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 dismounted at the torrent coming down to the Āb-i-istāda from the
plain of Kattawāz. The several other times we have passed it, we have
found a dry channel with no water whatever,[920] but this time, there
was so much water, from the spring-rains, that no ford could be found.
The water was not very broad but very deep. Horses and camels were made
to swim it; some of the baggage was hauled over with ropes. Having got
across, we went on through Old Nānī and Sar-i-dih to Ghaznī where for a
few days Jahāngīr Mīrzā was our host, setting food before us and
offering his tribute.
(_m. Return to Kābul._)
That year most waters came down in flood. No ford was found through the
water of Dih-i-yaq`ūb.[921] For this reason we went straight on to
Kamarī, through the Sajāwand-pass. At Kamarī I had a boat fashioned in a
pool, brought and set on the Dih-i-yaq`ūb-water in front of Kamarī. In
this all our people were put over.
We reached Kābul in the month of Ẕū'l-ḥijja (May 1505 AD.).[922] A few
days earlier Sayyid Yūsuf _Aūghlāqchī_ had gone to God's [Sidenote: Fol.
154.] mercy through the pains of colic.
(_n. Misconduct of Nāṣīr Mīrzā._)
It has been mentioned that at Qūsh-guṃbaz, Nāṣir Mīrzā asked leave to
stay behind, saying that he would follow in a few days after taking
something from his district for his retainers and followers.[923] But
having left us, he sent a force against the people of Nūr-valley, they
having done something a little refractory. The difficulty of moving in
that valley owing to the strong position of its fort and the
rice-cultivation of its lands, has already been described.[924] The
Mīrzā's commander, Faẓlī, in ground so impracticable and in that
one-road tract, instead of safe-guarding his men, scattered them to
forage. Out came the valesmen, drove the foragers off, made it
impossible to the rest to keep their ground, killed some, captured a
mass of others and of horses,—precisely what would happen to any army
chancing to be under such a person as Faẓlī! Whether because of this
affair, or whether from want of heart, the Mīrzā did not follow us at
all; he stayed behind.
Moreover Ayūb's sons, Yūsuf and Bahlūl (Begchīk), more seditious, silly
and arrogant persons than whom there may not exist,—to whom I had given,
to Yūsuf Alangār, to Bahlūl `Alī-shang, they like Nāṣir Mīrzā, were to
have taken something from [Sidenote: Fol. 154b.] their districts and to
have come on with him, but, he not coming, neither did they. All that
winter they were the companions of his cups and social pleasures. They
also over-ran the Tarkalānī Afghāns in it.[925] With the on-coming
heats, the Mīrzā made march off the families of the clans,
outside-tribes and hordes who had wintered in Nīngnahār and the
Lamghānāt, driving them like sheep before him, with all their goods, as
far as the Bārān-water.[926]
(_o. Affairs of Badakhshān._)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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