He was 39 (lunar) years old, having been born in Samarkand, in 860AH. (1456AD.) He was Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā's fourth son,[106] being younger than Sl. Aḥmad M. and Sl. Muḥammad M. and Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā. His father, Sl. Abū-sa`īd Mīrzā, was the son of Sl. Muḥammad Mīrzā, son of Tīmūr Beg's third son, Mīrān-shāh M. and was younger than `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, (the elder) and Jahāngīr M. but older than Shāhrukh Mīrzā. _c. `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā's country._ His father first gave him Kābul and, with Bābā-i-Kābulī[107] for his guardian, had allowed him to set out, but recalled him from the Tamarisk Valley[108] to Samarkand, on account of the Mīrzās' Circumcision Feast. When the Feast was over, he gave him Andijān with the appropriateness that Tīmūr Beg had given Farghāna (Andijān) to his son, the elder `Umar Shaikh Mīrzā. This done, he sent him off with Khudāī-bīrdī _Tūghchī Tīmūr-tāsh_[109] for his guardian. _d. His appearance and characteristics._ He was a short and stout, round-bearded and fleshy-faced [Sidenote: Fol. 7.] person.[110] He used to wear his tunic so very tight that to fasten the strings he had to draw his belly in and, if he let himself out after tying them, they often tore away. He was not choice in dress or food. He wound his turban in a fold (_dastar-pech_); all turbans were in four folds (_chār-pech_) in those days; people wore them without twisting and let the ends hang down.[111] In the heats and except in his Court, he generally wore the Mughūl cap. _e. His qualities and habits._ He was a true believer (_Ḥanafī maẕhablīk_) and pure in the Faith, not neglecting the Five Prayers and, his life through, making up his Omissions.[112] He read the Qur'ān very frequently and was a disciple of his Highness Khwāja `Ubaidu'l-lāh (_Aḥrārī_) who honoured him by visits and even called him son. His current readings[113] were the two Quintets and the _Mas̤nawī_;[114] of histories he read chiefly the _Shāh-nāma_. He had a poetic nature, but no taste for composing verses. He was so just that when he heard of a caravan returning from Khitāī as overwhelmed by snow in the mountains of Eastern Andijān,[115] and that of its thousand heads of houses (_awīlūq_) two only had escaped, he sent his overseers to take charge of all goods and, though no heirs were [Sidenote: Fol. 7b.] near and though he was in want himself, summoned the heirs from Khurāsān and Samarkand, and in the course of a year or two had made over to them all their property safe and sound. He was very generous; in truth, his character rose altogether to the height of generosity. He was affable, eloquent and sweet-spoken, daring and bold. Twice out-distancing all his braves,[116] he got to work with his own sword, once at the Gate of Akhsī, once at the Gate of Shāhrukhiya. A middling archer, he was strong in the fist,—not a man but fell to his blow. Through his ambition, peace was exchanged often for war, friendliness for hostility.