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
It is necessary to enumerate the items of the Compilation here as they
are arranged in Kehr's autograph Codex, because that codex (still in
London) may not always be accessible,[26] and because the imprint does
not obey its model, but aims at closer agreement of the Bukhara
Compilation with Ilminski's gratefully acknowledged guide—_The Memoirs
of Baber_. Distinction in commenting on the Bukhara and the Kasan
versions is necessary; their discrepancy is a scene in the comedy of
errors.[27][28][29][30]
OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE COMPILATION.
An impelling cause for the production of the Bukhara compilation is
suggested by the date 1709 at which was finished the earliest example
known to me. For in the first decade of the eighteenth century Peter the
Great gave attention to Russian relations with foreign states of Central
Asia and negociated with the Khan of Bukhara for the reception of a
Russian mission.[31] Political aims would be forwarded if envoys were
familiar with Turki; books in that tongue for use in the School of
Oriental Languages would be desired; thus the Compilation may have been
prompted and, as will be shown later, it appears to have been produced,
and not merely copied, in 1709. The Mission's despatch was delayed till
1719;[32] it arrived in Bukhara in 1721; during its stay a member of its
secretariat bought a Compilation MS. noted as finished in 1714 and on a
fly-leaf of it made the following note:—
"_I, Timur-pulad son of Mirza Rajab son of Pay-chin, bought this book
Babur-nama after coming to Bukhara with [the] Russian Florio Beg
Beneveni, envoy of the Padshah ... whose army is numerous as the
stars.... May it be well received! Amen! O Lord of both Worlds!_"
Timur-pulad's hope for a good reception indicates a definite recipient,
perhaps a commissioned purchase. The vendor may have been asked for a
history of Babur; he sold one, but "Babur-nama" is not necessarily a
title, and is not suitable for the Compilation; by conversational
mischance it may have seemed so to the purchaser and thus have initiated
the mistake of confusing the "Bukhara Babur-nama" with the true one.
Thus endorsed, the book in 1725 reached the Foreign Office; there in
1737 it was obtained by George Jacob Kehr, a teacher of Turki, amongst
other languages, in the Oriental School, who copied it with meticulous
care, understanding its meaning imperfectly, in order to produce a Latin
version of it. His Latin rendering was a fiasco, but his reproduction of
the Arabic forms of his archetype was so obedient that on its sole basis
Ilminski edited the Kasan Imprint (1857). A collateral copy of the
Timur-pulad Codex was made in 1742 (as has been said).
In 1824 Klaproth (who in 1810 had made a less valuable extract perhaps
from Kehr's Codex) copied from the Timur-pulad MS. its purchaser's note,
the Auzbeg?(?) endorsement as to the transfer of the "Kamran-docket" and
Babur's letter to Kamran (_Mémoires relatifs à l'Asie_ Paris).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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