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
They pressed me to winter in Khurāsān, but this not one of my
well-wishers saw it good for me to do because, while Kābul and Ghaznī
were full of a turbulent and ill-conducted medley of [Sidenote: Fol.
188.] people and hordes, Turks, Mughūls, clans and nomads (_aīmāq u
aḥsham_), Afghāns and Hazāra, the roads between us and that not yet
desirably subjected country of Kābul were, one, the mountain-road, a
month's journey even without delay through snow or other cause,—the
other, the low-country road, a journey of 40 or 50 days.
Consequently we excused ourselves to the Mīrzās, but they would accept
no excuse and, for all our pleas, only urged the more. In the end
Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā, Abū'l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Muz̤affar Mīrzā themselves
rode to my tent and urged me to stay the winter. It was impossible to
refuse men of such ruling position, come in person to press us to stay
on. Besides this, the whole habitable world has not such a town as Herī
had become under Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, whose orders and efforts had
increased its splendour and beauty as ten to one, rather, as twenty to
one. As I greatly wished to stay, I consented to do so.
Abū'l-muḥsin M. went to Marv, his own district; Ibn-i-ḥusain M. went to
his, Tūn and Qāīn; Badī`u'z-zamān M. and Muz̤affar M. set off for Herī;
I followed them a few days later, taking the road by Chihil-dukhtarān
and Tāsh-rabāṯ.[1185]
(_j. Bābur visits the Begīms in Herī._)
All the Begīms, _i.e._ my paternal-aunt Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm, Khadīja
Begīm, Apāq Begīm, and my other paternal-aunt Begīms, daughters of Sl.
Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā,[1186] were gathered together, at the time I went to see
them, in Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's College at his [Sidenote: Fol. 188b.]
Mausoleum. Having bent the knee with (_yūkūnūb bīla_) Pāyanda-sulṯān
Begīm first of all, I had an interview with her; next, not bending the
knee,[1187] I had an interview with Apāq Begīm; next, having bent the
knee with Khadīja Begīm, I had an interview with her. After sitting
there for some time during recitation of the Qorān,[1188] we went to the
South College where Khadīja Begīm's tents had been set up and where food
was placed before us. After partaking of this, we went to Pāyanda-sulṯān
Begīm's tents and there spent the night.
The New-year's Garden was given us first for a camping-ground; there our
camp was arranged; and there I spent the night of the day following my
visit to the Begīms, but as I did not find it a convenient place,
`Alī-sher Beg's residence was assigned to me, where I was as long as I
stayed in Herī, every few days shewing myself in Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā's
presence in the World-adorning Garden.
(_k. The Mīrzās entertain Bābur in Herī._)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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