The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur). Emperor of Hindustan Babur
Shaikh Abū-sa‘īd Khān Dar-miyān (In-between) was another. It is not known whether he got the name of Dar-miyān because he took a horse to the Mīrzā in the middle of a fight, or whether because he put himself in between the Mīrzā and some-one designing on his life.1097
Bih-būd Beg was another. He had served in the pages’ circle (chuhra jīrgasī) during the guerilla times and gave suchFol. 174. satisfaction by his service that the Mīrzā did him the favour of putting his name on the stamp (tamghā) and the coin (sikka).1098
Shaikhīm Beg was another.1099 People used to call him Shaikhīm Suhailī because Suhailī was his pen-name. He wrote all sorts of verse, bringing in terrifying words and mental images. Here is a couplet of his:—
In the anguish of my nights, the whirlpool of my sighs engulphs the firmament;
Like a dragon, the torrent of my tears swallows the quarters of the world.
Well-known it is that when he once recited that couplet in Maulānā ‘Abdu’r-raḥmān Jāmī’s presence, the honoured Mullā asked him whether he was reciting verse or frightening people. He put a dīwān together; mas̤nawīs of his are also in existence.
Muḥammad-i-walī Beg was another, the son of the Walī Beg already mentioned. Latterly he became one of the Mīrzā’s great begs but, great beg though he was, he never neglected his service and used to recline (yāstānīb) day and night in the Gate. Through doing this, his free meals and open table were always set just outside the Gate. Quite certainly a man who was so constantly in waiting, would receive the favour he received! It is an evil noticeable today that effort must be made before the man, dubbed Beg because he has five or six of the bald and blind at his back, can be got into the Gate at all! Where this sort of service is, it must be to their own misfortune! Muḥammad-i-walī Beg’s public table and free meals were good; he kept his servants neat and well-dressed and with his own hands gaveFol. 174b. ample portion to the poor and destitute, but he was foul-mouthed and evil-spoken. He and also Darwīsh-i-‘alī the librarian were in my service when I took Samarkand in 917 AH. (Oct. 1511 AD.); he was palsied then; his talk lacked salt; his former claim to favour was gone. His assiduous waiting appears to have been the cause of his promotion.
Bābā ‘Alī the Lord of the Gate was another. First, ‘Alī-sher Beg showed him favour; next, because of his courage, the Mīrzā took him into service, made him Lord of the Gate, and promoted him to be a beg. One of his sons is serving me now (circa 934 AH.), that Yūnas of ‘Alī who is a beg, a confidant, and of my household. He will often be mentioned.1100
Badru’d-dīn (Full-moon of the Faith) was another. He had been in the service of Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā’s Chief Justice Mīrak ‘Abdu’r-raḥīm; it is said he was very nimble and sure-footed, a man who could leap over seven horses at once. He and Bābā ‘Alī were close companions.
Ḥasan of ‘Alī Jalāīr was another. His original name was Ḥusain Jalāīr but he came to be called ‘Alī’s Ḥasan.1101 His father ‘Alī Jalāīr must have been favoured and made a beg by Bābur Mīrzā; no man was greater later on when Yādgār-i-muḥammad M. took Herī. Ḥasan-i-‘alī was Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s Qūsh-begī.1102 He made T̤ufailī (Uninvited-guest) his pen-name; wrote good odes and was the Master of this art in his day. He wrote odes on my name when he came to my presence at the time I took Samarkand in 917 AH. (1511 AD.). Impudent (bī bāk) and Fol. 175.prodigal he was, a keeper of catamites, a constant dicer and draught-player.
Khwāja ‘Abdu’l-lāh Marwārīd (Pearl)1103 was another; he was at first Chief Justice but later on became one of the Mīrzā’s favourite household-begs. He was full of accomplishments; on the dulcimer he had no equal, and he invented the shake on the dulcimer; he wrote in several scripts, most beautifully in the ta‘līq; he composed admirable letters, wrote good verse, with Bayānī for his pen-name, and was a pleasant companion. Compared with his other accomplishments, his verse ranks low, but he knew what was poetry. Vicious and shameless, he became the captive of a sinful disease through his vicious excesses, outlived his hands and feet, tasted the agonies of varied torture for several years, and departed from the world under that affliction.1104
Sayyid Muḥammad-i-aūrūs was another; he was the son of that Aūrūs (Russian?) Arghūn who, when Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā took the throne, was his beg in chief authority. At that time there were excellent archer-braves; one of the most distinguished was Sayyid Muḥammad-i-aūrūs. His bow strong, his shaft long, he must have been a bold (yūrak) shot and a good one. He was Commandant in Andikhūd for some time.
Mīr (Qaṃbar-i-)‘alī the Master of the Horse was another. He it was who, by sending a man to Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā, brought him down on the defenceless Yādgār-i-muḥammad Mīrzā.
Sayyid Ḥasan Aūghlāqchī was another, a son of Sayyid Aūghlāqchī and a younger brother of Sayyid Yūsuf Beg.1105 He was the father of a capable and accomplished son, named Mīrzā Farrukh. He had come to my presence before I took SamarkandFol. 175b. in 917 AH. (1511 AD.). Though he had written little verse, he wrote fairly; he understood the astrolabe and astronomy well, was excellent company, his talk good too, but he was rather a bad drinker (bad shrāb). He died in the fight at Ghaj-dawān.1106
Tīngrī-bīrdī the storekeeper (sāmānchī) was another; he was a plain (turk), bold, sword-slashing brave. As has been said, he charged out of the Gate of Balkh on Khusrau Shāh’s great retainer Naz̤ar Bahādur and overcame him (903 AH.).
There were a few Turkmān braves also who were received with great favour when they came to the Mīrzā’s presence. One of the first to come was ‘Alī Khān Bāyandar.1107 Asad Beg and Taham-tan (Strong-bodied) Beg were others, an elder and younger brother these; Badī‘u’z-zamān Mīrzā took Taham-tan Beg’s daughter and by her had Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā. Mīr ‘Umar Beg was another; later on he was in Badī‘u’z-zamān Mīrzā’s service; he was a brave, plain, excellent person. His son, Abū’l-fatḥ by name, came from ‘Irāq to my presence, a very soft, unsteady and feeble person; such a son from such a father!
Of those who came into Khurāsān after Shāh Ismā‘īl took ‘Irāq and Aẕarbāījān (circa 906 AH.−1500 AD.), one was ‘Abdu’l-bāqī Mīrzā of Tīmūr Beg’s line. He was a Mīrān-shāhī1108 whose ancestors will have gone long before into those parts, put thought Fol. 176.of sovereignty out of their heads, served those ruling there, and from them have received favour. That Tīmūr ‘Us̤mān who was the great, trusted beg of Ya‘qūb Beg (White-sheep Turkmān) and who had once even thought of sending against Khurāsān the mass of men he had gathered to himself, must have been this ‘Abdu’l-bāqī Mīrzā’s paternal-uncle. Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took ‘Abdu’l-bāqī Mīrzā at once into favour, making him a son-in-law by giving him Sult̤ānīm Begīm, the mother of Muḥammad Sl. Mīrzā.1109 Another late-comer was Murād Beg Bāyandarī.
(h. His Chief Justices (ṣadūr).)
One was Mīr Sar-i-barahna (Bare-head)1110; he was from a village in Andijān and appears to have made claim to be a sayyid (mutasayyid). He was a very agreeable companion, pleasant of temper and speech. His were the judgment and rulings that carried weight amongst men of letters and poets of Khurāsān. He wasted his time by composing, in imitation of the story of Amīr Ḥamza,1111 a work which is one long, far-fetched lie, opposed to sense and nature.
Kamālu’d-dīn Ḥusain Gāzur-gāhī1112 was another. Though not a Ṣūfī, he was mystical.1113 Such mystics as he will have gathered in ‘Alī-sher Beg’s presence and there have gone into their raptures and ecstacies. Kamālu’d-dīn will have been better-born than most of them; his promotion will have been due to his good birth, since he had no other merit to speak of.1114 A production of his exists, under the name Majālisu’l-‘ushshāq