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
Though our men were few I had them organized and posted on a first-rate
plan and method; I had never arrayed them before by such a good one. For
my immediate command (_khāṣa tābīn_) I had selected braves from whose
hands comes work[1289] and had inscribed them by tens and fifties, each
ten and each fifty under a leader who knew the post in the right or left
of the centre for his ten or his fifty, knew the work of each in the
battle, and was there on the observant watch; so that, after mounting,
the right and left, right and left hands, right and left sides, charged
right and left without the trouble of arraying them or the need of a
_tawāchī_.[1290]
(_Author's note on his terminology._) [Sidenote: Fol. 209b.]
Although _barānghār_, _aūng qūl_, _aūng yān_ and _aūng_ (right
wing, right hand, right side and right) all have the same
meaning, I have applied them in different senses in order to
vary terms and mark distinctions. As, in the battle-array, the
(Ar.) _maimana_ and _maisara_ _i.e._ what people call (Turkī)
_barānghār_ and _jawānghār_ (r. and l. wings) are not included
in the (Ar.) _qalb_, _i.e._ what people call (T.) _ghūl_
(centre), so it is in arraying the centre itself. Taking the
array of the centre only, its (Ar.) _yamīn_ and _yasār_ (r.
and l.) are called (by me) _aūng qūl_ and _sūl qūl_ (r. and l.
hands). Again,—the (Ar.) _khāṣa tābīn_ (royal troop) in the
centre has its _yamīn_ and _yasār_ which are called (by me)
_aūng yān_ and _sūl yān_ (r. and l. sides, T. _yān_).
Again,—in the _khāṣa tābīn_ there is the (T.) _būī_ (_nīng_)
_tīkīnī_ (close circle); its _yamīn_ and _yasār_ are called
_sūng_ and _sūl_. In the Turkī tongue they call one single
thing a _būī_,[1291] but that is not the _būī_ meant here;
what is meant here is close (_yāqīn_).
The right wing (_barānghār_) was Mīrzā Khān (Wais), Sherīm T̤aghāī,
Yārak T̤aghāī with his elder and younger brethren, Chilma _Mughūl_, Ayūb
Beg, Muḥammad Beg, Ibrāhīm Beg, `Alī Sayyid _Mughūl_ with his Mughūls,
Sl. Qulī _chuhra_, Khudā-bakhsh and Abū'l-ḥasan with his elder and
younger brethren.
The left (_jawānghār_) was `Abdu'r-razzāq Mīrzā, Qāsim Beg,
Tīngrī-bīrdī, Qaṃbar-i-`alī, Aḥmad _Aīlchī-būghā_, Ghūrī _Barlās_,
Sayyid Ḥusain Akbar, and Mīr Shāh _Qūchin_.
The advance (_aīrāwal_) was Nāṣir Mīrzā, Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate,
Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer, Pāpā Aūghulī (Pāpā's son?), Allāh-wairan
_Turkmān_, Sher Qulī _Mughūl_ the scout with his elder and younger
brethren, and Muḥammad `Alī.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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