913 AH. MAY 13th 1507 TO MAY 2nd 1508 AD. 331
after flight from Herl, first to Ibn-i-husain Mlrza then to Abu'lmuhsin Mirza,1 with neither of whom they could remain.
In Qalat the army came upon a mass of Hindustan traders, come there to traffic and, as it seemed, unable to go on. The general opinion about them was that people who, at a time of such hostilities, are coming into an enemy's country 2 must be plundered. With this however I did not agree ; said I, " What is the traders' offence? If we, looking to God's pleasure, leave such scrapings of gain aside, the Most High God will apportion our reward. It is now just as it was a short time back when we rode out to raid the Ghiljl; many of you then were of one mind to raid the Mahmand Afghans, their sheep and goods, their wives and families, just because they were within five miles of you! Then as now I did not agree with you. On the very next day the Most High God apportioned you more sheep belonging to Afghan enemies, than had ever before fallen to the share of the army." Something by way ofpcshkasli (offering) was taken from each trader when we dismounted on the other side of Qalat.
(_/. Further march south?)
Beyond Qalat two Mlrzas joined us, fleeing from Qandahar. One was Mlrza Khan (Wais) who had been allowed to go into Khurasan after his defeat at Kabul. The other was 'Abdu'rrazzaq Mirza who had stayed on in Khurasan when I left. With them came and waited on me the mother of Jahanglr Mlrza's son Plr-i-muhammad, a grandson of Pahar MlrzS.3
{k. Behaviour of the Arghiin chiefs?)
When we sent persons and letters to Shah Beg and Muqlm, saying, " Here we are at your word ; a stranger-foe like the
* They will have gone first to Tun or Qaln, thence to Mashhad, and seem likely to have joined the Begim after cross-cutting to avoid Herl.
2 y'gh' •wilayall-ghd klladurghan. There may have been an accumulation of caravans on their way to Herat, checked in Qalat by news of the Auzbeg conquest.
3 Jahangir's son, thus brought by his mother, will have been an infant; his father had gone back last year with Babur by the mountain road and had been left, sick and travelling in a litter, with the baggage when Babur hurried on to Kabul at the news of the mutiny against him (f. 197); he must have died shortly afterwards, seemingly between the departure of the two rebels from Kabul (f. 201A-202) and the march out for Qandahar. Doubtless his widow now brought her child to claim his uncle Babur's protection.
