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
The Mīrzā having been killed, Shaibānī Khān sent Jān-`alī after his
Mīrzā. He had apprehensions also about Khwāja Yaḥya and therefore
dismissed him, with his two sons, Khwāja Muḥ. Zakarīya and Khwāja Bāqī,
towards Khurāsān.[534] A few Aūzbegs followed them and near Khwāja
Kārdzan martyred both the Khwāja and his two young sons. Though
Shaibānī's [Sidenote: Fol. 81.] words were, 'Not through me the Khwāja's
affair! Qaṃbar Bī and Kūpuk Bī did it,' this is worse than that! There
is a proverb,[535] 'His excuse is worse than his fault,' for if begs,
out of their own heads, start such deeds, unknown to their Khāns or
Pādshāhs, what becomes of the authority of khānship and sovereignty?
(_b. Bābur leaves Kesh and crosses the Mūra pass._)
Since the Aūzbegs were in possession of Samarkand, we left Kesh and went
in the direction of Ḥiṣār. With us started off Muḥ. Mazīd Tārkhān and
the Samarkand begs under his command, together with their wives and
families and people, but when we dismounted in the Chultū meadow of
Chaghānīān, they parted from us, went to Khusrau Shāh and became his
retainers.
Cut off from our own abiding-town and country,[536] not knowing where
(else) to go or where to stay, we were obliged to traverse the very
heart of Khusrau Shāh's districts, spite of what measure of misery he
had inflicted on the men of our dynasty!
One of our plans had been to go to my younger Khān dādā, _i.e._ Alacha
Khān, by way of Qarā-tīgīn and the Alāī,[537] but this was not managed.
Next we were for going up the valley of the Kām torrent and over the
Sara-tāq pass (_dābān_). When we were near Nūnḍāk, a servant of Khusrau
Shāh brought me one set of nine horses[538] and one of nine pieces of
cloth. When we dismounted at the mouth of the Kām valley, Sher-`alī.
[Sidenote: Fol. 81b.] the page, deserted to Khusrau Shāh's brother, Walī
and, next day, Qūch Beg parted from us and went to Ḥiṣār.[539]
We entered the valley and made our way up it. On its steep and narrow
roads and at its sharp and precipitous saddles[540] many horses and
camels were left. Before we reached the Sara-tāq pass we had (in 25 m.)
to make three or four night-halts. A pass! and what a pass! Never was
such a steep and narrow pass seen; never were traversed such ravines and
precipices. Those dangerous narrows and sudden falls, those perilous
heights and knife-edge saddles, we got through with much difficulty and
suffering, with countless hardships and miseries. Amongst the Fān
mountains is a large lake (Iskandar); it is 2 miles in circumference, a
beautiful lake and not devoid of marvels.[541]
News came that Ibrāhīm Tarkhān had strengthened Fort Shīrāz and was
seated in it; also that Qaṃbar-`alī (the Skinner) and Abū'l-qāsim
_Kohbur_, the latter not being able to stay in Khwāja Dīdār with the
Aūzbegs in Samarkand,—had both come into Yār-yīlāq, strengthened its
lower forts and occupied them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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