The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)Babur, Emperor of Hindustan
History
The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur)
Babur, Emperor of Hindustan
Babur, Emperor of Hindustan, 1483-1530; Mogul Empire
Since such a great ruler as Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā had twice led a splendid
and well-appointed army out and twice retired, without taking Qūndūz, or
Ḥiṣār or Qandahār, his sons and his begs waxed bold in revolt and
rebellion. In the spring of this year, he sent a large army under
Muḥammad Walī Beg to put down (his son) Muḥammad Ḥusain Mīrzā who,
supreme in Astarābād, had taken up a position hostile to himself. While
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā was still lying in the Nīshīn meadow (near Harāt), he
was surprised by Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and Shāh Shujā` Beg (_Arghūn_). By
unexpected good-fortune, he had been [Sidenote: Fol. 58.] joined that
very day by Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, a refugee after bringing about the loss of
Ḥiṣār,[430] and also rejoined by a force of his own returning from
Astarābād. There was no question of fighting. Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā and
Shāh Beg, brought face to face with these armies, took to flight.
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā looked kindly on Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, made him kneel as a
son-in-law and gave him a place in his favour and affection.
None-the-less Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā, at the instigation of Bāqī
_Chaghānīānī_, who had come earlier into Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's service,
started off on some pretext, without asking leave, and went from the
presence of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā to that of Khusrau Shāh!
Khusrau Shāh had already invited and brought from Ḥiṣār, Bāī-sunghar
Mīrzā; to him had gone Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā's son,[431] Mīrān-shāh Mīrzā
who, having gone amongst the Hazāra in rebellion against his father, had
been unable to remain amongst them because of his own immoderate acts.
Some short-sighted persons were themselves ready to kill these three
(Tīmūrid) Mīrzās and to read Khusrau Shāh's name in the _khuṯba_ but he
himself did not think this combination desirable. The ungrateful
[Sidenote: Fol. 58b.] manikin however, for the sake of gain in this five
days' fleeting world,—it was not true to him nor will it be true to any
man soever,—seized that Sl. Mas`ūd Mīrzā whom he had seen grow up in his
charge from childhood, whose guardian he had been, and blinded him with
the lancet.
Some of the Mīrzā's foster-brethren and friends of affection and old
servants took him to Kesh intending to convey him to his (half)-brother
Sl. `Alī Mīrzā in Samarkand but as that party also (_i.e._ `Alī's)
became threatening, they fled with him, crossed the river at the Aūbāj
ferry and went to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā.
A hundred thousand curses light on him who planned and did a deed so
horrible! Up to the very verge of Resurrection, let him who hears of
this act of Khusrau Shāh, curse him; and may he who hearing, curses not,
know cursing equally deserved!
This horrid deed done, Khusrau Shāh made Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā ruler in
Ḥiṣār and dismissed him; Mīrān-shāh Mīrzā he despatched for Bāmīān with
Sayyid Qāsim to help him.
904 AH.—AUG. 19TH. 1498 TO AUG. 8TH. 1499 AD.[432]
(_a. Bābur borrows Pashāghar and leaves Khujand._)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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