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
A few days after our return from that raid, Qūj Beg, Faqīr-i-`alī,
Karīm-dād and Bābā _chuhra_ were thinking about deserting, but their
design becoming known, people were sent who took them below Astar-ghach.
As good-for-nothing words of theirs had been reported to me, even during
Jahāngīr M.'s life-time,[1324] I ordered that they should be put to
death at the top of the _bāzār_. They had been taken to the place; the
ropes had been fixed; and they were about to be hanged when Qāsim Beg
sent Khalīfa to me with an urgent entreaty that I would pardon their
offences. To please him I gave them their lives, but I ordered them kept
in custody.
What there was of Khusrau Shāh's retainers from Ḥiṣār and Qūndūz,
together with the head-men of the Mughūls, Chilma, [Sidenote: Fol. 216.]
`Alī Sayyid,[1325] Sakma (?), Sher-qulī and Aīkū-sālam (?), and also
Khusrau Shāh's favourite Chaghatāī retainers under Sl. `Alī _chuhra_ and
Khudabakhsh, with also 2 or 3000 serviceable Turkmān braves led by
Sīūndūk and Shāh Naẕar,[1326] the whole of these, after consultation,
took up a bad position towards me. They were all seated in front of
Khwāja Riwāj, from the Sūng-qūrghān meadow to the Chālāk; `Abdu'r-razzāq
Mīrzā, come in from Nīng-nahār, being in Dih-i-afghān.[1327]
Earlier on Muḥibb-i-`alī the armourer had told Khalīfa and Mullā Bābā
once or twice of their assemblies, and both had given me a hint, but the
thing seeming incredible, it had had no attention. One night, towards
the Bed-time Prayer, when I was sitting in the Audience-hall of the
Chār-bāgh, Mūsa Khwāja, coming swiftly up with another man, said in my
ear, "The Mughūls are really rebelling! We do not know for certain
whether they have got `Abdu'r-razzāq M. to join them. They have
not settled to rise to-night." I feigned disregard and a little
later went towards the _ḥarams_ which at the time were in the
Yūrūnchqa-garden[1328] and the Bāgh-i-khilwat, but after page, servitor
and messenger (_yasāwal_) had turned back on getting [Sidenote: Fol.
216b.] near them, I went with the chief-slave towards the town, and on
along the ditch. I had gone as far as the Iron-gate when Khwāja Muḥ.
`Alī[1329] met me, he coming by the _bāzār_ road from the opposite
direction. He joined me ... of the porch of the Hot-bath
(_ḥammām_)....[1330]
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE ON 914 TO 925 AH.—1508 TO 1519 AD.
From several references made in the _Bābur-nāma_ and from a passage in
Gul-badan's _Humāyūn-nāma_ (f. 15), it is inferrible that Bābur was
composing the annals of 914 AH. not long before his last illness and
death.[1331]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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