The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur). Emperor of Hindustan Babur
me.” I answered with a reminder of eleven successive faults and sent this to him through Mullā Bābā of Pashāghar. He submitted and was allowed to go towards Hindūstān, taking his family and possessions. A few of his retainers escorted him through Khaibar and returned; he joined Bāqī Gāgīānī’s caravan and crossed at Nīl-āb.
Daryā Khān’s son, Yār-i-ḥusain was then in Kacha-kot,961 having drawn into his service, on the warrant of the farmān taken from me in Kohāt, a few Afghāns of the Dilazāk (var. Dilah-zāk) and Yūsuf-zāī and also a few Jats and Gujūrs.962 With these he beat the roads, taking toll with might and main. Hearing about Bāqī, he blocked the road, made the whole partyFol. 160. prisoner, killed Bāqī and took his wife.
We ourselves had let Bāqī go without injuring him, but his own misdeeds rose up against him; his own acts defeated him.
Leave thou to Fate the man who does thee wrong;
For Fate is an avenging servitor.
(f. Attack on the Turkmān Hazāras.)
That winter we just sat in the Chār-bāgh till snow had fallen once or twice.
The Turkmān Hazāras, since we came into Kābul, had done a variety of insolent things and had robbed on the roads. We thought therefore of over-running them, went into the town to Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā’s house at the Būstān-sarāī, and thence rode out in the month of Sha‘bān (Feb. 1506 AD.).
We raided a few Hazāras at Janglīk, at the mouth of the Dara-i-khūsh (Happy-valley).963 Some were in a cave near the valley-mouth, hiding perhaps. Shaikh Darwīsh Kūkūldāsh went incautiously right (auq) up to the cave-mouth, was shot (aūqlāb) in the nipple by a Hazāra inside and died there and then (aūq).964
(Author’s note on Shaikh Darwīsh.) He had been with me in the guerilla-times, was Master-armourer (qūr-begī), drew a strong bow and shot a good shaft.
As most of the Turkmān Hazāras seemed to be wintering inside the Dara-i-khūsh, we marched against them.
The valley is shut in,965 by a mile-long gully stretching inwards from its mouth. The road engirdles the mountain, havingFol. 160b. a straight fall of some 50 to 60 yards below it and above it a precipice. Horsemen go along it in single-file. We passed the gully and went on through the day till between the Two Prayers (3 p.m.) without meeting a single person. Having spent the night somewhere, we found a fat camel966 belonging to the Hazāras, had it killed, made part of its flesh into kabābs967 and cooked part in a ewer (aftāb). Such good camel-flesh had never been tasted; some could not tell it from mutton.
Next day we marched on for the Hazāra winter-camp. At the first watch (9 a.m.) a man came from ahead, saying that the Hazāras had blocked a ford in front with branches, checked our men and were fighting. That winter the snow lay very deep; to move was difficult except on the road. The swampy meadows (tuk-āb) along the stream were all frozen; the stream could only be crossed from the road because of snow and ice. The Hazāras had cut many branches, put them at the exit from the water and were fighting in the valley-bottom with horse and foot or raining Fol. 161.arrows down from either side.
Muḥammad ‘Alī Mubashshir968 Beg, one of our most daring braves, newly promoted to the rank of beg and well worthy of favour, went along the branch-blocked road without his mail, was shot in the belly and instantly surrendered his life. As we had gone forward in haste, most of us were not in mail. Shaft after shaft flew by and fell; with each one Yūsuf’s Aḥmad said anxiously, “Bare969 like this you go into it! I have seen two arrows go close to your head!” Said I, “Don’t fear! Many as good arrows as these have flown past my head!” So much said, Qāsim Beg, his men in full accoutrement,970 found a ford on our right and crossed. Before their charge the Hazāras could make no stand; they fled, swiftly pursued and unhorsed one after the other by those just up with them.
In guerdon for this feat Bangash was given to Qāsim Beg. Ḥātim the armourer having been not bad in the affair, was promoted to Shaikh Darwīsh’s office of qūr-begī. Bābā Qulī’s Kīpik (sic) also went well forward in it, so we entrusted Muḥ. ‘Alī Mubashshir’s office to him.
Sl. Qulī Chūnāq (one-eared) started in pursuit of the Hazāras but there was no getting out of the hollow because of the snow. Fol. 161b.For my own part I just went with these braves.
Near the Hazāra winter-camp we found many sheep and herds of horses. I myself collected as many as 4 to 500 sheep and from 20 to 25 horses. Sl. Qulī Chūnāq and two or three of my personal servants were with me. I have ridden in a raid twice971; this was the first time; the other was when, coming in from Khurāsān (912 AH.), we raided these same Turkmān Hazāras. Our foragers brought in masses of sheep and horses. The Hazāra wives and their little children had gone off up the snowy slopes and stayed there; we were rather idle and it was getting late in the day; so we turned back and dismounted in their very dwellings. Deep indeed was the snow that winter! Off the road it was up to a horse’s qāptāl,972 so deep that the night-watch was in the saddle all through till shoot of dawn.
Going out of the valley, we spent the next night just inside the mouth, in the Hazāra winter-quarters. Marching from there, we dismounted at Janglīk. At Janglīk Yārak T̤aghāī and other late-comers were ordered to take the Hazāras who had killed Shaikh Darwīsh and who, luckless and death-doomed, seemed still to be in the cave. Yārak T̤aghāī and his band by sending smoke into the cave, took 70 to 80 Hazāras who mostly died by the sword.
(g. Collection of the Nijr-aū tribute.)
On the way back from the Hazāra expedition we went to the Āī-tūghdī neighbourhood below Bārān973 in order to collect the revenue of Nijr-aū. Jahāngīr Mīrzā, come up from Ghaznī,Fol. 162. waited on me there. At that time, on Ramẓān 13th (Feb. 7th) such sciatic-pain attacked me that for 40 days some-one had to turn me over from one side to the other.
Of the (seven) valleys of the Nijr-water the Pīchkān-valley—and of the villages in the Pīchkān-valley Ghain—and of Ghain its head-man Ḥusain Ghainī in particular, together with his elder and younger brethren, were known and notorious for obstinacy and daring. On this account a force was sent under Jahāngīr Mīrzā, Qāsim Beg going too, which went to Sar-i-tūp (Hill-top), stormed and took a sangur and made a few meet their doom.
Because of the sciatic pain, people made a sort of litter for me in which they carried me along the bank of the Bārān and into the town to the Būstān-sarāī. There I stayed for a few days; before that trouble was over a boil came out on my left cheek; this was lanced and for it I also took a purge. When relieved, I went out into the Chār-bāgh.
(h. Misconduct of Jahāngīr Mīrzā.)
At the time Jahāngīr Mīrzā waited on me, Ayūb’s sons Yūsuf and Buhlūl, who were in his service, had taken up a strifeful and seditious attitude towards me; so the Mīrzā was not found to be what he had been earlier. In a few days he marched out of Tīpa in his mail,974 hurried back to Ghaznī, there took Nānī, killed some of its people and plundered all. Fol. 162b.After that he marched off with whatever men he had, through the Hazāras,975 his face set for Bāmīān. God knows that nothing had been done by me or my dependants to give him ground for anger or reproach! What was heard of later on as perhaps explaining his going off in the way he did, was this;—When Qāsim Beg went with other begs, to give him honouring meeting as he came up from Ghaznī, the Mīrzā threw a falcon off at a quail. Just as the falcon, getting close, put out its pounce to seize the quail, the quail dropped to the ground. Hereupon shouts and cries, “Taken! is it taken?” Said Qāsim Beg, “Who looses the foe in his grip?” Their misunderstanding of this was their sole reason for going off, but they backed themselves on one or two other worse and weaker old cronish matters.976 After doing in Ghaznī what has been mentioned, they drew off through the Hazāras to the Mughūl clans.977 These clans at that time had left Nāṣir Mīrzā but had not joined the Aūzbeg,