!)13 AH. MAY 13th 1507 to MAY 2nd 1508 AD. 327
these words, he put his bathing-cloth round his neck and gave thanks. It was through this he did not accept Muhammad Baranduq Reg's sensible counsel, did not strengthen the works {tusk) of the fort, get ready fighting equipment, set scout or rearward to warn of the foe's approach, or plan out such method of array that, .should the foe appear, his men would fight with ready heart.
(c. Shaibaq Khan takes Hen.)
Shaibaq Khan passed through Murgh-ab to near Slr-kal * in the month of Muharram (913 AH. May-June 1507 ad.). When the Mirzas heard of it, they were altogether upset, could not act, collect troops, array those they had. Dreamers, they moved through a dream!2 Zii'n-nun Argkun, made glorious by that flatter)', went out to Qara-rabat, with 100 to 150 men, to face 40,000 to 50,000 Auzbegs : a mass of these coming up, hustled his off, took him, killed him and cut off his head.3
In Fort Ikhtiyaru'd-dln, it is known as Ala-qurghan,4 were the Mirzas' mothers, elder and younger sisters, wives and treasure. The Mirzas reached the town at night, let their horses rest till midnight, slept, and at dawn flung forth again. They could not think about strengthening the fort; in the respite and crack of time there was, they just ran away,5 leaving mother, sister, wife and little child to Auzbeg captivity.
What there was of SI. Husain Mlrza's haram, Payanda-sultan Beglm and Khadlja Beglm at the head of it, was inside Ala-qurghan ; there too were the harams of Badl'u'z-zaman
1 This may be Sirakhs or Sirakhsh (Erskine).
2 'luskllq tushdln ynrdl blrurlar. At least two meanings can be given to these words. Circumstances seem to exclude the one in which the Memoirs (p. 222) and Alimoires (ii, 7) have taken them here, viz. "each man went off to shift for himself", and "chacun s'en alia de son c&te et s'enfuit comme il put", because Zu'n-nun did not go oft, and the Mirzas broke up after his defeat. I therefore suggest another reading, one prompted by the Mirzas' vague fancies and dreams of what they might do, but did not.
3 The encounter was between " Belaq-i-maral and Rabat-i-'all-sher, near Badghis" (Raverty's Notes p. 580). For particulars of the taking of Herl see H.S. iii, 353.
4 One may be the book-name, the second the name in common use, and due to the colour of the buildings. But Babur may be making an ironical jest, and nickname the fort by a word referring to the defilement (ala) of Auzbeg possession. (Cf. H. S. iii, 359.)
5 Mr. Erskine notes that Bad! Vz-zaman took refuge with Shah Isma'Il Safawi who gave him Tabriz. When the Turkish Emperor Salim took Tabriz in 920 ah. U514 ad.), he was taken prisoner and carried to Constantinople, where he died in 923 ah. (1517 ad.).
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