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 his early days he was a great drinker, later on used to have a party
once or twice a week. He was good company, on occasions reciting verses
admirably. Towards the last he rather preferred intoxicating
confects[117] and, under their sway, used to lose his head. His
disposition[118] was amorous, and he bore many a lover's mark.[119] He
played draughts a good deal, sometimes even threw the dice.
_f. His battles and encounters._
He fought three ranged battles, the first with Yūnas Khān, [Sidenote:
Fol. 8.] on the Saiḥūn, north of Andijān, at the Goat-leap,[120] a
village so-called because near it the foot-hills so narrow the flow of
the water that people say goats leap across.[121] There he was beaten
and made prisoner. Yūnas Khān for his part did well by him and gave him
leave to go to his own district (Andijān). This fight having been at
that place, the Battle of the Goat-leap became a date in those parts.
His second battle was fought on the Urūs,[122] in Turkistān, with
Aūzbegs returning from a raid near Samarkand. He crossed the river on
the ice, gave them a good beating, separated off all their prisoners and
booty and, without coveting a single thing for himself, gave everything
back to its owners.
His third battle he fought with (his brother) Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā at a
place between Shāhrukhiya and Aūrā-tīpā, named Khwāṣ.[123] Here he was
beaten.
_g. His country._
The Farghāna country his father had given him; Tāshkīnt and Sairām, his
elder brother, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā gave, and they were in his possession for
a time; Shāhrukhiya he took by a ruse and held awhile. Later on,
Tāshkīnt and Shāhrukhiya passed out of his hands; there then remained
the Farghāna country and Khujand,—some do not include Khujand in
[Sidenote: Fol. 8b.] Farghāna,—and Aūrā-tīpā, of which the original name
was Aūrūshnā and which some call Aūrūsh. In Aūrā-tīpā, at the time Sl.
Aḥmad Mīrzā went to Tāshkīnt against the Mughūls, and was beaten on the
Chīr[124] (893AH.-1488AD.) was Ḥafiẓ Beg _Dūldāī_; he made it over to
`Umar Shaikh M. and the Mīrzā held it from that time forth.
_h. His children._
Three of his sons and five of his daughters grew up. I, Z̤ahīru'd-dīn
Muḥammad Bābur,[125] was his eldest son; my mother was Qūtlūq-nigār
Khānīm. Jahāngīr Mīrzā was his second son, two years younger than I; his
mother, Fāṯima-sulṯān by name, was of the Mughūl _tūmān_-begs.[126]
Nāṣir Mīrzā was his third son; his mother was an Andijānī, a
mistress,[127] named Umīd. He was four years younger than I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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