midst of an enemy's country, the morning was near at hand, and I was far from the place to which I had wished to go. "Show me, then," I said, " some spot where we may remain concealed during the day, and, when it is night, we can get something for our horses, pass the river of Khojend, and then proceed straight for Khojend by the other side of the river." They answered, "Hard by there is a hillock, in which we may hide ourselves." Bandeh Ali was the Darogha of Karnân. He said, "Neither we nor our horses can long stand out, unless we get something to eat. I will go to Karnân, and will bring out whatever I can procure." We therefore passed on, and took the road for Karnân. We stopped about a kos from Karnân, while Bandeh Ali went on, and staid away for a long time. The morning had dawned, yet there was no appearance of our man. I began to be greatly alarmed. Just as it was day, Bandeh Ali came cantering back, bringing three loaves, but no grain for the horses. Each of us taking a loaf under his arm, we went off without loss of time, reached the hillock Baber com- where we wished to remain in concealment, and, having tied our horses in the low pelled to conceal marshy broken grounds, we all mounted the eminence, and sat keeping watch on difhimself. ferent sides. It was now near mid-day, when we spied Ahmed Koshchi (the falconer), with four horsemen, coming from Ghiva towards Akhsi. I once thought of sending for the falconer, and getting possession of their horses by fair words and promises; for our horses were quite worn out, having been in constant exercise and on the stretch for a day and night, without having got a grain of anything to eat. But my heart immediately began to waver again, and I could not make up my mind to put confidence in them. I and my companions arranged, however, that as these people were likely to stay all night at Karnân, we should secretly enter the town, carry off their horses, and so make our escape to some place of safety. It was about noon, when, as far off as the sight could reach, we perceived something that glittered on a horse. For some time we could not distinguish what it was. It was, in truth, Muhammed Bâkir Beg. He had been in Akhsi along with me; and in the dispersion that followed our leaving the place, when every one was scattered here and there, Muhammed Bâkir Beg had come in this direction, and was now wandering about and concealing himself. Bandeh Ali and Baba Seirâmi said, " For two days past our horses have had neither grain nor fodder. Let us go down into the valley, and suffer them to graze." We accordingly mounted, and, having descended into the valley set them a-grazing. It was about the time of afternoon prayers, when we descried a horseman passing along over the very height on which we had been hiding. I recognised him to be Kâdir Berdi, the head-man1 of Ghiva. I said to them, "Let us call Kâdir Berdi." We called him, and he came and joined us. Having greeted him, asked him some questions, spoken obligingly and with kindness to him, made him promises, and disposed him favourably towards me by every means in my power, I sent him to bring a rope, a grass-hook, an axe, apparatus for crossing a river, provender for the horses and food for ourselves, and, if possible, a horse likewise; and we made an appointment to meet him on this same spot, at bedtime prayers. 1 Kilânter. Evening prayers were over, when a horseman was seen passing from Karnân towards Ghiva. We called out, "Who goes there?" He answered us. This was, in truth, the same Muhammed Bâkir Beg, whom we had observed at noon. He had, in the course of the day,' moved from the place in which he had lain concealed, to another lurking-place; and now so thoroughly changed his voice, that, although he had lived for years with me, I did not discover him. Had I known him, and kept him with me, it had been well for me. I was rendered very uneasy by this man's passing us; and durst not adhere to the assignation we had made with Kâdir Berdi of Ghiva, by waiting till the specified time. Bandeh Ali said, "There are many retired gardens among the suburbs of Karnân, where nobody will suspect us of lurking. Let us go thither, and send a person to conduct Kâdir Berdi to us." With this intention, we mounted, and proceeded to the suburbs of Karnân. It was winter, and excessively Hides himcold. They brought me an old mantle of year-old lambskin, with the wool on the self in Kar. inside, and of coarse woven cloth without, which I put on. They also procured and brought me a dish of pottage of boiled millet-flour, which I eat, and found wonderfully comfortable. I asked Bandeh Ali, "Have you sent anybody to Kâdir Berdi ?" He answered, "Yes, I have." These unlucky perfidious clowns had in reality met Kâdir Berdi, and had dispatched him to Tambol at Akhsi. Having gone into a house that had stone walls, and kindled a fire, I closed my eyes for a moment in sleep. These crafty fellows, pretending an extreme anxiety to serve me, "We must not stir from this neighbourhood," said they, "till we have news of Kâdir Berdi. The house where we are, however, is in the very middle of the suburbs. There is a place in the outskirts of the suburbs where we might be quite unsuspected, could we but reach it." We mounted our horses, therefore, about midnight, and proceeded to a garden on the outskirts of the suburbs. Baba Seirâmi watched on the terrace-roof of the house, -keeping a sharp look-out in every direction. It was near noon when he came down from the terrace, and said to me, "Here comes Yûsef, the Darogha." I was seized with prodigious alarm, and said, “ Learn if he comes in consequence of knowing that I am here." Baba went out, and, after some conversation, returned and said, "Yûsef, the Darogha, says, that, at the gate of Akhsi, he met a man on foot, who told him that the King was in Karnân, at such a place; that, without communicating this intelligence to any one, he had put the man into close custody, along with Wali, the treasurer, who had fallen into his hands in the action; after which, he hastened to you full speed; and that the Begs are not informed of the circumstance." I asked him, "What do you think of the matter?" He answered, "They are all your servants; there is nothing left for it but to join them. They will undoubtedly make you king.” "But after such wars and quarrels," I replied, "with what confidence can I place myself in their power ?" I was still speaking, when Yûsef suddenly presented himself, and throwing himself on both his knees before me, exclaimed, "Why should I conceal anything from you? Sultan Ahmed Beg knows nothing of the matter; but Sheikh Bayezîd Beg has got information where you are, and has sent me hither." 1 Literally yesterday, a new day commencing from sunset. nân. Baber in On hearing these words, I was thrown into a dreadful state of agitation. There is imminent nothing in the world which affects a man with more painful feelings than the near danger. prospect of death. "Tell me the truth," I exclaimed, "if indeed things are about to go with me contrary to my wishes, that I may at least perform my last ablutions." Yûsef swore again and again, but I did not heed his oaths. I felt my strength gone. I rose and went to a corner of the garden. I meditated with myself, and said, “Should a man live a hundred, nay a thousand years, yet at last he [The copyist adds, "The remaining transactions of this year, viz. 908, may God grant that they come to hand." In this wish I most heartily join.-Leyden.] SUPPLEMENT, CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED IN THE THE narrative of Baber is here broken off, at one of the most interesting moments of his history. Whether this defect be owing to the imperfection of the copies, or to design in the author, it is not easy to decide; though, from a similar interruption at the beginning of the year 914 of the Hejira, when Baber appears to be on the point of A. D. 1508. falling into the hands of a desperate band of conspirators, it seems probable that it was intentional; and, we may be almost tempted to believe, that the Imperial author derived a sort of dramatic pleasure from working up to a very high pitch the curiosity of his reader or hearer, and leaving the mind in a state of awakened suspense by a sudden break in the narrative. All the three copies which I have had an opportunity of comparing, break off precisely at the same period, in both instances. This holds in the original Tûrki as well as in the translation; and it is hardly conceivable that a translator would have deserted his hero in the most memorable passages of his life. The which Dr Leyden followed, was evidently, in this respect, exactly like the others. The blank which Baber has left in his own Memoirs, it is difficult to supply, in spite of the great number of authors who have written the details of his reign; as they have in general confined themselves to the grand military and political actions of his times, and give us little assistance where Baber, who is his own best biographer, happens to fail in detailing the earlier, which are by no means the least interesting events of his life. copy The Memoirs break off in A. H. 908, and are resumed in A. H. 910. Whether Ba- The Khans defeated by ber was delivered into the hands of Sheikh Bayezîd, or whether he effected his escape Sheibanj from the painful custody in which he was held at Karnân, I have not been able to Khan. discover. The narrative of Abul-Fazel3 is here very imperfect. It would appear, how 1 From the end of A. D. 1502, to June 1504. ? Leaving a blank from the end of A. D. 1502, to June 1504. 3 In the account of Baber's reign in the 1st vol. of the Akbernama. MS. Fate of Abul Mo karam. ever, from the brief account of Ferishta,' and of Khâfi Khan,2 that Baber had succeeded in rejoining his maternal uncles the two Khans; but, if this was the case, the advantage derived from this junction was of short continuance. Sheibâni Khan, whom Ahmed Tambol had invited to his assistance, arrived soon after with an army more in number than the rain-drops, says Mîr Khâwend Shah,3 attacked the Moghuls, defeated them in a bloody battle, made both the brothers prisoners, and compelled Baber to fly into Moghûlistân. Immediately after the battle, Sheibâni Khan dispatched a messenger to Tâshkend, to communicate information that the two Khans were in his hands, and that Baber had been obliged to abandon the country; and with instructions to add that, if the inhabitants had any wish to save their princes, they must prevent the escape of Khwâjeh Abul Mokâram, and detain him in custody. Sheibâni Khan, after having kept the Khans a few days as his prisoners, dismissed them to go where they would; " and they came by their end," continues Mîr Khâwend Shah," in the way mentioned in the Account of the Family of Jaghatâi Khan." The particulars of their death I have not been able to ascertain, and there is some disagreement among historians on the subject. By some, Sheibâni Khan is represented as having used his victory with considerable lenity. He is said to have set the brothers at liberty, prompted by the recollection that he had formerly been in their service, and that he had been received and kindly treated by Yunis Khan, their father. We are told by Ferishta, that Sultan Mahmûd Khan, the elder brother, fell into a deep melancholy; when advised by one of his friends to use a famous antidote brought from China, for the purpose of averting the effects of poison, which it was suggested might have been administered by Sheibâni Khan, he is said to have replied, "Yes; Sheibâni has indeed poisoned me! He has taken away my kingdom, which your antidote 'cannot restore." "5 But these accounts are not very consistent with the narrative of Baber himself, who informs us that Sheibâni Khan put Sultan Mahmûd Khan to death in Khojend, with his son Baba Khan, and many other princes of his family. It is not improbable that Sheibâni Khan affected to set the Khan at liberty a few days after the battle, as is mentioned by Mîr Khâwend Shah, and that he gave orders to pursue, and put him to death privately, along with his family; a policy which he appears to have followed on other occasions, in order to avoid part of the odium likely to arise from an unpopular act. Khwâjeh Abul Mokâram was thrown into prison at Tâshkend, but in two or three days effected his escape, and set out from that city on foot. That he might not be recognised, he submitted to the mortification of cutting off his beard: but being unable, from his age and infirmities, to reach any place of safety, he was compelled to take refuge with a man who lived in a neighbouring village. This person concealed him for a day or two, but having afterwards informed against him, he was seized and carried before Sheibâni Khan. The Khan, on seeing him, inquired, "What have you done 1 See his General History of Hindustan, Dow's Translation, vol. II. p. 182. 2 In his valuable and amusing MS. History of the House of Taimur in India. 3 Tarîkhe Rozet-es-Sefâ, vol. VII. folio MS. containing the History of Sultan Hussain Mirza. 4 * See Târikhe Khafi Khan, vol. I. and the Akbernâmeh of Abul-fazel, vol. I. MS. 5 See Dow's History of Hindustan, as above. |