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
Shāh Begīm and Khānīm were seated in one tent. I dismounted at the usual
distance, approached with my former deference and courtesy, and had an
interview with them. They were extremely agitated, upset, and ashamed;
could neither excuse themselves reasonably[1236] nor make the enquiries
of affection. I had not expected this (disloyalty) of them; it was not
as though that party, evil as was the position it had taken up,
consisted of persons who would not give ear to the words of Shāh Begīm
and Khānīm; Mīrzā Khān was the begīm's grandson, in her presence night
and day; if she had not fallen in with the affair, she could have kept
him with her.
Twice over when fickle Fortune and discordant Fate had parted
[Sidenote: Fol. 200b.] me from throne and country, retainer and
following, I, and my mother with me, had taken refuge with them and had
had no kindness soever from them. At that time my younger brother
(_i.e._ cousin) Mīrzā Khān and his mother Sulṯān-nigār Khānīm held
valuable cultivated districts; yet my mother and I,—to leave all
question of a district aside,—were not made possessors of a single
village or a few yoke of plough-oxen.[1237] Was my mother not Yūnas
Khān's daughter? was I not his grandson?
In my days of plenty I have given from my hand what matched the
blood-relationship and the position of whatsoever member of that
(Chaghatāī) dynasty chanced down upon me. For example, when the honoured
Shāh Begīm came to me, I gave her Pamghān, one of the best places in
Kābul, and failed in no sort of filial duty and service towards her.
Again, when Sl. Sa`īd Khān, Khān in Kāshghar, came [914 _AH._] with five
or six naked followers on foot, I looked upon him as an honoured guest
and gave him Mandrāwar of the Lamghān _tūmāns_. Beyond this also, when
Shāh Ismā`īl had killed Shaibāq Khān in Marv and I crossed over to
Qūndūz (916 _AH._-1511 _AD._), the Andijānīs, some driving their
(Aūzbeg) _dāroghas_ out, some making their places fast, turned their
eyes to me and sent me a man; at that time I trusted those old family
servants to that same Sl. Sa`īd Khān, gave him a force, made him Khān
and sped him forth. Again, down to the present time (_circa_ 934 _AH._)
I have not looked upon any member of that family who has come to me, in
any other light than as a blood-relation. For example, there [Sidenote:
Fol. 201.] are now in my service Chīn-tīmūr Sulṯān; Aīsān-tīmūr Sulṯān,
Tūkhtā-būghā Sulṯān, and Bābā Sulṯān;[1238] on one and all of these I
have looked with more favour than on blood-relations of my own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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