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 mountains round Farghāna are excellent summer-pastures (_yīlāq_).
There, and nowhere else, the _tabalghū_[92]grows, a tree (_yīghāch_)
with red bark; they make staves of it; they [Sidenote: Fol. 5b.] make
bird-cages of it; they scrape it into arrows;[93] it is an excellent
wood (_yīghāch_) and is carried as a rarity[94] to distant places. Some
books write that the mandrake[95] is found in these mountains but for
this long time past nothing has been heard of it. A plant called _Āyīq
aūtī_[96] and having the qualities of the mandrake (_mihr-giyāh_), is
heard of in Yītī-kīnt;[97] it seems to be the mandrake (_mihr-giyāh_)
the people there call by this name (_i.e._ _āyīq aūtī_). There are
turquoise and iron mines in these mountains.
If people do justly, three or four thousand men[98] may be maintained by
the revenues of Farghāna.
(_b. Historical narrative resumed._)[99]
As `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā was a ruler of high ambition and great pretension,
he was always bent on conquest. On several occasions he led an army
against Samarkand; sometimes he was beaten, sometimes retired against
his will.[100] More than once he asked his father-in-law into the
country, that is to say, my grandfather, Yūnas Khān, the then Khān of
the Mughūls in the camping ground (_yūrt_) of his ancestor, Chaghatāī
Khān, the second son of Chīngīz Khān. Each time the Mīrzā brought The
Khān into the Farghāna country he gave him lands, but, partly owing to
his misconduct, partly to the thwarting of the [Sidenote: Fol. 6.]
Mughūls,[101] things did not go as he wished and Yūnas Khān, not being
able to remain, went out again into Mughūlistān. When the Mīrzā last
brought The Khān in, he was in possession of Tāshkīnt, which in books
they write Shash, and sometimes Chāch, whence the term, a Chāchī,
bow.[102] He gave it to The Khān, and from that date (890AH.-1485AD.)
down to 908AH. (1503AD.) it and the Shāhrukhiya country were held by the
Chaghatāī Khāns.
At this date (_i.e._, 899AH.-1494AD.) the Mughūl Khānship was in Sl.
Maḥ=mūd Khān, Yūnas Khān's younger son and a half-brother of my mother.
As he and `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's elder brother, the then ruler of
Samarkand, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā were offended by the Mīrzā's behaviour, they
came to an agreement together; Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā had already given a
daughter to Sl. Maḥmūd Khān;[103] both now led their armies against
`Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, the first advancing along the south of the Khujand
Water, the second along its north.
Meantime a strange event occurred. It has been mentioned [Sidenote: Fol.
6b] that the fort of Akhsī is situated above a deep ravine;[104] along
this ravine stand the palace buildings, and from it, on Monday, Ramẓān
4, (June 8th.) `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā flew, with his pigeons and their
house, and became a falcon.[105]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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