PREFACE.
O Spring of work ! O Source of power to Be Each line, each thought I dedicate to Thee ; Each time I fail, the failure is my own, But each success, a jewel in Thy Throne.
Jessie E. Cadei.l.
Introductory.
THIS book is a translation of Babur Padshah's Autobiography, made from the original Turki text. It was undertaken after a purelyTurki manuscript had become accessible in England, the Haidarabad Codex (19.5) which, being in Babur's ipsissin/a verba, left to him the control of his translator's diction a control that had been impracticable from the time when, under Akbar (15S9), his book was translated into Persian. What has come down to us of pure text is, in its shrunken amount, what was translated in 1589. It is difficult, here and there, to interpret owing to its numerous and in some places extensive lacunae, and presents more problems than one the solution of which has real importance because they have favoured suggestions of malfeasance by Babur.
My translation has been produced under considerable drawback, laving been issued in four fasciculi, at long intervals, respectively in fune 1912, May 1914, October 1917, and September 1921. I have put Ifith it of supplementary matter what may be of service to those readers whom Babur's personality attracts and to those who study Turki as a linguistic entertainment, but owing to delays in production *m unable to include the desiderata of maps.
Chapter I.
BABUR'S EXEMPLARS IN THE ARTS OF PEACE. Babur's civilian aptitudes, whether of the author and penman, the maker of gardens, the artist, craftsman or sportsman, were nourished in a fertile soil of family tradition and example. Little about his teaching and training is now with his mutilated book, little indeed of
