The Bābur-nāma. Babur

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      Samarkand for nearly 140 years had been the capital of our dynasty. An alien, and of what stamp! an Aūzbeg foe, had taken possession of it! It had slipped from our hands; God gave it again! plundered and ravaged, our own returned to us.

      Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took Harāt541 as we took Samarkand, by surprise, but to the experienced, and discerning, and just, it will be clear that between his affair and mine there are distinctions and differences, and that his capture and mine are things apart.

      Firstly there is this; – He had ruled many years, passed through much experience and seen many affairs.

      Secondly; – He had for opponent, Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā, an inexperienced boy of 17 or 18.

      Thirdly; – (Yādgār Mīrzā’s) Head-equerry, Mīr ‘Alī, a person well-acquainted with the particulars of the whole position, sent a man out from amongst Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s opponents to bring him to surprise them.

      Fourthly; – His opponent was not in the fort but was in the Ravens’-garden. Moreover Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā and his followers are said to have been so prostrate with drink that three men only were in the Gate, they also drunk.

      Fifthly; – he surprised and captured Harāt the first time he approached it.

      On the other hand: firstly; – I was 19 when I took Samarkand.

      Secondly; – I had as my opponent, such a man as Shaibāq Khān, of mature age and an eye-witness of many affairs.

      Thirdly; – No-one came out of Samarkand to me; though the heart of its people was towards me, no-one could dream of coming, from dread of Shaibāq Khān.

      Fourthly; – My foe was in the fort; not only was the fort taken but he was driven off.

      Fifthly; – I had come once already; my opponent was on his guard about me. The second time we came, God brought it right! Samarkand was won.

      In saying these things there is no desire to be-little the reputation of any man; the facts were as here stated. In writing these things, there is no desire to magnify myself; the truth is set down.

      The poets composed chronograms on the victory; this one remains in my memory; – Wisdom answered, ‘Know that its date is the Victory (Fatḥ) of Bābur Bahādur.’

      Samarkand being taken, Shavdār and Soghd and the tūmāns and nearer forts began, one after another, to return to us. From some their Aūzbeg commandants fled in fear and escaped; from others the inhabitants drove them and came in to us; in some they made them prisoner, and held the forts for us.

      Just then the wives and families of Shaibāq Khān and his Aūzbegs arrived from Turkistān;542 he was lying near Khwāja Dīdār and ‘Alī-ābād but when he saw the forts and people returning to me, marched off towards Bukhārā. By God’s grace, all the forts of Soghd and Miyān-kāl returned to me within three or four months. Over and above this, Bāqī Tarkhān seized this opportunity to occupy Qarshī; Khuzār and Qarshī (? Kesh) both went out of Aūzbeg hands; Qarā-kūl also was taken from them by people of Abū’l-muḥsin Mīrzā (Bāī-qarā), coming up from Merv. My affairs were in a very good way.

      (e. Birth of Bābur’s first child.)

      After our departure (last year) from Andijān, my mothers and my wife and relations came, with a hundred difficulties and hardships, to Aūrātīpā. We now sent for them to Samarkand. Within a few days after their arrival, a daughter was born to me by ‘Āyisha-sult̤ān Begīm, my first wife, the daughter of Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā. They named the child Fakhru’n-nisā’ (Ornament of women); she was my first-born, I was 19. In a month or 40 days, she went to God’s mercy.

      (f. Bābur in Samarkand.)

      On taking Samarkand, envoys and summoners were sent off at once, and sent again and again, with reiterated request for aid and reinforcement, to the khāns and sult̤āns and begs and marchers on every side. Some, though experienced men, made foolish refusal; others whose relations towards our family had been discourteous and unpleasant, were afraid for themselves and took no notice; others again, though they sent help, sent it insufficient. Each such case will be duly mentioned.

      When Samarkand was taken the second time, ‘Alī-sher Beg was alive. We exchanged letters once; on the back of mine to him I wrote one of my Turkī couplets. Before his reply reached me, separations (tafarqa) and disturbances (ghūghā) had happened.543 Mullā Binā’ī had been taken into Shaibāq Khān’s service when the latter took possession of Samarkand; he stayed with him until a few days after I took the place, when he came into the town to me. Qāsim Beg had his suspicions about him and consequently dismissed him towards Shahr-i-sabz but, as he was a man of parts, and as no fault of his came to light, I had him fetched back. He constantly presented me with odes (qaṣīda u ghazal). He brought me a song in the Nawā mode composed to my name and at the same time the following quatrain; —544

      No grain (ghala) have I by which I can be fed (noshīd);

      No rhyme of grain (mallah, nankeen) wherewith I can be clad (poshīd);

      The man who lacks both food and clothes,

      In art or science where can he compete (koshīd)?

      In those days of respite, I had written one or two couplets but had not completed an ode. As an answer to Mullā Binā’ī I made up and set this poor little Turkī quatrain; —545

      As is the wish of your heart, so shall it be (būlghūsīdūr);

      For gift and stipend both an order shall be made (buyurūlghūsīdūr);

      I know the grain and its rhyme you write of;

      The garments, you, your house, the corn shall fill (tūlghūsīdūr).

      The Mullā in return wrote and presented a quatrain to me in which for his refrain, he took a rhyme to (the tūlghūsīdūr of) my last line and chose another rhyme; —

      Mīrzā-of-mine, the Lord of sea and land shall be (yīr būlghūsīdūr);

      His art and skill, world o’er, the evening tale shall be (samar būlghūsīdūr);

      If gifts like these reward one rhyming (or pointless) word;

      For words of sense, what guerdon will there be (nilār būlghūsīdūr)?

      Abū’l-barka, known as Farāqi (Parted), who just then had come to Samarkand from Shahr-i-sabz, said Binā’ī ought to have rhymed. He made this verse; —

      Into Time’s wrong to you quest shall be made (sūrūlghūsīdūr);

      Your wish the Sult̤ān’s grace from Time shall ask (qūlghūsīdūr);

      O Ganymede! our cups, ne’er filled as yet,

      In this new Age, brimmed-up, filled full shall be (tūlghūsīdūr).

      Though this СКАЧАТЬ