’ Mīrzā Hindāl answered: ‘What it would be to your Majesty to kill a mother and a sister, speaks for itself! So long as there is life in me, I will fight in their service. I have hope in the most high God, that,—poor fellow as I am,—I may pour out my life's blood for my mother and my sisters.’

Then the Emperor set out for Fatḥipūr (Sīkrī) with Mīrzā 'Askarī and Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrza and the amīrs who had come safely off the battlefield.^143a

Mīrzā Hindāl sent on before him^143b her Highness his mother, who was Dil-dār Begam, and his own sister, Gul-chihra Begam, and Afghānī āghācha, and Gul-nār āghācha, and Nār-gul āghācha, and the amīrs' wives and families, etc.. He was marching along when the Gawārs pursued him in great numbers. (38b) Some of his troopers charged and defeated them. An arrow struck his horse.^143c There was much fighting and confusion. Having saved the helpless women from the bond of the Gawārs, he sent on (to Lāhōr) his mother and sister, and many of the amīrs' people, etc., and went to Alwar. Here he got together tents and pavilions and numerous requisites, and then started for Lāhōr. He arrived in a few days, and brought what was wanted for the princes and the amīrs.

His Majesty alighted in Khwāja Ghāzī's garden near Bībī Ḥāj-tāj.¹⁴⁴ Every day there was news of Shīr Khān; and during the three months that the Emperor was in Lāhōr word was brought day after day: ‘Shīr Khān has advanced four miles,’ ‘six miles,’ till he was near Sirhind.

One of the amīrs was named Muẓaffar Beg. He was a Tūrkmān. The Emperor sent him with Qāzī 'Abdu-l-lāh to Shīr Khān to say: ‘What justice is there in this? I have left you the whole of Hindūstān. Leave Lāhōr alone, and let Sirhind, where you are, be a boundary between you and me.” (39a) But that unjust man, fearless of God, did not consent, and answered: ‘I have left you Kābul. You should go there.’

Muẓaffar Beg marched at once, and sent on an express to say: ‘A move must be made.’ As soon as this message came, his Majesty set off. It was like the Day of Resurrection. People left their decorated places and furniture just as they were, but took with them whatever money they had. There was thankfulness to God, because mercifully a ford was found across the Lāhōr water (Rāvī) where everyone crossed. His Majesty halted a few days on the river's bank. Then an ambassador came from Shīr Khān. The Emperor had decided to see him next morning, when Mīrzā Kāmrān made a petition, saying: ‘To-morrow there will be an entertainment, and Shīr Khān's envoy will be present. If I may sit on a corner of your Majesty's carpet, so that there may be distinction between me and my brothers, it will be a cause of my exaltation.’¹⁴⁵

Ḥamīda-bānū Begam says it was his Majesty who wrote and sent the following verse to the mīrzā.^145a I had heard that he sent it to Shīr Khān by the envoy. This is the verse:

‘Although one's image be shown in the mirror,
It remains always apart from one's self.’ (39b)
‘It is wonderful to see one's self in another form:
This marvel will be the work of God.’

When Shīr Khān's ambassador arrived he paid his respects.

The Emperor's blessed heart was cast down. He fell asleep in a sad mood, and saw in a dream a venerable man, dressed in green from head to foot and carrying a staff, who said: ‘Be of good cheer; do not grieve;’ and gave his staff into the royal hand. ‘The most high God will give you a son who shall be named Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar.’ The Emperor asked: ‘What is your honourable name?’ He answered: ‘The Terrible Elephant,^145b Aḥmad of Jām;’ and added: ‘Your son will be of my lineage.’^145c

In those days Bībī Gūnwar¹⁴⁶ was with child. Everyone said: ‘A son will be born.’ In that same garden of Dost munshī and in the month of Jumāda'u-l-awwal, a daughter was born whom they named Bakhshī-bānū.

At this time his Majesty appointed Mīrzā Ḥaidar to take Kashmīr. Meantime, news was brought that Shīr Khān was there. A wonderful confusion followed, and the Emperor decided to march off next morning. (40a)

While the brothers were in Lāhōr, they conferred and took counsel and asked advice, but they did not settle on any single thing. At last the news was: ‘Shīr Khān is here.’ Then, as there was no help for it, they marched off at the first watch of the day (9 a.m.).

The Emperor's wish was to go to Kashmīr, where he had sent Mīrzā Ḥaidar Kāshgharī; but news of the mīrzā's success had not yet come, and people counselled: ‘If your Majesty were to go to Kashmīr, and the country was not conquered at once, it would—with Shīr Khān in Lāhōr—be a very difficult time.’

Khwāja Kilān Beg^146a was in Sīālkōt, and disposed to serve his Majesty. With him was Mū'yid Beg, who wrote: ‘The khwāja greatly wishes to serve you and would come, but he has Mīrzā Kāmrān to consider. If your Majesty would come quickly, his help would be made easy in an excellent way.’ The Emperor at once took arms and equipment, and set out to go to the khwāja, and joined company with him and brought him along.^146b

The Emperor was pleased to say: ‘With my brothers' concurrence, I shall go to Badakhshān. (40b) Let Kābul remain the fief of Mīrzā Kāmrān.’ But Mīrzā Kāmrān would not consent to (his Majesty's) going to Kābul,¹⁴⁷ and said: ‘In his lifetime the Emperor Firdaus-makānī gave Kābul to my mother (Gulrukh Begam). It is not right (for you) to go to Kābul.’

Then said his Majesty: ‘As for Kābul, his Majesty Firdaus-makānī often used to say, “My Kābul I will give to no one; far from it! Let none of my sons covet it. There God gave me all my children, and many victories followed its capture.” Moreover, this expression of opinion is recorded many times in his Wāqi'a-nāma. What was the good of my showing kindness to the mīrzā from civility and brotherliness, if he now keep on talking in this way!’

Let his Majesty talk as he would, pacifying and conciliating, the mīrzā resisted more and more. When he saw that there was a large following with Mīrzā Kāmrān, and that the mīrzā was in no way willing for him to go to Kābul, he had no resource but to move towards Bhakkar and Multān. Having arrived in Multān, he halted one day. (41a) A small quantity of corn was obtained in the fort and having divided that little amongst his men, he marched on till he came to the bank of a river which was seven rivers in one.^147a He stood distracted. There were no boats, and he had a large camp with him. Then there came word that Khawāṣ Khān,^147b with several amīrs, was coming up behind.

There was a Balūchī named Bakhshū (sic) who had forts and many men. His Majesty sent him a banner and kettledrums, and a horse, and a head-to-foot suit, and asked for boats and also for corn. After a time Bakhshū Balūchī got together and sent about a hundred boats, full of corn too, for the royal service,—a proper attention which pleased the Emperor very much. He divided the corn amongst his people, and crossed the water¹⁴⁸ safe and sound. May mercy be shown to Bakhshū for his dutiful service!

After a weary journey, they reached Bhakkar at last. The fort is in the middle of the river and very strong. The governor, Sulṭān Maḥmūd (Bhakkarī),^148a had fortified himself in it. (41b) The Emperor alighted safe and well over against the fort, near which was a garden^148b made by Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain Samandar.^148c

At length his Majesty sent Mīr Samandar to Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā with this message: ‘We have come into your territory under compulsion. May your country be blessed to you! We shall not take possession of it. Would to Heaven you would yourself come and pay us your respects, and do us the service which is our due! We intend to go to Gujrāt, and should leave you your own country.’ By tricks and wiles, Shāh Ḥusain kept his Majesty as much as five months in Samandar; then he sent a person to wait on him, and to say: ‘I am arranging my daughter's wedding-feast, and I send (someone) to wait on you. I shall come (later).’ His Majesty believed him, and waited still three months. Sometimes there was corn to be had, sometimes not. The soldiers killed and ate their horses and camels. Then his Majesty sent again, by Shaikh 'Abdu-l-ghafūr,¹⁴⁹ to ask: ‘How much longer will you be? What prevents you from coming? (42a) Things have come to such a pass that there is inconvenience, and many of my men are deserting.’ The reply was: ‘My daughter^149a is promised to Mīrzā Kāmrān, and a meeting with me is impossible. I could not wait on you.’

As at this time Mīrzā Muḥammad Hindāl crossed the river, some said he might be going to Qandahār.^149b On hearing this his Majesty sent several people after him to make inquiry and to say: ‘It is reported that you plan going to Qandahār.’ When questioned, the mīrzā said: ‘People have given a wrong impression.’ On this the Emperor came^149c to see her Highness my mother.

The mīrzā's ḥaram and all his people paid their respects to his Majesty at this meeting. Concerning Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, his Majesty asked: ‘Who is this?’ They said: ‘The daughter of Mīr Bābā Dost.’ Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam^149d was standing opposite his Majesty, who said: ‘This boy will be one of my kinsmen (too?).’^149e Of Ḥamīda-bānū he said: ‘She, too, is related to me.’ (42b)

In those days Ḥamīda-bānū Begam was often in the mīrzā's residence (maḥall). Another day when his Majesty came to see her Highness my mother, he remarked: ‘Mīr Bābā Dost is related to us. It is fitting that you should give me his daughter in marriage.’ Mīrzā Hindāl kept on making objections, and said: ‘I look on this girl as a sister and child of my own. Your Majesty is a king. Heaven forbid there should not be a proper alimony, and that so a cause of annoyance should arise.’¹⁵⁰

His Majesty got angry, and rose and went away. Then my mother wrote and sent a letter, saying: ‘The girl's mother has even before this been using persuasion.^150a It is astonishing that you should go away in anger over a few words.’ He wrote in reply: ‘Your story is very welcome to me. Whatever persuasion you may use, by my head and eyes, I will agree to it. As for what they have written about alimony, please Heaven, what they ask will be done. My waiting eye is on the road.’ My mother fetched his Majesty, and on that day she gave a party. When it was over, he went to his own quarters. (43a) On another day he came to my mother, and said: ‘Send someone to call Ḥamīdā-bānū Begam here.’ When she sent, the begam did not come, but said: ‘If it is to pay my respects, I was exalted by paying my respects the other day. Why should I come again?’ Another time his Majesty sent Subḥān Qulī, and said: ‘Go to Mīrzā Hindāl, and tell him to send the begam.’ The mīrzā said: ‘Whatever I may say, she will not go. Go yourself and tell her.’ When Subḥān Qulī went and spoke, the begam replied: ‘To see kings once is lawful; a second time it is forbidden. I shall not come.’ On this Subḥān Qulī went and represented what she had said. His Majesty remarked: ‘If she is not a consort (nā maḥram), we will make her a consort (maḥram).’

To cut the story short: For forty days the begam resisted and discussed and disagreed. At last her highness my mother, Dil-dār Begam, advised her, saying: ‘After all you will marry someone. Better than a king, who is there?’ The begam said: ‘Oh yes, I shall marry someone; but he shall be a man whose collar my hand can touch, and not one whose skirt it does not reach.’ Then my mother again gave her much advice. (43b)

At last, after forty days (discussion), at mid-day on Monday (fault) Jumīdu-l-awwal (sic) 948H. (September, 1541), and in Pātr (sic), his Majesty took the astrolabe into his own blessed hand and, having chosen a propitious hour, summoned Mīr Abū'l-baqā and ordered him to make fast the marriage bond. He gave the mīr two laks of ready money for the dower¹⁵¹ (nikāḥāna), and having stayed three days after the wedding in Pātr, he set out and went by boat to Bhakkar.

He spent a month at Bhakkar and he sent Mīr Abū'l-baqā to Sulṭān Bhakkarī. The mīr fell ill while away, and went to the mercy of God.^151a

His Majesty then gave Mīrzā Hindāl leave to go to Qandahār, and he dismissed Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir to his own place, Lār. He himself went towards Seāwān^151b (Sehwān), which is six or seven days' journey from Tatta.¹⁵² Sehwān has a strong fort, in which was Mīr 'Alīka, a servant of his Majesty the Emperor.^152a There were several cannon, so no one could possibly go near. Some of the royal soldiers made trenches, and got near and gave him ('Alīka) advice, and said: (44a) ‘Disloyalty is not well at such a time,’ but Mīr 'Alīka did not agree with them. Then they made a mine and cast down a tower, but they could not take the fort. Corn became dear and many men deserted. The Emperor spent six or seven months there.

Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain treacherously laid hands on the royal soldiers in all directions, and made them over to his people, and said: ‘Take them and throw them into the salt sea.’ Three^152b or four hundred would be gathered into one place and flung into boats and thrown into the sea, till as many as 10,000 were cast forth.

^152c As after this there were few men even with the Emperor, (? Shāh Ḥusain) filled several boats with cannon and muskets, and came from Tatta against him. Sehwān is near the river. (? Mīr 'Alīka) hindered the coming of the royal boats and provisions, and sent to say: ‘(?) I am maintaining my loyalty. March off quickly.’ Having no remedy, the Emperor turned to Bhakkar.

When he came near and before he could reach it, Mīr (Shāh) Ḥusain Samandar had sent word to Mīrzā Yādgārnāṣir: (44b) ‘If the Emperor, when he is retreating, should come near Bhakkar,¹⁵³ do not let him in. Bhakkar may remain your holding. I am with you; I will give you my own daughter.’ The mīrzā believed him and did not allow the Emperor to enter the fort, but wished to make him go on, either by force or fraud.

His Majesty sent a messenger to say: ‘Bābā,^153a you are as a son to me. I left you in my stead, so that you might help me in case of need. What you are doing is done by the evil counsel of your servants. Those faithless servants will be faithless to you also.’ Whatever his Majesty urged had no effect.^153b Then he said: ‘Very well! I shall go to Rāja Māldeo.^153c I have bestowed this country on you, but Shāh Ḥusain will not let you keep it. You will remember my words.’ Having said this to the mīrzā, the Emperor marched away by way of Jīsalmīr, towards Māldeo. He reached Fort Dilāwar (Dirāwal), on the rāja's frontier, a few days later. (45a) He stayed there two days. Neither corn nor grass was to be had. He then went to Jīsalmīr, and on his approach the rāja sent out troops to occupy the road, and there was fighting. The Emperor and some others went aside off the road. Several men were wounded: Alūsh^153d Beg, brother of Shāhaṃ Jalāīr and Pīr Muḥammad the equerry, and Raushang the wardrobe-keeper, and some others.^153e At length the royal troops won and the infidels fled into the fort. That day the Emperor travelled 60 kos (cir. 120 miles), and then halted on the bank of a reservoir.

Next he came into Sītalmīr, where he was harassed all day till he reached Pahlūdī, a pargana of Māldeo. The rāja was in Jodhpūr, and sent armour and a camel's-load of ashrafīs, and greatly comforted his Majesty by saying: ‘You are welcome! I give you Bīkanīr.’ The Emperor halted with an easy mind, and despatched Atka Khān (Shamsu-d-dīn Ghaznarī) to Māldeo, and said: ‘What will his answer be?’¹⁵⁴

In the downfall and desolation in Hind, Mullā Surkh, the librarian, had gone to Māldeo, and had entered his service. (45b) He now wrote: ‘Beware, a thousand times beware of advancing. March at once from wherever you are, for Māldeo intends to make you prisoner. Put no trust in his words. There came here an envoy from Shīr Khān who brought a letter to say: “By whatever means you know and can use, capture that king. If you will do this, I will give you Nagōr and Alwar and whatever place you ask for.”’ Atka Khān also said when he came: ‘This is no time for standing.’ So at afternoon prayer-time the Emperor marched off. When he was mounting, they captured two spies and brought them bound before him. He was questioning them when suddenly they got their hands free, and one snatched a sword from the belt of Muḥammad Gird-bāz^154a and struck him with it, and then wounded Bāqī Guālīārī. The other at once unsheathed^154b a dagger and faced the bystanders, wounded several and killed the Emperor's riding-horse. They did much mischief before they were killed. (46a) Just then there was a cry, ‘Māldeo is here!’ The Emperor had no horse fit for Ḥamīda-bānū Begam. He may have asked for one for her from Tardī Beg,^154c who apparently did not give it. He then said: ‘Let the camel of Jauhar, the ewer-bearer, be got ready for me. I will ride it, and the begam may have my horse.’ It would seem that Nadīm¹⁵⁵ Beg heard that his Majesty was giving his horse to the begam and thinking of riding a camel, for he mounted his own mother on a camel and gave her horse to the Emperor.

His Majesty took a guide from this place, and mounted and rode for 'Umrkōt. It was extremely hot; horses and (other) quadrupeds^155a kept sinking to the knees in the sand, and Māldeo was behind. On they went, thirsty and hungry. Many, women and men, were on foot. (46b)

On the approach of Māldeo's troops, the Emperor said to Īshān (Īsān)-tīmūr Sulṭān and to Mu'nim Khān^155b and a number of others: ‘You all come slowly, and watch the enemy till we have gone on a few miles.’ They waited; it grew night, and they missed their way.

All through that night the Emperor went on, and at dawn a watering-place was found. For three days the horses had not drunk. He had dismounted when a man ran in, shouting: ‘The Hindūs are coming up in numbers, mounted on horses and camels.’ Then the Emperor dismissed Shaikh 'Alī Beg (Jalāīr), and Raushan kūka and Nadīm kūka, and Mīr Payanda Muḥammad, brother of Muḥammad Walī, and many others.

They recited the fātiḥa, and his Majesty said: ‘Go, fight the infidels!’ He thought: ‘Īshān-tīmūr Sulṭān, and Mu'nīm Khān,^155c and Mīrzā Yādgār,^155d and the rest whom we left behind, have been killed or captured by these people who have now come to attack us.’ He mounted and left the camp with a few followers.

Of the band which his Majesty had sent out to fight after reciting the fātiḥa, Shaikh 'Alī Beg struck the Rājpūt captain with an arrow, and cast him from his horse. (47a) Several more (of the royal troop) hit others with arrows; the infidels turned to flee, and the fight was won. They brought in several prisoners alive. Then the camp went slowly, slowly on; but his Majesty was far ahead. Those who had recited the fātiḥa came up with the camp.

There was a mace-bearer named Bihbūd. They sent him galloping after the Emperor, to say: ‘Let your Majesty go slowly. By Heaven's grace, a victory has been vouchsafed, and the infidels have fled.’ Bihbūd himself was taken to the presence, and conveyed the good news.¹⁵⁶

His Majesty dismounted, and a little water even (ham)^156a was found, but he was anxious about the amīrs, and said: ‘What has happened to them?’ Then horsemen appeared in the distance, and again there was a cry: ‘God forbid! Māldeo!’^156b His Majesty sent a man for information, who came running back and said: ‘Īshān-tīmūr Sulṭān, and Mīrzā Yādgār, and Mu'nim Khān are all coming, safe and sound.’ They had missed their way. Their return rejoiced the Emperor, who rendered thanks to God.

Next morning they marched on. For three days they found no water. (47b) On the fourth, they came to some very deep wells, the water of which was extraordinarily red. The Emperor halted and alighted near one of the wells; Tardī Beg Khān was at another; at a third, Mīrzā Yādgār, and Mu'nim Khān, and Nadīm kūka; and at the fourth, Īshān-tīmūr Sulṭān, and Khwāja Ghāzī, and Raushan kūka.

As each bucket came out of the wells into reach, people flung themselves on it; the ropes broke, and five or six persons fell into the wells with the buckets. Many perished from thirst. When the Emperor saw men flinging themselves into the wells from thirst, he let anyone drink from his own water-bottle. When everyone had drunk his fill, they marched on again at afternoon prayer-time.

After a day and a night they reached a large tank. The horses and camels went into the water and drank so much that many died. There had not been many horses, but there were mules and camels. (48a) Beyond this place water was found at every stage on the way to 'Umrkōt,¹⁵⁷ which is a beautiful place with many tanks.

The rānā^157a gave the Emperor an honourable reception, and took him into the fort, and assigned him excellent quarters. He gave places outside to the amīrs' people. Many things were very cheap indeed; four goats could be had for one rupī. The rānā made many gifts of kids and so on, and paid such fitting service that what tongue could set it forth?

Several days were spent in peace and comfort.

The treasury was empty. Tardī Beg Khān had a great deal of money, and the Emperor having asked him for a considerable loan, he lent 80,000 ashrafīs at the rate of two in ten.^157b His Majesty portioned out this money to the army. He bestowed sword-belts and cap-à-pie dresses on the rānā and his sons. Many people bought fresh horses here.

Mīr Shāh Ḥusain had killed the rānā's father. For this, amongst other reasons, the rānā collected 2,000 or 3,000 good soldiers and set out with the Emperor for Bhakkar.^157c (48b)

In 'Umrkōt he left many people, and his family and relations, and also Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam to have charge of the ḥaram. Ḥamīda-bānū Begam was with child. Three days after his Majesty's departure, and in the early morning of Sunday, the fourth day of the revered Rajab, 949H.,^157d

there was born his imperial Majesty, the world's refuge and conqueror, Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar Ghāzī. The moon was in Leo. It was of very good omen that the birth was in a fixed Sign, and the astrologers said a child so born would be fortunate and long-lived. The Emperor was some thirty miles away when Tardī Muḥammad Khān took the news to him. He was highly delighted, and by way of reward and largesse (niṯār) for the tidings he forgave all soever of Tardī Muḥammad Khān's past offences. He gave the child the name he had heard in his dream at Lāhōr, the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar.

On leaving this place, the Emperor went towards Bhakkar with as many as 10,000 men who had gathered round him, people of the rānā and of the outlying tribes and Sūdmas (Sodhas) and Samīchas. (49a) They reached the district of Jūn, where there was one of Shāh Ḥusain's servants with some troopers. He fled.¹⁵⁸ Here there was the Mirror Garden, a very pleasant and enjoyable place where the Emperor alighted. He assigned its villages (? of Jūn) in jāgīr to his followers.

It is a six days' journey from Jūn to Tatta. The Emperor was as much as six^158a months in Jūn, and brought his family and people and the whole 'Umrkōt party there.^158b The Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar was six months old when they took him to Jūn. The party which had come from various places with the royal family and the ḥaram now broke up. As for the rānā, he marched off at midnight for his own country, on account of a coolness^158c caused by some talk between him and Tardī Muḥammad Khān.^158d All the Sūdmas and Samīchas went off by agree-

>graphic<

INCIDENTS FOLLOWING THE BIRTH OF AKBAR.

At the top, on the right, are Hamīda-bānū and the child; on the left, the news is announced with sound of castanets and tambourines.

In the middle, the hour of birth is being communicated to the astrologers.

At the foot, the news is being given to Humāyūn by Tardī Beg, and is welcomed by music and dancing.

[To face p. 158.

ment with him, and the Emperor was left alone, as before, with his own people.

He sent brave Shaikh 'Alī Beg (Jalāīr) and Muẓaffar Beg Turkmān towards the large district of Jājkā (Ḥāj-kān). (49b) Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain sent a force to attack him, and there was a famous fight. At last Muẓaffar Beg was routed and fled, and Shaikh 'Alī Beg (Jalāīr) was killed and perished with all his men.¹⁵⁹

A squabble arose between Khālid Beg^159a and Tarsh Beg, a brother of Shāham Khān Jalāīr and his Majesty turned all his favour to Tarsh Beg. So Khālid Beg deserted and went with all his men to Mīr Shāh Ḥusain. Then the Emperor ordered Khālid Beg's mother, Sulṭānam, to prison and this made Gul-barg^159b Begam angry. Then he forgave Sulṭanam and gave her leave to go to the blessed Makka with Gul-barg Begam. Soon after this Tarsh Beg also deserted. The Emperor cursed him, and said: ‘For his sake, I dealt harshly with Khālid Beg, who on this account left the circle of the faithful for the circle of the disloyal. Tarsh Beg will die young.’ So it was! Fifteen days later, a servant killed him with a knife as he lay sleeping in a boat. When the Emperor heard of it he grew sad and thoughtful. (50a) Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā brought boats up the river to near Jūn, and his men and the Emperor's often fought on board, and many were killed on both sides. Day by day there were desertions to Shāh Ḥusain. In one of these fights was killed Mullā Tāju-d-dīn whom his Majesty held in the greatest favour as a pearl of knowledge.

There was a squabble between Tardī Muḥammad Khān and Mu'nīm Khān. Mu'nīm Khān consequently deserted. Very few amīrs remained; amongst them were Tardī Muḥammad Khān and Mīrzā Yādgār and Mīrzā Payanda Muḥammad and Muḥammad Walī and Nadīm kūka and Raushan kūka and Khadang¹⁶⁰ the chamberlain. Then there was word brought: ‘Bairām Khān has reached Jājkā (Ḥāj-kān) on his way from Gujrāt.’ The Emperor was delighted, and ordered Khadang and others to give him honourable meeting.

Meantime Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā had heard of Bairām Khān's coming and sent to capture him. Bairām Khān rashly went into a hollow, and there they fell upon him. (50b) Khadang the chamberlain was killed. Bairām Khān and the rest escaped, and the khān came and paid his respects to the Emperor.

At this time letters arrived (addressed to) Mīrzā Hindāl for his Majesty from Qarācha Khān, saying: ‘You have been long near Bhakkar, and during the whole time Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā has given no sign of good-will but the reverse. By Heaven's grace, an easy way is open, and it is best for the Emperor to come here (to Qandahār). This is really advisable. If he will not come, come you yourself without fail.’ As his Majesty's coming was delayed, Qarācha Khān went out and met Mīrzā Hindāl, and made over the town to him (in the autumn of 1541).

Mīrzā 'Askarī was in Ghaznīn, and to him Mīrzā Kāmrān wrote: ‘Qarācha Khān has given over Qandahār to Mīrzā Hindāl. Qandahār must be considered.’ His idea was to take it from Mīrzā Hindāl.

On hearing of these things, his Majesty came to his aunt Khānzāda Begam,^160a and said with great urgency: ‘Pray do

>graphic<

NAUTCH IN CELEBRATION OF AKBAR'S BIRTH.
[To page p. 160.

me the honour of going to Qandahār and advising Mīrzā Hindāl and Mīrzā Kāmrān. (51a) Tell them that the Uzbegs and the Turkmāns are near them, and that the best plan is to be friends amongst themselves. If Mīrzā Kāmrān will agree to carry out what I have written to him, I will do what his heart desires.’

Mīrzā Kāmrān came to Qandahār four days after the begam's arrival.¹⁶¹ Day after day he urged: ‘Read the khuṭba in my name’; and again and again Mīrzā Hindāl said: ‘In his life-time his Majesty Firdaus-makānī gave his throne to the Emperor Humāyūn and named him his successor. We all agreed to this, and up till now have read the khuṭba in his name. There is no way of changing the khuṭba.’^161a Mīrzā Kāmrān wrote to her Highness, Dil-dār Begam:^161b ‘I have come from Kābul with you in mind. It is strange that you should not once have come to see me. (51b) Be a mother to me as you are to Mīrzā Hindāl.’ At last Dil-dār Begam went to see him, and he said: ‘Now I shall not let you go till you send for Mīrzā Hindāl.’ Dil-dār Begam said: ‘Khānzāda Begam is your elder kinswoman, and oldest and highest of you all. Ask her the truth about the khuṭba.’ So then he spoke to Āka. Her Highness Khānzāda Begam answered: ‘If you ask me! well! as his Majesty Firdaus-makānī decided it and gave his throne to the Emperor Humāyūn, and as you, all of you, have read the khuṭba in his name till now, so now regard him as your superior and remain in obedience to him.’

To cut the matter short, Mīrzā Kāmrān besieged Qandahār and kept on insisting about the khuṭba for four months. At last he settled it in this way: ‘Very well! the Emperor is now far away. Read the khuṭba in my name and when he comes back, read it in his.’ As the siege had drawn out to great length, and people had gradually come to cruel straits, there was no help for it; the khuṭba was read. (52a) He gave Qandahār to Mīrzā 'Askarī and promised Ghaznīn to Mīrzā Hindāl. When they reached Ghaznīn, he assigned the Lamghānāt and the mountain passes (Tangayhā)¹⁶² to the mīrzā, and all those promises were false.^162a

Mīrzā Hindāl went off to Badakhshān, and settled down in Khost and Andar-āb. Mīrzā Kāmrān said to Dil-dār Begam: ‘Go and fetch him.’ When she arrived, the mīrzā said: ‘I have withdrawn myself from the turmoil of soldiering, and even^162b Khost is a hermitage. I have quite settled down.’ The begam answered: ‘If you intend to lead the darvish-life, even^162c Kābul is a hermitage. Live where your family and kinsfolk are. That is the better plan.’ Then she made him come, and for awhile he lived as a darvish in Kābul.

About this time, Mīr Shāh Ḥusain sent to the Emperor to say: ‘The course favouring fortune is for you to march for Qandahār. That is the better plan.’ His Majesty was willing, and replied: ‘Horses and camels are scarce in my camp; give me some to travel with to Qandahār.’ (52b) Shāh Ḥusain Mīrza agreed, and said: ‘There are a thousand camels on the other side of the river, which I will send to you as soon as you have crossed.’

[If words by Khwāja Kasak (? Kīsīk), kinsman of Khwāja Ghāzī, are recorded about the journey from Bhakkar and Sind, they are copied from the writings of the said Khwāja Kasak.^162d]

>graphic<

HYMN OF PRAISE FOR AKBAR'S BIRTH.

Of especial interest are the faces of the open-mouthed singers. Hamīda-bānū is probably the featureless person on the estrade.

[To face p. 162.

At length the Emperor went on board boats, with kinsfolk and family, army and the rest, and travelled for three days on the great river. At the frontier of Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā's territory is a village called Nuāsī.¹⁶³ Here they halted, and his Majesty sent Sulṭān Qulī, the head-camel-driver, to fetch the camels. Sulṭān Qulī brought a thousand, all of which his Majesty gave to his amīrs, and soldiers, and others, ordering them to be apportioned.

The camels were such that one might say they had not known city, or load, or man for seven, or rather seventy, generations. As horses were few, many people took camels to ride on, and what were left were assigned for the baggage. Every camel which was mounted, at once flung its rider to the ground, and took its way to the jungle. (53a) Every pack-camel, when it heard the sound of horses' feet, jumped and bounded and tossed off its load, and went off and away to the jungle. If a load was fixed so fast that, jump as it would, it could not get it off, it carried it away and ran with it into the jungle. This was the way the Emperor started for Qandahār. Some 200 camels must have gone off like this.

Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā's head-camel-driver Maḥmūd was in Sīwī (Sībī), and when the Emperor came near, he strengthened the citadel and retired into it. His Majesty came prosperously to within twelve miles' distance. Then word was brought that Mīr Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk^163a had arrived in Sīwī from Kābul two days earlier, and were going on to (visit) Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā. By them Mīrzā Kāmrān had sent a dress of honour, and tipūchāq horses, and much fruit, and they were to ask for Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain's daughter.^163b

The Emperor said to Khwāja Ghāzī: ‘As there is the tie of father and son¹⁶⁴ between you and Allāh-dost, write and ask him in what way Mīrzā Kāmrān stands towards me, and what he will do if I go into his neighbourhood.’ (53b) He also gave this order to Khwāja Kasak: ‘Go to Sīwī, and ask Mīr Allāh-dost whether he thinks it advisable for me to come to Kābul.’ The khwāja set out, and the Emperor said: ‘We will not march till you have returned.’

When the khwāja came near Sīwī, Maḥmūd, the head-camel-driver, caught him, and asked: ‘Why are you here?’ ‘To buy horses and camels,’ he answered. Maḥmūd ordered: ‘Feel under his arm and search his cap. Heaven forbid that he should have brought a letter to win over Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk.’ They searched, and brought out the letter from under his arm. He had no chance to twist it into a fold.^164a Maḥmūd took it and read it, and, not letting the khwāja go, forthwith conveyed Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk into the fort, and with various roughnesses made them swear: ‘We had no knowledge of his coming here.’ (54a) (?) He has taken the initiative;^164b and ‘Khwāja Ghāzī is related to us and he was with Mīrzā Kāmrān,^164c and this is why he has written.’ Maḥmūd decided to send all three to Shāh Ḥusain, and Mīr Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk spent the whole night smoothing him down and entreating him, and in the end they were set free.

Mīr Allāh-dost sent 3,000^164d pomegranates and 100 quinces for his Majesty's use, and wrote no letter, because he was afraid it might fall into the wrong hands. By word of mouth he sent to say: ‘If a letter should come from Mīrzā Askarī or the amīrs, it would not be bad to go to Kābul;

>graphic<

THE EMPEROR AKBAR
('ARSH-ĀSHYĀNĪ).
[To face p. 164.

but if not, it will be clear to your Majesty that nothing is to be gained by going. You have few followers. What, then, will happen?’

Kasak came and reported this. The Emperor was stupefied and bewildered, and said: ‘What is to be done? Where am I to go?’ They all consulted together. (54b) Tardī Muḥammad Khān and Bairām Khān gave it as their opinion that it was impossible to decide to go anywhere but to the north and Shal-mastān,¹⁶⁵ the frontier of Qandahār. ‘There are many Afghans in those parts,’ they said, ‘whom we shall draw over to our side. Mīrzā 'Askarī's people, too, will join us.’

Having settled it in this way, they recited the fātiḥa and went, march by march, for Qandahār. Near Shal-mastān they halted in a village named Ranī (? Ralī), but as it had snowed and rained, and was extremely cold, they determined to go on to Shal-mastān. At afternoon prayer-time an Uzbeg youth, mounted on a sorry and tired-out pony, came in, and cried out: ‘Mount, your Majesty! I will explain on the way; time presses. There is no time to talk.’^165a The Emperor mounted the very hour the alarm was given, and went off.

He went two arrows' flight, and then sent Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam and Bairām Khān to fetch Ḥamīda-bānū Begam. (55a) They went and mounted her, but there was not a chink of time in which to take the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar. Just when the begam left the camp to join his Majesty, Mīrzā 'Askarī came up with 2,000 troopers. There was an outcry, and when he heard it, he entered the camp^165b and asked: ‘Where is the Emperor?’ People said: ‘He went hunting long ago.’ So the mīrzā knew that his Majesty had gone away just as he himself came in. Then he took possession of the Emperor Jalālud-dīn Muḥammad Akbar, and gave him in charge to his wife Sulṭānam,¹⁶⁶ who showed him much kindness and affection. He made all the royal followers march, saying: ‘Go to Qandahār.’

His Majesty, when he left, took the road to the mountains. He went eight miles, and then travelled as fast as possible.^166a (55b) He had with him Bairām Khān, Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam, Khwāja Nīāzī, Nadīm kūka^166b and Raushan kūka, and Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān, and Bābā-dost the paymaster, and Mīrzā Qulī Beg chūlī,^166c and Ḥaidar Muḥammad the master of the horse, and Shaikh Yūsuf chūlī, and Ibrāhīm the chamberlain, and Ḥasan 'Alī, the chamberlain, and Ya'qūb the keeper of the armoury, and 'Ambar the superintendent and the royal agent (mulk-mukhtār), and Sambal captain of a thousand, and Khwāja Kasak.^166d

Khwāja Ghāzī says:^166e ‘I also was in attendance.’ This company went with the Emperor, and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam says,^166f ‘There were as many as thirty people,’ and that of women there was, besides herself, the wife of Ḥasan 'Alī, the chamberlain.

The prayer before sleep had passed before they reached the foot of the mountains. The snow lay deep, so there was no road to go up by. Their minds were full of anxiety lest that unjust creature, Mīrzā 'Askarī, should follow them. At last they found a way up, and climbed it in some sort of fashion. They were all night in the snow, and (at first) there was neither wood for fire nor food to eat. They grew very hungry and feeble. (56a) The Emperor gave orders to kill a horse. There was no cooking-pot, so they boiled some of the flesh in a helmet, and some they roasted. They made fires on all four sides, and with his own blessed hand the Emperor roasted some meat which he ate. He used to say: ‘My very head was frozen by the intense cold.’

Morning came at last, and he pointed to another mountain, and said: ‘There are people on that; there will be many Bilūchīs there; and there we must go.’ On they went, and reached the place in two days. They saw a few houses near them, and a few savage Bilūchīs whose speech is the tongue of the ghouls of the waste.

The Emperor halted on the skirt of the mountain. There were about thirty people with him. The Bilūchīs saw him, and collected and came near. He had settled comfortably in his tent, so they knew from far off that he was halting. They said to one another: ‘If we seize these people and take them to Mīrzā 'Askarī, he will certainly give us their arms, and many gifts besides.’ (56b)

Ḥasan 'Alī, the chamberlain, had a Bilūchī wife who understood what the ghouls of the waste were saying, and who made it known that they meant mischief. Early in the morning the Emperor thought of marching on, but they said: ‘Our chief is not here. When he comes, you shall go.’ Besides this, the time had become unsuitable, and so the whole night was spent there in strict watchfulness.

Part of the night had gone when the chief arrived. He waited on the Emperor, and said: ‘A farmān has come from Mīrzā Kāmrān and Mīrzā 'Askarī, in which it is written: “It is reported that the Emperor may visit your dwellings. If he does, beware!—a thousand times beware!— of letting him go. Seize him and bring him to us. You can keep his goods and horses. Take him to Qandahār.” As I had not seen your Majesty, I at first had this evil thought, but now I will sacrifice my life and the lives of my family, I have five or six sons, for your Majesty's head, or rather for one hair of it. (57a) Go where you wish. God protect you! Mīrzā 'Askarī may do what he likes.’ The Emperor gave him a ruby and a pearl and some other things.

At dawn he marched to honour Fort Bābā Ḥājī¹⁶⁸ by a visit. He reached it in two days. It belongs to the Garm-sīr, ^168a and lies on the river (Halmand). There are many sayyids there, and they waited on the Emperor and showed him hospitality.

Next morning Khwāja 'Alāwalu-d-dīn (Jalālu-d-dīn) Maḥmūd,^168b having left Mīrzā 'Askarī, came with an offering of a string of mules, and one of horses and tents, etc., whatever he had. Once more the royal heart was at ease. Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān kūkī^168c brought thirty or forty troopers and offered a string of mules.

Being helpless because of the disunion of his brothers^168d and the desertion of his amīrs, it now seemed best to the Emperor,—with reliance on the Causer of causes,—to decide upon going to Khurāsān.^168e (57b)

After many stages and a journey of many days, he came to parts adjacent to Khurāsān. When Shāh Ṭahmās (sic) heard that he had reached the Halmand, he remained sunk in wonder and thought, and said: ‘The Emperor Humāyūn has come to our frontier by the perfidious revolution of the firmament,—the firmament unpropitious and crooked of gait! The Lord, whose existence is necessary, has led him here!’

He sent all sorts of people to give honourable reception, nobles and grandees, low and high, great and small. All came to the Halmand to meet the Emperor.¹⁶⁹

The Shāh sent all his brothers to meet his Majesty,— Bahrām Mīrzā, and Alqās Mīrzā, and Sām Mīrzā. All came and embraced him, and escorted him with full honour and respect. As they drew near (the Shāh) his brothers sent him word, and he also came riding to meet the Emperor. They embraced. (58a) The friendship and concord of those two high-placed pāshas was as close as two nut-kernels in one shell.^169a Great unanimity and good feeling ensued, so that during his Majesty's stay in that country, the Shāh often went to his quarters, and on days when he did not, the Emperor went to his.

In Khurāsān^169b his Majesty visited all the gardens and the flower-gardens, and the splendid buildings put up by Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā, and the grand structures of olden days.

There was hunting eight times while he was in 'Irāq, and each time trouble was taken for him also. Ḥamīdabānū Begam used to enjoy the sight from a distance in either a camel or a horse litter. Shāhzāda Sulṭānam,^169c the Shāh's sister, used to ride on horseback, and take her stand behind her brother. His Majesty said (to Ḥamīda-bānū): ‘There was a woman riding behind the Shāh at the hunt. She stood with her reins held by a white-bearded man. People told me it was Shāhzāda Sulṭānam, the Shāh's sister.’ (58b) In short, the Shāh showed the Emperor much hospitality and courtesy, and laid a charge (on his sister) to show motherly and sisterly hospitality and sympathy (to Ḥamīda-bānū Begam).¹⁷⁰

One day, when Shāhzāda Sulṭānam had entertained the begam, the Shāh said to her: ‘When (next) you offer hospitality, let it be arranged outside the city.’ It was on a beautiful plain, rather more than four miles out, that they pitched tents (khaima) and folding-tents (khirga) and an audience-tent (bārgā), and also set up chatr^170a and ṭāq.^170b

In Khurāsān and those parts they use enclosing screens (sarāparda), but they do not put them at the back. The Emperor set up an all-round screen after the Hindū fashion (hindūāna). Having pitched the tents, the Shāh's people put coloured chicks (cheghhā) all round. His kinswomen and his paternal aunt were there, and his sisters and the ladies of his ḥaram, and the wives of the khāns and sulṭāns and amīrs, about 1,000 women in all splendour and adornment.

That day Shāhzāda Sulṭānam asked Ḥamīda-bānū Begam: (59a) ‘Are such chatr and ṭāq met with in Hindū-stan?’ The begam answered: ‘They say two dāng^170c with respect to Khurāsān, and four dāng with respect to Hindūstān. When a thing is found in two dāng, it is clear it will be found better in four.’

Shāh Sulṭānam said also, in reply to her own paternal aunt, and in confirmation of the begam's words: ‘Aunt, it is strange that you ask, “Where are two dāng? where are four dāng?” It is clear anything would be found better and more wonderful (in four than in two).’

They passed the whole day very well in sociable festivity. At the time of eating, all the amīrs' wives stood and served, and the Shāh's ladies placed¹⁷¹ food before Shāhzāda Sulṭānam.

Moreover, they were hospitable^171a with all sorts of stuffs, embroidered and others, to Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, as was incumbent and fitting. The Shāh went on in advance^171b and was in his Majesty's quarters till the prayer before sleep. (59b) When he heard that Ḥamīda-bānū Begam had arrived, he rose from the presence and went home. To such a height of pleasantness and kindness was he amiable!

Raushan kūka, spite of his former fidelity and services, was now faithless, in that foreign and perilous country, about some valuable rubies. These used to be kept in the Emperor's amulet-case (ṭumār),^171c and of this he and the begam knew and no one else. If he went away anywhere, he used to give the amulet-case into her charge. One day she was going to wash her head, so she bundled the case up in a handkerchief, and put it on the Emperor's bed. Raushan kūka thought this a good chance to steal five rubies. Then he agreed with Khwāja Ghāzī, and trusted them to him, meaning by-and-by to barter them away.

When the begam came back from washing her head, the Emperor gave her the amulet-case, and she at once knew from its lightness in her hand that it had lost weight, and said so. (60a) The Emperor asked: ‘How is this? Except you and me, no one knows about them. What can have happened? Who has taken them?’ He was astonished.

The begam said to her brother, Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam: ‘So and so has happened. If at this pinch you will act the brother to me and will make inquiry in some way quietly, you will save me from what one may call disgrace. Otherwise, as long as I live, I shall be ashamed in the royal presence.’

Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam said: ‘One thing occurs to me! I, who am so closely connected with his Majesty, have not the means to buy even a poor pony,¹⁷² but Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka^172a have each bought themselves a tipūchāq horse. They have not paid the money for them yet. This purchase is not without a ray of hope.’

The begam answered: ‘O brother! now is the time for brotherliness! That transaction must certainly be looked into.’ Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam answered: ‘O elder moon-sister!^172b tell no one about it. Heaven willing, I have hope that the right will be righted.’ (60b)

He went out, and inquired at the house of the horse-dealers: ‘For what price did you sell those horses? When is the money promised? What security has been given for the payment?’ The dealers answered: ‘Both men promised us rubies, and took the horses.’

From them he went to the khwāja's servant, and said: ‘Where is the khwāja's wallet, with his honorary dress and his clothes?^172c Where does he keep it?’ The servant answered: ‘My khwāja has no wallet and no clothes. He has one high cap which, when he goes to sleep, he puts under his head or his arm.’ Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam saw the meaning of this, and made up his mind for certain that the rubies were with Khwāja Ghāzī, and were kept in his high cap. He came and represented to his Majesty: ‘I have found trace of those rubies in Khwāja Ghāzī's high cap. In some way I will steal them from him. (61a) If he should come to your Majesty and seek redress against me, let your Majesty say nothing to me.’ The Emperor listened, and smiled.

Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam then repeatedly played off tricks and little jokes and pleasantries on Khwāja Ghāzī, who came and set it forth to the Emperor. ‘I am a lowly man,’ said he, ‘(? but) I have a name and a position. What does the boy Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam mean by playing off these tricks and jokes, and making fun of me in this foreign land, and insulting me?’ His Majesty said: ‘On whom does he not? He is young. It often comes into his head to do terrifying and ill-bred things. Do not take it to heart. He is only a boy.’

Another day, when Khwāja Ghāzī was seated in the reception-room, Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam, pretending an accident, filched his cap from his head. Then he took out the matchless rubies, and laid them before his Majesty and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam. His Majesty smiled, and the begam was delighted, and said, ‘Bravo!’ and ‘Mercy be upon you.’ (61b)

Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka, in shame at their deed, made secret communications to the Shāh, and carried their talk so far that his heart was troubled. His Majesty saw that the Shāh's intimacy and confidence were not what they had been, and at once sent some of whatever rubies and other jewels¹⁷³ he possessed as a gift to him, who then said: ‘Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka are in fault; they turned my heart from you, and truly I used to regard you as a brother.’ Then the two sovereigns again became of one mind, and made clean heart to one another.

The two wrong-doers were excluded from the presence, and were made over to the Shāh, who, when opportunity occurred, got possession of those rubies,¹⁷⁴ and, as to the men, ordered: ‘Let them be kept in custody.’^174a

His Majesty's time in 'Irāq was (now) spent happily. In various ways the Shāh showed good feeling, and every day sent presents of rare and strange things. (62a)

At length the Shāh despatched his own son and khāns and sulṭans and amīrs with his Majesty to help him, together with good arms and tents, folding and audience tents; and chatr and ṭāq and shamiāna, excellently wrought, and all sorts of the things necessary and fit for a king, from the mattress-warehouse and the treasury and the workshops and kitchen and buttery. In a propitious hour those two mighty sovereigns bade one another farewell, and his Majesty left that country for Qandahār.^174b

At the time of his departure, he asked pardon from the Shāh for the offence of those two faithless ones (Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka), and, having himself forgiven them, took them with him to Qandahār.

When Mīrzā 'Askarī heard (1545) that he was on his way from Khurāsān and approaching Qandahār, he sent the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar to Mīrzā Kāmrān in Kābul, who gave him into the care of Dearest Lady, Khānzāda Begam, and our paternal aunt. (62b) He was two and a half years old when she received him into her charge. She was very fond of him, and used to kiss his hands and feet, and say: ‘They are the very hands and feet of my brother the Emperor Bābar, and he is like him altogether.’^174c

When Mīrzā Kāmrān was sure that the Emperor was approaching Qandahār, he went to Dearest Lady and cried, and was very humble, and said with countless pains:¹⁷⁵ ‘Go you (May your journey be safe!) to Qandahār to the Emperor and make peace between us.’

When she left (Kābul) she made over the Emperor Akbar to Mīrzā Kāmrān, who gave him into the care of (Muḥtarīma) Khānam. Then she travelled as fast as possible to Qandahār. The Emperor besieged Mīrzā Kāmrān^175a and Mīrzā 'Askarī for forty days in the city, and he sent Bairām Khān on an embassy to Mīrzā Kāmrān.^175b (63a) Mīrzā 'Askarī grew dejected and humble, admitted his offences, and came out and paid his duty to the Emperor, who then took possession of Qandahār (September 4th, 1545). He bestowed it upon the son of the Shāh, who in a few days fell ill and died.^175c When Bairām Khān^175d arrived, it was given into his charge.

The Emperor left Ḥamīda-bānū Begam in Qandahār and set out after Mīrzā Kāmrān. Dearest Lady, Khānzāda Begam, went with him, and at Qabal-chak^175e she had three days of fever. The doctors' remedies were of no avail, and on the fourth day of her illness she passed to the mercy of God. At first she was buried at Qabal-chak, but three months later her body was brought to Kābul and laid in the burial-place of my royal father.^175f

During several years that Mīrzā Kāmrān was in Kābul, he had never made a hostile raid,¹⁷⁶ and now, all at once, when he heard of his Majesty's approach, desire to break forth (? hunt) seized him, and he went into the Hazāra country.^176a (63b)

Mīrzā Hindāl, who had chosen the darvish's corner (in Kābul), now heard of the Emperor's return from 'Irāq and Khurāsān, and of his success in Qandahār. He saw his chance, and sent for Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, and said: ‘The Emperor has come to Qandahār, and has been victorious. Mīrzā Kāmrān sent Khānzāda Begam to sue for peace, but the Emperor did not agree to his sort of peace. The Emperor sent Bairām Khān as his envoy, and Mīrzā Kāmrān did not agree to what he proposed. Now the Emperor has given Qandahār to Bairām Khān and has set out for Kābul. Come now, let us, you and I, plan and agree together, and scheme how to betake ourselves to his Majesty.’ Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir agreed, and the two made their plan and compact. Mīrzā Hindāl said: ‘You make up your mind to run away and when Mīrzā Kāmrān hears of it, he will certainly say to me: “Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir has gone off; go and persuade him to come back with you.” (64a) You go slowly, slowly on till I come. Then we will go as quickly as we can and pay our respects to the Emperor.’

Having so settled it, Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir ran away. The news went to Mīrzā Kāmrān, who came back at once to Kābul and sent for Mīrzā Hindāl and said: ‘Go and persuade Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir to come back.’ Mīrzā Hindāl mounted at once, and joined Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir with all speed. Then they travelled post-haste for five or six days, when they were honoured by paying their duty to the Emperor.

They advised the Khimār¹⁷⁷ Pass as the best route. On Ramẓān 9th, 951H. (the third week of October, 1545), his Majesty ordered a halt in that pass. News of this went to Mīrzā Kāmrān on the same day and disturbed him greatly. He had his tents taken out very quickly and encamped in front of the Guẕar-gāh.^177a (64b)

On the 11th of the same month, the Emperor ordered a halt in the valley of (?) Tīpa, and Mīrzā Kāmrān^177b also came and drew up opposite to fight. Then all his amīrs deserted and were exalted by kissing the royal feet. Even Bāpūs^177c who was one of his well-known officers, deserted him with all his following and was exalted by kissing the royal feet. The mīrzā was left solitary and alone. ‘No one remains near me,’ he thought, so he threw down and destroyed the door and the wall of the house of Bāpūs^177d which was near, and went softly, softly past the New Year's Garden and the tomb of Gul-rukh Begam,^177e dismissed his 12,000 troopers, and went off.

When it was dark, he went on in the same direction to Bābā Dashtī,^177f and halted near a piece of water, and sent back Dostī kūka and Jūkī kūka to fetch his eldest daughter Ḥabība, and his son Ibrāhīm Sulṭān Mīrzā, and Hazāra Begam^177g who was the brother's child of Khiẓr Khān (Hazāra), and Māh Begam^177h who was sister of Ḥaram (Khurram) Begam, and Māh-afroz, mother of Ḥājī Begam,¹⁷⁷ⁱ and Bāqī kūka.^177j (65a) This party went with the mīrzā, who planned to go to Tatta and Bhakkar. In Khiẓr Khān Hazāra's country, which lies on the way to Bhakkar, he married Ḥabība Begam to Āq Sulṭān and entrusted her to him, while he himself went on.

The victorious Emperor dismounted in triumph in the Bālā-i-ḥisār when five hours of the night of Ramẓān 12th had passed,—prosperously and with safety and good luck.¹⁷⁸ All those followers of Mīrzā Kāmrān who had been promoted to the royal service, entered Kābul with drums beating (November, 1545).

On the 12th of the same month, her Highness my mother, Dil-dār Begam, and Gul-chihra Begam, and this lowly person paid our duty to the Emperor. For five years we had been shut out and cut off from this pleasure, so now when we were freed from the moil and pain of separation, we were lifted up by our happiness in meeting this Lord of beneficence again. Merely to look at him eased the sorrow-stricken heart and purged the blear-eyed vision. (65b) Again and again we joyfully made the prostration of thanks. There were many festive gatherings, and people sat from evening to dawn, and players and singers made continuous music. Many amusing games, full of fun, were played. Amongst them was this: Twelve players had each twenty cards and twenty shāhrukhīs. Whoever lost, lost those twenty shāhrukhīs, which would make five miṯqāls.^178a Each player gave the winner his twenty shāhrukhīs to add to his own.^178b

To widows and orphans, and kinsfolk of men who had been wounded and killed at Chausa and Kanauj, or Bhakkar, or who were in the royal service during those intermissions,¹⁷⁹ he gave pension, and rations, and water, and land, and servants. In the days of his Majesty's good fortune, great tranquillity and happiness befell soldiers and peasants. They lived without care, and put up many an ardent prayer for his long life. (66a)

A few days later he sent persons to bring Ḥamīda-bānū Begam from Qandahār. When she arrived, they celebrated the feast of the circumcision of the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar. Preparations were made, and after the New Year^179a they kept splendid festivity for seventeen days. People dressed in green,^179b and thirty or forty girls were ordered to wear green and come out to the hills. On the first day of the New Year they went out to the Hill of the Seven Brothers and there passed many days in ease and enjoyment and happiness. The Emperor Muḥammad Akbar was five years old when they made the circumcision feast in Kābul. They gave it in that same large Audience Hall Garden.^179c They decorated all the bāzārs. Mīrzā Hindāl and Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, and the sulṭāns and amīrs, decorated their quarters beautifully, and in Bega Begam's garden the begams and ladies made theirs quite wonderful in a new fashion.

All the sulṭāns and amīrs brought gifts to the Audience Hall Garden. (66b) There were many elegant festivities and grand entertainments, and costly khi'lats and head-to-foot ¹⁸⁰ dresses were bestowed. Peasants and preachers, the pious, the poor and the needy, noble and plebeian, low and high,—everybody lived in peace and comfort, passing the days in amusement and the nights in talk.

Then the Emperor went to Fort Victory (Qila'-i-ẓafar).^180a In it was Mīrzā Sulaimān, who came out to fight but could not stand face to face with his Majesty and so decided to run away. The Emperor then entered the fort safe and sound. Then he went to Kishm, where, after a little while, an illness attacked his blessed frame and he slept day and night.^180b When he came to his senses, he sent Mun'im Khān's brother, Faẓā'il Beg, to Kābul, and said: ‘Go! comfort and reassure the people of Kābul. Set them at ease in various ways.^180c Let them not quarrel. Say: “It began ill, but has ended well.”’ (67a)

When Faẓā'il Beg had gone, he (Humāyūn) went one day nearer Kābul.^180d

False news having been sent to Mīrzā Kāmrān in Bhakkar, he set out post-haste for Kābul. In Ghaznī he killed Zāhid Beg^180e and then came on. It was morning; the Kābulīs were off their guard; the gates had been opened in the old way, and water-carriers and grass-cuts were going in and out, and the mīrzā passed into the fort with all these common people. He at once killed Uncle Muḥammad Alī¹⁸¹ who was in the hot bath. He alighted at the college of Mullā 'Abdu-l-khāliq.

When the Emperor was starting for Qila'-i-ẓafar, he placed Naukār^181a at the door of the ḥaram. Mīrzā Kāmrān must have asked: ‘Who is in the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār?’ and someone must have said: ‘It is Naukār.’ Naukār heard of this and at once put on a woman's dress and went out. The mīrzā's people laid hands on the doorkeeper of the fort, and took him to Mīrzā Kāmrān, who ordered him to be imprisoned. (67b) The mīrzā's people went into the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār, and plundered and destroyed innumerable things belonging to the ḥaram, and they made settlement^181b for them in Mīrzā Kāmrān's court (sarkār). He put the great begams into Mīrzā 'Askarī's house and there he shut up a room with bricks and plaster and (?) dung-cakes, and they used to give the ladies water and food from over the four walls.^181c

In what was once Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir's house he put Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam^181d and ordered his own wives and family to stay in the palace where the royal ḥaram and the begams once lived. He behaved very ill indeed to the wives and families of the officers who had left him for the Emperor, ransacking and plundering all their houses and putting each family into somebody's custody.^181e

When the Emperor heard that Mīrzā Kāmrān had come from Bhakkar and was acting in this way, he returned from Qila'-i-ẓafar and Andar-āb safe and sound to Kābul. Qila'-i-ẓafar he gave to Mīrzā Sulaimān. (68a)

When he came near to Kābul, Mīrzā Kāmrān sent for her Highness my mother and for me from the house,¹⁸² and gave my mother orders to reside in the armourer's house. To me he said: ‘This is your house as well as mine. You stay here.’ ‘Why,’ I asked, ‘should I stay here? I will stay with my mother.’ He then went on: ‘Moreover, write to Khiẓr Khwāja Khān and tell him to come and join me and to keep an easy mind, for just as Mīrzā 'Askarī and Mīrzā Hindāl are my brothers, so is he. Now is the time to help.’ I answered: ‘Khiẓr Khwāja Khān has no way of recognising a letter^182a from me. I have never written to him myself. He writes to me when he is away, by the tongue of his sons. Write yourself what is in your mind.’ At last he sent Mahdī Sulṭān^182b and Shīr 'Alī to fetch the khān. From the first I had said to the khān: ‘Your brothers may be with Mīrzā Kāmrān, (but) God forbid that you should have the thought of going to him and joining them. (68b) Beware, a thousand times beware of thinking of separating yourself from the Emperor.’ Praise be to God! the khān kept to what I said.

When the Emperor heard that Mīrzā Kāmrān had sent Mahdī Sulṭān^182c and Shīr 'Alī to fetch Khiẓr Khwāja Khān, he himself despatched Qambar Beg, the son of Mīrzā Ḥājī, to the khān, who was then in his own jāgīr, and said: ‘Beware, a thousand times beware! Let there be no joining Mīrzā Kāmrān. Come and wait on me.’ The result of this auspicious message was that the khān set out at once for court, and came to the 'Uqābain (Hill of the two eagles) and paid his respects.

When the Emperor passed Minār Hill, Mīrzā Kāmrān sent forward all his well-ordered soldiers under Shīr Afkan,¹⁸³ the father of Shīroya, so that they might go out and fight. We saw from above^183a how he went out with his drums beating, out beyond Bābā Dashtī, and we said, ‘God forbid you should fight,’ and we wept. (69a) When he reached the Afghāns' village (Dih-i-Afghānān), the two vanguards came face to face. The royal advance-guard at once drove off the mīrzā's^183b and, having taken many prisoners, brought them to the Emperor. He ordered the Mughals to be cut to pieces.^183c Many of the mīrzā's men who had gone out to fight were captured and some of them were killed and some were kept prisoners. Amongst them was Jūkī Khān, one of Mīrzā Kāmrān's amīrs.

In triumph and glory and to the sound of music, the Emperor entered the 'Uqābain, with Mīrzā Hindāl in attendance and a splendid cavalcade. He set up for himself tents and pavilions and an audience hall.^183d He gave Mīrzā Hindāl charge of the Mastān bridge,^183e and stationed the amīrs one after another. For seven months he kept up the blockade.^183f (69b)

It happened one day that Mīrzā Kāmrān went from his own quarters to the roof (? of the citadel), and that someone fired a gun from the 'Uqābain. He ran and took himself off. Then he gave this order about the Emperor Akbar: ‘Bring him and put him in front.’^183g Someone let his august Majesty (Humāyūn) know that Mīrzā Muḥam-mad Akbar was being kept on the front, so he forbade the guns to be fired and after that none were aimed at the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār. Mīrzā Kāmrān's men used to fire from the town upon the Emperor on the 'Uqābain. The royal soldiers put Mīrzā 'Askarī to stand right in front and made fun of him.

Mīrzā Kāmrān's men also used to make sallies from the fort, and on both sides many were killed. The royal troops were often the victors and then the others had not courage to come out. For the sake of his wives and children and the begams and the household, etc., the Emperor did not have the cannon fired nor did he place the large houses in difficulty. (70a)

When the long siege was ended, they (i.e., the ladies) sent Khwāja Dost Khāwand madārchī¹⁸⁴ to his Majesty to say: ‘For God's sake, do whatever Mīrzā Kāmrān asks, and save the servants of God from molestation.’^184a

The Emperor sent for their use from outside nine sheep, seven flasks of rose-water, one of lemonade, and seven sets of nine dress-lengths^184b and some made-up jackets.^184c He wrote:^184d ‘For their sakes, I could not use force against the citadel, lest I should give an advantage to their enemies.’^184e

During the siege Jahān Sulṭān Begam who was two years old, died. His Majesty wrote: ‘Some time or other, if we had used force against the citadel, Mīrzā Muḥammad Akbar would have disappeared.’

To finish the story: There were always people in the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār from evening prayer till dawn, and there was a continuous uproar. The night Mīrzā Kāmrān went away,^184f prayer-time passed and indeed bedtime came, and there was no noise at all. (70b)

There was a steep stair by which people came up from below. When all the city was asleep, there suddenly sounded (on the stair) a clashing and clinking of armour, so that we said to one another: ‘What a noise!’ Perhaps a thousand people were standing in front (of the fort). We were afraid, but all at once, without warning, off they went. Qarācha Khān's son Bahādur brought us word that the mīrzā had fled.¹⁸⁵

Having thrown a rope, they (or he) brought up Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam by way of the wall.^185a

Our people and the begam's people and the rest who were outside, took away the door which had kept us fastened in. Bega Begam urged: ‘Let us go to our own houses.’ I said: ‘Have a little patience. We should have to go by the lane and perhaps too someone will come from the Emperor.’ At that moment 'Ambar Nāẓir came and said: ‘This is the royal order: “They are not to leave that place till I come.”’ In a little while the Emperor came and embraced Dil-dār Begam and me, and then Bega Begam and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, and said: ‘Come quickly out of this place. (71a) God preserve His friends from such a house, and let such be the portion of His foes.’ He said to Nāẓir: ‘Guard one side,’ and to Tardī Beg Khān: ‘Guard the other, and let the begams pass out.’ All came out, and we spent the evening of that day with the Emperor in perfect content till night became morning. We embraced Māh-chūchak Begam and Khānīsh āghā and those of the ḥaram who had been with the Emperor on the campaign.

In Badakhshān Māh-chūchak had a daughter born. On the same night the Emperor had this dream: ‘Fakhru-n-nisā', my māmā,^185b and Daulat-bakht came in by the door, and brought something or other, and then left me alone.’ Consider it as he might, he could only ask: ‘What does this dream mean?’ Then it occurred to him that, as a daughter had just been born, he would call her after the two, and taking nisā' from one, and bakht from the other, would run them together into Bakht-nisā'.

Māh-chūchak had four daughters¹⁸⁶ and two sons,—Bakht-nisā' Begam, and Sakīna-bānū Begam, and Amīna-bānū Begam, and Muḥammad Hakīm Mīrzā, and Farrukh-fāl Mīrzā. (71b) She was with child when the Emperor went to Hindūstān (1554), and bore a son, in Kābul, whom they named Farrukh-fāl Mīrzā. A little later Khānish āghā had a son whom they named Ibrāhīm Sulṭān Mīrzā.

The Emperor spent a full year and a half in Kābul, prosperously and happily, and in comfort and sociability.^186a

After taking flight from Kābul, Mīrzā Kāmrān went to Badakhshān, and there stayed in Tāliqān. One day the Emperor was in the Inner Garden,^186b and when he rose at dawn for prayers, news came that many of the amīrs who formerly were with the mīrzā, had gone to him again. Amongst them were Qarācha Khān and Muṣāḥib Khān, and Mubāriz Khān and Bāpūs.^186c Many wretches fled by night and went to join the mīrzā in Badakhshān.

In a propitious hour the Emperor also started for Badakhshān. He besieged the mīrzā in Tāliqān, and after a time made him agree to submit and become obedient (72a) when he waited on the Emperor, who bestowed Kulāb on him, and gave Qila'-i-ẓafar to Mīrzā Sulaimān, Qandahār (sic; (?) Kunduz) to Mīrzā Hindāl, and Tāliqān to Mīrzā 'Askarī.

One day at Kishm¹⁸⁷ they had set up^187a the tents and there was an assembly of the brothers, his Majesty the Emperor Humāyūn, and Mīrzā Kāmrān, and Mīrzā 'Askārī, and Mīrzā Hindāl, and Mīrzā Sulaimān.^187b

His Majesty enjoined certain regulations^187c which are fixed for interviews with kings, and said: ‘Bring ewer and basin so that we may wash our hands and eat together.’ He washed his hands and Mīrzā Kāmrān washed his. By years Mīrzā Sulaimān (b. 920H.) had precedence of Mīrzā 'Askarī (b. 922H.) and Mīrzā Hindāl (b. 925H.). So, to show him respect, the two brothers set the ewer and basin first before him.

After washing his hands Mīrzā Sulaimān did something improper with his nose. Mīrzā 'Askarī and Mīrzā Hindāl were much put out, and said: ‘What rusticity is this? (72b) First of all, what right have we to wash our hands in his Majesty's presence? but when he bestows the favour and gives the order, we cannot change it. What sense is there in these nose-wagging performances?’ Then the two mīrzās went and washed their hands outside and came back and sat down. Mīrzā Sulaimān was very much ashamed. They all ate at one tablecloth.

At this gathering his Majesty graciously remembered this lowly person, and said to his brothers: ‘Gul-badan Begam used to say in Lāhōr: “I wish I could see all my brothers together!” As we have been seated together since early morning, her words have occurred to my mind. If it be the will of the most high God, may our assembly be kept in His own place! He knows without shadow that it lies not in my heart's depths to seek any Musalmān's ill; how then, should I seek the hurt of my brothers? May God grant to you all the same divine and beneficent guidance, so that our agreement and concord may endure!’ (73a)

There was wonderful cheerfulness and happiness because many officers and their followers met their relations again, for they too had been sundered because of their masters' quarrels. Nay! one might rather say they had thirsted for one another's blood. Now they passed their time in complete happiness.

On his return from Badakhshān the Emperor spent a year and a half in Kābul and then resolved to go to Balkh. He took up his quarters in the Heart-expanding Garden,¹⁸⁸ and his own residence was over against the lower part of the garden, and the begams were in Qulī Beg's house because it was close by.

The begams said to the Emperor over and over again: ‘Oh, how the rīwāj^188a will be coming up!’ He replied: ‘When I join the army, I shall travel by the Koh-dāman, so that you may come out and see the rīwāj growing.’ It was at afternoon prayer-time that he rode out¹⁸⁹ (of Kābul) to the garden. Qulī Beg's house where the begams were, was close by and overlooked it, and his Majesty pulled up as he passed, and all the begams saw him, and rose and made the kōrnish. (73b) Directly they had made this salutation, he beckoned with his own blessed hand, to say: ‘Come.’^189a

Fakhru-n-nisā' māmā and Afghānī āghācha went on a little ahead. There was a stream in the lower part of the garden which Afghānī āghācha could not cross, and she fell off her horse. For this reason there was an hour's delay.^189b At last we set out with his Majesty. Māh-chūchak Begam not knowing, her horse went up a little.^189c His Majesty was very much annoyed about this. The garden was on a height and the walls were not yet made. Some vexation now showed itself in his blessed countenance and he was pleased to say: ‘All of you go on, and I will follow when I have taken some opium and got over my annoyance.’ He joined us when we had, as he ordered, gone on a little. The look of vexation was entirely laid aside and he came with a happy and beautiful look in his face.

It was a moonlight night. (83a) We talked and told stories,^189d and Mīr (fault) and Khānish āghācha and Ẓarīf the reciter and Sarū-sahī and Shāham āghā sang softly, softly.

Up to the time of our reaching Laghmān, neither the royal tents nor the pavilions of the begams had arrived, but the mihr-amez¹⁹⁰ tent had come. We all, his Majesty and all of us, and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam sat in that tent till three hours past midnight and then we went to sleep where we were, in company with that altar of truth (Humāyūn).

Early next morning he wished to go and see the rīwāj on the Kōh. The begams' horses were in the village, so the starting-time passed before they came up. The Emperor ordered that the horses of everyone who was outside should be brought. When they came he gave the order: ‘Mount.’

Bega Begam and Māh-chūchak Begam were still putting on their head-to-foot dresses, and I said to the Emperor: ‘If you think well, I will go and fetch them.’ ‘Go,’ he answered, ‘and bring them quickly.’ I said to the begams and to Māh-chūchak Begam and the rest of the ladies: ‘I have become the slave of his Majesty's wishes. What trouble waiting gives!’ I was gathering them all together and bringing them when he came to meet me and said: ‘Gul-badan! the proper hour for starting has gone by. (83b) It would be hot the whole way. God willing, we will go after offering the afternoon prayer.’ He seated himself in a tent with Ḥamīda-bānū Begam.^190a After afternoon prayers, there was the interval between two prayers before the horses arrived. In this interval he went away.^190b

Everywhere in the Dāman-i-kōh the rīwāj had put up its leaves. We went to the skirts of the hills and when it was evening, we walked about. Tents and pavilions were pitched on the spot and there his Majesty came and stayed. Here too we passed the nights together in sociable talk, and were all in company of that altar of truth.

In the morning at prayer-time, he went away to a distance (bīrūn), and from there wrote separate letters to Bega Begam and to Ḥamīda-bānū Begam and to Māh-chūchak Begam and to me and to all the begams,¹⁹¹ saying: ‘Becoming spokeswoman of your own fault, write apologizing for the trouble you have given. God willing, I shall say farewell and go to join the army either at Farẓa or Istālīf, and if not we shall travel apart.’ (74a)

Then everyone wrote to apologize for having given trouble, and sent the letter for his holy and elevating service.

In the end his Majesty and all the begams mounted and rode by Lamghān to Bihzādī. At night each one went to her own quarters, and in the morning they ate (? alone), and at mid-day prayer-time rode to Farẓa.

Ḥamīda-bānū Begam sent nine sheep to the quarters of each one of us. Bībī Daulat-bakht had come one day earlier to Farẓa and had got ready plenty of provisions and milk and curds and syrup and sherbet and so on. We spent that evening in amusement. In the early morning (we went) above Farẓa to where there is a beautiful waterfall. Then his Majesty went to Istālīf and passed three days, and then in 958H.^191a marched towards Balkh.

When he crossed the pass, he sent farmāns to summon Mīrzā Kāmrān and Mīrzā Sulaimān and Mīrzā 'Askarī, and said: ‘We are on the march to fight the Uzbegs; now is the time for union and brotherliness. You ought to come as quickly as possible.’ Mīrzā Sulaimān and Mīrzā 'Askarī came and joined him. (74b) Then march by march they came to Balkh.

In Balkh was Pīr Muḥammad Khān,^191b and on the first day his men sallied out and drew up in battle array. The royal army carried off the victory, and Pīr Muḥammad's men tasted defeat and returned to the city. By the next morning the khān had come to think: ‘The Chaghatāī are strong; I cannot fight them. It would be better to get out and away.’ Just then the royal officers joined in representing that the camp had become filthy, and that it would be well to move to a desert place (dasht). His Majesty ordered them to do so.

No sooner were hands laid on the baggage and packsaddles, than others raised a clamour and some cried out: ‘We are not strong enough.’ Since such was the Divine will, the royal army took the road without cause from a foe, without reason or motive.¹⁹² The news of their march reached the Uzbegs and amazed them. Try as the royal officers would, they produced not a scrap of effect. It could not be hindered: the royal army ran away. (75a)

The Emperor waited a little, and when he saw that no one was left, he too had to go. Mīrzā 'Āskarī and Mīrzā Hindāl, not having heard of the confusion, rode up to the camp. They found no one and saw that the Uzbegs had gone in pursuit, so they too took the road and made for Kunduz. After riding a little way, his Majesty stopped and said: ‘My brothers are not here yet: how can I go on?’ He asked the officers and attendants whether anyone would bring him news of the princes. No one answered or went. Later on word came from the Mīrzā's people in Kunduz that they had heard of the disaster and did not know where the princes had gone. This letter upset the Emperor very much. Khiẓr Khwāja Khān said: ‘If you approve, I will bring news.’ ‘God's mercy on you!’ rejoined his Majesty. ‘May they have gone to Kunduz!’ (75b)

Two days afterwards the khwāja, to the Emperor's great delight, brought word that Mīrzā Hindāl had arrived at Kunduz safe and sound. His Majesty gave Mīrzā Sulaimān leave to go to his own place, Qila'-i-ẓafar, and came himself to Kābul (1550, 957H.).

While Mīrzā Kāmrān was in Kūlāb, a woman named Tarkhān¹⁹³ Bega, who was a thorough cheat, showed him the way by saying: ‘Make a declaration of love to Ḥaram Begam.^193a Good will come of it.’ Acting on these words of an ill-judging adviser, he actually sent a letter and a kerchief^193b to Ḥaram Begam by the hand of Begī āghā. This woman laid the letter and the kerchief before the begam and then set forth the mīrzā's devotion and passion. Ḥaram Begam said: ‘Keep that letter and that kerchief now and bring them again when the mīrzās come home.’ Begī āghā then wept, and moaned, and coaxed, and said: ‘Mīrzā Kāmrān has sent you this letter and this kerchief; he has loved you a long time, and you have no pity for him.’ (76a) Ḥaram Begam began to show her disgust and violent anger, and at once sent off for her husband, Mīrzā Sulaimān, and her son, Mīrzā Ibrāhīm. She said to them: ‘Mīrzā Kāmrān must have come to think you are cowards, since he sends me a letter like this. Have I deserved to be written to in this way? He is as your elder brother, and I am to him as a younger brother's wife.^193c Send off a letter for me about it and rebuke him. As for this wretch of a woman, tear her piece by piece. Let her be a warning to others that no man may cast the evil eye of sinful thought upon another man's womanfolk. What does such a man deserve who, the son of a mother, yet does such monstrous things, and who fears neither me^193d nor my son?’

Instantly hands were laid on Begī āghā Bībī, condemned of fate to die, and she was torn in pieces. In consequence of this affair, Mīrzā Sulaimān and Mīrzā Ibrāhīm were displeased with Mīrzā Kāmrān, or rather they became his enemies. (76b) They wrote to the Emperor that Mīrzā Kāmrān wished to thwart him and that this could not be better seen than in his failure to go to Balkh with him.

After this the mīrzā, in Kūlāb,¹⁹⁴ could not find, in his terror-stricken thoughts, any better remedy than to become a darvish. He sent his son, Abū'l-qāsim (Ibrāhīm) to Mīrzā 'Askarī, and betook himself to Tāliqān with his daughter 'Āyisha (Sulṭān Begam), and said to his wife (Muḥtarīma Khānam): ‘Do you and your daughter follow me later. I will send for you to whatever place I settle on. Till then go and stay in Khost and Andar-āb.’ The khānam was related to the Uzbeg khāns, and some of her kinsfolk let the Uzbegs^194a know: ‘If you want booty, there are goods and men and women servants; take these, and let the lady go free, for if 'Āyisha Sulṭān Khānam's^194b nephew hears to-morrow (that she has been hurt), he will certainly be very angry with you.’ By a hundred plans and wiles, and with a hundred anxieties, and without her goods, she got free from the Uzbeg bondage, and reached Khost and Andar-āb. Here she stayed.

When Mīrzā Kāmrān heard of the royal disaster in Balkh, he said: ‘The Emperor is not so friendly to me as he was.’ (77a) So he left Kūlāb, and went hither and thither.

At this time (1550) his Majesty came out from Kābul. When he reached the Qibchāq defile, he incautiously halted in a low-lying place, and Mīrzā Kāmrān, coming from higher ground, armed and equipped, poured down foes upon him. Since such was the Divine will, a barbarian,—inwardly blind, an ill-fated oppressor and ill-omened tyrant,—inflicted a wound on the Emperor. The blow reached his bleassed head, and all his forehead and his dear eyes were stained with blood.

It was just like it was in the Mughal war when the blessed head of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī, the Emperor Bābar, was wounded by a Mughal, and his high cap and the turban wrapped round it were not cut, but his blessed head was badly hurt. His Majesty Humāyūn used to say with surprise: ‘I wondered at it, for cap and cloth were whole, and yet the head was cut.’¹⁹⁵ The very same thing happened now to his own head.

After the rout in the Qibchāq defile, his Majesty went to Badakhshān, and Mīrzā Hindal, and Mīrzā Sulaimān, and Mīrzā Ibrāhīm came and waited on him. (77b) He went^195a to Kābul and the mīrzās were in attendance, friendly and united and at peace together, when Mīrzā Kāmrān approached. His Majesty sent a message to Ḥaram Begam: ‘Ask my kīlīn^195b to send me the army of Badakhshān as quickly as possible and ready for service.’ In a few days, —a very short time,—the begam had given horses and arms to some thousands of men. She herself superintended and took thought and she came with the troops as far as the pass. From here she sent them forward, and while she went back they went on and joined the Emperor.

Either at Chārkārān or Qarā-bāgh there was fighting with Mīrzā Kāmrān and his Majesty's army was successful. The mīrzā fled to the mountain passes (tangayhā) and Lamghānāt.¹⁹⁶

Āq Sulṭān (Yasīn-daulat) who was the mīrzā's son-inlaw, said in effect to him (gufta bāshad): ‘You are continually thwarting the Emperor. What is the meaning of it? It is not what should be. (78a) Either make your submission and obeisance to the Emperor or give me leave to go, so that men may distinguish between us.’ Mīrzā Kāmrān said fiercely: ‘Have my affairs come to such a pass that you offer me advice?’ Āq Sulṭān also spoke angrily, ‘If I stay with you, my position will be unlawful,’ and left him at once, and went with his wife (Ḥabība) to Bhakkar. The mīrzā wrote to Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain, and said: ‘Āq Sulṭān has displeased me and has gone away. If he comes to Bhakkar, do not let his wife be with him. Part them and tell him to go where he likes.’ Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā at once, on receiving the letter, deprived Ḥabība Sulṭān Begam of the company of Āq Sulṭān and let him depart for the blessed Makka.^196a

In the fight at Chārīkārān, Qarācha Khān^196b and many of Mīrzā Kāmrān's well-known officers were killed.

'Āyisha Sulṭān Begam^196c and Daulat-bakht āghācha were in flight for Qandahār, and were captured at the Khimār Pass, and brought in by the Emperor's people. Mīrzā Kāmrān went to the Afghāns,^196d and stayed amongst them. (78b)

From time to time his Majesty used to visit the orange-gardens. That year also, according to his old habit, he went to the mountain passes (tangayhā) to see the oranges. Mīrzā Hindāl was in attendance, and of the ladies (ḥaramān), there went Bega Begam, Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, Māh-chūchak Begam and many others. I could not go because my son, Sa'ādat-yār, was ill at the time. One day his Majesty, attended by Mīrzā Hindāl, was hunting near the mountain passes. They had very good sport. The Emperor went towards where the mīrzā was hunting and had made a very good bag. Following the rules of Chingīz Khān, the mīrzā proffered his game to the Emperor, for it is a rule of Chingīz Khān that inferiors should so act towards their superiors. In short, he gave the Emperor all his game. Then it occurred to him: ‘There is still my sisters' portion. (79a) They shall not complain again. I will hunt once more and get them a share.’ Again he busied himself in hunting, and had taken one head of game, and was returning, when someone sent by Mīrzā Kāmrān blocked the road, and shot an arrow at the unwitting mīrzā which struck his blessed shoulder. Acting on the thought ‘God forbid my sisters and womenfolk should be upset by news of this,’ he wrote off at once to say: ‘Ill begun has ended well!¹⁹⁷ Do not be anxious, for I am getting better.’ To finish the story: as it was hot, his Majesty went back to Kābul, and in the course of a year the arrow-wound got better.

A year later word was brought that Mīrzā Kāmrān had collected troops and was preparing for war. His Majesty also, taking military appurtenances, set out for the mountain passes (tangayhā) with Mīrzā Hindāl. He went safe and well, and made his honouring halt in the passes. Hour by hour, and all the time, spies kept bringing news: ‘Mīrzā Kāmrān has decided that an attack must be made to-night.’ (79b) Mīrzā Hindāl went to the Emperor and submitted his advice: ‘Let your Majesty stay on this high ground, and let my brother (nephew) Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar pādshāh stay with you, so that careful watch may be kept on this height.’ Then he called up his own men, and encouraged and cheered them one by one, and said: ‘Put earlier services in one scale and the service of this night in the other. God willing! whatever claim you can make, you shall be exalted to its degree.’¹⁹⁸ One by one he allotted their posts, and then called for his own cuirass and surtout, and high cap and helmet.

His wardrobe-keeper had lifted up the wallet when someone sneezed,^198a and he set it down for a while. Because of this delay, the mīrzā sent to hurry him. Then the things were brought quickly, and he asked: ‘Why were you so long?’ The man replied: ‘I had lifted the wallet when someone sneezed, and I therefore put it down. So there was a delay.’ (80a)

The mīrzā replied: ‘You were wrong. (You should have) said rather: “May there be a blessed martyrdom.”’ Then he went on: ‘Friends all! be my witness that I abjure all forbidden things and all indecorous acts.’ Those present recited the fātḥiha and prayed: ‘May there be benediction.’ He said: ‘Bring my vest and cuirass and surtout.’ He put them on and went out to the trenches to encourage and solace his men. Just then his ṭabaqchī,^198b hearing his voice, cried: ‘They are attacking me.’ The mīrzā, hearing this, dismounted and said: ‘Friends, it is far from brave to give no help when my servant is at the point of the sword.’ He himself went down into the trench but not one of his followers dismounted. Twice he sallied from the trenches, and in this endeavour became a martyr.

I do not know what pitiless oppressor slew that harmless youth^198c with his tyrant sword! Would to Heaven that merciless sword had touched my heart and eyes, or Sa ādat-yār, my son's, or Khiẓr Khwāja Khān's! Alas! a hundred regrets! Alas! a thousand times alas! (80b)

O well-a-day! O well-a-day! O well-a-day!
My sun is sunk behind a cloud.

All may be said in a word: Mīrzā Hindāl gave his life freely for his sovereign.

Mīr Bābā Dost lifted him up and carried him to his quarters. He told no one, and fetched servants and placed them at the entrance and gave orders: ‘Tell everyone who asks, that the mīrzā is badly wounded and that the Emperor forbids anyone to enter.’

Then he went and said to his Majesty: ‘Mīrzā Hindāl is wounded.’ The Emperor called for a horse; ‘I will go and see him.’ Mīr 'Abdu-l-ḥaī said: ‘He is badly hurt. It is not desirable that you should go.’ He understood, and however much he tried,¹⁹⁹ he could not help it, he broke down.

Jūī-shāhī^199a was Khiẓr Khwāja Khān's jāgīr. The Emperor sent for him and said: ‘Take Mīrzā Hindāl to Jūī-shāhī and care for his burial.’ The khān took the camel's bridle,^199b and when he was going away with weeping and lament and voice uplifted in grief, (81a) his Majesty heard of the mourning and sent him word: ‘We must have patience! This sorrow touches my heart more closely than yours, but I do not give way because I think of our bloodthirsty, tyrannical foe. With him at hand, there is no help but patience.’ Then the khān with a hundred regrets, miserable and stricken, conveyed the body to Jūī-shāhī, and there laid and left it.

If that slayer of a brother, that stranger's friend, the monster, Mīrzā Kāmrān had not come that night, this calamity would not have descended from the heavens.

His Majesty sent letters to his sisters in Kābul, and the city at once became like one house of mourning. Doors and walls wept and bewailed the death of the happy, martyred mīrzā.

Gul-chihra Begam had gone to Qarā Khān's house. When she came back, it was like the day of resurrection.²⁰⁰ Through weeping and sorrow she fell quite ill and went out of her mind.

It was by Mīrzā Kāmrān's evil fate that Mīrza Hindāl became a martyr. From that time forth we never heard that his affairs prospered. On the contrary, they waned day by day and came to naught and perished. (81b) He set his face to evil in such fashion that fortune never befriended him again nor gave him happiness. It was as though Mīrzā Hindāl had been the life, or rather the light-giving eye of Mīrzā Kāmrān, for after that same defeat he fled straight away to Salīm Shāh, the son of Shīr Khān. Salīm Shāh gave him a thousand rupīs.^200a Then the mīrzā told in what position he was, and asked help. Salīm Shāh said nothing openly in reply, but in private he remarked: ‘How can a man be helped who killed his own brother, Mīrzā Hindāl? It is best to destroy him and bring him to naught.’ Mīrzā Kāmrān heard of this opinion and one night, without even consulting his people, he resolved on flight and got away, and his own men had not even a word of it. They stayed behind and when news of the flight reached Salīm Shāh, he imprisoned many of them.

Mīrzā Kāmrān had gone as far as Bhīra and Khūsh-āb when Adam Ghakkar, by plot and stratagems, captured him and brought him to the Emperor. (82a)

To be brief, all the assembled khāns and sulṭāns, and high and low, and plebeian and noble, and soldiers and the rest who all bore the mark of Mīrzā Kāmrān's hand, with one voice represented to his Majesty: ‘Brotherly custom has nothing to do with ruling and reigning. If you wish to act as a brother, abandon the throne. If you wish to be king, put aside brotherly sentiment. What kind of wound was it that befell your blessed head in the Qibchāq defile through this same Mīrzā Kāmrān? He it was whose traitorous and crafty conspiracy with the Afghāns killed Mīrzā Hindāl. Many a Chaghatāī has perished through him; women and children have been made captive and lost honour. It is impossible that our wives and children should suffer in the future the thrall and torture of captivity. (82b) With the fear of hell before our eyes²⁰¹ (we say that) our lives, our goods, our wives, our children are all a sacrifice for a single hair of your Majesty's head. This is no brother! This is your Majesty's foe!’

To make an end of words, one and all urgently set forth: ‘It is well to lower the head of the breacher of a kingdom.’

His Majesty answered: ‘Though my head inclines to your words, my heart does not.’ All cried out: ‘What has been set before your Majesty is the really advisable course.’ At last the Emperor said: ‘If you all counsel this and agree to it, gather together and attest it in writing.’ All the amīrs both of the right and left assembled. They wrote down and gave in that same line (miṣra'): ‘It is well to lower the head of the breacher of the kingdom.’ Even his Majesty was compelled to agree.

When he drew near to Rohtās, the Emperor gave an order to Sayyid Muḥammad: ‘Blind Mīrzā Kāmrān in both eyes.’ The sayyid went at once and did so.

After the blinding, his Majesty the Emperor^201a …

I. Āfāq (Āpāq) Begam.

Princess of the Universe; Ar. āfāq, four quarters, universe, etc..

She is mentioned, without clue to her parentage, by Bābar, as a wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā. He mentions her again, with others of the mīrzā's widows, as seen in Harāt in 912H. (1506-7), and here his wording, both in the Turkī and the Persian texts, allows the inference that she is a daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī. Mr. Erskine translates the passage thus: ‘Pāyanda Sulṭān Begam, my father's sister, Khadīja Begam and the other (Turkī, yena; Pers., dīgar) daughters of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā.’

When greeting the ladies, Bābar gave Āfāq precedence over Khadīja, and notes the fact. Khadīja was not a woman of birth.

Ḥusain Bāyqrā married three daughters of Abū-sa'īd, Shahr-bānū, Pāyanda, and Āfāq. The last bore him no child, but she reared and educated nine children of his by her own foster-sister, Bābā āghācha.

Early in 932H. (1525) she went from Harāt to Kābul and was received by Bābar (before his departure for India in November, 1525) with all possible respect and kindness. He gives the impression that she was an affectionate and devoted woman, and says that her tender care of her husband in illness surpassed that of all the other ladies of the ḥaram.

News of her death reached Bābar when he was besieging Chandīrī in 934H. (January, 1528).

Mems., 182, 183, 204.

II. Āfāq Begam. (No. 26.)²⁰⁴

She was a daughter of Sulṭān-bakht Begam; her father's name has not yet come to my knowledge; she was a grand-daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā.

Bābar mentions the arrival of a daughter of Sulṭān-bakht Begam in Āgra in 935H. (October, 1528), and Gul-badan supplies the name Āfāq by naming an Āfāq of this parentage as at the Mystic Feast in 938H. (1531).

Gul-badan. Persian text, 25b.

Mems., 387.

(Afghānī āghācha, the Afghān lady. See Mubārika Bībī.)

III. Afroz-bānū Begam. (No. 33.)

Pers. afroz, dazzling, illuminating, and bānū, (?) a form of bān (vān), which in composition means holding, possessing. Also a prince or chief.

Nothing is said to identify her. She was at the Mystic Feast (1531).

Gul-badan, 25b.

IV. Āghā Begam. (No. 34.)

Turkī, āghā, a title of honour, and Ar. sulṭān, sway, pre-eminence. Steingass classes the word āghā as Persian. It may be āka, lady. The dictionaries do not apply it to women.

Mentioned as at the Mystic Feast in 1531. She may be Bāyqrā (infra).

Gul-badan, 25b.

V. Āghā Begam Bāyqrā.

She was a daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and of Pāyanda Sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. Her descent being so high through both parents, her name Āghā rises above its frequent application to wives of less degree. Here it may have the meaning of chief or great. She married her cousin Murād who was a son of Rābi'a-sulṭān Begam (Bedka). The Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq. (lith. ed.), states that she died before she reached maturity, but this does not agree with Bābar's statements. The Ḥabīb places her death earlier than 912H. (1506).

Mems., 181.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, lith. ed., 327 et seq..

VI. Aghā kūka. (No. 78.)

Wife of Mun'im Khān; at Hindal's Feast (1537).

Gul-badan, 26a.

VII. Āghā-sulṭān āghācha. (No. 37.)

(?) The lady of chief honour.

She was a wife of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrzā (died 1494), and mother of Yādgār Sulṭān Begam (Bābar's half-sister). She was present at Hindāl's marriage feast (1537), and probably at the Mystic Feast, in 1531. She is classed amongst ‘our begams.’

Gul-badan, 25b.

Mems., 10, 14.

VIII. Āghā-sulṭān Sulṭanam Dughlāt.

She was a daughter of Muḥammad Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dughlāt, and therefore aunt of the author of the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī. She married 'Abdu-l-qadūs Beg Dughlāt in Kāshghar, after 877H. (1472-73). Her husband was alive in 900H. (1494-95), and was governor of Khost for Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī.

Mems., 27.

Tār. Rash., E. and R., 95, 103.

IX. Āī Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Turkī, āī, moon. Her name is not mentioned in the Memoirs, but is so by Ilminsky (Mems., 30; Ilminsky, 34, line 7 from foot).

She was the fourth daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrānshāhī and Khānzāda Termiẕī II.; and wife of Jahāngīr Mīrzā, half-brother of Bābar. She was betrothed in 901H. (1495-96), married in 910H. (1504-5), bore one daughter, and was widowed not later than 914H. (1508-9).

Mems., 30, 128.

Pavet de Courteille, I. 57, 262.

X. Āka Begam Bāyqrā.

Āka is clearly a title; her personal name I have not found. Her sister who is styled Bedka, appears to be named Rābi'a-sulṭān.

Daughter of Manṣūr Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Fīroza Begam Mīrān-shāhī, full and elder sister of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā. Bābar states (Mems., 176, 177) that she married (his uncle) Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrza, and had a son, Kīchak Mīrzā (the young or small prince). But he does not mention her, either as Āka or otherwise, amongst Aḥmad's wives (Mems., 22), and he says that Aḥmad had two sons who died young. Kīchak, however, lived to change his military occupations for literature.

It is singular that a marriage of the oldest Mīrān-shāhī of his generation with the oldest Bāyqrā girl should not have been entered in Aḥmad's biographical notice.

Mems., 22, 23, 176, 177.

(Ālūsh—Anūsh—Begam, Ūlūs, q.v..)

XI. Amīna Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Ara., amīn, faithful.

Daughter of Humāyūn and Māh-chūchak.

Gul-badan, 71a.

XII. Āq Begam Bāyqrā.

Turkī, āq, fair. The word is frequently a sobriquet and the bearer's personal name is occasionally known; e.g., Yasīn-daulat, Āq Sulṭān; Salīqa Begam, Āq Begam. But frequently the personal name is not traceable.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Pāyanda Sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī; first cousin of Bābar; wife of Muḥammad Qāsim Arlāt.²⁰⁷ She had one daughter, known as the Black-eyed (qarā-gūz) Begam.

Mems., 181.

XIII. Āq Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 3.)

Āq Begam was a daughter of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī and Khadīja. She was one of the several paternal aunts of Bābar who went to India at his invitation. She reached Āgra in October, 1528 (Ṣafar, 935H.), and was met by her nephew. She was present at the double wedding of Gul-rang and Gul-chihra in 1530 (937H.), and was probably at Bābar's death-bed. She was at the Mystic Feast on December 19th, 1531 (Jumāda I. 9th, 938H.).

Gul-badan, 11a, 18b, 20a, 24b.

Mems., 179, 182, 387.

XIV. Aq Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Third daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Khānzāda Begam Termiẕī; and first cousin of Bābar. The Memoirs do not mention her marriage or (as usual alternative) early death. She was full sister of a wife of Bābar, Zainab.

Mems., 30.

(Aq Begam, Salīqa, q.v..)

XV. 'Aqīqa ('Afīfa) Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 47.)

Her name may be 'Aqīqa, a cornelian, etc., or 'Afīfa, a chaste, modest woman. Our begam's MS. allows both readings. I have used the first but the second seems the more appropriate in sense.

She was a daughter of Humāyūn and Bega and second child of both parents. She was born in Āgra in 1531. It is only from her aunt Gul-badan that anything is known of her. She went to Guālīār with her mother in (?) 1534; she was at Hindāl's feast in 1537, and she was lost at Chausa on June 27th, 1539.

Gul-badan, 22a, 23b, 25, 33b, 34b.

XVI. Ātūn māmā. (No. 38.)

An ātūn is a teacher of reading, writing, and embroidery, etc. Māmā seems to be the title of old women-servants.

Bābar mentions an ātūn in 1501. He met her at Pashāghar whither she had come on foot from Samar-qand and where she again joined her old mistress, Bābar's mother, Qutluq-nigār Khānam. She had been left behind in the city after Shaibānī's capture of it because there was no horse for her to ride.

Gul-badan mentions an ātūn māmā as at Hindāl's wedding feast, and as māmā seems to be used for old servants, it is possible that she is the woman mentioned by Bābar.

Gul-badan, 26a.

Mems., 99.

XVII. 'Āyisha-sulṭān Begam Bāyqrā. (No. 9.)

Ar. 'aish, joy, and sulṭān, sway, pre-eminence. Cf. App. s.n. Daulat.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Zobaida āghācha of the Shaibān sulṭāns. 'Āyisha married, (1) Qāsim Sulṭān Uzbeg, a Shaibān sulṭān, and by him became the mother of Qāsim Ḥusain Sulṭan Uzbeg, an amīr of Bābar and Humāyūn; (2) by yanga-lik (cf. App. s.n. Jāmal), Būran Sulṭān, a kinsman of Qāsim Sulṭān, and by whom she had 'Abdu-l-lāh Sulṭān Uzbeg who entered Bābar's service.

'Āyisha was at the Mystic Feast in 1531, and she was lost at Chausa in 1539 (946H.).

Khwānd-amīr gives 929H. (1522-23) as a date at which 'Āyisha was in Qāsim Sulṭān's ḥaram, but this does not agree with Bābar's narrative. His entry that 'Abdu-l-lāh was in his service and although young, acquitting himself respectably, cannot at latest have been made after 1530. From 1522 to 1530 is all too short for widowhood, remarriage, birth of 'Abdu-l-lāh, and his growth to respectable military service.

Gul-badan, 24b, 33b.

Mems., 182.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, lith. ed., 327 et seq..

XVIII. 'Āyisha-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (? No. 11.)

Third daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Qūtūq (Katak) Begam. She was a first cousin of Bābar, and his first wife. They were betrothed in Samarqand when he was five years old, 894H.(1488-89), and married in Sha'bān, 905H. (March, 1500), at Khojand during the ‘troubles’ i.e., conflict with Khusrau Shāh and Aḥmad Tambol. Bābar says that at first he had no small affection for 'Āyisha and that it declined. She was the mother of his first child, Fakhru-n-nisā' (born 907H., 1501). She left Bābar before the overthrow (wirānī) of Tāsh-kand by Shaibānī in 909H. (1503), being influenced by the ‘machinations’ of her elder sister, probably Salīqa, who was married to one of those many kinsmen who tried to overthrow the boy-king of Farghāna.

Gul-badan mentions an 'Āyisha Sulṭān Begam (No. 11) as being at the Mystic Feast, without describing her. The following entry (No. 12) is that of Sulṭānī, a daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā, and described as being such. It seems likely that Gul-badan meant this note as to parentage to apply to both begams (Nos. 11 and 12). (Cf. App. s.n. Sulṭānan.)

Gul-badan, 6b, 24b.

Mems., 22, 78, 90.

XIX. Āyisha-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of Kāmrān Mīrzā.

Firishta (lith. ed., 241) and Khāfī Khān (I. 122) say that Kāmrān left one son and three daughters.

The son is called Ibrāhīm by Gul-badan, and in the early part of the Akbar-nāma. (Bib. Ind., ed., I. 226.) Later the A. N. and other sources call him Abū'l-qāsim, which may be a hyonymic (kunyat).

As to the three girls, Firishta, without naming them, gives the information that:

No. 1 married (a) Ibrāhīm Ḥusain Mīrzā (Bāyqrā).

No. 2 married (b) Mīrzā 'Abdu-r-raḥman Mughal.

No. 3 married (c) Fakhru-d-dīn Mashhadī who died in 986H. or 987H. (No. 88 of Blochmann's list. Āīn-i-akbarī , p. 406).

Khāfī Khān's information coincides with Firishta's verbally as to No. 3, and actually as to No. 1 and No. 2. For Ibrāhīm can be described as a son of a ‘paternal uncle,’ if these words are used in the wide sense given to them by contemporary writers. So, too, can 'Abdu-r-raḥman, if he be No. 183 of Blochmann's list—a Dughlāt Mughal and cousin of Mīrzā Ḥaidar.

If we take the girls' names from other sources we can (conjecturally in part) fill up the table.

1. Gul-rukh is known in history as the wife of Ibrāhīm Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā.

2. Kāmrān's eldest daughter, Ḥābība, was forcibly parted from her husband, Āq Sulṭan, in about 1551-52, and this would allow re-marriage to (b) or (c). Āq Sulṭān went to Makka from Sind 1551-52 (cir.), and his name disappears thenceforth.

3. 'Āyisha may also have married (b) or (c).

In the list of the pilgrims of 983H. (A. N. Bib. Ind. ed., III. 145) are included ‘Ḥājī and Gul-'iẕār, farzand-ān of Mīrzā Kāmrān.’²¹¹ We have already the three names required by Firishta and Khāfī Khān, i.e., Gul-rukh, Ḥabība and 'Āyisha. Gul-'iẕār is ‘superfluous.’ Perhaps farzandān may be read ‘offspring,’ and she may be a granddaughter. Or Ḥabība or 'Āyisha may have predeceased Kāmrān, and for this reason three girls only be specified by historians who wrote of the time of his death.

Which one of the daughters was the Ḥājī Begam of 983H. is not clear.^211a It would seem that this was her second pilgrimage, since she is enrolled as Ḥājī before starting. Kāmrān's daughters may have gone—one or all—to Makka after his blinding and during the four years of his life there. Of the three, Gul-rukh is the only one of whom it is on record that she was widowed in 983H., and therefore quite free to make the Ḥaj. Ibrāhīm Ḥusain died in 981H. (1573).

Ḥājī Begam was visited by Akbar and she died in 991H. (1583).

Gul-badan, 77a, 78a.

Akbar-nāma, III. 145, 373, 375.

XX. 'Āyisha-sulṭān Khānam and Khātīm, Mughal Khānam, Chaghatāī Mughal.

Daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān. In 909H. (1503) she, together with other ladies of her father's household, was captured by Shaibānī and was married by him. She bore him a son, Muḥammād-raḥīm Sulṭān. She wrote Turkī verses, and her name appears in the biography of poetesses by Fakhrī amīrī. Mīrzā Ḥaidar says that some of her children and of two other Mughal khānams (Daulat and Qūt-līq) who were forcibly married at the same time, were living and reigning in Transoxiana at the time of his writing the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī. She is, I think, the 'Āyisha named by Gul-badan on 76b.

Tār. Rash., 160, 192, 193.

Gul-badan, 76b.

Jawāhiru-l-'ajāib. Fakhrī amīrī (Bodleian MS.).

XXI. Bābū āghā (Māmā āghā).

Professor Blochmann writes the name Bābū; but Bābā, darling, or Bānū, lady, would seem more appropriate for a Persian woman.

She was the wife of Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad Khān Nishāpūrī, and was related to Ḥamīda-bānū Begam Jāmī, Akbar's mother. Abū'l-faẓl calls her Māmā āghā. He says that she was a good woman, and that on her death Akbar went to her house and offered condolence because of her relationship to his mother.

Shihābu-d-dīn was damād of Māham anaga, and as damād is presumably used here in its more common sense of ‘son-in-law,’ Bābū āghā would seem to be a daughter of Māham anaga.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., III. 716.

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 333.

XXII. Bachaka Khalīfa.

Gul-badan, Bachaka; Mems., Bachaka; Ilminsky, Bīchkā. Vambéry (Chaghatāische Sprachstudien) has an appropriate word, bechek, Chok. (? Kokand), zierrath; ornament. The name is presumably Chaghatāī Turkī, as the bearer of it was an old family servant of a Farghāna household.

Bachaka was a head woman-servant (khalīfa) of Bābar's household, and was one of two women who escaped with his mother and him from Samarqand in 1501. There was a Bachaka whom Gul-badan calls a ‘khalīfa of my royal father,’ lost at Chausa in 1539, and the two references may well be to the same woman.

Mems., 98.

Gul-badan, 33b.

Ilminsky, 116.

XXIII. Badī'u-l-jamāl Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

The khānam of rare beauty; Ar. badī', astonishing, rare; jamāl, beauty.

Daughter of Sa'īd Khān Chaghatāī Mughal, ruler of Kāshghar; and first cousin, once removed, of Bābar. She married Bāush Sulṭān of the Uzbeg Kazāks. On her father's death, her brother Rashīd insisted upon her divorce, and then gave her in marriage to Muḥam-madī Barlās whom Ḥaidar Mīrzā styles ‘a peasant.’

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 453.

XXIV. Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 2.)

She was a daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī. She went to India during Bābar's life; was at the double wedding of his daughters, and at the Mystic Feast in 1531.

Mems., 387.

Gul-badan, 11a, 18b, 24b.

XXV. Bairām (Maryam) Sulṭān.

Ilminsky calls her Bairam; Khwānd-amīr, Maryam. The Mems. give her no name.

She was the elder daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Mīnglī-bī āghācha Uzbeg. She married Sayyid 'Abdu-l-lāh Mīrzā of Andikhūd (a Tīmūrid through his mother). She bore a son, Savvid Birka, who served Bābar.

Ilminsky, 209.

Mems., 181.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq..

XXVI. Bakhshī-bānū Begam.

Princess Good-fortune. Pers. bakhsh, fortune, and bānū (vān), possessing.

She was a daughter of Humāyūn and of Gūnwar Bībī, and was born in Jumāda I., 947H. (September, 1540), the year of the Tīmūrid exodus from India. She fell into the hands of her uncle 'Askarī with her father's camp and the baby Akbar in 1543. In 1545 she was sent with Akbar in the depth of winter from Qandahār to Kābul. In 957H. (1550), and when ten years old, she was betrothed by her father to Ibrāhīm, son of Sulaimān and Ḥaram. Ibrāhīm (b. 1534) was six years older than Bakhshī-bānū, and he was killed in 1560, leaving her a widow of twenty. In the same year she was given in marriage by Akbar to Mīrzā Sharafu-d-dīn Ḥusain Aḥrārī.

Gul-badan, 39b.

Akbar-nāma, s.n..

XXVII. Bakhtu-n-nisa' Begam.

Felicity of womanhood; Pers. bakht, felicity, fortune, and nisā', woman.

She was a daughter of Humāyūn and Māh-chūchak, and was born in 957H. (1550). Gul-badan says that she received her name in accordance with Humāyūn's interpretation of a dream. There is, however, ground for thinking that she and Fakhru-n-nisā', both mentioned in the histories as daughters of Māh-chūchak, are one and the same person. Gul-badan enumerates three daughters of Māh-chūchak, and says that there were four. It is her habit to state, in such matters, one more than she names. She mentions Bakht, but not Fakhr.

Of Bakhtu-n-nisā' it is recorded in the histories that she came from Kābul to India with her son Diwālī, after the death of Mīrzā Muḥammad Hakīm, her brother (993H.—1584-85), and that she was concerned in a reconciliation effected by Salīma-sulṭān Begam between Akbar and Salīm.

Of Fakhru-n-nisā it is recorded that she married Shāh Abū'l-ma'ālī Termiẕī and Khwāja Ḥasan Naqsh-bandī .

Gul-badan, 71a.

Khāfī Khān (Bib. Ind. ed.), I. 226.

Badāyunī, Lowe, 72.

Akbar-nāma, s.n..

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 322.

XXVIII. Bakht-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 4.)

Daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and mother of Āfāq (No. 26). She went to India shortly after its conquest by Bābar, and was at the Mystic Feast.

Mems., 387.

Gul-badan, 11a, 24b, 25b.

XXIX. Barlās Begam. (No. 36.)

There is no clue given by which to identify this lady. Others who were, like herself, at the Mystic Feast might, by tribal descent, be styled Barlās.

Gul-badan, 25b.

(Bedka, Rabī'a, q.v..)

XXX. Bega āghā.

Bega is perhaps not a personal name. It appears to be a feminine of beg, but its application is not always to the daughters of begs, as may be seen by the instances here given. For a confusion of bega and yanga cf. App. s.n. Zainab.

A messenger of Mīrzā Kāmrān to Ḥaram Begam.

Gul-badan, 75b.

XXXI. Bega Begam Bāyqrā.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Pāyanda-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī; full sister of Ḥaidar Bāyqrā; first cousin of Bābar; wife of Bābar Mīrzā of Ḥājī Tarkhān who was her first cousin and the son of Rabī'a-sulṭān (Bedka) Bāyqrā.

Khwānd-amīr says that she married ‘Khwāja Māu-lānā.’ This may be a second marriage or a confusion with Kīchak, her sister.

Mems., 177, 181.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq..

XXXII. Bega Begam and Bībī.

The Emperor Jahāngīr, when in his Memoirs enumerating the gardens of Kābul, mentions one which belonged to Bega Begam, a widow of his father's grandfather, i.e., Bābar. Which of Bābar's wives is indicated by this title cannot be said with certainty.

Jauhar has a story of Kāmrān's want of consideration for ‘Bega Begam,’ in which the points useful here are that on the day in 1545 when Humāyūn took Kābul from Kāmrān, he asked for food from Bega Begam, and he said of her that she was the very person who had brought Bābar's bones and laid them in Kābul.

These two references of Jahāngīr and Jauhar are probably to the same lady. Of Bābar's wives, Bībī Mubārika (Afghānī āghācha) appears to me the most suitable to the time and task.

Bābar's body was still in its Āgra tomb in 1539. (Gul-badan, 34b.) Māham was then dead; Dil-dār's movements exclude her from consideration; Gul-rukh, if living, will have left Āgra with her son Kāmrān before the Tīmūrid exodus was enforced by defeat at Kanauj; Bībī Mubārika remains, the probable and appropriate agent for fulfilling Bābar's wish as to the final disposition of his body. She lived into Akbar's reign, and her character and respected position in the household add to the sum of probability that she would discharge this duty.

Bābar's body was not removed till after the fiṭrat, i.e., the Tīmūrid downfall and exodus. Bega Begam, or, as we may call her with Jauhar for the sake of clearness, the Bībī, must therefore have remained behind the rest of the royal family. This may have occurred in one of two natural ways. She might have stayed in Āgra under the protection of one of the religious families and safeguarded by pious duty to Bābar's tomb, until Shīr Khān gave permission to remove the body and a safe escort for her journey to his frontier; or she may even have been in Bengal and at Chausa with Humāyūn, and, like Bega (Ḥājī) Begam, have been made captive. It would harmonize with Shīr Khān's known actions if he had allowed Bābar's widow to remove his bones, and if he had aided her pious task.

Tūzūk-i-jahāngīrī, lith. ed., 51.
Humāyūn-nāma, Jauhar, Pers. text, s.a. 951H. (November,
1545).
B. & H., II. 325 n..

XXXIII. Bega Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 15.)

This Bega was a daughter of Mīrzā Ulugh Beg Mīrān-shāhī who was king of Kābul and known as Kābulī. She was Bābar's first cousin, and may be that daughter of her father who married Muḥammād Ma'ṣūm Mīrzā Bāyqrā. Gul-badan styles her 'ama, paternal aunt, of Humāyūn; anglice, she and he were first cousins, once removed. She was at the Mystic Feast in December, 1531.

Gul-badan, 24b.

Mems., 180.

XXXIV. Bega Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (? No. 22. Bega Kilān Begam.)

Daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā and Khān-zāda II. Termiẕī; wife of Ḥaidar Mīrzā Bāyqrā and mother of Shād Begam (No. 28).

In 901H. (1496) Sulṭān Ḥusain Bāyqrā was besieging Ḥiṣār which was held for Bega's brother Mas'ūd, and in which she was. Ḥusain became apprehensive about the spring rains and patched up a peace, the seal of which was Bega's marriage with his son Ḥaidar, her first cousin through his mother, Pāyanda-sulṭān. The betrothal took place outside the fort, with assistance of such music as could be procured, and later when the bride was taken to Harāt, the marriage was celebrated with the splendour loved by Ḥusain and befitting a Tīmūrid alliance. Ḥaidar was a full Tīmūrid; Bega was one on her father's side, and probably as a Termiẕī sayyida's daughter, drew through her also a strain of the same blood.

Ḥaidar died before his father; i.e., before 912H. (April, 1506).

Mems., 30, 38, 180.

Gul-badan, (?) 24b, No. 22.

XXXV. Bega (Ḥājī) Begam (?) Begchik Mughal. (? No. 50.)

She was a daughter of Uncle (ṭaghāī) Yādgār Beg who was, I think, a brother of Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā, father of Kāmran's wife, Gul-rukh. Abū'l-faẓl calls Bega Begam dukhtar-i-ṭaghāī-wālida-i-Jannat-āshyānī. Yādgār and 'Alī Begchik are both styled Mīrzā, but this elevation is due, it seems, to their alliances with the royal house. Ḥaidar calls their brothers mīrs.

Bega married Humāyūn, her first cousin, and she was the wife of his youth. It is out of harmony with the custom of his house that his chief wife should be of less than royal descent. So far as I have been able to trace the matter, he never made an equal marriage. Gul-barg Barlās, ‘Khalīfa's’ daughter, whose second husband he was, had best claim to high birth.

The first son, perhaps first child, of Bega and Humāyūn was Al-amān, born 934H. or 935H. (1528) when his father was about twenty-one and was in Badakhshān. Bābar has commemorated his birth both by mentioning it and by preserving his own congratulatory letter to the young father. Al-amān died in infancy.

Bega came to India after Bābar's death (December, 1530), and her second and last-mentioned child, 'Afīfa ('Aqīqa) was born in 1531.

In 1534 (circa) Gul-badan's story (29b, 30b) shows Bega as resenting neglect by Humāyūn who accepts invitations to his sisters' quarters in camp in preference to hers and Gul-barg's. Some impressions of this story make one question whether the Bega it tells of is Humāyūn's wife or another. But the circumstances that she is associated with a wife, Gul-barg; that Gul-badan does not speak of her as being other than the ‘Bega Begam’ of the home circle; Humāyūn's allusions to the elder kinswomen; and the absence of the deference customary to an elder woman, seem sufficient justification for identifying the complaining Bega with the wife. (Gul-badan, it may be observed, mentions one other Bega Begam—i.e., Mīrān-shāhī, daughter of Ulugh Beg Kābulī.)

Bega was with Humāyūn during the idleness of his decadence in Bengal, and with her was her sister, the wife of Zahīd Beg. Zahīd offended Humāyūn, and Bega tried in vain to obtain his forgiveness.

She was captured at Chausa by Shīr Khān, and here she lost her little girl, 'Aqīqa. The historians all call her Ḥājī Begam in recording her capture; it is only Gul-badan who calls her Bega Begam. She was returned in safety to Humāyūn under the escort of Shīr Khān's best general, Khawāṣ Khān. How soon she was returned I am not able to say. Support is to be found for the view that she was sent to Āgra directly after Humāyūn's arrival there, and also for the view that she was not returned to him until after a considerable time had elapsed. I do not know whether she went to Sind with the exiles or was sent later direct to Kābul. She was in Kābul with the royal family after 1545. She remained there with the other ladies when Humāyūn made his expedition to recover Hindūstān, and she came with Ḥamīda, Gul-badan, and the rest to join Akbar in 964H. (1557). After this she built her husband's tomb near Dihlī, and became its faithful attendant.

Akbar is said to have been much attached to her, and she was to him like a second mother. She went to Makka in 972H. (1564-65), and returned three years later. One thing raises the question whether this was her first pilgrimage, viz., the fact that all the sources, except Gul-badan's, call her Ḥājī Begam. Why is she singled out to bear this title? It had been earned by many royal ladies before any one of the trio of great writers under Akbar had put pen to paper. The same unexplained distinction is conferred by the histories on a daughter of Kāmrān. In both these cases a renewed pilgrimage might serve as the explanation of the distinction.

Bega Begam died in 989H. (1581), shortly before Gul-badan's return from Makka. She had almost certainly passed her seventieth year, and was perhaps still older. Abū'l-faẓl says that her affairs were settled by one Qāsim 'Alī Khān. He also records a visit of Akbar to her in her last illness, as well as an earlier visit of hers to him made from Dihlī in 981H..

Gul-badan, 22a, 23b, 29b, 30b, 78b, 83a.
Mems., 388, 390.
Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., index, s.n..
Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 465. (Confusion has been made
here with Kāmrān's daughter.)
Badāyunī, Lowe, 308 n..
History of the Afghāns, Dorn, I. 103.

XXXVI. Bega Kilān Begam. (No. 22.)

She was at the Mystic Feast. No clue is given to her identification. The ‘kilān’ of her title indicates a pre-eminence which would suit Bega Mīrān-shāhī, daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā. (Cf. supra.)

Gul-badan, 24b.

XXXVII. Bega Sulṭān Begam Marvī.

Daughter of Sanjar Mīrzā of Marv; first wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā; mother of Badī'u-z-zamān Mīrzā. ‘She was extremely cross-tempered, and fretted the mīrzā beyond endurance, till, driven to extremities by her insufferable humour, he divorced her. What could he do? He was in the right:

A bad wife in a good man's house,
Even in this world, makes a hell on earth.

May the Almighty remove such a visitation from every good Moslim; and God grant that such a thing as an ill-tempered, cross-grained wife be not left in the world.’

There is no later record of her.

Mems., 181, 182.

XXXVIII. Bega Sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 13.)

Daughter of Sulṭān Khalīl Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; grand-daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd; first cousin of Bābar.

Gul-badan, 24b.

XXXIX. Begam Sulṭān.

Daughter of Shaikh Kamāl. Died 945H. (1538).

Beale's ‘Oriental Biography,’ s.n..

(Begam Sulṭān, Sa'ādat-bakht, q.v..)

XL. Begī Sulṭān āghācha.

Inferior wife (chāhar-shambihī) of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā.

Mems., 183.

XLI. Buwā Begam.

Mother of Sulṭān Ibrāhīm Lōdī Afghān. She attempted to poison Bābar in December, 1526 (933H.) in the manner which is told in most of the histories. The Iqbāl-nāma adds the interesting detail that she was deported from India, and that on her enforced journey to Kābul she drowned herself in the Indus.

Mems., 347.

Gul-badan, 19a.

XLII. Chūlī Begam Azāk.

The Desert Princess; Pers. chūl, desert. The Memoirs have Jūlī, but the meaning of chūlī (which looks like a sobriquet) suits the descent of the begam better than anything which can be extracted from jūl. Ihninsky writes Jūlī, but for this the Mems. are his possible warrant. B.M. Pers. Or. 16,623, f. 123, l. 7., has a clearly-pointed chūlī; also on f. 124b.

Chūlī (Jūlī) Begam was a daughter of a beg of the Azāks, and married Sulṭān Ḥusain Bāyqrā before he conquered Khurāsān in 878H. (1473). She was the mother of Sulṭanām, his eldest girl and her only child, and she died before 912H. (1506).

Mems., 181, 182.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq..

XLIII. Daulat-bakht āghācha.

(?) The lady of happy horoscope (bakht).

She may be the mother of Kāmrān's daughter 'Āyisha, with whom she was in flight for Qandahār. (Cf. 'Āyisha.)

Gul-badan, 78b.

XLIV. Daulat-bakht Bībī. (No. 85.)

She was clearly an active and working member of Humāyūn's household. She appeared to him in a dream (71a), and her name formed a part of Bakhtu-n-nisā's. She went on before the main body of begams when they visited the waterfall at Farza, and saw to the commissariat. She is named as being at Hindāl's marriage feast.

She may be the Daulat-bakht āghācha of the preceding notice.

Gul-badan, 26b, 71a, 74a.

XLV. Daulat-kitta (?) Arghūn.

Kitta I find only as a Turkī word, meaning noble, powerful. With it the name would be a mongrel of Arabic and Turkī. Perhaps Daulat-gītī might be read.

She was a servant in Mīrzā Muḥammad Muqīm Arghūn's house, and was an intermediary in effecting the elopement of her master's daughter, Māh-chūchak Arghūn, from Kābul. Mr. Erskine tells the story admirably.

B. & H., I. 348 et seq., and the sources there referred to.

XLVI. Daulat-nigār Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Good-fortune itself; the very image of felicity. Ar. daulat, and Pers. nigār, effigy, image.

Daughter of Isān-būghā Khān Chaghatāī; wife of Muḥammad Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dughlāt.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 88.

XLVII. Daulat-sulṭān Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Ar. daulat, fortune, and sulṭān, sway. In many proper names, sulṭān does not appear to be a title, but rather to indicate the sway or dominance of the quality imputed by the first word of the name; e.g., Laṭīf-sulṭān, Daulat-sulṭān. In giving these names, one might suppose the prophetic notion to be that the first child should be a regnant delight and the second a prevailing felicity.

Youngest child of Yūnas Khān Chaghatāī and Shāh Begam Badakhshī; half-sister of Bābar's mother; wife by chance of battle, of Tīmūr Sulṭān Uzbeg; mother by him of a daughter.

In 907H. (1501-2) she was in Tāshkand, and Qūt-līq-nigār Khānam went to visit her after thirteen or fourteen years of separation. Bābar, dejected and an exile, joined the family party in the next year. In 909H. (1503) Shaibānī sacked Tāshkand and forcibly married Daulat-sulṭān to his son Tīmūr. She bore him a daughter, and she remained in his ḥaram until Bābar took possession of Samarqand in 917H. (1511), and she joined him. She went south with him in 1513, and remained several years in Badakhshān with another nephew, Mīrzā (Wais) Khān who behaved to her like a son.

Another nephew, Sa'īd, her own brother Aḥmad's son, then invited her, with costly gifts, to visit him in Kāshghar. She made the long and difficult journey; joined him in Yarkand; and with him she spent the rest of her life.

Bābar mentions that her foster-brother brought him news and letters from her in 925H. (September 8th, 1519). In the same year Manṣūr, Sa'īd's eldest brother, went to Kāshghar to visit her, his ‘beloved aunt.’

The Persian text of the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī says that Manṣūr went so that by looking at her kind face his grief for the loss of his father might be mitigated. The Bible Society's Turkī version reads: ‘Being prompted thereto by the extreme warmth of his affection for her.’ Both statements illumine her character. The second seems the more appropriate, since the death of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān took place in 909H. (1503) and Manṣur's visit in 926H. (1520).

There is no mention of her remarriage, and her story is that of an affectionate and leisured aunt.

Mems., 14, 99, 105, 274.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 108, 117, 156, 160, 351, 352, 356.

XLVIII. Daulat-sulṭān (?) Sakanj Begam.

Sakanj I cannot explain. B. M. Add. 24,090 (44b) has no points, and the word may be S-k-n-gh. B. M., Or. 137 (48a) has k-m-n-j or b-k-n-j. The Turkī (Bible Society's MS. translations) has Daulat.

Daughter of Amīr Shaikh Nūru-d-dīn Qibchāq Mughal, governor of Turkistān; wife of Wais Khān Chaghatāī Mughal.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 64 and 64 n..

XLIX. Dil-dār Begam. (No. 48.)

The Heart-holding Princess; Pers. dil, heart, and dār, holding.

Neither her husband, Bābar nor her daughter, Gul-badan gives any clue to her parentage. Her marriage is not spoken of in the Memoirs; it, as well as Gul-rukh's, probably occurred in the missing decade of 1509-19. If Bābar held the view that four wives were a lawful number, Dil-dār, of whatever parentage, may be counted amongst them, since in 1509 Māham only remained of his earlier wives, 'Āyisha, Zainab, and Ma'sūma having disappeared from the household by death or divorce.

Dil-dār is mentioned once in the Turkī text of Kehr and Ilminsky, and then as āghācha. I am too ignorant of the import of this word in the domestic circle to venture to draw from its use an inference as to social status. It, however, as used by Bābar and by Gul-badan, supports Pavet de Courteille's definition of a ‘lady’ in contradistinction to a ‘begam,’ and does not convey reproach to the woman as its occasional English rendering (concubine) does.

The Akbar-nāma (Bib. Ind. ed., II. 62) makes use of the words ‘Dil-dār āghācha Begam,’ and adds āghā as a variant (cf. App., s.n. āghā). Gul-badan always styles her mother begam, and sometimes ḥaẓrat. In enumerating her father's children and their mothers, she does not mention the parentage of any wife besides Ma'sūma Mīrān-shāhī, a Tīmūrid, but no deduction as to the lower birth of the others can be drawn safely from this, and there is some ground for supposing that Dil-dār was of Mīrān-shāhī birth. (Cf. infra, p. 277.)

Perhaps some indication of non-royal birth is given by Māham's forcible adoption of Dil-dār's son in 1519, but I am too ignorant of the nuances of Muḥammadan etiquette to venture on assertion or even on opinion in such a matter. That Māham did not take Gul-rukh's ²²⁶ son tells nothing, since the chief factors in the adoption, i.e., Māham's loss of her own children and wish to adopt, may have become operative only when they were put into practice in 1519.

Five children of Dil-dār are mentioned by Gul-badan: Gul-rang, born between 1511 and 1515; Gul-chihra; Abū-n-nāṣir Muḥammad (Hindāl), born 1519; Gul-badan, born 1523; and Alwar, who died in India in 1529.

She is very frequently written of by her daughter; some other authors give of her a clear and pleasant impression; and she is always spoken of with respect and as a good and sensible woman.

Gul-badan, 6b, 16a, 23a, 25b, 29b, 30a, 35a, 35b, 38a, 42a,
50b, 51b, 65a, 70b.
Jauhar, Stewart, 30, 31.
Ilminsky, 281.
Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n..
B. & H., II. 164, 220, 302.

L. Dil-shād Begam.

The Heart-rejoicing Princess; Pers. dil, heart, and shād, rejoicing.

Daughter of Shāh Begam and grand-daughter of Fakhr-jahān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. Of her paternal descent nothing is recorded.

Gul-badan, 24b.

LI. Dūdū Bībī.

Wife of Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh Lohānī, Afghān King of Bihār; mother of Sulṭān Jalālu-d-dīn; regent for her son in his minority from 1529.

B. & H., s.n..

LII. Fakhr-jahān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 1.)

The world's ornament. Ar. fakhr, ornament, and Pers. jahān, world.

She was a daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā; a paternal aunt of Bābar; the wife of Mīr 'Alā'u-l-mulk Termiẕī; and mother of Shāh and Kīchak Begams.

She went to India in 1526, the first year of Bābar's occupation, with her sister Khadīja, and stayed there nearly two years. She took leave of Bābar before starting on her return journey to Kābul on September 20th, 1528 (Muḥarram 5th, 935H.). She was again in Āgra and at the Mystic Feast in 1531.

Gul-badan, 11a, 24b.
Mems., 374, 382.
P. de Courteille, II. 453. (This is a fragment, supplied by
Kehr and Ilminsky, which has the appearance of memo-
randa and which concerns a period already and variously
written of in the Bābar-nāma of Kehr and contained in
the Memoirs of Mr. Erskine.)
Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 322.

LIII. Fakhru-n-nisā'.

The ornament of womanhood; Ar. fakhr, ornament, and nisā', woman.

She was a daughter of Bābar and 'Āyisha-sulṭān, and his first child, born when he was nineteen. She died when about a month old.

Mems., 90.

Gul-badan, 6b.

LIV. Fakhru-n-nisā' anaga and māmā.

Mother of Nadīm kūka; mother-in-law of his wife, Māham anaga.

She and Nadīm are several times mentioned by Gul-badan.

Gul-badan, 26a, 46a, 71a, 73b.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1899, art.
Māham anaga, H. Beveridge.
Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n. Nadīm.

LV. Fakhru-n-nisā' Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 61.)

Daughter of Humāyūn and Māh-chūchak; sister of Muḥammad Ḥakīm; wife (1) of Shāh Abū'l-ma'ālī and (2) of Khwāja Ḥasan Naqshbandī. (Cf. Bakhtu-n-nisā'.)

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n..

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n..

Badāyunī, Lowe, 72.

LVI. Fāṭima Sulṭān āghā.

Ar. Fāṭima, a name given presumably in honour of the Prophet's daughter. The meaning of sulṭān here is not apparent. It does not seem as, e.g., in Daulat-sulṭān, safe to consider it as a part of a compound word, and to read Faṭīma-sulṭān. Nor from the bearer's parentage does it suit to take it as a title, implying that she is of the sulṭāns of her tribe.

There are points in the use of the word sulṭān which require fuller discussion than is practicable here. One Fāṭima Sulṭān and her sister Bairām (Maryam) were the children of Ḥusain Bāyqrā by an Uzbeg servant of one of his royal wives. They are not given any further title, but their brothers are mīrzās.

Daughter of the chief of a Mughal tumān (10,000 men); first wife of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī; mother of his second son, Jahāngīr who was two years the junior of Bābar.

Mems., 10, 14.

LVII. Fāṭīma Sulṭān anaga and Bībī. (No. 60.)

Mother of Raushan kūka and of Zuhra, wife of Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam. Bāyazīd bīyāt speaks of her as the ōrdū-begi of Humāyūn's ḥaram, a title which Blochmann translates ‘armed woman.’

She was at Hindāl's marriage feast; she helped to nurse Humāyūn in 1546; and was an envoy to Ḥaram Begam for marriage negotiations; and she appears in Akbar's reign when her daughter is murdered.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, October, 1898, art. Memoirs of Bāyazīd bīyāt, H. Beveridge.

Ṭabaqāt-i-akbarī, Elliot, V. 291.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n..

Gul-badan, 26a.

LVIII. Fāṭima Sulṭān Bāyqrā.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and of Mīnglī-bī āghācha Uzbeg; wife of Yādgār Muḥammad Mīrzā Shāh-rukhī (died 875—1470-71). She was dead before 912H. (May, 1506).

Mems., 182.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq..

LIX. Fāṭima Sulṭān Begam.

A wife of Shāh Ḥusain Beg Arghūn, and mentioned in the Tārīkh-i-sind.

LX. Fauq Begam. (No. 31.)

Ar. fauq, superiority, excellence.

Gul-badan, 25b.

LXI. Fīroza Begam. (No. 35.)

The princess of victory; Pers. fīroz, victorious, prosperous.

Gul-badan, 25b.

LXII. Fīroza Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

She was a grand-daughter of Tīmūr, and married Manṣūr Mīrzā Bāyqrā. Their son Ḥusain was therefore a double Tīmūrid, fourth in descent through Manṣūr and third through Fīroza.

Mems., 176.

LXIII. Gauhar-shād Begam and āghā, Turkomān.

The jewel of joy; Pers. gauhar, jewel, and shād, joy, delight.

Wife of Shāh-rukh, son of Tīmūr; sister of Qarā Yūsuf Turkomān; founder of the Masjid which bears her name in Mashhad, and, with her husband, of the Bāgh-i-zāghān (Ravens' Garden) at Harāt. Bābar saw her tomb (dated 861H., 1457) and her mosque in 1506.

Mems., 207.

Northern Afghānistān, C. E. Yate, s.n.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 83 n..

LXIV. Gauhar-shād Begam Dughlāt.

Daughter of Muḥammad Dughlāt Ḥiṣārī; wife of Amīr Yār (sic); son of Amīr Jān-wafā, who was darogha of Samarqand under Shaibānī in 906H. (1500) when Bābar took the city, and who was an intimate of Muḥammad Ḥiṣārī, and saved his life by a warning word, as a reward for which Gauhar-shād was given in marriage to his son.

Mems., 86, 88, 239.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 193.

LXV. Gauhar-shād Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 5.)

Daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā and paternal aunt of Bābar. She was at the Mystic Feast.

Mems., 387.

Gul-badan, 11a, 24b.

LXVI. Gul-badan Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 46.)

Cf. Biographical Introduction and her own Humā-yūn-nāma .

LXVII. Gul-barg Begam Barlās. (No. 49.)

The rose-leaf princess; Pers. barg, leaf.

Daughter of Niẓāmu-d-dīn 'Alī Barlās, Bābar's Khalīfa; niece, therefore, of Sulṭān Junaid Barlās, a brother-in-law of Bābar. (Cf. Shahr-bānū.) She may be the child of that Sulṭānam who received Gul-badan at Kūl-jalālī. (14a) She married, first, Mīr Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn, in 930H. (1524). The alliance was not happy and a separation took place. She appears to have remarried Humāyūn at some time before the defeat at Chausa (1539). She was with him subsequently in Sind, and from there went with Sulṭānam to Makka previous to 1543.

She was buried in Dihlī. Mīr Ma'ṣūm writes of her death: ‘She entrusted her soul to the guardians of the hour of death, and the leaves (gul-barg) of the rose-bush of her life were dispersed by the boisterous wind of mortality.’

Gul-badan, 21a, 25b, 29b, 30b, 49b.

Tārīkh-i-sind, Mīr Ma'ṣūm.

B. & H., I. 385.

LXVIII. Gul-barg, or - iẕar, or -rang, or -rukh Mīrān-shāhī.

By these various names is mentioned the mother of Salīma-sulṭān Begam. There are difficult points as to her descent which are discussed s.n. Salīma-sulṭān.

LXIX. Gul Begam. (No. 30.)

The rose princess.

She was at the Mystic Feast, and may be one of the various ladies of the rose who are entered infra.

Gul-badan, 25b.

LXX. Gul-chihra Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 45.)

The rosy-cheeked princess; Pers. chihra, face.

Daughter of Bābar and Dil-dār; their second child, and born between 1515 and 1517. She was full-sister of Gul-rang, Hindāl, and Gul-badan.

She married Bābar's first cousin (a son of his mother's brother Aḥmad), Sulṭān Tūkhta-būghā Khān Chaghatāī Mughal. The marriage was arranged by Bābar, and took place in 937H. (end of 1530). She would then be about fourteen years old.

She was widowed cir. 940H. (1533), and nothing as to her remarriage is recorded until 956H. (1549), when she was over thirty years old. It is improbable that she remained a widow so many years. (Cf. App. s.n. Salīma-sulṭān.) In 956H. she entered upon what looks like a mariage de raison with 'Abbās Sulṭān Uzbeg, just before Humāyūn set out on his expedition for Balkh. The bridegroom came to suspect that the Tīmūrid army was about to act against his own people and ran away. Probably he did not take Gul-chihra with him. Her name next appears in the histories when she accompanies Gul-badan and Ḥamīda to India in 964H. (1557).

Gul-badan, 6b, 16b, 18b, 23b, 25b, 29b, 38a, 65a.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n.

LXXI. Gul-'iẕār Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

The rosy-cheeked princess; Pers. gul, rose, and 'iẕār, cheek, face.

Daughter of Bābar and Gul-rukh; full-sister of Kāmrān and 'Askarī.

Gul-badan names no marriage for her, but she may have been the wife of Yādgār-nāṣir.

Gul-badan, 6b.

Mems., 10.

LXXII. Gul-'iẕār Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of Kāmrān Mīrzā; she accompanied Gul-badan Begam to Makka (983H., October, 1575). (Cf. App. s.n. 'Āyisha Mīrān-shāhī.)

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., III. 145.

LXXIII. Gul-nār āghācha. (No. 57.)

The red, red rose; Pers. gul, rose, and nār (anār), pomegranate, carnation red.

She was of Bābar's ḥaram, and may have been one of the two Circassian (Cherkis) slaves (the other being Nār-gul) who were presented to the Emperor by Shāh Ṭahmāsp in 933H. (1526).

She was at Hindāl's wedding-feast, and shared in the conferences of Humāyūn and his family; and she was one of Gul-badan Begam's pilgrim band (983H., 1575).

Gul-badan, 25b, 30a, 35a, 38a.

Mems., 347.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., III. 145.

LXXIV. Gul-rang Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 44.)

The rose-hued princess.

Daughter of Bābar and Dil-dār and her mother's first child. She was born in Khost, probably between 1511 and 1515, during Bābar's exile from Kābul after the Mughal rebellion. She was given in marriage to Isān-tīmūr Chaghatāī Mughal, her father's first cousin, during the last days of her father's life and in 1530.

Isān-tīmūr is last mentioned in 1543, and of Gul-rang there is no certain record after cir. 1534, when she was at Guālīār. (23a) (Cf. App. s.n. Salīma.)

Gul-badan, 6b, 16b, 18b, 23a, 25b, 29b.

LXXV. Gul-rukh Begam (?) Begchik Mughal.

The rose-cheeked princess.

Wife of Bābar; mother of Kāmrān, 'Askarī, Shāh-rukh, Aḥmad, and Gul-'iẕār. Outside Kābul there was in 1545 the tomb of Gul-rukh Begam. (64b) This may well have been hers.

She is perhaps a Begchik. This may be judged from the following notes:

(1) Kāmrān married a daughter of Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā ṭaghāī.²³³ (Mems., 388.)

(2) Humāyūn married a daughter of Yādgār ṭaghāī. (Mems., 388.)

Amongst contemporary Begchik amīrs are Sulṭān Alī Mīrzā and Yādgār Mīrzā.

If one follows the recorded incidents of Sulṭān 'Alī's life, one sees that Gul-rukh may be his sister.

(a) In 914H. (1508-9) he was ordered to drown Khalīl Khān. (Tār. Rash., 183.) Having done so, he took refuge with Bābar in Samarqand. (l.c., 265.)

(b) In 917H. (1511) he was with Sayyid Muḥammad Dughlāt in Andijān, apparently at Bābar's instance. (l.c., 248.) In the same year he was sent by Sa'īd Khān who had reinforced Andijān under Bābar's orders, to Kāzan.

(c) In 920H. (1514) he accompanied Sa'īd in his conquest of Kāshghar, and at this date is named amongst the Begchik amīrs of the Kāshghar army. (l.c., 308, 326.)

(d) In 925H. (1519) he waited on Bābar, and is styled ṭaghāī of Kāmrān. (Mems., 274.) Bābar says here: ‘Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā, the maternal uncle of Kāmrān (Ilminsky, 311, Kāmrān-nīnak ṭaghāī), who in the year in which I passed over from Khost to Kābul had proceeded to Kāshghar, as has been mentioned ,²³⁴ waited on me here.’

Bābar must several times have passed from Khost (Andar-āb) to Kābul. The Tārīkh-i-rashīdī fixes the occasion here alluded to as in 920H. (1514). This was Bābar's latest and last crossing of the northern passes to Kabul.

By thus bringing the statements of the Memoirs and the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī together, Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā Begchik is fairly-well identified with Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā, ṭaghāī of Kāmrān.'

(e) In 935H. (1528) Kāmrān married his daughter. (Mems., 388.)

Mems., 274, 388.

Tār. Rash., 183, 248, 264, 265, 280, 308, 326.

LXXVI. Gul-rukh Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of Kāmrān Mīrzā; wife of Ibrāhīm Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā; mother of Muẓaffar Ḥusain who married Sulṭān Khānam, Akbar's eldest daughter, and of Nūru-n-nisā' who became a wife of Salīm (the Emperor Jahāngīr).

The story of her husband's rebellious pursuit and death (981H., 1573), and of her flight to the Dakhin with her son, is found at length in the histories.

She was living and visited by Jahāngīr in 1023H. (1614). (Cf. XIX. 'Āyisha-sulṭān.)

LXXVII. Gūn-war Bībī.

Wife of Humāyūn and mother of Bakhshī-bānū Begam.

Gul-badan, 39b.

LXXVIII. Ḥabība Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

The beloved or desired princess.

Eldest daughter of Kāmrān Mīrzā and probably of the daughter of Uncle (ṭaghāī) Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā Begchik whom Kāmrān married in 935H. (1528). She married Yasīn-daulat (the Fair Sulṭān) Chaghatāī Mughal, a brother of Gul-badan's husband, Khiẓr, and her own second cousin. It may be that she married a second time after she was forcibly parted from Yasīn-daulat in 1551-52. (Cf. App. s.n. Ḥājī Mīrān-shāhī.)

Gul-badan, 64b, 65a, 78a.

LXXIX. Ḥabība-sulṭān Begam Arghūn.

The desired of the desired; Ar. ḥabība, beloved, desired, and sulṭān, pre-eminence, sway.

‘Brother's daughter of Sulṭān Arghūn’ (? Muqīm, Shāh Shuja'a, or a brother of Ẕū'l-nūn); wife of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; and mother of Bābar's wife, Ma'ṣūma. Bābar gave her a name of affection, yanga. (Cf. Index, s.v..)

Mems., 22, 23, 208, 238.

LXXX. Ḥabība-sulṭān Khānish Dughlāt. (No. 21.)

Daughter of Muḥammad Ḥusain Dughlāt and Khūb-nigār Chaghatāī; full-sister of Mīrzā Ḥaidar; first cousin (maternal) of Bābar; wife (1) of 'Ubaidu-l-lāh Uzbeg, and (2) of her cousin, Sa'īd Khān Chaghatāī.

She was taken captive as a child by Shaibānī Uzbeg, and she lived in his household until he gave her in marriage to his nephew, 'Ubaidu-l-lāh. Shortly before Shaibānī murdered her father (914H., 1508-9), 'Ubaidu-l-lāh asked for Ḥaidar (œtat. 11) to come to him and Ḥabība in Bukhārā, and thus saved him from a general massacre of Mughal sulṭāns.

When 'Ubaidu-l-lāh retreated to Turkistān (cir. 1511), Ḥabība remained in Bukhārā. She then joined her uncle Sayyid Muḥammad Dughlāt, in Samarqand, and with him went to Andijān where he married her to her cousin Sa'īd. She reared one of Sa'īd's children, Rashīd whose mother was a ‘tribeswoman,’ Makhdūm Qāluchī, but he certainly did her training no credit. She was widowed in 939H. (July 9th, 1533), so that Gul-badan may be wrong in saying that she was at the Mystic Feast in 1531. She may have been a wedding guest in 1537.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 140, 192, 193, 206, 268, 451, 453.

Gul-badan, 24b.

LXXXI. Ḥājī Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

She was a daughter of Kāmrān, and accompanied Gul-badan Begam to Makka in 983H., but it is to be inferred that this was not the pilgrimage which gave her her title of Ḥājī, since she is so entered before the ḥaj of 983H. (Cf. XIX, 'Āyisha-sulṭān.)

(Ḥājī Begam, Bega, q.v.)

(Ḥājī Begam, Māh-chūchak Arghūn, q.v.)

LXXXII. Ḥamīda-bānū.

Ar. ḥamīda, praised, laudable, and Pers. bānū.

Daughter of Sayyid Muḥammad Qāsim. She died 984H. (1576-77), and was buried at Andakhui.

The above information is given by Captain Yate, and as Hamīda-bānū may be the daughter of one of Humāyūn's followers, I have inserted her name.

Northern Afghānīstan, Yate, p. 349.

LXXXIII. Ḥamīda-bānū Begam Maryam-makānī.

Posthumous style, Maryam-makānī, dwelling with Mary.

She was the mother of Akbar. There is difficulty in making precise statement as to her family relations. She was of the lineage of Aḥmad Jāmī Zinda-fīl.

(a). Gul-badan, whose long intimacy with Ḥamīda invests her statement with authority, states that Mīr Bāba Dost was Ḥamīda's father, and that Khwāja Mu'aẓẓam was her barādar, i.e., brother undefined.

(b). The Tārīkh-i-sind states that her father was Shaikh 'Alī-akbar Jāmī who was one of the pillars of Mīrzā Hindāl. Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad says that 'Alī-akbar was father of Mu'aẓẓam.

If the statements of paragraphs (a) and (b) stood alone, ‘Bābā Dost’ and ‘'Alī-akbar’ might be identified as the petit-nom and the name of one man.

There is a good deal to support this view, and there is something against it.

In favour of the identification of Bābā Dost with 'Alī-akbar are the following points:

(1). ‘Bābā Dost’ seems to be not a personal name, but a sobriquet of affection and domestic intimacy.

(2). Jauhar calls Ḥamīda the daughter of Hindāl's akhund, and Mr. Erskine (perhaps, however, inferentially) calls 'Alī-akbar Hindāl's preceptor.

(3). Mīr Bābā Dost was alive in 947H. (1540-41), the year preceding Ḥamīda's marriage, and was then with Hindāl. (Akbar-nāma, H. Beveridge, I. 360.)

(4). Niẓamu-d-dīn Aḥmad and Badāyunī contribute negative support to the identification by using the indefinite khal, maternal uncle, to describe the relation of Akbar and Mu'aẓẓam.

(5). The Ma'āsiru-l-umarā' confirms the identification by use of the words barādar-i-a'yānī, full-brother. Its authority may not be of the best, but the choice of these words has some weight.

(6). 'Alī-akbar was of the lineage of Aḥmad Jāmī. Humāyun had a dream which allowed him to know that the son prophesied in it by Aḥmad would be of the latter's lineage. There is, I think, nothing said on this point of Mīr Bābā Dost, but saintly descent was claimed for Ḥamīda's father.

(7). Gul-badan gives one the impression (it is little more) that Mu'aẓẓam was younger than Ḥamīda. He calls his sister Māh-chīchām, which may be read as ‘Moon of my mother,’ but also as ‘Elder Moon-sister.’ (Cf. 18b n.) If he were Ḥamīda's junior, and as Mīr Bābā Dost was alive in 1540-41, he could not have been an independent agent in 1543-44.

In opposition to the identification, there are two considerations:

(i.) A minor matter; two names are given by the sources: Mīr Bābā Dost and 'Alī-akbar.

(ii.) The important fact that Abū'l-faẓl calls Mu'aẓẓam Ḥamīda's ukhuwwat-i-akhyāfī,²³⁸ which, according to Lane, must be rendered ‘uterine brother.’

Was, then, the name Bābā Dost a sobriquet of Shaikh 'Alī-akbar?

Were Ḥamīda and Mu'aẓẓam full brother and sister? Were they the children of one father and two mothers, or were they uterine brother and sister?

Shaikh 'Alī-akbar's name I have not found in any passage except the one dealing with Ḥamīda's parentage. Mīr Bābā Dost may be the man so named by Bābar (Mems., 262), and who was then with Humāyūn in the year of the birth of Hindāl (1519). He may also have gone with Humāyūn, Ḥamīda (? his own daughter) and Mu'aẓẓam (? his son) to Persia, the bakhshī in the little party of exiles. He is mentioned by Abū'l-faẓl not only where already noted, but, we believe, also amongst Hindāl's servants who were transferred to Akbar in 1551 (958H.).

Two men with the name 'Alī-akbar are mentioned under Akbar, but neither appears to be a Jāmī, or to warrant identification with Ḥamīda's reputed father. (Cf. Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n. 'Alī-akbar.)

Whether there was any relationship more close than that derived from common descent from Aḥmad Jāmī between Māham Begam and Ḥamīda I am not able to say.

Ḥamīda was related to Bānū (Bābū) āghā who was the wife of Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad Nishāpūrī and a relation of Māham anaga. Bega (Ḥajī) Begam also had claim to descent from Aḥmad Jāmī, so that the saint's posterity was numerous in Akbar's court, and included the Emperor himself.

To Gul-badan's account of the discussion which preceded Ḥamīda's marriage, there may be added the following passage from the Taẕkiratu-l-wāqi'āt of Jauhar. (I.O. MS. No. 221 and B.M. MS. Add. No. 16,711, f. 82.) After Humāyūn has asked whose daughter Ḥamīda is, he is told, perhaps by Dil-dār, that she is of the line of his Reverence the Terrible Elephant, Aḥmad Jāmī, and that her father, by way of blessing and benediction, has taught Mīrzā Hindāl, and that for this reason Ḥamīda is with the mīrzā's household.

The Persian (taken from the I.O. MS.) is as follows: Pidar-i-īshān do sih kalma ba jihat-i-tabarruk wa tayammun ba Mīrzā Hindāl sabq farmudand. Az ān jihat ba mā hamrā and.

Erskine (II. 220) and Stewart (Jauhar, 31 n.) both say that Ḥamīda was married at fourteen years of age. The incidents of her wedded life are set down in Gul-badan Begam's book and in the Akbar-nāma and other sources; but having regard to her interesting personality, they may be enumerated here also.

She was married at Pāt early in 948H. (summer, 1541), and remained in Sind until she made with Humāyūn the terrible desert journey to 'Umrkut where Akbar was born (October 15th, 1542). About the beginning of the following December she and her baby went into camp at Jūn, after travelling for ten or twelve days. In 1543 she made the perilous journey from Sind which had Qandahār for its goal, but in course of which Humāyūn had to take hasty flight from Shāl-mastān, ‘through a desert and waterless waste.’ She went with him, leaving her little son behind. She accompanied her husband to Persia, and it is recorded that on the way and at Sistān, its governor brought his mother and his wives to entertain her. With Humāyūn she made, amongst other pious visitations, one to Jām where was their ancestor Aḥmad's shrine. She was kindly treated by Shāh Ṭahmāsp and by his sister, and Gul-badan's details of the Persian episode can hardly have been learned from anyone but Ḥamīda. In 1544, in camp at Sabz-āwār, a daughter was born. She returned from Persia with the army given to Humāyūn by Ṭahmāsp, and at Qandahār would meet Dil-dār and Hindāl, her former protectors.

It was not until November 15th, 1545 (Ramẓan 10th, 952H.) that she again saw her son, who recognised her. She had shortly after this to accept Māh-chūchak as a co-wife. In June, 1548, she and Akbar accompanied Humāyūn on his way to Tāliqān as far as Gul-bihār, and thence returned to Kābul. This may be the expedition made by the ladies and chronicled by Gul-badan, to see the rīwāj. When Humāyūn, in November, 1554, set out for Hindūstān, she remained in Kābul.

Bāyazīd bīyāt mentions that at this time he fell under her displeasure, and was reproved because he had not cleared out a house for one of her servants. He pleaded the commands of Mu'nim Khān, and was forgiven. Early in the reign of Akbar, Khwāja Mīrak, Niẓāmu-d-dīn's grandfather and who was her diwān, was hanged by Mu'nim Khān because he had sided with Mīrzā Sulaimān.

She rejoined her son in the second year of his reign (964H., 1557), together with Gul-badan and other royal ladies. She is mentioned as in Dihlī in the fifth year, and she had a part in the plot for deposing Bairām Khān. She was closely associated with Gul-badan in Akbar's court and affection; together they interceded for Salīm with his father; together they received gifts from the Emperor; and their tents were side by side in his encampments. Ḥamīda was with Gul-badan in the latter's last hours.

Abū'l-faẓl says that when long fasts came to an end, the first dishes of dressed meat used to go to Akbar from his mother's house.

Ḥamīda died in the autumn of 1604 (19th Shah-riyār 1013H.), sixty-three years after her wedding, and after almost fifty years of widowhood, passed as the proud mother of a great son. If she was fourteen in 1541, she must have been born in 1527 (circa), the year of Bābar's victory at Khānwa, and have been some seventy-seven years old at the time of death.

Gul-badan, 39a, 42a, 43b, 48a, 55a, 55b, 58a, 59b, 62b, 66a,
74a, 78b, 83a.
Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n..
Aīn-i-akbarī. Aīn, 26, Ṣufīyāna, Blochmann, 61, 62.
Jauhar, l.c., Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad, etc.
Ma'āsiru-l-umarā' Bib. Ind. ed., I. 618.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, October, 1898, art.
Bāyazīd bīyāt, H. Beveridge, 16.

LXXXIV. Ḥaram Begam Qibchāq Mughal.

Princess of the Ḥaram. Her name has been transliterated by some European workers as Khurram, ‘blossoming, cheerful,’ and this seems the more probable name to bestow on a child. But some of the Persian texts support Ḥaram, and the editors of the Bib. Ind. Akbar-nāma have adopted it. Gul-badan has Ḥaram.

Ḥaram Begam may be a sobriquet bestowed after the revelation of the facts of the bearer's character and dominance.

Daughter of Sulṭān Wais Kulābī Qibchāq Mughal; and sister of Chakr 'Alī and Ḥaidar Begs and of Māh Begam, a wife of Kāmrān. She married Sulai-mān Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī, son of Khān Mīrzā (Wais). She had one son, Ibrāhīm (Abū'l-qāsim), and several daughters. Her children, through Shāh Begam Badakhshī, their paternal ancestress, claimed descent from Alexander the Great.

Most of the incidents of her career are given in the Introduction to this book, and her remarkable character is exhibited there. Badāyunī calls her Walī-ni'amat , and says she was known by this name. This may be a tribute to her pre-eminence in character and action and also to the fact of her belonging to an older generation than Akbar's, under whom he wrote. The elder men of royal birth were Lords and the elder women Ladies of Beneficence in those days.

Gul-badan, 65a, 75b.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n..

Badāyunī, Lowe, 61, 89, 90, 217.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, October, 1898, art. Bāyazīd bīyāt, H. Beveridge, 12, 16.

B. & H., s.n..

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n..

Introduction, supra.

LXXXV. Hazāra Begam.

Princess of the tribe of the Hazāra. This is a title, and not a personal name.

She was the daughter of a brother of Khiẓr Khān Hazāra who was the chief of his tribe during the struggles for supremacy of Humāyūn and Kāmrān. She married Kāmrān.

Gul-badan, 64b.

LXXXVI. Ḥusn-nigār Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

The image of beauty; Ar. ḥusn, beauty, and Pers. nigār, image.

Daughter of Isān-būghā Chaghatāī and niece of Yūnas Khān; sister of Dost-muḥammad and wife of Abā-bakr Dughlāt Mughal.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 89, 99.

LXXXVII. Isān-daulat Khānam and Begam Qūchīn Mughal.

Her name takes several forms. The Bābar-nāma, Turkī text (B.M. Or. Add. 26,324), has a clearly pointed Ishān; Ilminsky has Isān passim. An early Persian MS. (B.M. Or. 3,714) has Isān and Isan.

The Memoirs have Isan in all but two instances (p. 12), where Ais is used. But Mr. Erskine's Persian text (B.M. Add. 26,200), which is presumably his authority, can (I venture to think, after comparing the words he renders Ais with those he renders Isan) yield Isan in all places. Where he reads Ais (pp. 10 and 141) the nūn is not dotted; the letters closely correspond with those where it is dotted, and where he reads Isan.

The Tārīkh-i-rashīdī (B.M. Or. 157) writes Isān.

The weight of authority is in favour of Isān.

Isān-daulat was Bābar's maternal grandmother and a daughter of Mīr Shīr-'alī Beg Qūchīn (Kunjī), chief of the Sagharīchī tumān (10,000) of the Qūchīn Mughals.

She married Yūnas Khān Chaghatāī Mughal when he was forty-one years old. He was born in 818H. (1415-16), so that the date of her marriage is, approximately, 1456. At this time Yūnas was made Great Khān of the Mughals.

Isān-daulat bore three daughters, who were named Mihr-nigār, Qūt-līq-nigār, and Khūb-nigār. She had many brothers, of whom three, Shīram, Mazīd, and 'Alī-dost, took leading parts in Bābar's affairs. Her chief co-wife was Shāh Begam Badakhshī.

She shared the vicissitudes of her remarkable husband's remarkable career for some thirty years; nursed him through two years of paralytic helplessness till his death in 892H. (1487) at the age of seventy-four, and survived him about eighteen years.

Four times at least she fell into the hands of an enemy:

(1) In Kāshghar, cir. 860H. (1455-56), when Mihr-nigār was an infant at the breast and when she was returned in safety to her husband.

(2) In Tāshkand in 877H. (1472-73), when Yūnas had gone to buy barley at a time of dearth in Mughal-istān. It was then that there occurred the well-known episode which shows Isān-daulat's high spirit and decision of character and which is briefly narrated in the Introduction (p. 68). She was returned with honour to her husband.

(3) In Andijān in 903H. (1497-98), when the town was taken from her grandson Bābar by his kinsfolk. She was sent after him in safety to Khojand, and from there went on to the protection of her third daughter's home in Kāshghar.

(4) At Samarqand in 906H. (1500-1), when the town was taken by Shaibānī. She remained behind when Bābar left the place, and rejoined him in a few months with his ‘family, heavy baggage, and a few lean and hungry followers.’

In the eighth year of her widowhood (900H.) she was guiding Bābar's affairs with decision and sense in Andijān. He says that few women equalled her for sagacity, far-sight and good judgment, and that many important affairs were carried out by her counsel.

News of her death reached Bābar in Kābul early in 911H. (June, 1505), during the forty days' mourning for his mother.

Two slight records of her remain for mention. Desert-born and of a tribe which clamoured against settled life, she yet had a garden-house at Andijān. She reared a half-sister of Bābar, Yādgār, daughter of Aghā āghācha.

Mems., 10, 12, 16, 27, 58, 59, 100, 111, 169.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 86, 94, 175, 197, 308.

B. & H., s.n..

LXXXVIII. Jahān-sulṭān Begam.

The world-ruling princess; Pers. jahān, world, and Ar. sulṭān, sway.

Probably a child of Humāyūn. She died in Kābul, aged two, in 954H. (1547).

Gul-badan, 70a.

LXXXIX. Jamāl āghā.

Grace; Ar. jamāl, grace, beauty.

Wife (1) of Sanīz Mīrzā Dughlāt, and by him mother of 'Umar and Abā-bakr and Jān (or Khān)-sulṭān Khānam.

(2) of Dost-muḥammad Chaghatāī in 869 H.

(3) of Muḥammad Ḥaidar Dughlāt, and by him mother of Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā Ḥiṣārī (Ḥaidar's father) and Sayyid Muḥammad Mīrzā.

Her third marriage was made by the Mughal custom of yanga-lik, i.e., marriage by a younger brother of an elder brother's widow. (Cf. Khān-zāda Mīrān-shāhī.)

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 88, 89, 99, 102, 104.

XC. Jān-sulṭān Begam. (No. 32.)

The soul-ruling princess; Pers. jān, life, soul, and
Ar. sulṭān, sway.

She was at the Mystic Feast in 1531.

Gul-badan, 25b.

(Jūlī Begam, Chūlī, q.v.)

XCI. Khadīja Begam.

Presumably she was named after Muḥammad's first wife.

She was first a slave²⁴⁶ of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā, and upon his death in 873H. (1469) she betook herself to Harāt and there became the wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Bāyqrā.

She had a daughter, known as Āq Begam, by Abū-sa'īd, and two sons, Shāh Gharīb and Muẓaffar Ḥusain, by her marriage with Ḥusain.

Here is an instance where the conferring of a title is mentioned. Bābar says that Ḥusain was passionately fond of her and that he raised her to the rank of begam; also that she managed him entirely. To her are attributed the intrigues and rebellion which ruined Ḥusain's family. She acquired more influence than any other of his wives, and it was consequently round her surviving son Muẓaffar Ḥusain, that adherents gathered after his father's death. She forced on the joint-kingship which excited Bābar's ridicule. Mīrzā Ḥaidar when speaking of the death of Jahāngīr Mīrān-shāhī, said that he was generally reported to have been poisoned in his wine by Khadīja Begam after her old fashion.

In 912H. (1506-7) Bābar saw her in Harāt, and he was there unlawfully entertained by her at a wine-party. When Shaibānī conquered the city in 913H. she was cast down from her high estate and given up to be plundered, and was treated as one of Shaibānī's meanest slaves.

Mems., 179, 182, 183, 198, 204, 223.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 196, 199.

XCII. Khadīja-sulṭān Begam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Fourth daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān Chaghatāī. After her father's death in 909H. (1503-4), Mīrzā Abā-bakr Dughlāt took possession of his capital, Aksu, in Farghāna, and with it of Khadīja-sulṭān, then a child. He however, says Mīrzā Ḥaidar, treated her kindly and when she was of age, he gave her in marriage to his son Jahāngīr who was her second cousin. She accompanied her husband to her full-brother Sa'īd's court, shortly after 920H. (1514), and while in Kāshghar, Jahāngīr was murdered by an unknown hand, in Yangī-ḥiṣār. She then remained, respected and honoured, in her brother Sa'īd's family circle. In 923H. (1517) she was married to Shāh Muḥammad Sulṭān Chaghatāī, a grandson of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān, through Muḥammad, the only son of Maḥmūd who survived the massacre of sulṭāns by Shaibānī. The marriage of one of Khadīja's brothers, Aiman, was celebrated at the same time.

When Rashīd succeeded his father Sa'īd, in Kāsh-ghar (939H.—July, 1533) Khadīja was badly treated by him. She was then ill and confined to bed, but Rashīd banished her and her children and made her start on the weary journey for Badakhshān. She died on the road after much hardship of travel. She left four children, Ismā'īl, Ishāq, Ya'qūb, and Muḥtarima. They went on to Kābul, and were there received with fatherly kindness by their uncle, Isān-tīmūr.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 161, 329, 352, 382, 451.

XCIII. Khadīja-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 6.)

Daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and paternal aunt of Bābar. I have not ascertained the name of her husband. She went to India in 934H. (1527), arriving in November, with Fakhr-jahān and their children. She planned to return with her sister and Bābar took leave of them both on Muḥarram 5th, 935H. (September 20th, 1528), but various business detained her and Bābar paid her another of his dutiful visits on October 9th. When or if she returned to Kābul is not said, but she was at the Mystic Feast in Āgra in 1531.

Gul-badan, 11a, 24b.

Mems., 374, 382, 387.

XCIV. Khāl-dār anaga.

The nurse with a mole; khāl-dār, mole-marked.

Mother of Sa'ādat-yār kūka.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., I. 44.

XCV. Khānam Begam. (No. 18.)

Daughter of Āq Begam; grand-daughter of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī. The ‘Khānam’ may indicate that she is a Chaghatāī chief's child.

Gul-badan, 24b.

(Khānam, Muḥtarima, q.v.)

XCVI. Khānish āghā Khwārizmī.

Daughter of Jūjūq Mīrzā Khwārizmī; wife of Humāyūn; mother of Ibrāhīm who died as an infant. Bāyazīd calls her child Muḥammad Farrūkh-fāl, but Gul-badan and Abū'l-faẓl are against him. Farrūkh-fāl was the child of Māh-chūchak. Ibrāhīm was born on the same day as Muḥammad Ḥakīm, i.e., Jumāda I. 15th, 960H. (April 19th, 1553).

Gul-badan, 71a, 71b, (?) 73b.

Bāyazīd (I. O. MS. 72a), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, October, 1898, art. Bāyazīd bīyāt, H. Beveridge, p. 14.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., I. 331.

XCVII. Khān Sulṭān Khānam and Sulṭānam Dughlāt.

Both these names appear to be titles, and not personal.

Daughter of Sanīz Mīrzā Dughlāt and Jamāl āghā; full-sister of Abā-bakr.

She was a woman of life-long piety and devotion to good works. Perhaps for this reason her brother who seems to have been an incarnation of unjust cruelty, treated her with studied barbarity, as a consequence of which she died in torture and suffering.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 88, 258.

XCVIII. Khān-zāda Begam Bāyqrā. (No. 16.)

The khān-born princess; Turkī khān, and Pers. zāda, born.

Gul-badan says she is a daughter of Sulṭān Mas'ūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī, and through a daughter grandchild of Pāyanda Muḥammad (sic) Sulṭān Begam, paternal great-aunt of Humāyūn. Bābar names no such marriage of a daughter of Pāyanda. ‘The second of the daughters [of Pāyanda] was Kīchak Begam [whose name is probably a sobriquet]. Sulṭān Mas'ūd Mīrzā was extremely attached to her, but whatever efforts he made, Pāyanda-sulṭān Begam, having an aversion to him, would not consent to the match. She was afterwards ’ (Turkī sūngrā, P. de C. dans la suite) ‘married to Mullā Khwāja.’

A daughter of Ḥusain Bāyqrā and of Bābā āghācha, whose name was Sa'ādat-bakht and title Begam Sulṭān, was married to Mas'ūd after his blinding. Her daughter might be fitly described as of inferior rank to the great begams. Such a description is given by Bābar of ‘Khān-zāda, daughter of Sulṭān Mas'ūd Mīrzā.’ Ḥusain and Pāyanda's daughter would certainly rank as equal in birth to the daughters of Abū-sa'īd, since she was a full Tīmūrid.

The ‘extreme attachment’ of Mas'ūd to Kīchak fits Musalmān marriage better than Musalmān courtship. It may be that, spite of Pāyanda's opposition, Mas'ūd married Kīchak. The ‘afterwards’ of the Memoirs (supra) and the de la suite of Pavet de Courteille seem to demand some more definite antecedent than Mas'ūd's attachment. Moreover, this presumably persisted with his wish to marry Kīchak.

Did he marry Kīchak, and was she divorced after his blinding or at some other time, and then was Sa'ādat-bakht given to him?

Mems., 181, 182, 387.

Gul-badan, 24b.

XCIX. Khān-zāda Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and of Qūt-līq-nigār Khānam; full-sister of Bābar and five years his senior. Eldest of her father's daughters. She is recorded as thrice married: first, to Shaibānī in 1501 (907H.); secondly, to a man of inferior rank, Sayyid Hada; and, thirdly, to Mahdī Muḥammad Khwāja,²⁵⁰ son of Mūsa Khwāja. One child of hers is recorded, Shaibānī's son, Khurram-shāh Sulṭān.

She was born circa 1478 (883H.). This is known from the statement of her brother that she was five years his senior. In 1501 (907H.) she was married by Shaibānī when he captured Samarqand from Bābar. Gul-badan makes the marriage a condition of Shaibānī's peace with Bābar; Ḥaidar says she was given in exchange for Bābar's life, and Khāfī Khān, as a ransom (ba tarīq-i-faida). She was in Shaibānī's power and could have been married without consent of Bābar. As in 1501 she was twenty-three years old, she had almost certainly been married before, possibly to Mahdī. Her marriage arrangements with Shaibānī might include the divorce which the Musalmān law requires. Bābar does not go into details as to the marriage; he says she fell into Shaibānī's hands. Presumably as himself of Tīmūrid birth, Shaibānī would treat a Tīmūrid woman with respectful forms even when she was spoil of battle. To marry Khān-zāda, he divorced her maternal aunt, Mihr-nigār Chaghatāī.

Khān-zāda's son by Shaibānī, Khurram-shāh, died a young man. Shaibānī divorced her because she leaned to her brother's side in disputed matters. He then gave her in marriage to a certain Sayyid Hada, who fell in the battle of Merv with Shaibānī himself (1510).

In 1511 and at the age of thirty-three, she was returned to Bābar by Shāh Ismā'īl. At what date she married Mahdī Muḥammad Khwāja I am not able to say. It is probable that the marriage would take place within no long time after her return. As Mahdī is never described by Bābar in any way (as is his custom when a new actor comes upon the scene of his Memoirs), it is probable that Mahdī's joining Bābar and his marriage with Khān-zāda took place in the decade 1509-19, of which no record is known to survive.²⁵¹ Mahdī was with Bābar in 1519 (925H.), and is frequently mentioned subsequently.

There are many references to Khān-zāda by Gul-badan who frequently calls her Dearest Lady (āka-janām ). She died at Qabal-chak in 1545 (952H.), aged about sixty-seven years, and after a life full of sorrows and chagrins.

Gul-badan, 3b, 15b, 18b, 23b, 24b, 27b, 28b, 50b, 62b, 63a.

Mems., 10, 98, 241 (Supplement).

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 117, 155, 175, 196, 239, 400.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, under date 923H.

Khāfī Khān, I. 33 (here Khāna-zāda).

C. Khān-zāda Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī and Khān-zāda Termiẕī II.; wife (1) of Abā-bakr Dughlāt, and mother by him of (?) Jahāngīr, Turāngīr, and Bustāngīr; (2) of Sayyid Muḥammad Dughlāt who married her in conformity with the custom of yanga-lik. (Cf. Jamāl āghā.)

Mems., 30.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 330.

CI. Khān-zāda Begam Termiẕī.

Of the family of the Khāns of Termiẕ; wife of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī. She was a bride when Bābar was five, i.e., in 893H. (1488) but, according to Turkī custom, was still veiled. Sulṭān Aḥmad desired Bābar to pluck off the veil and run away, a little ceremony which it was supposed would bring him good luck when his time for marriage should come.

Mems., 23.

CII. Khān-zāda Begam Termiẕī (a.).

Daughter of the chief (mīr-i-buzurg) of Termiẕ; wife of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; mother of Sulṭān Mas'ūd Mīrzā. She died apparently early in her married life. The mīrzā was greatly afflicted at her death.

Mems., 29, 30.

CIII. Khān-zāda Begam Termiẕī (b.).

Daughter of a brother of Khānzāda Termiẕī (a.); grand-daughter of the chief of Termiẕ; wife of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; mother of Ḥusain (who died, aged thirteen, before his father) and of five girls, Khānzāda, Bega, Āq, Āī, and Zainab.

Mems., 29, 30, 38, 128.

CIV. Khān-zāda Khānam.

‘Épouse légitime’ of Muẓaffar Mīrzā Bāyqrā, and illegally taken by Shaibānī.

Mems., 224.

Pavet de Courteille, II., 10.

CV. Khūb-nigār Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

The image of beauty. Here khānam has its full value, since Khūb-nigār was daughter of the Khāqān, the Khān emphatically.

Third daughter of Yūnas Khān Chaghatāī and Isān-daulat Qūchīn; wife of Muḥammad Ḥusain Dughlāt Ḥiṣārī; mother of Ḥaidar and Ḥabība.²⁵³ She was a year older than her husband, and was married in 899H. (1493-94). Bābar, writing in 907H. (1501-2) mentions the reception of news of her death. Her husband was murdered in 914H..

Mems., 12, 99, 218.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 117, 118, 153, 156, 197.

CVI. Khurshed kūkī. (Nos. 55 and 64.)

Pers., the sun, sunshine.

Gul-badan, 26a.

CVII. Kīchak Begam Bāyqrā.

The small princess; Turkī, kīchak, small. The name is probably a sobriquet.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Pāyanda-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī; wife of Maulānā Khwāja who was of the family of Sayyid Atā one of her father's best vazīrs.

Khwānd-amīr reverses her marriage with that of her sister Bega, and makes her marry Bābar, son of Rabī'a.

Mems., 181.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq..

CVIII. Kīchak Begam Termiẕī. (No. 23.)

Daughter of Mīr 'Alā'u-l-mulk Termiẕī and Fakhr-jahān Mīrān-shāhī; wife of Khwāja Mu'īn Aḥrārī; mother of Mīrzā Sharafu-d-dīn Ḥusain.

She went to Hindūstān with her mother, and was at Hindāl's wedding feast.

Mems., without names. (Cf. Fakhr-jahān and Shāh Begam.)

Gul-badan, 25a.

Akbar-nāma (lith. ed.), s.n..

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 322.

CIX. Kīchak māham. (No. 80.)

Cf. s.n. Māham for meaning of the word.

She is named as at Hindāl's wedding.

Gul-badan, 26b.

CX. Kilān Khān Begam.

This is clearly not a personal name. Pers. kilān, elder, great, and Turkī khān, a title.

Daughter of Sulṭānam Begam Mīrān-shāhī and grand-daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā. Which of Sulṭānam's three husbands was Kilān Khān Begam's father is not said; from her daughter's title, Tīmūr Sulṭān Uzbeg seems most probable.

Mems., 22.

Gul-badan, 24b.

CXI. Lād-malik Turkomān.

(?) Mistress of the Fort; Pers. lād, fortress, and Ar. malik, possessor, ruler.

Wife of (1) Tāj Khān Sarangkhānī and (2) of Shīr Khān Sūr (935H., 1528-29).

B. & H., II. 131, 132, and authorities there cited by Mr.
Erskine.

CXII. Lāl-shād Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Perhaps, with a lip like the gleam of a ruby; Pers. lāl, ruby, and shād, gleam, happy.

Eldest daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān Chaghatāī and of a ‘slave’ (amm-i-wald).

‘Although she was outside the circle of distinction, she was finally married to Muḥammad Amīr Mīrzā Dughlāt.’

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 161.

CXIII. Laṭīfa-sulṭān āghācha.

Of pre-eminent delicacy or gentleness; Ar. laṭīfa, delicate, and a jest, and Ar. sulṭān, sway.

Chār-shambihī, a Wednesday wife, of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā; mother of Abū'l-ḥasan and of Muḥam-mad Muḥsin (kepek, round-shouldered).

The Ḥabību-s-siyār says she was a relation of Jahān-shāh (? Turkomān or Barlās). She was dead before 912H. (1506).

Mems., 179, 183.

CXIV. Laṭīf Begam Duladāī Barlās.

Grand-daughter of Aḥmad Hājī Beg; wife (1) of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; (2) of Ḥamza Sulṭān Uzbeg, and by him mother of three sons who fell into Bābar's hands at Ḥiṣār, and were released by him.

Both her grandfather Aḥmad and his paternal uncle, Janī Beg Duladāī, were amīrs of her first husband.

Mems., 23.

CXV. Māh-afroz Begam.

The princess who outshines the moon; Pers. māh, moon, and afroz, dazzling, illuminating.

She was a wife of Kāmrān and mother of Ḥājī Begam. Two of Kāmrān's wives are not known by their personal names, Hazāra Begam and the daughter of Uncle 'Alī Mīrzā Begchik. Māh-afroz may be one of these.

Gul-badan, 64b.

CXVI. Māham anaga.

Nurse of Akbar; wife of Nadīm kūka; mother of Bāqī and Adham kūkas. Cf. Bābū āghā. Much of her story is given in the Introduction to this volume.

CXVII. Māham Begam: ākā and ākām (lady and my lady).

The word Māham is explained by Mr. Erskine (who did not know Gul-badan's book) as Bābar's name of endearment for his favourite wife, and as meaning ‘my moon.’ Mr. Schuyler also translates it by the same words. He says that a woman who was shot for political offences in Bukhārā was known as ‘My moon (Māham) of Keninghez.’

But many Māhams are chronicled, and not only Bābar gives the name to Humāyūn's mother; Gul-badan speaks frequently of ‘my lady who was Māham Begam,’ and Māham seems to be her personal name. It is used at least once as a man's. (Akbar-nāma, I. 320, Māham 'Alī Qulī Khān.)

Whether māham is to be classed with sulṭānam, khānam, begam, shāham, I am unable to say.

Sir Douglas Forsyth (Mission to Yarkand, 84) translates khānam and begam by my lord and my ehief. But neither is a domestic word; both are in common use in the sources to designate, for general readers, the wives or daughters of khāns and begs, or princes. Sulṭānam also is a common title, and from Gul-badan's use of it does not appear to be a personal name, but to answer to sulṭān as khānam to khān, etc..

Against reading khānam as my lady, with a sense of possession or admission of superiority (as is done by Sir Douglas Forsyth), there are the Turkī words formed from it, viz., khānam-alī, honeysuckle, and khānam-būjakī, ladybird. Shāham, which has the appearance of being formed from shāh like the others by the suffix am or im, is used both for man and woman. Shīram occurs as a man's name.

Māham was a wife of whom it was said that she was to Bābar what 'Āyisha was to Muḥammad, and she was Humāyūn's mother. Gul-badan mentions her often, yet no one of the numerous sources I have consulted, sets down her family or the name of her father.

At one time it appeared to me probable that she was a Begchik Mughal, because Bābar calls Yādgār Begchik, ṭaghaī when speaking of him in connection with Humāyūn. Further consideration led to the abandonment of the theory.

Uncle Yādgār, Uncle 'Alī, and Uncle Ibrāhīm (Chapūk , slashed-face) are named as being three of the eight brothers or half-brothers of Gul-rukh, the mother of Kāmrān; and Bega (Ḥajī) Begam is the daughter of Uncle Yādgār.

Amongst these eight Begchiks I do not find one named Uncle Muhammad 'Alī, and there is a good deal to lead one to regard a certain Khwāja Muḥam-mad 'Alī ṭaghāī as being Māham's brother.

He was associated with Khost, and it is on record that Humāyūn visited his maternal grandparents (nanahā) in Khost. The Begchiks do not seem to have been connected with Khost. Bābar speaks frequently of Khwāja Muḥammad 'Alī as being employed in the government of Khost (925H.); as coming from Khost for orders, etc., and the mīr-zādas of Khost also are recorded as visiting the court. One of Māham's children was born in Khost.

Bābar frequently mentions an 'Abdu-l-malūk Khostī, and he may be a connection of Māham. He, however, appears as Khostī, Khwastī, Qastī, qūrchī, Qūrchīn, and without a more complete good Turkī text no opinion can be formed as to his identity.

Gul-badan says that Ākā (Māham) was related to the owners of the New Year's Garden in Kābul, and this was made by Ulugh Beg Kābulī Mīrān-shāhī.

Abū'l-faẓl says Māham was of a noble Khurāsān family, related to Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā (Bāyqrā), and, like Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, was of the line of Shaikh Aḥmad Jāmī (az dūdman-i-a'yān wa ashrāf-i-Khurāsān and, wa ba Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā nisbat-i-khwesh dārand. Perhaps nisbat-i-khwesh implies blood-relationship on the father's side.

Gul-badan speaks of Māham's Mughal servants, but a Chaghatāī, a Begchik, a Qūchīn is also a Mughal, and Bābar often sinks the divisional tribe-name in the general one, Mughal (e.g., Mems. 9 and 21).

Some considerations suggest that Māham was a Dughlāt Mughal, and of the family of 'Abdu-l-qadūs, but no valid opinion can be formed until a text as good as the Elphinstone is available for guidance.

Bābar married Māham in Harāt when he visited that city after Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā's death, and in 912H. (1506). Humāyūn was born on March 6, 1508 (Ẕū'l-qa'da 4th, 913H.). Four other children were born to her, and all died in infancy. They were Bār-bul, Mihr-jahān, Isān-daulat and Fārūq.

The events of her career are detailed in the Introduction to this volume and in Gul-badan Begam's book.

Mems., 250, 405, 412, 423, 428 n..
Gul-badan, 4a, 6b, 7a, 8b, 11b, 13b, 14b, 16a, 16b, 17a, 18b,
21a and b, 22a and b, 23a and b, 24b.
Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., and H. Beveridge, s.n. Māham
and Māham 'Alī Qulī Khān.
Turkistān, Schuyler, 95 ff..

CXVIII. Māham Kābulī. (No. 81.)

At Hindāl's marriage feast.

Gul-badan, 26a.

CXIX. Māham Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Second daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān Chaghatāī and full-sister of Manṣūr Khān. Their mother was Ṣaḥib-daulat Dughlāt, sister of Mīr Jabār Bardī Dughlāt. Māham married Builāsh Khān Uzbeg Kazāk, son of Awīq.

Ḥaidar Mīrzā names her as a hostage given, with her mother, by her brother Manṣūr to his half-brother Sa'īd at a time of their meeting in 1516. She had two other full-brothers, Bābājāk and Shāh Shaikh Muḥammad.

Tār. Rash., N. E. & R., 160, 344.

CXX. Māh Begam Qibchāq Mughal.

The moon princess; Pers. māh, moon.

Daughter of Sulṭān Wais Qibchāq Mughal and sister of Ḥaram Begam; wife of Kāmrān Mīrzā.

Gul badan, 64b.

CXXI. Māh-chachaq Khalīfa.

She is mentioned by Bāyazīd as interceding for him with Ḥamīda-bānū. She may be a servant (khalīfa).

J. R. A. S., October, 1898, art. Bāyazīd bīyāt, H. Beveridge
p. 16.

CXXII. Māh-chūchak Begam Arghūn, Ḥājī Begam.

The word chūchak presents difficulties. Ilminsky writes chūchūq; Bāyazīd. chachaq; Gul-badan, chūchak and jūjak; the Memoirs, chuchak. Mr. Blochmann and Mr. Lowe transliterate, jūjak. There is a Turkī word jūjūq, but its meaning of sweet-savoured is less appropriate for a woman's name than a word which, spite of vowel variation it seems safer to take from the Persian; viz. chachak, a rose, and chachak, chuchuk, a lovely cheek, a mole.

Daughter of Mīrzā Muḥammad Muqīm Arghūn and of Bībī Zarīf Khātūn; wife (1) of Bābar's kūkaltāsh Qāsim; (2) of Shāh Ḥasan Arghūn of Sind (died 963H.); (3) of 'Īsā Tarkhān Arghūn of Tatta and Sind.

By Qāsim, she was mother of Nāhīd Begam and by Shāh Ḥasan of his only child, Chūchak or Māh-chūchak, Kāmran's wife.

She had an interesting story which Mr. Ersking tells at length. (B. & H., I. 348 et seq..)

On the death of 'Īsā (975H.) his son and successor Muḥammad Bāqī Tarkhān, who was a madman, ill-treated Mah-chūchak and Nāhīd who was then visiting her. This led to a plot against him, but in the end Māh-chūchak was imprisoned by him and starved to death. (Cf. s.n. Nāhīd.)

Mems., 233.
B. & H., I. 348 et seq.:
Tārīkh-i-sind, Mīr Ma'ṣūm, in the account of Shāh Ḥasan's
family.
Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 420.
Ilminsky, 273.

XXIII. Māh-chūchak Begam Arghūn.

Daughter of Shāh Ḥasan and Māh-chūchak Arghūn and her father's only child; wife of Kāmrān; married 953H. (1546). Her wifely fidelity is commemorated by the historians. She went with Kāmrān to Makka after his blinding, and attended him until his death, October 5th, 1557. She survived him seven months.

Tārīkh-i-sind, Mīr Ma'ṣūm, in the account of Shāh Ḥasan's
family.

CXXIV. Māh-chūchak Begam.

Sister of Bairām Oghlān and of Farīdūn Khān Kābulī.

She married Humāyūn in 1546. She had two sons, Muḥammad Hakīm (born 960H.—1553) and Farrūkh-fāl. Gul-badan says she had four daughters and then, with discrepancy frequently found in her writings, names three: Bakht-nisā', Sakīna-bānū, and Amīnabānū. The name of the best-known of her girls, Fakhru-n-nisā', is omitted.

Māh-chūchak's story is told by her sister-in-law, in the Introduction of this volume, by Mr. Bloch-mann and by several Persian writers.

She was murdered by Shāh Abū'l-ma'ālī in Kābul in 1564.

Gul-badan, 71a, 71b, 73b, 78b, 83a.

Jauhar, Mr. William Irvine's MS., Part II., Chapter II..

Bāyazīd, I.O. MS., 72a.

Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad, 27th year of Akbar.

Badāyunī, Lowe, 54 et seq..

Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n..

CXXV. Makhdūma āghā. (No. 59.)

The Lady āghā; Ar. makhdūma, lady, mistress.

Wife of Hindū Beg.

Gul-badan, 26a.

CXXVI. Makhdūma Begam (Qarā-gūz).

Wife of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī; mother ?? Ruqaiya, a posthumous child; she was married at the end of 'Umar's days; she was tenderly beloved, and to flatter him her descent was derived from his uncle, Manūchahr Mīrān-shāhī.

Mems., 10, 14.

CXXVII. Makhdūma-jahān.

The mistress of the world; Ar. makhdūma, mistress, and Pers. jahān, world.

Mother of Sulṭān Bahādūr Gujrātī.

B. & H., II. 96.

CXXVIII. Makhdūma Qāluchī.

A wife of Sa'īd Khān Chaghatāī; a ‘tribes-woman’; mother of Rashīd; sister of Suqār Bahādūr Qāluchī.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 140, 187, 309.

CXXIX. Makhdūma Khānam.

The Lady Khānam; Ar. makhdūma, lady, mistress.

Daughter of Shīr 'Alī Khān Chaghatāī Mughal; sister of Wais Khān; wife of Amāsānjī Taishī Qālmāq; mother of Qadīr, Ibrāhīm, and Ilyās.

Her marriage was a ransom for her brother Wais of whom it was commonly reported that he was routed sixty times by the Qālmāqs. On her marriage, Wais made Amāsānjī become a Musalmān, and Makhdūma continued the work of her husband's conversion and that of his tribe.

She named one of her daughters Karīm Bardī in affection and respect for the Dughlāt amīr of this name.

Mems., 409.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 67, 91.

CXXX. Makhdūma-sulṭān Begam.

Daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Zuhra Begī āghā Uzbeg; elder sister of Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā. ‘She is now in Badakhshān.’ (Mems., 30.) The ‘now’ may be in the late twenties of 1500, and she may have been with Mīrzā Khān (Wais Mīrān-shāhī ).

Mems., 30.

CXXXI. Makhfī.

Hid, concealed.

This is the poetical name (takhalluṣ) of Salīma-sulṭān Begam Chaqānīānī, Nūr-jahān Begam, and Zību-n-nisā', a daughter of Aurang-zīb.

CXXXII. Malika-jahān.

The world's queen; Ar. malika, queen, and Pers. jahān, world.

Elliot and Dawson, V. 81, 87, 88.

CXXXIII. Ma'ṣūma-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

The very chaste princess; Ar. ma'ṣūm, chaste, innocent, and sulṭān, sway, pre-eminence.

Fifth and youngest daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī. Her mother was Ḥabība-sulṭān Begam Arghūn. She married Bābar (her first cousin) in 913H. (1507), and from his account of the affair it was a love-match on both sides. She was half-sister of 'Āyisha, Bābar's first wife. She died in child-bed, and her infant received her name.

Gul-badan, 6b.

Mems., 22, 208, 225, 231, 429 Supplement.

CXXXIV. Ma'ṣūma-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 43.)

Daughter of Bābar and Ma'ṣūma; wife of Muḥam-mad-zamān Mīrzā Bāyqrā.

Gul-badan, 6b, 23a, 25b, 29b.

Akbar-nāma, s.n..

Mems., 22, 395, 429 Supplement.

CXXXV. Maywa-jān.

Fruit of life; Pers. maywa, fruit, and jān, life.

Daughter of Khazang yasāwal and a servant of Gul-badan Begam; an inferior wife of Humāyūn.

Gul-badan, 21b, 22a, 30a.

CXXXVI. Mihr-angez Begam. (No. 29.)

The princess who commands affection; Pers. mihr, affection, and angez, commanding. raising.

Daughter of Muẓaffar Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā; granddaughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Bāyqrā and Khadīja.

She was accomplished after the fashion of gentlemen-at-arms and she played polo.

She was married by 'Ubaidu-l-lāh Uzbeg when Harāt was taken by Shaibānī (913H., June, 1507).

She was at the Mystic Feast in 1531.

Gul-badan, 24b.
Ḥabību-s-siyār, 397 et seq..

CXXXVII. Mihr-bānū Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (? No. 27.)

The beloved; Pers. mihr, affection, and bānū. possessing.

Daughter of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī and of Umīd Andijānī; full-sister of Nāṣir and Shahr-bānū; born cir. 886H. (1481-82).

Gul-badan mentions a Mihr-līq Begam (No. 27.) who was a paternal aunt of Humāyūn, as being at the Mystic Feast. This may be Mihr-bānū. No aunt named Mihr-līq is mentioned elsewhere, and līq and bānū have the same sense.

Gul-badan, 25a.

Mems., 10.

CXXXVIII. Mihr-bānū Khānam.

I think she is a relative of Bābar, and she may be the daughter of 'Umar Shaikh and Umīd, and thus Bābar's half-sister. (See infra.) From her title of Khānam, she is very possibly a Chaghatāī on her mother's side (Umīd was an Andijānī), or the style is due to her marriage with a khān. She appears to have married a man of high rank; perhaps Kūchūm (Qūch-kunjī) Khān who was Khāqān of his tribe from 1510 to 1530, or his son and successor (ruled from 1530 to 1533). She had a son Pulād whom Bābar mentions as fighting with ‘Qūch-kunjī’ and his son Abū-sa'īd Uzbeg at Jām (1528).

The Qūch-kunjī was the tribe of Isān-daulat.

Kūchūm, Abū-sa'īd, Mihr-bānū, and Pulād sent ambassadors and messengers to Bābar in the same year, and Bābar mentions his return gifts with quaint particularity. The envoys were entertained at a feast by him on December 12th, 1528 (935H.).

Mems., 10, 390, 395, 397, 399.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., s.n. Kuchum and Sulṭān and 206 n..

Muḥammadan Dynasties, Stanley Lane-Poole, 273.

CXXXIX. Mihr-jahān or -jān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Sun of the world or of life; Pers. mihr, sun, and jahān, world, or jān, life, soul.

Daughter of Bābar and Māham; born at Khost; died an infant.

Gul-badan, 6b.

CXL. Mihr-nigār Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

The image of affection, or a very sun.

Eldest daughter of Yūnas Khān Chaghatāī and Isān-daulat (Qūchīn, Kunjī); born cir. 860H. (1455-56); wife of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; first cousin of Bābar.

In 905H. (early in July, 1500) she was captured by Shaibānī and married by him. In 906H. (1500-1) she was divorced when he wished to marry Khān-zāda, her niece. She then stayed awhile in Samarqand. In 907H. (1501-2) she went to Tāshkand and joined the large family party which assembled there. (Mems. 99.) In 911H. (middle of 1505) she came to Kābul with other kinsfolk, soon after the death of her grandmother (Isān) and of her father, and during the ceremonial mourning of Bābar for his mother. ‘Our grief broke out afresh,’ he writes.

Mīrzā Ḥaidar gives a pleasant account of the welcome she accorded her generous and kindly nephew Bābar in 912H. (1506-7), when he put down Khān Mīrzā's (Wais) rebellion in Kābul: ‘The Emperor leapt up and embraced his beloved aunt with every manifestation of affection. The khānam said to him: “Your children, wives, and household are longing to see you. I give thanks that I have been permitted to see you again. Rise up and go to your family in the castle. I too am going thither.”’

In 913H. (1507), when Khān Mīrzā set out for Badakhshān with his mother, Shāh Begam, to try his fortunes in her father's ancient lands, Mihr-nigār also ‘took a fancy to go. It would have been better and more becoming,’ writes Bābar, ‘for her to remain with me. I was her nearest relation. But however much I dissuaded her, she continued obstinate and also set out for Badakhshān.

Mihr-nigār rued her self-will. She and Shāh Begam were captured on their way to Qila'-ẓafar by one of Abū-bakr Dughlāt's ‘marauding bands,’ and ‘in the prisons of that wretched miscreant they departed from this perishable world.’

Mems., 12, 22, 99, 169, 232.

Tār. Rash., 86, 94, 117, 155, 196, 197, 200, 258.

CXLI. Mīnglī-bī āghācha Uzbeg.

A low-born wife (ghūncha-chī) of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā. The Ḥabību-s-siyār calls her a Turk and a purchased slave (mamlūqa) of Shahr-bānū Begam Mīrān-shāhī who brought her when she herself married Sulṭān Ḥusain, and presented her to him.

She was mother of three sons: Abū-tūrāb, Muḥam-mad Ḥusain, and Farīdūn Ḥusain; and of two daughters: Bairām (or Maryam) and Fāṭima.

Mems., 181, 182, 183.

Habību-s-siyār (lith. ed.), 327 et seq..

CXLII. Mīng-līq kūkaltāsh.

She escaped from Samarqand with Bābar's mother on its capture by Shaibānī in 907H. (1501).

Mems., 98.

CXLIII. Mubārika Bībī; Afghānī āghācha. (No. 56.)

Ar. mubārika, blessed, fortunate.

She was a daughter of Shāh Manṣūr Yūsufzai, and was married by Bābar at Kehrāj on January 30th, 1519 (Muḥarram 28th, 925H.). The alliance was the sign and seal of amity between him and her tribe. A charming account of her and her marriage is given in the Tārīkh-i-ḥāfiẓ-i-raḥmat-khānī, and Mr. Beveridge has translated it in full under the title ‘An Afghān Legend,’ so that it need not be reproduced here.

Gul-badan never gives the name Mubārika (Blessed Damozel) as that of the Afghān lady (Afghānī āghācha) whom she so frequently and pleasantly mentions. Ḥafiẓ Muḥammad (l.c.) says that Mubārika was much beloved by Bābar, and this is borne out by the fact that she was one of the small and select party of ladies who were the first to join him in India. She went there, it is safe to infer, with Māham and Gul-badan in 1529.

She bore no child, and this misfortune Ḥafiẓ Muḥammad attributes to the envy of other wives who administered drugs to deprive her of motherhood and weaken her husband's affection.

She died early in Akbar's reign.

A brother of Mubārika, named Mīr Jamāl, accompanied Bābar to Hindustān in 1525, and rose to high office under Humāyūn and Akbar. Hindāl had a favourite follower of this name who passed, on his death, into Akbar's service. He may well be the Yūsufzai.

Gul-badan, 8a, 25b, 30a, 35a, 38a, 73b.
Mems., 250, 250 n., 251.
Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., I. 315.
Asiatic Quarterly Review, April, 1901, art. An Afghān
Legend, H. Beveridge.

(Mughal Khānam, 'Ayisha, q.v.)

CXLIV. Muḥibb-sulṭān.

The very loving khānam; Ar. muḥibb, a lover, one who loves, and sulṭān, pre-eminence.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and a ‘handmaid’ (ghūncha-chī).

Mems., 30.

CXLV. Muḥibb-sulṭān Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal. (No. 20.)

Third daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān Chaghatāī; wife of Mīrzā Ḥaidar Dughlāt.

Gul-badan, 11a, 24b.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 161, 280,²⁶⁷ 341.

CXLVI. Muḥtarima Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

The honoured khānam; Ar. muḥtarim, respected, honoured.

Daughter of Shāh Muḥammad Sulṭān Kāshgharī Chaghatāī, and Khadīja Sulṭān Chaghatāī; wife (1) of Kāmrān, (2) of Ibrāhīm Mīrān-shāhī, the son of Sulaimān and Ḥaram.

She is occasionally spoken of simply as ‘Khānam.’

Gul-badan, 62b.
Akbar-nāma, s.n..
Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n..
Tār. Rash., E. & R., 451.
Cf. Introduction.

CXLVII. Munauwar Sulṭān Begam Bāyqrā.

The illuminated princess; Ar. munauwar, bright illuminated.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Bābā āghācha; wife of Sayyid Mīrzā of Andekhud who appears also to have married her niece. She was famed for her beauty. The Memoirs and Ilminsky's text do not give her name, and I have found it in the Ḥabību-s-siyār. From this same work is derived the information that Sayyid Mīrzā is a name given to a son of Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī.

Mems., 182.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq.

CXLVIII. Nāhīd Begam. (No. 54.)

Pers. Nāhīd, the name of the mother of Alexander;
a name for the planet Venus, etc..

Daughter of Māh-chūchak Arghūn by her marriage as a captive of Bābar, with his foster-brother Qāsim; wife of Muḥibb-'alī Barlās.

When her mother, resenting her position in a misalliance, ran away, Nāhīd, then eighteen months old, remained in Kābul.

When her mother was imprisoned in Sind by Muḥammad Bāqī Tarkhān, Nāhīd escaped to Bhakkar, and was protected, till her return to Akbar's court, by Sulṭān Maḥmūd Bhakkarī (975H.).

She was at Hindāl's wedding feast. Much of her story is contained in the Introduction of this volume.

Gul-badan, 4a, 26a.

Tārīkh-i-sind, Mīr Ma'ṣūm.

Bādshāh-nāma s.n. (fully used by Blochmann).

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n..

B. & H., I. 348, 351, 352, 385.

CXLIX. Nār-gul āghācha. (No. 58.)

(?) Red as a rose, pomegranate-red. For nār see infra. Pers. gul, a rose.

She was perhaps one of two Circassian slaves, of whom Gul-nār may be the other and who were sent to Bābar by Ṭahmāsp in 1526.

Mems., 347.

Gul-badan, 25b, 35a, 38a.

CL. Nār-sulṭān āghā. (No. 77.)

Presumably Pers. nār, a pomegranate; but it might be Ar. nār, advice, counsel, or even fire, and sulṭān, pre-eminence, a high degree of what is expressed by the first word of the compound name.

Gul-badan, 26a.

CLI. Nigār āghā. (No. 76.)

Pers. nigār, a mistress, a sweetheart.

Mother of Mughal Beg.

Gul-badan, 26a.

CLII. Nizhād-sulṭān Begam Bāyqrā.

The princess of highly distinguished race; Pers. nizhād, family, high-born; Ar. sulṭān, pre-eminence.

Eldest daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Bābā āghācha; wife of Sikandar Mīrzā, son of Bāyqrā Mīrzā who was her father's elder brother.

Mems., 182.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 387 et seq.

CLIII. Pāpā (? Bābā) āghācha.

Mr. Erskine writes Papa, and Ilminsky, perhaps following him, Pāpā. Bābā—i.e., darling—would seem a more fitting name for one who is said to have been much beloved.

She was a low-born wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and foster-sister of Āfāq Begam. The mīrzā ‘saw her and liked her,’ and she became mother of seven of his children, i.e., four sons, Muḥammad Ma'ṣūm, Farrūkh Ḥusain, Ibn Ḥusain, Ibrāhīm Ḥusain; of three daughters, Nizhād-sulṭān, Sa'ādat-bakht, and a third whose name Bābar does not give.

Mems., 181, 182, 183.

CLIV. Pāshā Begam Bahārlū Turkomān of the Black Sheep.

(?) Turkī Pāshā, a lord, or Pers. pecha, chief, before. The Ma'āsir-i-raḥīmī writes pāshā.

Daughter of 'Alī-shakr Beg Bahārlū; wife (1) of Muḥammadī Mīrzā of the Black Sheep; (2) in 873H. (1468-69) of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; mother by Maḥmūd of three daughters and one son, Bayasanghar (born 882H.).

Bābar does not give the name of any one of the three girls, nor does he mention that one of them was a wife of his own. One married Malik Muḥammad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī. The Ma'āsir-i-raḥīmī supplies the information that another was Ṣālḥa-sulṭān Begam and that she had a daughter by Bābar whose name was Gul-rukh; that Gul-rukh married Nūru-d-dīn Muḥammad Chaqānīānī, and had by him Salīma-sulṭān Begam. Abū'l-faẓl says that a daughter of Pāshā by Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā was married to Khwāja Ḥasan Khwāja-zāda, and that on account of this connection Firdaus-makānī (Bābar) married Mīrzā Nūru-d-dīn to his own daughter, Gul-barg Begam, and that Salīma-sulṭān Begam was the issue of this marriage.

(There are difficulties connected with the account here given of Ṣālḥa which are set forth under the name of her daughter, Salīma-sulṭān.)

Pāshā Begam was of the same family as Bairām Khān. (Cf. genealogical table s.n. Salīma-sulṭān.)

Mems., 29, 30, 31, 72.
Tār. Rash., E. & R., 93 n..
Ma'āsir-i-raḥīmī, Asiatic Society of Bengal MS. in year
1024H..

CLV. Pāyanda-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

(?) Of fixed pre-eminence; Pers. pāyanda, firm, stable, and Ar. sulṭān, pre-eminence.

Daughter of Abū-sa'īd Sulṭān Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; paternal aunt of Bābar; wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā; sister of Shahr-bānū whom Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā divorced; mother of Ḥaidar Mīrzā Bāyqrā; of Āq, Kīchak, Bega, and Āghā Begams.

When the Uzbegs took Khurāsān, 913H. (1507-8), she went to 'Irāq, where ‘she died in distress.’

Mems., 30, 180, 181, 182, 204, 208 and n., 223.
Gul-badan, 25a (here a Muḥammad is inserted after Pāyanda
in the name).

CLVI. Qadīr Khānam Qālmāq.

Daughter of Amāsānjī Taishī Qālmāq and Makh-dūma Khānam Chaghatāī.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 91.

CLVII. Qarā-gūz Begam Bāyqrā.

The black-eyed princess. Qarā-gūz is a sobriquet, and I have not found her personal name.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Pāyanda-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī; wife of Nāṣir Mīrzā, Bābar's half-brother.

Mems., 181.

(Qarā-gūz Begam, Rabī'a, q.v.)

(Qarā-gūz Begam, Makhdūma, q.v.)

CLVIII. Qūtūq āghācha and Begam.

Ilminsky writes Qūtūq; Mems., Katak.

Foster-sister of Terkhān Begam; wife of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; mother of four daughters: (1) Rabī'a (Qarā-gūz), (2) Salīqa (Āq), 'Āyisha (wife of Bābar, (4) Sulṭānam.

She was married ‘for love,’ and Aḥmad was ‘prodigiously attached’ to her. She drank wine; her co-wives were neglected from fear of her. At length her husband put her to death, and ‘delivered himself from his reproach.’

Mems., 22.

CLIX. Qūt-līq (Qutluq) Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

(?) The image of happiness; from Turkī qūtla, happy, and līq, endowed with.

Daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān Chaghatāī; wife of Jānī Beg Khān Uzbeg.

Her marriage was a sequel of victory by Shaibānī over her father. Cf. 'Āyisha (her sister).

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 160, 251.

CLX. Qūt-līq-nigār Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Second daughter of Yūnas Khān Chaghatāī and Isān-daulat Qūchīn; chief wife of 'Umar-shaikh Mīrān-shāhī ; half-sister of Maḥmūd and Aḥmad Khāns; mother of Khān-zāda and Bābar.

She accompanied her son in most of his wars and expeditions, and lived to see him master of Kābul. She died in Muḥarram, 911H. (June, 1505).

Mems., 10, 11, 12, 30, 90, 94, 98, 99, 104, 105, 134, 169.

Gul-badan, 4a.

Tār. Rash., s.n..

Akbar-nāma, s.n..

CLXI. Rabī'a-sulṭān Begam Bāyqrā and Bedka Begam Bāyqrā.

These two names may indicate the same person.

The Memoirs (176 and 177) say that Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā had two full-sisters, Āka and Bedka, and that Bedka married Aḥmad Hājī Tarkhān, and had two sons who served Sulṭān Ḥusain.

These statements are contained also in the Turkī texts (B.M. Add. 26,324, and Ilminsky), and also in a considerable number of good Persian texts in the British Museum and Bodleian.

There is, however, this difference of statement. The Turkī texts write: Bedka Begam ham mīrzā nīnak aīkā-chī sī aīdī. P. de C. translates: était aussi l'ainée du mīrzā. The Persian texts have: Bedka Begam ki khwāhar-i-khurd mīrzā būd; and from this Mr. Erskine translates: … the mīrzā's younger sister.

The Turkī, it should be observed, uses of Āka precisely the same word as of Bedka, aīkā-chī sī.

It may be right to regard Bedka as the younger of the two sisters of the mīrzā, and not as the sister younger than the mīrzā.

To pass now to what has led me to make a tentative identification of Bedka with Rabī'a-sulṭān.

The Memoirs (181) mention Rabī'a-sulṭān as the younger sister of the mīrzā (Ḥusain) and as having two sons, Bābar and Murād who were given in marriage to two daughters of Ḥusain.

The Turkī texts do not describe Rabī'a-sulṭān in any way, or say that she was Ḥusain's sister. They simply mention the marriages.

The Persian texts say of Ḥusain's two daughters (Bega and Āghā): ba pisarān-i-khwāhar-i-khurd-i-khudrā Rabī'a-sulṭān Begam, Bābar Mīrzā wa Sulṭān Murād Mīrzā, dādā būdand.

The Persian texts which state that Rabī'a-sulṭān was Ḥusain's own sister, have greater authority than most translations can claim for such additional information as is here given, because the Persian translation of the Tūzūk-i-bābarī was made in a court circle and at a date when such additional statements were likely to be known to many living persons.

Ḥusain may have had a younger and half-sister, but the words in the Persian texts which are used of Rabī'a-sulṭān are those used of Bedka, and they are more applicable to a full than a half sister.

The Āka of the passage in which Bedka is mentioned has no personal name recorded. Bedka may be a word of the same class as āka, i.e., a title or sobriquet, and Rabī'a-sulṭān may be the personal name of Bedka. Perhaps the word Bedka is Bega.

The facts of Bedka's descent are as follows: she was a daughter of Manṣūr Mīrzā Bāyqrā and of Fīroza Begam Mīrān-shāhī, and thus doubly a Tīmūrid. She was full-sister of Bāyqrā and Ḥusain Mīrzās and of Āka Begam. She married Aḥmad Khān Hājī Tarkhān, and had two sons whose names (if Bedka be Rabī'a-sulṭān) were Bābar and Murād and who married two of her nieces, Bega and Āghā.

Mems., 176, 177, 181.

Ilminsky, 203, 204, 208.

B.M. Turkī Add. 26,234, f. 48a and b; 53.

Other texts under 911H..

CLXII. Rabī'a-sulṭān Begam (Qarā-gūz) Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Qūtūq (Katak) āghācha (Begam); wife (1) of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān Chaghatāī and mother of Bābā Sulṭān, and (2) of Jānī Beg Uzbeg who married her after the murder of her father and her son by his cousin Shaibānī in 914H. (1508).

Mems., 22.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 114, 116.

CLXIII. Rajab-sulṭān Mīrān-shāhī.

Ar. rajab, fearing, worshipping. Sulṭān may here be a title.

Daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā and a concubine (ghūncha-chī).

Mems., 30.

CLXIV. Ruqaiya Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Ruqaiya was the name of a daughter of Muḥammad, and conveys the notion of bewitching or of being armed against spells.

Daughter of Hindāl; first wife of Akbar; she died Jumāda I. 7th, 1035H. (January 19th, 1626), at the age of eighty-four. She had no children of her own, and she brought up Shāh-jahān. Mihru-n-nisā' (Nūr-jahān) lived ‘unnoticed and rejected’ with her after the death of Shīr-afkan.

Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 309, 509.

CLXV. Ruqaiya-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī and Makh-dūma-sulṭān Begam (Qarā-gūz). She was a posthumous child. She fell into the hands of Jānī Beg Uzbeg, cir. 908-9H. (1502-4), and bore him ‘two or three’ sons who died young. ‘I have just received information that she has gone to the mercy of God.’ The date of this entry in the Memoirs is about 935H. (1528-9).

Mems, 10.

CLXVI. Sa'ādat-bakht (Begam Sulṭān) Bāyqrā.

Of happy fortune; Ar. sa'ādat, happy, and Pers. bakht, fortune.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Papa (Bābā) āghācha. She was married to Sulṭān Ma'sūd after the loss of his eyesight.

Mems., 182.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq.

CLXVII. Ṣāḥib-daulat Begam Dughlāt.

The princess of good fortune; Ar. ṣāḥib, enjoying, and daulat, fortune.

Sister of Mīr Jabār Bardī Dughlāt; wife of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān Chaghatāī; mother of Manṣūr, Bābājāk, Shāh Shaikh Muḥammad and Māham.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 125, 344.

CLXVIII. Sakīna-bānū Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

The princess guardian of tranquillity; Ar. sakīna, tranquillity of mind, and Pers. bānū, keeper.

Daughter of Humāyūn and Māh-chūchak; wife of Shāh Ghāzī Khān, son of Naqīb Khān Qazwīnī, a personal friend of Akbar.

Gul-badan, 71a.

Blochmann, 435, 449.

CLXIX. Sālḥa-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Cf. Salīma-sulṭān Chaqānīānī.

CLXX. Salīma-sulṭān Begam Chaqānīānī.

Daughter of Mīrzā Nūru-d-dīn Muḥammad Chaqā-nīānī and of a daughter of Bābar, as to whose name the sources ring changes upon the rose. She appears as Gul-rang (B. and H. s.n.), Gul-barg, Gul-rukh. As her mother was a full Turkomān or Turk by descent, it has occurred to me that she may have borne a Turkī name, and that the various forms it assumes in the Persian may have their origin in this.

As to her maternal parentage there are difficulties. From the Ma'āsir-i-raḥīmī, under 1024H., the following information is obtained. Pāshā Begam Bahārlū Turkomān married (873H., 1469) as her second husband, Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī. By him she had three daughters and one son: Bayasanghar (b. 882H., 1477). One daughter whose name was Sālḥa-sulṭān Begam, married Bābar and bore him a daughter, Gul-rukh (sic). Gul-rukh married Nūru-d-dīn Muḥam-mad Chaqānīānī, and their daughter was Salīma-sulṭān Begam who married first, Bairām Khān-i-khānān, and secondly, the Emperor Akbar.

Abū'l-faẓl (Bib. Ind. ed., II. 65) adds the particular that Firdaus-makānī gave his daughter Gul-barg (sic), to Nūru-d-dīn because a daughter of Maḥmūd and Pāshā had been given to Nūru-d-dīn's grandfather Khwāja Ḥasan, known as Khwāja-zāda Chaqānīānī. He also states that Salīma-sulṭān Begam was the issue of Gul-barg's marriage.

In the Memoirs, as we have them, there is no mention of Sālḥa-sulṭān nor of Nūru-d-dīn's marriage with a daughter of Bābar. Yet Abū'l-faẓl states that Firdaus-makānī arranged Gul-barg's marriage. The first omission is the more remarkable because Bābar (Mems., 30) states that Pāshā had three daughters. He does not give their names, and specifies the marriage of the eldest only. On the same page he tells of his marriage with Sālḥa's half-sister Zainab and of her death. The omission is remarkable and appears to have no good ground, since he chronicles his other Tīmūrid marriages. Of Pāshā's daughters it may be noted here that one married Malik Muḥam-mad Mīrān-shāhī, another Khwāja Ḥasan Chaqānīānī, and the third, Bābar.

It appears to me tolerably clear that Bābar's marriage with Sālḥa-sulṭān took place at a date which falls in a gap of the Memoirs, i.e., from 1511 to 1519. This is the period which contains the exile from Kābul after the Mughal rebellion.

Not only does Bābar omit Sālḥa-sulṭān's name and his marriage with her (Mems., 30), but Gul-badan is also silent as to name, marriage and child of Sālḥa-sulṭān. This silence is in every way remarkable. She enumerates her father's children and gives their mothers' names, and she enumerates some of his wives in more places than one. From her lists a Tīmūrid wife cannot have escaped, and especially one whose child became the mother of Gul-badan's associate Salīma-sulṭān.

An explanation of Gul-badan's silence and also of a part of Bābar's has suggested itself to me; it is conjectural merely and hypothetical. The absence of mention of Sālḥa-sulṭān and of her child suggests that she appears under another name in Gul-badan's list of her father's children and their mothers. She may be Gul-badan's own mother, Dil-dār Begam without undue wresting of known circumstantial witness.

The principal difficulty in the way of this identification is Abū'l-faẓl's statement that Nūru-d-dīn's marriage was made by Firdaus-makānī, whereas Gul-badan states that her father arranged two Chaghatāī marriages for her sisters.

If we might read Jannat-āshyānī (Humāyūn) for Firdaus-makānī much would fall into place; the marriage with Nūru-d-dīn could be a re-marriage of Gul-chihra who was widowed in 1533, and of whose remarriage nothing is recorded until her brief political alliance with 'Abbas Uzbeg in 1549. It is probable that she remarried in the interval.

To pass on to recorded incidents of Salīma-sulṭān's life:

There is an entry in Hindāl's guest-list which may indicate her presence.

She accompanied Ḥamīda-bānū and Gul-badan to Hindūstan in 964H. (1557), and she was married at Jalindhar shortly after Ṣafar 15th, 965H. (middle of December, 1557) to Bairām Khān-i-khānān. It is said that the marriage excited great interest at Court. It united two streams of descent from 'Alī-shukr Beg Bahārlū Turkomān. Salīma-sulṭān was a Tīmūrid through Bābar, one of her grandfathers, and through Maḥmūd, one of her great-grandfathers.

A few words must be said about her age at the time of her marriage, because the question has been raised through Jahāngīr's statement that she died at the age of sixty in 1021H., and commented upon by the Darbār-i-akbarī. If Jahāngīr gives her age correctly she must have been born in 961H., and this would make her a child of five when she married Bairām, and needs her betrothal by her father to Bairām to date from babyhood.

The Darbār-i-akbarī says that it is clear from Jahāngīr's statement of her age at death that she was married to Bairām ætat. 5, and that her memory is thus cleared from the reproach of two marriages!

Whatever is concealed in Jahāngīr's ‘sixty,’ nothing is said to indicate that he desired to bring Salīma-sulṭān into the circle of Hindū propriety. He may have had the wish; he was a Hindū mother's son. The comment of the modern author of the Darbār-i- akbarī witnesses to the Hindūizing action to which Moslim custom and thought have submitted. Adult remarriage was no reproach to Islām in Salīma's day.

It does not, however, seem correct to accept Jahāngīr's statement that Salīma-sulṭān was sixty only at death To have betrothed her as a baby and to have married her to a man of, at least, middle-age at five, is not in harmony with the Muḥammad custom of Ḥumāyūn's day. Moreover, Jahāngīr himself speaks of her as married (kad-khudā) to Bairām. She is said by Abū'l-faẓl to have been betrothed (nāmzād) by Humāyūn, and married (sipurdan) by Akbar to Bairām Khān.

Badāyunī's words indicate adult and not child marriage; sābiqā dar ḥabāla-i-Bairām Khān Khān-i-khānān būd, b'ad azān dakhl-i-ḥaram-i-pādshāhī shūd.

After the murder of Bairām in 968H. Salīma-sulṭān was married by Akbar. She was probably a few years his senior.

In 983H. she made her pilgrimage with Gul-badan. Particulars of the expedition are given in the Introduction to this volume.

Her name appears in the histories as a reader, a poet who wrote under the pseudonym of makhfī, and as pleading with Akbar for Salīm's forgiveness.

Her death is chronicled by Jahāngīr who heard of it on Ẕū'l-qa'da 2nd, 1021H. (December 15th, 1612). He gives particulars of her birth and descent, and of her marriages; and he states that she was sixty at the time of her death. By his orders her body was laid in a garden which she herself had made.

Jahāngīr praises her both for her natural qualities and her acquirements. She creates an impression of herself as a charming and cultivated woman.

Gul-badan, (?)26a.

Akbar-nāma s.n..

Badāyunī, Lowe, 13, 216, 389.

Tūzūk-i-jahāngīrī, Sayyid Ahmad, Aligarh, 113.

Khāfī Khān, Bib. Ind. ed., I. 276.

Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, s.n..

Darbār-i-akbarī, 736.

The genealogical table on the next page illustrates Salīma-sulṭān's descent, and the following dates bear also upon the topic:

CLXXI. Salīma Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Daughter of Khiẓr Khwājā, but whether also of Gul-badan is not recorded.

She went with Gul-badan to Makka in 983H. (1575).

Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 441.

CLXXII. Salīqa-sulṭān Begam (Āq Begam) Mīrān-shāhī.

(Ilminsky, 25, reads Ṣālḥa.) The princess of excellent disposition; Ar. salīqa, of good disposition, and sulṭān, pre-eminence.

Daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Qūtūq (Katak) Begam; wife of her cousin Ma'sūd. The marriage was announced to Bābar in 900H. (1494) with gifts of gold and silver, almonds, and pistachios. She was captured by Abū-bakr Dughlāt with Shāh Begam and Mihr-nigār Khānam.

Mems., 22, 27.

CLXXIII. Sāmiḥa Begam Barlās.

The gentle princess; Ar. sāmiḥ, gentle.

Daughter of Muḥibb 'Alī Barlās (son of Niẓāmu-ddīn 'Alī Khalīfa), and presumably of Nāhīd Begam; mother of Mujāhid Khān.

Mujāhid (who is named in the Ṭabaqāt-i-akbarī as commander of 1,000, but is not in the Āīn) was a son

of Muṣāhib Khān, son of Khwāja Kilān (Bābar's friend).

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 421, 533.

CLXXIV. Sarv-qad and Sarv-i-sahī.

Straight as a cypress; Pers. sarv, a cypress, and qad, form, or sahī, erect.

Sarv-i-sahī, to use Gul-badan's word, was a singer and reciter. She belonged to the households both of Bābar and Humāyūn, and was subsequently married, with full nisbat, to Mu'nim Khān-i-khānān.

She acted as go-between of Mu'nim and Khān-i-zamān ('Alī Qulī Uzbeg-i-shaibānī) during the rebellion of the latter—probably in the tenth year of Akbar, and Bāyazīd calls her a reliable woman and the ḥaram of the Khān-i-khānān. She sang on the way to Lamghān by moonlight in 958H. (1551); she was with Mu'nim at the time of his death in Gaur (Ṣafar, 983H., 1575), and in Rajab of the same year accompanied Gul-badan to Makka.

Gul-badan, 82a (inserted in the translation after 73b).

Bāyazīd, I.O. MS., 122b, 147b.

Akbar-nāma, Bib. Ind. ed., III. 145.

CLXXV. Shād Begam Bāyqrā. (No. 28.)

Daughter of Ḥaidar Bāyqrā and Bega Mīrān-shāhī ; wife of 'Adil Sulṭān.

Gul-badan, 25a.

Mems., 180.

CLXXV (a). Shād Bībī.

Wife of Humāyūn; lost at Chausa.

Gul-badan, 33b.

CLXXVI. Shāham āghā.

(?) My queen; from Pers. shāh, king, ruler.

Of the ḥaram of Humāyūn. She went with Gul-badan Begam to Makka in 983H..

Aīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 441.

CLXXVII. Shāh Begam Badakhshī.

The princess of royal blood.

She was one of six daughters of Shāh Sulṭān Muḥammad, King of Badakhshān, the last of a long line of hereditary rulers of his country who claimed descent from Alexander of Macedon. Her mother was a sister of Sulṭān Sanjar Barlās.

She was given in marriage to Yūnas Khān Cha-ghatāī and was the mother of Maḥmūd and Aḥmad Khāns and of Sulṭān-nigār and Daulat Khānams. She was widowed in 892H. (1487), and survived Yūnas more than twenty years.

She dwelt in Mughalistān with her elder son, Maḥmūd, the then Khāqān of the Mughals, from the time of Yūnas' death until about 911H. (1505-6). Then ‘base advisers provoked a quarrel between the mother and son—a son so obedient that he had never even mounted for a ride without her permission… They [the base advisers] decided to send Shāh Begam to Shāhī Beg Khān to solicit a country for herself, because she found living in Mughalistān distasteful… Now, as the Begam was a very sensible woman, she went under this pretext, and thus left her son before those base advisers could bring about an open rupture, which would have caused endless scandal and reproach to herself. The rumour was that she had gone to entreat Shāhī Beg Khān while she was really enjoying in Samarqand the company of her children.’ (Tār. Rash, E. & R., 180.)

Shāhī Beg did not permit her to remain in Samar-qand but banished her to Khurāsān. From Khurāsān she went with other connections and relations to Bābar in Kābul. They arrived early in 911H. (June, 1505), during the ceremonial mourning for Bābar's mother, Shāh Begam's stepdaughter. With Shāh Begam was Ḥaidar Mīrzā's father and also Bābar's aunt, Mihr-nigār. Ḥaidar says that Bābar gave the party a warm welcome and showed them all possible honour; and that they spent some time in Kābul in the greatest ease and comfort.

Bābar's kindness fell on ungrateful ground, since in the following year, 912H. (1506-7), Shāh Begam fomented a rebellion against him in favour of her grandson, Mīrzā Khān. Ḥaidar says that during Bābar's absence in Harāt her motherly love (it was grandmotherly) began to burn in her heart, and persuaded her that Bābar was dead, and that room was thus made for Mīrzā Khān. The story of Bābar's magnanimity to her when he had put down the rising she had stirred, is well known and is detailed in the histories.

In 913H. (1507-8) she laid claim to Badakhshān, saying that it had been her family's hereditary kingdom for 3,000 years; that though she, a woman, could not attain to sovereignty, her grandson would not be rejected. Bābar assented to her scheme, and she set off for Badakhshān, together with Mihr-nigār Khānam and Mīrzā Khān.

The latter went on in advance to Qila'-ẓafar. The ladies and their escort were at once attacked and plundered by robber bands in the employ of the ruler of Kāshghar, Abā-bakr Dughlāt, and were by them conveyed to him in Kāshghar. They were placed in confinement, and ‘in the prison of that wicked miscreant they departed from this perishable world’ (cir. 913H.).

Mems., 12, 13, 22, 32, 60, 74, 99, 104, 105, 106, 169, 216,
217, 231.
Tār. Rash., E. & R., s.n..

CLXXVIII. Shāh Begam Termiẕī. (No. 24.)

Daughter of Fakhr-jahān Begam and of Mīr Alā'u-l-mulk Termiẕī. She may be ‘Kīchak’ Begam, and if not, is her sister.

She was the mother of Dil-shād Begam. If she be Kīchak, she was the wife of Sharafu-d-dīn Ḥusain. (Cf. Kīchak.)

She was at the Mystic Feast.

Gul-badan, 24b.

CLXXIX. Shāh Khānam. (No. 17.)

Daughter of Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam.

Gul-badan, 24b.

CLXXX. Shahr-bānū Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

(?) Ar. shahr, the moon, the new moon.

Daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā, and married to him before his accession in 873H. (March, 1469).

Bābar gives an entertaining detail about her married life. Once at Chekmān her husband was engaged in a battle with her brother Maḥmūd. All his ladies except herself alighted from their litters and mounted on horseback, presumably for rapid flight if the day went against Ḥusain. Shahr-bānū, however, ‘relying on her brother,’ remained in her litter. This being reported to her husband, he divorced her and married her younger sister, Pāyanda-sulṭān.

Of her subsequent history nothing seems recorded. (Cf. Mīnglī-bī āghācha.)

Mems., 182.

CLXXXI. Shahr-bānū Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 7.)

Third daughter of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Umīd Andijānī; half-sister of Bābar and eight years his junior; born cir. 1491; full-sister of Nāṣir and Mihr-bānū; wife of Junaid Barlās (brother of Niẓāmu-d-dīn 'Alī Khalīfa); mother by him of Sanjar Mīrzā; widowed cir. 944H. (1537-38).

She seems to have gone to Sind with her nephew, Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrzā, in 1540 and after the débacle in Hindūstān, for when Yādgār-nāṣir had fled from Sind to Kāmrān in Qandahār (a traitor cast aside by his employer, Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn), Kāmrān sent ambassadors to Shāh Ḥusain to request that the begam and her son might be returned to his charge. [Shahr-bānū was Kāmrān's paternal (half)-aunt and full-aunt of Yādgār-nāṣir.]

She was at once started on her journey, but was insufficiently provided with necessaries for traversing the difficult desert tract which stretches towards the western mountain barrier of Sind. Numbers of her party perished before reaching Shāl (Quetta); and many died in that town from ‘malignant fever.’ Amongst its victims was Shahr-bānū, at the age of about fifty-one years.

Gul-badan, 24b.
Mems, 10.
Akbar-nāma, s.n..
B. & H., I. 526 and II. 253. (Here occur errors of statement,
i.e., that Shahr-bānū was Yādgār-nāṣir's wife and Kām-
rān's sister.)

CLXXXII. Shāh Sulṭān Begam.

(?) Wife of Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; mother of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrzā.

The news of her death in Andijān reached Bābar in 907H. (1501).

Mems., 20, 99.

CLXXXIII. Shāh-zāda Begam and Sulṭānam Khānam Ṣafawī.

The daughter of kings.

Sister of Shāh Ṭahmāsp of Persia. Her protection of the Emperor Humāyūn during his sojourn in Persia is named by many of the historians.

Gul-badan, 58a, 58b.

CLXXXIV. Shāh-zāda Khānam Mīrān-shāhī.

Daughter of Sulaimān Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī and Ḥaram Begam. She was betrothed to Humāyūn in 958H. (1551), but the affair went no further.

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1898, art. Bāyazīd
bīyāt, H. Beveridge.
B. & H., II. 397.
Cf. appendix s.n. Ḥaram and Fāṭima.

CLXXXV. Sulṭānam Begam Bāyqrā.

For meaning of Sulṭānam, cf. app. s.n. Māham.

Daughter of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā and Chūlī Begam Aẕāk; her father's eldest girl and her mother's only child. She married, first, her cousin Wais, son of her father's elder brother Bāyqrā, and, secondly, 'Abdu-l-bāqī Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī. By her first marriage she had a son, Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā, and a daughter who married Isān-qulī Shaibānī, younger brother of Yīlī-bārs Sulṭān. Through her son Muḥammad she was ancestress of those numerous rebel Bāyqrās whom history knows as ‘the mīrzās.’

When the Uzbegs took Harāt in 1507 (913H.) she went to Khwārizm, and there her daughter was married. On April 12th, 1519 (Rabī' II. 12th, 925H.), Bābar records her arrival with her daughter in Kābul. He gave her the Garden of Retirement (Bāgh-i-khilwat) for her residence, and waited upon her with the ceremony due to an elder sister. He bowed and she bowed; he advanced, they embraced; and having established this form of greeting, they kept to it.

Sulṭānam started from Kābul for India in 1527 with a grandson (her sons had six sons), but she died at the Indus and her body was taken back to Kābul for burial.

There are curious discrepancies of the texts in the passage about Sulṭānam which occurs at Mems., 181.

The first point to note is contained in the words: ‘Her elder brother gave her in marriage to Sulṭān Wais Mīrzā, the son of Miāngī Bāyqrā Mīrzā.’ (Mems., 181.)

Barādar kilānash ba pisar miāngī Bāyqrā Mīrzā Sulṭān Wais Mīrzā dāda būd. (Waqi'āt-i-bābarī, Persian text, B.M. Or. 16,623, 123b.)

Āghā sī Bāyqrā Mīrzā nīnak ortānchī oghalī Sulṭān Wais Mīrzāgha chīqārīb aidī. (Tūzūk-i-bābarī or Bābarnāma , Turkī text, B.M. Add. 26,324, f. 52b, and Ilminsky, 209.)

‘Son frère ainé l'avait donnée en mariage à Sulṭān Wais Mīrzā, fils cadet de Bāyqrā Mīrzā.’ (Pavet de Courteille, I. 375.)

Both the English and French versions make the elder brother of Sulṭānam give her in marriage. But she was an only child, and her father was living to act for her. The French version, here as in so many other places, appears to have relied upon Mr. Erskine. The Turkī text appears to yield something more probable, i.e., ‘His elder brother, Bāyqrā Mīrza's middle son, Sulṭān Wais Mīrzā…’

Mr. Erskine has read miāngī as part of Bāyqrā's name. Comparison with the Turkī makes appear as the more probable reading: ‘the middle son’—pisar-imiāngī .

M. Pavet de Courteille's fils cadet lets slip the notion of mīyān. Redhouse gives for the ortānchī oghal of the Turkī text, ‘the middle son out of an odd number’ —e.g., the third out of five, the second of three, etc..

In the same passage the Memoirs have: ‘Sulṭānam Begam set out along with her grandson…’ Here the Persian words ba hamīn tārīkh (Turkī, ushbū tārīkh) are omitted, with loss of precision, for they fix the date of her journey by conveying the information that it occurred at the time of her son's appointment to the government of Kanauj, i.e., April, 1527.

Mems., 181, 190, 266.

Ḥabību-s-siyār, 327 et seq..

Also the places mentioned in the notice above.

CLXXXVI. Sulṭānam Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 12.)

Daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā.

A Sulṭānam of this parentage is mentioned by Bābar (Mems., 22), by Ḥaidar (E. & R., s.n.), and by Gul-badan (24b). These appear to be at least two, and perhaps are three women. Their record is as follows:

(1). Sulṭānam, fourth daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā. (Mems., 22.) She was the child of Qūtūq (Katak) Begam. She married her cousin 'Alī, son of Maḥmūd Mīrzā. 'Alī was murdered by Shaibānī (cf. s.n. Zuhra) in 906H. (July, 1500), and his widow was taken to wife by Shaibānī's son, Muḥammad Tīmūr. A third marriage is mentioned by Bābar, viz., to Mahdī Sulṭān. By this style the histories mention the Uzbeg chief who was associated with Ḥamza (Khamza) Sulṭān. But this Mahdī was put to death by Bābar in 1511, and Tīmūr was living in 1512 (918H.). Either Sulṭānam was divorced, perhaps to make marriage with some other kinswoman and later captive legal; or Mahdī Sulṭān may be the father of 'Adil Sulṭān; or he may be Maḥdī Muḥammad Khwāja.

(2). Sulṭānam, daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrzā, married Muḥammad Ḥusain Dughlāt in the autumn of 1503. She was given to her husband by Khusrau Shāh who describes her as daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mirzā wa pādshāh-zāda-i-man, by which Mr. Ross has understood that she was of Khusrau's ‘family.’ There was a son, issue of this marriage and named 'Abdu-l-lāh.

It is difficult to regard No. 1 and No. 2 as one woman, both because of their marriage dates and of the circumstance that No. 1 was an Uzbeg captive and No. 2 in Badakhshān. Bābar mentions no marriage of a Sulṭānam with Muḥammad Ḥusain Dughlāt. A surmise—it is nothing more—has occurred to me, namely: No. 2 was married to the Dughlāt mīrzā shortly after the destruction of Tāshkend; Bābar's wife 'Āyisha, third daughter of Sulṭān Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī , had left Bābar shortly before that disaster. She might be Sulṭānam No. 2.

(3). Sulṭānam, or Sulṭānī, daughter of Sulṭan Aḥmad Mīrzā, was at the Mystic Feast in 1531. She is said to be the mother of Kilān Khān Begam. This title is not appropriate for the child of any of the marriages mentioned for No. 1 or No. 2. It is quite appropriate for the child of the marriage of Sulṭan Aḥmad and Qūtūq's firstborn daughter, Rabī'a-sulṭān, because Rabī'a married Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān who was the Elder Khān (kilān) and also the Great Khān (Khāqān) of the Mughals. Shaibānī murdered five of Maḥmūd's six sons, but probably his girls escaped because of their value as wives.

The above notes make for the opinion that Sul-ṭānam is a title, and not a name. Cf. app. s.n. Māham.

Mems., 22.

Gul-badan, 24b.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 164, 170, 193.

CLXXXVII. Sulṭānam. (No. 52.)

Wife of Niẓāmu-d-dīn 'Alī Khalīfa.

Gul-badan, 14a, 14b, 26a, 50a.

CLXXXVIII. Sulṭān-nigār Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

Daughter of Yūnas Khān Chaghatāī and Shāh Begam Badakhshī; wife of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī; mother of Sulṭān Wais (Khān Mīrzā); widowed in 900H. (January, 1495).

On Maḥmūd's death in Samarqand she joined her brothers in Tāshkand, going off ‘without giving any notice of her intentions,’ says Bābar. Later on she married Awīq (Adīk) Sulṭān Jūjī, the chief of the Uzbeg Qazāqs. Her story is somewhat confused in the Memoirs (13 and 14) by a double mention of her marriage to Awīq. Ḥaidar Mīrzā throws some light, and it seems that when Shaibānī had murdered her brother, Mahmūd Khān, Awīq left him and joined the Uzbeg Qazāqs, his own people, and Sulṭān-nigār followed him into Mughalistān.

She had two daughters by Awīq, one of whom married 'Abdu-l-lāh Qūchīn and died a young wife, and the other married Rashīd Sulṭān Chaghatāī.

On Awīq's death, Sulṭān-nigār was married to his brother Qāsim, presumably in consonance with the Turkī custom of yang-lik.

With Qāsim's death, the khānship of the Qazāqs devolved on Sulṭān-nigār's stepson (i.e., Awīq's by a co-wife) named Ṭāhir. ‘He was,’ says Ḥaidar, ‘very much attached to her, and even preferred her to the mother who had given him birth.’

What follows is full of colour and feeling. Nigār-sulṭān showed her appreciation of Ṭāhir's affection, but petitioned him, saying: ‘Although you are (as) my child, and I neither think of nor desire any son but you, yet I wish you to take me to my nephew, Sulṭān Sa'īd Khān. For I am grown old, and I have no longer the strength to bear this wandering life in the deserts of Uzbegistān. Take me where I may enjoy some quiet and repose.’ She then offered to mediate for him and to obtain the support for him of the Mughal Khāqāns against his foes. Ṭāhir accordingly escorted her to the Mughalistān borders, and with her waited upon Sa'īd. ‘The latter, from love of his aunt, rose, saying that although his rising to receive Ṭāhir was contrary to the rules of Chingīz (their common ancestor), yet that he did it out of gratitude because Ṭāhir had brought his aunt.’

Sulṭān-nigār died of a hæmorrhage in the summer of 934H. (1528).

Mems., 13, 14, 30, 31, 99, 105.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., s.n.

CLXXXIX. Tarkhān Begam.

This is a title, and not a personal name.

In Bābar's time, according to Mr. Erskine (Mems., 24 n.), the ancient title of Tarkhān had come to belong to a particular family or clan. This may be well seen by consulting Professor Blochmann's Āīn-i-akbarī, 361, where the genealogical table of the Arghūns of Tatta shows the title to have become hereditary in their branch of the Arghūns.²⁹²

The Tarkhān Begam whose name stands above this notice was linked with these Tarkhān Arghūns in the way shown below. She married her first cousin, Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī, and Qūtūq Begam was her foster-sister.

Mems, 22, 24.

Āīn-i-akbarī, Blochmann, 361.

B. & H., I. and II. s.n. Sind, Arghūn, etc..

CXC. Tarkhān Begam and Bega.

Gul-badan, 75b.

(Tarsūn-sulṭān, Yūn, q.v.)

CXCI. Ulugh Begam. (No. 10.)

Daughter of Zainab Sulṭān Begam; grand-daughter of Sulṭān Abū-sa'īd; first cousin of Bābar.

Gul-badan, 24b.

CXCII. Ulūs (Anūsh and Alūsh) āghā Turkomān. (? No. 53.)

Turkī, ūlūs, tribe. Clearly a title.

Daughter of Khwāja Ḥusain Beg Turkomān of the White Sheep, an amīr of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī; wife of 'Umar Shaikh; mother of a girl who died in infancy. She was removed from the ḥaram a year or eighteen months after her marriage. Gul-badan mentions a begam of this name as at Hindāl's wedding-feast; whether she is Ūlūs āghā promoted, I have no means of knowing.

Mems., 14.

Gul-badan, 26a.

CXCIII. Ūmīd āghācha Andijānī.

Pers. ūmīd, hope.

An inferior wife of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī whom she predeceased. She was the mother of Mihr-bānū who was two years older than Bābar and will have been born therefore in 1481; of Nāṣir who was born in 1487; and of Shahr-bānū who was born in 1491.

Mems., 10, 14.

CXCIV. Umm-kulṯūm Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

A surname of Fāṭima, daughter of Muḥammad; Ar. umm, mother, and kulṯūm, plumpness.

Grand-daughter of Gul-badan Begam and a member of the Ḥaj of 983H..

Akbar-nāma, III. 145.

CXCV. Ūzūn-sulṭān Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal.

(?) Pers. auzūn, or ūzūn, ample, increase.

Daughter of Shīr 'Alī Khān Oghlan Chaghatāī; sister of Wais Khān and Makhdūma Khanām; paternal aunt of Yūnas Khān; wife of Amīr Sayyid 'Alī Dugh-lāt ; mother of Muḥammad Ḥaidar Dughlāt and great-grandmother of Ḥaidar Mīrzā, the historian.

She was widowed in 862H. (1457-58), and then, in conjunction with her son, received Kāshghar and Yangī-ḥiṣār from her stepson, Sāniz.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 64, 87, 88.

CXCVI. Yādgār-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī. (No. 8.)

Pers. yādgār, remembrance.

Daughter of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī and Āghā Sulṭān āghācha; half-sister of Bābar, and brought up by his grandmother, Isān-daulat. She was a posthumous child, and, if one may draw an inference from her example and others similar, is for this reason called Yādgār (Souvenir). Her father died Ramẓan 4th, 899H. (June 9th, 1494). When a child of not more than ten, and in 908H. (1503), she fell into the hands of 'Abdu-l-laṭīf Uzbeg, after the conquest of Andijān and Akhsī by Shaibānī, and in 916H. (1511) Bābar's successes at Khutlān and Ḥiṣār enabled her to return to him and her own people.

I do not find any marriage mentioned for her by her name.

She is in the list of the guests at the Mystic Feast, and her mother is named (as such) as present at Hindāl's wedding festivities.

Mems., 10.

Gul-badan, 24b, 26b.

CXCVII. Yūn (Tarsūn)-sulṭān Mughal.

Ilminsky, 15, writes Tarsūn.

Inferior wife of 'Umar Shaikh, and married at the end of his life.

Mems., 14.

CXCVIII. Zainab-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

(?) From Ar. zain, adorning.

Fifth daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā and Khān-zāda Begam (b.) Termiẕī; first cousin and wife of Bābar.

She was married at the instance of Qūt-līq-nigār, in the year of the capture of Kābul, i.e., 910H. (1504-5), perhaps at the time that Jahāngīr Mīrzā, Bābar's half-brother, married her half-sister, Āq Begam. The marriage was not happy. Two or three years later Zainab died of small-pox.

Mems., 30.

CXCIX. Zainab - sulṭān Khānam Chaghatāī Mughal. (No. 19.)

Daughter of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Khān Chaghatāī Mughal; favourite wife of Sulṭān Sa'īd Khān Kāshgharī, her first cousin; aunt of Shāh Muḥammad Sulṭān whom Muḥammadī Barlās put to death; mother of Ibrāhīm who was born 930H. (1524), Sa'īd's third son and favourite child, of Muhṣin, and of Maḥmūd Yūsuf.

On her husband's death in 939H. (July, 1533), she was banished by her stepson Rashīd, and went with her children to Kābul where she met Ḥaidar Mīrzā and where she was under the protection of Kāmrān.

Gul-badan mentions her in the guest-list, and places her name as present at the Mystic Feast (1531), but this can hardly be right. She could easily have been at the marriage festivities in 1537.

Tār. Rash., E. & R., 146, 375, 383, 467.

Gul-badan, 11a, 24b.

CC. Zainab-sulṭān Begam Mīrān-shāhī.

Gul-badan describes her as the paternal aunt or great-aunt ('ama) of Humāyūn. Bābar had no such sister, and no Zainab is mentioned by Gul-badan as a daughter of his grandfather Abū-sa'īd. An Āq Begam, however, is spoken of by her, and Zainab may be her personal name. Zainab had a daughter Ulugh Begam.

Gul-badan, 24b.

CCI. Zainab-sulṭān Begam.

There is a difficulty in identifying the begam of this name, whom Bābar mentions (Mems., 387) as coming to India. It will be seen by comparing the sources and their French and English interpretations:

Mems., 387. ‘another, by name Zainab-sulṭān Begam, the
granddaughter of Bikeh Chichām.’
P. de C., II. 355. ‘et la petite-fille de Yenga-Tchetcham,
autrement dite Zeineb-sulṭān Begam.’
B. M. Or., 3714, Pers., p. 482. dīgar nabīra yanga chichām
ki Zainab-sulṭān Begam bāshad.
Bodleian, Elliot, 19, f. 180a. dīgar nabīra bega chichām ki
Zainab-sulṭān Begam.
Ilminsky, Turkī text, 447. yana, yanga chichām ki Zainab-
sulṭān Begam būlaghā'ī nabīra sī kīlīb.

It seems safer to take Zainab as the name of Bābar's relation (i.e., the yanga of his chicha) than as that of the granddaughter (nabīra).

It may be observed here that the best authorities quoted above, i.e., Ilminsky, behind whom is Kehr, and Or., 3714, have yanga where Mr. Erskine and Elliot, 19, have bega. This exchange may occur in the case of other begas of this appendix. Until a good Turkī text more complete than that in the B. M. is found, this must be left an open question.

If Zainab be taken as the name of the yanga, she may be identifiable with one of the other women already entered in the appendix, but for deciding this point more examples are necessary of Bābar's application of the word yanga.

Mems., 387.

CCII. Zobaida āghācha Jalāīr.

The marigold; Ar. zubaida.

Grand-daughter of Ḥusain Shaikh Tīmūr of the Shaibān Sulṭāns. According to the Ḥabibu-s-siyār, she was a Jalair.

She was an inferior wife of Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā and the mother of 'Āyisha Begam. She predeceased her husband who died April, 1506.

CCIII. Zuhra Begī and Āghā Uzbeg.

Ar. zuhra, beauty, a yellow flower, the star Venus.

An inferior wife of Sulṭān Maḥmūd Mīrzā; mother of Makhdūma-sulṭān Begam and of Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā.

She was married during the lifetime of Maḥmūd's father, and therefore before Rajab 873H. (January, 1469), and was widowed Rabī II., 900H. (January, 1495). In 905H. (1499-1500) she entered into an intrigue with Shaibānī, a fellow-tribesman, of which the ultimate aim was dominance in Samarqand for her son 'Alī. A part of her scheme and offer was her own remarriage with Shaibānī. Bābar stigmatizes her action as ‘stupidity and folly,’ and says, further, ‘the wretched and weak woman, for the sake of getting herself a husband, gave the family and honour of her son to the winds. Nor did Shaibānī Khān mind her a bit, or value her even so much as his other handmaids, concubines, or women. Sulṭān 'Alī Mīrzā was confounded at the condition in which he now found himself, and deeply regretted the step he had taken. Several young cavaliers formed a plan for escaping with him, but he would not consent. As the hour of fate was at hand, he could not shun it. They put him to death in the meadow of Kulba. From his overanxiety to preserve this mortal and transitory life, he left a name of infamy behind him; and, from following the suggestions of a woman, struck himself out of the list of those who have earned for themselves a glorious name. It is impossible to write any more of the transactions of such a personage (? Zuhra), and impossible to listen any further to the recital of such base and dastardly proceedings.’

Mems., 29, 30, 31, 83, 84.

Mahdī Khwāja.

Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad has included in his Ṭabaqāt-i-akbarī a story which he heard from his father Muḥam-mad Muqīm Harāwī, and of which the purport is that Bābar's Khalīfa (Niẓāmu-d-dīn 'Alī Barlās) had at one time thought of placing a certain Mahdī Khwāja on the throne in succession to Bābar.

Two circumstances cast doubt on the story: (1) It was customary in Bābar's family for a son to succeed his father; (2) Bābar left four sons, the youngest of whom, Hindāl, was eleven years old.

Moreover, there were Tīmūrids both of the Bāyqrā and Mīrān-shāhī branches in India with Bābar whose claims to a Tīmūrid throne would be strongly enforced.

But Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad has left us the story in circumstantial detail and it cannot be passed over unnoticed, and this the less because Gul-badan Begam throws some light on the identity of the Mahdī concerned, and also because in an important particular, i.e., the relation of Mahdī to Bābar, I am able, through Mr. Beveridge's study of the Ḥabību-s-siyār, to give more accurate information than was at Mr. Erskine's disposal.

The story was old when Niẓāmu-d-dīn set it down and it is not necessary to accept all its details as exact. It is sufficient to consider its minimum contents which are, that in the royal household there had been a rumour of a plan of supersession of Bābar's sons by Mahdī Khwāja at the instance of Khalīfa.

The question naturally arises, who was the man concerning whom such intention could be attributed to the wise and experienced Khalīfa?

Niẓāmu-d-dīn calls Mahdī Bābar's damād, and Mr. Erskine, amongst other translators, has rendered this by son-in-law. It is unnecessary to consider why any Mahdī Khwāja known in history should have been preferred to those sons-in-law who were of Bābar's own blood, because Gul-badan calls Mahdī Bābar's yazna. For this word the dictionaries yield only the meaning of ‘brother-in-law’ and ‘husband of the king's sister.’ Both these meanings are also attributed to damād. But the Ḥabīb settles the verbal question by a statement that Mahdī Khwāja was the husband of Khān-zāda Begam, Bābar's full sister.

It is not improbable that he had another close link with the Emperor, namely that of relationship to Māham Begam, but I am not yet able to assert this definitely.

Bābar never mentions Mahdī Khwāja's parentage. This is learned from Khwānd-amīr who states that he was the son of Mūsa Khwāja and grandson of Murtaza Khwāja. He was a sayyid; and from the circumstance that his burial-place was chosen as that of Sayyid Abū'l-ma'ālī Termiẕī, it may be inferred that he belonged to the religious house of Termiẕ. If so, he had probably Tīmūrid blood in his veins, since intermarriage between the families was frequent.

Bābar mentions a Khwāja Mūsa who is perhaps Mahdī's father, in 914H., 1508. He immediately afterwards names Khwāja Muḥammad 'Alī, Māham Begam's brother, in suggestive sequence.

Bābar's first surviving record of Mahdī is made in 925H. (February, 1519) when ‘Mīr Muḥammad Mahdī Khwāja’ brings in a prisoner. It is in cir. 923H. (1517) that Khwānd-amīr speaks of the marriage of Mahdī and Khān-zāda, but this is probably a good deal after the fact, because Khān-zāda was returned to Bābar in 917H. (1511).

Mahdī Khwāja, as Bābar invariably calls him after his first appearance, went to Hindūstān with Bābar and is frequently mentioned. It is significant of his high position and presumably not only by marriage but by birth, that on military duty he is always associated with men of royal blood, either Tīmūrid or Chaghatāī. He is sometimes given precedence of them, and is never named last in a list of officers. Chīn-tīmūr Chaghatāī, Muḥammad Sulṭān Mīrzā Bāyqrā, Sulṭān Mīrzā Mīrān-shāhī, and 'Ādil Sulṭān are constantly associated with him. It seems clear that he was a great noble and ranked amongst the highest. Khāfī Khān calls him Sayyid Khwāja, and so does Khwānd-amīr. Whether the ‘Khwāja’ indicates anything as to his mother's marriage I am not able to say.

Khāfī Khān (I. 42) has a passage which may relate to him: Sulṭān Mīrzā wa Mahdī Sulṭān binī a'māmrā (of Bābar) ki asīr-i-ān juma' būdand khalāṣ sakht. The date of the occurrence is cir. 1511, the year in which another Mahdī, i.e., Uzbeg, was killed by Bābar. Mr. Erskine appears to think that the two men, named here as released, were Ḥamza and Mahdī Sulṭāns Uzbeg, but the sources do not give the style of Mīrzā to either of these chiefs. They appear to have had marriage connections with Bābar in an earlier generation, and a son of Mahdī seems to have been 'Ādil Sulṭān (Mems., 363) who was father of 'Āqil Sulṭān Uzbeg (Akbar-nāma, I. 221).

A Mahdī Khwāja who was undoubtedly of Bābar's family, appears both in the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī and in Gul-badan Begam's Humāyūn-nāma. He is the son of Aiman, and grandson of Sulṭān Aḥmad Khān Chaghatāī, Bābar's mother's brother. But his age places him out of the question; he was about ten in 1530, and the hero of Niẓāmu-d-dīn's story stroked his beard, and was either a damād or a yazna. Mahdī Chaghatāī, moreover, reached India after Bābar's death.³⁰¹

The Ṭabaqāt states that Mahdī Khwāja had long been connected with Khalīfa; the latter was himself a sayyid.

Niẓāmu-d-dīn calls Mahdī a jūwan and Mr. Erskine has accentuated all the faults and characteristics of youth in his version of the story. But Gul-badan calls Hindāl an uninjurious youth at thirty-three, and there seems good ground to read often in jūwan the notion of vigour and strength rather than exclusively of fewness of years. In 1530 Mahdī had served Bābar eleven known years.

Like many other such small problems, that of the family connections of Mahdī Khwāja and the other men of his name may be solved by some chance passage in a less known author, or by a closer consideration of the personages of the Memoirs.

Mems., 255, 303, 305-307, 338, 340-342, 344, 345, 349, 352,
363, 370, 371, 401, 426.^301a
Akbar-nāma, s.n., 'Áqil Sulṭān and Mahdī.
Khāfī Khān, Bib. Ind. ed., s.n..
Ḥabibu-s-siyār, Khwānd-amīr, under date cir. 923H..
Cf. Index to this volume, s.n. Mahdī.

NOTE.—This index is full for the pages down to 201. It gives the Roman-numbered names only of Appendix A.

Reference to the Persian imprint is by folio numbering. This is reproduced accurately from the MS., in the Persian imprint, and as closely as the sentences permit in the translation.

Words in 'āīn, ghain, etc., are classed with their nearest equivalents.

Abdu-l-ghafūr, Shaikh, 149 and n..
'Abdu-l-ḥaī, Mīr, 199.
'Abdu-l-khāliq, Mullā, 181.
'Abdu-l-lāh Khān Uzbeg 191n..
Abdu-l-lāh, Qāẓī, 144.
'Abdu-l-qadīr Badāyunī 60, 62, 72, 74, 76, 162n..
'Abdu-r-razzāq, Mīrzā, 86.
'Abdu-l-wahab, see Jūjūk.

Abū'l-baqā, Mīr, 34, 139, 151 and n..
Abū'l-faẓl 24, 39, 57, 59, 66, 69, 71, 74n., 76, 77, 78 and n.,
83, 129n., 163n., 175n., 178n., 187n..
Abū'l-ma'ālī Termiẕī 26, 56, 63, 64, 175n., 186n..
Abū'n-nāṣir Muḥ., see Hindāl.
Abū'l-qāsim, see Ibrāhīm Mīrān-shāhī.
Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī 26, 45, 97, 118.

Accession Feast (Humāyūn's) 114n., 118 and n..

Adam Ghakkar 48, 56, 200.
Adham Khān kūka 58-63, 177n..
Adoption of Hindāl 116 and n., 117 and n..

Āfāq (Āpāq), wife of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 120, 203.
Āfāq (No. 26.), d. of Sulṭān Bakht, 204.
Afghānī āghācha (No. 56.) Bībī Mubārika) 3, 9, 91 and n.,
103, 122, 131, 139, 143, 189, 204; ? 216 (Bega); 266.

Afroz-bānū (No. 33.) 121, 204.
āghā, meaning of, 95n., 204.
Āghā Begam (No. 34.) 121, 204.
Āghā Begam Bāyqrā 205.
āghācha, meaning of, 2, 3, 91n..
Āghā-jān 131.
Āghā kūka (No. 78.) 123, 205.
Āghā-sulṭān āghācha (No. 37.) 121, 205.
Āghā-sulṭān Dughlāt 205.

Aḥmad (Ilācha Khān) Chaghatāī 119.
Aḥmad Durrānī 94 n..
Aḥmad Jāmī (Zhinda-fīl) 59, 145 and n., 169n..
Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī 89, 90, 118n., 119, 193n..
Aḥmad, son of Bābar, 90.
Aḥmad, the Taster, 108.

Āī Begam, d. of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 206.

Aiman Khwāja Chaghatāī 31.

Aīs-daulat, see Isān-daulat.

ajām, a title, its meaning, 115n.; see Dil-dār.

Ākā Begam, d. of Manṣūr Bāyqrā, 206.
ākā and ākā-jānam, titles, see Khān-zāda.
ākām, a title, see Māham.
Akbar (Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad) Emperor 2, 26; 37-9; 41;
46-8; 52, 54; 55-7; 134n., 145, 158, 165 and n.; 166,
174 and n.; 175 and n.; 179, 180n., 183 and n.; 184,
190n., 197.
“Akbar Kaisar,” F. von Noer, trs. A. S. Beveridge, 94n..
Akbar-nāma, see Abū'l-faẓl.

Al-amān, son of Humāyūn, 14, 112n., 146n..
'Alāwulu-d-dīn, see Jalāl.
Alexander of Macedon 50.
'Alī Begchik ṭaghāī 14.
'Alī Jalāīr 155, 159.
'Alī Murtaẓa 105.
'Alī-shīr Nawāī 53.
'Alī qūr-begī 178n..
Alīka, Mīr, 152 and n..

Allah-dost, Mīr, 163-4.
Alqās Ṣafāwī 169.
Alūsh (Lūsh, Tarsh) Beg 153 and n., 159.
Alūsh Begam, see Ūlūs.
Alwar, son of Bābar, 3, 10, 27, 90 and n.; 103.

'Ambar nāẓir 166, 185.
Amīna-bānū, d. of Humāyūn, 186, 206.
'ammu 84n..

Āpāq, see Āfāq.

āq (fair), a sobriquet, 118n., 207.
Āq Begam (No. 3.), d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī, 97, 107,
109, 118, 119, 207.
Āq Begam, d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 207.
Āq Begam, d. of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 207.
Āq Begam, see Salīqa.
Āq Sulṭān, see Yasīn-daulat.
'Aqīqa (No. 47.), d. of Humāyūn, 31, 32, 113, 115, 122, 136,
137n., 138, 143, 146n..

Ārāīsh Khān 109.
archery, Persian, 121n..

'asas, night-guard, 7, 96 and n.. See, too, Muḥammad 'asas
ṭaghāī.
Asiatic Quarterly Review, art. Bābar's Diamond; H. Beve-
ridge, 173n..
'Askarī, son of Bābar, 2, 15, 16, 25, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 42,
43, 47, 49, 69, 90, 129, 132, 133 and n.; 142n., 143,
145n., 160, 162; 164-8; 174, 175, 181, 182, 184, 187,
191, 192, 194.

Atka Khān, see Shamsu-d-dīn Ghaznavī.
ātūn māmā (No. 38.) 121, 208.

'Āyisha (No. 9.), d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 30, 100, 119, 136
and n., 208
'Āyisha, d. of Kāmrān 48, 194, 196 and n.; 210
'Āyisha (? No. 11.) Mīrān-shāhī, w. of Bābar, 3, 89, 119 and
n.; 209.
'Āyisha (Mughal) Khānam 194 and n.; 211.
'Āyisha, wife of the Prophet Muḥammad, 9.

Bābā āghācha, see Pāpā.
Bābā Beg Jalāīr 135.
Bābā Dost, Mīr, 149, 150, 166 (bakhshī) 199.
Bābar Emperor, Firdaus-makānī, 1-28; 57, 83-110; 111,
119, 127n., 134n.; 136n., 138 and n.; 143n., 147,
152n., 161, 163n., 174, 178n., 195 and n.; 203.
Bābar-nāma, see Memoirs.
Bābū āghā 212.

Bachaka khalīfa 30, 136 and n.; 212.

Badāyunī, see 'Abdu-l-qadīr.
Badī'u-l-jamāl (No. 2.), d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī, 97,
107, 118, 119.
Badī'u-l-jamāl, d. of Sa'īd Khān Chaghatāī, 213.
Badī'u-z-zamān Bāyqrā 87, 114n..

Bahādur, son of Qarācha 185.
Bahādur Gujrātī 129, 131, 132.
Bahlūl Lodī 94.
Bahlūl, Shaikh, 30, 134, 137-40.
Bahrām Ṣafawī 169.

Bairām (Maryam), d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 213, 262.
Bairām Bahārlū Khān-i-khānān 38, 53, 57-60; 63, 65, 69,
95n., 160, 165, 166, 175, 176.
Bakhshī-bānū, d. of Humāyūn, 37, 49, 146, 174n., 214.
Bakhshū (Bakhshūī-langa) 147-8.
Bakht-nisā', d. of Humāyūn, 186, 214.
Bakht-sulṭān (No. 4.), d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī, 97, 118,
120, 215.

Bāpūs 177 and n.; 186 and n..

Bāqī kūka, see Muḥammad.
Bāqī Guālīārī 154.

Barandūq Beg 87.
Barbūl, s. of Bābar, 90-1.
Barlās Begam (No. 36.) 121.

Bayasanghar Chaghatāī 85.
Bāyazīd Afghānī 112, 115.
Bāyazīd bīyāt 38, 45, 56, 59, 62, 64, 74 and n.; 76, 78, 93n..

Bāz Bahādur Sūr 60-1.

Bedka, see Rabī'a-sulṭān.

Bega (first name illegible), d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā (No. 79.),
123.
Bega āghā, Bībī, Begī (No. 82.), 123, 193-4; 215.
Bega Begam, d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 215.
Bega Begam and Bībī (? Mubārika) 216.
Bega Begam and Begī (No. 15.), d. of Ulugh Beg Mīrān-
shāhī, 119, 217.
Bega Begam, d. of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī (No. 22.), 120, 217.
Bega Begam, Ḥājī Begam, d. of Yādgār ṭaghāī, wife of
Humāyūn (? No. 50.), 14, 30, 57, 59, 75, 112 and n.;
113, 115, 129 and n.; 130, 131, 134n., 136n., 146n.,
179, 185, 190, 191, 197, 221.
Bega-jān kūka 136.
Bega Kilān Begam (No. 22.) 119 and n., 220.
Bega Sulṭān Begam, d. of Sanjar Marvī, 221.
Bega Sulṭān Begam (No. 13.), d. of Khalīl Mīrān-shāhī, 119
Begam Sulṭān 221
Begam Sulṭān, see Sa'ādat-bakht.
Begī Sulṭān āghācha, w. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 221.

Beveridge, Henry Mr., 59, 78, 83n., 101n., 120n., 132n.,
155n., 173n., 211n..
Bhils 132n..

Biban Afghānī 112 and n.,; 115.
Bihbūd, a mace-bearer, 156.
Bilqīs, Queen of Sheba, 83n..
Bilqīs-makānī 83n..
Bīrbahān Rāja 136..
Birka Termiẕī 45.

Blochmann, Professor, 59, 77, 124n., 126n., 128n., 148n.,
211n., 212, 292n..

Burhān-i-qātī' 138n..
Burns' ‘Travels in Bukhārā’ 110n..
Buw'ā Begam, m. of Ibrāhīm Lodī, 10, 11, 108, 221.

Card games 178 and n..
Calcutta Review, art. Gul-badan Begam; A.S.B. 1n., 74n., 78.

Chaghatāī Khān 1.
Chakr-'alī Kulābī 43, 194n..
Chānd Bībī, w. of Humāyūn, 31, 136.
chaukandī 98 and n..

chīcha, and meaning of, 107 and n.; 115 and n.; 172n.
Chilma Beg kūka 49, 149n..
Chingīz Khān 1, 97, 87n., 197.
Chishtī shrines 75.

chūlī, a sobriquet, 166 and n..
Chūlī (Jūlī) Begam, w. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 222.
Chūpī Bahādur 165n., 168n..

Conolly's Travels 188n..
Connemara, Lady S. G., 121n..

Dalhousie, Lord, 121n..
Danyal, s. of Akbar, 76.
Darbār-i-akbarī of Shamsu-l-ulamā', Muḥammad Ḥusain
āzād 78.
Daulat-bakht āghācha 196.
Daulat-bakht Bībī (No. 85.) 123, 185, 191, 196, 222.
Daulat-kitta 223.
Daulat-nigār Chaghatāī 223.

Dil-dār Begam, ājam (No. 48.), 2, 3, 9, 10, 34, 47, 90, 103,
115, 117 and n.; 122, 129, 131, 139, 140, 143, 150-1;
161 and n.; 162, 178, 182, 185, 225.
Dil-shād Begam, 120, 223.
Dīwāna Beg 137.

Dost Khāwand madārchī 184 and n..
Dostī kūka 177.
Dost munshī 146.

Dūdū Bībī 226.

Erskine, William, Mr., 6 and n.; 10n., 28, 35, 36, 41, 52,
77, 78n., 84n., 86n., 95n., 98n., 107n., 110n., 112n.,
114n., 133n., 134n., 135n., 138n., 140n., 146n., 162n.,
178n., 188n., 203, 301n..

Fakhr-jahān (No. 1), d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī, 19, 97,
118, 120, 186n., 226.
Fakhru-n-nisā, anaga and māmā, 101n., 122, 155n., 185
and n.; 189, 227.
Fakhru-n-nisā', d. of Bābar, 89 and n.; 227.
Fakhru-n-nisā' (No. 61.), d. of Humāyūn, 63, 227.
Faqr-'ali Beg 129, 137-8.
Farrukh-fāl, s. of Humāyūn, 56, 186.
Fārūq., s. of Bābar, 10, 21, 90 and n..
Fatḥ kūka (No. 66.) 122.
Fāṭima āghā 228.
Fāṭima Bāyqrā 228.
Fāṭima Bībī and anaga 40, 50, 65, 122, 180n., 228.
Faṭima, w. of Ḥusain Arghūn, 229.
Fauq Begam (No. 31.) 121, 229.
Faẓā'īl Beg 180.

Firdaus-makānī, see Bābar.
Firishta, historian, 93n..
Fīroza Begam (No. 35.) 121.
Fīroza, w. of Manṣūr Bāyqrā, 229.

Garçin de Tassy 94n..

Gauhar-shād Dughlāt 229.
Gauhar-shād (No. 5.) Mīrān-shāhī 97, 119, 230.
Gauhar-shad Turkomān 229.
Gawārs 132n., 143.

Ghanī, s. of Mu'nim Khān, 63.

Goldie Father's ‘First Christian Mission to the Great
Mughal,’ 75n..

Guest-lists of feasts 118 et seq..
Gūhar, see Gauhar.

Gul Begam (No. 30.) 121, 231.
Gul-badan, d. of Bābar, passim.
Gul-barg Barlās (No. 49.) 37, 111 and n.; 122, 129 and n.;
130n., 131, 159 and n.; 230.
Gul-barg, etc., m. of Salīma Chaquānīānī, 231.

Gul-chihra, d. of Bābar (No. 45.), 3, 24, 31, 44, 57, 90, 106,
111, 115, 122, 143, 178, 200, 231.
Gul-i-stān, Sa'dī, 48.
Gul-'iẓār, d. of Bābar, 90, 290.
Gul-'iẓār, d. of Kāmrān, 70, 74, 230.
Gul-nār āghācha (No. 57.) 70, 122 and n.; 131, 139, 143, 232.
Gul-rang (No. 44.), d. of Bābar, 3, 24, 31, 90, 106, 111, 115,
122, 129, 232.
Gul-rukh, wife of Bābar, 2, 3, 27, 90, 147, 177 and n.; 233.
Gul-rukh, d. of Kāmrān, 67, 234.

Gūnwar, wife of Humāyūn, 145 and n; 235.

Ḥabība, d. of Kāmrān, 31, 177 and n.; 178, 196, 235.
Ḥabība Bībī (No. 41.) 121.
Ḥabība-sulṭān Arghūn (yanga) 107n., 235.
Ḥabība-sulṭān Dughlāt 120 (Khānish); 235.

Ḥaidar Dughlāt, historian, 9, 11, 20, 31-3; 88n., 93n., 97n.,
120 and n.; 142n., 143n., 146.
Ḥaidar Muḥammad atka-begī 166.
Ḥaidar Qāsim Kohbur 63.

Haig, General Malcolm R., 149n.

Ḥājī Begam, d. of Kāmrān, 70, 177 and n.; 236. See
'Āyisha.
Ḥājī Begam 236. See Bega Begam.
Ḥājī Begam 236. See Māh-chūchak Arghūn.

Ḥamīda-bānū, Maryam-makānī, m. of Akbar, 34-5; 39, 41,
57-9; 62, 65, 67, 75-7; 85n., 145 and n.; 149-151;
154, 157, 158n., 165-6; 169-173; 175, 179, 185, 190,
191, 197, 237 et seq..
Ḥamīda-bānū 236.
Hamilton, G. W., collection B.M. MSS., 78.

Ḥanīfa Bega (No. 42.) 122.
Hanna, Colonel (MS.), 59, 101n..
Hansard, G. Agar, ‘Book of Archery,’ 121n..

Ḥaram (Khurram) Begam Qibchāq 15, 38, 42, 44-5; 47-8;
50-1; 56, 63-5; 175n., 177, 193 and n.; 194n., 195
and n.; 242.
Ḥasan-'alī īshāq-āghā 166-7.
Ḥasan Naqshbandī 186n..
Hazāra Begam, wife of Kāmrān, 177 and n.; 242.

Hīmū 57, 58.

Hindāl (Abū'n-nāṣir Muḥammad), s. of Bābar, 3, 9, 15-6;
23, 25, 26n., 29, 30, 32-4; 36, 38, 40-1; 48, 51, 77, 90,
92 and n.; 106 and n.; 110, 116 and n.; 117-8; 121,
126, 134 and n.; 135, 137, 138 and n.; 139, 140 and n.;
143, 149, 150, 151 and n.; 152n., 160, 161 and n.; 162,
168n., 175n., 176, 179, 182-3; 186-7; 192-3; 195,
196 et seq. and n..
Hindū Beg 122.

Hughes' ‘Dictionary of Islām,’ 72, 105n..

Humāyūn, Emperor, Jannat-āshyānī 2, 4-6; 8, 11n., 12-4;
16-7; 23-5; 28-57; 62, 66, 74, 83, 90-2; 96, 103-201
passim.
Humāyūn-nāma, Bayazīd bīyāt, q.v.
Humāyūn-nāma, Gul-badan Begam, 51, 76, 79, 82 (Persian
titles).
Humāyūn-nāma, Jauhar, q.v..
Humāyūn-nāma, Khwānd-amīr, 117n., 118n..

Ḥusain Arghūn, see Shāh.
Ḥusain Bāyqrā 30, 45, 71, 84 and n.; 86-7; 88 and n.;
100, 114n., 119, 120 and n.; 136, 160, 169.
Ḥusain tukriya 74.
Ḥusn-nigār Khānam 243.

Ibrāhīm Mīrān-shāhī, s. of Ḥaram Begam, 38, 44, 47-51;
56, 64, 175n., 193-5.
Ibrāhīm, s. of Humāyūn, 186.
Ibrāhīm (Abū'l-qāsim), s. of Kāmrān, 177, 194.
Ibrāhīm, īshāq-āghā, 165.
Ibrāhīm Lodī 6, 10, 94-5; 98, 108 and n..

Ilāhī, name of a ship, 72.
Ilminsky's imprint of Bābar's Memoirs 10, 104n., 105n.,
116n., 120n..

'Isa (Jesus) 104.
'Isa Tarkhān Arghūn 52, 66.
Isān-daulat (Ais), g.m. of Bābar, 68, 87n., 243 et seq..
Isān-daulat, d. of Bābar, 90.
Isān (Ishān)-tīmūr Chaghatāī 106 and n.; 155 and n.; 156.

Ismā'īl Shāh 90-1.

Ja'far, s. of Muḥammad Mahdī, 13, 126.

Jahān (Jān or Khān)-sulṭān,? d. of Humāyūn 121, 184, 245.
Jahāngīr, half-brother of Bābar, 91n..
Jahāngīr, Emperor (Salīm, q.v.).
Jahāngīr Beg Qūchīn 133-4.

Jalāl, s. of Shīr Khān, 133, 142n..
Jalālu-d-dīn ('Alāwulu-d-dīn) Maḥmūd mīr sāmān 50, 168
and n..
Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar, see Akbar.

Jamāl āghā 245.

Jān-sulṭān (No. 32.), see Jahān.
Jānakī, Khānakī and Jangī, sobriquets, 85n..
Jānī Beg Uzbeg 191n..
Jannat-āshyānī, see Humāyūn.

Jarrett, Col. H. S.; Āīn-i-akbarī 183n..

Jauhar aftābchī and his Humāyūn-nāma 29, 45-6; 76, 126n.,
133n., 134n., 150n., 154 and n..

Jesus, see 'Isā.

Jī-jī anaga 61, 142n., 166n..

Jūjūk Bābā (? 'Abdu-l-wahab) 163 and n.; 164.
Jūkī Khān 183.

Jūkī kūka 177.
Jūlī, see Chūlī.
Junaid Barlās 18, 26n., 101n..

Kabīr Khwāja 115.
Kābulī Māham (No. 81.) 123.
Kābulī (No. 87.) 123.

Kāmrān, s. of Bābar, 2, 4-5; 14, 16-7; 23, 27, 29, 31-6;
38-49; 51, 54, 70, 90-1; 93, 118n., 137-8; 140-2;
145 and n.; 146-7; 149, 152n., 160-4; 167, 168n.,
172n., 174-8, 180-4; 186-7; 191, 193-7; 200-1.

Kanūn-i-humāyūn, Khwānd-amīr, 78.
Karīmu-l-lāh 105 and n..
Kasak, see Kīsīk.
Katak, see Qūtūq.
Kawāras, see Gawārs.

Kehr's MS. of Bābar's Memoirs 10, 19, 104n., 105n..

Khadang (Khazang) yasāwal 112, 160 and n..
Khadīja Begam, w. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā 246.
Khadīja-sulṭān, d. of Aḥmad Chaghatāī, 247.
Khadīja-sulṭān (No. 6.), d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī 19, 97,
119, 247.

Khāfī Khān, historian, 93n..
Khāl-dār anaga 248.
Khālid Barlās 159 and n..
khalīfa, a woman-servant, 136n..
Khalīfa, see Niẓāmu-d-dīn Barlās.
Khalīl Mīrān-shāhī 119.

Khān (Jān, Jahān) (No. 32.) 121, 245.
Khānam, see Muḥtarima.
Khānam āghā Marwārīd (No. 75.) 123.
Khānam āghā (No. 83.) 123.
Khānam (No. 18.), d. of Aq Begam, 119, 248.
Khānish āghā Khwārizmī, wife of Humāyūn, 56, 185-6; 189,
248.
Khānish, see Ḥabība Dughlāt.

Khān Sulṭān Dughlāt 248.
Khān-zāda (No. 16.). d. of Mas'ūd Bāyqrā 119, 249.
Khān-zāda (ākā-jānam), d. of 'Umar Shaikh, 13, 18, 22, 34,
37, 38 and n.; 39, 47, 85, 103, 106 and n.; 107 n.,
109 and n.; 117-8; 125-8; 160 and n.; 161, 174, 175
and n.; 176, 250-1.
Khān-zāda, d. of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 251.
Khān-zāda Termiẕī, wife of Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī, 252.
Khān-zāda Termiẕī (a), wife of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 252.
Khān-zāda Termiẕī (b), wife of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 252.
Khān-zāda Khānam, wife of Muẓaffar Bāyqrā, 252.

Khawāṣ Khān 133, 134, 142n., 147 and n..
Khazīna'u-l-asfiyā 144n..

Khirad-afza, a book, 76.

Khiẓr Khwāja Chaghatāī, husband of Gul-badan, 31-2; 35-6;
38, 45, 51, 58, 70, 106n., 142n., 182, 185n., 192, 199.
Khiẓr Khān Hazāra 38, 177-8.

Khūb-nigār, d. of Yūnas Chaghatāī, 88n., 89, 253.
Khurāsān Khān (Muqīm) 129 and n..
Khurram, see Ḥaram.
Khurshīd kūkas (No. 55. and 64.) 122, 253.
Khusrau Shāh 85 and n.; 86 and n..
Khusrau kūkaltāsh 134 and n.; 137.
khuṭba 84n..

khwāja, meaning of, 94n..
Khwāja Ghāzī 144, 156, 158n., 162-3; 164 and n.; 166
and n.; 171-4.
Khwāja Kilān, Bābar's friend, 7, 8, 11n., 15, 17, 94, 96,
146 and n..
Khwānd-amīr, historian, 78, 103n., 117n., 118n., 126n.,
200n..

Kīchak (Kīsak), d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 253.
Kīchak (No. 23.), d. of Alā'u-l-mulk Termiẕī, 120, 253.
Kīchak māham (No. 80.) 123, 254.
Kīchakna Begam (No. 25.) 120.

Kilān Khān Begam 119, 254.
Kīsīk (Kasak) Khwāja 35, 162 and n.; 164, 166.

Kōh-i-nūr diamond 14, 105n., 173n..

Lād-malik Turkomān 254.
Lāl-shād, d. of Aḥmad Chaghatāī, 254.
Lār 151.

Laṭif, wife of Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī, 255.
Laṭīf, d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī, 85n..
Laṭīfa-sulṭān āghācha, wife of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 255.

Le Strange and Haggard, Messrs., 126n..
Lyall, C. J., Sir, 147n..

Ma'āsir-i-raḥīmī 95n..
Madār, a saint, 184 and n..

Māh Begam, Qibchāq, wife of Kāmrān 177 and n.; 194n.,
258.

Māham anaga 47, 58-61; 62 and n.; 101n., 155n., 166n.,
177n., 183n..
Māham Begam (ākām), wife of Bābar, 2-6; 8-10; 20-1; 23,
27-9; 88n., 89, 90, 92n., 93 and n.; 97, 100-4; 111-5;
116 and n.; 117-8; 145n., 255.
Māham Begam (No. 14.) 119 and n..
Māham Kābulī 123.
Māham, d. of Aḥmad Chaghatāī, 258.
Māham's nancha 101 and n.; 107, 122.

Māh-chachaq khalīfa 258.
Māh-chūchak Arghūn, wife of Qāsim kūkaltāsh, 36-7; 52,
66, 86n., 259.
Māh-chūchak Arghūn, wife of Kāmrān, 49, 66, 70, 149
and n., 259.
Māh-chūchak, wife of Humāyūn, 40, 56, 62, 63, 180n.,
185-6; 189, 190-1; 197, 290.

Mahdī Chaghatāī 31-2; 182 and n..
Mahdī, husband of Khān-zāda Begam, see Muḥammad.
Mahdī, father of 'Adil Sulṭān Uzbeg, 300.
Mahdī Mīr Shirāzī, author of the Taẕkiratu-l-khwātīn, 76.

Māh-līqa kūka (No. 68.) 128.

Maḥmūd King of Bengal, 133 and n..
Maḥmūd Bhakkarī 53n., 54, 66, 148 and n.; 151.

Maḥmūd Chaghatāī 85 and n.; 97, 119.
Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī 45, 88n., 120n..
Maḥmūd sarbān-bāshī 163, 164.

Makhāzinu-l-adwiya 188n..

Makhdūma āghā 122, 260.
Makhdūma Begam, wife of 'Umar Shaikh, 260.
Makhdūma-jahān 261.
Makhdūma, wife of Sa'īd Khān Chaghatāī, 261.
Makhdūma, d. of Shīr 'Alī Chaghatāī, 261.
Makhdūma-sulṭān, d. of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 261.

makhfī, nom de plume, 262.

Māl-deo Rāja 153 and n.; 154-6.
Malika-jahān 262.

māmā 101 and n..

Manṣūr Yūsufzai 91.

Marriage feast of Hindāl 117-8; 121-3, 126 et seq..

Mary, the Virgin, 104.
Maryam, see Bairām.
Maryam-makānī, see Ḥamīda-bānū.

Mas'ūd, s. of Aiman Chaghatāī, 31-2.
Mas'ud Mīrān-shāhī 85, 119.
Ma'ṣūm Mīr, historian, 37.
Ma'ṣuma-sulṭān, d. of Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī, 3, 90, 107, 262.
Ma'ṣuma-sulṭān (No. 43.), d. of Bābar, 30, 90-1; 111, 114n.,
115 and n.; 122, 129, 130, 262.

Maywa-jān, wife of Humāyūn, 112-3; 131.

Memoirs of Bābar (all texts) 2, 4, 6 and n.; 10n., 11n., 13,
14, 17, 18n., 19n., 20, 21 and n.; 22, 25 and n.; 45,
68n., 83 and n., 84n., 85n., 93n., 103 and n., 104n.,
107n., 116n., 117n., 147n, 234n., 251.

Mihr-angez (No. 29.), d. of Muẓaffar Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 120,
263.
Mihr-bānū Khānam 263.

Mihr-bānū (or līq), d. of 'Umar Shaikh, 18n., 120.
Mihr-jahān or jān, d. of Bābar, 90, 91, 264.
Mihr-līq, see Mihr-bānū.
Mihr-nigār, d. of Yūnas Chaghatāī, 264.

Minglī-bī āghācha, wife of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 265.
Ming-līk kūkaltāsh 266.

Mīrak Beg 135.
Mīrān-shāh, s. of Tīmūr, 1.
Mīr Bardī 106.
Mīr Khūrd 106 and n..
mīr sāmān, a title, 50n..
Mīrzā Ḥājī 182.
Mīrzā Khān, see Wais.
Mīr Zaycha (astrologer) 115 and n..

Mu'aẓẓam Khwāja 65, 66, 149 and n.; 157, 165-6; 172-3;
180n., 181 and n.; 185 and n..
Mubārika, see Afghānī āghācha.
Mubāriz Khān 186.
Mughal Beg 135.
Mughal Khānam, see 'Ayisha.

Muḥammad, the Prophet, 9.
Muḥammad 'Alī 'asas ṭaghāi 28, 39, 40, 96n., 110 and n.,
181 and n..
Muḥammad akhta-begī 153.
Muḥammad Bāqī kūka 59, 71, 177 and n..
Muḥammad Bāqī Tarkhān 66-7.
Muḥammad Bāyqrā 19, 114 and n.; 134 and n., 137.
Muḥammad Farghārī (Parghālī) 104, 125.
Muḥammad gird-bāz 154 and n..
Muḥammad Ḥakīm, s. of Humāyūn, 50, 56, 62-5; 186.
Muḥammad Ḥusain Dughlāt 88 and n., 89.
Muḥammad kūka, Ḥajī, 41, 44, 46, 114 and n.; 122 (Muḥam-
madī); 166, 168 and n.; 195n..
Muḥammad Mahdī, husband of Khān-zāda Begam, 13, 18,
25 and n.; 26 and n.; 126 and n.; 128 and n.; 160n.,
175n., Appendix B. 298 et seq..
Muḥammad qarāwāl 46.
Muḥammad Muqīm Arghūn 36, 86.
Muḥammad Muqīm Harāwī 24, 153n., 298.
Muḥammad naza-bāz 172 n..
Muḥammad Sayyid 201.

Muḥammad Shaibānī, see Shāhī.
Muḥammad Sharīf (astrologer) 98 and n.; 100n..
Muḥammad Uzbeg 60, 191 and n., 192.
Muḥammad Walī 155, 160.
Muḥammad-yār, grandson of Gul-badan 76.
Muḥammad-zamān Bāyqrā 19, 114 and n.; 115n..

Muḥibb-'ālī Barlās 37, 66, 67.
Muḥibb-sulṭān, d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 267.
Muhibb-sulṭān (No. 20.), d. of Aḥmad Chaghatāī 97, 119, 267.

Muḥtarima (or Muhtarīma) Khānam Chaghatāī 51, 64-5;
175, 194, 267.
Mujāhīd Barlās 67.

Munauwar-sulṭān, d. of Ḥusain, Bāyqrā, 268.
Mu'nīm Khān 42, 56, 60-4, 70, 155 and n.; 156, 159, 180.

Murād, s. of Akbar, 71, 75-6.
Murād, Sulṭān of Rūm, 74.

Muṣāḥib Khān 186.
Mū'yid Beg Barlās 122, 135n., 146 and n..
Muẓaffar Turkomān 144, 159.

Mystic Feast (tūī ṭilism) 114n., 118 and n.; 119-121.

Nadīm kūka, husband of Māham anaga, 59, 60n., 101n., 122,
155 and n.; 156, 160, 166, 183n., 185n..
Nādir Shāh's thumb-ring 121n..
Nahīd Begam (No. 54.) 37, 66-7; 86, 122, 268.
Nai (Walī)-khūb Bāyqrā 114 and n..
nanacha of Māham 101 and n.; 107, 122.
Nār-gul āghācha (No. 58.) 122, 139, 143, 269.
Nār-sulṭān āghā (No. 77.) 123, 269.
Naṣīb āghā (No. 86.) 123.
Nāṣir, half-brother of Bābar, 91 and n..
Naukār 115 and n.; 181 and n..

Neka Bībī (No. 74.) 123.

Nīāzī Khwāja 166.
Nigār āghā (No. 76.) 123, 269.

Niẓām, water-carrier, 140.
Niẓāmu-d-dīn Aḥmad, historian, 24-5; 66-7; 153n., 166n.,
179n., 185n., 195n., 196n..
Niẓāmu-d-dīn-'alī Barlās Khalīfa 18, 23 et seq.; 26n., 27,
37, 66, 101 and n.; 102.
Nizhād-sulṭān, d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 269.

Noer, Friedrich von., Kaisar Akbar, 94n..

Nūr Beg 138.
Nūru-d-dīn Muḥammad Chaqānīānī 30, 134 and n. (Sayyid
Amīr); 135 and n.; 137.

Pāpā (Bābā) āghācha 269.
Parsād Rānā 157 and n., 158.
Pāshā Begam Bihārlū 270.
Pavet de Courteille's trs. of Bābar's Memoirs 104n., 105n.,
107n., 116n., 120n..
Payānda-muḥammad Mīr 155, 160.
Payānda-sulṭān, d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī, 84n., 119 (here
called Muḥammad also).

Pilgrimage rites 72 et seq..

Qadīr Qālmāq 271.
Qambar Beg 182.

Qarā-gūz, d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 271.
Qarā-gūz, see Makhdūma, w. of 'Umar Shaikh.
Qarā-gūz, see Rabī 'a, d. of Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī.
Qarācha Khān 48, 151n., 160, 180n., 185, 186n., 196 and n..

Qāsim, architect, 97.
Qāsim, kūkaltāsh, 36-7, 66.
Qāsim Qūchīn 87 and n., 88, 92 and n..
Qāsim Ḥusain Uzbeg 19, 30, 100 and n.; 132 and n.; 135.

Quatremère's Notices et Extraits 102, 127n..
Qūch Beg 183n..

Qulī Beg chūlī 166, 188, 189.
Qulī Sulṭān sarbān-bāshī 163.
Qulīj Khān Andijānī 71-2.
Qūshka Bābā 168n..
Qūtūq (Katak) āghācha 271.
Qūt-līq (Qutluq), d. of Maḥmūd Chaghatāī 272.
Qūt-līq-nigār, mother of Bābar, 31, 85n., 86 and n.; 272.

Rabī'a-sulṭān (Bedka), sister of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 215, 272.
Rabī'a-sulṭān (Qarā-gūz), d. of Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī, 274.
Rabī'a-sulṭān (No. 67.) kūka of Humāyūn 122.

Rajab-sulṭān, d. of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 274.
Rānā, see Māldeo, Parsād and Sangā.
Rānī of Guālīār 14.

Raushan kūka 122, 154n., 155-6; 160, 166, 172-3.
Raushang tūshakchī 153.
Raverty's ‘Afghān Dictionary’ 110n..

Rieu, Dr., 77-9.
rīwāj, a plant, 43, 188 and n., 189, 190.

Roebuck's Persian Proverbs 108n..
Rosen, Dr. Fritz, 127n..
Royal Asiatic Society's Journal, art. Notes on Turkī texts of
the Bābar-nāma, 6, 104n..

Rudolf Acquaviva, Father, 71, 75.
Rūhrī (Lūhrī) 148n., 151n., 153n..
Rūmī Khān of Aleppo 71.
Rūp-matī 60-1.

Ruqaiya, d. of Hindāl, 51, 76, 274.
Ruqaiya-sulṭān, d. of 'Umar Shaikh, 18n., 275.

Sa'ādat-bakht, d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 275.
Sa'ādat-sulṭān āghā (No. 84.) 123.
Sa'ādat-yār, s. of Gul-badan, 36, 70, 197, 199.

Safīya Bībī 70.

Ṣāḥib-daulat Dughlāt 275.
Ṣāḥib-qīrān, see Tīmūr.
Sakīna (No. 40.) 121.
Sakīna-bānū, d. of Humāyūn, 186, 275.

Sālḥa-sulṭān, see Salīma Chaqānīānī.
Salīm, s. of Akbar, 71, 75-6; 105n..
Salīm Shāh, s. of Shīr Khān, 48, 200.
Salīma, d. of Khiẓr Chaghatāī, 70, 280.
Salīma Bega (No. 73.) 128.
Salīma-sulṭān Chaqānīānī (? No. 39.) 57, 58 and n.; 69, 76,
121, 135n., 276-9; 281.
Salīmī, name of a ship, 71.
Salīqa-sulṭān (Āq Begam), d. of Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī, 118n.,
280.
Sām Mīrzā Ṣafāwī 169.
Samandar Mīr 148.
Sambal, water-carrier, 140.
Sambal 166.
Samīcha, a tribe, 158.
Sāmiḥa Barlās 67, 280.
Sangā Rānā of Udaipūr 12, 98 and n.; 100.
sara-pārda, invention of, 95n., 170.
Sarv-qad (Sarvi-sahī) 70, 189, 282.

Shād (No. 28.), d. of Ḥaidar Bāyqrā, 120 and n.; 282.
Shād Bībī, wife of Humāyūn, 137.
Shāham āgha 70, 189, 282.
Shāham Jalāīr 153, 159.
Shāh Beg Arghūn 93n..
Shāh Begam Badakhshī 283-4.
Shāh Begam Termiẕī (No. 24.) 120, 284.
Shāh Khānam (No. 17.) 119, 285.
Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn and Samandar 36-7; 40, 52, 66, 93n.,
123, 151n., 148 and n.; 152-3; 157-60; 162-4; 168n.,
196 and n..
Shāhī Beg Khān (Muḥammad Shaibānī) 37, 84 and n.; 85
and n.; 90 and n..
Shāh Mīrzā Bāyqrā 115, 134 and n..
Shahr-bānū, d. of Abū-sa'īd Mīrān-shāhī, 45, 84n., 285.
Shahr-bānū (No. 7.), d. of 'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī, 18,
83n., 101n., 119, 285.
Shāh-rukh, s. of Bābar, 90.
Shāh-rukh, s. of Ibrāhīm Mīrān-shāhī, 65.

Shāh-sulṭān, m. of 'Umar Shaikh, 286.
Shāh-zāda Ṣafāwī 169 and n.; 170-1; 286.
Shāh-zāda, d. of Sulaimān and Ḥaram, 50, 287.
Shaibānī, see Shāhī Beg.
Shamsu-d-dīn Muḥammad atka 61-2; 142., 154, 166n..
Shamsu-l-ulamā' Muḥammad Ḥusain āzād, author, 78.
Sharīfu-n-nisā' kūka (No. 65.) 122.
Shaw, Robert, 94n., 101n., 107n..

Sheba, Queen of (Bilqīs) 83n..

Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad Nīshapūrī 58.
Shīr-afkan 182 and n..
Shīrak, a courier, 21.
Shīr-'alī 182.
Shīroya 183.
Shīr Shāh (Khān) 14, 29, 30-1; 33, 54, 133-7; 140-1;
144-6; 154, 168n., 200.

Sīdī-'alī Reis 52-3; 56, 66, 148n..
Sikandar Lodi 57-8; 94.

Slaves 75, 128 and n., 129.

South Kensington Museum 100n., 114n., 124n., 128n.,
169n., 193n..

Stewart's trs. of Jauhar's Humāyūn-nāma 133n., 140n., 174.
Steingass' Persian Dictionary 95n., 101n., 127n., 128n.,
238n..

Subḥān Qulī 150-1.
Sūdma (Sodha), a tribe, 158.
Sulaimān Sulṭān of Rūm 52.
Sulaimān Mīrān-shāhī 18, 24, 38, 42, 44, 47-8; 51, 56-7;
63-5; 92, 175n., 180 and n.; 181, 186-7; 191, 193-5.
Sulṭān Khwāja, mīr ḥaj, 69, 72.
Sulṭān-nigār, d. of Yūnas Chaghatāī, 88n., 92n., 290.
Sulṭānam, wife of 'Askarī, 47, 69, 166.
Sulṭānam, wife of Hindāl, 26n., 38, 126, 143n..
Sulṭānam (No. 52.), wife of Khalīfa, 37 and n.; 101 and n.;
102, 122, 159 and n.; 290.
Sulṭānam, d. of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 287-8.
Sulṭānī and Sulṭānam (No. 12.), d. of Aḥmad Mīrān-shāhī,
119 and n.; 289.
Surkh Mullā 154.

Ṭabaqāt-i-akbarī 24, 58, 60, 188n..
ṭaghāi 85n., 233n..
Ṭāhir aftābchī 103.
Ṭahmāsp Shāh 37, 70, 168-71; 173-4.

Tāju-d-dīn Mullā 159.
Tambol (Aḥmad) 195n..
Tardī Muḥammad Mīr 129, 154 and n.; 156-60; 165, 185.
Tārīkh-i-Humāyūn, see Bāyazīd bīyāt.
Tārīkh-i-rashīdī, text and trs. E. & R., 6, 20, 128n..
Tarkhān Begam 292.
Tarkhān Begam and Begī 44, 193 and n.; 292.
Tarsh, see Alūsh.
Tarsūn-sulṭān, see Yūn.

Taẕkiratu-l-khwātīn 76.

thumb-ring (zih-gīr) 120 and n.; 121n..
Tīmūr (Ṣāḥib-qīrānī) 1, 57, 84 and n.; 97.
tipūchāq (horse) 101 and n..
titles (Persian) of Gul-badan's Humāyūn-nāma 82.

Tūkhta-būghā Chaghatāī 106 and n., 115.
tūqūz, a king's gift, 101n..
tūra, Rules of Chingīz Khān, 87 and n.; 187 and n.; 197.
tūr-khāna, meaning of, 103 and n..
Turkī dynasty of India 2.
Turkī texts of Bābar's Memoirs 6n., 104n..
Tūzūk-i-bābarī, see Memoirs.
Tūzūk-i-jahāngīrī 188n..

'Ubaidu-l-lāh Uzbeg 91 and n..
Ulugh Beg Kābulī 86 and n.; 113 and n.; 119.
Ulugh Begam (No. 10.) 119, 293.
Ulugh Mīrzā Bāyqrā 115, 134 and n..
Ūlūs (Anūsh, Alūsh) āgha (? No. 53.) 122, 206, 293.
'Umar Shaikh Mīrān-shāhī 18 and n..
Umīd Andijānī, w. of 'Umar Shaikh, 293.
Umm-kulṯūm, g.d. of Gul-badan, 70, 293.
Ūzūn-sulṭān Chaghatāī 294.

Vambéry's Sīdī-'alī Reis, etc., 52n., 53n., 101n., 107n., 128n..
Vazīr of Lonkurān; Le Strange and Haggard 126n..

Wais Sulṭān, Mīrzā Khān, 88 and n.; 89, 92 and n..
Wais Qibchāq Kulābī 15, 194n..
walīyu-n-ni'matān 35, 95 and n.; 115 and n.; 125, 131.

Yādgār (No. 8.), d. of 'Umar Shaikh, 18, 119, 121, 294.
Yādgār ṭaghāī 114, 155 and n.; 156, 160.
Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrān-shāhī 19, 33, 38-9; 132 and n.; 133
and n.; 137, 143, 149n., 151 and n.; 152 and n.; 153
and n.; 175n., 176, 179, 181.
Yahyā Khwāja, mīr ḥaj, 69, 74.
yangā, meaning of, 107n..
Ya'qūb qūr-begī 166.
yasāwal, meaning of, 112n..
Yasīn-daulat (Āq Sulṭān) Chaghatāī 31, 45, 118n., 142n.,
177n., 178, 196.
yazna, meaning of, 126, 128n..

Yūn (Tarsūn)-sulṭān, wife of 'Umar Shaikh, 294.
Yūnas Khān Chaghatāī 31, 68.
Yūsuf Shaikh chūlī 166.

Zahīd Beg 40, 134n., 137, 180 and n..
Ẓahru-d-dīn Muḥammad, see Bābar.
Zainab-sulṭān, d. of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 3, 295.
Zainab-sulṭān (No. 19), d. of Maḥmūd Chaghatāī, 97, 119,
295.
Zainab-sulṭān, mother of Ulugh Begam, 119, 295.
Zainab-sulṭān Begam 107n., 296.
Ẓarīf, a reciter, 189.
zhinda-fīl. see Aḥmad Jāmī.
zih-gīr (thumb-ring) 120 and n.; 121n..

Zobaida āghācha, wife of Ḥusain Bāyqrā, 296.

Zuhra, wife of Khwāja Mu aẓẓam, 40, 65, 66, 180n..
Zuhra Begī Uzbeg, wife of Maḥmūd Mīrān-shāhī, 297.
Ẕū'l-nūn Arghūn 86-7.

Aden 74, 75.
Afghānistān 1.
Agra 3, 15, 19; 21-3; 26-8; 30-2; 35, 40; 69-71; 74;
96-8; 100, 102, 103, 112; 115-7; 133; 135-6; 138,
141-2.
Aḥmadābād 71, 132, 133.
Ajmīr 75.
Alwar 3, 138, 140, 142, 143n., 154.
Andar-āb 47, 162, 181, 194.
Andijān 84.
Arabia 7, 72, 74.
Araīl 135 and n..
Ardabīl 169n.; its Holy Carpet 169n..
Argand-āb 175n..
Arrah 21.

Bābā Dashtī 177 and n.; 183.
Bābā Ḥājī 168 and n..
Badakhshān 1, 5, 14-5; 23-4; 27, 33, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49,
50, 57, 63-5; 85, 91-2; 93n., 147, 162, 168n., 176n.,
180n., 185, 186, 188, 195.
Bādpaj 196n..

Bāgh-i-āyina 158.
Bāgh-i-arām 27, 110n..
Bāghcha 101.
Bāgh-i-chahār-dīwār 65.
Bāgh-i-dil-kushā 188.
Bāgh-ī-dīwān-khāna, 8, 95, 96, 179.
Bāgh-i-Dost-munshī 146.
Bāgh-i-gul-afshān 138 and n..
Bāgh-i-guẓar-gāh 177 and n..

Bāgh-i-khilwat 287.
Bāgh-i-Khwāja Ghāzī 144.
Bāgh-i-nau-rozī 86, 177.
Bāgh-i-orta 186 and n..
Bāgh-i-qarā (Qarā-Bāgh) 196.
Bāgh-i-ṣafā 21.
Bāgh-i-wafā 4.
Bāgh-i-zar-afshān 103, 108, 129, 131.
Bāgh (Chār) of Rūhrī 148n.
Bahrūch 132.
Bajaur 1, 9, 90n., 91 and n.; 92-3.
Bālā-i-ḥiṣār 178, 180, 184.
Balkh 43, 44, 188, 191, 194.
Bangash 86.
Baroda 132.
Bayāna 110, 114, 129.
Benares 133.
Bengal 29, 40.
Bhakkar 147-8; 151-3; 157-8; 160, 162, 178-81; 196.
Bhīra 90-3; 200.
Biah River 33.
Bibi Māh-rūī 89.
Bībī Ḥāj-tāj 144 and n..
Bihẓādī 191.
Bikānīr 154.
Bolan Pass 165n..
Bukhārā 21n., 110n., 192n..
But-khāk 20.

Champānīr 131, 132 and n..
Chanāb 21, 33.
Chanāda (Chunār) 112 and n.; 113, 132, 135.
Chārīkārān 195n., 196.
Chausa 14, 29, 30-2; 37, 114n., 135n., 136, 140, 142n., 179,
183n..
Colgong (Kohlgānū) 134.

Damascus 49.
Dāman-i-koh, see Koh-dāman.
Darbīla 149n..
Dholpūr 22, 98, 102, 104, 116.
Dīh-i-afghānān 183.
Dīh-i-ya 'qūb 3, 93, 183n..

Dihlī 13, 26, 28, 53-5; 57-9; 74, 78-9; 104, 106, 117,
137-8; 145n..
Dilāwar (Dirāwal) 153.
Dīnpanā 117 and n..
Dīpālpūr 93.

Etāwa 13.

Farghāna 1, 26, 84, 86n..
Farza 44, 191.
Fatḥpūr-sīkrī 12, 22, 27, 32, 67, 70, 71, 75, 98n., 100 and n..

Ganges 135, 141-2.
Gardens, see Bāgh.
Garhī 133, 134.
Garm-sīr 168 and n..
Gaur-bangāla 30, 112, 133, 134, 138.
Ghāzīpūr 21.
Ghāznī and Ghāznīn 23, 39, 40, 160, 162, 168n., 180.
Ghūrband 63-4; 88.
Goa, 75.
Goganda 71.
Guālīār 66, 115-7.
Gujrāt 29, 67, 129, 131, 132, 148, 160.
Gul-bihār 41.
Guẓar-gāh 177 and n..

Ḥāj-kān 159, 160.
Ḥājīpūr-Patna 135.
Ḥāj-tāj Bībī 144 and n..
Halmand 165, 169, 175n..
Harāt 88n., 134n., 169n..
Hill of the Seven Brothers 179.
Ḥimār (Khimār) Pass 177 and n.; 196.
Hind, see Hindūstān.
Hindū-kūsh 27.
Hindūstān (Hind and India) 2, 4, 6-8; 10, 12, 16-7; 19,
20, 23-4; 26-8; 31, 49, 51-4; 56, 58, 63, 67-9; 75,
90n., 91-5; 97, 100, 109, 111, 115, 144, 170.
Ḥiṣār-fīroza 6.
Hyderābād 149n..

Idar 72.
India, see Hindūstān.
Indus (Nil-āb) 3, 18, 21, 64, 147n., 149n..
'Irāq (Persia) 7, 35, 39, 43, 57, 72, 169, 174, 176.
Ishkāmish 187 n..
Istālīf 44, 191.

Jagdalik 20.
Jāj-kān, see Ḥāj-kān.
Jalālābād 20, 51-2; 63, 191, 199 and n..
Jalindhar 57.
Jām 169n..
Jamna 136.
Jannatābād 134 and n..
Jaunpūr 135.
Jehlam 33-5.
Jharkand (Parkanda) 133.
Jīsalmīr 153.
Jodhpūr 153n., 154.
Jūn 158-9.

Kābul, passim.
Kalinjar 105.
Kalpī 136.
Kanauj 29, 32, 137, 141, 142n., 179.
Kanmbāyat (Cambay) 132.
Karra 136.
Kāshghar 31, 65, 85.
Kāshmīr 33, 146.
Khaibar Pass 21, 56.
Khānwa 12, 75, 98n..
Khimār, see Ḥimār.
Khishm 40, 180 and n.; 187 and n..
Khiẓr Khwāja 185n..
Khost 3, 90, 93n., 98n., 162, 194.
Khurāsān 3, 85-8; 100, 168 and n.; 169, 170, 174, 176.
Khūsh-āb 34, 200.
Khutlān 168n..
Kilānūr 55.
Kōh-dāman 43, 189, 190.
Kohl-gānū, see Colgong.
Kūl-jalālī 98, 100.
Kūl-malik 91 and n..

Kulāb 42-4; 186, 193, 194 and n..
Kunduz 1, 85, 186, 192.

Laghmān and Lamghānāt 70, 162, 189, 191, 196.
Lāhōr 28-9; 31-3; 52-5; 57-8; 65, 93, 106, 141-2; 144,
146, 158, 187.
Lakhnau (Lucknow) 78, 140-1.
Lār 151.

Makka 37n., 41, 49, 52, 69, 73, 149n., 159, 172n., 196.
Mālwa 60.
Mandrūd 196n..
Mandsūr 131.
Mandū 98.
Mankōt 57.
Mārwār 153n..
Mastān Bridge 183.
Mathura (Muttra) 104.
Māwarā'u-n-nahr (Transoxiana), 84, 91.
Meānī 149n..
Merv 38, 90n..
Milwat 5.
Minār Hill 88, 182.
Multān 15, 34, 147.
Mungīr 135.
Murgh-āb 88n..

Nagōr 154.
Naugrām 101 and n.; 103.
Nīl-āb, see Indus.
Nuāsī 163 and n..

Oude 79, 115, 135.
Oxus 23, 26, 27.

Pahlūdī 153.
Pānīpat 6, 15, 57, 94 and n.; 179n..
Panj-āb 29, 33, 34.
Pāt (Pātr) 149n., 151.
Patan 132.
Patna 135.

Persia, see 'Irāq.
Peshāwar 52, 55-6.
Pind-dādan Khān 21.

Qabal-hak 175 and n..
Qandahār 1, 3, 4, 35-9; 62, 86, 93, 149, 151 and n.; 160-3,
165, 167, 168n., 174-6, 179, 186, 196.
Qarā-bāgh 196.
Qibchāq Defile 45, 48, 194-5; 201.
Qila'-i-ẓafar (Fort Victory) 64, 180 and n.; 181, 186, 193.
Qilāt 93.
Quetta, see Shāl.

Ralī 165.
Rāprī 98.
Ravī 33, 144.
Rohtās 201.

Samandar (Sind) 148 and n..
Samarqand 21, 26, 31, 84 and n.; 87, 91, 136n..
Sambhal 24, 98.
Sarāngpūr 60-1.
Sehwān 149n., 151-2.
Sewalīks 57.
Shāhābād 6.
Shāhdān 180n..
Shal-mastān (Quetta) 36, 38-9; 47, 165 and n..
Shīr-mandel 54.
Sīālkūt 93, 146.
Sikundra 22.
Sīkrī, see Fatḥpūr.
Sind 26n., 34-7; 39, 40, 162.
Sirhind 93, 144.
Sītalmīr 153.
Sīwī (Sībī) 163-4.
Sīwīstān 149n..
Suez Canal 74.
Sūrat 52, 71-2; 74.
Swat 1, 9.

Tāj-maḥāll 22, 110n..

Tāliqān 41, 56, 186, 194.
Tangayhā (Mountain Passes) 162 and n.; 196.
Tatta 66, 152 and n., 158, 178.
Teria-garhī (Tilia Gulley) 133n..
? Tipā 177.
Tīrī 175n..

'Umarkōt 35, 155, 157-8.
'Uqābain (Hill of the Two Eagles) 182-4.
Ushtūr-grām 48, 50.

Yak Langa 93 and n..