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910 AH. JUNE 14th 1504 TO JUNE 4th 1505 AD. 191
against me, I defended the bank of the Murgh-ab * in such a way that they retired without being able to effect anything. Now if the Auzbegs advance, I might myself guard the bank of the Murgh-ab again ; let Badi'u'z-zaman Mirza leave men to defend the forts of Balkh, Shibarghan, and Andikhud while he himself guards Girzawan, the Zang-valley, and the hill-country thereabouts." As he had heard of my being in those parts, he wrote to me also, " Do you make fast Kahmard, Ajar, and that hill-tract; let Khusrau Shah place trusty men in Hisar and Qunduz ; let his younger brother Wall make fast Badakhshan and the Khutlan hills; then the Auzbeg will retire, able to do nothing."
These letters threw us into despair ; for why ? Because at that time there was in Tlmur Beg's territory {juri) no ruler so great as SI. Husain Mirza, whether by his years, armed strength, or dominions ; it was to be expected, therefore, that envoys would go, treading on each other's heels, with clear and sharp orders, such as, " Arrange for so many boats at the Tlrmlz, Killf, and Klrkl ferries," " Get any quantity of bridge material together," and " Well watch the ferries above Tuquz-aulum,"2 so that men whose spirit years of Auzbeg oppression had broken, might be cheered to hope again.3 But how could hope live in tribe or horde when a great ruler like SI. Husain Mirza, sitting in the place of Tlmur Beg, spoke, not of marching forth to meet the enemy, but only of defence against his attack ?
When we had deposited in Ajar what had come with us of hungry train (of auruq) and household (awi-ait), together with the families of Baql Beg, his son, Muh. Qasim, his soldiers and his tribesmen, with all their goods, we moved out with our men.
1 presumably the ferries ; perhaps the one on the main road from the north-east which Crosses the river at Fort Murgh-ab.
% Nine deaths, perhaps where the Amu is split into nine channels at the place where Mirza Khan's son Sulaiman later met his rebel grandson Shah-rukh (Tabaqat-i-akbari, Elliot & Dowson, v, 392, and A.N. Bib. Ind., 3rd ed., 441). Tuquz-aulum is too far up the river to be Arnold's "shorn and parcelled Oxus".
3 Shaibaq himself had gone down from Samarkand in 908 ah. and in 909 AH. and so permanently located his troops as to have sent their families to them. In 909 Ah. he drove Khusrau into the mountains of Badakhshan, but did not occupy Qunduz ; thither Khusrau returned and there stayed till now, when Shaibaq again came south (fol. 123). See Sh. N. cap. lviii et seq.
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