913 AH. MAY 13th 1507 TO MAY 2nd 1508 AD. 343
(v. Abandonment of the Hindustan project.)
As it was not found desirable to go on into Hindustan, I sent Mulla Baba of Pashaghar back to Kabul with a few braves. Meantime I marched from near Mandrawar to Atar and Shlwa and lay there for a few days. From Atar I visited Kunar and Nur-gal; from Kunar I went back to camp on a raft ; it was the first time I had sat on one ; it pleased me much, and the raft came into common use thereafter.
(w. Shaibaq KMn retires from Qandahar?)
In those same days Mulla Baba of Farkat came from Nasir Mlrza with news in detail that Shaibaq Khan, after taking the outer-fort of Qandahar, had not been able to take the citadel but had retired ; also that the Mlrza, on various accounts, had left Qandahar and gone to GhaznI.
Shaibaq Khan's arrival before Qandahar, within a few days of our own departure, had taken the garrison by surprise, and they had not been able to make fast the outer-fort. He ran mines several times round about the citadel and made several assaults. The place was about to be lost. At that anxious time Khwaja Muh. Amin, Khwaja Dost Khawand, Muh. 'All, a foot-soldier, and ShamI (Syrian ?) let themselves down from the walls and got away. Just as those in the citadel were about to surrender in despair, Shaibaq Khan interposed words of peace and uprose from before the place. Why he rose was this : It appears that before he went there, he had sent his haram to Nirah-tu,1 and that in Nlrah-tu some-one lifted up his head and got command in the fort ; the Khan therefore made a sort of peace and retired from Qandahar.
(x. Babur returns to Kabul.)
Mid-winter though it was we went back to Kabul by the Bad-i-prch road. I ordered the date of that transit and that crossing of the pass to be cut on a stone above Bad-i-plch ;2 Hafiz Mirak wrote the inscription, Ustad Shah Muhammad did the cutting, not well though, through haste.
" Erskine gives the fort the alternative name " Kaliun", locates it in the iiadghis district east of Heri, and quotes from Abu'l-ghazi in describing its strong position (History i, 282). H.S. Tirah-tu.
2 !»' $3 and note. Abii'1-fazl mentions that the inscription was to be seen in his time.
