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
In Fort Ikhtiyāru'd-dīn, it is known as Ālā-qūrghān,[1267] were the
Mīrzās' mothers, elder and younger sisters, wives and treasure. The
Mīrzās reached the town at night, let their horses rest till midnight,
slept, and at dawn flung forth again. They could not think about
strengthening the fort; in the respite and crack of time there was, they
just ran away,[1268] leaving mother, sister, wife and little child to
Aūzbeg captivity.
What there was of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā's _ḥaram_, Pāyanda-sulṯān Begīm and
Khadīja Begīm at the head of it, was inside Ālā-qūrghān; there too were
the _ḥarams_ of Badī`u'z-zamān Mīrzā[1269] and Muz̤affar Mīrzā with
their little children, treasure, and households (_biyutāt_). What was
desirable for making the fort fast had not been done; even braves to
reinforce it had not arrived. `Āshiq-i-muḥammad _Arghūn_, the younger
brother of Mazīd Beg, had fled from the army on foot and gone into it;
[Sidenote: Fol. 206.] in it was also Amīr `Umar Beg's son `Alī Khān
(_Turkmān_); Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh the taster was there; Mīrzā Beg
_Kāī-khusraūī_ was there; and Mīrak _Gūr_ (or _Kūr_) the Dīwān was
there.
When Shaibāq Khān arrived two or three days later; the Shaikhu'l-islām
and notables went out to him with the keys of the outer-fort. That same
`Āshiq-i-muḥammad held Ālā-qūrghān for 16 or 17 days; then a mine, run
from the horse-market outside, was fired and brought a tower down; the
garrison lost heart, could hold out no longer, so let the fort be taken.
(_f. Shaibāq Khān in Herī._)
Shaibāq Khān, after taking Herī,[1270] behaved badly not only to the
wives and children of its rulers but to every person soever. For the
sake of this five-days' fleeting world, he earned himself a bad name.
His first improper act and deed in Herī was that, for the sake of this
rotten world (_chirk dunyā_), he caused Khadīja Begīm various miseries,
through letting the vile wretch Pay-master Shāh Manṣūr get hold of her
to loot. Then he let `Abdu'l-wahhāb _Mughūl_ take to loot a person so
saintly and so revered as Shaikh Pūrān, and each one of Shaikh Pūrān's
children be taken by a separate person. He let the band of poets be
seized by Mullā Banā'ī, a matter about which this verse is well-known in
Khurāsān:—
Except `Abdu'l-lāh the stupid fool (_kīr-khar_),
Not a poet to-day sees the colour of gold;
From the poets' band Banā'ī would get gold,
All he will get is _kīr-khar_.[1271] [Sidenote: Fol. 206b.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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