The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur). Emperor of Hindustan Babur
right on several grounds for us to start for Khurāsān. One ground was that when a great ruler, sitting, as Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā sat, in Tīmūr Beg’s place, had resolved to act againstFol. 163. such a foe as Shaibāq Khān and had called up many men and had summoned his sons and his begs, if there were some who went on foot it was for us to go if on our heads! if some took the bludgeon, we would take the stone! A second ground was that, since Jahāngīr Mīrzā had gone to such lengths and had behaved so badly,978 we had either to dispel his resentment or to repel his attack.
(j. Chīn Ṣūfī’s death.)
This year Shaibāq Khān took Khwārizm after besieging Chīn Sūfī in it for ten months. There had been a mass of fighting during the siege; many were the bold deeds done by the Khwārizmī braves; nothing soever did they leave undone. Again and again their shooting was such that their arrows pierced shield and cuirass, sometimes the two cuirasses.979 For ten months they sustained that siege without hope in any quarter. A few bare braves then lost heart, entered into talk with the Aūzbeg and were in the act of letting him up into the fort when Chīn Ṣūfī had the news and went to the spot. Just as he was beating and forcing down the Aūzbegs, his own page, in a discharge of arrows, shot him from behind. No man was left to fight; the Aūzbegs took Khwārizm. God’s mercy on Chīn Ṣūfī, who never for one moment ceased to stake his life Fol. 163b.for his chief!980
Shaibāq Khān entrusted Khwārizm to Kūpuk (sic) Bī and went back to Samarkand.
(k. Death of Sultān Ḥusain Mīrzā.)
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā having led his army out against Shaibāq Khān as far as Bābā Ilāhī981 went to God’s mercy, in the month of Ẕū’l-ḥijja (Ẕū’l-ḥijja 11th 911 AH.-May 5th 1506 AD.).
SULT̤ĀN ḤUSAIN MĪRZĀ AND HIS COURT.982
(a.) His birth and descent.
He was born in Herī (Harāt), in (Muḥarram) 842 (AH.-June-July, 1438 AD.) in Shāhrukh Mīrzā’s time983 and was the son of Manṣūr Mīrzā, son of Bāī-qarā Mīrzā, son of ‘Umar Shaikh Mīrzā, son of Amīr Tīmūr. Manṣūr Mīrzā and Bāī-qarā Mīrzā never reigned.
His mother was Fīrūza Begīm, a (great-)grandchild (nabīra) of Tīmūr Beg; through her he became a grandchild of Mīrān-shāh also.984 He was of high birth on both sides, a ruler of royal lineage.985 Of the marriage (of Manṣūr with Fīrūza) were born two sons and two daughters, namely, Bāī-qarā Mīrzā and Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, Ākā Begīm and another daughter, Badka Begīm whom Aḥmad Khān took.986
Bāī-qarā Mīrzā was older than Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā; he was his younger brother’s retainer but used not to be present as head of the Court;987 except in Court, he used to share his brother’s divan (tūshak). He was given Balkh by his younger brother and was its Commandant for several years. He had three sons, Sl. Muḥammad Mīrzā, Sl. Wais Mīrzā and Sl. Iskandar Mīrzā.988
Ākā Begīm was older than the Mīrzā; she was taken byFol. 164. Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā,989 a grandson (nabīra) of Mīrān-shāh; by him she had a son (Muḥammad Sult̤ān Mīrzā), known as Kīchīk (Little) Mīrzā, who at first was in his maternal-uncle’s service, but later on gave up soldiering to occupy himself with letters. He is said to have become very learned and also to have taste in verse.990 Here is a Persian quatrain of his:—
For long on a life of devotion I plumed me,
As one of the band of the abstinent ranged me;
Where when Love came was devotion? denial?
By the mercy of God it is I have proved me!
This quatrain recalls one by the Mullā.991 Kīchīk Mīrzā made the circuit of the ka‘ba towards the end of his life.
Badka (Badī‘u’l-jamāl) Begīm also was older992 than the Mīrzā. She was given in the guerilla times to Aḥmad Khān of Ḥājī-tarkhān;993 by him she had two sons (Sl. Maḥmūd Khān and Bahādur Sl.) who went to Herī and were in the Mīrzā’s service.
(b.) His appearance and habits.
He was slant-eyed (qīyik gūzlūq) and lion-bodied, being slender from the waist downwards. Even when old and white-bearded, he wore silken garments of fine red and green. He used to wear either the black lambskin cap (būrk) or the qālpāq,994 but on a Feast-day would sometimes set up a little three-fold turban, wound broad and badly,995 stick a heron’s plume in it and so go to Prayers.
When he first took Herī, he thought of reciting the names of Fol. 164b.the Twelve Imāms in the khut̤ba,996 but ‘Alī-sher Beg and others prevented it; thereafter all his important acts were done in accordance with orthodox law. He could not perform the Prayers on account of a trouble in the joints,997 and he kept no fasts. He was lively and pleasant, rather immoderate in temper, and with words that matched his temper. He shewed great respect for the law in several weighty matters; he once surrendered to the Avengers of blood a son of his own who had killed a man, and had him taken to the Judgment-gate (Dāru’l-qaẓā). He was abstinent for six or seven years after he took the throne; later on he degraded himself to drink. During the almost 40 years of his rule998 in Khurāsān, there may not have been one single day on which he did not drink after the Mid-day prayer; earlier than that however he did not drink. What happened with his sons, the soldiers and the town was that every-one pursued vice and pleasure to excess. Bold and daring he was! Time and again he got to work with his own sword, getting his own hand in wherever he arrayed to fight; no man of Tīmūr Beg’s line has been known to match him in the slashing of swords. He had a leaning to poetry and even put a dīwān together, writing in Turkī with Ḥusainī for his pen-name.999 Many couplets in his dīwān are not bad; it is however in one and the same metre throughout. Great ruler though he was,Fol. 165. both by the length of his reign (yāsh) and the breadth of his dominions, he yet, like little people kept fighting-rams, flew pigeons and fought cocks.
(c.) His wars and encounters.1000
He swam the Gurgān-water1001 in his guerilla days and gave a party of Aūzbegs a good beating.
Again—with 60 men he fell on 3000 under Pay-master Muḥammad ‘Alī, sent ahead by Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā, and gave them a downright good beating (868 AH.). This was his one fine, out-standing feat-of-arms.1002
Again—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā near Astarābād (865 AH.).1003
Again—this also in Astarābād, he fought and beat Sa‘īdlīq Sa‘īd, son of Ḥusain Turkmān (873 AH.?).
Again—after taking the throne (of Herī in Ramẓān 873 AH.-March 1469 AD.), he fought and beat Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā at Chanārān (874 AH.).1004
Again—coming swiftly1005 from the Murgh-āb bridge-head (Sar-i-pul), he fell suddenly on Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā where he lay drunk in the Ravens'-garden (875 AH.), a victory which kept all Khurāsān quiet.
Again—he fought and beat Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā at Chīkmān-sarāī in the neighbourhood of Andikhūd and Shibrghān (876 AH.).1006
Again—he fell suddenly on Abā-bikr Mīrzā1007 after that Mīrzā, joined by the Black-sheep Turkmāns, had come out of ‘Irāq, beaten Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā (Kābulī) in Takāna and Khimār (var. Ḥimār), taken Kābul, left it because of turmoil in ‘Irāq, crossed Khaibar, gone on to Khūsh-āb and Multān, on again to Fol. 165b.Sīwī,1008 thence to Karmān and, unable to stay there, had entered the Khurāsān country (884 AH.).1009
Again—he defeated his son Badī‘u’z-zamān Mīrzā at Pul-i-chirāgh (902 AH.); he also defeated his sons Abū’l-muḥsin Mīrzā and Kūpuk (Round-shouldered) Mīrzā at Ḥalwā-spring (904 AH.).1010
Again—he went to Qūndūz,