56 chapters
15 hour read
Selected Chapters
56 chapters
The Bābur-nāma in English
The Bābur-nāma in English
(Memoirs of Bābur) Translated from the original Turki Text OF Z̤ahiru’d-dīn Muḥammad Bābur Pādshāh Ghāzī BY ANNETTE SUSANNAH BEVERIDGE First Printed 1922 This work is dedicate to Bābur’s fame. Preface : Introductory.—Cap. I. Babur’s exemplars in the Arts of peace, p. xxvii.—Cap. II. Problems of the mutilated Babur-nama, p. xxxi.—Cap. III. The Turki MSS. and work connecting with them, p. xxxviii.—Cap. IV. The Leyden and Erskine “Memoirs of Baber”, p. lvii.—Postscript of Thanks, p. lx. 899 AH. —Oc
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Appendices
Appendices
A . Site and disappearance of old Akhsī. B . The birds Qīl-qūyīrūgh and Bāghrī-qarā. C . On the gosha-gīr . D . The Rescue-passage. E . Nagarahār and Nīng-nahār. F . The name Dara-i-nūr. G . On the names of two Dara-i-nūr wines. H . On the counter-mark Bih-būd of coins. I . The weeping-willows of f. 190 b . J . Bābur’s excavated chamber at Qandahār. K . An Afghān Legend. L . Māhīm’s adoption of Hind-āl. M . On the term Bahrī-qut̤ās. N . Notes on a few birds. O . Notes by Humāyūn on some Hindūstā
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Introductory.
Introductory.
This book is a translation of Babur Padshah’s Autobiography, made from the original Turki text. It was undertaken after a purely-Turki manuscript had become accessible in England, the Haidarabad Codex (1915) which, being in Babur’s ipsissima verba , left to him the control of his translator’s diction—a control that had been impracticable from the time when, under Akbar (1589), his book was translated into Persian. What has come down to us of pure text is, in its shrunken amount, what was transla
56 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Chapter I. BABUR’S EXEMPLARS IN THE ARTS OF PEACE.
Chapter I. BABUR’S EXEMPLARS IN THE ARTS OF PEACE.
Babur’s civilian aptitudes, whether of the author and penman, the maker of gardens, the artist, craftsman or sportsman, were nourished in a fertile soil of family tradition and example. Little about his teaching and training is now with his mutilated book, little indeed of any kind about his præ-accession years, not the date of his birth even, having escaped destruction. 4 Happily Haidar Mirza ( q.v. ) possessed a more complete Codex than has come down to us through the Timurid libraries, and fr
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Chapter II. PROBLEMS OF THE MUTILATED BABUR-NAMA.
Chapter II. PROBLEMS OF THE MUTILATED BABUR-NAMA.
Losses from the text of Babur’s book are the more disastrous because it truly embodies his career. For it has the rare distinction of being contemporary with the events it describes, is boyish in his boyhood, grows with his growth, matures as he matured. Undulled by retrospect, it is a fresh and spontaneous recital of things just seen, heard or done. It has the further rare distinction of shewing a boy who, setting a future task before him—in his case the revival of Timurid power,—began to chron
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Chapter III. THE TURKI MSS. AND WORK CONNECTING WITH THEM.
Chapter III. THE TURKI MSS. AND WORK CONNECTING WITH THEM.
This chapter is a literary counterpart of “Babur Padshah’s Stone-heap,” the roadside cairn tradition says was piled by his army, each man laying his stone when passing down from Kabul for Hindustan in the year of victory 1525 (932). 11 For a title suiting its contents is “Babur Padshah’s Book-pile,” because it is fashioned of item after item of pen-work done by many men in obedience to the dictates given by his book. Unlike the cairn, however, the pile of books is not of a single occasion but of
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Chapter IV. THE LEYDEN AND ERSKINE MEMOIRS OF BABER.
Chapter IV. THE LEYDEN AND ERSKINE MEMOIRS OF BABER.
The fame and long literary services of the Memoirs of Baber compel me to explain why these volumes of mine contain a verbally new English translation of the Babur-nama instead of a second edition of the Memoirs . My explanation is the simple one of textual values, of the advantage a primary source has over its derivative, Babur’s original text over its Persian translation which alone was accessible to Erskine. If the Babur-nama owed its perennial interest to its valuable multifarious matter, the
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Postscript of Thanks.
Postscript of Thanks.
I take with gratitude the long-delayed opportunity of finishing my book to express the obligation I feel to the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society for allowing me to record in the Journal my Notes on the Turki Codices of the Babur-nama begun in 1900 and occasionally appearing till 1921. In minor convenience of work, to be able to gather those progressive notes together and review them, has been of value to me in noticeable matters, two of which are the finding and multiplying of the Haidarabad
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AH.—Oct. 12th 1493 to Oct. 2nd 1494 AD.
AH.—Oct. 12th 1493 to Oct. 2nd 1494 AD.
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. In 36 the month of Ramẓān of the year 899 (June 1494) and Ḥaidarābād MS. fol. 1b. in the twelfth year of my age, 37 I became ruler 38 in the country of Farghāna. ( a. Description of Farghāna. ) Farghāna is situated in the fifth climate 39 and at the limit of settled habitation. On the east it has Kāshghar; on the west, Samarkand; on the south, the mountains of the Badakhshān border; on the north, though in former times there must have been tow
22 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
900 AH.-OCT. 2nd. 1494 to SEP. 21st. 1495 AD.232
900 AH.-OCT. 2nd. 1494 to SEP. 21st. 1495 AD.232
This year Sl. Maḥmūd Mīrzā sent an envoy, named ‘Abdu’l-qadūs Beg, 233 to bring me a gift from the wedding he had made with splendid festivity for his eldest son, Mas‘ūd Mīrzā with (Ṣāliḥa-sult̤ān), the Fair Begīm, the second daughter of his elder brother, Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā. They had sent gold and silver almonds and pistachios. There must have been relationship between this envoy and Ḥasan-i-yaq‘ūb, and on its account he will have been the man sent to make Ḥasan-i-yaq‘ūb, by fair promises, look to
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
901 AH.—SEP. 21st. 1495 to SEP. 9th. 1496 AD.282
901 AH.—SEP. 21st. 1495 to SEP. 9th. 1496 AD.282
( a. Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā’s campaign against Khusrau Shāh ). In the winter of this year, Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā led his army out of Khurāsān against Ḥiṣār and went to opposite Tīrmīẕ. Sl. Mas‘ūd Mīrzā, for his part, brought an army (from Ḥiṣār) and sat down over against him in Tīrmīẕ. Khusrau Shāh strengthened himself in Qūndūz and to help Sl. Mas‘ūd Mīrzā sent his younger brother, Walī. They ( i.e. , the opposed forces) spent most of that winter on the river’s banks, no crossing being effected. Sl. Ḥ
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
902 AH.—SEP. 9th. 1496 to AUG. 30th. 1497 AD.309
902 AH.—SEP. 9th. 1496 to AUG. 30th. 1497 AD.309
( a. Bābur’s second attempt on Samarkand. ) This winter, Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā’s affairs were altogether in a good way. When ‘Abdu’l-karīm Ushrit came on Sl. ‘Alī Mīrzā’s part to near Kūfīn, Mahdī Sl. led out a body of Bāī-sunghar Mīrzā’s troops against him. The two commanders meeting exactly face to face, Mahdī Sl. pricked ‘Abdu’l-karīm’s horse with his Chirkas 310 sword so that it fell, and as ‘Abdu’l-karīm was getting to his feet, struck off his hand at the wrist. Having taken him, they gave his
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
903 AH.—AUG. 30th. 1497 to AUG. 19th. 1498 AD.335
903 AH.—AUG. 30th. 1497 to AUG. 19th. 1498 AD.335
( a. Resumed account of Bābur’s second attempt on Samarkand. ) When we had dismounted in the Qulba (Plough) meadow, 336 behind the Bāgh-i-maidān (Garden of the plain), the Samarkandīs came out in great numbers to near Muḥammad Chap’s Fol. 43. Bridge. Our men were unprepared; and before they were ready, Bābā ‘Alī’s (son) Bābā Qulī had been unhorsed and taken into the fort. A few days later we moved to the top of Qulba, at the back of Kohik. 337 That day Sayyid Yūsuf, 338 having been sent out of t
34 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
904 AH.—AUG. 19th. 1498 to AUG. 8th. 1499 AD.432
904 AH.—AUG. 19th. 1498 to AUG. 8th. 1499 AD.432
( a. Bābur borrows Pashāghar and leaves Khujand. ) Twice we had moved out of Khujand, once for Andijān, once for Samarkand, and twice we had gone back to it because our work was not opened out. 433 Khujand is a poor place; a man with 2 or 300 followers would have a hard time there; with Fol. 59. what outlook would an ambitious man set himself down in it? As it was our wish to return to Samarkand, we sent people to confer with Muḥammad Ḥusain Kūrkān Dūghlāt in Aūrā-tīpā and to ask of him the loan
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
905 AH. AUG. 8th. 1499 to JULY 28th. 1500 AD.470
905 AH. AUG. 8th. 1499 to JULY 28th. 1500 AD.470
( a. Bābur’s campaign against Aḥmad Taṃbal Mughūl. ) Commissaries were sent gallopping off at once, some to call up the horse and foot of the district-armies, others to urge return on Qaṃbar-‘alī and whoever else was away in his own district, while energetic people were told off to get together mantelets ( tūra ), shovels, axes and the what-not of war-material and stores for the men already with us. As soon as the horse and foot, called up from the various districts to join the army, and the sol
28 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
906 AH.—JULY 28th. 1500 to JULY 17th. 1501 AD.527
906 AH.—JULY 28th. 1500 to JULY 17th. 1501 AD.527
( a. Samarkand in the hands of the Aūzbegs. ) When, acting on that woman’s promise, Shaibānī Khān went to Samarkand, he dismounted in the Garden of the Plain. About mid-day Sl. ‘Alī Mīrzā went out to him through the Four-roads Gate, without a word to any of his begs or unmailed braves, without taking counsel with any-one soever and accompanied only by a few men of little consideration from his own close circle. The Khān, for his part, did not receive him very favourably; when they had seen one a
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
907 AH.—JULY 17th. 1501 to JULY 7th. 1502 AD.567
907 AH.—JULY 17th. 1501 to JULY 7th. 1502 AD.567
( a. Surrender of Samarkand to Shaibānī. ) The siege drew on to great length; no provisions and supplies came in from any quarter, no succour and reinforcement from any side. The soldiers and peasantry became hopeless and, by ones and twos, began to let themselves down outside 568 the walls and flee. On Shaibāq Khān’s hearing of the distress in the town, he came and dismounted near the Lovers’-cave. I, in turn, went to Malik-muḥammad Mīrzā’s dwellings in Low-lane, over against him. On one of tho
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
908 AH.—JULY 7th. 1502 to JUNE 26th. 1503 AD.607
908 AH.—JULY 7th. 1502 to JUNE 26th. 1503 AD.607
( a. Bābur’s poverty in Tāshkīnt. ) This move of The Khān’s was rather unprofitable; to take no fort, to beat no foe, he went out and went back. During my stay in Tāshkīnt, I endured much poverty and humiliation. No country or hope of one! Most of my retainers dispersed, those left, unable to move about with me because of their destitution! If I went to my Khān dādā’s Gate, 608 I went sometimes with one man, sometimes with two. It was well he was no stranger but one of my own blood. Fol. 101b. A
46 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
910 AH.-JUNE 14th 1504 to JUNE 4th 1505 AD.667
910 AH.-JUNE 14th 1504 to JUNE 4th 1505 AD.667
( a. Bābur leaves Farghāna. ) In the month of Muḥarram, after leaving the Farghāna country Ḥaidarābād MS. Fol. 120. intending to go to Khurāsān, I dismounted at Aīlāk-yīlāq, 668 one of the summer pastures of Ḥiṣār. In this camp I entered my 23rd year, and applied the razor to my face. 669 Those who, hoping in me, went with me into exile, were, small and great, between 2 and 300; they were almost all on foot, had walking-staves in their hands, brogues 670 on their feet, and long coats 671 on
48 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
911 AH.—JUNE 4th 1505 to MAY 24th 1506 AD.940
911 AH.—JUNE 4th 1505 to MAY 24th 1506 AD.940
( a. Death of Qūtlūq-nigār Khānīm. ) In the month of Muḥarram my mother had fever. Blood was let without effect and a Khurāsānī doctor, known as Sayyid T̤abīb, in accordance with the Khurāsān practice, gave her water-melon, but her time to die must have come, for on the Fol. 157. Saturday after six days of illness, she went to God’s mercy. On Sunday I and Qāsim Kūkūldāsh conveyed her to the New-year’s Garden on the mountain-skirt 941 where Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā had built a house, and there, with the
41 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
912 AH.-MAY 24th 1506 to MAY 13th 1507 AD.1171
912 AH.-MAY 24th 1506 to MAY 13th 1507 AD.1171
( a. Bābur starts to join Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā. ) In the month of Muḥarram we set out by way of Ghūr-bund Fol. 183b. and Shibr-tū to oppose the Aūzbeg. As Jahāngīr Mīrzā had gone out of the country in some sort of displeasure, we said, “There might come much mischief and trouble if he drew the clans ( aīmāq ) to himself;” and “What trouble might come of it!” and, “First let’s get the clans in hand!” So said, we hurried forward, riding light and leaving the baggage ( aūrūq ) at Ushtur-shahr in charge
45 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
913 AH.-MAY 13th 1507 to MAY 2nd 1508 AD.1246
913 AH.-MAY 13th 1507 to MAY 2nd 1508 AD.1246
( a. Raid on the Ghiljī Afghāns. ) We had ridden out of Kābul with the intention of over-running the Ghiljī; 1247 when we dismounted at Sar-i-dih news was brought that a mass of Mahmands (Afghāns) was lying in Masht and Sih-kāna one yīghāch ( circa 5 m.) away from us. 1248 Our begs and braves agreed in saying, “The Mahmands must be over-run”, but I said, “Would it be right to turn aside and raid our own peasants instead of doing what we set out to do? It cannot be.” Riding at night from Sar-i-di
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
914 AH.—MAY 2nd 1508 to APRIL 21st 1509 AD.1322
914 AH.—MAY 2nd 1508 to APRIL 21st 1509 AD.1322
This spring a body of Mahmand Afghāns was over-run near Muqur. 1323 ( a. A Mughūl rebellion. ) A few days after our return from that raid, Qūj Beg, Faqīr-i-‘alī, Karīm-dād and Bābā chuhra were thinking about deserting, but their design becoming known, people were sent who took them below Astarghach. As good-for-nothing words of theirs had been reported to me, even during Jahāngīr M.’s life-time, 1324 I ordered that they should be put to death at the top of the bāzār . They had been taken to the
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
USEFUL SOURCES
USEFUL SOURCES
Compared with what Bābur could have told of this most interesting period of his life, the yield of the sources is scant, a natural sequel from the fact that no one of them had his biography for its main theme, still less had his own action in crises of enforced ambiguity. Of all known sources the best are Khwānd-amīr’s Ḥabību’s-siyar and Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dūghlāt’s Tārīkh-i-rashīdī . The first was finished nominally in 930 AH. (1524-5 AD. ), seven years therefore before Bābur’s death, but it received
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS
EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS
914 AH.-MAY 2nd 1508 to APRIL 21st 1509 AD. The mutiny, of which an account begins in the text, was crushed by the victory of 500 loyalists over 3,000 rebels, one factor of success being Bābur’s defeat in single combat of five champions of his adversaries. 1334 The disturbance was not of long duration; Kābul was tranquil in Sha‘bān (November) when Sl. Sa‘īd Khān Chaghatāī , then 21, arrived there seeking his cousin’s protection, after defeat by his brother Manṣūr at Almātū, escape from death, co
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS
EVENTS OF THE UNCHRONICLED YEARS
926 AH.-DEC. 23rd 1519 to DEC. 12th 1520 AD. The question of which were Bābur’s “Five expeditions” into Hindūstān has been often discussed; it is useful therefore to establish the dates of those known as made. I have entered one as made in this year for the following reasons;—it broke short because Shāh Beg made incursion into Bābur’s territories, and that incursion was followed by a siege of Qandahār which several matters mentioned below show to have taken place in 926 AH. a. Expedition into Hi
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
932 AH.-OCT. 18th 1525 to OCT. 8th 1526 AD.1565
932 AH.-OCT. 18th 1525 to OCT. 8th 1526 AD.1565
( a. Fifth expedition into Hindūstān. ) ( Nov. 17th ) On Friday the 1st of the month of Ṣafar at the Ḥaidarābād MS. Fol. 251b. date 932, the Sun being in the Sign of the Archer, we set out for Hindūstān, crossed the small rise of Yak-langa, and dismounted in the meadow to the west of the water of Dih-i-ya‘qūb. 1566 ‘Abdu’l-malūk the armourer came into this camp; he had gone seven or eight months earlier as my envoy to Sult̤ān Sa‘īd Khān (in Kāshghar), and now brought one of the Khān’s men, style
47 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
933 AH.-OCT. 8th 1526 to SEP. 27th 1527 AD.1961
933 AH.-OCT. 8th 1526 to SEP. 27th 1527 AD.1961
( a. Announcement of the birth of a son. ) In Muḥarram Beg Wais brought the news of Fārūq’s birth; though a foot-man had brought it already, he came this month for the gift to the messenger of good tidings. 1962 The birth must have been on Friday eve, Shawwāl 23rd (932 AH. -August 2nd 1526 AD. ); the name given was Fārūq. ( b. Casting of a mortar. ) ( October 22nd-Muḥarram 15th ) Ustād ‘Alī-qulī had been ordered to cast a large mortar for use against Bīāna and other forts which had not yet submi
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
934 AH.-SEP. 27th 1527 to SEP. 15th 1528 AD.2171
934 AH.-SEP. 27th 1527 to SEP. 15th 1528 AD.2171
( a. Visit to Kūl (Aligarh) and Saṃbal. ) ( Sep. 27th ) On Saturday the 1st of Muḥarram we dismounted in Kūl (Koel). Humāyūn had left Darwīsh(-i-‘alī) and Yūsuf-i-‘alī 2172 in Saṃbal; they crossed one river, 2173 fought Qut̤b Sīrwānī 2174 and a party of rājas, beat them well and killed a mass of men. They sent a few heads and an elephant into Kūl while we were there. After we had gone about Kūl for two days, we dismounted at Shaikh Gūran’s house by his invitation, where he entertained us hospita
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
935 AH.-SEP. 15th 1528 to SEP. 5th 1529 AD.2242
935 AH.-SEP. 15th 1528 to SEP. 5th 1529 AD.2242
( a. Arrivals at Court. ) ( Sep. 18th ) On Friday the 3rd 2243 of Muḥarram, ‘Askarī whom I had summoned for the good of Multān 2244 before I moved out for Chandīrī, waited on me in the private-house. 2245 ( Sep. 19th ) Next day waited on me the historian Khwānd-amīr, Maulānā Shihāb 2246 the enigmatist, and Mīr Ibrāhīm the harper a relation of Yūnas-i-‘alī, who had all come out of Herī long before, wishing to wait on me. 2247 ( b. Bābur starts for Gūālīār. ) 2248 ( Sep. 20th ) With the intention
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
936 AH.-SEP. 5th 1529 to AUGUST 25th 1530 AD.
936 AH.-SEP. 5th 1529 to AUGUST 25th 1530 AD.
( a. Raḥīm-dād’s affairs. ) ( Sep. 7th ) On Wednesday the 3rd of Muḥarram, Shaikh Muḥammad Ghaus̤ 2691 came in from Gūālīār with Khusrau’s (son) Shihābu’d-dīn to plead for Raḥīm-dād. As Shaikh Muḥammad Ghaūṣ was a pious and excellent person, Raḥīm-dād’s faults were forgiven for his sake. Shaikh Gūran and Nūr Beg were sent off for Gūālīār, so that the place having been made over to their charge.... 2692 TRANSLATOR’S NOTE ON 936 to 937 AH.-1529 to 1530 AD. It is difficult to find material for fill
40 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A.—THE SITE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF OLD AKHSĪ.
A.—THE SITE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF OLD AKHSĪ.
Some modern writers, amongst whom are Dr. Schuyler, General Nalivkine and Mr. Pumpelly, have inferred from the Bābur-nāma account of Akhsī, (in its translations?) that the landslip through which Bābur’s father died and the disappearance of old Akhsī were brought about by erosion. Seen by the light of modern information, this erosion theory does not seem to cover the whole ground and some other cause seems necessary in explanation of both events. For convenience of reference, the Bābur-nāma passa
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
B.—THE BIRDS, QĪL QŪYIRŪGH AND BĀGHRĪ QARĀ.
B.—THE BIRDS, QĪL QŪYIRŪGH AND BĀGHRĪ QARĀ.
Describing a small bird ( qūsh-qīna ), abundant in the Qarshī district (f. 49 b ), Bābur names it the qīl-qūyirūgh , horse-tail, and says it resembles the bāghrī qarā . Later on he writes (f. 280) that the bāghrī qarā of India is smaller and more slender than ‘those’ i.e. of Transoxiana (f. 49 b , n. 1), the blackness of its breast less deep, and its cry less piercing. We have had difficulty in identifying the birds but at length conclude that the bāghrī qarā of Transoxiana is Pterocles arenariu
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
C.—ON THE GOSHA-GĪR.
C.—ON THE GOSHA-GĪR.
I am indebted to my husband’s examination of two Persian MSS. on archery for an explanation of the word gosha-gīr , in its technical sense in archery. The works consulted are the Cyclopædia of Archery ( Kulliyatu’r-rāmī I. O. 2771) and the Archer’s Guide ( Hidāyatu’r-rāmī I. O. 2768). It should be premised that in archery, the word gosha describes, in the arrow, the notch by which it grips and can be carried on the string, and, in the bow, both the tip (horn) and the notch near the tip in which
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
D.—ON THE RESCUE PASSAGE.
D.—ON THE RESCUE PASSAGE.
I have omitted from my translation an account of Bābur’s rescue from expected death, although it is with the Ḥaidarābād Codex, because closer acquaintance with its details has led both my husband and myself to judge it spurious. We had welcomed it because, being with the true Bābur-nāma text, it accredited the same account found in the Kehr-Ilminsky text, and also because, however inefficiently, it did something towards filling the gap found elsewhere within 908 AH. It is in the Ḥaidarābād MS. (
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
E.—NAGARAHĀR, AND NĪNG-NAHĀR
E.—NAGARAHĀR, AND NĪNG-NAHĀR
Those who consult books and maps about the riverain tract between the Safed-koh (Spīn-ghur) and (Anglicé) the Kābul-river find its name in several forms, the most common being Nangrahār and Nangnahār (with variant vowels). It would be useful to establish a European book-name for the district. As European opinion differs about the origin and meaning of the names now in use, and as a good deal of interesting circumstance gathers round the small problem of a correct form (there may be two), I offer
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
F.—ON THE NAME DARA-I-NŪR
F.—ON THE NAME DARA-I-NŪR
Some European writers have understood the name Dara-i-nūr to mean Valley of Light, but natural features and also the artificial one mentioned by Colonel H. G. Tanner ( infra ), make it better to read the component nūr , not as Persian nūr , light, but as Pushtū nūr , rock. Hence it translates as Valley of Rocks, or Rock-valley. The region in which the valley lies is rocky and boulder-strewn; its own waters flow to the Kābul-river east of the water of Chitrāl. It shews other names composed with n
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
G.—ON THE NAMES OF TWO DARA-I-NŪR WINES.
G.—ON THE NAMES OF TWO DARA-I-NŪR WINES.
From the two names, Arat-tāshī and Sūhān (Suhār) -tāshī, which Bābur gives as those of two wines of the Dara-i-nūr, it can be inferred that he read nūr to mean rock. For if in them Turkī tāsh , rock, be replaced by Pushtū nūr , rock, two place-names emerge, Arat (-nūrī) and Sūhān (-nūrī), known in the Nūr-valley. These may be villages where the wines were grown, but it would be quite exceptional for Bābur to say that wines are called from their villages, or indeed by any name. He says here not w
58 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
H.—ON THE COUNTERMARK BIH BŪD ON COINS.
H.—ON THE COUNTERMARK BIH BŪD ON COINS.
As coins of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāī-qarā and other rulers do actually bear the words Bih būd , Bābur’s statement that the name of Bihbūd Beg was on the Mīrzā’s coins acquires a numismatic interest which may make serviceable the following particulars concerning the passage and the beg. 2782 a. The Turkī passage (Elph. MS. f. 135 b ; Ḥaidarābād Codex f. 173 b ; Ilminsky p. 217). For ease of reference the Turkī, Persian and English version are subjoined:— (1) Yana Bihbūd Beg aīdī. Būrūnlār chuhra-jīrg
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
I.—ON THE WEEPING-WILLOWS OF f. 190b.
I.—ON THE WEEPING-WILLOWS OF f. 190b.
The passage omitted from f. 190 b , which seems to describe something decorative done with weeping willows, ( bed-i-mawallah ) has been difficult to all translators. This may be due to inaccurate pointing in Bābur’s original MS. or may be what a traveller seeing other willows at another feast could explain. The first Persian translation omits the passage (I.O. 215 f. 154 b ); the second varies from the Turkī, notably by changing sāch and sāj to shākh throughout (I.O. 217 f. 150 b ). The English
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
J.—ON BĀBUR’S EXCAVATED CHAMBER AT QANDAHĀR (f. 208b).
J.—ON BĀBUR’S EXCAVATED CHAMBER AT QANDAHĀR (f. 208b).
Since making my note (f. 208 b ) on the wording of the passage in which Bābur mentions excavation done by him at Qandahār, I have learned that he must be speaking of the vaulted chamber containing the celebrated inscriptions about which much has been written. 2792 The primary inscription, the one commemorating Bābur’s final possession of Qandahār, gives the chamber the character of a Temple of Victory and speaks of it as Rawāq-i-jahān namāī , World-shewing-portal, 2793 doubtless because of its c
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
K.—AN AFGHĀN LEGEND.
K.—AN AFGHĀN LEGEND.
My husband’s article in the Asiatic Quarterly Review of April 1901 begins with an account of the two MSS. from which it is drawn, viz. I.O. 581 in Pushtū, I.O. 582 in Persian. Both are mainly occupied with an account of the Yūsuf-zāī. The second opens by telling of the power of the tribe in Afghānistān and of the kindness of Malik Shāh Sulaimān, one of their chiefs, to Aūlūgh Beg Mīrzā Kābulī , (Bābur’s paternal uncle,) when he was young and in trouble, presumably as a boy ruler. It relates that
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
L.—ON MĀHĪM’S ADOPTION OF HIND-ĀL.
L.—ON MĀHĪM’S ADOPTION OF HIND-ĀL.
The passage quoted below about Māhīm’s adoption of the unborn Hind-āl we have found so far only in Kehr’s transcript of the Bābur-nāma ( i.e. the St. Petersburg Foreign Office Codex). Ilminsky reproduced it (Kāsān imprint p. 281) and de Courteille translated it (ii, 45), both with endeavour at emendation. It is interpolated in Kehr’s MS. at the wrong place, thus indicating that it was once marginal or apart from the text. I incline to suppose the whole a note made by Humāyūn, although part of it
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
M.—ON THE TERM BAḤRĪ QŪT̤ĀS.
M.—ON THE TERM BAḤRĪ QŪT̤ĀS.
That the term baḥrī qūt̤ās is interpreted by Meninski, Erskine, and de Courteille in senses so widely differing as equus maritimus , mountain-cow, and bœuf vert de mer is due, no doubt, to their writing when the qūt̤ās , the yāk, was less well known than it now is. The word qūt̤ās represents both the yāk itself and its neck-tassel and tail. Hence Meninski explains it by nodus fimbriatus ex cauda seu crinibus equi maritimi . His “sea-horse” appears to render baḥrī qūt̤ās , and is explicable by th
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
N.—NOTES ON A FEW BIRDS.
N.—NOTES ON A FEW BIRDS.
In attempting to identify some of the birds of Bābur’s lists difficulty arises from the variety of names provided by the different tongues of the region concerned, and also in some cases by the application of one name to differing birds. The following random gleanings enlarge and, in part, revise some earlier notes and translations of Mr. Erskine’s and my own. They are offered as material for the use of those better acquainted with bird-lore and with Himālayan dialects. a. Concerning the lūkha ,
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
O.—NOTES BY HUMĀYŪN ON SOME HINDŪSTĀN FRUITS.
O.—NOTES BY HUMĀYŪN ON SOME HINDŪSTĀN FRUITS.
The following notes, which may be accepted as made by Humāyūn and in the margin of the archetype of the Elphinstone Codex, are composed in Turkī which differs in diction from his father’s but is far closer to that classic model than is that of the producer [Jahāngīr?] of the “Fragments” (Index s.n. ). Various circumstances make the notes difficult to decipher verbatim and, unfortunately, when writing in Jan. 1917, I am unable to collate with its original in the Advocates Library, the copy I made
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
P.—REMARKS ON BĀBUR’S REVENUE LIST (fol. 292).
P.—REMARKS ON BĀBUR’S REVENUE LIST (fol. 292).
a. Concerning the date of the List. The Revenue List is the last item of Bābur’s account of Hindūstān and, with that account, is found s.a. 932 AH. , manifestly too early, (1) because it includes districts and their revenues which did not come under Bābur’s authority until subdued in his Eastern campaigns of 934 and 935 AH. , (2) because Bābur’s statement is that the “countries” of the List “are now in my possession” ( in loco p. 520). The List appears to be one of revenues realized in 936 or 93
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Q.—CONCERNING THE “RĀMPŪR DĪWĀN”.
Q.—CONCERNING THE “RĀMPŪR DĪWĀN”.
Pending the wide research work necessary to interpret Bābur’s Hindūstān poems which the Rāmpūr manuscript preserves, the following comments, some tentative and open to correction, may carry further in making the poems publicly known, what Dr. E. Denison Ross has effected by publishing his Facsimile of the manuscript. 2826 It is legitimate to associate comment on the poems with the Bābur-nāma because many of them are in it with their context of narrative; most, if not all, connect with it; some w
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
R.—CHANDĪRĪ AND GŪĀLĪĀR.
R.—CHANDĪRĪ AND GŪĀLĪĀR.
The courtesy of the Government of India enables me to reproduce from the Archæological Survey Reports of 1871, Sir Alexander Cunningham’s plans of Chandīrī and Gūālīār, which illustrate Bābur’s narrative on f. 333, p. 592, and f. 340, p. 607. A. Cunningham del....
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
S.—CONCERNING THE BĀBUR-NĀMA DATING OF 935 AH.
S.—CONCERNING THE BĀBUR-NĀMA DATING OF 935 AH.
The dating of the diary of 935 AH. (f. 339 et seq. ) is several times in opposition to what may be distinguished as the “book-rule” that the 12 lunar months of the Ḥijra year alternate in length between 30 and 29 days (intercalary years excepted), and that Muḥarram starts the alternation with 30 days. An early book stating the rule is Gladwin’s Bengal Revenue Accounts ; a recent one, Ranking’s ed. of Platts’ Persian Grammar . As to what day of the week was the initial day of some of the months i
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
T.—ON L:KNŪ (LAKHNAU) AND L:KNŪR (LAKHNŪR, NOW SHĀHĀBĀD IN RĀMPŪR).
T.—ON L:KNŪ (LAKHNAU) AND L:KNŪR (LAKHNŪR, NOW SHĀHĀBĀD IN RĀMPŪR).
One or other of the above-mentioned names occurs eight times in the Bābur-nāma ( s.a. 932, 934, 935 AH. ), some instances being shown by their context to represent Lakhnau in Oudh, others inferentially and by the verbal agreement of the Ḥaidarābād Codex and Kehr’s Codex to stand for Lakhnūr (now Shāhābād in Rāmpūr). It is necessary to reconsider the identification of those not decided by their context, both because there is so much variation in the copies of the ‘Abdu’r-raḥīm Persian translation
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
U.—THE INSCRIPTIONS ON BĀBUR’S MOSQUE IN AJODHYA (OUDH).
U.—THE INSCRIPTIONS ON BĀBUR’S MOSQUE IN AJODHYA (OUDH).
Thanks to the kind response made by the Deputy-Commissioner of Fyzābād to my husband’s enquiry about two inscriptions mentioned by several Gazetteers as still existing on “Bābur’s Mosque” in Oudh, I am able to quote copies of both. 2847 a. The inscription inside the Mosque is as follows:— The translation and explanation of the above, manifestly made by a Musalmān and as such having special value, are as follows:— 2848 1. By the command of the Emperor Bābur whose justice is an edifice reaching up
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
V.—BĀBUR’S GARDENS IN AND NEAR KĀBUL.
V.—BĀBUR’S GARDENS IN AND NEAR KĀBUL.
The following particulars about gardens made by Bābur in or near Kābul, are given in Muḥammad Amīr of Kazwīn’s Pādshāh-nāma (Bib. Ind. ed. p. 585, p. 588). Ten gardens are mentioned as made:—the Shahr-ārā (Town-adorning) which when Shāh-i-jahān first visited Kābul in the 12th year of his reign (1048 AH. -1638 AD. ) contained very fine plane-trees Bābur had planted, beautiful trees having magnificent trunks, 2854 —the Chār-bāgh,—the Bāgh-i-jalau-khāna, 2855 —the Aūrta-bāgh (Middle-garden),—the Ṣa
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
OMISSIONS FROM TRANSLATION AND FOOTNOTES.
OMISSIONS FROM TRANSLATION AND FOOTNOTES.
p. 7 l.1 “turbulent” add They are notorious in Mawara’u’n-nahr for their bullyings. p. 27 l.5 “(1504)” add when, after taking Khusrau Shah, we besieged Muqim in Kabul. p. 31 l.1 “paid” add no (attention). p. 43 l.9 enter f. 24 b . ib. l.8 fr. ft. “Taghai” add and Auzun Ḥasan. p. 45 Sec. c, l.2 “good” add he never neglected the Prayers. p. 48 l.16 “grandmother” add Khan-zada Begim. p. 52 l.4 fr. ft. “childhood” add and had attained the rank of Beg. p. 88 l.9 Ḥasan add and Sl. Ahṃad Tambal. p. 92
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CORRIGENDA.
CORRIGENDA.
To ensure notice many of these are entered in the Indices. Pages 6 l.4 “meadow” read plain ( maidan ). 11 n.4, “siyar” unaccented; (H.S.) ii read iii n.n. pp. 18, 38, 48, 244. 12 n.4 l.3 “attack in” read attacking. 14 l.3 “and” read who. 16 l.10 n. ref. “3” tr. to “amorous”. 24 n.1 “932” read 923. 27 para. 2 read “Baba ‘Ali Beg’s Baba-quli”. 28 l.8 “leaders” read Mughul mirzadas. 29 n.6 l.5 “then” read his. 37 l.8 “916” read 917; and tr. nn. 2 and 3. 38 l.9 “favour” run on to Ahṃad. 44 l.9 55 l.
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ADDITIONAL NOTES
ADDITIONAL NOTES
P. 16 l. 11.—Niz̤āmī mentions “lover’s marks” where a rebel chieftain commenting on Khusrau’s unfitness to rule by reason of his infatuation for Shīrīn, says, “ Hinoz az‘āshīqbāzī garm dāgh ast. ” (H.B.) P. 22 n. 2.—Closer acquaintance with related books leads me to delete the words “Chaghatāī Mughūl” from Ḥaidar Dūghlāt’s tribal designations (p. 22, n. 2, l. 1). (1) My “Chaghatāī” had warrant (now rejected) in Ḥaidar’s statement (T.R. trs. p. 3) that the Dūghlāt amirs were of the same stock ( a
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter