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
As we wished to fight, we marched from our camp at dawn, we in our mail,
our horses in theirs, formed up in array of right and left, centre and
van. Our right was Ibrāhīm _Sārū_, Ibrāhīm Jānī, Abū'l-qāsim _Kohbur_
and other begs. Our left was Muḥ. Mazīd Tarkhān, Ibrāhīm Tarkhān and
other Samarkandī begs, also Sl. Ḥusain _Arghūn_, Qarā (Black) _Barlās_,
Pīr Aḥmad and Khwāja Ḥusain. Qāsim Beg was (with me) in the centre and
also several of my close circle and household. In the van were inscribed
Qaṃbar-`alī the Skinner, Banda-`alī, Khwāja `Alī, Mīr Shāh _Qūchīn_,
Sayyid Qāsim, Lord of the Gate,—Banda-`alī's younger brother Khaldar
(mole-marked) and Ḥaidar-i-qāsim's son Qūch, together with all the good
braves there were, and the rest of the household.
Thus arrayed, we marched from our camp; the enemy, also in array,
marched out from his. His right was Maḥmūd and Jānī and Tīmūr Sulṯāns;
his left, Ḥamza and Mahdī and some [Sidenote: Fol. 89b.] other sulṯāns.
When our two armies approached one another, he wheeled his right towards
our rear. To meet this, I turned; this left our van,—in which had been
inscribed what not of our best braves and tried swordsmen!—to our right
and bared our front (_i.e._ the front of the centre). None-the-less we
fought those who made the front-attack on us, turned them and forced
them back on their own centre. So far did we carry it that some of
Shaibāq Khān's old chiefs said to him, 'We must move off! It is past a
stand.' He however held fast. His right beat our left, then wheeled
(again) to our rear.
(As has been said), the front of our centre was bare through our van's
being left to the right. The enemy attacked us front and rear, raining
in arrows on us. (Ayūb _Begchīk's_) Mughūl army, come for our help! was
of no use in fighting; it set to work forthwith to unhorse and plunder
our men. Not this [Sidenote: Fol. 90.] once only! This is always the way
with those ill-omened Mughūls! If they win, they grab at booty; if they
lose, they unhorse and pilfer their own side! We drove back the Aūzbegs
who attacked our front by several vigorous assaults, but those who had
wheeled to our rear came up and rained arrows on our standard. Falling
on us in this way, from the front and from the rear, they made our men
hurry off.
This same turning-movement is one of the great merits of Aūzbeg
fighting; no battle of theirs is ever without it. Another merit of
theirs is that they all, begs and retainers, from their front to their
rear, ride, loose-rein at the gallop, shouting as they come and, in
retiring, do not scatter but ride off, at the gallop, in a body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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