intimations of this conspiracy and assembling; and I myself had received some hints of its existence. I had reckoned the surmises not entitled to credit, and paid them no kind of attention. I was sitting one night at the Châr-bâgh, in the presence-chamber, after bed-time prayers, when Mûsa Khwâjeh and another person came hurriedly close up to me, and whispered me that the Moghuls had, beyond a doubt, formed treacherous designs. I could not be prevailed upon to believe that they had drawn Abdal Rizâk Mirza into their projects; and still less could I credit that their treasonable intentions were to be executed that very night. I therefore did not give that attention to the information that I ought, and a moment after I set out for the Haram. At that time the females of my family were in the Bagh-e-Khilwat, and in the Bagh-e-Turva-tokhfeh. When I came near the Haram, all my followers, of every rank and description, and even my night-guards,' went away. After their departure, I went on to the city, attended only by my own people and the royal slaves. I had reached the Ditch at the Iron Gate, when Khwâjeh Muhammed Ali, who had just come that way from the market-place, met me, and . . . . [The events of this year conclude abruptly in the same manner in all the copies.] 1 The Yatish are the persons who watch by night at the prince's door. SUPPLEMENT, CONTAINING AN ABRIDGED ACCOUNT OF BABER'S TRANSACTIONS, Revolt of the Mo ghuls. General defection of Baber's troops. THE Memoirs of Baber are once more interrupted at a very important crisis, and we are again left to glean, from various quarters, an imperfect account of the transactions that ensued. It is probable that Khwâjeh Muhammed Ali, who had just passed through the market-place, informed Baber that he had seen a gathering of Moghuls, and that measures were taking to seize his person. This at least is certain, that Baber escaped the impending danger, and regained his camp. The Moghuls who had been in Khosrou Shah's service, were the most active agents in this conspiracy. They do not appear ever to have co-operated heartily with Baber, who always speaks of them and their race with strong marks of dislike and resentment. They had combined with the other men of influence mentioned in the Memoirs, and had agreed not only to raise Abdal Rizâk Mirza to the throne of Kâbul and Ghazni, which had been held by his father, Ulugh Beg Mirza, Baber's uncle, but also to put him in possession of Badakhshân, Kundez, and Khutlân, and all the territories which had formerly been held by Khosrou Shah. Such were the effects produced in Baber's army by this sudden defection of so many men of eminence, of different nations and tribes, that next morning he could not muster in his whole camp more than five hundred horse. Great numbers of his followers and soldiers had hastily retired to Kâbul, under pretence of taking care of their families.3 1 From A.D. 1508 to the beginning of January A.D. 1519. 2 Under these circumstances, it may seem one of the strangest caprices of fortune, that the empire which he founded in India should have been called, both in the country and by foreigners, the empire of the Moghuls, thus taking its name from a race that he detested. This arose not so much from his being a descendant of Chengis Khan, as from his being a foreigner from the north; and from the age of Chengis Khan downwards, all Tartars and Persians, in the loose colloquial language of India, seem to have been denominated Moghuls. 3 See the Tarikhe Khâfi Khan, being a history of the house of Taimur in Hindustân, vol. II. MS.; and Dow's translation of Ferishta, vol. II. p. 188. the field warriors in Baber, enraged at these events, instead of retiring into the hill-country, or shutting He keeps himself up in a fortress, appears to have kept the field with his few faithful followers. with a He made several furious assaults on the army of the rebels, whom he intimidated by small force. the bravery which he displayed. Baber computes the original number of the rebels at two or three thousand men; but Ferishta relates that their number rose to twelve thousand. In this reduced state of his fortunes, he appears, for a while, to have assumed the courage of despair, and to have given to the adventurous gallantry of the soldier and the champion, the place which he generally allowed the cool valour of the prince and the general to hold. He exposed himself in every rencounter, and attacked the insurgents wherever they could be found. On one occasion, he is said to have Kills five advanced before the line, and challenged Abdal Rizâk to single combat. The chal- single lenge, we are told, was declined by the prince; but five champions of the rebels having combat. advanced in succession, and accepted it in his room, they all fell, one after another, under the sword of Baber. Their names, which have been transmitted to us by Ferishta and Khâfi Khan, indicate that they were of different races. They were Ali Beg Shebgûr, Muhammed Ali Sheibâni,' Nazer Behâder Uzbek, Yâkub Beg Bâberjeng, and Abdalla Sefsheken. His military skill, his personal strength, and his invincible spirit, scattered dismay among the bands of the enemy, who equally admired and dreaded him; and perhaps, while he seemed to be acting as an inconsiderate young soldier, he really performed the part of a sagacious general and of a hero. His enemies began gradually to drop off; one defeat succeeded to another; Abdal Rizâk found death at the close of his short reign; and Baber saw himself once more the Recovers undisputed sovereign of Kâbul and Ghazni. his dominions. reduces Ba When Khosrou Shah's territories fell into the hands of Sheibâni Khan, the inha- Khan Mirza bitants of Badakhshân, a brave and hardy race, who inhabited a country everywhere dakhshan. mountainous, and in many places almost inaccessible, disliking the Uzbek government, had flown to arms in every quarter, and a number of petty chieftains in different districts had set up for independent princes. Of all these the most powerful was Zobîr, a man of no family, but who, by his conduct and valour, succeeded in reducing under subjection to him the greater number of the other insurgents. Khan Mirza, Baber's cousin, had crossed from Kâbul, A.H. 913, in order to try his fortune in that quarter, A.D. 1509. as Baber has himself mentioned. His grandmother, Shah Begum, was the daughter of Shah Sultan Muhammed, the King of Badakhshân; so that the Mirza had probably some hereditary connexions in the country. His outset was not prosperous. His grandmother and Meher Nigar-Khanum, his aunt, who followed in the rear of his army, were carried off by Mirza Ababeker Kâshghari; and Khan Mirza himself was defeated and obliged to surrender to Zobîr, who detained him in custody. Finally, however, Yûsef Ali, who had formerly been in the Mirza's service, formed a conspiracy against Zobîr, whom he assassinated; when Khan Mirza was raised to the undisturbed possession of the throne of Badakshân, which he held till his death. 1 Perhaps rather Sistâni, as in Ferishta. ? Khan Mirza was, as has been mentioned, the son of Sultan Mahmûd Mirza, the king of Hissar, Khutlan, and Badakhshân, and of Sultan Nigâr-Khanum, a sister of Baber's mother. He was consequently Baber's cousin both by the father and mother's side. His proper name was Sultan Weis Mirza. Shah Is måel. ence. A.D. 1510. In the year 916 of the Hejira, an event occurred, which Baber had no influence in Quarrel of producing, but which promised the most favourable change on his fortunes. Sheibâni Sheibâni Khan and Khan, after the defeat of Badîa-ez-zemân and the sons of Sultan Hussain Mirza, had overrun Khorasan with a large army. Some parties of his troops, in the course of their incursions, had entered and committed devastations on territories claimed by Shah Ismâel, who at that time filled the Persian throne; and he had even sent an army to invade Kerman.1 Shah Ismâel, having subdued the Turkomâns in Azerbaejân, had reduced under one government the various provinces of Persia to the west of the desert, which for so long a series of years had been divided into petty principalities. On receiving information of these aggressions, he immediately sent to Sheibâni Khan Their cor- ambassadors, who carried letters, remonstrating, but with great courtesy, against the respondaggressions which had occurred within the boundaries of his dominions. The Uzbek prince, rendered haughty by long success, returned for answer, that he did not comprehend Shah Ismâel's meaning; that, for his own part, he was a prince who held dominions by hereditary descent; but that, as for Shah Ismâel, if he had suffered any diminution of his paternal possessions, it was a very easy matter to restore them entire to him; and he at the same time sent him the staff and wooden begging-dish2 of a mendicant. He added, however, that it was his intention one day to go the pilgrimage of Mekka, and that he would make a point of seeing him by the way. Shah Ismâel, who was descended of a celebrated Dervish, and who prided himself on his descent from the holy Syed, affected to receive the taunt with patient humility. He returned for answer, that if glory or shame, here or hereafter, was to be estimated by the worth or demerit of ancestors, he would never think of degrading his forefathers by any comparison with those of Sheibâni Khan; that if the right of succession to a throne was decided by hereditary descent only, it was to him incomprehensible how the empire had descended through the various dynasties of Peshdadians, Kaiânians, and the family of Chengîs,3 to Sheibâni himself. That he too intended making a pilgrimage, but it was to the tomb of the holy Imâm Reza at Meshhid, which might afford him an opportunity of meeting Sheibâni Khan. He sent him a spindle and reel, with some cotton, giving him to understand that words were a woman's weapons; that it would become him either to sit quietly in his corner, busied in some occupation that befitted him, or to come boldly into the field to meet his enemy in arms, and listen to a few words from the two-tongued Zulfikâr. “Let us then fairly try," concluded Shah Ismâel, "to which of the two the superiority belongs. You will at least learn that you have not now to deal with an inexperienced boy." 1 See the Tarikh Alim-Arâi Abâssi of Mirza Sekander, vol. I. MS. 2 The kâchkuli is a sort of dish or ladle which mendicants hold out for receiving alms. 3 These were different dynasties that had governed Persia and Khorasan. It is the duty of all Muhammedans to visit Mekka. The Shîas alone visit the shrine of Imâm Reza, which is at Meshhid, in Khorasân, in the territory then belonging to Sheibâni Khan. 5 Zulfikar was the celebrated two-bladed sword of Ali, from whom Shah Ismâel boasted his descent. 6 In the account of this correspondence I follow Khâfi Khan, corrected by Mirza Sekander, the author of the Alim-arai Abâssi. Khâfi Khan and Ferishta mention the presents, which are not alluded to by the Persian writer, who probably did not choose to record incidents, the remembrance of which the reigning family, having shaken off the Dervish, were not proud to recall. He mentions the pilgrimages of Mekka and Meshhid, a subject more agreeable to the prevailing prejudices. Shah in Sheibâni in which he is be. Without losing a moment, or giving the enemy time to prepare for meeting him, Ismåel Shah Ismael put his army in motion, and advanced through Khorasân as far as Mesh-vades Khohid. The detachments of the Uzbek army all fell back and retired to Herât. Shei- rasán. bâni Khan, who had just returned from an expedition into the country of the Hazâras, retires to on hearing of Shah Ismâel's arrival at Meshhid, perceiving that he was too weak to meet Merv, his enemy in the field, left Jân Vafa Mirza in Herât, and set off with such of his troops as he could collect, to Merv Shahjehân, a station where he could receive reinforcements from his northern dominions; or from which, if necessary, he could retire across the Amu. Jân Vafa was not long able to maintain himself in Herât. He found it necessary, very speedily, to follow Sheibâni Khan. Shah Ismâel himself now advanced towards Merv, and sent on Daneh Muhammed with a large force to clear the way. That officer was met by Jân Vafa Mirza near Takerâbâd of Merv : a desperate action ensued, in which the Persian general fell, but Jân Vafa was defeated. Sheibâni Khan, unable to oppose the Persians in the field, retired into the fort of Merv. He sent messengers to call all his generals and chieftans from beyond the Amu, most of them having re- sieged. tired with their troops to their various governments, after the conquest of Khorasân. Many desperate actions took place under the walls of Merv Shahjehân. Shah Ismâel, seeing that the siege was likely to extend to great length, which would have exposed him to an attack from the whole force of Turkistân and Mâweralnaher, pretended to be under the necessity of raising it. He sent to tell Sheibâni Khan that he had been rather more punctual to his engagements than that prince had been; that he had performed the pilgrimage of Meshhid as he had promised, while Sheibâni Khan had failed to keep his appointment: that he was now under the necessity of returning home to his own dominions, but would still be extremely happy to meet him on the road, whenever he set out on his intended pilgrimage to Mekka. He then retired with all his forces from before Merv, and appeared to be measuring back his way to Irâk. The feint succeeded. Sheibâni Khan followed him with twenty-five thousand1 men, but Decisive had scarcely passed a river about ten miles from Merv, when Shah Ismâel, who threw a body of horse into his rear, broke down the bridge, and fell upon him with seventeen thousand cavalry. The regulated valour of the Kezzelbashes, or red-bonnets, the name given to the Persian soldiers, speedily prevailed. Sheibâni Khan was defeated, Sheibani and his retreat cut off. He was forced to fly, attended by about five hundred men, chiefly the sons of Sultans, the heads of tribes, and men of rank, into an inclosure which had been erected for accommodating the cattle of travellers, and of the neighbouring peasants. They were closely pursued, and hard pressed. The inclosure had only one issue, which was that attacked by the pursuers. The Khan leaped his horse over the wall of the inclosure, towards the river, but fell, and was soon overlaid, and and slain. smothered by the numbers who followed him. After the battle his dead body was sought for, and was disentangled from the heap of slain by which it was covered. His head was cut off, and presented to Shah Ismâel, who ordered his body to be dismembered, and his limbs to be sent to different kingdoms. The skin of the head was strip 1 The author of the Alim-arâi Abassi, says thirty thousand. battle. defeated, |