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
We took counsel in that camp whether or not to go at once against Kābul.
Sayyid Yūsuf and some others thought that, as winter was near, our first
move should be into Lamghān, from which place action could be taken as
advantage offered. Bāqī Beg and some others saw it good to move on Kābul
at once; this plan was adopted; we marched forward and dismounted in
Ābā-qūrūq.
My mother and the belongings left behind in Kāhmard rejoined us at
Ābā-qūrūq. They had been in great danger, the particulars of which are
these:—Sherīm T̤aghāī had gone to set Khusrau Shāh on his way for
Khurāsān, and this done, was to fetch the families from Kāhmard. When he
reached Dahānah, he found he was not his own master; Khusrau Shāh went
on with him into Kāhmard, where was his sister's son, Aḥmad-i-qāsim.
These two took up an altogether wrong [Sidenote: Fol. 126b.] position
towards the families in Kāhmard. Hereupon a number of Bāqī Beg's
Mughūls, who were with the families, arranged secretly with Sherīm
T̤aghāī to lay hands on Khusrau Shāh and Aḥmad-i-qāsim. The two heard of
it, fled along the Kāhmard-valley on the Ajar side[709] and made for
Khurāsān. To bring this about was really what Sherīm T̤aghāī and the
Mughūls wanted. Set free from their fear of Khusrau Shāh by his flight,
those in charge of the families got them out of Ajar, but when they
reached Kāhmard, the Sāqānchī (var. Asīqanchī) tribe blocked the road,
like an enemy, and plundered the families of most of Bāqī Beg's
men.[710] They made prisoner Qul-i-bāyazīd's little son, Tīzak; he came
into Kābul three or four years later. The plundered and unhappy families
crossed by the Qībchāq-pass, as we had done, and they rejoined us in
Ābā-qūrūq.
Leaving that camp we went, with one night's halt, to the Chālāk-meadow,
and there dismounted. After counsel taken, it was decided to lay siege
to Kābul, and we marched forward. With what men of the centre there
were, I dismounted between Ḥaidar _Tāqī's_[711] garden and the tomb of
Qul-i-bāyazīd, the Taster (_bakāwal_);[712] Jahāngīr Mīrzā, with the men
of the right, [Sidenote: Fol. 127.] dismounted in my great Four-gardens
(_Chār-bāgh_), Nāṣir Mīrzā, with the left, in the meadow of
Qūtlūq-qadam's tomb. People of ours went repeatedly to confer with
Muqīm; they sometimes brought excuses back, sometimes words making for
agreement. His tactics were the sequel of his dispatch, directly after
Sherak's defeat, of a courier to his father and elder brother (in
Qandahār); he made delays because he was hoping in them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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