Historical Texts Archive

TRANSLATION OF SHĀH-JAHĀN'S NOTE.

IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MERCIFUL, THE COMPASSIONATE.

There had been an order^{*Probably that mentioned by Abū'l-fazl, as issued for the gathering-in of material for the Akbar-nāma. (H. Beveridge, I. 29.) If so, the begam's book dates from about 1587 (995IL). There are indications of its use by Abū'l-fazl.} issued, ‘Write down whatever you know of the doings of Firdaus-makānī and Jannat-āshyānī.’^{*Bābar's and Humāyūn's posthumous names, 'Dwelling' and 'Nesting in Paradise.' Several women, and notably Akbar's mother, have been named after death Maryam-makānī, 'Dwelling with Mary.' Babar's half-sister, Shahr-bānū, is styled by A.F. Bilqīs-makānī, Bilqīs being the Queen of Sheba. Many other examples might be quoted of the custom which, amongst some savage tribes, takes the extreme form of total suppression at death of the name borne in life, and towards which affection and reverence incline the most civilized peoples.}

At the time when his Majesty Firdaus-makānī passed from this perishable world to the everlasting home, I, this lowly one, was eight^{*Lunar years. Bābar died December 26th, 1530. The begam's dates and numerical statements must always be taken lightly.} years old, so it may well be that I do not remember much. However, in obedience to the royal command, I set down whatever there is that I have heard and remember.

First of all, by way of invoking a blessing (on my work), and in pious commemoration, a chapter (juzū) is written about my royal father's deeds, although these are told in his memoirs.^{*From this treasury Gul-badan's meagre historical sketch can be filled in. The Tūzūk-i-bābarī (Leyden and Erskine : Longman, Rees, etc., 1826.) will be referred to in these notes as the 'Memoirs' or ' Mems.'. Mr. W. Erskine's ' History of India under Babar and Humāyūn' will be indicated by ' B. & H.'.}

From his Majesty Ṣāḥib-qirānī^{*Lord of the fortunate conjunction, i.e., of Jupiter and Venus, a posthumous title of Tīmūr (1336-1405), from whom Bābar was fifth in descent.} down to my royal father there was not one of the bygone princes who laboured as he did. He became king in his twelfth^{*Bābar was born February 14th, 1483 (Muharram 6th, 888H.). He therefore became king of Farghāna (Khokand) when 11⅓ years old.} year, and the khutba^{*The prayer and oration in which it is ordained that the name of the reigning sovereign should be recited. Cf. Diet, of Islam, Hughes, s.v.. The histories show that it was formerly so recited in India. The term ' Ruler of the Age ' filled Victoria's place.} was read in his name on June 10th, 1494,^*

^{Ramzān 5th, 899H. [Text, 909H.].} in Andijān, the capital of Farghāna. (3a)

For eleven full years his wars and struggles against the Chaghatāi and Tīmūrid and Uzbeg princes^{*The first and second of this triad of foes were near and elder kinsmen ; the third was the Shāibanī of the histories.} in Māwarā'u­n-nahr (Transoxiana) were such that the tongue of the pen is too feeble and weak to recount them.

The toils and perils which in the ruling of kingdoms befell our prince, have been measured out to few, and of few have been recorded the manliness, courage and en­durance which he showed in battle-fields and dangers. Twice he took Samarqand by force of the sword. The first time my royal father was twelve years old, the second nineteen, the third time he was nearly twenty-two.^{*Bābar occupied Samarqand three times. Twice he captured it, and the third time entered without a blow struck and amidst a popular welcome. The dates are respectively 1497, 1500, and 1511, and his age fifteen, seventeen, and twenty-nine.} For six months he was besieged^{*By Shaibānī, after the second occupation.} (in Samarqand), and neither Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā, his paternal uncle,^{*ammū. Ḥusain was of the fourth, and Bābar of the fifth degree of descent from their common ancestor, Tīmūr. Bābar's father was (anglice) Ḥusain's fourth cousin. As Ḥusain was of an elder generation, Bābar calls him 'uncle.' If 'ammū were ever used to denote an uncle by marriage, it would have triple application here, since Ḥusain married in succession three paternal aunts of Bābar Shahr-bānū, Latīf and Payanda. Ḥusain is the well-known Mæcenas of Herāt (1438-1506).} who (ruled) in Khurāsān, nor Sult̤ān Maḥmūd Khān, his maternal uncle,^{*taghāi. Sultan Maḥmūd Khan was full-brother of Qutluq-nigār, Bābar's mother, so that here taghāi is exactly equivalent to our 'maternal uncle.' Maḥmūd is 'the Khān' and the 'elder Khān' of the Memoirs, and also Jānaki or Khānakt and Jāngi. He was murdered by Shāibanī in 1508.} who ruled in Kāshghar, sent him help. When none came from any quarter, he grew desperate.^{*He was eighteen.}

At this difficult time, Shāhī Beg Khān.^{*Abū'l-fatḥ Muḥammad Shāhbakht Khan Uzbeg (Shāhī Beg Khān and Shāibanī).} sent to say: ‘If you would marry your sister Khānzāda Begam^{*For details of her life and that of all other women named in this book and some other contemporary works, see Appendix.} to me, (3b) there might be peace and a lasting alliance between us.’ At length it had to be done; he gave the begam to the khān, and came out himself (from Samarqand).^{*For details of her life and that of all other women named in this book and some other contemporary works, see Appendix.} With 200 followers on foot, wearing long frocks on their shoulders and peasants' brogues on their feet, and carrying clubs in their hands,—in this plight, unarmed, and relying on God, he went towards the lands of Badakhshān (Badakhshānāt) and Kābul.^{*Muḥarram, 910H. (June, 1504).}

Khusrau Shāh's^{*A Qipchāq Tūrk, chief beg of Sult̤ān Maḥmūd Mīrzā, the father of Bayasanghar and Mas'ūd. He was put to death by Shāibanī's Uzbegs in 910H. (1505).} people and army were in Kunduz and the Badakhshānāt. He came and paid his respects to his Majesty,^{*Brevet rank. Bābar was an exile from his own kingdom of Farghāna, and not yet master of Kābul.} my father, who, being as he was manly and kind and generous, did not in any way touch the question of retaliation, although Khusrau Shāh had committed such crimes as the martyrdom of Bayasanghar Mīrzā and the blinding of Sult̤ān Mas'ūd Mīrzā, both of whom were sons of my royal father's paternal uncle. In addition to this, when in the early days of the forays,^{*Tūrkī, qazzāqī, from qazzāq (Cossack), the name of the nomads whom the Russians term Kīrghiz. I think Gul-badan uses it to describe the time of her father's military incursions, made when he was trying to carve out a ruler's seat.} his Majesty chanced to cross his country, he was watched and rudely driven out. Now he was pleased to command that Khusrau Shāh should take whatever his heart desired of his (own) jewels and golden vessels, and so he got leave to go to Khurāsān in kindness and safety, and took with him five or six strings of camels and five or six of baggage mules.^{*The begam's brevity makes Bābar's capacity and forbearance seem alike remarkable. He had gathered a force, and safety was the condition of Khusrau's surrender (1504). Mr. Erskine writes (B. & H., I. 208.) : 'Bābar, whose abhorrence of Khusrau was as deep as it was just, ordered his treasurer to send back the treasure, horses, and whatever had been presented to him, just as they were ; although, says our author (Mīrzā Ḥaidar), the King had only one horse suitable for a person of his rank, and that was used by his mother.'}

His Majesty now set out for Kābul, which was occupied by Muḥammad Muqīm, a son of Ẕū'l-nūn Arghūn, and grandfather of Nāhīd Begam.^{*Through his daughter Māh Chūchak.} He had captured it after Ulugh Beg Mīrzā's^{*A son of Abū-sa'īd, known as Kābulī. He died 1502.} death from Mīrzā 'Abdu-r-razzāq, son of his Majesty's paternal uncle (Ulugh Beg).

His Majesty reached Kābul in safety. Muḥammad Muqīm kept command for a few days, and then by pact and agreement made over charge to the royal servants, and went off with goods and chattels to his father in Qandahār. This was in the last ten days of Rabī II., 910H.^{*October, 1504. Bābar was now twenty-three, and had acquired more territory than his lost Fārghana.} Being now master of Kābul, his Majesty went to Bangash, took it at a blow, and returned to Kābul.

Her Highness, the khānam,^{*Qutluq-nigār. She died June, 1505.} his Majesty's mother, had fever for six days, and then departed from this fleeting world to the eternal home. They laid her in the New Year's Garden. His Majesty paid 1,000 coined misqāl to his kinsmen, the owners of the garden, and laid her there.

At this time urgent letters arrived from Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā, saying: (4b) ‘I am planning a war against the Uzbegs. It would be excellent if you came too.’ My royal father sought counsel of God. At length he set out to join the mīrzā. On the way news came that the mīrzā was dead. His Majesty's amīrs represented that, this being so, it was advisable to return to Kābul, but he replied: ‘As we have come so far, we will carry our condolences to the princes.’ In the end he went on towards Khurāsān.^{*Bābar set out in June, 1506 (Muḥarram, 912H.). Ḥusain had died in May (Ẕū'l-hijja, 911H.), on his way northwards from Herāt, and at Bābā Ilāhī. Word reached Bābar when he had already made a great journey and had crossed the Saighan and Dandān-shikan passes to Kahmard. After receiving the news he marched some 800 miles to the mīrzās' camp on the Murgh-āb.}

When the princes^{*Badī'u-z-zamān and Muḥammad Muz̤affar Ḥusain, sons of Sult̤ān Maḥmūd Mīrzā. The meeting was on November 6th, 1506 (Jumāda II. 8th, 912H.).} heard of the royal visit, they one and all set out to give him honourable meeting, except Badī'u-z-zamān Mīrzā, who did not go because Barandūq Beg and Ẕū'l-nūn Beg—amīrs of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā—said, in effect, that as his Majesty was fifteen years younger than Badī'u-z-zamān Mīrzā, it was right that he should be the first to bow, and that they should then embrace one another. Qāsim Beg^{*Bābar's Prime Minister and (I believe) relation. He was of the Qūchīn tribe to which Bābar's grandmother, Aīs-daulat, belonged.} rejoined: ‘Younger he is by years, but by the tūra,^{*The Rules of Chingīz Khān. These are referred to again on points of etiquette.} he has precedence because he has more than once taken Samarqand by force of the sword.’ (5a) At length they agreed that his Majesty should bow on coming in, and that Badī'u-z-zamān should then advance to show him honour, and they should embrace. The mīrzā was not attending when his Majesty came in at the door; Qāsim Beg clutched my royal father's girdle and pulled it, and said to Barandūq Beg and Ẕū'l-nūn Beg: ‘The agreement was that the mīrzā should come forward and that then they should embrace one another.’ The prince then advanced in great agitation and they embraced.

As long as his Majesty was in Khurāsān, each one of the princes showed him hospitality, and feasts were arranged, and excursions to all the gardens and places of interest. They set forth to him the inconvenience of winter, and said: ‘Wait till it is over, and we will fight the Uzbegs.’ But they could not in any way settle about the war. Eighty years^{*A well-rounded number. Sult̤ān Ḥusain was born 842H. (1438), and died 911H. (1506). Bābar calls the joint-kingship of his sons a strange arrangement and one never heard of, and quotes Sa'dī's well-known couplet as applicable - 'Ten darvishes can sleep on one rug, but one climate cannot hold two kings.'} long had Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā kept Khurāsān safe and sound, but the mīrzās could not fill their father's place for six months. When his Majesty saw that they were careless^{*While on the Murgh-āb, Bābar agreed to winter in Khurāsān, and he went with the joint-kings to Herāt in order to see the ' sights ' of that renowned city. He certainly worked hard, for he names some fifty-two which he saw in twenty days. The invitation to winter was repeated, but neither quarters nor suitable conveniences (? revenues) were allotted. Bābar delicately says he could not explain his real motive for not remaining, and left under pressure of necessity on December 24th, 1506, after snow had fallen along a route which was a month's ordinary journey. It was during this absence from Kābul that he married Maham, Humāyūn's mother.} about his expenses and revenue, he went to Kābul on the pretext of seeing the places he had assigned to himself. (5b) Much snow had fallen that year. They took the wrong road. His Majesty and Qāsim Beg chose one^{*Through the Aimāq and Hazāra country, and south of his route to Herāt.} because of its shortness, but the amīrs had given other advice, and when this was not taken, they all left him without a thought for him. He and Qāsim Beg and his sons made a road in two or three days by removing the snow, and the people of the army followed. So they reached Ghūrband. Some Hazāra rebels having met his Majesty here, there was fighting; and cattle and sheep and goods without number belonging to the Hazāra fell into the hands of his people. Then they started for Kābul with their enormous booty.

At the skirts of Minār Hill they heard that Mīrzā Khān^{*Sult̤ān Wais, a son of Bābar's paternal uncle, Maḥmūd, and his maternal aunt (i.e., his mother's half-sister), Sult̤ān Nigār Khānam.} and Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥusain Gūrkān^{*Father of Ḥaidar Mīrzā Dughlāt, author of the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī. He married Khūb-nigār, full-sister of Bābar's mother.} had rebelled and were holding Kābul. His Majesty sent a comforting and cheering letter (to his friends in the fort), and said: ‘Be of good heart! I too am here. (6a) I will light a fire on the Hill of the Moon-faced Lady; do you light one on the Treasury, so that I may be sure you know of our coming. In the morning we will fall on the enemy, you from that side and we from this.’ But he had fought and won before the people of the fort came out.

Mīrzā Khān hid himself in his mother's house; she was his Majesty's maternal aunt. Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥusain was in his wife's house. She was his Majesty's younger maternal aunt. He flung himself down on a carpet, and in fear of his life cried to a servant, ‘Fasten it up!’ His Majesty's people heard of this. They took him out of the carpet and brought him to the presence. In the end, his Majesty forgave the mīrzās their offences, for the sake of his aunts. He used to go, in his old fashion, in and out of his aunts' houses,^{*Text, khāna khālī khālahā'ī. This I do not understand, as there were certainly no mothers' brothers present in Kābul now.} and showed them more and more affection, so that no mist of trouble might dim their hearts. He assigned them places and holdings in the plain-country. (6b)

God the most High, having freed Kābul from the power of Mīrzā Khān, committed it to my royal father's care. He was then twenty-three years old^{*He was twenty-three when he took Kābul from Muḥammad Muqīm Arghūn in 1504. Mīrzā Khān's rebellion took place two years later.} and had no child and greatly desired one. In his seventeenth year a girl^{*Fakhru-n-nisā', the Glory of Women. 'She was my first child, and I was just nineteen. In a month, or forty days, she went to the mercy of God.' (Mems. 90.)} had been born to him by 'Āyisha Sult̤ān Begam, a daughter of Sult̤ān Aḥmad Mīrzā, but she had died in a month. The most high God blessed the taking of Kābul, for after it eighteen children were born. (1.) Of my Lady (Akām)^{*Written sometimes ATcam, and sometimes Akām. The Tūrkī Akā is used as a title of respect from a junior to a senior. It has also the sense ' elder brother,' which makes application to a woman doubtful. (Cf. Vambéry's 'Cagataische Sprach-studien.') Bābar uses the word (Mems. 208.), and Mr. Erskine suggests to read ' My Lady.'} who was Māham Begam there were born his Majesty the Emperor Humāyūn, and Bārbūl Mīrzā, and Mihr-jān (jahān) Begam, and Ishān-daulat Begam, and Fārūq Mīrzā.^{*Born 1525 ; died 1527. His father never saw him.}

(2.) Ma'ṣūma Sult̤ān Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Aḥmad Mīrzā, died in childbed. The mother's name they gave to the daughter.

(3.) Of Gul-rukh Begam were born Kāmrān Mīrzā, and 'Askarī Mīrzā, and Shāh-rukh Mīrzā, and Sult̤ān Aḥmad Mīrzā, and Gul-'iẕār Begam.

(4.) Of Dil-dār Begam were born Gul-rang Begam, and Gul-chihra Begam, and Hindāl Mīrzā, and Gul-badan Begam, and Alwar Mīrzā.^{*Gul-badan or her copyist does not balance accounts. She says eighteen, and names sixteen children. This may be a clerical error only.}

In short, in taking Kābul he got a good omen. All his children were born there except two begams who were born in Khost, viz., Mihr-jān Begam, a daughter of Māham Begam, and Gul-rang, a daughter of Dil-dār Begam. (7a)

The blessed birth of the Emperor Humāyūn, the first-born son of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī, occurred in the night of Tuesday, Ẕū'l-qa'da 4th, 913H. (March 6th, 1508), in the citadel of Kābul, and when the sun was in the sign Pisces.

That same year his Majesty was pleased to order the amīrs and the rest of the world to style him emperor (bādshāh). For before the birth of the Emperor Humāyūn he had been named and styled Mīrzā Bābar. All kings' sons were called mīrzās. In the year of his Majesty Humāyūn's birth he styled himself bādshāh.

They found^{*i.e., by abjad. Cf. Steingass' Persian Dictionary, s.v. abjad.} the date of the birth in Sulṭan Humāyūn Khān, and also in Shāh-(i)-fīroz-qadr.^{*'The king, victorious in might.'}

After children had been born to him, news came that Shāh Ismā'īl had killed Shāhī Beg Khān.^{*At Merv, December 2nd, 1510. Cf. B. & H., I. 302. On the removal of this formidable foe, Babar again tried to regain his ancestral lands, but was still outmatched by the Uzbegs. Defeat by them led him to take a road of less resistance through Bajaur to Hindūstān.}

His Majesty at this time entrusted Kābul to Nāṣir^{*Bābar's half-brother, son of Umīd, an Andijānī.} Mīrzā, and set out^{*January, 1511 (Shawwāl, 916H.).} for Samarqand, taking with him his people and wives and children, who were Humāyūn Mīrzā, and Mihr-jahān Begam, and Bārbūl Mīrzā, and Ma'ṣūma Begam, and Kāmrān Mīrzā. (7b)

With help from Shāh Ismā'īl, he took Samarqand (October, 1511), and for eight (lunar) months the whole of Māwarā'u-n-nahr (Transoxiana) was in his power. Owing to want of co-operation in his brothers and to the oppo­sition of the Mughals,^{*For a more interesting cause of defeat, cf. B. & H., I. 321, et seq. 'Ubaidu-1-lāh was Shaibānī's nephew. Kūl (Lake) Malik is in Bokhārā. Bābar was again defeated by the Uzbegs in this same year (1511).} he was defeated at Kūl Malik by 'Ubaidu-l-lāh Khān. As he could not remain in those parts, he set out for Badakhshān and Kābul, and put out of his head further thought of Māwarā'u-n-nahr.

He had become master of Kābul in 910H. (1504). He had always desired to go into Hindūstān, and had not carried out his wish because of the feeble counsels of his amīrs and the non-agreement of his brothers. When at length these were gone,^{*i.e., dead. Jahāngīr died in 1507 and Nāsir in 1515, both from drinking. This passage resembles Bābar's own words. (Mems. 309.)} and there remained no amīr such as could argue against it, he accomplished his desire.

Bajaur^{*Gul-badan is confusingly brief. Bajaur was attacked 925H. (1519) on the way to India, and its people put to the sword because they were 'rebels to followers of Islam' and addicted to infidel customs. (Mems. 246 et seq..)} he took in two or three hours and ordered a general massacre.

On the same day the father of Afghānī āghācha,^{*The Afghān Lady. It is thus that Gul-badan always speaks of Bībī (Lady) Mubarika, the Yūsufzai wife of Bābar. Pavet de Courteille defines āghācha thus : 'Se dit des femmes par opposition à begam et khanam; dame.' I do not in Gul-badan's work trace any disrespect attaching to 'āghācha,' such as is indicated by 'concubine,' as which it is sometimes translated.} Malik Manṣūr Yūsufzai, came in and paid his respects. (8a) His Majesty took his daughter in marriage and then gave him leave to depart. He bestowed on him a horse and a suit of honour befitting a ruler, and said to him: ‘Go and bring men and labourers, etc., to your native land and cultivate it.’

Qāsim Beg,^{*Qāsim Beg Qūchīn, an ancient Beg of Andijān, and one of Bābar's best followers.} who was in Kābul, sent a letter saying: ‘Another prince has been born. I have ventured to write as an omen of the conquest of Hind and of taking its throne. As for the rest, the Emperor is master, whatever is his pleasure’^{*Qy., as to the child's name. His true name was Muh. Nāsir, but he is only known as Hindāl. He was Gul-badan's full brother, and was given, before birth, to Maham Begam, who had lost all her children younger than Humayun. Cf. 24a n.} (let it be done). In an auspicious hour his Majesty named him Mīrzā Hindāl.

Having subdued Bajaur, his Majesty went towards the Bhīra country, and on his arrival made peace without plundering. He took four laks of shāhrukhīs^{*Estimated by Mr. Erskine at about 20,000 sterling.} and gave to his army, dividing them according to the number of his followers. He then set out for Kābul.^{*End of February, 1519. In his winning fashion Babar relates that he forbade the news of his return to be taken to Kabul, and that there was therefore no time to put his boys, Humāyūn and Kāmrān, on horseback, and that they were carried out in the arms of the nearest servants to offer their duty on his return, to a place between the fort gates and the citadel.}

Just now came a letter from Badakhshān saying: ‘Mīrzā Khān is dead;^{*Cir. 926H. (1520). Cf. Mems. 286 n., and Tār. Rash., Ney Elias and Boss, 373 n.} Mīrzā Sulaimān is young; the Uzbegs are near; take thought for this kingdom lest (which God forbid) Badakhshān should be lost.’ (8b) Until there should be thought taken, Mīrzā Sulaimān's mother^{*Sult̤ān Nigār Khānam.} had brought him (to the Emperor). Agreeably to this petition and their wish, the Emperor assigned to Mīrzā Sulaimān the lands and inheritance which had been his father's, and he gave Badakhshān to Mīrzā Humāyūn.

The mīrzā set out for his province. His Majesty and my Lady (Akām) followed and also went to Badakhshān, and there spent several days together. The mīrzā remained and my royal father and my Lady came back to Kābul^{*Humāyūn was now thirteen years old. He was young to be sent so far as Badakhshān. That his parents went with him is one of Gul-badan's life-giving touches. Akām may now well have shown her boy to her father and her kinsfolk in Khost. (Memoirs of Bāyazīd, 1.0. MS., 26a.).} (926H.—1520).

After a time his Majesty set out for Qilāt and Qandahār.^{*Held now by Shāh Beg Arghūn, father of Shāh Ḥusain, Humāyūn's later enemy in Sind. Firishta gives three years as the duration of the siege, Khāfī Khān four years, and Mīrzā Ḥaidar five years. The occurrence unfortunately coincides with one of the gaps in the emoirs. This was Bābar's culminating attempt on Qandahār ; his first being in 1505, this one seems to have ended in 1522 (928H.).} He was victorious at once in Qilāt, and went on to Qanda-hār and kept its garrison shut up for a year and a half. Then, by the Divine favour and after great fighting and skirmishing, he captured it. Much gold fell into his hands, and he gave moneys and camels to his soldiers and the people of the army. Qandahār he bestowed on Mīrzā Kāmrān, and himself set off for Kābul.

His advance camp having been set up,^{*Gul-badan, by a sudden transition, passes over some three years, and, as it seems, using her father's Memoirs, enters on the account of his last and successful expedition to Hindūstān. Yak Langa is a hill between Kabul and Butkhak, and on the road to Jalālābād.} he crossed the hill of Yak Langa, and gloriously alighted in the valley of Dīh-i-ya'qūb on Friday, Ṣafar 1st, 932H. (November 17th, 1525), when the sun was in Sagittarius. (9a) He spent the following day there, and on the next set forth, march by march, for Hindūstān. In the seven or eight years since 925H. (1519)^{*Text, 935H. ; clearly a slip.} the royal army had several times renewed the attempt on Hindūstān. Each time it used to conquer lands and districts, such as Bhīra, Bajaur, Sīālkūt, Dīpālpūr, Lāhōr, etc., up to the fifth time, when on Ṣafar 1st, 932H., his Majesty went, march by march, from his glorious en­camping in Dīh-i-ya'qūb towards Hindūstān. He conquered Lāhōr and Sirhind, and every country that lay on his path.

On Friday, Rajab 8th, 932H. (April 20th, 1526), he arrayed battle at Pānīpat^{*'A far-reaching, almost illimitable level tract, broken only by insignificant undulations. Here and there, where the shallow soil is moistened from some niggardly watercourse, grow sparse grasses and stunted thorn-bushes. But, for the most part, the eye falls only on the uniform yellowish-gray waste of sterile earth. Everywhere empty silence reigns, and it would almost seem as if this desert had been designed for the battlefield of nations.' (Emperor Akbar, F. v. Noer., trs. A.S.B. I. 74.) Thrice in modern times a decisive battle has been fought out here : (1) by Bābar against Ibrāhim and the Lodīs, 1526; (2) by Akbar against the Indian Afghāns in 1556 ; and (3) by Ahmad Shāh Durrānī against the Mārathās in 1761.} against Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm, son of Sult̤ān Sikandar, son of Bahlūl Lodī. By God's grace he was victorious, and Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm was killed in the fight.

His victory was won purely by the Divine grace, for Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm had a lak and 80,000 horse, and as many as 1,500 head of fierce elephants; (9b) while his Majesty's army with the traders and good and all (badr (?) bad, bad) was 12,000 persons and he had, at the outside, 6,000 or 7,000 serviceable men.

The treasures of five kings fell into his hands. He gave everything away. The amīrs of Hind represented that in Hindūstān it was thought disgraceful to expend the treasure of bygone kings, and that people rather added and added to it, while his Majesty, on the contrary, had given all away.^{*Bābar distributed the treasure on the llth or 12th of May, 1526, and left himself so little that he was dubbed qalandar.}

Khwāja^{*M. Garçin de Tassy says, in his 'Mémoire sur la Religion Musalmane' (46 n.) that khwāja, like sayyid, is a title for a descendant of Muhammad. Shaw's Tūrkī Dictionary states that khwāja is applied to the offspring of a sayyid by a woman of another family, also to their descendants. I find many instances where both titles are applied to the same man.} Kilān^{*One of Bābar's most admirable followers and friends, and perhaps a relation. He was one of seven brothers, sons of Maulānā Muhammad Sadru-d-dīn, who spent their lives in Bābar's service.} Beg asked leave several times to go to Kābul. He said: ‘My constitution is not fitted for the climate of Hindūstān. If leave were given, I should tarry awhile in Kābul.’ His Majesty was not at all, at all willing for him to go, but at last gave permission because he saw him so very urgent. He said: 'When you go, I shall send some of the valuable presents and curiosities of Hind which fell into our hands through the victory over Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm, to my elder relations^{*walīyu-n-ni'matan, lords of beneficence. Gul-badan's application of it is to ' benevolent ladies,' i.e., the numerous aunts. It is a title of respect for seniors.} and sisters and each person of the ḥaram. You take them. I shall write a list, and you will distribute them according to it. (10a) You will order a tent with a screen to be set up in the Garden of the Audience Hall for each begam,^{*I think each begam was to encamp with her own establishment and within her own enclosure (sarāparda), and not in hasty camp fashion of community of quarters. This would exalt the assembly.} and when a pleasant meeting-place has been arranged, the begams are to make the prostration of thanks for the complete victory which has been brought about.

‘To each begam is to be delivered as follows: one special dancing-girl of the dancing-girls of Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm, with one gold plate full of jewels—ruby and pearl, cornelian and diamond, emerald and turquoise, topaz and cat's-eye—and two small mother-o'-pearl trays full of ashrafīs, and on two other trays shāhrukhās,^{*It is waste of time to try to estimate the amount of these money gifts, made as they were in coins of uncertain value and recorded, probably on hearsay, more than fifty years after bestowal. Mr. Erskine puts the shāhrukhī at from lOd. to 1s., Steingass, s.v.ashrafī, gives for its value about 16 rupīs, presumably of undegenerated rank.} and all sorts of stuffs by nines— that is, four trays and one plate. Take a dancing-girl and another plate of jewels, and one each of ashrafīs and shāhrukhīs, and present, in accordance with my directions, to my elder relations the very plate of jewels and the self­same dancing-girl which I have given for them. I have made other gifts;^{*Qy., for the elder relations.} convey these afterwards. (10b) Let them divide and present jewels and ashrafīs and shāh-rukhīs and stuffs to my sisters and children and the ḥarams^{*Presumably of his kinsmen and of officers whose families were with Bābar's own in Kābul.} and kinsmen, and to the begams and āghās^{*This word seems to describe women who were heads of household departments and not merely the guardians of ḥarams.} and nurses and foster-brethren and ladies, and to all who pray for me.’ The gifts were made according to the list.

Three happy days they remained together in the Audience Hall Garden. They were uplifted by pride, and recited the fātiḥa^{*The first chapter of the Qūran.} for the benediction and prosperity of his Majesty, and joyfully made the prostration of thanks.^{*In this prostration the forehead touches the ground.}

The Emperor sent by Khwāja Kilān a large ashrafī,^{*Perhaps from the Lodī treasury. (Cf. J.A.S.B. Proceedings, 1883 ; Thomas, 423; Richardson's Ar. & Per. Diet., s.v. sikka ; Memoirs of the Mughal Empire, Jonathan Scott, 3 and 3 n.)} which weighed three imperial sīr, that is, fifteen sīr of Hind, for … 'Asas.^{*Lit. a night-guard. The words preceding 'Asas offer much difficulty. They may be read ba 'ammū,to the paternal uncle of 'Asas. But the story is of 'Asas, the night-guard and not of his uncle. Perhaps 'ammū is a clerical error for 'amah, bewilderment, misleading, and this would suit the story well. Mr. Beveridge has suggested to me to read 'Umarī, i.e., an old servant of 'Umar Shaikh. This, too, would be appropriate, for the victim of the hoax is clearly an old man. The title 'Asas is applied several times by Bābar. One 'Asas was a boon companion and partook of Bābar's vow before the battle of Khānwa. (Mems. 283 and 354 ; Firishta, Pers. Text, Briggs I. 449.) Gul-badan names one (206) as entrusted with the care of Babar's tomb, Muh. 'Alī 'Asas. I think he was brother to Maāham Begam, and the governor of Kaābul whom Kamrān murdered in 1547.} He said to the Khwāja: ‘If 'Asas asks you, “What has the Emperor sent for me?” say, “One ashrafī,”’ as there really was only one. 'Asas was amazed, and fretted about it for three days. His Majesty had ordered that a hole should be bored in the ashrafī, and that 'Asas should be blindfolded and the ashrafī hung round his neck, and that then he was to be sent into the ḥaram. The hole was bored and the ashrafī hung round his neck. He was quite helpless with surprise at its weight, and delighted and very, very happy. He took it in both hands, and wondered over it and said, ‘No one shall get my ashrafī.’ Each begam, too, gave (? him) ten or twelve ashrafī, so he had seventy or eighty. (11a)

After Khwāja Kilān Beg had started for Kābul, the Emperor made gifts in Agra to his Majesty Humāyūn and to all the mīrzās and Sult̤āns and amīrs. He sent letters in all directions, urgently saying, ‘We shall take into full favour all who enter our service, and especially such as served our father and grandfather and ancestors. If such will come to us, they will receive fitting benefits. Whoever there may be of the families of Ṣāḥib-qirān and Chingīz Khān, let them turn towards our court. The most High has given us sovereignty in Hindūstān; let them come that we may see prosperity together.’

Seven^{*Six only named.} daughters of Sult̤ān Abū-sa'īd came (to Hindū-stān): Gūhar-shād Begam, and Fakhr-jahān Begam, and Khadīja Sult̤ān Begam, and Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam, and Āq Begam, and Sult̤ān Bakht Begam.

(Also) Zainab Sult̤ān Kḥānam, daughter of his Majesty's maternal uncle, Sult̤ān Maḥmūd Khān, and Muḥibb Sult̤ān Kḥānam,^{*Wife of Mīrzā Ḥaidar Dughlāt, the historian.} daughter of Ilācha Khān (Aḥmad), his Majesty's younger maternal uncle.

In short, all the begams and khānams went, ninety-six persons in all, and all received houses and lands and gifts to their heart's desire. (11b)

All through the four years that (my father) was in Āgra he used to go on Fridays to see his paternal aunts. One day it was extremely hot, and her Highness my lady (Akām) said, ‘The wind is very hot, indeed; how would it be if you did not go this one Friday? The begams would not be vexed.’ His Majesty said, ‘Māham! it is astonishing that you should say such things! The daughters of Abū-sa'īd Sult̤ān Mīrzā, who have been deprived of father and brothers! If I do not cheer them, how will it be done?’

To the architect, Khwāja Qāsim, his Majesty gave the following order: ‘We command a piece of good service from you. It is this: whatever work, even if it be on a great scale, our paternal aunts may order done in their palace, give it precedence, and carry it out with might and main.’

He commanded buildings to be put up in Āgra on the other side of the river^{*i.e., opposite the fort.} and a stone palace to be built for himself between the ḥaram and the garden. He also had one built in the audience court, with a reservoir in the middle and four chambers in the four towers. On the river's bank he had a chaukandī^{*'A building on the roof which has a door on each of the four sides.' Vullers, 602. Bādaonī uses ghurfa, upper room, as an equivalent. Cf. Elliot's History of India, V. 347 and 503.} built. (12a)

He ordered a tank made in Dholpūr, ten by ten,^{*About 20 feet by 20 feet. (Mems. 398 n. .).} out of a single mass of rock, and used to say, ‘When it is finished, I will fill it with wine.” But as he had given up wine before the fight with Rānā Sangā, he filled it with lemonade.

A year after Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm's death, the rānā^{*This decisive battle was fought on March 16th, 1527, on the skirts of the hill of Sīkrī, at Khānwa. Akbar's prænomen of Fatḥipūr the City of Victory was given to Sīkrī in 1573 to commemorate the Gujrāt campaign.} appeared from the Mandū (or Hindū) side with a countless host. Amīrs and rājas and rānās, every one of those who had come earlier and paid duty to his Majesty, now became an enemy and went and joined the rānā, until Kūl-jalālī and Sambhal and Rāprī—every pargana,—and rā'is and rājas and Afghāns became hostile. Nearly two laks of cavalry assembled.

At this time, Muḥammad Sharīf, the astrologer, said to the royal soldiers, ‘It would be best for the Emperor not to fight, for the constellation Sakkiz Yildoz (Eight Stars) is opposite.’ Amazing perturbation fell upon the royal army. They became exceedingly anxious and troubled^{*When the fight had been won, Bābar soundly rated Muhammad Sharīf, gave him money, and dismissed him to the place from which he had emerged, apparently only to cause trouble. He had come to India with a royal kinsman from Kābul, and to Kābul in 1519 from Khost (Māham's home).} and showed signs of cowardice. (12b) When his Majesty saw his army in this state, he thought over the whole position. As the enemy was close at hand, this device occurred to his blessed mind; he ordered the remnant of what remained over and above deserters and enemies, to gather together. One and all came—amīrs and khāns and Sult̤āns; plebeian and noble, low and high. Then he addressed them, and said: ‘Do you not know that there lies a journey of some months between us and the land of our birth and our familiar city? If our side is defeated, (God preserve us from that day! God forbid it!) where are we? where is our birthplace? where our city? We have to do with strangers and foreigners. It is in every way best for each man to set resolutely before himself the two alterna­tives: if we win, we are avengers of the cause of God; if we lose, we die martyrs. In either fate is our salvation; each is a step and upward stage in greatness.’

To this they all agreed. They swore by the divorce of their wives and on the Holy Book; they recited the fātiḥa, and said, ‘O King! God willing, we will not spare our­selves in sacrifice and devotion, so long as there are breath and life in our bodies.’^{*Mr. Erskine thus gives Bābar's words: 'Every man dies. God only survives unchangeable. He who conies to life's feast must drink the parting cup of death. How much better to die with honour than to live with infamy!' Perhaps, as Gul-badan says, Bābar touched also the thought of home, and this would be recorded by the woman.} (13a)

Two days before the battle his Majesty renounced wine, and, indeed, he forswore all forbidden things. Following his example, 400 young men of name, who had given proof of manliness and one-mindedness and friendship, also renounced these things when he did. His Majesty broke up all forbidden utensils,—vessels of gold and of silver, goblets and flasks, etc.; and he gave them to the poor and needy.

He also sent abroad firmāns with the announcement: ‘We exempt (you) from all dues and octroi and tithe on corn, and from all illegal imposts, so that no one, trader or other, may be hampered in his comings and goings, but all may move unmolested and free from interference.’

In the night^{*Bābar says that Qāsim had come earlier and with 500 men. Muh. Sharīf, the 'rascally fellow' and 'evil-minded wretch,' was with him. (Mems., 352.)} before the battle word was brought that Qāsim Ḥusain Sult̤ān,—a grandson of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā through a daughter, 'Āyisha Sult̤ān Begam,—had come to within ten kõs (of the royal camp) on his way from Khurāsān. (13b)

This news delighted his Majesty greatly. He asked, ‘How many men are with him?’ When he heard ‘thirty or forty,’ he at once sent off 1,000 troopers, all armed and equipped, at midnight, so that they might march in again with Qāsim Ḥusain Sult̤ān, and in this way the enemy and outsiders be let know that reinforcements had come in good time. Everyone who heard the plan thought it a good one.

Next morning, which was March 16th, 1527 (Jumāda II. [13th], 933H.), his Majesty arrayed battle against Rānā Sangā on the skirts of the hill of Sīkrī, where now Fatḥpūr has been built^{*How beautifully built may, in small part, be seen by visiting the Oriental section of the South Kensington Museum and there examining the architectural reproductions, the drawings of Mr. W. B. Carpenter, the photographs, etc. The South Kensington Museum and the British Museum furnish numerous illustrations for Gul-badan Begam's MS., and add to it the charm of life and reality.} and peopled. By the Divine grace he was victorious and became an avenger of the cause of God.^{*Ghāzi. Bābar now assumed this title, because he had vanquished non-Muḥammadans.}

A year later my lady (akām), who was Māham Begam, came from Kābul to Hindūstān. I, this insignificant one, came with her in advance of my sisters, and paid my duty to my royal father. When my lady reached Kūl(-jalālī—i.e., 'Alighar), his Majesty had sent two litters with three horsemen. (14a) She went on post-haste from Kūl to Āgra. His Majesty had intended to go as far as Kūl-jalālī to meet her. At evening-prayer time some one came and said to him: ‘I have just passed her Highness on the road, four miles out.’ My royal father did not wait for a horse to be saddled but set out on foot. He met her near the house of Māham's nanacha^{*dar pesh khāna nanacha Māham. This might read 'in the advance camp.' Māham's nanacha appears thrice in the MS.: here and at 186 and 26a. She is clearly of the innermost circle. The word may be rendered ' dear little mother,' and is one of close affection.} She wished to alight, but he would not wait, and fell into her train and walked to his own house.^{*Cf. Mems., 423.}

At the time of her meeting his Majesty, she desired me to come on by daylight and pay my respects to him.

… ^{*tūqūz. The Türks made kings' gifts by nines and attached superstitious reverence to the number.} nine troopers, with two sets of nine horses and the two extra litters which the Emperor had sent, and one litter which had been brought from Kābul, and about a hundred of my lady's Mughal servants, mounted on fine (tipūchāq) horses,^{*A tipūcāq horse, according to Shaw, is long-necked like a Türkmān horse, and it seems also to be one with speed, beauty, and specially-trained paces. Vambéry says, 'ein fettes, gutes Pferd.'} all elegance and beauty.^{*The above passage is inserted without break in the text and suggests transcription from an imperfect MS. It may be an enumeration of the items of the cortege which followed Māham with Gul-badan.}

My royal father's Khalīfa^{*Sayyid or Khwāja Niz̤āmu-d-dīn 'Alī Barlās and Bābar's vazīr. His brother, Junaid Barlās, married Shahr-bānū, a half-sister of Bābar.} with his wife Sult̤ānam^{*Clearly an intimate. There were close relations, as has been said, between this Barlās family and Bābar. Cf. Biographical Appendix, s.n. Sult̤ānam.} came as far as Naugrām^{*Some four miles from Āgra and on the east of the Jamna. The royal palace was not yet built on the western bank. Cf. Rājpūtāna Gazetteer, III. 274.} to meet (us). My māmās^{*Steingass translates 'mother,' 'matron,' and 'old women.' One māmā is named later, ' 'Fakhru-n-nisā', my māmā.' (26a) She was the mother of Nadīm Khwāja kūka. She is several times mentioned, and it appears from a MS. belonging to Colonel Hanna which Mr. Beveridge has examined, that she was mother-in-law of the celebrated Maham anaga who was Nadīm's wife.} had made me alight at the Little Garden, and having spread a small carpet, seated me on it. They instructed me to rise when Khalīfa came in, and to embrace him. When he came, I rose and embraced him. Then his wife Sult̤ānam came in too. (14b) I, not knowing, wished to get up, but Khalīfa raised objections, and said: ‘She is your old serving-woman. There is no need to rise for her. Your father has exalted this old servant (? himself) by giving such an order^{*(?) as that she should rise to greet him.} about him. So be it! what power have slaves?’

From Khalīfa I accepted 6,000 shāhrukhīs and five horses, and Sult̤ānam gave me 3,000 and three horses. Then she said: ‘A hasty meal (mā ḥaẓarī) is ready. If you will eat you will honour your servants.’ I consented. There was a raised platform in a pleasant spot, and a pavilion of red cloth with lining of Gujrātī brocade, and six canopies of cloth and brocade, each of a (differing) colour, and a square enclosure^{*Text, chahār chūqa-i-sarāparda. Cf. Notices et Extraits, Quatremere, XIV. 498.} of cloth with painted poles.

I sat in Khalīfa's quarters. The meal drew out to almost fifty roast sheep,^{*The 'fifty' sheep will not reduce by any reading I can suggest. Cf. anglice 'heaps of,' 'hundreds of,' etc. Perhaps the flock is a product of childish weariness recalled half a century later. Possibly one should read panjāhār, five foods, i.e., courses, dishes. Gul-badan is now between five and six. Her doubt as to the reception due to Sult̤ānam rings true, and Khalīfa's words suggest a little play-acting to please the small traveller; he treated her like a grown-up, and she tried to act one.} and bread and sherbet and much fruit. Having at length eaten my breakfast, I got into my litter and went and paid my duty to my royal father. (15a)

I fell at his feet; he asked me many questions, and took me for a time in his arms, and then this insignificant person felt such happiness that greater could not be imagined.

When we had been in Āgra three months, the Emperor went to Dholpūr. Her Highness Māham Begam and this lowly person also went. A tank had been made there, ten (gaz) by ten, out of one piece (of rock). From Dholpūr his Majesty went on to Sīkrī. He ordered a great platform made in the middle of the tank, and when it was ready, he used to go and sit on it, or to row about. This platform still exists.

They also made a chaukandī in the Sīkrī garden, and my royal father put up in it a tūr-khāna^{*"Perhaps a space enclosed by a low railing." (Mems., 202 n..) Possibly and suitably, a mosquito-room (taur, net). Cf. Khwāndamīr, B.M. Or. 1,762, and Add. 30,774, ff. 25-114.} where he used to sit and write his book.^{*"The Tūzūk-i-bābarī.}

I and Afghānī āghācha were sitting in the front of the lower storey when my lady went to prayers. I said to Afghānī āghācha: ‘Pull my hand.’ She pulled, and my hand came out. My strength went and I cried. (15b) Then they brought the bone-setter and when he had bound up my hand, the Emperor went to Āgra.

After his arrival, word was brought that the begams were on the way from Kābul. My royal father went as far as Naugrām to give honourable reception to my dearest lady (aka-jānam),^{*Khānzāda Begam.} who was my oldest paternal aunt and my royal father's eldest sister. All the begams who had come with her, paid their duty to the Emperor in her quarters. They were very happy and made the prostration of thanks, and then set off for Āgra. The Emperor gave houses to all the begams.

A few days later he made an excursion to the Gold-scattering Garden (Bāgh-i-zar-afshān). There was a place in it for ablution before prayers. When he saw it, he said: ‘My heart is bowed down by ruling and reigning; I will retire to this garden. As for attendance, T̤āhir the ewer-bearer will amply suffice. I will make over the kingdom to Humāyūn.’ On this my lady (akām) and all his children broke down, and said with tears: ‘God keep you in His own peace upon the throne many, many years, and may all your children after you reach a good old age!’ (16a)

A few days later Alwar Mīrzā fell ill. His illness led to an affection of the bowels, which grew worse and worse in spite of all that the doctors could do, and at last he passed from this transitory world to the eternal home. His Majesty was very sad and sorry, and Alwar's mother, Dil-dār Begam, was wild with grief for the child, who was a rarity of the world and unique of the age. As her lamenta­tion passed due bounds, his Majesty said to my lady and the begams: ‘Come, let us make an excursion to Dholpūr.’ He himself went comfortably and pleasantly by water, and the begams also begged to go by boat.

Just then there came a letter from Maulānā Muḥammad Farghārī (Parghālī) in Dihlī, saying: ‘Humāyūn Mīrzā is ill and in an extraordinary state. Her Highness the begam should come at once to Dihlī, for the mīrzā is much prostrated.’^{*Cf. Bābar-nāma, Ilminsky, 502 et seq., and P. de Courteille, II. 457 et seq., where is one of the supplementary fragments included in Kehr's Bābar-nāma (Tūzūk) and possibly taken from the Bukhara MS. (Cf. Notes on the Tūrkā texts of the Bābar-nāma, A. S. Beveridge. Journal of the Koyal Asiatic Society, July, 1900.)} (16b)

My lady was very much upset on hearing this news, and started for Dihlī, like one athirst who is far from the waters. They met in Mathura. To her experienced eye he seemed ten times weaker and more alarmingly ill than she had heard he was. From Mathura the two, mother and son, like Jesus and Mary, set out for Āgra. When they arrived, this insignificant one went with her own sisters to visit that royal angel of goodness.

He was then growing weaker and weaker. Every time he came to his senses, his pearl-dropping tongue asked for us, and said: ‘Sisters, you are welcome! Come, and let us embrace one another. I have not embraced you.’ It might be three times that he raised his head and that his jewel-dropping tongue let fall these uplifting words.

When his Majesty came and saw how it was, his light-revealing countenance at once became sad and pitiful, and he began more and more to show signs of dread. (17a) On this my lady said: ‘Do not be troubled about my son. You are a king; what griefs have you? You have other sons. I sorrow because I have only this one.’^{*All Māham's other children died in childhood.} His Majesty rejoined: ‘Māham! although I have other sons, I love none as I love your Humāyūn. I crave that this cherished child may have his heart's desire and live long, and I desire the kingdom for him and not for the others, because he has not his equal in distinction.’

During Humāyūn's illness^{*The account of Bābar's self-surrender which follows is somewhat puzzling to translate, but the sense is clear and the important statements are in accordance with other sources.} his Majesty walked round him and turned his face (in intercession) to his Reverence, Murtaẓa 'Alī Karīmu-l-lāh. He kept up that going-round from the Wednesday and made intercession from the Tuesday, in anxiety and deep dejection. The weather was extremely hot and his heart and liver burned. While going round he prayed, saying in effect: ‘O God! if a life may be exchanged for a life, I who am Bābar, I give my life and my being for Humāyūn.’^{*One of Kehr's (Ilminsky's) 'fragments' (which, if it be not Bābar's own, it is not improbable was added to the Tūzūk by Jahāngīr) tells this story in Bābar's person. After rejection of the suggestion to sacrifice for Humāyūn's life the great diamond (? the Koh-i-nūr), the narrative continues (P. de C., II. 460.) : ' J'entrai dans la chambre où il se tenait, et je tournai trois fois autour de lui, en commencant par la tête et en disant, " J'assume sur moi tout ce que tu souffres." En meme instant je me sentis tout alourdi, tandis que lui se trouvait léger et dispos. II se leva enpleine santé, et moi je m'affaissai, accablé de malaise.' Faith in the rite of circumarnbulation still prevails in Persia. Bābar, it is clear, believed his devotion to have borne fruit. (Cf. Hughes, Diet, of Islām, s.v. Intercession. For Karīmu-l-lāh, see Badāunī, Bib. Ind. Text, III. 191.).}

That very day he fell ill, and Humāyūn poured water on his head, and came out and gave audience. (17b) Because of his illness, they carried my royal father within, and he kept his bed for two or three months.

As he grew worse, a messenger was sent to summon his Majesty Humāyūn, who had gone towards Kalinjar. He came post-haste, and on paying his duty to the Emperor, noticed that he was very feeble. Filled with compassion, he began to break down, and kept saying to the attendants: ‘How has he come to such a lamentable pass all at once?’ He sent for the doctors, and said to them: ‘I left him well. What has happened all at once?’ They said this and that in reply.

The whole time my royal father kept repeating: ‘Where is Hindāl? What is he doing?’ Just at this time some-one came in and said: ‘Mīr Bardī Beg, the son of Mīr Khurd Beg,^{*Hindāl's guardian from birth (1519-1530). He had previously been Bābar's bakāwal (house-steward). One of his sons, Khwāja T̤āhir Muḥammad, served under Humāyūn and Akbar, and was mīr farāghat̤ (master of comfort). He may be the Mīr Bardī (qy. a child's sobriquet, Master Full-of-fun) of this episode. Tāhir's son, Bāqī, was a sewer, i.e., table-decker (sufra-chī,).} conveys his obeisance.’ My royal father, full of agitation, sent for him at once and asked: ‘Where is Hindāl? When will he come? What trouble waiting gives!’ (18a) Mīr Bardī said: ‘The fortunate prince has reached Dihlī; he will wait on you to-day or to-morrow.’ On this my royal father said to Mīr Bardī Beg: ‘Ill-fated little fellow! I have heard that they married your sister in Kābul, and you in Lāhōr.^{*Hindāl, with whom doubtless Mīr Bardī and his father were travelling, was on his way from Badakhshān to the court.} It is because of the wedding festivities that you have (not)^{*The text has no negative.} sooner brought my son, and so my weary waiting has been very long.’ He asked: ‘How tall has Hindāl Mīrzā grown?’ and ‘What is he like?’ As Mīr Bardī was wearing one of the mīrzā's dresses, he showed it and said: ‘This is a robe of the prince which he bestowed on his servant.’ His Majesty called him nearer and said: ‘Let me see how tall and how big Hindāl has grown.’^{*Hindāl was now about eleven years old, so Mīr Bardī must also have been a boy.} He kept repeating, ‘Alas! a thousand times alas! that I do not see Hindāl,’ and asking everyone who came in: ‘When will Hindāl come?’

During his illness, he laid a command on my lady, and said: ‘Marriages ought to be arranged for Gul-rang Begam and Gul-chihra Begam. (18b) When the royal aunt, my elder sister,^{*Khānzāda Begam - aka jānam - dearest lady.} honours me with a visit, tell her that I say it has occurred to me to give Gul-rang to Isān-tīmūr Sult̤ān and Gul-chihra to Tūkhta-būghā Sult̤ān.’^{*Isān (Ishān, or Yussun) was the ninth, and Tūkhta-būghā the tenth, son of Aḥmad Khān, Bābar's maternal uncle. They were uncles of Gul-badan's own husband, Khiz̤r Khwāja.}

Dearest lady, the smiling one,^{*tabassum kunān.} came, and they said to her: ‘The Emperor spoke in this manner, and it has occurred to him in such a way. It now remains to know your pleasure. Let it be as you wish.’ She said the same and, ‘God grant blessing and peace! His idea is very good.’ My chīcha^{*This Tūrkī word presents great difficulty. Vambéry has jīcha, Kirghiz, mother, and chīcha, aunt (inferentially maternal); Shaw, chīcha, Qāzzāq, mother. P. de Courteille, Diet., chīcha, an elder sister. The word has in Samarqand the meaning ' maternal aunt.' It occurs again in the text (23a), and is used for Gul-badan's sisters, the brides of this page (19a); so that it may be right (spite of the singular number) to read 'my elder sisters themselves' i.e., the brides. But it might be 'my mother.' The word occurs at least once in the Memoirs. (Ilm., 446; Ers., 387.) It is preceded by one which Ilminsky writes yanka, and Erskine Bikeh (Bega). The letters of both words might be identical and the points only decisive. Shaw says yangā is an elder brother's wife; Vambéry, belle-sœur, Schwagerin; and Erskine (208 n..), bridesmaid, by which, I believe, is meant one who leads the bride to the bridegroom an exactly appropriate use here, since Ḥabība yangā brings her daughter Ma'ṣūma to marry Bābar. (N.B. Shaw writes yangā and chīcha, where Vambéry and others have a final 'round hā.') But if the chīcha of Mems., 387, is to be read 'elder sister,' Bābar can apply it only to Khānzāda Begam (elsewhere called by him aulugh īgāchī (Ilm., 116.); and this would, I believe, make the reading of Bikeh (Bega) difficult, since Khānzāda could not be called anything less than Khānam. The same objection would apply to the reading of chīcha as mother or as maternal aunt. This inclines one to read yanka, and not bikeh, at Mems., 387 ; and the Zainab of the sentence may be granddaughter (nabïra), through the female line, of the belle-sœur, or bridesmaid, of Khānzāda Begam. But nothing is clear as to the relationship.} herself and Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam and Āq Begam, both of whom were paternal aunts of his Majesty, were conducted into the hall. Having raised an estrade^{*Text, ṣufā dāda. Perhaps, content was given to all, but ṣuffa, estrade, fits better with the following basāt̤.} and spread carpets and chosen a propitious hour, Māham's nanacha made both Sult̤āns bow the knee.^{*Zānū zanā'īnda, literally, 'striking the knee.' Mems., 204 n.} in order to exalt them to the rank of sons-in-law.

Meantime his Majesty's disorder of the bowels increased. The Emperor Humāyūn broke down again when he saw his father's condition worsen, and called the doctors, and said to them: ‘Think it well over and find some remedy.’ (19a) Having consulted together, they said: ‘Small is our luck, for our remedies are of no avail. We hope that God, the most Holy, will soon give one from His invisible treasures.’

When they felt his Majesty's pulse, they came to the opinion that there were symptoms of the same poison as that given him by Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm's mother. It was in this way: that ill-fated demon (the mother) gave a tōla of poison to one of her maids, and said: ‘Take this and give it to Aḥmad the taster and tell him to put it in some way or other into the special dishes prepared for the Emperor.’ And she promised him large rewards. The ill-fated demon did this although his Majesty used to call her “mother,” and had assigned her place and lands with every favour, and had been kindly pleased to say: ‘Consider me as in the place of Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm.’^{*Her son, who died fighting Bābar at Pānīpat.} But as ignorance prevails amongst those people, she did not regard his kindnesses. The (fitting) hemistich is well known:

‘Everything reverts to its original type,
(Whether pure gold, or silver, or tin).’^{*Pers. and Hind. Proverbs, T. Eoebuck, Calcutta, 1824, p. 124, and Merns., 13.}

To cut short the story: the cook (Heaven having made him blind and deaf,) spread the poison which had been brought and given to him, on the Emperor's bread only, and so little was eaten. But the symptoms of this illness were like that one's, seeing that day by day he lost strength and became more and more emaciated. (19b) Every day the disorder increased and his blessed countenance changed.

Next day^{*(?) after Humāyūn's arrival.} he called his chiefs together and spoke after this wise: ‘For years it has been in my heart to make over my throne to Humāyūn Mīrzā and to retire to the Gold-scattering Garden. By the Divine grace I have obtained all things but the fulfilment of this wish in health of body. Now, when illness has laid me low, I charge you all to acknowledge Humāyūn in my stead. Fail not in loyalty to him. Be of one heart and one mind with him. I hope to God that Humāyūn also will bear himself well towards men.

‘Moreover, Humāyūn, I commit to God's keeping you and your brothers and all my kinsfolk and your people and my people; and all of these I confide to you.’

At these words hearers and onlookers wept and lamented. His own blessed eyes also filled with tears.

When his family and the people within the ḥaram heard of these occurrences, they were stupefied and overwhelmed, and cried and lamented.

Three days later he passed from this transitory world to the eternal home. The death took place on Monday, December 26th, 1530 (Jumāda I. 5th, 937H.). (20a)

They brought out our paternal aunt^{*Khānzāda Begam.} and our mothers^{*Bābar's wives.} on the pretence that the doctors were coming to look. All rose. They took all the begams and my mothers to the Great House.^{*Perhaps 'palace,' and the sense may be that they did not go to their separate residences but remained nearer to the dead.}

Black fell the day for children and kinsfolk and all. They bewailed and lamented; voices were uplifted in weeping; there was utter dejection. Each passed that ill-fated day in a hidden corner.

The death was kept concealed. After a time Araish Khān,—he was an amīr of Hind,—said: ‘It is not well to keep the death secret, because when such misfortunes befall kings in Hindūstān, it is the custom of the bāzār people to rob and steal; God forbid that the Mughals not knowing, they should come and loot the houses and dwelling-places. It would be best to dress someone in red, and to set him on an elephant, and to let him proclaim that the Emperor Bābar has become a dervish and has given his throne to the Emperor Humāyūn.’ This his Majesty Humāyūn ordered to be done. People were at once re­assured by the proclamation, and all offered prayers for his welfare. On Friday, December 29th, 1530 (Jumāda I. 9th, 937H.), the Emperor Humāyūn mounted the throne, and everyone said: ‘May all the world be blessed under his rule.’ (20b)

After that he came to visit his mothers and sisters and his own people, and he made inquiry after their health and offered sympathy, and spoke with kindness and com­miseration. He was pleased to order: ‘Let each keep the office, and service, and lands, and residence which he has had, and let him serve in the old way.’

On the same day Hindāl Mīrzā, having come from Kābul, paid his homage to the Emperor, who received him with kindness, and was very happy, and bestowed on him many things from the treasures left by their father.

After my royal father's death, there were the good works and consecrated days of the first assembly^{*ma'rka. Raverty (Afghan Dict..) gives as the first meaning of this word 'a party of ambassadors, or persons sent to make peace between two tribes'; and, secondly, as 'the business of making peace, or an arrangement between two tribes.' Lane and other writers render it 'battle-field' and 'battle,' etc. Steingass adds 'hubbub, turmoil' (modern colloquial). Gul-badan uses it for the common social assemblies she names, and here for the gathering of relations at a tomb.} at his tomb.^{*Bābar's body was laid first in the Rām or Arām Bāgh (Garden of Rest), on the opposite side of the river from the present Tāj-mahāll. Later it was taken to Kābul. Mr. Erskine (B. & M., I. 517 et seq..) quotes a charming passage from Burns' 'Travels in Bokhara' (IT. 121 et seq.), which describes Bābar's self-chosen resting-place. He follows this by an eloquent estimate of Bābar's character which makes clear his regret in bidding farewell to the great and vivid personality he has so admirably set before his readers.} His Majesty named Muḥammad 'Alī 'asas^{*i.e., of the night-guard. I believe he was the brother of Māham Begam.} its guardian, and ordered the appointment of sixty good reciters of the whole Qurān and readers with good voices, so that the congregational prayers might be said five times daily and the whole Qurān recited, and prayer offered for the soul of the royal dweller in Paradise (Firdaus-makānī). (21a) The whole of Sīkrī—now known as Fatḥpūr—together with five laks charged on Bayāna, was given as an endowment to the tomb, for the support of the men of learning ('ulamā) and the reciters who were attached to it.

My lady made an allowance of food twice daily: in the morning an ox and two sheep and five goats, and at after­noon prayer-time five goats. She gave this from her own estate during the two and a half years that she remained in the prison of this world.

During my lady's life I used to see his Majesty in her residence. When she fell into bad health, she said to me: ‘It will be very hard that when I am gone, the Emperor Bābar's daughters should see their brother in Bībī Gul-barg's^{*Cf.post. 29b, and 'Biographical Appendix,' s.n..} house.’ Just as though her words were in the royal heart and mind, his Majesty used always, so long as he was in Hindūstān, to come to our house. He used to visit us and showed us kindness and affection and favour without stint. He used to come to the house of this insignificant one, and there would come Ma'ṣūma Sult̤ān Begam, and Gul-rang Begam, and Gul-chihra Begam^{*These three were her half and full sisters respectively.} etc. —all the married ladies—and pay their duty to him. (21b)

In short, after the death of my royal father and my lady, his Majesty, in the fulness of his affection, showed this broken one such favour, and spoke with such boundless compassion to this helpless one, that she did not know she was orphaned and headless.^{*Gul-badan was about eight at her father's death. At three she had been adopted by Māham Begam.}

During the ten^{*Really about nine.} years after the death of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī that his Majesty Jannat-āshyānī was in Hind, the people dwelt in repose and safety, and obedience and loyalty.^{*This rose-coloured picture accords neither with the facts nor with the narrative of Gul-badan. It may be that some limiting word has slipped out; e.g., 'hi Āgra,' or 'the people of the country,' in opposition to the dispossessed Afghans, conquerors of earlier date, or Bābar's people, i.e., household.}

Six months after the death of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī, Biban^{*Text, Bibban. Biban and Bāyazīd were two distinguished Afghīn chiefs and upporters of the fallen Lodī dynasty. The defeat named here occurred at Daura, on the Gumtī, 1531 (937 H.). All who love the story of an adventurous life, chequered through character of individuals in a marked degree, should fill out Gul-badan's brief narrative from Mr. Erskine's life of Humāyūn.} and Bāyazīd advanced from the direction of Gaur. On the news of this, his Majesty at once left Āgra and moved to meet them. He defeated them, and then went to Chanāda (Chunār),^{*1532 (938H.). Taken from Shīr Shāh late in 1532 (939H.).} took it, and thence returned to Āgra.

My lady, who was Māham Begam, had a great longing and desire to see a son of Humāyūn. Wherever there was a good-looking and nice girl, she used to bring her into his service. Maywa-jān, a daughter of Khadang (? Khazang), the chamberlain (yasāwal),^{*An attendant on a man of rank, who carries a gold or silver staff (Johnson, Pers. Diet., s.v..); chamberlain in the service of Khāns of Tūrkistān (Zenker, s.v..) Gul-badan's use of the word (81b) would allow a more extended sense.} was in my employ. One day (after) the death of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī,^{*Text has also dar hayāt khud. This is not the only instance of a similar redundant expression.} my lady said: ‘Humāyūn, Maywa-jān is not bad. Why do you not take her into your service?’ So, at her word, Humāyūn married and took her that very night. (22a)

Three days later Bega Begam^{*Bega had had one son, Al-amān. She is known in the later histories as Hājī Begam, but she made her pilgrimage in 972H. . She was captured at Chausa in 1539 (946H.) by Shīr Shāh; and most writers give her at this date the brevet title of Hājī. It is probable that Bega was not her personal name. It is the title of a lady of rank, and answers to beg.} came from Kābul. She became in the family way. In due time^{*Text, b'ad az yak sāl, which, read literally, spoils the story.} she had a daughter, whom they named 'Aqīqa. Maywa-jān said to Lady (Aka) Māham Begam, ‘I am in the family way, too.’ Then my lady got ready two sets of weapons, and said: ‘Whichever of you bears a son, I will give him good arms.’ Then she packed up the arms, and got ready gold and silver walnuts. She procured also the (special) arms of a Mughal commander, and was very happy, and kept saying: ‘Perhaps one of them will have a son.’ She kept watch till Bega Begam's 'Aqīqa was born. Then she kept an eye on Maywa-jān. Ten months went by. The eleventh also passed. Maywa-jān said: ‘My maternal aunt was in Mīrzā Ulugh Beg's^{*This will be Bābar's paternal uncle, known as Kābulī.} ḥaram. She had a son in the twelfth month; perhaps I am like her.’ So they sewed tents and filled pillows.^{*i.e., made all preparations. Perhaps khirgāhā dohkta is not 'sewed tents,' but 'pitched tents.' Cf. zamīn-doz.} But in the end everyone knew she was a fraud.

His Majesty who had gone towards Chanāda (Chunār), returned safe and sound.

My lady who was Māham Begam, gave a great feast. (22b) They lit up the bāzārs.^{*I am very doubtful as to the meaning of the following paragraph. It can hardly be true that India waited for Māham to instruct it in the art of illumination or decoration. I have conjecturally read that, whereas formerly only bāzārs were made to look festive, she had other houses adorned.} Before that time people used to illuminate the bāzārs (only). Then she gave orders to the better class and to the soldiers also to decorate their places and make their quarters beautiful, and after this illumination became general in India.

… a jewelled throne,^{*Here follows a list of arrangements, plenishing and gifts for the feast. There are here and at p. 123 ff. many difficult words in it.} ascended by four steps, and above it gold-embroidered hangings, and laid on it a cushion and pillows embroidered in gold.

The covering of the pavilions and of the large audience tent was, inside, European brocade, and outside, Portu­guese cloth. The tent-poles were gilded; that was very ornamental.

(My lady) had prepared a tent-lining and a kannat^{*Ar., a pent over a doorway, a veil, an umbrella. Perhaps qanāt, .a screen, an enclosure for tents, the tent walls.} and sar-i-kannat of Gujrātī cloth-of-gold, and a ewer for rose-water, and candlesticks, and drinking-vessels, and rose­water sprinklers,— all of jewelled gold.

With all her stores of plenishing, she made an excellent and splendid feast.

… twelve strings of camels, and twelve of mules, and seventy tipūchāq horses, and one hundred baggage horses. She gave special robes of honour to 7,000 persons. The festivities lasted several days.^{*The feast here credited to Māham Begam may be that of the first anniversary of Humāyūn's accession. Of this Gul-badan gives an account, minus such details as are set down here, at 24a et seq.. At the 'accession feast,' held December 19th, 1531, and thus not quite a year after the accession, it is said by Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Ahmad that 12,000 robes were bestowed, 2,000 of these being ' special.' For details as to khil'at, Cf. Memoirs, 274 n.. Lists are dull reading, unless each item calls up an image. It is easy to add splendour and beauty to Gul-badan's few poor words by looking at actual things of the kinds she names, as may be done in the Oriental Section of the South Kensington Museum. The links between Persia and India in her day and earlier and later were many and close. Many Persians born and bred in Persia or by descent formed part of the Mughal court. Persian art and manufacture were at their highest development, experts say, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The uncritical eye doubts if the products of those centuries, as exhibited in the examples England possesses, can be excelled for splendour and satisfying charm. With such things, the personages of our begam's book surrounded themselves.}

At this time came news that Muḥammad-zamān Mīrzā^{*Son of Badī'u-z-zamān Mīrzā, and grandson of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā, and husband of Ma'ṣūma, a daughter of Bābar. He was drowned in the Ganges at the rout of Chausa.} had killed the father of Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān kūkī,^{*Cf. B. & H., II., s.n.} and was meditating rebellion. (23a) His Majesty sent to summon them^{*Sic; apparently the names of his fellow-rebels are omitted. They occur below.} to the presence, and having laid hands on them, imprisoned them in Bayāna, in charge of Uncle Yādgār. Uncle Yādgār's men sided with Muḥammad-zamān Mīrzā, and let him escape (1533—940H.). At this time it was ordered that Sult̤ān Muḥammad Mīrzā^{*Grandson, through a daughter, of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā. and thus, a cousin of Muḥammad-zamān.} and Nai^{*Called both Nai and Walī in the histories.} (Walī) Khūb Sult̤ān Mīrzā should both be blinded. Nai Khūb Sult̤ān lost his sight, but the man who had the blinding of Muḥammad Sult̤ān did not injure his eyes.^{*See Mr. Erskine's interesting note on blinding. (B. & H., II. 14 n.).} Muḥammad-zamān Mīrzā and Muḥammad Sult̤ān Mīrzā, with his sons, Ulugh Mīrzā and Shāh Mīrzā, made their escape a few days later.

There was perpetual disturbance from these people during the years we were in Hind.

When his Majesty returned from the campaign against Biban and Bāyazīd, he was in Āgra^{*'Occupied in dreamy speculations of false sciences' i.e., astrology. (B. & H., II. 14.) The date is 1534 (941H.).} for about a year. He said to my lady: ‘I am sad at heart in these days. If you approved, I would go with you to Guālīār.’^{*The histories tell us that the Guālīār expedition was a military demonstration against Bahādur Shāh of Gujrāt. Khwānd-amīr fixes its date as Sha'bān 939H. (February, 1533).} Her Highness my lady, and my mother (ājam),^{*Taken as it is written, this name might be charmingly translated as 'Ma desirée,' but considered with other words in this text after which the enclitic am (my) is incorrectly written, it seems that prosaic 'my mother,' Tūrkī, achām, is safer. In favour, however, of reading ājam, desire, is the wording on 256 (No. 48 of the guest-list), ājam wālida-i-mā, our mother. Ājam occurs also at 29.} and my sisters Ma'ṣūma^{*Her husband, Muḥammad-zamān, is the rebel of this name just spoken of.} Sult̤ān Begam, whom we used to call Elder sister^{*Chīcha; which I have rendered ' elder sister ' to suit the actual relationship between Gul-badan and her two sisters. Cf. 186 n.} Moon, and Gul-rang Begam, whom we used to call Elder sister Rose,—we all were in Guālīār in attendance on the beneficent ladies.^{*The aunts, presumably.}

As Gul-chihra Begam was in Oude, and her husband, Tūkhtā-būghā Sult̤ān, went to the mercy of God, her attendants wrote to his Majesty from Oude and said: ‘Tūkhtā-būghā Sult̤ān is dead. (23b) What is the order about the begam?’ His Majesty said to Mīr Zāycha:^{*The Chief Astrologer.} ‘Go and bring the begam to Āgra. We also are going there.’

At this time her Highness my lady said: ‘If you approve, I will send for Bega Begam and ‘Aqīqa, so that they also may see Guālīār.’ She despatched Naukār^{*Bābar names this man as being sent from India in charge of gifts to Kābul (Mems., 337.), and Gul-badan names him again (67b) as guardian of the begams' doorway in the citadel of Kābul.} and Khwāja Kabīr, who brought them from Āgra.

They let two months slip by in one another's company in Guālīār, and then set out for Āgra, which they reached in February, 1534 (Sha'bān, 940 H.).^{*This date cannot be right. The following are approximately correct for this time : Visit to Guālīār undertaken, Sha'bān, 939H. (February, 1533). Return to Āgra and Māham's illness, Shawwāl (April). Death of Māham, 13th Shawwāl (May 8, 1533). Forty days of mourning carries on the time to late in Ẕū'l-qa'da (June). Start for Dihlī, beginning of Ẕū'l-ḥijja, after June 24. The building of Dīnpanā was begun Muḥarram, 940H. (July, 1533).}

In April (Shawwāl) my lady was attacked by a disorder of the bowels. On the 27th of the same month (13th Shawwāl) she passed from this transitory life to the eternal home.

The stamp of orphanhood was set anew on my royal father's children, and especially on me, for whom she herself had cared. I felt lonely and helpless and in great affliction. Day and night I wept and mourned and grieved. His Majesty came several times to comfort me, and showed me sympathy and kindness. I was two years old when her Highness my lady took me into her own house and cared for me, and I was ten when she departed from this life. (24a) I remained one year more in her house.^{*Māham had also adopted Hindāl. Bābar details the circumstances, but the abbreviation, as it seems, of the Persian text, has led to an error. (Mems., 250.) Those children of Bābar who died young, were not born in 'this year' (925H.), as will be seen in the fuller rendering of Ilminsky, 281, and of P. de C., II. 44: ' Après Humāyūn (b. 913H.) j'eus encore plusieurs enfants, nés de la même mère que lui, mais qui ne vécurent pas.' We know from Gul-badan that these were Bārbūl, Mihr-jahān, and Ishān-daulat. 'Hindāl n'etait pas encore venu dans le monde. Comme j'étais dans ces parages [Kehraāj, in Mandesh, and on his way to India], il m'arriva une lettre de Māham, dans laquelle elle me disait, “Sera-ce un fils ou une fille? Prononcez vous-même sur la part que me réserve la fortune; à moi de mettre l'enfant dans le monde [Erskine, 'I will regard the child as mine'] et de l'élever." Le vendredi, 26 du mois, toujours à ce meme campement, j'adjugeai Hindāl à Māham [before birth], et je lui écrivis à ce sujet une lettre qui lui fût portée Kābul par Yūsuf 'Ali rikāb-dār [courier] quoique Hindāl ne fût pas encore né.'.) A passage now follows which, as is noted by P. de C., is neither in the Persian version of the Memoirs nor in the English translation: 'Pour bien comprendre tout ce qui à été dit plus haut, il faut savoir que jusqu'à cette époque, de tout les enfants nés de la même mère que Humāyūn, soit un fils [i.e., Bārbūl], cadet par rapport à lui, l'ainé par rapport à mes autres enfants et trois filles, dont l'une etait Mihrjān, il n'y en avait pas un qui ne fût mort en bas age. Je souhaitais vivement de lui voir naître un frère ou une sœur. [i.e., a child of Māham. There were other children of other wives.] 'Précisément a cette epoque Dil-dār āghācha se trouvait enceinte. Je ne cessais de répéter, "Plût à Dieu que l'enfant qui va naître, sortît du même sein que Humāyūn!" A quoi ma mére [sic. Tūrkī text, Ilminsky, 271, ḥaz̤rat wālida] me répondait, "Si Dil-dar āghācha met au monde un fils, ne pourrais-je pas le prendre et m'en charger?" "Rien de mieux," faisais-je à mon tour. 'D'ordinaire les femmes ont la manière suivante de consulter le sort, quand elles veulent savoir si elles auront un fils ou une fille. Elles prennent deux morceaux de papier; sur l'un elles écrivent, 'Alī ou Ḥasan, sur l'autre Fāt̤ima; puis elles les placent dans deux boules de limon qu'elles inettent dans une coupe d'eau. Celles des deux qui s'ouvre la première, leur sert à prognostiquer l'avenir; si elle renferme le nom d'un garçon, il y aura un garçon; si c'est celui d'une fille, il y aura une fille, disent-elles. On employa cette méthode ; ce fût un enfant mâle qui en sortit. En recevant cette bonne nouvelle, j'écrivis aussitôt pour en faire part à ma mère [sic]. Quelques jours plus tard, effectivement Dieu me donna un garçon. Trois jours après sa naissance et avant de l'annoncer, on enleva Fenfant, bon gré, mal gré, à sa mère et on l'apporta chez moi où on le garda. Lorsque j'en donnai avis à ma mère [sic], celle-ci apprenant qu'elle avait obtenu l'objet de ses vœux, donna au jeune prince le nom de Hindāl, qui etait pour nous de bon augure. Par cet. arrangement cet énfant fût pour moi [? nous] à la fois un frère cadet (for que l'enfant qui va naître, sortît du même sein que Humāyūn) et un fils (for Māham and himself). The words ḥaz̤rat wālida cannot mean the mother of Bābar She had been dead some fourteen years. They may be equivalent to Sult̤ān-wālida - i.e., the mother of the heir-apparent. Certainly it was Māham who adopted Hindāl. This initial misconception as to the identity of Ḥaz̤rat wālida runs through the whole translation of this most interesting passage. According to Gul-badan, Fārūq (born in 932H.) was Māham's son. Bābar names the birth. (Mems., 343.).} When I was eleven, and his Majesty went to Dholpūr, I accompanied my mother.^{*i.e., returned to her own mother's charge i.e., Dil-dār's.} This will have been before he went to Guālīār and began to build.^{*An obscure passage. Humāyūn was building about this time. (Elliot, V. 126.).}

At the end of the mourning for my lady, his Majesty went to Dihlī^{*Beginning of Ẕū'l-hijja, 939H. (June July, 1533).} and began to build the fort of Dīn-panā.^{*Humāyūn-nāma, Khwānd-amīr.} He then returned to Āgra.

Dearest lady^{*Cf. 156 n.} (Khānzāda Begam) said to his Majesty: ‘When will you make Mīrzā Hindāl's marriage feast?’ His Majesty replied: ‘B'ismu-l-lāh.’ When Mīrzā Hindāl was married, my lady (Māham) was living, but there was delay in arranging the feast. (Khānzāda Begam) said: ‘The things for the Mystic Feast are also ready. Let us first celebrate this, and afterwards Mīrzā Hindāl's.’ His Majesty said: ‘Let whatever my royal aunt wishes be done.’ She replied: ‘May God bless it and make it good.’

First there was a large octagonal room with an octa­gonal tank in the centre, and again, in the middle of the reservoir, an octagonal platform on which were spread Persian (wilāyatī) carpets. (24b) Young men and pretty girls and elegant women and musicians and sweet-voiced reciters were ordered to sit in the tank.^{*The sequel to this order follows later.}

The jewelled throne which my lady had given for the feast was placed in the fore-court of the house, and a gold-embroidered divan^{*tūshāk, (?) anglice, squab.} was laid in front of it, (on which) his Majesty and dearest lady sat together.

On her right sat her paternal aunts, the daughters of Sult̤ān Abū-sa'īd Mīrzā:

1.^{Translator's numbering. For details as to each woman Cf. Appendix s.n.} Fakhr-jahān Begam.

2. Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam.

3. Āq^{*This epithet, the Fair, is given to several persons, not all women; and in some instances the true name is also known e.g., Yasīn-daulat Sult̤ān, Kāmrān's son-in-law, and Salīqa, daughter of Sult̤ān Aḥmad Mīrzā.} Begam.

4. Sult̤ān Bakht Begam.

5. Gūhar-shād Begam.

6. Khadīja Sult̤ān Begam.

Upon another cushion sat our paternal aunts, the sisters of his Majesty, Firdaus-makānī:

7. Shahr-bānū Begam.

8. Yādgār Sult̤ān Begam.

(N.B.—Other guests of the right follow).

9. 'Āyisha Sult̤ān Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā.

10. Ulugh Begam, daughter of Zainab Sult̤ān Begam, a paternal aunt of his Majesty.

11. 'Āyisha Sult̤ān Begam.

12. Sult̤ānī Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Aḥmad Mīrzā, paternal (great-) uncle of his Majesty^{*The words used of Sult̤ānī do not grammatically apply to 'Āyisha, but I believe she is also a daughter of Sult̤ān Aḥmad Mīrzā and is Bābar's first wife, who left him under the influence of an elder sister, perhaps Salīqa Sult̤ān (Āq Begam). Salīqa married a son of Sult̤ān Maḥmūd Mīrzā, and may have acted under the evil impulses of the family quarrels which did so much to embitter, if also to stimulate, Bābar's early ambitions.} and mother of Kilān Khān Begam. (25a)

13. Bega Sult̤ān Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Khalīl Mīrzā, paternal (grand-)uncle of his Majesty.

14. Māham Begam.^{*This is not 'my lady,' whose death has been already recorded.}

15. Begī Begam, daughter of Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Kābulī, paternal (grand-)uncle of his Majesty.

16. Khānzāda Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Mas'ūd Mīrzā; on her mother's side, grand-daughter of Payanda Muḥam-mad Sult̤ān Begam, paternal (grand-)aunt of his Majesty.

17. Shāh Khānam, daughter of Badī'u-l-jamāl Begam (No. 2.).

18. Khānam Begam, daughter of Āq Begam (No. 3.).

19. Zainab Sult̤ān Khānam, daughter of Sult̤ān Maḥmūd Khān, eldest maternal (grand-)uncle of his Majesty.

20. Muḥibb Sult̤ān Khānam, daughter of Sult̤ān Aḥmad Khān, — known as Ilācha Khān, the younger maternal uncle of the elder^{*kilān; perhaps, great.} Emperor (Bābar).

21. Khānish, sister of Mīrzā Ḥaidar and daughter of (a) maternal (great-)aunt of his Majesty.

22. Bega Kilān Begam.^{*Probably the daughter of Sult̤ān Maḥmūd Mīrzā and mother of Shād Begam (No. 28.) by a son, Ḥaidar, of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā.}

23. Kīchak Begam.

24. Shāh Begam, mother of Dil-shād Begam, and daughter of Fakhr-jahān Begam (No. 1.), paternal (great-) aunt of his Majesty.

25. Kīchakna Begam.

26. Apāq (Āfāq) Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Bakht Begam (No. 4.).

27. Mihr-līq (? Mihr-bānū) Begam, paternal aunt of his Majesty.

28. Shād Begam, grand-daughter of Sult̤ān Husain Mīrzā, and daughter of a paternal aunt of his Majesty (? No. 22.).

29. Mihr-angez Begam, daughter of Muz̤affar (Ḥusain) Mīrzā, and grandchild of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā. (25b) They had great friendship for one another (? Shād and Mihr-angez), and they used to wear men's clothes and were adorned by varied accomplishments, such as the making of thumb-rings^{*Text zih-gīrī tarāshī, which might be experimentally rendered carving thumb-rings, a gentle art of the day. But if wa be inserted, each word would represent a separate accomplishment of the well-bred in knightly arts. These would be congenial to a lady who played polo (chaugān). Cf. Bābar's account of Ḥaidar's accomplishments (Ilminsky, 14, Merns., 13, P. de C., 22.), and Haidar's own recital in his prologue to the Tārīkh-i-rashīdī. I suggest to take tarāshī (a word not used by Babar or Ḥaidar) as equivalent to the fletchery (auq), or the 'making arrow-heads' (paikān), of Bābar. Another possible reading has been suggested to me by Mr. Beveridge (a)z hikīrī tarāshī, 'by cutting arrows.' Hikīrī is a Hindī name for cultivated reeds grown on low marshy grounds. (Wilson's Glossary, s.v., and Platt's Hindustānī Dict..) There is nothing improbable in Gul-badan's use of a Hindī word. Arrows were fashioned from these reeds and men-at-arms practised the art. Gujrāt reeds were exported for arrows to Persia. The omission of the alif of az is not infrequent in the MS. A few words on the zih-gīr find fit insertion here. It is a thumb-ring worn on the right hand as a protection against the fret of the bow-string both in drawing and release. Persians, like the Japanese and Mongols and Chinese, drew with the thumb. The zih-gīr is of eccentric thickness and unequal width, elongating on one side into a tongue. This elongation lies along the inner side of the thumb, and points towards the thumb-tip. In drawing, the thumb crooks round the string which pulls against the zih-gīr. The arrow is released by straightening the thumb, and the string then flies over the hard surface of the ring. The zih-gīr is of jade, crystal, ivory, brass, gold, etc.. Some are chased and carved, and some are jewelled. In December, 1898, a remarkable one was offered for sale at an auction in Edinburgh of Lord Dalhousie's collections and the jewels of his daughter, Lady S. G. Brown (Connemara). It is cut from a single emerald, and inscribed: 'Jihat zihgīr shāh-i-shāhān Nādir ṣāḥib-qirān bar taskhīr-i-hind az jawāhar-khāna intikhāb shud' ('Selected for a thumb-ring for the king of kings and lord of happy conjunction Nādir, from the jewel-room on the conquest of Hind'). An interesting account of Persian archery is included in the 'Book of Archery,' G. Agar Hansard (Lond., 1840.). It, however, calls the zih-gīr, safn. safn is the rough skin of a fish or lizard which is used to smooth the arrow-shafts. (Cf. Lane's Ar. Diet..)} and arrows, playing polo, and shooting with the bow and arrow. They also played many musical instruments.

30. Gul Begam.

31. Fauq Begam.

32. Khān (? Jān) Begam.

33. Āfroz-bānū Begam.

34. Āgha Begam.

35. Fīroza Begam.

36. Barlās Begam.

There were other begams, very many, adding up altogether to ninety-six stipendiaries. There were also some others.

After the Mystic Feast (938 H.) came Mīrzā Hindāl's wedding-feast (Jauhar, 944 H.). Some of the begams already named went away,^{*Ba wilāyatī. (?) to Kabul and other outside places.} and (of those) some had sat at the right hand in that assembly (i.e., the Mystic Feast).^{*Perhaps this is an explanation of the paucity of right-hand wedding-guests.}

Of our begams:

37. Āgha (Āghā,—passim, āgha), Sult̤ān āghācha, mother of Yādgār Sult̤ān Begam.

38. Ātūn māmā.

39. Salīma.

40. Sakīna.

41. Bībī Ḥabība.

42. Ḥanīfa Bega.

And the others who had sat^{*(?) At the Mystic Feast. Its left-hand guests have not been specified. There are no repetitions of names, although the list seems to give the guests at both feasts. Perhaps down to and including No. 36 the names are of begams who were at the first feast, and then went away. Then come ' our begams ' of the right, whose home was near Humāyūn, and who were at both feasts.} at the Emperor's left on embroidered divans.

43. Ma'ṣūma Sult̤ān Begam.

44. Gul-rang Begam.

45. Gul-chihra Begam.

46. This insignificant one, the broken Gul-badan.

47. 'Aqīqa Sult̤ān Begam.

48. Ājam, our mother, who was Dil-dār Begam.^{*Cf. 236 n.}

49. Gul-barg Begam.

50. Bega Begam. (26a)

51. Māham's nanacha.

52. Sult̤ānam, the wife of Amīr (Niz̤āmu-d-dīn) Khalīfa.

53. Alūsh Begam.

54. Nāhīd Begam.

55. Khurshīd kūka, and the children of my royal father's foster-brothers.

56. Afghānī āghācha.

57.^{*Nos. 57 and 58 are, perhaps, the two Circassians whom Shah Tahmasp sent as a gift to Bābar (Mems., 347.). Gul-nār is named in Abū 'l-fazl's list of pilgrims who went with Gul-badan to Makka in 983H., and as being of Bābar's household. They (Nos. 57 and 58) are named also by Firishta.} Gul-nār āghācha.

58. Nāz-gul āghācha.

59. Makhdūma āgha, the wife of Hindū Beg.

60. Fatīma Sult̤ān anaga, the mother of Raushan kūka.

61. Fakhru-n-nisā' anaga, the mother of Nadīm kūka.

62. The wife of Muḥammadī kūka.

63. The wife of Mu'yid Beg.

64. The kūkas of his Majesty: Khurshīd kūka.

65. Sharīfu-n-nisā' kūka.

66. Fatḥ kūka.

67. Rabī'a Sult̤ān kūka.

68. Māh-liqā kūka.

69. Our nurses (anaga).

70. Our kūkas.

71. The begams' people and the wives of the amīrs.

Those who were on the right.

73. Salīma Bega.

74. Bībī Neka.

75. Khānam āgha, daughter of Khwāja 'Abdu-l-lāh Marwārīd.

76. Nigār āgha, mother of Mughal Beg.

77. Nār Sult̤ān āgha.

78. Āgha kūka, wife of Mu'nim Khān.

79. Daughter of Mīr Shāh Ḥusain, (illegible) Bega.

80. Kīsak Māham.

81. Kābulī Māham.

82. Begī āgha.

83. Khānam āgha.

84. Sa'ādat Sult̤ān āgha.

85. Bībī Daulat-bakht.

86. Naṣīb āgha.

87. (Illegible) Kābulī.

Other begas and āghas, the wives of the amīrs, sat on this hand, and all were present at the marriage feast. (26b)

This was the fashion of the Mystic House: (there was) a large octagonal room in which they gave the feast, over against this a small room, also octagonal. In both every sort of profusion and splendour appeared. In the large octagonal hall was set the jewelled throne, and above and below it were spread out hangings (adṣaqahāī) embroidered with gold, and wonderful strings of pearls (shadhīhā) hung, each 1 1/2 yards (gaz) in length. At the end of each string (larī) were two glass globes. There had been made and hung some thirty or forty strings.

In the small room, in an alcove, were set a gilded bed­stead and pān-dishes,^{*This word excites curiosity as to the time when Gul-badan's people learned to eat pān.} and water-vessels and jewelled drinking-vessels, and utensils of pure gold and silver.

Facing west (was) the audience hall; facing east, the garden; on the third side and facing south, the large octagon; and on the side facing north, the small one. In these three houses were three upper rooms. One they named the House of Dominion,^{*As to this threefold classification, Elliot and Dowson, V., 119, may be consulted.} and in it were nine military appurtenances, such as a jewelled scimitar and gilded armour, a broad dagger and a curved dagger, and a quiver, all gilt, and a gold-embroidered overmantle.^{*Six articles only are separately named, but the qūr (translated armour) may be taken in the sense given to it in the Āīn (Blochmann, 109.), and include four weapons, which makes the total the mystic nine. Cf. Āīn, l.c., and plates. (N.B. The numbering of the weapons [l.c. p. 110.] does not agree with that of the plates. Plate X. should be consulted.)} (27a)

In the second room, called the House of Good Fortune, an oratory had been arranged, and books placed, and gilded pen-cases,^{*qalam-dān. Several such are to be seen at the S. K. M. They are boxes damascened or painted with pictures, about 10 inches by 3 inches, and contain writing implements. 'Gilded ' does not seem an appropriate epithet. Perhaps the dictionaries define imperfectly.} and splendid portfolios,^{*juz-dān. Perhaps the beautiful book-covers of the day. Those having flaps might be called portfolios.} and entertaining picture-books written in beautiful character.^*muraqqa'.

In the third room, which they called the House of Pleasure, were set out a gilded bedstead and a coffer of sandal-wood, and all imaginable pillows. Then in front were spread specially choice coverlets,^{*nihālcha. Placed, I presume, over carpets.} and before these table-cloths, all of gold brocade. Various fruits and beverages had been got ready, and everything for merri­ment and comfort and pleasure.

On the feast-day of the Mystic House, his Majesty ordered all the mīrzās and begams to bring gifts,^{*sāchaq. This word appears to have a special meaning of wedding-gifts, but Gul-badan uses it elsewhere more widely.} and everyone did so. He said: ‘Divide the gifts into three heaps.’ They made three trays of ashrafīs and six of shāhrukhīs. One of ashrafīs and two of shāhrukhīs he gave to Hindū Beg and said: ‘This is the share of Dominion; give it to the mīrzās and chiefs and vazīrs and soldiers.’ (27b)

He gave in the same way to Mullā Muḥammad Farghārī (Parghālī) and said: ‘This is the share of Good Fortune. Give it to those who are eminent and respectable, and to theologians and religious men, to ascetics and graybeards, and dervishes and devotees, and the poor and the needy.’

Concerning one tray of ashrafīs and two of shāhrukhīs he said: ‘This is the portion of Pleasure. This is mine. Bring it forward.’ They did so. He said: ‘What need is there to count?’ First he himself vouchsafed his blessed hand and said: ‘Let them take to the begams on one small tray ashrafīs and on another shāhrukhīs. Let each person take her hands full.’ What was left, that is two trays of shāh-rukhīs ,—which may have been 10,000,—and all the ashrafīs, —about 2,000—he gave in largesse, and scattered^{*niṣār. Again a word which, like sāchaq, would seem to fit the marriage feast better than the accession.} first be­fore the walī 'u-n-ni' matān (beneficent seniors), and then to those present at the entertainment. No one received less than 100 or 150, and those in the tank especially received very much. (28a) His Majesty was pleased to say: ‘Dearest lady! if you approved, they might put water in the tank.’ She replied: ‘Very good,’ and went herself and sat at the top of the steps. People were taking no notice, when all at once (?) the tap was turned and water came. (28a) The young people got very much excited. His Majesty said: ‘There is no harm; each of you will eat a pellet of anise^{*shīt. The text has no points and would yield seb, apple ; but anise is the better remedy against cold.} and a bit of comfit^{*ma'jūn any medical confection, but commonly an intoxicant. Here it may be some preventive of chill.} and come out of there.’ Upon this, everyone who would eat the comfit came out quickly. The water was as high as their ankles. To end the story, everyone ate the comfit and all came out.

Then the viands of the feast were set forth, and robes of honour were put on,^{*It was now that 12,000 khil'ats are said to have been distributed. In this passage Gul-badan twice uses the expression sar u-pāī. Perhaps one might say that the 'young people' were given new clothes from head to foot, and so shake off the fetters of the rigid khil'at, sar u-pāī, and 'honorary dresses.'} and gifts bestowed, and head-to-foot dresses given to the comfit-eaters and others.

On the margin of the tank was a room (tālār)^{*The dictionaries I have seen, explain tālār as a saloon built of wood and supported on four columns, and this is appropriate here. Le Strange and Haggard (Vazīr of Lonkurān) say, ' Alcove or chamber in which a ruler sits to give public audience and hear suitors.' It is raised above the level of the (e.g.) courtyard, so that petitioners are below the hakīm. Approaching this meaning is the 'throne' of the dictionaries.} fitted with talc windows, and young people sat in the room and players made music. Also a woman's bāzār^{*Cf. Āīn, Blochmann, 276 ; Khushroz, or Day of Fancy Bāzārs.} had been arranged, and boats had been decorated. In one boat was made (?) the semblance of six people (kasī) and six alcoves (kanj); in (another) an upper room, and below it a garden with amaranthus and cockscombs and larkspurs^{*nā-firmān, stubborn, (?) because they will break and not bend. Balfour (Cyclopaedia) and Forbes (Hind. Dict.) give larkspur ; Fallen, poppy. An account of the boats, etc., may be read in B.M. MS. Add. 30,774, where is a translation by Sir H. Elliott's munshī from Khwānd-amīr.} and tulips. In one place there were eight boats, so that there were eight pieces.^{*parcha. Perhaps flower-gardens; perhaps Fr. pièce. Cf. Un appartement de deux, trois pièces.}

In short, everyone was astonished and amazed who beheld what gift of contrivance the great God had bestowed on the blessed mind of his Majesty. (28b)

Sult̤ānam Begam (i.e., the bride) was a sister of Mahdī Khwāja.^{*Many difficulties gather round this name. Cf. Appendix s.n. Mahdī Khwāja.} My father's brother-in law (yazna) had no child except Ja'far Khwāja, and there was no child (?) of Khān-zāda Begam).^{*The copyist has perhaps omitted one āka-janām.} Dearest lady had taken care of Sult̤ānam as though she were her child. Sult̤ānam was two years old when Khānzāda Begam took charge of her. She (Khānzāda) loved her very much, and thought of her as a brother's child of her own. She made a most entertaining and splendid feast.

A kūshka^{*M. Quatremère uses this word twice with perhaps two meanings. (Notices et Extraits, XIV. 324, 325 and 406-8.) At p. 408 he translates it kiosques, and it seems to be a building. At pp. 324 and 406 he leaves it untranslated. (Here it may have the sense given by Gul-badan.) It is named amongst items prepared for ambassadors at a post-house. These are: 'kat, trône; bastar, estrade; ... kushka; jinlik; sandalī, siége,' etc. Gul-badan might intend to name a canopy or screen for a sleeping-place in a large room or a movable kiosk with sleeping comforts.} and hangings (adṣaqa)^{*Cf. 226.} and five divans and five pillows for the head (yīstūq), and one large pillow and two round ones (galūla); and girdles (qūshqa) and veils (naqāb), together with a tent^{*A word follows tent which I cannot make out. It resembles j-(h,ch)-l-gh (no vowels).} … with three gold-embroidered cushions and head-to-foot dresses for a prince, with collar and bordering of gold embroidery, and bath-wrappers (faut̤a) and napkins (rūpāk) and embroidered towels (rūmāl) and an embroidered mantle (qūrposh) to be worn over the armour.

For Sult̤ānam Begam: nine jackets (nīm-tana)^{*nīm-tana, i.e., demi-corps. Like many of Gul-badan's words, this is marked by Steingass as 'modern colloquial.' Apropos of this, Dr. Fritz Rosen says in the preface of his Modern Persian Colloquial Grammar, that the Persian of Iran differs 'in every respect ' from the Persian of India. The Persian of Gul-badan allows one to feel at home with the vazīr of Lonkurān, and with Dr. Rosen's own book. Perhaps the difference he indicates is between the literary and colloquial. Gul-badan's Persian, however, is presumably that of contemporary Irān, and her teachers were probably Persian born. Dr. Rosen's remark appears to require some restriction.} with garniture of jewelled balls,^{*tukma (dār), usually translated buttons; but the button is so associated with the button-hole as to suggest a fastening. A dressmaker might say 'ball-trimming.' Globular buttons were and are placed round the neck and hem of a boddice. The vazir of Lonkurān ordered a jacket with garniture of twenty-four gold buttons, smaller than a hen's and larger than a pigeon's. Vests trimmed with 'buttons' (Mems.) are repeatedly named by Bābar as gifts.} one of ruby, one of cornelian, one of emerald, one of turquoise, one of topaz, and one of cat's-eye.

Again: of necklaces, nine; and one embroidered collar and bordering, and four short jackets^{*chār qartījī; a suggested rendering only. Johnson gives kartī (qartī) as a short boddice reaching to the hips, and the qar recurs in other words, having the sense of a body garment; e.g., qart̤aq, a short-sleeved jacket; qarza, a woman's vest.} with ball-trimming (tukma-dār), and one pair of ruby earrings and another of pearls, three fans,^*pankha. and one royal umbrella.

One dirakht and two khuṭb^{*I find no help as to these words in the dictionaries. My only suggestion as to their possible meaning is too slightly based to be of value. It is this: In the South Kensington Museum, Oriental Section, I have seen tall lamp-stands so shaped that they recall the Qut̤b pillar outside Dihlī. That such stands would be a part of good household furnishing the South Kensington Museum allows us to suppose. We have our 'tall lamps,' our 'pillar lamps,' and also our 'branched candlesticks,' which may be a term parallel to dirakht, a tree.} and other furniture and effects, and household goods and chattels and workshops^{*kār-khānahā. These may be the kitchen and its plenishing; the goldsmith's, with his tools, furnaces, and appliances; the perfumer's, etc.. Cf. Āin, Blochmann, and Tār. Rash., E. & E., 470.} of all sorts. (29a) Khānzāda Begam gave everything she had collected, and she arranged a feast such as had not been made for any other child of my royal father. She planned it all and carried it all out.

… nine tipūchāq horses, with jewelled and gold-em­broidered saddles and bridles; and gold and silver vessels and slaves,^{*ghulāmān, which I have rendered slaves, because they were a gift. But I know no warrant for such servitude as is thus implied.} Tūrkī and Circassian and Arūs (? Rūs) and Abyssinian,—of each (race) a royal gift of nine.

What my royal father's brother-in-law^{*yazna, which is explained by Vambéry and Steingass as 'husband of the king's sister.' Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Ahmad styles Mahdi Khwaja damdd, which Meninsky and Steingass explain as 'husband of the king's sister' and ' son-in-law.' I do not find yazna rendered son-in-law by any of the dictionaries. To read yazna brother-in-law of the king 'agrees with the detailed statement of Mahdī's relation to Bābar made by Bāyazīd bīyāt. Cf. Appendix, s.n. Khānzāda.} (Mahdī Khwāja) gave to the mīrzā was a set of nine tipūchāq horses, with jewelled and gold-embroidered saddles and bridles; and gold and silver vessels, and two other sets of nine horses, baggage animals, with velvet saddles and bridles; and brocade and Portuguese cloth, and Tūrkī and Ḥabshī and Hindī slaves,—in all, three sets of nine; and three head of elephants.

In his Majesty's leisure after the feast came news that the vazīr of Sult̤ān Bahādur, Khurāsān Khān by name, had attacked Bayāna. His Majesty despatched Mīrzā 'Askarī, with several amīrs, Mīr Faqr-'ali Beg and Mīr Tardī Beg, etc.. These went to Bayāna and fought and defeated Khurāsān Khān.^{*Mīrzā Muqīm, Khurāsān Khān.} (29b) The Emperor set out for Gujrāt shortly afterwards, in prosperity and safety. It was on the 15th of the revered Rajab 941H.^{*January 29th, 1535. Abu'l-faz̤l gives Jumāda I., 941H. (November, 1534) as the time for collecting the troops. Perhaps the begam's date is that of departure, a day liable to postponement when Humāyūn was in pleasant quarters.} that he quite decided to go himself to Gujrāt. He set up his advance camp in the Gold-scattering Garden, and there spent a month while the forces were gathering in.

On court days, which were Sundays and Tuesdays, he used to go to the other side of the river. During his stay in the garden, ājam (Dil-dār Begam) and my sisters and the ladies (ḥaramān) were often in his company. Of all the tents, Ma'ṣūma Sult̤ān Begam's was at the top of the row. Next came Gul-rang Begam's, and ājam's was in the same place. Then the tent of my mother,^{*It may be that the copyist has transferred the words 'my mother' from a quite usual place, preceding or following the ājam of the previous sentence. They are inappropriate to Gul-barg Begam; at least, I have never seen them used to describe a brother's wife, and such I believe this Gul-barg to be. We know of a 'Bībī Gul-barg,' mentioned somewhat condescendingly (21a) by Māham Begam ; I incline to take Gul-barg there and here as Khalīfa's daughter, and the former wife of Mīr Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn. Cf. Appendix, s.n.. Gul-barg.} Gul-barg Begam and of Bega Begam^{*This is, I think, Humāyūn's wife and the mother of 'Aqīqa. The object of Gul-badan's enumeration of the tents seems to be desire to show that Bābar's daughters and widow had places of honour higher than Humāyūn's family.} and the others.

They set up the offices (kār-khānahā) and got them into order. When they had put up the pavilions (khaima) and tents (khar-gāh) and the audience tent (bār-gāh), the Emperor came to see the camp and the splendid set-out, and visited the begams and his sisters. As he had dismounted some­what near Ma'ṣūma Sult̤ān Begam's (tent), he honoured her with a visit. All of us, the begams and my sisters, were in his society. (30a) When he went to any begam's or sister's quarters, all the begams and all his sisters used to go with him. Next day he came to the tent^{*khāna, lit., house.} of this lowly person, and the entertainment lasted till the third watch^{*pahr. Gul-badan names the Hindūstanī division of time into watches on which her father had commented as being a novelty to himself. (Mems., 331.)} of the night. Many begams were there, and his sisters, and ladies of rank (begahā) and of position (āghāhā), and other ladies (āghāchahā), and musicians and reciters. After the third watch his Majesty was pleased to command repose. His sisters and the begams made resting-places (takīa) in his presence.^{*It seems, as again later on, that they fell asleep where they were seated, on mattresses and provided with pillows.}

Bega Begam woke (us) up, and said: ‘It is time for prayers.’^{*The early morning prayers, about which the opinion is expressed that prayer is better than sleep.} His Majesty ordered water for ablution^{*waz̤ū ablution before prayers. Cf. Hughes, Dict, of Islām.} made ready where he was, and so the begam knew that he was awake. She began a complaint, and said to him: ‘For several days now you have been paying visits in this garden, and on no one day have you been to our^{*From what follows, Gul-barg would seem to be the fellow -sufferer.} house. Thorns have not been planted in the way to it. We hope you will deign to visit our quarters also, and to have a party and a sociable gathering there, too. How long will you think it right to show all these disfavours to us help­less ones? We too have hearts. Three times you have honoured other places by visits, and you have run day and night into one in amusement and conversation.’ (30b)

When she had finished, his Majesty said nothing, and went to prayers. At the first watch of the day he came out and sent for his sisters and the begams, and for Dil-dār Begam, and Afghānī āghācha, and Gul-nār āghācha, and Meywa-jān and Āghā-jān, and the nurses (anagahā). We all went, and he said not a word, so everyone knew he was angry. Then after a little he began: ‘Bībī, what ill­treatment at my hands did you complain of this morning?’ and: ‘That was not the place to make a complaint. You all (shumā) know that I have been to the quarters of the elder relations (walī'u-n-ni'matān) of you all (shumāyān). It is a necessity laid on me to make them happy. Nevertheless, I am ashamed before them because I see them so rarely. It has long been in my mind to ask from you all a signed declaration (sijlī), and it is as well that you have brought me to the speaking-point. I am an opium-eater. If there should be delay in my comings and goings, do not be angry with me. Rather, write me a letter, and say: “Whether it please you to come or whether it please you not to come, we are content and are thankful to you.”’

Gul-barg Begam wrote to this effect at once, and he settled it with her.^{*ba Gul-barg Begam daryāftand.} Bega Begam insisted a little, saying: ‘The excuse looked worse than the fault.^{*A familiar proverb. Cf. Steingass, 840, s.v. 'azr.} (31a) We com­plained in order that your Majesty might lift up our heads by your favour. Your Majesty has carried the matter to this point! What remedy have we? You are Emperor.’ She wrote a letter and gave it to him, and he made it up^{*daryāftand. Gul-badan frequently uses this word as meaning to embrace and to greet, a sense not mentioned by Johnson or Steingass. The ba of the earlier instance (note 1.) induced me to give it the notion of coming to an understanding. Cf. 16b.} with her also.

On February 18th, 1534 (Sha'bān 14th, 941 H.), he set out from the Gold-scattering Garden and marched for Gujrāt, to fall upon Sult̤ān Bahādur. They confronted one another at Manḥasūr (Mandsūr); a battle was fought, and Sult̤ān Bahādur, on his defeat, fled to Champānīr. Then his Majesty resolved to pursue him. Sult̤ān Bahādur left Champānīr and went towards Aḥmadābād.^{*Taking his treasure with him, Sult̤ān Bahādur fled before Humāyūn to Champānīr, Ahmadābād, Cambay and Diu.} His Majesty took the country of Aḥmadābād also, and portioned out the whole of Gujrāt to his men. Aḥmadābād he bestowed on Mīrzā 'Askarī,^{*Humāyūn's half-brother.} Bahrūch on Qāsim Ḥusain Sult̤ān,^{*Grandson, through a daughter, of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā Bāyqrā; on his father's side an Uzbeg.} and Patan on Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrzā.^{*Humāyūn's first cousin, the son of Bābar's half-brother Nāṣir. He was a posthumous child. Mr. Beveridge has drawn my attention to the fact, of which there are other examples, that he is called Yādgār, a souvenir, of Nāṣir, his father.}

He himself, with a small following, went from Champānīr to visit Kanbāyat^{*This excursion preceded the allotment of fiefs. Gul-badan's way of putting the pursuit of Bahādur is borne out by some other writers. This was Humāyūn's first sight of the sea, and the spectacle seems to have been more in her mind than was Bahādur. Ākbar's first sight of the sea is also commemorated in the histories.} (Cambay). A few days later there came a woman with news, and said: ‘Why are you sitting here? The men of Kanbāyat have gathered, and will fall upon you unless your Majesty rides off.’ The royal amīrs attacked the rabble,^{*Abū'l-fazl calls them Bhils and Gawārs. (H.B. I. 309.) They were rude tribesmen acting in Bahādur's interests. Maternal affection saved the small royal camp. The 'woman' had a son a slave in it, and she purchased his freedom by revealing the designs of her fellow-tribesmen. Although Cambay had not furnished the assailants, it paid in fire and pillage for the attack. It lay near, was an enemy's town, and such an incident as the onslaught of the Bhils would not allow of fine distinction of race and person.} and got them into their hands and cut them in pieces. (31b)

His Majesty then went to Baroda, and from there towards Champānīr.^{*Behind this dull statement is a stirring episode. Humāyūn took Champānīr after a four months' blockade, by night escalade of a rock so nearly perpendicular that seventy or eighty iron spikes had to be driven in to allow ascent. Thirty-nine men climbed up. Bairām Khān was the fortieth, Humāyūn the forty-first of the three hundred who mounted. Such a Bābar-like episode makes regret the keener that Humayun's life was ruined and stained by his slavery to a drug. The loot of Champānīr was enormous; it had been regarded as impregnable, and was full of treasure. It was taken in 1536 (943 H.). Humāyūn now relapsed into an evil mood of feasting and indolence. He remained near Champānīr, and affairs entered on a recurrent phase. There was complete relaxation of discipline. Gul-badan's 'we had settled down' (nishista budīm) allows the inference that she and other ladies had joined the camp. A later instance will be found of the inopportune presence of women and children with the army. But it may mean merely 'we were comfortably awaiting events' in Āgra.} We had settled down, when there was a tumult, and Mīrzā 'Askarī's people left Aḥmadābād and came to the Emperor. They represented to him that Mīrzā 'Askarī^{*He was thinking of having the khut̤ba read in his own name in Āgra. Such an aspiration in Humāyūn's brothers was encouraged by his own abdications of sovereignty.} and Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrzā had conspired, and wished to go to Āgra. On hearing this, he himself was forced to go; he left the important affairs of Gujrāt [(?) its pacification], and turned away and went to Āgra. Here he spent as much as a year.^{*A fatal year which allowed Shīr Khān to gather force. Gul-badan's recital of the historical events of this time has no value.}

He then went to Chanāda (Chunār), and took it,^{*Shīr Khān.} and also Benares. Shīr Khān was in Charkanda,^*Jhārkand. and made an offer of service, saying: ‘I am your old servant. Give me a place with a fixed boundary in which I may establish myself.’

His Majesty was considering this, when the king of Gaur Bangāla^{*Sayyid Maḥmūd Shāh. He had been defeated by Shīr Khān. (Cf. Erskine's notes on Stewart's Jauhar, B. M. Add. 26,608, p. 12.)} came wounded and a fugitive. For this reason he gave no attention (to Shīr Khān), but marched towards Gaur Bangāla. Shīr Khān knew that his Majesty had gone there, and went himself also with a large detachment of horse, and joined his son (Jilāl Khān), who was in Gaur with his servant Khawāṣ Khān. Shīr Khān sent them out, and said: ‘Go and fortify Garhī.’^{*'The gate of Bengal,' a pass between it and Bihār, and which has a hill on one hand and the Ganges on the other. It is the Teria garhī or Tilia gulley of our maps.} (32a)

Both came and occupied Garhī. His Majesty had written to Jahāngīr Beg: ‘Advance a stage, and go up to Garhī.’ There was fighting, and Jahāngīr Beg was wounded and many men were slain.

When the Emperor had spent three or four days in Kohlgānū (Colgong), it became advisable for him to march on and halt near Garhī. He marched forward, and when he came near Garhī, Shīr Khān and Khawāṣ Khān fled by night, and he entered Garhī next day. Thence he went to Gaur Bangāla, and took it.

He was nine months in the far-away country of Gaur, and named it Jannatābād.^{*City of Paradise. The demoralizing effects of life in Gaur were felt under Akbar. Humāyūn, with his empire crumbling around him, was now (as Jauhar testifies) 'so much devoted to pleasure and sensual enjoyment that, after the first month, he was never seen, as he was always shut up in a private apartment of the palace.' Naturally, Gul-badan's next item of narrative is of rebellion, this time by her own brother, Hindāl.}

He was comfortably and safely in Gaur, when news came that some of the amīrs had deserted and joined Mīrzā Hindāl.^{*He was only nineteen, and the crown may well have seemed at anyone's service. The date is 1538 (945H.). Humāyūn in Gaur was cut off from his capital by Shīr Khān.}

Khusrau Beg^{*Bābar first names him in 1507-8 as coming from Harāt. There are two men named Khusrau kūkaltāshby Bābar, but they were not contemporaries. One died in 1502-3, before the other came upon the scene.} (kūkaltāsh) and Zahīd Beg^{*Husband of the sister of Bega Begam, Humāyūn's wife. He was put to death by Mīrzā Kāmrān at Ghaznī in 1547.} and Sayyīd Amīr^{*Sayyid Nūru-d-dīn Mīrzā, the father of Salīma Sult̤ān Begam, and the husband of a daughter of Bābar. Cf. App. s.n.. Gul-rang.} paid their respects to the mīrzā, and said: ‘The Emperor has gone comfortably far away, and the mīrzās, Muḥammad Sult̤ān Mīrzā and his sons, Ulugh Mīrzā and Shāh Mīrzā, have again raised their heads,^{*Hindāl had recently defeated them. (Erskine, II. 89 et seq..) For causes of Hindāl's rebellion, and for Bega Begam's part in it, see Erskine's Jauhar, l.c., p. 13.} and continually keep showing themselves in company.’ (32b)

Just at this time the asylum of shaikhs, the servitor(bandagī) Shaikh Bahlūl, hid^{*Some words seem to be omitted, e.g., 'was accused of.' Gul-badan cannot have believed the accusation. Perhaps, however, her long friendship with Nūru-d-dīn's daughter Salīma would make her pen discreet in blaming his murder of the shaikh.} armour and horse-accoutre­ments and military stores in an underground place, and would have loaded them on carts and sent them to Shīr Khān and the mīrzās.^{*The rebels mentioned on p. 23b.} Mīrzā Hindāl would not believe it, so Mīrzā Nūru-d-dīn Muḥammad was sent to inquire into the matter. He found the armour and accoutrements, and had Bandagī Shaikh Bahlūl killed.^{*For the probable facts, Cf B. & H., II. 162 et seq.} The Emperor, on hearing news of it, set out for Āgra.

He was coming by that side of the Ganges (i.e., the left bank) opposite Mungīr, when his amīrs represented: ‘You are a great king! Return by the way you came, lest Shīr Khān should say: “Forsaking his road of advance, he took another of retreat.”’^{*It was Mu'yid Beg Duladai Barlās who urged this foolish point of honour, and who thus led to the disaster at Chausa. He was a cruel man as well as one ignorant in military matters. He was a favourite of Humāyūn, but the Emperor's followers rejoiced when he died.} The Emperor returned to Mungīr, and brought many of his people and his family by boat up the river as far as Ḥajīpūr-Patna.

When he went (to Bengal) he had left Qāsim (Ḥusain Sult̤ān Uzbeg) there. Now came news of Shīr Khān's approach. Whenever there was fighting, the royal troops won.

Just now Bābā Beg (Jalāīr) came from Jaunpūr and Mīrak Beg from Chanāda (Chunār), and Mughal Beg from Oude. (33a) As these three amīrs joined the Emperor, corn became dear.

Then,—such was God's will,—they had halted without precaution, when Shīr Khān came and fell upon them. The army was defeated, and many kinsmen and followers remained in captivity. His Majesty's own blessed hand was wounded. Three days he remained in Chunār, and then came to Araīl.^{*Gul-badan's brevity (natural enough even if she were more historic in method) is somewhat misleading. Mr. Erskine allows one to follow the misadventures which culminated in the defeat. This the rout at Chausa occurred near to where the Sōn falls into the Ganges and at Chūpat Ghat, on June 27th, 1539 (ṣafar 9th, 946H.). The statement of Humāyūn's visit to Chūnar, I do not find elsewhere. Chūnar was then held by royalists. The Araīl named is presumably that near Allāhābād.}

When his Majesty reached the river's bank, he stopped, bewildered as to the crossing, and said: ‘How to cross without boats!’ Then came the rāja (Bīrbahān) with five or six horsemen and led him through a ford. For four or five days his people were without food or drink. At last the rāja started a bāzār, so that the people of the army lived some days in comfort and repose. The horses also were rested. Many men who were on foot bought fresh mounts. In short, the rāja rendered fitting and dutiful services. Later on his Majesty gave him leave to go, and at the hour of mid-day prayer came himself, safely and comfortably, to the bank of the Jamna. The army crossed at a ford they had found. A few days later they came to Karra, where corn and grass were plentiful, because it was his Majesty's own country. (33b)

When his people were rested, he went on to Kalpī, and then marched on to Āgra.

Before his arrival in Āgra, he heard news that Shīr Khān was coming (from) the direction of Chausa. Great anxiety fell upon his people.

Of many who were in that rout (at Chausa) there was never heard, in any way soever, news or sign. Amongst them were 'Āyisha Sult̤ān Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā^{*Wife of Qāsim Ḥusain Sult̤ān Uzbeg, whose timely arrival gave Bābar so much satisfaction. (13a.) Qāsim had been Governor of Patna (326), but, from the circumstance of his wife's being at Chausa, would seem to have left it with Humāyūn.} (Bāyqrā); and Bachaka, who was a khalīfa of my royal father;^{*A Bachaka, who was a khalīfa of Babar's household, escaped with him from Samarqand in 1501 (907H.), some thirty-eight years before the Chausa episode. Khalīfa, as applied to a woman, denotes a servant or slave who exercises surveillance over other women-servants, and has charge of rooms, an upper maid- servant.} and Bega-jān kūka; and 'Aqīqa Begam;^{*Bega Begam's daughter, who will have been about eight years old.} and Chānd Bībī, who was seven months with child, and Shād Bībī, all three^{*Perhaps the copyist has omitted a name; perhaps, as a child of Humāyūn, 'Aqīqa is 'of the ḥaram.'} (sic) of whom were of his Majesty's ḥaram. Of these several people, he never heard even a word, as to whether they were drowned or what became of them. In spite of all possible inquiry and search, what had become of them was never found out.

His own illness^{*From his wound or from distress of mind. The 'forty days' suggest the ceremonial term of mourning.} dragged on for forty days, and he then grew better.

At this time, when Khusrau Beg (kūkultāsh), and Diwāna Beg, and Zahīd Beg, and Sayyid Amīr, had come on in advance of his Majesty, news again arrived that the mīrzās, Muḥammad Sult̤ān Mīrzā and his sons, had come to Kanauj. (34a)

After Shaikh Bahlūl's murder, Mīrzā Hindāl went to Dihlī. He took with him Mīr Faqr-'alī and other well-wishers to frustrate and disperse the mīrzās. The mīrzās fled, and came into the Kanauj quarter. Mīr Faqr-'alī brought Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir to Dihlī. As there was neither friendliness nor confidence between Mīrzā Hindāl and Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, Mīrzā Hindāl, when Mīr Faqr-'alī made this mistake, sat down out of sheer annoyance and besieged Dihlī.^{*The whole of the above paragraph it would be safest to hide with Hindāl under his sister's charitable cloak. For a historical account of the time, see B. & H., II., Book IV., Cap. IV.}

When Mīrzā Kāmrān heard these things, there arose in him also a desire of sovereignty. With 12,000 fully equipped horsemen he went to Dihlī. Mīr Faqr-'alī and Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir closed the city gates on his approach. Two or three days later, Mīr Faqr-'alī, having made an agreement, went and saw Mīzrā Kāmrān. He represented: ‘The news heard of his Majesty and Shīr Khān may be so and so.^{*Clearly the ill news of the rout at Chausa.} Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, from thought of his own interest, does not wait on you. The advisable course at this crisis is, that you should lay hands on Mīrzā Hindāl, go to Āgra, and not think of establishing yourself in Dihlī.’ (34b)

Mīrzā Kāmrān gave heed to Mīr Faqr-'alī's words, and bestowed on him a head-to-foot dress. He then seized Mīrzā Hindāl and came to Āgra. He visited the tomb of Firdaus-makānī,^{*Bābar's remains then had not been conveyed to Kabul in 1539.} saw his mother and sisters, and halted in the Rose-scattering^{*(?) Gold-scattering. Mr. Erskine calls it so, and it is likely to be that already mentioned by Gul-badan more than once.} Garden.

At this time Nūr Beg brought word of his Majesty's coming.^{*Retreating from Chausa.} As Mīrzā Hindāl was excluded from the presence because of the murder of Shaikh Bahlūl, he went to Alwar.^{*His own jāgīr.}

A few days after his Majesty's arrival, Mīrzā Kāmrān came from the Rose-scattering Garden and paid his respects to him. We paid our respects on the evening of the day he came. He took notice of this insignificant one, and was kindly pleased to say: ‘I did not know you at first, because when I led the army (whose footprints are victorious)^{*z̤afr-az̤ar. This, after Chausa, can only be a precative of Gul-badan's.} to Gaur Bangāla, you wore the high cap (t̤āq), and now when I saw the muslin coif^{*This change appears to indicate that Gul-badan, who is about eighteen or nineteen years old, has been married. The Persian has lachaq qaṣāba, without conjunction. Steingass and Johnson describe the lachaq as a square mantle worn by women, doubled into a triangle, but here the description given in the Burhān-i-qātī' is more apropos, i.e., a square of stuff folded cornerwise and put upon the head so that the corners tie under the chin. It is often (l.c.) elaborately embroidered in gold. Qaṣāba appears to have the same meaning as lachaq.} I did not recognise you. And oh, my Gul-badan, I used very often to think of you, and was sometimes sorry, and said: “I do wish I had brought her!” But at the time of the disaster (fit̤rāt) I was thankful I had not, and I said: (35a) “Thank God I did not bring Gul-badan!” For although 'Aqīqa^{*Cf. p. 33b.} was young, I have been consumed by a hundred thousand regrets and cares, and have said: “Why did I take her with the army?”’

A few days later he came to see my mother. He had with him the Holy Book. He commanded the attendants to retire^{*kināra kardand. This metaphor recalls the arrangement of carpets in Persian rooms, with the carpet proper in the centre, an upper end (sar-andāz) and borders (kināra). 'Go aside ' might be a good rendering.} for awhile, and they rose and there was privacy. Then he said to ājam (Dil-dār Begam) and this insignificant one, and to Afghānī āghācha, and Gul-nār āghācha, and Nār-gul āghācha, and my nurse (anaga): ‘Hindāl is my strength^{*qūl, Mongolian, main body of an army.} and my spear;^{*Ar. qanāt.} the desirable light of my eyes, the might of my arm, the desired, the beloved. May what I do be right! What shall I say to Mīrzā Muḥammad Hindāl about the affair of my^{*Here and in the apostrophe to Gul-badan I have allowed the man to indicate the affection Humāyūn had for his half-sister and for the revered shaikh. It might be, however (as at 'Now there is no anger,' Cf. text), the simple first person.} Shaikh Bahlūl? What was to be has been! Now there is no anger in my heart against Hindāl. If you do not believe it’ … He had lifted up the Holy Book when her Highness my mother, Dil-dār Begam, and this poor thing snatched it from his hand. All cried, ‘May what you do be right! Why do you say such things?’

Then again he spoke: ‘How would it be, Gul-badan, if you went yourself and fetched your brother, Muḥammad Hindāl Mīrzā?’ (35b) Her Highness, my mother, said: ‘This girlie (dukhtarak) is young. She has never made a journey (alone). If you approved, I would go.’ His Majesty said: ‘If I give you this trouble, it is because it is clearly incumbent on fathers and mothers to feel for their chil­dren. If you would honour him with a visit, it would be a healing-balm applied for us all.’

Then he sent Mīr Abū'l-baqā^{*B. & H., IL. s.n..} with her Highness my mother, to fetch Mīrzā Hindāl. At once on hearing this news: ‘She has come to see me!’ Muḥammad Hindāl Mīrzā made his mother happy by giving her honourable meeting. He came with her from Alwar, and paid his duty to his Majesty.^{*Hindāl was received in the presence of Kāmrān and other kinsmen. Humāyūn said to Kāmrān: 'You know who is to blame! Why did Hindāl rebel ?' Kāmrān passed on the question to Hindāl himself, who, with profound shame, pleaded that being young he had listened to bad advice, and begged forgiveness. (Erskine's notes on Stewart's Jauhar, B. M. Add. 26,608.)} About Shaikh Bahlūl he said: ‘He used to send arms and military appurtenances to Shīr Khān. When this was ascertained, I killed the shaikh on account of it.’

To put it briefly: in a short time came news that Shīr Khān had come near Lakhnau.

In those days his Majesty had a certain servant, a water-carrier. (36a) As he had been parted from his horse in the river at Chausa and this servant betook himself to his help and got him safe and sound out of the current, his Majesty now seated him on the throne. The name of that menial person we did not hear, some said Niz̤ām, some said Sambal. But to cut the story short, his Majesty made the water-carrier servant sit on the throne, and ordered all the amīrs to make obeisance to him. The servant gave everyone what he wished, and made appoint­ments. For as much as two days the Emperor gave royal power to that menial. Mīrzā Hindāl was not present at his court;^{*Lit., in that assembly.} he had taken leave, and had again gone to Alwar with the intention of getting arms ready. Neither did Mīrzā Kāmrān appear. He was ill, and sent to say to his Majesty: ‘Gifts and favours of some other kind ought to be the servant's reward. What propriety is there in setting him on the throne? At a time when Shīr Khān is near, what kind of affair is this to engage your Majesty?’

In those days Mīrzā Kāmrān's illness increased amaz­ingly. He became weak and so thin that his face was not in the least his own, and there was no hope of his life. (36b) By the Divine mercy he grew better. He suspected that the Emperor's mothers,^{*i.e., Babar's widows.} by his Majesty's advice, had given him poison. His Majesty came to hear of this, and instantly went to see the mīrzā and swore that he had never had such a thought, nor given such an order to any one. Nevertheless, Mīrzā Kāmrān's heart was not purged. Afterwards he got worse, day after day, and he lost power of speech.

When news came that Shīr Khān had left Lakhnau, the Emperor marched towards Kanauj, and left Mīrzā Kāmrān in Āgra to act for him. In a few days the mīrzā heard that he had made a bridge of boats and crossed the Ganges. On this, he himself marched out of Āgra towards Lāhōr.^{*A treacherous defection.}

We had settled down^{*The royal family, after the Emperor's and the mīrzā's departure.} when he sent^{*Perhaps from his first halting-place outside the city.} a farmān like a king's, and said: ‘You^{*Clearly Gul-badan.} are commanded to go with me to Lāhōr.’ He must have said^{*Before either brother left Agra.} to his Majesty about me something of this sort: ‘I am very ill and very miserable and lonely, and I have no one^{*i.e., of his kinsfolk, and especially of his women kinsfolk.} to sympathize with me. (37a) If you will order Gul-badan Begam to go with me to Lāhōr, it will be a real favour and kindness.’ For his sake his Majesty will have said: ‘She shall go.’ Two or three days after the Emperor had gone towards Lakhnau, the mīrzā sent a farmān,^{*This, I think, is the one already named.} in royal style, to the effect: ‘Most assuredly you will come with me.’ Then my mother must have said: ‘She has never travelled apart from us.’ He replied:^{*īshān farmudand. This seems to mean Humāyūn, and to refer the following speech back to the earliest discussion of the project of Gul-badan' s journey at the time Humāyūn was still in Āgra. The whole episode is confused in narrative.} ‘If she has not travelled alone, do you also go with her.’ He sent as many as 500 troopers and trusty grooms, and both his foster-father and his foster-brother, and said (to my mother): ‘If she may not go with me (to Lāhōr), come all of you one stage.’ When one stage was reached, he began to declare, on his oath: ‘I will not let you go.’ Then he took me by main force, with a hundred weepings and complaints and laments, away from my mothers, and my own mother and my sisters, and my father's people, and my brothers, and parted us who had all grown up together from infancy.^{*It must be remembered that Gul-badan's husband, Khiz̤r Khwāja, was a brother of Āq Sult̤ān (Yasīn-daulat), Kāmrān's son-in-law, and Kamran may have had other motives than affection for desiring her presence, e.g., the attraction of her husband's ontingent.}

I saw that the Emperor's command also was in the affair. I was helpless. (37b) I wrote a suppliant letter, saying: ‘I never expected your Majesty to cut off this in­significant one from your service, and to give her to Mīrzā Kāmrān.’ To this humble note he sent a compassionate answer (salām-nāma), to this effect: ‘I had no heart to part with you, but the mīrzā persisted, and was miserable, and begged very hard, and I was obliged to trust you to him. For just now there is important work^{*The opposition of Shīr Khān, soon to be closed at Kanauj. Gul-badan's enforced departure with Kāmrān saved her a painful and hazardous flight.} on hand. God willing, I will send for you when it is settled.’

When the mīrzā was starting, many people, amīrs and traders and so on, made preparation with the intention of letting their wives and families march under his escort to Lāhōr. When we reached (the city) news came of a battle on the Ganges, and that defeat had befallen the royal army.^{*May 17th, 1540 (Muḥarram 10th, 947H.). Mīrzā Ḥaidar gives an admirable account of it as 'the battle of the Ganges.' Gul-badan's full brother, Hindāl, led the van at Kanauj, and defeated Shīr Khān's son, Jalāl. Hindāl was a successful general. 'Askarī, Kāmrān's full brother, was defeated by Khawās Khān.}

At least there was this limit to misfortune,—his Majesty and his brothers came safely through the peril.^{*As at Chausa, so at Kanauj, Humāyūn was nearly drowned. Here he was saved by Shamsu-d-dīn Muḥammad of Ghaznī, whose wife, under the sobriquet of Jī-jī anaga, became a nurse of Akbar.} Our other relations^{*They were convoyed by Hindāl. See infra.} came from Āgra by way of Alwar to Lāhōr. (38a) Just now the Emperor said to Mīrzā Hindāl: ‘'Aqīqa Begam disappeared in that first interregnum (fitrat)^{*i.e., battle of Chausa. Fitna would read more easily here. Perhaps behind fitrat is the notion of relaxation in effort, or of an interval between two periods of good fortune.} and I repented extremely, and said: “Why did I not kill her in my own presence?” Now, again, it is difficult to convey women with us.’ Mīrzā Hindāl answered: ‘What it would be to your Majesty to kill a mother and a sister, speaks for itself! So long as there is life in me, I will fight in their service. I have hope in the most high God, that,—poor fellow as I am,—I may pour out my life's blood for my mother and my sisters.’

Then the Emperor set out for Fatḥipūr (Sīkrī) with Mīrzā 'Askarī and Yādgār-nāṣir Mīrza and the amīrs who had come safely off the battlefield.^{*Amongst them was Ḥaidar Mīrzā, who describes the fugitives as ' broken and dispirited, and in a state heartrending to tell.' Sīkrī must have rubbed salt into their wounds, since it recalls Bābar's triumph. Their halting-place there was his garden, a token of his genius for living.}

Mīrzā Hindāl sent on before him^{*The known enemy, Shīr Khān, was in the rear. With Hindāl's marriage-feast fresh in mind, one may give a thought to Sult̤ānam. She was probably of this party, since her husband's contingent was with Humāyūn, and he was not on his jāgīr of Alwar.} her Highness his mother, who was Dil-dār Begam, and his own sister, Gul-chihra Begam, and Afghānī āghācha, and Gul-nār āghācha, and Nār-gul āghācha, and the amīrs' wives and families, etc.. He was marching along when the Gawārs pursued him in great numbers. (38b) Some of his troopers charged and defeated them. An arrow struck his horse.^{*Asp i-mubārik, (?) the horse which had the happiness to bear him. Perhaps asp is a mistake for some word to which 'blessed' would be a more fit adjective.} There was much fighting and confusion. Having saved the helpless women from the bond of the Gawārs, he sent on (to Lāhōr) his mother and sister, and many of the amīrs' people, etc., and went to Alwar. Here he got together tents and pavilions and numerous requisites, and then started for Lāhōr. He arrived in a few days, and brought what was wanted for the princes and the amīrs.

His Majesty alighted in Khwāja Ghāzī's garden near Bībī Ḥāj-tāj.*^{Abū'l-fazl says that Hindāl's quarters were in Khwāja Ghāzī's garden, and Humāyūn's in Khwāja Dost munshī's. Bībī Haj, Bībī Tāj, Bībī Nār, Bībī Ḥūr, Bībī Gūhar, and Bībī Shābaz are said to have been daughters of 'Aqīl, brother of 'Alī (Muḥammad's son-in law). They were famous for piety and asceticism. After the murder of Imām Ḥusain at Kerbela, these ladies left Syria for India in obedience to a secret intimation. They alighted outside Lāhōr at the place named by Gul-badan and where their shrine now is. They converted many of the townspeople to their faith, and thus angered the, presumably Hindū, governor. He sent his son to command their departure, but the son fell under their influence, and remained near them. This still more angered his father, who went out against them and their followers with an armed force. The ladies prayed that their honour might be preserved, and they not be seen by strange men. Immediately the earth opened and swallowed them. (Khazīna'u-l-aṣfiyā, II. 407.)} Every day there was news of Shīr Khān; and during the three months that the Emperor was in Lāhōr word was brought day after day: ‘Shīr Khān has advanced four miles,’ ‘six miles,’ till he was near Sirhind.

One of the amīrs was named Muz̤affar Beg. He was a Tūrkmān. The Emperor sent him with Qāzī 'Abdu-l-lāh to Shīr Khān to say: ‘What justice is there in this? I have left you the whole of Hindūstān. Leave Lāhōr alone, and let Sirhind, where you are, be a boundary between you and me.” (39a) But that unjust man, fearless of God, did not consent, and answered: ‘I have left you Kābul. You should go there.’

Muz̤affar Beg marched at once, and sent on an express to say: ‘A move must be made.’ As soon as this message came, his Majesty set off. It was like the Day of Resurrec­tion. People left their decorated places and furniture just as they were, but took with them whatever money they had. There was thankfulness to God, because mercifully a ford was found across the Lāhōr water (Rāvī) where every­one crossed. His Majesty halted a few days on the river's bank. Then an ambassador came from Shīr Khān. The Emperor had decided to see him next morning, when Mīrzā Kāmrān made a petition, saying: ‘To-morrow there will be an entertainment, and Shīr Khān's envoy will be present. If I may sit on a corner of your Majesty's carpet, so that there may be distinction between me and my brothers, it will be a cause of my exaltation.’^{*For an account of Kāmrān's odious and fruitless treachery see B. & H., II. 200 et seq.. The meaning of his message to Humāyūn is not clear to me. Perhaps he wished to show the envoy that he was not on the level of Hindāl and 'Askarī, but able to claim recognition as a ruler and as Humāyūn's equal. Perhaps it was a hint to Humāyūn that he must recognise Kāmrān's equality in the lands in which the latter had been supreme while he himself ruled in Dihlī. At this time Humāyūn was strongly advised to put Kāmrān to death. He refused, but later on and after a dreary waste of good nature, his filial piety had to yield to the common-sense of his victimized followers and allow the blinding.}

Ḥamīda-bānū Begam says it was his Majesty who wrote and sent the following verse to the mīrzā.^{*At the time when the verse was written Hamīda was not married. The discussion in 1587 (circa) of a 'point' between the ladies is a living touch to the old MS.. Which was likely to be right, Hamīda who might later have heard the story from her husband, or Gul-badan who was in Lāhōr? Gul-badan puts the difference of opinion gently but does not surrender, and leaves her readers to draw their own inferences.} I had heard that he sent it to Shīr Khān by the envoy. This is the verse:

‘Although one's image be shown in the mirror,
It remains always apart from one's self.’ (39b)
‘It is wonderful to see one's self in another form:
This marvel will be the work of God.’

When Shīr Khān's ambassador arrived he paid his respects.

The Emperor's blessed heart was cast down. He fell asleep in a sad mood, and saw in a dream a venerable man, dressed in green from head to foot and carrying a staff, who said: ‘Be of good cheer; do not grieve;’ and gave his staff into the royal hand. ‘The most high God will give you a son who shall be named Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar.’ The Emperor asked: ‘What is your honourable name?’ He answered: ‘The Terrible Elephant,^*Zinda-fīl. Aḥmad of Jām;’ and added: ‘Your son will be of my lineage.’^{*Humāyūn was of the lineage of Aḥmad of Jām through his mother Māham. (A. N., Bib. Ind., ed. 1. 121.) To give force to the prophecy, however, the coming child's mother had to be of the same descent, since Humāyūn's claim to rank as of the saint's lineage required no prophetic announcement. Indeed this story seems to cast doubt on that claim. Akbar's mother, Ḥamīda, was of the line of Aḥmad of Jām. So, too, was Bega (Ḥājī) Begam. Another of the same family was Bābū or Bānū agha, wife of Shihābu-d-dīn Aḥmad of Nishāpūr.}

In those days Bībī Gūnwar^{*To give value to Ahmad's prophecy, Bībī Gūnwar ought also to have traced back to him. She does not seem to have been a woman of rank. The girl now born was at least the third child of Humāyūn, there having been Al-aman and 'Aqīqa, children of Bega Begam and now both dead.} was with child. Everyone said: ‘A son will be born.’ In that same garden of Dost munshī and in the month of Jumāda'u-l-awwal, a daughter was born whom they named Bakhshī-bānū.

At this time his Majesty appointed Mīrzā Ḥaidar to take Kashmīr. Meantime, news was brought that Shīr Khān was there. A wonderful confusion followed, and the Emperor decided to march off next morning. (40a)

While the brothers were in Lāhōr, they conferred and took counsel and asked advice, but they did not settle on any single thing. At last the news was: ‘Shīr Khān is here.’ Then, as there was no help for it, they marched off at the first watch of the day (9 a.m.).

The Emperor's wish was to go to Kashmīr, where he had sent Mīrzā Ḥaidar Kāshgharī; but news of the mīrzā's success had not yet come, and people counselled: ‘If your Majesty were to go to Kashmīr, and the country was not conquered at once, it would—with Shīr Khān in Lāhōr—be a very difficult time.’

Khwāja Kilān Beg*^{The well-known old servant of Bābar and now one of Kāmrān's chief amīrs.} was in Sīālkōt, and disposed to serve his Majesty. With him was Mū'yid Beg, who wrote: ‘The khwāja greatly wishes to serve you and would come, but he has Mīrzā Kāmrān to consider. If your Majesty would come quickly, his help would be made easy in an excellent way.’ The Emperor at once took arms and equipment, and set out to go to the khwāja, and joined company with him and brought him along.^{*The begam's story here does not agree with that of Mr. Erskine's authorities. Mū'yid Beg is the ill-adviser of the march from Bengal to Chausa.}

The Emperor was pleased to say: ‘With my brothers' concurrence, I shall go to Badakhshān. (40b) Let Kābul remain the fief of Mīrzā Kāmrān.’ But Mīrzā Kāmrān would not consent to (his Majesty's) going to Kābul,^{*Kāmrān may well have feared that Humāyūn would get no further than Kābul on his way to Badakhshān.} and said: ‘In his lifetime the Emperor Firdaus-makānī gave Kābul to my mother (Gulrukh Begam). It is not right (for you) to go to Kābul.’

Then said his Majesty: ‘As for Kābul, his Majesty Firdaus-makānī often used to say, “My Kābul I will give to no one; far from it! Let none of my sons covet it. There God gave me all my children, and many victories followed its capture.” Moreover, this expression of opinion is recorded many times in his Wāqi'a-nāma. What was the good of my showing kindness to the mīrzā from civility and brotherliness, if he now keep on talking in this way!’

Let his Majesty talk as he would, pacifying and con­ciliating, the mīrzā resisted more and more. When he saw that there was a large following with Mīrzā Kāmrān, and that the mīrzā was in no way willing for him to go to Kābul, he had no resource but to move towards Bhakkar and Multān. Having arrived in Multān, he halted one day. (41a) A small quantity of corn was obtained in the fort and having divided that little amongst his men, he marched on till he came to the bank of a river which was seven rivers in one.^{*i.e., the Indus. The begam's ' seven ' is interesting. Cf. 'Sketch of the Hindūstānī Language,' C. J. Lyall, p.l n.. 'Hindo represents an earlier Hindau, being the modern Persian for the ancient Hendava, i.e., a dweller in the country of the sapta hindū (Sk. sapta sindhu), or "seven rivers," now called, with the omission of two (probably the Saraswati and Drishadwati or Ghaggar) the Panj-āb.'} He stood distracted. There were no boats, and he had a large camp with him. Then there came word that Khawāṣ Khān,^{*A follower of Shīr Khān.} with several amīrs, was coming up behind.

There was a Balūchī named Bakhshū (sic) who had forts and many men. His Majesty sent him a banner and kettledrums, and a horse, and a head-to-foot suit, and asked for boats and also for corn. After a time Bakhshū Balūchī got together and sent about a hundred boats, full of corn too, for the royal service,—a proper attention which pleased the Emperor very much. He divided the corn amongst his people, and crossed the water*The Gārā, near Uch. safe and sound. May mercy be shown to Bakhshū for his dutiful service!

After a weary journey, they reached Bhakkar at last. The fort is in the middle of the river and very strong. The governor, Sult̤ān Maḥmūd (Bhakkarī),*^{Foster-brother of Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn, and the man for whom Sidi 'Alī Reis negotiated terms with Humāyūn in 1555.} had fortified himself in it. (41b) The Emperor alighted safe and well over against the fort, near which was a garden^{*A delightful garden, the Chār-bāgh of Rūhrī (Lūhrī), on the left bank of the Indus. Shāh Ḥusain felt no anxiety as to military operations after hearing that Humāyūn had camped here. Chār-bāgh seems to denote a royal and private garden.} made by Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain Samandar.^{*'A place in Hindūstān from which aloes are brought.' (Steingass, s.v..) Cf. Samandūrī, aloe-wood, of the Āin. (Blochmann 80.) Samandar seems an equivalent for Sind.}

At length his Majesty sent Mīr Samandar to Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā with this message: ‘We have come into your territory under compulsion. May your country be blessed to you! We shall not take possession of it. Would to Heaven you would yourself come and pay us your respects, and do us the service which is our due! We intend to go to Gujrāt, and should leave you your own country.’ By tricks and wiles, Shāh Ḥusain kept his Majesty as much as five months in Samandar; then he sent a person to wait on him, and to say: ‘I am arranging my daughter's wedding-feast, and I send (someone) to wait on you. I shall come (later).’ His Majesty believed him, and waited still three months. Sometimes there was corn to be had, sometimes not. The soldiers killed and ate their horses and camels. Then his Majesty sent again, by Shaikh 'Abdu-l-ghafūr,^{*Humāyūn's treasurer (mīr-i-māl) whose official functions must now have been of the least pressing.} to ask: ‘How much longer will you be? What prevents you from coming? (42a) Things have come to such a pass that there is inconvenience, and many of my men are deserting.’ The reply was: ‘My daughter^{*The admirable Māh-chūchak who insisted upon accompanying the blinded Kāmrān to Makka. As her peer in compassion may be commemorated Chilma Beg kūka. (B. & H., II., 418.)} is promised to Mīrzā Kāmrān, and a meeting with me is impossible. I could not wait on you.’

As at this time Mīrzā Muḥammad Hindāl crossed the river, some said he might be going to Qandahār.^{*He encamped at Pāt (text, Paṭr), about twenty miles west of the Indus and about forty miles north of Sehwān. Pāt is in the sarkār of Sīwīstān, a little to the east of the highroad to Hyderābād, and not far north of Meānī, the scene of Napier's victory of 1843. I am indebted to Major-General Malcolm R. Haig for the information that Pāt is 'now a ruin, having been destroyed in the latter part of the eighteenth century when two Kalhora chiefs of Sind called in the Afghāns to quell domestic troubles.'} On hearing this his Majesty sent several people after him to make inquiry and to say: ‘It is reported that you plan going to Qandahār.’ When questioned, the mīrzā said: ‘People have given a wrong impression.’ On this the Emperor came^{*Leaving his troops to prosecute the siege of Bhakkar, and passing through Dārbila where was his cousin, Yādgār-nāṣir. From the wording it might be supposed that Gul-badan was with her mother in Pāt, but I believe she was in Kābul at this time.} to see her Highness my mother.

The mīrzā's ḥaram and all his people paid their respects to his Majesty at this meeting. Concerning Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, his Majesty asked: ‘Who is this?’ They said: ‘The daughter of Mīr Bābā Dost.’ Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am^{*Cf. Appendix, s.n. Ḥamīda-bānū.} was standing opposite his Majesty, who said: ‘This boy will be one of my kinsmen (too?).’^{*(?) interrogative, but the preceding verb is guftand, and not pursī-dand.} Of Ḥamīda-bānū he said: ‘She, too, is related to me.’ (42b)

In those days Ḥamīda-bānū Begam was often in the mīrzā's residence (maḥall). Another day when his Majesty came to see her Highness my mother, he remarked: ‘Mīr Bābā Dost is related to us. It is fitting that you should give me his daughter in marriage.’ Mīrzā Hindāl kept on making objections, and said: ‘I look on this girl as a sister and child of my own. Your Majesty is a king. Heaven forbid there should not be a proper alimony, and that so a cause of annoyance should arise.’^{*This looks like a side-glance at the wasted fortunes of royalty. No kingdom ! No revenues ! Whence then the dowry ? It is clear from the sequel that the important point was being pressed. Jauhar says that Ḥamīda had been already asked in marriage, but not betrothed or perhaps promised. Her objections to marry Humayun seem personal, and may indicate preference for another and dislike for him. She is said to have been fourteen years old and Humāyūn was thirty-three, an opium-eater, and much married already. Her objections, whatever their true basis, must have been strong or they could hardly have survived, for Gul-badan to record, through the many years of prosperity and proud motherhood which her husband's renewed sovereignty in India and her son's distinction secured to her. Behind Gul-badan' s story of the wooing of Ḥamīda there were doubtless many talks over 'old times' when the royal authoress was freshening her memory for her literary task, begun (it seems probable) when she was about sixty-five and Ḥamīda some few years younger.}

His Majesty got angry, and rose and went away. Then my mother wrote and sent a letter, saying: ‘The girl's mother has even before this been using persuasion.^{*Mādar-i-dukhtar az īn ham peshtar nāz mīkanad. Perhaps, 'caressed the idea.'} It is astonishing that you should go away in anger over a few words.’ He wrote in reply: ‘Your story is very welcome to me. Whatever persuasion you may use, by my head and eyes, I will agree to it. As for what they have written about alimony, please Heaven, what they ask will be done. My waiting eye is on the road.’ My mother fetched his Majesty, and on that day she gave a party. When it was over, he went to his own quarters. (43a) On another day he came to my mother, and said: ‘Send someone to call Ḥamīdā-bānū Begam here.’ When she sent, the begam did not come, but said: ‘If it is to pay my respects, I was exalted by paying my respects the other day. Why should I come again?’ Another time his Majesty sent Subḥān Qulī, and said: ‘Go to Mīrzā Hindāl, and tell him to send the begam.’ The mīrzā said: ‘Whatever I may say, she will not go. Go yourself and tell her.’ When Subḥān Qulī went and spoke, the begam replied: ‘To see kings once is lawful; a second time it is forbidden. I shall not come.’ On this Subḥān Qulī went and represented what she had said. His Majesty remarked: ‘If she is not a consort (nā maḥram), we will make her a consort (maḥram).’

To cut the story short: For forty days the begam resisted and discussed and disagreed. At last her highness my mother, Dil-dār Begam, advised her, saying: ‘After all you will marry someone. Better than a king, who is there?’ The begam said: ‘Oh yes, I shall marry some­one; but he shall be a man whose collar my hand can touch, and not one whose skirt it does not reach.’ Then my mother again gave her much advice. (43b)

At last, after forty days (discussion), at mid-day on Monday (fault) Jumīdu-l-awwal (sic) 948H. (September, 1541), and in Pātr (sic), his Majesty took the astrolabe into his own blessed hand and, having chosen a propitious hour, summoned Mīr Abū'l-baqā and ordered him to make fast the marriage bond. He gave the mīr two laks of ready money for the dower^{*Perhaps the ladies romance a little here. Humāyūn was certainly at a loss for money now and later.}(nikāḥāna), and having stayed three days after the wedding in Pātr, he set out and went by boat to Bhakkar.

He spent a month at Bhakkar and he sent Mīr Abū'l-baqā to Sult̤ān Bhakkarī. The mīr fell ill while away, and went to the mercy of God.^{*This is not a historic account of the death. He was sent to Yādgār-nāṣir and was shot while crossing the river on his return to Rūhrī by adherents of Shāh Ḥusain. His death caused great grief to Humāyūn. (B. & H., II., 222.)}

His Majesty then gave Mīrzā Hindāl leave to go to Qandahār, and he dismissed Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir to his own place, Lār. He himself went towards Seāwān^{*At the end of September, 1541. Ḥindāl's leave is a sisterly gloss on his acceptance of an invitation to Qandahār given by its governor, Qarācha Khān.}(Sehwān), which is six or seven days' journey from Tatta.^{*Semblance of relevance can be given to this statement only by reference to other writers. Humāyūn had intended to go to Tatta at this time, and was diverted from the journey by a slight success of arms. He then besieged Sehwān.} Sehwān has a strong fort, in which was Mīr 'Alīka, a servant of his Majesty the Emperor.^{*Certainly not so, for 'Alīka was an Arghūn and follower of Shāh Ḥusain. Perhaps Gul-badan wrote or intended to convey that 'Alīka had served Bābar as once all the Arghūns had done. Perhaps she has confused the import of the story that Mir 'Alīka when sent by Shah Ḥusain to take command of Sehwān, actually passed through Humāyūn's lines and the bāzār without recognition as an enemy.} There were several cannon, so no one could possibly go near. Some of the royal soldiers made trenches, and got near and gave him ('Alīka) advice, and said: (44a) ‘Disloyalty is not well at such a time,’ but Mīr 'Alīka did not agree with them. Then they made a mine and cast down a tower, but they could not take the fort. Corn became dear and many men deserted. The Emperor spent six or seven months there.

Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain treacherously laid hands on the royal soldiers in all directions, and made them over to his people, and said: ‘Take them and throw them into the salt sea.’ Three^{*Text, thirty sīṣad. No wonder Humāyūn's force vanished! He is said to have left Hindūstān, i.e., Lāhor, with a following of 200,000. This presumably included Kāmrān's party, and was made up of soldiers and women, children, traders, servants, etc.. At this time Humāyūn had lost both Hindāl's and Yādgār-nāṣir's troops.} or four hundred would be gathered into one place and flung into boats and thrown into the sea, till as many as 10,000 were cast forth.

^{*The narrative becomes much confused here.} As after this there were few men even with the Emperor, (? Shāh Ḥusain) filled several boats with cannon and muskets, and came from Tatta against him. Sehwān is near the river. (? Mīr 'Alīka) hindered the coming of the royal boats and provisions, and sent to say: ‘(?) I am maintaining my loyalty. March off quickly.’ Having no remedy, the Emperor turned to Bhakkar.

When he came near and before he could reach it, Mīr Shāh) Ḥusain Samandar had sent word to Mīrzā Yādgār-­nāṣir:(44b) ‘If the Emperor, when he is retreating, should come near Bhakkar,*^{The mīrzā was at Rūhrī and had not possession of the fort. Cf. B. & H., II., 226, for a good account of his treachery and credulity.} do not let him in. Bhakkar may remain your holding. I am with you; I will give you my own daughter.’ The mīrzā believed him and did not allow the Emperor to enter the fort, but wished to make him go on, either by force or fraud.

His Majesty sent a messenger to say: ‘Bābā,^{*(?) ' My dear boy ' the Persian word of endearment. The relative position and ages of Humāyūn and Yādgār-nāṣir make 'father' inappropriate.} you are as a son to me. I left you in my stead, so that you might help me in case of need. What you are doing is done by the evil counsel of your servants. Those faithless servants will be faithless to you also.’ Whatever his Majesty urged had no effect.^{*In this extremity Humāyūn turned his thoughts towards Makka.} Then he said: ‘Very well! I shall go to Rāja Māldeo.^{*Rāja of Jūdpūr (Mārwār), who had proffered help.} I have bestowed this country on you, but Shāh Ḥusain will not let you keep it. You will remember my words.’ Having said this to the mīrzā, the Emperor marched away by way of Jīsalmīr, towards Māldeo. He reached Fort Dilāwar (Dirāwal), on the rāja's frontier, a few days later. (45a) He stayed there two days. Neither corn nor grass was to be had. He then went to Jīsalmīr, and on his approach the rāja sent out troops to occupy the road, and there was fighting. The Emperor and some others went aside off the road. Several men were wounded: Alūsh^{*Var., Lūsh and Tarsh, all three names of such disagreeable import as to suggest that they are either nicknames or were bestowed to ward off evil influences. Perhaps ūlūs should be read. Cf. App. s.n..} Beg, brother of Shāhaṃ Jalāīr and Pīr Muḥammad the equerry, and Raushang the wardrobe-keeper, and some others.^{*Muqīm Harāwī, father of Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Aḥmad, took part in this engagement.} At length the royal troops won and the infidels fled into the fort. That day the Emperor travelled 60 kos (cir. 120 miles), and then halted on the bank of a reservoir.

Next he came into Sītalmīr, where he was harassed all day till he reached Pahlūdī, a pargana of Māldeo. The rāja was in Jodhpūr, and sent armour and a camel's-load of ashrafīs, and greatly comforted his Majesty by saying: ‘You are welcome! I give you Bīkanīr.’ The Emperor halted with an easy mind, and despatched Atka Khān (Shamsu-d-dīn Ghaznarī) to Māldeo, and said: ‘What will his answer be?’^{*Presumably to Atka Khān's message from Humāyūn.}

In the downfall and desolation in Hind, Mullā Surkh, the librarian, had gone to Māldeo, and had entered his service. (45b) He now wrote: ‘Beware, a thousand times beware of advancing. March at once from wherever you are, for Māldeo intends to make you prisoner. Put no trust in his words. There came here an envoy from Shīr Khān who brought a letter to say: “By whatever means you know and can use, capture that king. If you will do this, I will give you Nagōr and Alwar and whatever place you ask for.”’ Atka Khān also said when he came: ‘This is no time for standing.’ So at afternoon prayer-time the Emperor marched off. When he was mounting, they captured two spies and brought them bound before him. He was questioning them when suddenly they got their hands free, and one snatched a sword from the belt of Muḥammad Gird-bāz^{*(?) gird-bāzū, strong-limbed.} and struck him with it, and then wounded Bāqī Guālīārī. The other at once unsheathed^{*Doubtful translation; az mayān yak kashīda.} a dagger and faced the bystanders, wounded several and killed the Emperor's riding-horse. They did much mischief before they were killed. (46a) Just then there was a cry, ‘Māldeo is here!’ The Emperor had no horse fit for Ḥamīda-bānū Begam. He may have asked for one for her from Tardī Beg,^{*This excellent officer is frequently a scapegoat. Our begam, however, imputes her blame tentatively. For estimate of his character see B. & EL, I. and II., s.n.. Jauhar brings Eaushan Beg into a similar story of this terrible journey.} who apparently did not give it. He then said: ‘Let the camel of Jauhar, the ewer-bearer, be got ready for me. I will ride it, and the begam may have my horse.’ It would seem that Nadīm^{*The husband of Māham anaga, Akbar's celebrated nurse. (E.A.S.J., January, 1899, art. Māham anaga, H. Beveridge.) His mother was Fakhru-n-nisā'. Cf. Gul-badan, 26a and 71a.} Beg heard that his Majesty was giving his horse to the begam and thinking of riding a camel, for he mounted his own mother on a camel and gave her horse to the Emperor.

His Majesty took a guide from this place, and mounted and rode for 'Umrkōt. It was extremely hot; horses and (other) quadrupeds*^{Perhaps ponies only. Text, chārwā.} kept sinking to the knees in the sand, and Māldeo was behind. On they went, thirsty and hungry. Many, women and men, were on foot. (46b)

On the approach of Māldeo's troops, the Emperor said to Īshān (Īsān)-tīmūr Sult̤ān and to Mu'nim Khān^{*Gul-chihra's husband.} and a number of others: ‘You all come slowly, and watch the enemy till we have gone on a few miles.’ They waited; it grew night, and they missed their way.

All through that night the Emperor went on, and at dawn a watering-place was found. For three days the horses had not drunk. He had dismounted when a man ran in, shouting: ‘The Hindūs are coming up in numbers, mounted on horses and camels.’ Then the Emperor dis­missed Shaikh 'Alī Beg (Jalāīr), and Raushan kūka and Nadīm kūka, and Mīr Payanda Muḥammad, brother of Muḥammad Walī, and many others.

They recited the fātiḥa, and his Majesty said: ‘Go, fight the infidels!’ He thought: ‘Īshān-tīmūr Sult̤ān, and Mu'nīm Khān,^{*The well-known Khān-i-khānān of Akbar's reign.} and Mīrzā Yādgār,^{*Perhaps 'Uncle Yādgār' (t̤aghāī), the father of Bega Begam. Yādgār-nāṣir was not here, but still in Sind.} and the rest whom we left behind, have been killed or captured by these people who have now come to attack us.’ He mounted and left the camp with a few followers.

Of the band which his Majesty had sent out to fight after reciting the fātiḥa, Shaikh 'Alī Beg struck the Rājpūt captain with an arrow, and cast him from his horse. (47a) Several more (of the royal troop) hit others with arrows; the infidels turned to flee, and the fight was won. They brought in several prisoners alive. Then the camp went slowly, slowly on; but his Majesty was far ahead. Those who had recited the fātiḥa came up with the camp.

There was a mace-bearer named Bihbūd. They sent him galloping after the Emperor, to say: ‘Let your Majesty go slowly. By Heaven's grace, a victory has been vouchsafed, and the infidels have fled.’ Bihbūd himself was taken to the presence, and conveyed the good news.^{*And also, tied to his girths, two heads of foes which he flung at Humāyūn's feet.}

His Majesty dismounted, and a little water even (ham)^{*to brim of the cup of joy.} was found, but he was anxious about the amīrs, and said: ‘What has happened to them?’ Then horsemen appeared in the distance, and again there was a cry: ‘God forbid! Māldeo!’^{*These cries remind one that even now Humāyūn must have had with him a huge contingent of helpless beings, women and children and non-combatants.} His Majesty sent a man for information, who came running back and said: ‘Īshān-tīmūr Sult̤ān, and Mīrzā Yādgār, and Mu'nim Khān are all coming, safe and sound.’ They had missed their way. Their return rejoiced the Emperor, who rendered thanks to God.

Next morning they marched on. For three days they found no water. (47b) On the fourth, they came to some very deep wells, the water of which was extraordinarily red. The Emperor halted and alighted near one of the wells; Tardī Beg Khān was at another; at a third, Mīrzā Yādgār, and Mu'nim Khān, and Nadīm kūka; and at the fourth, Īshān-tīmūr Sult̤ān, and Khwāja Ghāzī, and Raushan kūka.

As each bucket came out of the wells into reach, people flung themselves on it; the ropes broke, and five or six persons fell into the wells with the buckets. Many perished from thirst. When the Emperor saw men flinging them­selves into the wells from thirst, he let anyone drink from his own water-bottle. When everyone had drunk his fill, they marched on again at afternoon prayer-time.

After a day and a night they reached a large tank. The horses and camels went into the water and drank so much that many died. There had not been many horses, but there were mules and camels. (48a) Beyond this place water was found at every stage on the way to 'Umrkōt,^{*The little desert town must indeed have seemed a haven after the terrible journey, and not least so to the young wife who some two months later became the mother of Akbar. Humāyūn reached 'Umrkōt on August 22nd, 1542 (Jumāda I. 10th, 949H.).} which is a beautiful place with many tanks.

The rānā^{*Text, passim, rānā. The 'Umrkōt rānā's name was Parsād.} gave the Emperor an honourable reception, and took him into the fort, and assigned him excellent quarters. He gave places outside to the amīrs' people. Many things were very cheap indeed; four goats could be had for one rupī. The rānā made many gifts of kids and so on, and paid such fitting service that what tongue could set it forth?

Several days were spent in peace and comfort.

The treasury was empty. Tardī Beg Khān had a great deal of money, and the Emperor having asked him for a considerable loan, he lent 80,000 ashrafīs at the rate of two in ten.^{*(?) 20 per cent. Cf. Mems., 138.} His Majesty portioned out this money to the army. He bestowed sword-belts and cap-à-pie dresses on the rānā and his sons. Many people bought fresh horses here.

Mīr Shāh Ḥusain had killed the rānā's father. For this, amongst other reasons, the rānā collected 2,000 or 3,000 good soldiers and set out with the Emperor for Bhakkar.^{*After a stay of seven weeks in 'Umrkōt.}(48b)

In 'Umrkōt he left many people, and his family and relations, and also Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am to have charge of the ḥaram. Ḥamīda-bānū Begam was with child. Three days after his Majesty's departure, and in the early morning of Sunday, the fourth day of the revered Rajab, 949H.,^{*October 15th, 1542.} there was born his imperial Majesty, the world's refuge and conqueror, Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar Ghāzī. The moon was in Leo. It was of very good omen that the birth was in a fixed Sign, and the astrologers said a child so born would be fortunate and long-lived. The Emperor was some thirty miles away when Tardī Muḥammad Khān took the news to him. He was highly delighted, and by way of reward and largesse (niṣār) for the tidings he forgave all soever of Tardī Muḥammad Khān's past offences. He gave the child the name he had heard in his dream at Lāhōr, the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar.

On leaving this place, the Emperor went towards Bhakkar with as many as 10,000 men who had gathered round him, people of the rānā and of the outlying tribes and Sūdmas (Sodhas) and Samīchas. (49a) They reached the district of Jūn, where there was one of Shāh Ḥusain's servants with some troopers. He fled.^{*Cf. B. & H., II., 256, for stories of the taking of Jūn.} Here there was the Mirror Garden, a very pleasant and enjoyable place where the Emperor alighted. He assigned its villages (? of Jūn) in jāgīr to his followers.

It is a six days' journey from Jūn to Tatta. The Emperor was as much as six^{*Other writers say nine.} months in Jūn, and brought his family and people and the whole 'Umrkōt party there.^{*Ḥamīda and her baby were good travellers. They left 'Umrkōt when the child was under five weeks old (November 20th), and joined Humāyūn early in December (1542).} The Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar was six months old when they took him to Jūn. The party which had come from various places with the royal family and the ḥaram now broke up. As for the rānā, he marched off at midnight for his own country, on account of a coolness^{*shukr rangī. I do not find this word in dictionaries, and translate tentatively on the analogy of shukr-āb, a tiff.} caused by some talk between him and Tardī Muḥammad Khān.^{*Other writers give Khwāja Ghāzī as the second in the quarrel.} All the Sūdmas and Samīchas went off by agreement with him, and the Emperor was left alone, as before, with his own people.

He sent brave Shaikh 'Alī Beg (Jalāīr) and Muz̤affar Beg Turkmān towards the large district of Jājkā (Ḥāj-kān). (49b) Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain sent a force to attack him, and there was a famous fight. At last Muz̤affar Beg was routed and fled, and Shaikh 'Alī Beg (Jalāīr) was killed and perished with all his men.^{*A stubborn fight, and fateful for Humāyūn. It occurred in November, 1543.}

A squabble arose between Khālid Beg^{*Son of Niz̤āmu-d-dīn 'Alī Khalīfa Barlās and of Sult̤ānam who appears to be Gul-badan's former hostess (14a).} and Tarsh Beg, a brother of Shāham Khān Jalāīr and his Majesty turned all his favour to Tarsh Beg. So Khālid Beg deserted and went with all his men to Mīr Shāh Ḥusain. Then the Emperor ordered Khālid Beg's mother, Sult̤ānam, to prison and this made Gul-barg^{*Daughter of Khalīfa, and as such sister or half-sister of Khālid, and daughter or stepdaughter of Sult̤ānam. She is, I believe, the Gul-barg of earlier episodes and a wife of Humāyūn.} Begam angry. Then he forgave Sult̤anam and gave her leave to go to the blessed Makka with Gul-barg Begam. Soon after this Tarsh Beg also deserted. The Emperor cursed him, and said: ‘For his sake, I dealt harshly with Khālid Beg, who on this account left the circle of the faithful for the circle of the disloyal. Tarsh Beg will die young.’ So it was! Fifteen days later, a servant killed him with a knife as he lay sleeping in a boat. When the Emperor heard of it he grew sad and thoughtful. (50a) Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā brought boats up the river to near Jūn, and his men and the Emperor's often fought on board, and many were killed on both sides. Day by day there were desertions to Shāh Ḥusain. In one of these fights was killed Mullā Tāju-d-dīn whom his Majesty held in the greatest favour as a pearl of knowledge.

There was a squabble between Tardī Muḥammad Khān and Mu'nīm Khān. Mu'nīm Khān consequently deserted. Very few amīrs remained; amongst them were Tardī Muḥammad Khān and Mīrzā Yādgār and Mīrzā Payanda Muḥammad and Muḥammad Walī and Nadīm kūka and Raushan kūka and Khadang^{*Probably the father of Maywa-jān. Bairām arrived April 12th, 1543 (Muḥarram 7th, 950H.).} the chamberlain. Then there was word brought: ‘Bairām Khān has reached Jājkā (Ḥāj-kān) on his way from Gujrāt.’ The Emperor was delighted, and ordered Khadang and others to give him honourable meeting.

Meantime Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā had heard of Bairām Khān's coming and sent to capture him. Bairām Khān rashly went into a hollow, and there they fell upon him. (50b) Khadang the chamberlain was killed. Bairām Khān and the rest escaped, and the khān came and paid his respects to the Emperor.

At this time letters arrived (addressed to) Mīrzā Hindāl for his Majesty from Qarācha Khān, saying: ‘You have been long near Bhakkar, and during the whole time Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā has given no sign of good-will but the reverse. By Heaven's grace, an easy way is open, and it is best for the Emperor to come here (to Qandahār). This is really advisable. If he will not come, come you yourself without fail.’ As his Majesty's coming was delayed, Qarācha Khān went out and met Mīrzā Hindāl, and made over the town to him (in the autumn of 1541).

Mīrzā 'Askarī was in Ghaznīn, and to him Mīrzā Kāmrān wrote: ‘Qarācha Khān has given over Qandahār to Mīrzā Hindāl. Qandahār must be considered.’ His idea was to take it from Mīrzā Hindāl.

On hearing of these things, his Majesty came to his aunt Khānzāda Begam,^{*From this it would seem that Khānzāda was in Sind with Humāyūn. No other writer, I believe, mentions this or the embassy on which she is now sent. The Uzbegs and Turkmāns do not appear apropos here. If, as Gul-badan says, and her authority is good, Khānzāda now went to Qandahār, she will have gone on to Kābul, possibly with Hindāl after he surrendered the town to Kāmrān. Of Mahdī Khwāja, Khānzāda's husband, I find no mention made by any historian after Babar's death, a singular fact and matched by the similar disappearance of the great Khalifa. Abū'l-fazl names his tomb. Cf. App. s.n. Khānzāda.} and said with great urgency: ‘Pray do me the honour of going to Qandahār and advising Mīrzā Hindāl and Mīrzā Kāmrān. (51a) Tell them that the Uzbegs and the Turkmāns are near them, and that the best plan is to be friends amongst themselves. If Mīrzā Kāmrān will agree to carry out what I have written to him, I will do what his heart desires.’

Mīrzā Kāmrān came to Qandahār four days after the begam's arrival.^{*She had a weary journey from Jūn to Qandahār, and Kāmrān had another, but less toilsome, from Kābul. Kāmrān kept Hindāl besieged, but there seems to have been a good deal of communication between besiegers and beleaguered.} Day after day he urged: ‘Read the khut̤ba in my name’; and again and again Mīrzā Hindāl said: ‘In his life-time his Majesty Firdaus-makānī gave his throne to the Emperor Humāyūn and named him his successor. We all agreed to this, and up till now have read the khut̤ba in his name. There is no way of changing the khut̤ba.’^{*Our memory is better than the begam's, and we remember that Hindāl found no difficulty in changing the khut̤ba to his own name in Dihlī.} Mīrzā Kāmrān wrote to her Highness, Dil-dār Begam:^{*She would be probably with her son Hindāl in the fort.} ‘I have come from Kābul with you in mind. It is strange that you should not once have come to see me. (51b) Be a mother to me as you are to Mīrzā Hindāl.’ At last Dil-dār Begam went to see him, and he said: ‘Now I shall not let you go till you send for Mīrzā Hindāl.’ Dil-dār Begam said: ‘Khānzāda Begam is your elder kinswoman, and oldest and highest of you all. Ask her the truth about the khut̤ba.’ So then he spoke to Āka. Her High­ness Khānzāda Begam answered: ‘If you ask me! well! as his Majesty Firdaus-makānī decided it and gave his throne to the Emperor Humāyūn, and as you, all of you, have read the khut̤ba in his name till now, so now regard him as your superior and remain in obedience to him.’

To cut the matter short, Mīrzā Kāmrān besieged Qandahār and kept on insisting about the khut̤ba for four months. At last he settled it in this way: ‘Very well! the Emperor is now far away. Read the khut̤ba in my name and when he comes back, read it in his.’ As the siege had drawn out to great length, and people had gradually come to cruel straits, there was no help for it; the khut̤ba was read. (52a) He gave Qandahār to Mīrzā 'Askarī and promised Ghaznīn to Mīrzā Hindāl. When they reached Ghaznīn, he assigned the Lamghānāt and the mountain passes (Tangayhā)^{*(?) The Tangī of Budyard Kipling.} to the mīrzā, and all those promises were false^{.*The Tārīkh-i-badāyunī states that Ghaznīn was given to Hindāl and then taken away, and Mr. Erskine comments on this as probably untrue. (B. & H., II. 265 n. .) Gul-badan here supports 'Abdu-l-qadīr.}

Mīrzā Hindāl went off to Badakhshān, and settled down in Khost and Andar-āb. Mīrzā Kāmrān said to Dil-dār Begam: ‘Go and fetch him.’ When she arrived, the mīrzā said: ‘I have withdrawn myself from the turmoil of soldiering, and even^{*'as good as any other place' is perhaps the import of the ham.} Khost is a hermitage. I have quite settled down.’ The begam answered: ‘If you intend to lead the darvish-life, even^{*'as good as any other place' is perhaps the import of the ham.} Kābul is a hermitage. Live where your family and kinsfolk are. That is the better plan.’ Then she made him come, and for awhile he lived as a darvish in Kābul.

About this time, Mīr Shāh Ḥusain sent to the Emperor to say: ‘The course favouring fortune is for you to march for Qandahār. That is the better plan.’ His Majesty was willing, and replied: ‘Horses and camels are scarce in my camp; give me some to travel with to Qandahār.’ (52b) Shāh Ḥusain Mīrza agreed, and said: ‘There are a thousand camels on the other side of the river, which I will send to you as soon as you have crossed.’

[If words by Khwāja Kasak (? Kīsīk), kinsman of Khwāja Ghāzī, are recorded about the journey from Bhakkar and Sind, they are copied from the writings of the said Khwāja Kasak.^{*We surmise that this is a gloss of Gul-badan. who has copied from a diary or writings of Khwāja Kasak. This name may be the Tuūrkī kīsīk, a guard, a sentinel. No Persian word seems appropriate.]}

At length the Emperor went on board boats, with kins­folk and family, army and the rest, and travelled for three days on the great river. At the frontier of Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā's territory is a village called Nuāsī.^{*Runāī, B. & H., II. 262. The text is clear.} Here they halted, and his Majesty sent Sult̤ān Qulī, the head-camel-driver, to fetch the camels. Sult̤ān Qulī brought a thousand, all of which his Majesty gave to his amīrs, and soldiers, and others, ordering them to be apportioned.

The camels were such that one might say they had not known city, or load, or man for seven, or rather seventy, generations. As horses were few, many people took camels to ride on, and what were left were assigned for the baggage. Every camel which was mounted, at once flung its rider to the ground, and took its way to the jungle. (53a) Every pack-camel, when it heard the sound of horses' feet, jumped and bounded and tossed off its load, and went off and away to the jungle. If a load was fixed so fast that, jump as it would, it could not get it off, it carried it away and ran with it into the jungle. This was the way the Emperor started for Qandahār. Some 200 camels must have gone off like this.

Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā's head-camel-driver Maḥmūd was in Sīwī (Sībī), and when the Emperor came near, he strengthened the citadel and retired into it. His Majesty came prosperously to within twelve miles' distance. Then word was brought that Mīr Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk^{*Both these names may be sobriquets. Abu'1-fazl names Shaikh 'Abdu-l-wahab as Allāh-dost's companion. (A. N., Bib. Ind. ed. I. 189 et seq..) Jūjūk is perhaps the Tūrkī 'sweet-savoured,' and an epithet of 'Abdu-l-wahab, a lawyer with persuasive tongue.} had arrived in Sīwī from Kābul two days earlier, and were going on to (visit) Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā. By them Mīrzā Kāmrān had sent a dress of honour, and tipūchāq horses, and much fruit, and they were to ask for Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain's daughter.^{*The daughter has already been named as promised.}

The Emperor said to Khwāja Ghāzī: ‘As there is the tie of father and son^{*Probably a spiritual relationship; that of religious teacher and disciple.} between you and Allāh-dost, write and ask him in what way Mīrzā Kāmrān stands towards me, and what he will do if I go into his neighbourhood.’ (53b) He also gave this order to Khwāja Kasak: ‘Go to Sīwī, and ask Mīr Allāh-dost whether he thinks it advisable for me to come to Kābul.’ The khwāja set out, and the Emperor said: ‘We will not march till you have returned.’

When the khwāja came near Sīwī, Maḥmūd, the head-camel-driver, caught him, and asked: ‘Why are you here?’ ‘To buy horses and camels,’ he answered. Maḥmūd ordered: ‘Feel under his arm and search his cap. Heaven forbid that he should have brought a letter to win over Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk.’ They searched, and brought out the letter from under his arm. He had no chance to twist it into a fold.^{*(?) to toss it secretly into a corner.} Maḥmūd took it and read it, and, not letting the khwāja go, forthwith conveyed Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk into the fort, and with various rough­nesses made them swear: ‘We had no knowledge of his coming here.’ (54a) (?) He has taken the initiative;^{*sabq khwānda ast. Perhaps Kasak as a pupil 'has said his lessons to us,' i.e., to Allāh-dost.} and ‘Khwāja Ghāzī is related to us and he was with Mīrzā Kāmrān,^{*He had been Kāmrān's diwān up to the time when the royal family left Lāhōr, and he joined Humāyūn when the brothers parted for Sind and for Kābul.} and this is why he has written.’ Maḥmūd decided to send all three to Shāh Ḥusain, and Mīr Allāh-dost and Bābā Jūjūk spent the whole night smoothing him down and entreating him, and in the end they were set free.

Mīr Allāh-dost sent 3,000^{*Text, sīṣad, but perhaps only 300 should be read.} pomegranates and 100 quinces for his Majesty's use, and wrote no letter, because he was afraid it might fall into the wrong hands. By word of mouth he sent to say: ‘If a letter should come from Mīrzā Askarī or the amīrs, it would not be bad to go to Kābul; but if not, it will be clear to your Majesty that nothing is to be gained by going. You have few followers. What, then, will happen?’

Kasak came and reported this. The Emperor was stupefied and bewildered, and said: ‘What is to be done? Where am I to go?’ They all consulted together. (54b) Tardī Muḥammad Khān and Bairām Khān gave it as their opinion that it was impossible to decide to go anywhere but to the north and Shal-mastān,^{*Approximately Quetta. The route seems to have been over the Bolan.} the frontier of Qandahār. ‘There are many Afghans in those parts,’ they said, ‘whom we shall draw over to our side. Mīrzā 'Askarī's people, too, will join us.’

Having settled it in this way, they recited the fātiḥa and went, march by march, for Qandahār. Near Shal-mastān they halted in a village named Ranī (? Ralī), but as it had snowed and rained, and was extremely cold, they determined to go on to Shal-mastān. At afternoon prayer-time an Uzbeg youth, mounted on a sorry and tired-out pony, came in, and cried out: ‘Mount, your Majesty! I will explain on the way; time presses. There is no time to talk.’^{*The youth was Chupī Bahādūr, a former servant of Humāyūn. Gul-badan's story differs in some details from that told by other writers.} The Emperor mounted the very hour the alarm was given, and went off.

He went two arrows' flight, and then sent Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am and Bairām Khān to fetch Ḥamīda-bānū Begam. (55a) They went and mounted her, but there was not a chink of time in which to take the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar. Just when the begam left the camp to join his Majesty, Mīrzā 'Askarī came up with 2,000 troopers. There was an outcry, and when he heard it, he entered the camp^{*Late in 950H. (1543). The little Akbar reached Qandahār on December 15th, 1543.} and asked: ‘Where is the Emperor?’ People said: ‘He went hunting long ago.’ So the mīrzā knew that his Majesty had gone away just as he himself came in. Then he took possession of the Emperor Jalālu­d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar, and gave him in charge to his wife Sult̤ānam,^{*I believe she was in Qandahār, and that she received the child on his arrival there.} who showed him much kindness and affection. He made all the royal followers march, saying: ‘Go to Qandahār.’

His Majesty, when he left, took the road to the mountains. He went eight miles, and then travelled as fast as possible.^{*Perhaps he rode four kos, and then, having waited for Ḥamīda, hurried on.} (55b) He had with him Bairām Khān, Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am, Khwāja Nīāzī, Nadīm kūka^{*His wife, Māham anaga, remained behind with Akbar. With Akbar was also Atka Khān (Shamsu-d-din Muḥammad) and his wife, Jī-jī anaga.} and Raushan kūka, and Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān, and Bābā-dost the paymaster, and Mīrzā Qulī Beg chūlī,^{*Humāyūn's sobriquet for those who went to Persia with him; from chūl, a desert. Others in this list might claim it.} and Ḥaidar Muḥammad the master of the horse, and Shaikh Yūsuf chūlī, and Ibrāhīm the chamber­lain, and Ḥasan 'Alī, the chamberlain, and Ya'qūb the keeper of the armoury, and 'Ambar the superintendent and the royal agent (mulk-mukhtār), and Sambal captain of a thousand, and Khwāja Kasak.^{*Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Aḥmad puts the number of the party at twenty-two.}

Khwāja Ghāzī says: ‘I also was in attendance.’ This company went with the Emperor, and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam says,^{*The tense used suggests conference and talking over. Jauhar says that Khwāja Ghāzī joined Humāyūn in Persia from Makka. This looks like a contradiction of Jauhar.} ‘There were as many as thirty people,’ and that of women there was, besides herself, the wife of Ḥasan 'Alī, the chamberlain.

The prayer before sleep had passed before they reached the foot of the mountains. The snow lay deep, so there was no road to go up by. Their minds were full of anxiety lest that unjust creature, Mīrzā 'Askarī, should follow them. At last they found a way up, and climbed it in some sort of fashion. They were all night in the snow, and (at first) there was neither wood for fire nor food to eat. They grew very hungry and feeble. (56a) The Emperor gave orders to kill a horse. There was no cooking-pot, so they boiled some of the flesh in a helmet, and some they roasted. They made fires on all four sides, and with his own blessed hand the Emperor roasted some meat which he ate. He used to say: ‘My very head was frozen by the intense cold.’

Morning came at last, and he pointed to another mountain, and said: ‘There are people on that; there will be many Bilūchīs there; and there we must go.’ On they went, and reached the place in two days. They saw a few houses near them, and a few savage Bilūchīs whose speech is the tongue of the ghouls of the waste.

The Emperor halted on the skirt of the mountain. There were about thirty people with him. The Bilūchīs saw him, and collected and came near. He had settled comfortably in his tent, so they knew from far off that he was halting. They said to one another: ‘If we seize these people and take them to Mīrzā 'Askarī, he will certainly give us their arms, and many gifts besides.’ (56b)

Ḥasan 'Alī, the chamberlain, had a Bilūchī wife who understood what the ghouls of the waste were saying, and who made it known that they meant mischief. Early in the morning the Emperor thought of marching on, but they said: ‘Our chief is not here. When he comes, you shall go.’ Besides this, the time had become unsuitable, and so the whole night was spent there in strict watch­fulness.

Part of the night had gone when the chief arrived. He waited on the Emperor, and said: ‘A farmān has come from Mīrzā Kāmrān and Mīrzā 'Askarī, in which it is written: “It is reported that the Emperor may visit your dwellings. If he does, beware!—a thousand times beware!— of letting him go. Seize him and bring him to us. You can keep his goods and horses. Take him to Qandahār.” As I had not seen your Majesty, I at first had this evil thought, but now I will sacrifice my life and the lives of my family, I have five or six sons, for your Majesty's head, or rather for one hair of it. (57a) Go where you wish. God protect you! Mīrzā 'Askarī may do what he likes.’ The Emperor gave him a ruby and a pearl and some other things.

At dawn he marched to honour Fort Bābā Ḥājī^{*Fort of the Pilgrim Father.} by a visit. He reached it in two days. It belongs to the Garm-sīr,^{*i.e., a warm climate, a winter habitation in low ground, and cultivated fields.} and lies on the river (Halmand). There are many sayyids there, and they waited on the Emperor and showed him hospitality.

Next morning Khwāja 'Alāwalu-d-dīn (Jalālu-d-dīn) Maḥmūd,^{*He was a revenue-collector of the Mīrzā.} having left Mīrzā 'Askarī, came with an offering of a string of mules, and one of horses and tents, etc., whatever he had. Once more the royal heart was at ease. Ḥājī Muḥammad Khān kūkī^{*Son of Bābā Qūshka, an intimate of Bābar.} brought thirty or forty troopers and offered a string of mules.

Being helpless because of the disunion of his brothers^{*Kāmrān was master of Kābul and Ghaznī, Qandahār, Khutlān and Badakhshān. 'Askarī was attached to his full-brother's fortunes, and Hindāl was a prisoner in Kābul. Shīr Shāh ruled Bābar's Indian Empire, and Shāh Ḥusain was in Sind. Certainly there seemed no 'crack' to hold Humāyūn. The date is December, 1543.} and the desertion of his amīrs, it now seemed best to the Emperor,—with reliance on the Causer of causes,—to decide upon going to Khurāsān.^{*i.e., on his way to Persia proper. Humāyūn's messenger to the Shāh was Chupī Bahādur. (55a and n..)} (57b)

After many stages and a journey of many days, he came to parts adjacent to Khurāsān. When Shāh T̤ahmās (sic) heard that he had reached the Halmand, he remained sunk in wonder and thought, and said: ‘The Emperor Humāyūn has come to our frontier by the perfidious revolution of the firmament,—the firmament unpropitious and crooked of gait! The Lord, whose existence is necessary, has led him here!’

He sent all sorts of people to give honourable reception, nobles and grandees, low and high, great and small. All came to the Halmand to meet the Emperor.^{*He had crossed the river without receiving invitation or permission, because of Kāmrān's threatened approach. The incidents of Humāyūn's visit to Persia are very entertaining. (B. & H., II. 275 et seq..)}

The Shāh sent all his brothers to meet his Majesty,— Bahrām Mīrzā, and Alqās Mīrzā, and Sām Mīrzā. All came and embraced him, and escorted him with full honour and respect. As they drew near (the Shāh) his brothers sent him word, and he also came riding to meet the Emperor. They embraced. (58a) The friendship and concord of those two high-placed pāshas was as close as two nut-kernels in one shell.^{*A figure of speech too compact to leave room for the facts. The intercourse of the pāshas was dramatic with human passion and foible. Much of the story would be distasteful to Gul-badan's family pride and vexatious to her orthodoxy.} Great unanimity and good feeling ensued, so that during his Majesty's stay in that country, the Shāh often went to his quarters, and on days when he did not, the Emperor went to his.

In Khurāsān^{*Not only in Khurāsān but on and off the route to T̤ahmāsp's summer quarters where the pāshas met, did Humāyūn visit noteworthy places. He saw Harāt as his father had done, and later his devious journey took him to Jām, where he saw the shrine of his own and of Ḥamīda's ancestor, the Terrible Elephant, Aḥmad. He visited the tomb of the Founder of the Ṣafī dynasty at Ardabīl, and the date of his visit (1544) makes it probable that he trod that 'Holy Carpet' of Ardabīl which had been woven in 1540 for the shrine and which now attracts our respectful admiration in the Oriental Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum (S. K. M.).} his Majesty visited all the gardens and the flower-gardens, and the splendid buildings put up by Sult̤ān Ḥusain Mīrzā, and the grand structures of olden days.

There was hunting eight times while he was in 'Irāq, and each time trouble was taken for him also. Ḥamīda­bānū Begam used to enjoy the sight from a distance in either a camel or a horse litter. Shāhzāda Sult̤ānam,^{*This lady afforded Humāyūn vital assistance in Persia, and even pleaded for his life when it was in the balance. She was highly esteemed by T̤ahmāsp, and had influence in state affairs.} the Shāh's sister, used to ride on horseback, and take her stand behind her brother. His Majesty said (to Ḥamīda-bānū): ‘There was a woman riding behind the Shāh at the hunt. She stood with her reins held by a white-bearded man. People told me it was Shāhzāda Sult̤ānam, the Shāh's sister.’ (58b) In short, the Shāh showed the Emperor much hospitality and courtesy, and laid a charge (on his sister) to show motherly and sisterly hospitality and sympathy (to Ḥamīda-bānū Begam).^{*An obscure passage in the text, and conjectural only in translation. The Persian words I have rendered 'motherly and sisterly' are mādarāna wa khwāharāna. On this same page occurs hindūāna; at 43b, nikāḥāna, and at 62a, pādshāhāna.}

One day, when Shāhzāda Sult̤ānam had entertained the begam, the Shāh said to her: ‘When (next) you offer hospitality, let it be arranged outside the city.’ It was on a beautiful plain, rather more than four miles out, that they pitched tents (khaima) and folding-tents (khirga) and an audience-tent (bārgā), and also set up chatr^{*(?) umbrella-shaped tents.} and t̤āq.^{*round-topped tents or balconies, or arched erections.}

In Khurāsān and those parts they use enclosing screens (sarāparda), but they do not put them at the back. The Emperor set up an all-round screen after the Hindū fashion (hindūāna). Having pitched the tents, the Shāh's people put coloured chicks (cheghhā) all round. His kinswomen and his paternal aunt were there, and his sisters and the ladies of his ḥaram, and the wives of the khāns and Sult̤āns and amīrs, about 1,000 women in all splendour and adornment.

That day Shāhzāda Sult̤ānam asked Ḥamīda-bānū Begam: (59a) ‘Are such chatr and t̤āq met with in Hindū-stan?’ The begam answered: ‘They say two dāng^{*or dānak. Hazarding a guess, the meaning ' quarter of the world 'seems fittest to select from the several of dāng or dānak. Others conceivably applicable are 'a small grain' (anglice, peppercorn in this connection), and the sixth of anything (anglice, the colloquial 'fraction '). Doubtless my difficulty is none to those experienced in colloquial Persian. Ḥamīda's ready use of a colloquial phrase to express that the reputedly greater contains the less is neat and diplomatic.} with respect to Khurāsān, and four dāng with respect to Hin­dūstān. When a thing is found in two dāng, it is clear it will be found better in four.’

Shāh Sult̤ānam said also, in reply to her own paternal aunt, and in confirmation of the begam's words: ‘Aunt, it is strange that you ask, “Where are two dāng? where are four dāng?” It is clear anything would be found better and more wonderful (in four than in two).’

They passed the whole day very well in sociable festivity. At the time of eating, all the amīrs' wives stood and served, and the Shāh's ladies placed^{*māndand, used transitively ; also at 4a.} food before Shāhzāda Sult̤ānam.

Moreover, they were hospitable^{*mihmānī kardand. (?) In the way of gifts, or perhaps by lavish decoration.} with all sorts of stuffs, embroidered and others, to Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, as was incumbent and fitting. The Shāh went on in advance^{*i.e., from the place of entertainment to the town.} and was in his Majesty's quarters till the prayer before sleep. (59b) When he heard that Ḥamīda-bānū Begam had arrived, he rose from the presence and went home. To such a height of pleasantness and kindness was he amiable!

Raushan kūka, spite of his former fidelity and services, was now faithless, in that foreign and perilous country, about some valuable rubies. These used to be kept in the Emperor's amulet-case (t̤umār),^{*Also t̤ūmār, an amulet-case of gold or silver suspended on the neck.} and of this he and the begam knew and no one else. If he went away anywhere, he used to give the amulet-case into her charge. One day she was going to wash her head, so she bundled the case up in a handkerchief, and put it on the Emperor's bed. Raushan kūka thought this a good chance to steal five rubies. Then he agreed with Khwāja Ghāzī, and trusted them to him, meaning by-and-by to barter them away.

When the begam came back from washing her head, the Emperor gave her the amulet-case, and she at once knew from its lightness in her hand that it had lost weight, and said so. (60a) The Emperor asked: ‘How is this? Except you and me, no one knows about them. What can have happened? Who has taken them?’ He was astonished.

The begam said to her brother, Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am: ‘So and so has happened. If at this pinch you will act the brother to me and will make inquiry in some way quietly, you will save me from what one may call disgrace. Other­wise, as long as I live, I shall be ashamed in the royal presence.’

Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am said: ‘One thing occurs to me! I, who am so closely connected with his Majesty, have not the means to buy even a poor pony,^{*Text, tātū.} but Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka^{*Jauhar states that amongst other disaffected persons these two men, and a third, Sult̤ān Muḥammad, the spearman (nazabāz), had just returned from Makka, and were of Kāmrān's party. Gul-badan makes it seem probable that Jauhar' s statements apply only to Sult̤ān Muḥammad. (Cf. list of companions of Humāyūn on his journey, 55b.)} have each bought themselves a tipūchāq horse. They have not paid the money for them yet. This purchase is not without a ray of hope.’

The begam answered: ‘O brother! now is the time for brotherliness! That transaction must certainly be looked into.’ Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am answered: ‘O elder moon-sister!^{*māh chīcham. Cf. 18b n..} tell no one about it. Heaven willing, I have hope that the right will be righted.’ (60b)

He went out, and inquired at the house of the horse-dealers: ‘For what price did you sell those horses? When is the money promised? What security has been given for the payment?’ The dealers answered: ‘Both men promised us rubies, and took the horses.’

From them he went to the khwāja's servant, and said: ‘Where is the khwāja's wallet, with his honorary dress and his clothes?^{*nārī wa parī.} Where does he keep it?’ The servant answered: ‘My khwāja has no wallet and no clothes. He has one high cap which, when he goes to sleep, he puts under his head or his arm.’ Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am saw the meaning of this, and made up his mind for certain that the rubies were with Khwāja Ghāzī, and were kept in his high cap. He came and represented to his Majesty: ‘I have found trace of those rubies in Khwāja Ghāzī's high cap. In some way I will steal them from him. (61a) If he should come to your Majesty and seek redress against me, let your Majesty say nothing to me.’ The Emperor listened, and smiled.

Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am then repeatedly played off tricks and little jokes and pleasantries on Khwāja Ghāzī, who came and set it forth to the Emperor. ‘I am a lowly man,’ said he, ‘(? but) I have a name and a position. What does the boy Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am mean by playing off these tricks and jokes, and making fun of me in this foreign land, and insulting me?’ His Majesty said: ‘On whom does he not? He is young. It often comes into his head to do terrifying and ill-bred things. Do not take it to heart. He is only a boy.’

Another day, when Khwāja Ghāzī was seated in the reception-room, Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am, pretending an accident, filched his cap from his head. Then he took out the matchless rubies, and laid them before his Majesty and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam. His Majesty smiled, and the begam was delighted, and said, ‘Bravo!’ and ‘Mercy be upon you.’ (61b)

Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka, in shame at their deed, made secret communications to the Shāh, and carried their talk so far that his heart was troubled. His Majesty saw that the Shāh's intimacy and confidence were not what they had been, and at once sent some of whatever rubies and other jewels^{*It was now that Humāyūn gave to the Shāah the 'diamond which had been obtained from Sult̤ān Ibrāhīm's treasury,' i.e. the Koh-i-nūr. (Asiatic Quarterly Review, April, 1899, art. 'Babar's Diamond,' H. Beveridge.)} he possessed as a gift to him, who then said: ‘Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka are in fault; they turned my heart from you, and truly I used to regard you as a brother.’ Then the two sovereigns again became of one mind, and made clean heart to one another.

The two wrong-doers were excluded from the presence, and were made over to the Shāh, who, when opportunity occurred, got possession of those rubies,^{*(?) those already bartered away.} and, as to the men, ordered: ‘Let them be kept in custody.’^{*They were, it would seem, let down by tent-ropes into the celebrated underground prison of Sulaimān's Diwān. (Jauhar, Stewart, 72.)}

His Majesty's time in 'Irāq was (now) spent happily. In various ways the Shāh showed good feeling, and every day sent presents of rare and strange things. (62a)

At length the Shāh despatched his own son and khāns and Sult̤āns and amīrs with his Majesty to help him, to­gether with good arms and tents, folding and audience tents; and chatr and t̤āq and shamiāna, excellently wrought, and all sorts of the things necessary and fit for a king, from the mattress-warehouse and the treasury and the workshops and kitchen and buttery. In a propitious hour those two mighty sovereigns bade one another farewell, and his Majesty left that country for Qandahār.^{*Humāyūn again indulged his love of travel and sights, and delayed so long in Persian territory that the Shāh, coming unexpectedly upon him, angrily turned him off without ceremony.}

At the time of his departure, he asked pardon from the Shāh for the offence of those two faithless ones (Khwāja Ghāzī and Raushan kūka), and, having himself forgiven them, took them with him to Qandahār.

When Mīrzā 'Askarī heard (1545) that he was on his way from Khurāsān and approaching Qandahār, he sent the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar to Mīrzā Kāmrān in Kābul, who gave him into the care of Dearest Lady, Khānzāda Begam, and our paternal aunt. (62b) He was two and a half years old when she received him into her charge. She was very fond of him, and used to kiss his hands and feet, and say: ‘They are the very hands and feet of my brother the Emperor Bābar, and he is like him altogether.’^{*The child was just over three. It was now that he and Bakhshī-banu travelled together to Kābul in the snow.}

When Mīrzā Kāmrān was sure that the Emperor was approaching Qandahār, he went to Dearest Lady and cried, and was very humble, and said with countless pains:^{*of persuasion.} ‘Go you (May your journey be safe!) to Qandahār to the Emperor and make peace between us.’

When she left (Kābul) she made over the Emperor Akbar to Mīrzā Kāmrān, who gave him into the care of (Muḥtarīma) Khānam. Then she travelled as fast as possible to Qandahār. The Emperor besieged Mīrzā Kāmrān^{*The context shows that this is wrong, and so do the histories.} and Mīrzā 'Askarī for forty days in the city, and he sent Bairām Khān on an embassy to Mīrzā Kāmrān.^{*Bairām saw Akbar in Kābul, and also Hindāl, Sulaimān, Ḥaram, Ibrāhīm and Yādgār-nāṣir, all under surveillance. The embassy reached Kābul before Khānzādā left, and she travelled with Bairām on his return to Humāyūn.} (63a) Mīrzā 'Askarī grew dejected and humble, admitted his offences, and came out and paid his duty to the Emperor, who then took possession of Qandahār (September 4th, 1545). He bestowed it upon the son of the Shāh, who in a few days fell ill and died.^{*He was an infant.} When Bairām Khān^{*The begam's chronology is faulty here. Bairām had returned before the capitulation.} arrived, it was given into his charge.

The Emperor left Ḥamīda-bānū Begam in Qandahār and set out after Mīrzā Kāmrān. Dearest Lady, Khānzāda Begam, went with him, and at Qabal-chak^{*For location of this place Cf. Akbarnāma H. B., I. 477 n.. It seems to have been in the mountain district of Tīrī, between the basins of the Halmand and the Arghand-āb.} she had three days of fever. The doctors' remedies were of no avail, and on the fourth day of her illness she passed to the mercy of God. At first she was buried at Qabal-chak, but three months later her body was brought to Kābul and laid in the burial-place of my royal father.^{*Khānzāda, Mahdī (her husband) and Abū'l-ma'ālī are buried in the same spot.}

During several years that Mīrzā Kāmrān was in Kābul, he had never made a hostile raid, ^{*tākht raftan. I do not know what the begam wishes to say. Kāmrān had made hostile raids to Badakhshān and against the Hazāras. One might read 'hunting expedition.'} and now, all at once, when he heard of his Majesty's approach, desire to break forth (? hunt) seized him, and he went into the Hazāra country. ^{*He had a Hazāra wife. Perhaps the passage about Kāmrān's hostile raid or hunting is merely an introduction to Hindal's plan of scape. (Cf. B. & H., II. 314, 315, for this story.)}(63b)

Mīrzā Hindāl, who had chosen the darvish's corner (in Kābul), now heard of the Emperor's return from 'Irāq and Khurāsān, and of his success in Qandahār. He saw his chance, and sent for Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, and said: ‘The Emperor has come to Qandahār, and has been victorious. Mīrzā Kāmrān sent Khānzāda Begam to sue for peace, but the Emperor did not agree to his sort of peace. The Emperor sent Bairām Khān as his envoy, and Mīrzā Kāmrān did not agree to what he proposed. Now the Emperor has given Qandahār to Bairām Khān and has set out for Kābul. Come now, let us, you and I, plan and agree together, and scheme how to betake ourselves to his Majesty.’ Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir agreed, and the two made their plan and compact. Mīrzā Hindāl said: ‘You make up your mind to run away and when Mīrzā Kāmrān hears of it, he will certainly say to me: “Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir has gone off; go and persuade him to come back with you.” (64a) You go slowly, slowly on till I come. Then we will go as quickly as we can and pay our respects to the Emperor.’

Having so settled it, Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir ran away. The news went to Mīrzā Kāmrān, who came back at once to Kābul and sent for Mīrzā Hindāl and said: ‘Go and persuade Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir to come back.’ Mīrzā Hindāl mounted at once, and joined Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir with all speed. Then they travelled post-haste for five or six days, when they were honoured by paying their duty to the Emperor.

They advised the Khimār^{*(?) himār, the Ass's Pass.} Pass as the best route. On Ramẓān 9th, 951H. (the third week of October, 1545), his Majesty ordered a halt in that pass. News of this went to Mīrzā Kāmrān on the same day and disturbed him greatly. He had his tents taken out very quickly and encamped in front of the Guẕar-gāh.^{*(?) The Ferry Garden, or perhaps Bābar's burial-place.} (64b)

On the 11th of the same month, the Emperor ordered a halt in the valley of (?) Tīpa, and Mīrzā Kāmrān^{*Not in person, I believe. His troops were under Qāsim Barlās.} also came and drew up opposite to fight. Then all his amīrs deserted and were exalted by kissing the royal feet. Even Bāpūs^{*Governor (ātalīq) of Yasīn-daulat (Āq Sult̤ān), the betrothed husband of Ḥabība.} who was one of his well-known officers, deserted him with all his following and was exalted by kissing the royal feet. The mīrzā was left solitary and alone. ‘No one remains near me,’ he thought, so he threw down and destroyed the door and the wall of the house of Bāpūs^{*Mr. Erskine says that Kāmrān escaped by a breach opened in a wall. He went by way of Bīnī-ḥiṣār to Ghaznī, where 'Askarī still was.} which was near, and went softly, softly past the New Year's Garden and the tomb of Gul-rukh Begam,^{*(?) His mother.} dismissed his 12,000 troopers, and went off.

When it was dark, he went on in the same direction to Bābā Dashtī,^{*The Desert Father; perhaps a shrine in a lonely spot. (Cf. Khwāja Khiẓr, infra, 706.)} and halted near a piece of water, and sent back Dostī kūka and Jūkī kūka to fetch his eldest daughter Ḥabība, and his son Ibrāhīm Sult̤ān Mīrzā, and Hazāra Begam^{*A wife.} who was the brother's child of Khiẓr Khān Hazāra), and Māh Begam^{*Probably a wife.} who was sister of Ḥaram (Khurram) Begam, and Māh-afroz, mother of Ḥājī Begam,^{*Brevet rank at this time. She made one pilgrimage in 983H. (1576). She may, however, have gone earlier with her blinded father, but not so early as 1545.} and Bāqī kūka^{*(?) The elder brother of Adham and son of Māham anaga. Māham anaga would be in Kabul now.} (65a) This party went with the mīrzā, who planned to go to Tatta and Bhakkar. In Khiẓr Khān Hazāra's country, which lies on the way to Bhakkar, he married Ḥabība Begam to Āq Sult̤ān and entrusted her to him, while he himself went on.

The victorious Emperor dismounted in triumph in the Bālā-i-ḥisār when five hours of the night of Ramẓān 12th had passed,—prosperously and with safety and good luck.^{*The hour was probably fixed by astrological counsel. Abū'l-faẓl, who may follow the begam's statement, says that the entry took place on the 12th ; other writers name the 10th. The only reason "for dwelling on the point is the agreement of Abū'l-faẓl and Gul-badan.} All those followers of Mīrzā Kāmrān who had been promoted to the royal service, entered Kābul with drums beating (November, 1545).

On the 12th of the same month, her Highness my mother, Dil-dār Begam, and Gul-chihra Begam, and this lowly person paid our duty to the Emperor. For five years we had been shut out and cut off from this pleasure, so now when we were freed from the moil and pain of separation, we were lifted up by our happiness in meeting this Lord of beneficence again. Merely to look at him eased the sorrow-stricken heart and purged the blear-eyed vision. (65b) Again and again we joyfully made the prostration of thanks. There were many festive gatherings, and people sat from evening to dawn, and players and singers made continuous music. Many amusing games, full of fun, were played. Amongst them was this: Twelve players had each twenty cards and twenty shāhrukhīs. Whoever lost, lost those twenty shāhrukhīs, which would make five miṣqāls.^{*One shāhrukhī was about ten pence. Four shāhrukhīs made one miṣqāl.} Each player gave the winner his twenty shāhrukhīs to add to his own^{.*Mr. Erskine says that the earliest mention of cards as made known to him by an Oriental writer is when Bābar sends some to Shah Ḥusain Arghūn who was 'very fond' of them, by Mīr 'Alī, the armour-bearer, in 933H. (1526-27). No doubt such an easy means of speeding the hours was known to the ladies of Bābar's family as early as to anyone else, and Gul-badan is perhaps merely describing a new game.}

To widows and orphans, and kinsfolk of men who had been wounded and killed at Chausa and Kanauj, or Bhakkar, or who were in the royal service during those intermissions,^{*Text, fat̤rathā. The begam writes this word sometimes with a tā and sometimes with a t̤o'e.} he gave pension, and rations, and water, and land, and servants. In the days of his Majesty's good fortune, great tranquillity and happiness befell soldiers and peasants. They lived without care, and put up many an ardent prayer for his long life. (66a)

A few days later he sent persons to bring Ḥamīda-bānū Begam from Qandahār. When she arrived, they celebrated the feast of the circumcision of the Emperor Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar. Preparations were made, and after the New Year ^{*i.e., Persian era. Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Aḥmad places the date of entry into Kābul by Humāyūn on Ramz̤ān 10th, 953H., and says Akbar was then four years, two months and live days old. 'Some place the event in the year 952H , but God knows the truth.' It is strange that there should be doubt about a historical event occurring not more than fifty years before this resigned statement was made. Abū'l-faẓl gives Ramz̤ān 12th, 952H. (November 17th, 1545 . as the date of entry, which would fix the feast for March, 1546, when Akbar was three years and five months old. (Born October 15th. 1542.)} they kept splendid festivity for seventeen days. People dressed in green^{,*Probably in honour of the spring season.} and thirty or forty girls were ordered to wear green and come out to the hills. On the first day of the New Year they went out to the Hill of the Seven Brothers and there passed many days in ease and enjoyment and happiness. The Emperor Muḥammad Akbar was five years old when they made the circumcision feast in Kābul.^{*This is the garden where the ladies rejoiced after the victory at Pānīpat. (10b) Hence, perhaps, the use of the word ' same.'} They decorated all the bāzārs. Mīrzā Hindāl and Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir, and the Sult̤āns and amīrs, decorated their quarters beautifully, and in Bega Begam's garden the begams and ladies made theirs quite wonderful in a new fashion.

All the Sult̤āns and amīrs brought gifts to the Audience Hall Garden. (66b) There were many elegant festivities and grand entertainments, and costly khi'lats and head-to-foot^{*Perhaps there is expressed here a difference of degree of honour in the khi'lat and sar-u-pāī.} dresses were bestowed. Peasants and preachers, the pious, the poor and the needy, noble and plebeian, low and high,—everybody lived in peace and comfort, passing the days in amusement and the nights in talk.

Then the Emperor went to Fort Victory (Qila'-i-z̤afar).^{*Sulaimān had not made submission to Humāyūn, hence this expedition to Badakhshān.} In it was Mīrzā Sulaimān, who came out to fight but could not stand face to face with his Majesty and so decided to run away. The Emperor then entered the fort safe and sound. Then he went to Kishm, where, after a little while, an illness attacked his blessed frame and he slept day and night.^{*He is said to have been insensible for four days. He was nursed by Māh-chūchak and Bībī Fāt̤ima, an armed woman (ordu-begi) of the ḥaram. She was, it would seem, mother of Zuhra āghā, the wife of Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am, and to save whose life Akbar nearly lost his own. (Elliot, V. 292; B. & H., II. 330 et seq..)} When he came to his senses, he sent Mun'im Khān's brother, Faẓā'il Beg, to Kābul, and said: ‘Go! comfort and reassure the people of Kābul. Set them at ease in various ways.^{*(?) As to his health, and their own safety from Kāmrān' s return, and the continuance of the situation as he had left it. The illness and convalescence lasted at least two months. He fell ill in Shāhdān, between Khishm and Qila'-i-z̤afar, and Qarācha Khān, his vazīr, behaved with decision and good sense, so that Humāyūn's authority was upheld.} Let them not quarrel. Say: “It began ill, but has ended well.”’ (67a)

When Faẓā'il Beg had gone, he (Humāyūn) went one day nearer Kābul.^{*Doubtful translation. Humāyūn is elsewhere said to have gone to Qila'-i-z̤afar to recruit, and Faẓā'il to have arrived in Kābul a few hours after the first news there of the illness. Perhaps one of these occurrences is behind this obscure statement.}

False news having been sent to Mīrzā Kāmrān in Bhakkar, he set out post-haste for Kābul. In Ghaznī he killed Zāhid Beg^{*Husband of Bega Begam's sister.} and then came on. It was morning; the Kābulīs were off their guard; the gates had been opened in the old way, and water-carriers and grass-cuts were going in and out, and the mīrzā passed into the fort with all these common people. He at once killed Uncle Muḥammad Alī^{*Brother of Māham Begain.} who was in the hot bath. He alighted at the college of Mullā 'Abdu-l-khāliq.

When the Emperor was starting for Qila'-i-z̤afar, he placed Naukār^{*Probably the servant sent with gifts by Bābar from Āgra to Kābul. The name looks like that of an Abyssinian. Is it 'new in work,' and a sobriquet given in youth and retained?} at the door of the ḥaram. Mīrzā Kāmrān must have asked: ‘Who is in the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār?’ and some­one must have said: ‘It is Naukār.’ Naukār heard of this and at once put on a woman's dress and went out. The mīrzā's people laid hands on the doorkeeper of the fort, and took him to Mīrzā Kāmrān, who ordered him to be imprisoned. (67b) The mīrzā's people went into the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār, and plundered and destroyed innumerable things belonging to the ḥaram, and they made settlement^{*zabt̤ wa rabt̤. Is this an indication of Gul-badan's opinion that Kāmrān profited by the robbery of his relations? His cruelties at this time make theft look innocent. (B. & H., II. 33b et seq..)} for them in Mīrzā Kāmrān's court (sarkār). He put the great begams into Mīrzā 'Askarī's house and there he shut up a room with bricks and plaster and (?) dung-cakes, and they used to give the ladies water and food from over the four walls.^{*The translation of this passage is doubtful.}

In what was once Mīrzā Yādgār-nāṣir's house he put Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am^{*An undue honour, perhaps prompted by the khwāja's disgrace with Humāyūn.} and ordered his own wives and family to stay in the palace where the royal ḥaram and the begams once lived. He behaved very ill indeed to the wives and families of the officers who had left him for the Emperor, ransacking and plundering all their houses and putting each family into somebody's custody.^{*Probably for the exploitation so often named in the histories.}

When the Emperor heard that Mīrzā Kāmrān had come from Bhakkar and was acting in this way, he returned from Qila'-i-z̤afar and Andar-āb safe and sound to Kābul. Qila'-i-z̤afar he gave to Mīrzā Sulaimān. (68a)

When he came near to Kābul, Mīrzā Kāmrān sent for her Highness my mother and for me from the house,^{*Presumably the brick and mud quarters of the ladies.} and gave my mother orders to reside in the armourer's house. To me he said: ‘This is your house as well as mine. You stay here.’ ‘Why,’ I asked, ‘should I stay here? I will stay with my mother.’ He then went on: ‘Moreover, write to Khiẓr Khwāja Khān and tell him to come and join me and to keep an easy mind, for just as Mīrzā 'Askarī and Mīrzā Hindāl are my brothers, so is he. Now is the time to help.’ I answered: ‘Khiẓr Khwāja Khān has no way of recognising a letter^{*Suād na dārad ki khat̤-i-marā shinasad. I understand that he had not seen her handwriting, and would not know whether a letter purporting to be hers was a forgery. Gul-badan names one son only, Sa'ādat-yār, as being her own. She is now about twenty-five} from me. I have never written to him myself. He writes to me when he is away, by the tongue of his sons. Write yourself what is in your mind.’ At last he sent Mahdī Sult̤ān^{*Brother of Khiẓr and of Yasīn-daulat (Āq Sult̤ān).} and Shīr 'Alī to fetch the khān. From the first I had said to the khān: ‘Your brothers may be with Mīrzā Kāmrān, (but) God forbid that you should have the thought of going to him and joining them. (68b) Beware, a thousand times beware of thinking of separating yourself from the Emperor.’ Praise be to God! the khān kept to what I said.

When the Emperor heard that Mīrzā Kāmrān had sent Mahdī Sult̤ān^{*Brother of Khiẓr and of Yasīn-daulat (Āq Sult̤ān).} and Shīr 'Alī to fetch Khiẓr Khwāja Khān, he himself despatched Qambar Beg, the son of Mīrzā Ḥājī, to the khān, who was then in his own jāgīr, and said: ‘Beware, a thousand times beware! Let there be no joining Mīrzā Kāmrān. Come and wait on me.’ The result of this auspicious message was that the khān set out at once for court, and came to the 'Uqābain (Hill of the two eagles) and paid his respects.

When the Emperor passed Minār Hill, Mīrzā Kāmrān sent forward all his well-ordered soldiers under Shīr Afkan,^{*Son of Quch Beg, an amīr who lost his life in trying to protect Bega Begam at Chausa.} the father of Shīroya, so that they might go out and fight. We saw from above^{*From the citadel where the ladies were.} how he went out with his drums beating, out beyond Bābā Dashtī, and we said, ‘God forbid you should fight,’ and we wept. (69a) When he reached the Afghāns' village (Dih-i-Afghānān), the two vanguards came face to face. The royal advance-guard at once drove off the mīrzā's^{*The begam underrates Humāyūn's victory. The struggle was fierce, renewed and stubborn.} and, having taken many prisoners, brought them to the Emperor. He ordered the Mughals to be cut to pieces.^{*Doubtful translation.} Many of the mīrzā's men who had gone out to fight were captured and some of them were killed and some were kept prisoners. Amongst them was Jūkī Khān, one of Mīrzā Kāmrān's amīrs.

In triumph and glory and to the sound of music, the Emperor entered the 'Uqābain, with Mīrzā Hindāl in attend­ance and a splendid cavalcade. He set up for himself tents and pavilions and an audience hall.^{*I think she merely wishes to say that Humāyūn camped out on the 'Uqābain, and did not take up quarters under a roof.} He gave Mīrzā Hindāl charge of the Mastān bridge,^{*Under it flows the stream which issues from the defile of Dih-i-ya'qūb. Cf. Āin, Jarrett, I. 404.} and stationed the amīrs one after another. For seven months he kept up the blockade.^{*Of the Bālā-i-ḥiṣar, the actual citadel.} (69b)

It happened one day that Mīrzā Kāmrān went from his own quarters to the roof (? of the citadel), and that some­one fired a gun from the 'Uqābain. He ran and took him­self off. Then he gave this order about the Emperor Akbar: ‘Bring him and put him in front.’^{*Gul-badan's narrative does not support the story that Māham anaga exposed herself to save Akbar. This person, who later on became so important, is nowhere named by the begam as in charge of Akbar. Her husband, Nadīm kūka, is so named.} Someone let his august Majesty (Humāyūn) know that Mīrzā Muḥam-mad Akbar was being kept on the front, so he forbade the guns to be fired and after that none were aimed at the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār. Mīrzā Kāmrān's men used to fire from the town upon the Emperor on the 'Uqābain. The royal soldiers put Mīrzā 'Askarī to stand right in front and made fun of him.

Mīrzā Kāmrān's men also used to make sallies from the fort, and on both sides many were killed. The royal troops were often the victors and then the others had not courage to come out. For the sake of his wives and children and the begams and the household, etc., the Emperor did not have the cannon fired nor did he place the large houses in difficulty. (70a)

When the long siege was ended, they (i.e., the ladies) sent Khwāja Dost Khāwand madārchī^{*Follower of the Musalmān saint Madār.} to his Majesty to say: ‘For God's sake, do whatever Mīrzā Kāmrān asks, and save the servants of God from molestation.’^{*This message seems one from the imprisoned ladies. The khwāja to whom it was entrusted may now, as in the earlier siege of Kābul, have been Kāmrān's envoy to Humāyūn.}

The Emperor sent for their use from outside nine sheep, seven flasks of rose-water, one of lemonade, and seven sets of nine dress-lengths^{*pārcha and nīmcha dokhta. There seems between these words an apposition which I render by the Englishwoman's colloquial terms.} and some made-up jackets.^{*pārcha and nīmcha dokhta. There seems between these words an apposition which I render by the Englishwoman's colloquial terms.} He wrote:^{*Presumably to some kinsman or official to whom the gifts were consigned.} ‘For their sakes, I could not use force against the citadel, lest I should give an advantage to their enemies.’^{*i.e., by injuring the royal household.}

During the siege Jahān Sult̤ān Begam who was two years old, died. His Majesty wrote: ‘Some time or other, if we had used force against the citadel, Mīrzā Muḥammad Akbar would have disappeared.’

To finish the story: There were always people in the Bālā-i-ḥiṣār from evening prayer till dawn, and there was a continuous uproar. The night Mīrzā Kāmrān went away,^{*April 27th, 1547 (Rabī' I. 7th, 954H.).} prayer-time passed and indeed bedtime came, and there was no noise at all. (70b)

There was a steep stair by which people came up from below. When all the city was asleep, there suddenly sounded (on the stair) a clashing and clinking of armour, so that we said to one another: ‘What a noise!’ Perhaps a thousand people were standing in front (of the fort). We were afraid, but all at once, without warning, off they went. Qarācha Khān's son Bahādur brought us word that the mīrzā had fled.^{*Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Aḥmad says that Kāmrān escaped by a hole fashioned for the purpose in the wall 'on Khiẓr Khwāja's' side. This suggests that Gul-badan's husband connived at the evasion, unless one remembers that Khiẓr Khwāja is a place outside Kābul.}

Having thrown a rope, they (or he) brought up Khwāja Mu'az̤z̤am by way of the wall.^{*I do not understand this sentence. Either the followers of Kāmrān drew the khwāja up into the fort-precincts to take him with them, he having displeased Humāyūn and being nearly connected with him, or the ladies had him drawn up. He was, it seems, not a prisoner. (67b)}

Our people and the begam's people and the rest who were outside, took away the door which had kept us fastened in. Bega Begam urged: ‘Let us go to our own houses.’ I said: ‘Have a little patience. We should have to go by the lane and perhaps too someone will come from the Emperor.’ At that moment 'Ambar Nāz̤ir came and said: ‘This is the royal order: “They are not to leave that place till I come.”’ In a little while the Emperor came and embraced Dil-dār Begam and me, and then Bega Begam and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, and said: ‘Come quickly out of this place. (71a) God preserve His friends from such a house, and let such be the portion of His foes.’ He said to Nāz̤ir: ‘Guard one side,’ and to Tardī Beg Khān: ‘Guard the other, and let the begams pass out.’ All came out, and we spent the evening of that day with the Emperor in perfect content till night became morning. We embraced Māh-chūchak Begam and Khānīsh āghā and those of the ḥaram who had been with the Emperor on the campaign.

In Badakhshān Māh-chūchak had a daughter born. On the same night the Emperor had this dream: ‘Fakhru-n-nisā', my māmā,^{*Fakhru-n-nisā', the mother of Nadim kūka, would seem from this to have been Humāyūn's own attendant in childhood.} and Daulat-bakht came in by the door, and brought something or other, and then left me alone.’ Consider it as he might, he could only ask: ‘What does this dream mean?’ Then it occurred to him that, as a daughter had just been born, he would call her after the two, and taking nisā' from one, and bakht from the other, would run them together into Bakht-nisā'.

Māh-chūchak had four daughters^{*Gul-badan does not name Fakhru-n-nisā' who became the wife of Shāh 'Abā'l-ma'āli and of Khwāja Ḥasan Naqshbandī. Perhaps she is Bakht-nisa'.} and two sons,—Bakht-nisā' Begam, and Sakīna-bānū Begam, and Amīna-bānū Begam, and Muḥammad Hakīm Mīrzā, and Farrukh-fāl Mīrzā. (71b) She was with child when the Emperor went to Hindūstān (1554), and bore a son, in Kābul, whom they named Farrukh-fāl Mīrzā. A little later Khānish āghā had a son whom they named Ibrāhīm Sult̤ān Mīrzā.

The Emperor spent a full year and a half in Kābul, prosperously and happily, and in comfort and sociability.^{*From 1547; but a term of one and a half years does not quite fit the facts. Humāyūn started for the north on June 12th, 1548. (B & H., II. 352.)}

After taking flight from Kābul, Mīrzā Kāmrān went to Badakhshān, and there stayed in Tāliqān. One day the Emperor was in the Inner Garden,^{*ōrta-bāgh.} and when he rose at dawn for prayers, news came that many of the amīrs who formerly were with the mīrzā, had gone to him again. Amongst them were Qarācha Khān and Muṣāḥib Khān, and Mubāriz Khān and Bāpūs.^{*Perhaps it may be taken as an indication of the degradation of 'home life' that Qarācha and Bāpūs again joined Kāmrān, although the latter had exposed Qarācha's son and a wife of Bāpūs on the battlements, with the utmost dishonour, and had killed three of the latter's children and flung their bodies from the ramparts.} Many wretches fled by night and went to join the mīrzā in Badakhshān.

In a propitious hour the Emperor also started for Badakhshān. He besieged the mīrzā in Tāliqān, and after a time made him agree to submit and become obedient (72a) when he waited on the Emperor, who bestowed Kulāb on him, and gave Qila'-i-z̤afar to Mīrzā Sulaimān, Qandahār (sic; (?) Kunduz) to Mīrzā Hindāl, and Tāliqān to Mīrzā 'Askarī.

One day at Kishm^{*Abū'l-faẓl says the meeting was at Ishkāmish, and this seems to agree with the movements of Humāyūn better than Kishm.} they had set up^{*khirgaā dokhta budand. Certain tents are termed dokhta, sewed. They seem to have been large, and were laced together, whence, perhaps, dokhta. For an interesting account of this historic family gathering see B. & H., II. 358 et seq..} the tents and there was an assembly of the brothers, his Majesty the Emperor Humāyūn, and Mīrzā Kāmrān, and Mīrzā 'Askārī, and Mīrzā Hindāl, and Mīrzā Sulaimān.^{*'Brother' by courtesy and custom; anglice, 'cousin.'}

His Majesty enjoined certain regulations^{*Tūrā, the Institutes of Chingiz Khān of which the begam makes other mention.} which are fixed for interviews with kings, and said: ‘Bring ewer and basin so that we may wash our hands and eat together.’ He washed his hands and Mīrzā Kāmrān washed his. By years Mīrzā Sulaimān (b. 920H.) had precedence of Mīrzā 'Askarī (b. 922H.) and Mīrzā Hindāl (b. 925H.). So, to show him respect, the two brothers set the ewer and basin first before him.

After washing his hands Mīrzā Sulaimān did something improper with his nose. Mīrzā 'Askarī and Mīrzā Hindāl were much put out, and said: ‘What rusticity is this? (72b) First of all, what right have we to wash our hands in his Majesty's presence? but when he bestows the favour and gives the order, we cannot change it. What sense is there in these nose-wagging performances?’ Then the two mīrzās went and washed their hands outside and came back and sat down. Mīrzā Sulaimān was very much ashamed. They all ate at one tablecloth.

At this gathering his Majesty graciously remembered this lowly person, and said to his brothers: ‘Gul-badan Begam used to say in Lāhōr: “I wish I could see all my brothers together!” As we have been seated together since early morning, her words have occurred to my mind. If it be the will of the most high God, may our assembly be kept in His own place! He knows without shadow that it lies not in my heart's depths to seek any Musalmān's ill; how then, should I seek the hurt of my brothers? May God grant to you all the same divine and beneficent guidance, so that our agreement and concord may endure!’ (73a)

There was wonderful cheerfulness and happiness because many officers and their followers met their relations again, for they too had been sundered because of their masters' quarrels. Nay! one might rather say they had thirsted for one another's blood. Now they passed their time in complete happiness.

On his return from Badakhshān the Emperor spent a year and a half in Kābul and then resolved to go to Balkh. He took up his quarters in the Heart-expanding Garden,^{*i.e., moved out of the city as a preliminary to marching.} and his own residence was over against the lower part of the garden, and the begams were in Qulī Beg's house because it was close by.

The begams said to the Emperor over and over again: ‘Oh, how the rīwāj^{*The following account of this plant is taken from Conolly's Travels, I., 213 n. . It is translated by him from the Makāzinu-l-adwiya (Treasury of Medicines). 'Rībās, rīvās, rīwāj or jigarī (so named from a person of Nishāpūur who first discovered it) is a shrub two or three feet high, in appearance like beet (salq). In the middle are one or two short stems of little thickness; the leaves, which separate lengthwise like those of a lettuce, are downy and green, but towards the root, of a violet or whitish colour. The heart is white, delicate, juicy, acidulous and slightly astringent. Altogether the stalk is the size of a man's arm and when the plant is large every leaf has the size of a man's hand. Ārd-shīr was named Rāwand-dast (rhubarb-hand) from the length of his hands. The root is called rāwand (rhubarb). The top is like the claw of a fowl. The flower is red, and the taste is subacid with a little sweetness. The seed is formed at the top of a long slender stalk which springs up annually in the centre of the plant. It grows where snow lies and in mountainous countries. The best grows in Persia. It is medicinally attenuating and astringent, gives tone to the stomach, and improves the appetite. A collyrium of the juice strengthens the eye and prevents opacity, and a poultice of it with barley-meal is a useful application to sores and boils. The juice of the rīvās is harsher than that of unripe grapes.' For mention of the name rīwāj see T̤abaqāt-i-akbarī,, Lucknow lith. ed., 215 ; Tūzūk-i-jahāngīrī, 47. Vullers, s.v., etc. . Mr. Erskine writes (Mems., 138 n..): 'It is described as somewhat like beetroot, but much larger, red and white in colour, with large leaves that rise little from the ground. It is a pleasant mixture of sweet and acid. It may be the rhubarb, rāwand.'} will be coming up!’ He replied: ‘When I join the army, I shall travel by the Koh-dāman, so that you may come out and see the rīwāj growing.’ It was at afternoon prayer-time that he rode out^{*Presumably from Kābul, and on the day of starting for Balkh viâ the Koh-dāman.} (of Kābul) to the garden. Qulī Beg's house where the begams were, was close by and overlooked it, and his Majesty pulled up as he passed, and all the begams saw him, and rose and made the kōrnish. (73b) Directly they had made this salutation, he beckoned with his own blessed hand, to say: ‘Come.’^{*The ladies seem to have been waiting for this signal to start.}

Fakhru-n-nisā' māmā and Afghānī āghācha went on a little ahead. There was a stream in the lower part of the garden which Afghānī āghācha could not cross, and she fell off her horse. For this reason there was an hour's delay.^{*Probably to allow for the coming of a less unpropitious hour. This expedition to Balkh ended in a way calculated to attract notice to ill-omens such as the begam's misadventures would seem.} At last we set out with his Majesty. Māh-chūchak Begam not knowing, her horse went up a little.^{*andak buland raft. Perhaps the horse reared, the begam not knowing how to manage it; but the later and otherwise irrelevant sentence about the unfinished wall suggests that the begam went too high up the hill. The party is now on its way to see the rīwāj growing, and Humāyūn's temper is tried by the various contretemps of the ladies' cavalcade.} His Majesty was very much annoyed about this. The garden was on a height and the walls were not yet made. Some vexation now showed itself in his blessed countenance and he was pleased to say: ‘All of you go on, and I will follow when I have taken some opium and got over my annoyance.’ He joined us when we had, as he ordered, gone on a little. The look of vexation was entirely laid aside and he came with a happy and beautiful look in his face.

It was a moonlight night. (83a) We talked and told stories,^{*A folio of the MS. is, I believe, misplaced, and folio 83 should come in here. In the MS. volume this is the last folio.} and Mīr (fault) and Khānish āghācha and Z̤arīf the reciter and Sarū-sahī and Shāham āghā sang softly, softly.

Up to the time of our reaching Laghmān, neither the royal tents nor the pavilions of the begams had arrived, but the mihr-amez^{*Perhaps a tent of Humāyūn's invention, in the name of which mihr means sun. Cf. 'another of his (Humāyūn's) inventions was a tent which had twelve divisions, corresponding to the signs of the Zodiac. Every sign had a lattice through which the lights of the stars of dominion shone.' (Akbar-nāma, H. Beveridge I. 361.)} tent had come. We all, his Majesty and all of us, and Ḥamīda-bānū Begam sat in that tent till three hours past midnight and then we went to sleep where we were, in company with that altar of truth (Humāyūn).

Early next morning he wished to go and see the rīwāj on the Kōh. The begams' horses were in the village, so the starting-time passed before they came up. The Emperor ordered that the horses of everyone who was outside should be brought. When they came he gave the order: ‘Mount.’

Bega Begam and Māh-chūchak Begam were still putting on their head-to-foot dresses, and I said to the Emperor: ‘If you think well, I will go and fetch them.’ ‘Go,’ he answered, ‘and bring them quickly.’ I said to the begams and to Māh-chūchak Begam and the rest of the ladies: ‘I have become the slave of his Majesty's wishes. What trouble waiting gives!’ I was gathering them all together and bringing them when he came to meet me and said: ‘Gul-badan! the proper hour for starting has gone by. (83b) It would be hot the whole way. God willing, we will go after offering the afternoon prayer.’ He seated himself in a tent with Ḥamīda-bānū Begam.^{*Perhaps, a tent of Hamīda having come, he seated himself in it.} After afternoon prayers, there was the interval between two prayers before the horses arrived. In this interval he went away.^{*(?) the start was made to see the rīwāj.}

Everywhere in the Dāman-i-kōh the rīwāj had put up its leaves. We went to the skirts of the hills and when it was evening, we walked about. Tents and pavilions were pitched on the spot and there his Majesty came and stayed. Here too we passed the nights together in sociable talk, and were all in company of that altar of truth.

In the morning at prayer-time, he went away to a distance (bīrūn), and from there wrote separate letters to Bega Begam and to Ḥamīda-bānū Begam and to Māh-chūchak Begam and to me and to all the begams,^{*Humāyūn's comprehensive displeasure looks like a fit of temper directed against every and any one. It is possible, however, that a page which might describe other untoward matters besides unpunctuality, has been altogether lost. The sentence which now continues the story, places all the ladies, deprived of their evening of talk and amusement, in chastened solitude.} saying: ‘Becoming spokeswoman of your own fault, write apolo­gizing for the trouble you have given. God willing, I shall say farewell and go to join the army either at Farẓa or Istālīf, and if not we shall travel apart.’ (74a)

Then everyone wrote to apologize for having given trouble, and sent the letter for his holy and elevating service.

In the end his Majesty and all the begams mounted and rode by Lamghān to Bihzādī. At night each one went to her own quarters, and in the morning they ate (? alone), and at mid-day prayer-time rode to Farẓa.

Ḥamīda-bānū Begam sent nine sheep to the quarters of each one of us. Bībī Daulat-bakht had come one day earlier to Farẓa and had got ready plenty of provisions and milk and curds and syrup and sherbet and so on. We spent that evening in amusement. In the early morning (we went) above Farẓa to where there is a beautiful water­fall. Then his Majesty went to Istālīf and passed three days, and then in 958H.^{*B. & H., II. 368, has 956H. (1549), and other differences of detail.} marched towards Balkh.

When he crossed the pass, he sent farmāns to summon Mīrzā Kāmrān and Mīrzā Sulaimān and Mīrzā 'Askarī, and said: ‘We are on the march to fight the Uzbegs; now is the time for union and brotherliness. You ought to come as quickly as possible.’ Mīrzā Sulaimān and Mīrzā 'Askarī came and joined him. (74b) Then march by march they came to Balkh.

In Balkh was Pīr Muḥammad Khān,^{*Son of Jānī Beg, and uncle of the famous 'Abdu-l-lāh Khan Uzbeg. He ruled till 974H. (1566-67).} and on the first day his men sallied out and drew up in battle array. The royal army carried off the victory, and Pīr Muḥammad's men tasted defeat and returned to the city. By the next morning the khān had come to think: ‘The Chaghatāī are strong; I cannot fight them. It would be better to get out and away.’ Just then the royal officers joined in repre­senting that the camp had become filthy, and that it would be well to move to a desert place (dasht). His Majesty ordered them to do so.

No sooner were hands laid on the baggage and pack­saddles, than others raised a clamour and some cried out: ‘We are not strong enough.’ Since such was the Divine will, the royal army took the road without cause from a foe, without reason or motive.^{*From other sources we learn that the royalists were anxious on two grounds; (1) as to the threatened arrival of an overwhelming Uzbeg force from Bukhārā, and (2) lest Kāmrān should again take Kābul and have their families at his mercy. The last was perhaps the dominant motive for the flight without a pursuer.} The news of their march reached the Uzbegs and amazed them. Try as the royal officers would, they produced not a scrap of effect. It could not be hindered: the royal army ran away. (75a)

The Emperor waited a little, and when he saw that no one was left, he too had to go. Mīrzā 'Āskarī and Mīrzā Hindāl, not having heard of the confusion, rode up to the camp. They found no one and saw that the Uzbegs had gone in pursuit, so they too took the road and made for Kunduz. After riding a little way, his Majesty stopped and said: ‘My brothers are not here yet: how can I go on?’ He asked the officers and attendants whether anyone would bring him news of the princes. No one answered or went. Later on word came from the Mīrzā's people in Kunduz that they had heard of the disaster and did not know where the princes had gone. This letter upset the Emperor very much. Khiẓr Khwāja Khān said: ‘If you approve, I will bring news.’ ‘God's mercy on you!’ re­joined his Majesty. ‘May they have gone to Kunduz!’ (75b)

Two days afterwards the khwāja, to the Emperor's great delight, brought word that Mīrzā Hindāl had arrived at Kunduz safe and sound. His Majesty gave Mīrzā Sulaimān leave to go to his own place, Qila'-i-z̤afar, and came himself to Kābul (1550, 957H.).

While Mīrzā Kāmrān was in Kūlāb, a woman named Tarkhān^{*This title indicates rank. A 'Tarkhān Begam' was wife of Sult̤ān Aḥmad Mīrzā. (Merns., 22..)} Bega, who was a thorough cheat, showed him the way by saying: ‘Make a declaration of love to Ḥaram Begam.^{*or Khurram. One of her sisters was a wife of Kāmrān.} Good will come of it.’ Acting on these words of an ill-judging adviser, he actually sent a letter and a kerchief^{*What fascination may lurk in an embroidered kerchief can be guessed by inspecting the dainty examples in the South Kensington Oriental Section.} to Ḥaram Begam by the hand of Begī āghā. This woman laid the letter and the kerchief before the begam and then set forth the mīrzā's devotion and passion. Ḥaram Begam said: ‘Keep that letter and that kerchief now and bring them again when the mīrzās come home.’ Begī āghā then wept, and moaned, and coaxed, and said: ‘Mīrzā Kāmrān has sent you this letter and this kerchief; he has loved you a long time, and you have no pity for him.’ (76a) Ḥaram Begam began to show her disgust and violent anger, and at once sent off for her husband, Mīrzā Sulaimān, and her son, Mīrzā Ibrāhīm. She said to them: ‘Mīrzā Kāmrān must have come to think you are cowards, since he sends me a letter like this. Have I deserved to be written to in this way? He is as your elder brother, and I am to him as a younger brother's wife.^{*kīlīn. Both here and at 77b this word seems to have wider meaning than is given by the Turkī and Persian dictionaries.} Send off a letter for me about it and rebuke him. As for this wretch of a woman, tear her piece by piece. Let her be a warning to others that no man may cast the evil eye of sinful thought upon another man's womanfolk. What does such a man deserve who, the son of a mother, yet does such monstrous things, and who fears neither me^{*The begam's martial character spices this story, since her husband did not dare even to make war without her consent. Perhaps Kāmrān' s devotion extended to the armed force she disposed of. It was clearly in Tarkhān Bega's eye.} nor my son?’

Instantly hands were laid on Begī āghā Bībī, condemned of fate to die, and she was torn in pieces. In consequence of this affair, Mīrzā Sulaimān and Mīrzā Ibrāhīm were displeased with Mīrzā Kāmrān, or rather they became his enemies. (76b) They wrote to the Emperor that Mīrzā Kāmrān wished to thwart him and that this could not be better seen than in his failure to go to Balkh with him.

After this the mīrzā, in Kūlāb,^{*In Kūlāb were the kinsfolk of his wife, Māh Begam, sister of Haram Begam, daughter of Sult̤ān Wais Qibchāq, and sister of Chakr 'Alī Khān.} could not find, in his terror-stricken thoughts, any better remedy than to become a darvish. He sent his son, Abū'l-qāsim (Ibrāhīm) to Mīrzā 'Askarī, and betook himself to Tāliqān with his daughter 'Āyisha (Sult̤ān Begam), and said to his wife (Muḥtarīma Khānam): ‘Do you and your daughter follow me later. I will send for you to whatever place I settle on. Till then go and stay in Khost and Andar-āb.’ The khānam was related to the Uzbeg khāns, and some of her kinsfolk let the Uzbegs^{*i.e., across whose country she had to travel.} know: ‘If you want booty, there are goods and men and women servants; take these, and let the lady go free, for if 'Āyisha Sult̤ān Khānam's^{*(?) Mughal Khānam.} nephew hears to-morrow (that she has been hurt), he will certainly be very angry with you.’ By a hundred plans and wiles, and with a hundred anxieties, and without her goods, she got free from the Uzbeg bondage, and reached Khost and Andar-āb. Here she stayed.

When Mīrzā Kāmrān heard of the royal disaster in Balkh, he said: ‘The Emperor is not so friendly to me as he was.’ (77a) So he left Kūlāb, and went hither and thither.

At this time (1550) his Majesty came out from Kābul. When he reached the Qibchāq defile, he incautiously halted in a low-lying place, and Mīrzā Kāmrān, coming from higher ground, armed and equipped, poured down foes upon him. Since such was the Divine will, a barbarian,—inwardly blind, an ill-fated oppressor and ill-omened tyrant,—inflicted a wound on the Emperor. The blow reached his bleassed head, and all his forehead and his dear eyes were stained with blood.

It was just like it was in the Mughal war when the blessed head of his Majesty Firdaus-makānī, the Emperor Bābar, was wounded by a Mughal, and his high cap and the turban wrapped round it were not cut, but his blessed head was badly hurt. His Majesty Humāyūn used to say with surprise: ‘I wondered at it, for cap and cloth were whole, and yet the head was cut.’^{*'Tambol let fall a heavy sword-blow on my head. It is a singular fact that, though not a thread of my cap of mail was injured, yet my head was severely wounded.' (Mems., 266. Also 111.)} The very same thing happened now to his own head.

After the rout in the Qibchāq defile, his Majesty went to Badakhshān, and Mīrzā Hindal, and Mīrzā Sulaimān, and Mīrzā Ibrāhīm came and waited on him. (77b) He went^{*Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Aḥmad, 'after forty days.'} to Kābul and the mīrzās were in attendance, friendly and united and at peace together, when Mīrzā Kāmrān approached. His Majesty sent a message to Ḥaram Begam: ‘Ask my kīlīn^{*Cf. 77a n.. This story bears out Ḥaram's military reputation. Kāmraān's power of attraction and Humāyūn's present risk can be gauged by the fact that even after the defeat at Chārīkārān some 1,500 horse were with the former, and many amīrs again went over to him. It was now that the remarkable compact which effected Kāmrān's downfall was made between Humāyūn and his amīrs. (B. & H., II. 338.) These swore fidelity by whatever oath would bind them and then, at the instance of Ḥajī Muḥammad Khān kūka, Humāyūn bound himself to, do as he was told. The compact was effective. The amīrs were the long-suffering victims of Humāyūn's folly and their present turning was, he admitted, justifiable.} to send me the army of Badakhshān as quickly as possible and ready for service.’ In a few days, —a very short time,—the begam had given horses and arms to some thousands of men. She herself superintended and took thought and she came with the troops as far as the pass. From here she sent them forward, and while she went back they went on and joined the Emperor.

Either at Chārkārān or Qarā-bāgh there was fighting with Mīrzā Kāmrān and his Majesty's army was successful. The mīrzā fled to the mountain passes (tangayhā) and Lamghānāt.^{*Niz̤āmu-d-dīn Aḥmad, 'mountains of Mandrūd.' B. &H.;, II. 393, 'by the Pass of Bādpaj towards the Afghān country.'}

Āq Sult̤ān (Yasīn-daulat) who was the mīrzā's son-in­ law, said in effect to him (gufta bāshad): ‘You are con­tinually thwarting the Emperor. What is the meaning of it? It is not what should be. (78a) Either make your submission and obeisance to the Emperor or give me leave to go, so that men may distinguish between us.’ Mīrzā Kāmrān said fiercely: ‘Have my affairs come to such a pass that you offer me advice?’ Āq Sult̤ān also spoke angrily, ‘If I stay with you, my position will be unlawful,’ and left him at once, and went with his wife Ḥabība) to Bhakkar. The mīrzā wrote to Mīrzā Shāh Ḥusain, and said: ‘Āq Sult̤ān has displeased me and has gone away. If he comes to Bhakkar, do not let his wife be with him. Part them and tell him to go where he likes.’ Shāh Ḥusain Mīrzā at once, on receiving the letter, deprived Ḥabība Sult̤ān Begam of the company of Āq Sult̤ān and let him depart for the blessed Makka.^{*Kāmrān was the son-in-law of Mīr Shāh Ḥusain Arghūn, and was therefore able to secure this interference with Āq Sult̤ān's domestic affairs.}

In the fight at Chārīkārān, Qarācha Khān^{*Cf. Elliot, V. 233.} and many of Mīrzā Kāmrān's well-known officers were killed.

'        Āyisha Sult̤ān Begam^{*Kāmrān's daughter.} and Daulat-bakht āghācha were in flight for Qandahār, and were captured at the Khimār Pass, and brought in by the Emperor's people. Mīrzā Kāmrān went to the Afghāns,^{*i.e., Lamghān.} and stayed amongst them. (78b)

From time to time his Majesty used to visit the orange-gardens. That year also, according to his old habit, he went to the mountain passes (tangayhā) to see the oranges. Mīrzā Hindāl was in attendance, and of the ladies (ḥaramān), there went Bega Begam, Ḥamīda-bānū Begam, Māh-chūchak Begam and many others. I could not go because my son, Sa'ādat-yār, was ill at the time. One day his Majesty, attended by Mīrzā Hindāl, was hunting near the mountain passes. They had very good sport. The Emperor went towards where the mīrzā was hunting and had made a very good bag. Following the rules of Chingīz Khān, the mīrzā proffered his game to the Emperor, for it is a rule of Chingīz Khān that inferiors should so act towards their superiors. In short, he gave the Emperor all his game. Then it occurred to him: ‘There is still my sisters' portion. (79a) They shall not complain again. I will hunt once more and get them a share.’ Again he busied himself in hunting, and had taken one head of game, and was returning, when someone sent by Mīrzā Kāmrān blocked the road, and shot an arrow at the unwitting mīrzā which struck his blessed shoulder. Acting on the thought ‘God forbid my sisters and womenfolk should be upset by news of this,’ he wrote off at once to say: ‘Ill begun has ended well!^{*Repetition of a proverb already quoted.} Do not be anxious, for I am getting better.’ To finish the story: as it was hot, his Majesty went back to Kābul, and in the course of a year the arrow-wound got better.

A year later word was brought that Mīrzā Kāmrān had collected troops and was preparing for war. His Majesty also, taking military appurtenances, set out for the mountain passes (tangayhā) with Mīrzā Hindāl. He went safe and well, and made his honouring halt in the passes. Hour by hour, and all the time, spies kept bringing news: ‘Mīrzā Kāmrān has decided that an attack must be made to-night.’ (79b) Mīrzā Hindāl went to the Emperor and submitted his advice: ‘Let your Majesty stay on this high ground, and let my brother (nephew) Jalālu-d-dīn Muḥammad Akbar pādshāh stay with you, so that careful watch may be kept on this height.’ Then he called up his own men, and encouraged and cheered them one by one, and said: ‘Put earlier services in one scale and the service of this night in the other. God willing! whatever claim you can make, you shall be exalted to its degree.’^{*Perhaps the notion of this sentence is, 'To-night's service will equal or outweigh previous services, and the lower tonight's scale is forced, the greater will be my largesse.'} One by one he allotted their posts, and then called for his own cuirass and surtout, and high cap and helmet.

His wardrobe-keeper had lifted up the wallet when someone sneezed,^{*It is hardly necessary to say that sneezing is by many nations regarded as an omen of other things than catarrh.} and he set it down for a while. Because of this delay, the mīrzā sent to hurry him. Then the things were brought quickly, and he asked: ‘Why were you so long?’ The man replied: ‘I had lifted the wallet when someone sneezed, and I therefore put it down. So there was a delay.’ (80a)

The mīrzā replied: ‘You were wrong. (You should have) said rather: “May there be a blessed martyrdom.”’ Then he went on: ‘Friends all! be my witness that I abjure all forbidden things and all indecorous acts.’ Those present recited the fātḥiha and prayed: ‘May there be benediction.’ He said: ‘Bring my vest and cuirass and surtout.’ He put them on and went out to the trenches to encourage and solace his men. Just then his t̤abaqchī,^{*Clerk of the scullery who has charge of plates and dishes, utensils which are often of value by material and by workmanship.} hearing his voice, cried: ‘They are attacking me.’ The mīrzā, hearing this, dismounted and said: ‘Friends, it is far from brave to give no help when my servant is at the point of the sword.’ He himself went down into the trench but not one of his followers dismounted. Twice he sallied from the trenches, and in this endeavour became a martyr.

I do not know what pitiless oppressor slew that harmless youth^{*Hindāl was killed on Ẕī'l-qa'dā 21st, 958H. (November 20th, 1551). He was born before March 4th, 1519 (Mems., 258.), and was therefore in his thirty-third year. Gul-badan always speaks of her brother with affection, and her story shows that she mourned his loss many years. Her book lets us see a group of living and feeling men and women.} with his tyrant sword! Would to Heaven that merciless sword had touched my heart and eyes, or Sa ādat-yār, my son's, or Khiẓr Khwāja Khān's! Alas! a hundred regrets! Alas! a thousand times alas! (80b)

O well-a-day! O well-a-day! O well-a-day!
My sun is sunk behind a cloud.

All may be said in a word: Mīrzā Hindāl gave his life freely for his sovereign.

Mīr Bābā Dost lifted him up and carried him to his quarters. He told no one, and fetched servants and placed them at the entrance and gave orders: ‘Tell everyone who asks, that the mīrzā is badly wounded and that the Emperor forbids anyone to enter.’

Then he went and said to his Majesty: ‘Mīrzā Hindāl is wounded.’ The Emperor called for a horse; ‘I will go and see him.’ Mīr 'Abdu-l-ḥaī said: ‘He is badly hurt. It is not desirable that you should go.’ He understood, and however much he tried,^{*ḥafz̤ kardand. Perhaps as a matter of etiquette which demands composure in public.} he could not help it, he broke down.

Jūī-shāhī^{*Text, Jūsāhī, the modern Jalalabad, on the road to Kabul.} was Khiẓr Khwāja Khān's jāgīr. The Emperor sent for him and said: ‘Take Mīrzā Hindāl to Jūī-shāhī and care for his burial.’ The khān took the camel's bridle,^{*i.e., that of the camel which bore the corpse.} and when he was going away with weeping and lament and voice uplifted in grief, (81a) his Majesty heard of the mourning and sent him word: ‘We must have patience! This sorrow touches my heart more closely than yours, but I do not give way because I think of our bloodthirsty, tyrannical foe. With him at hand, there is no help but patience.’ Then the khān with a hundred regrets, miserable and stricken, conveyed the body to Jūī-shāhī, and there laid and left it.

If that slayer of a brother, that stranger's friend, the monster, Mīrzā Kāmrān had not come that night, this calamity would not have descended from the heavens.

His Majesty sent letters to his sisters in Kābul, and the city at once became like one house of mourning. Doors and walls wept and bewailed the death of the happy, martyred mīrzā.

Gul-chihra Begam had gone to Qarā Khān's house. When she came back, it was like the day of resurrection.^{*Khwānd-amīr compares a hustle of people to the day of resurrection.} Through weeping and sorrow she fell quite ill and went out of her mind.

It was by Mīrzā Kāmrān's evil fate that Mīrza Hindāl became a martyr. From that time forth we never heard that his affairs prospered. On the contrary, they waned day by day and came to naught and perished. (81b) He set his face to evil in such fashion that fortune never befriended him again nor gave him happiness. It was as though Mīrzā Hindāl had been the life, or rather the light-giving eye of Mīrzā Kāmrān, for after that same defeat he fled straight away to Salīm Shāh, the son of Shīr Khān. Salīm Shāh gave him a thousand rupīs.^{*A scornful measure of Kāmrān's fall. The date is the end both of 1552 and of 959H.} Then the mīrzā told in what position he was, and asked help. Salīm Shāh said nothing openly in reply, but in private he remarked: ‘How can a man be helped who killed his own brother, Mīrzā Hindāl? It is best to destroy him and bring him to naught.’ Mīrzā Kāmrān heard of this opinion and one night, without even consulting his people, he resolved on flight and got away, and his own men had not even a word of it. They stayed behind and when news of the flight reached Salīm Shāh, he imprisoned many of them.

Mīrzā Kāmrān had gone as far as Bhīra and Khūsh-āb when Adam Ghakkar, by plot and stratagems, captured him and brought him to the Emperor. (82a)

To be brief, all the assembled khāns and Sult̤āns, and high and low, and plebeian and noble, and soldiers and the rest who all bore the mark of Mīrzā Kāmrān's hand, with one voice represented to his Majesty: ‘Brotherly custom has nothing to do with ruling and reigning. If you wish to act as a brother, abandon the throne. If you wish to be king, put aside brotherly sentiment. What kind of wound was it that befell your blessed head in the Qibchāq defile through this same Mīrzā Kāmrān? He it was whose traitorous and crafty conspiracy with the Afghāns killed Mīrzā Hindāl. Many a Chaghatāī has perished through him; women and children have been made captive and lost honour. It is impossible that our wives and children should suffer in the future the thrall and torture of captivity. (82b) With the fear of hell before our eyes^{*bar jahannum, which I take as an oath. Cf. bar haq.} (we say that) our lives, our goods, our wives, our children are all a sacrifice for a single hair of your Majesty's head. This is no brother! This is your Majesty's foe!’

To make an end of words, one and all urgently set forth: ‘It is well to lower the head of the breacher of a kingdom.’

His Majesty answered: ‘Though my head inclines to your words, my heart does not.’ All cried out: ‘What has been set before your Majesty is the really advisable course.’ At last the Emperor said: ‘If you all counsel this and agree to it, gather together and attest it in writing.’ All the amīrs both of the right and left assembled. They wrote down and gave in that same line (miṣra'): ‘It is well to lower the head of the breacher of the kingdom.’ Even his Majesty was compelled to agree.

When he drew near to Rohtās, the Emperor gave an order to Sayyid Muḥammad: ‘Blind Mīrzā Kāmrān in both eyes.’ The sayyid went at once and did so.

After the blinding, his Majesty the Emperor^{*Here in the MS. volume follows folio 83, which I have conjectured should follow folio 736, and have placed there.} …