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 the centre (_ghūl_), on my right hand, were Qāsim Kūkūldāsh, Khusrau
Kūkūldāsh, Sl. Muḥammad _Dūldāī_, Shāh Maḥmūd the secretary,
Qūl-i-bāyazīd the taster, and Kamāl the sherbet-server [Sidenote: Fol.
210.] server; on my left were Khwāja Muḥammad `Alī, Nāṣir's Dost,
Nāṣir's Mīrīm, Bābā Sher-zād, Khān-qulī, Walī the treasurer,
Qūtlūq-qadam the scout, Maqsūd the water-bearer (_sū-chī_), and Bābā
Shaikh. Those in the centre were all of my household; there were no
great begs; not one of those enumerated had reached the rank of beg.
Those inscribed in this _būī_[1292] were Sher Beg, Ḥātim the
Armoury-master, Kūpuk, Qulī Bābā, Abū'l-ḥasan the armourer;—of the
Mughūls, Aūrūs (Russian) `Alī Sayyid,[1293] Darwīsh-i-`alī Sayyid,
Khūsh-kīldī, Chilma, Dost-kīldī, Chilma _Tāghchī_, Dāmāchī, Mindī;—of
the Turkmāns, Manṣūr, Rustam-i-`alī with his elder and younger brother,
and Shāh Nāẕir and Sīūndūk.
The enemy was in two divisions, one under Shāh Shujā' _Arghūn_, known as
Shāh Beg and hereafter to be written of simply as Shāh Beg, the other
under his younger brother Muqīm.
Some estimated the dark mass of Arghūns[1294] at 6 or 7000 men; no
question whatever but that Shāh Beg's own men in mail were 4 or 5000. He
faced our right, Muqīm with a force smaller may-be than his brother's,
faced our left. Muqīm made a mightily strong attack on our left, that is
on Qāsim Beg from whom two or three persons came before fighting began,
to ask for reinforcement; we however could not detach a man because in
front of us also the enemy was very strong. We made our onset without
any delay; the enemy fell suddenly on our van, [Sidenote: Fol. 210b.]
turned it back and rammed it on our centre. When we, after a discharge
of arrows, advanced, they, who also had been shooting for a time,
seemed likely to make a stand (_tūkhtaghāndīk_). Some-one, shouting to
his men, came forward towards me, dismounted and was for adjusting his
arrow, but he could do nothing because we moved on without stay. He
remounted and rode off; it may have been Shāh Beg himself. During the
fight Pīrī Beg _Turkmān_ and 4 or 5 of his brethren turned their faces
from the foe and, turban in hand,[1295] came over to us.
(_Author's note on Pīrī Beg._) This Pīrī Beg was one of those
Turkmāns who came [into Herī] with the Turkmān Begs led by
`Abdu'l-bāqī Mīrzā and Murād Beg, after Shāh Ismā`īl
vanquished the Bāyandar sulṯāns and seized the `Irāq
countries.[1296]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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