914 TO 925 AH. 1508 TO 1519 AD. 363
retainers in his service, Khwaja Kamalu'd-din Mahmud, who had fled from Ghaj-davan to Balkh, heard there that the Balkhls favoured an Auzbeg chief whose coming was announced, and therefore went to Babur. In Jumada II (August), hearing that the Auzbeg sultan had left Balkh, he returned there but was not admitted because the Balkhis feared reprisals for their welcome to the Auzbeg, a fear which may indicate that he had taken some considerable reinforcement to Babur. He went on into Khurasan and was there killed ; Balkh was recaptured for the Shah by Deo Sultan, a removal from Auzbeg possession which helps to explain how Babur came to be there in 923 AH.
920 AH. FEB. 26th 1514 to FEB. 15th 1515 AD.
Haidar writes of Babur as though he were in Qunduz this year (TR. p. 263), says that he suffered the greatest misery and want, bore it with his accustomed courtesy and patience but, at last, despairing of success in recovering Hisar, went back to Kabul. Now it seems to be that he made the stay in Khwast to which he refers later (f. 241/;) and during which his daughter Gul-rang was born, as Gul-badan's chronicle allows known.
It was at the end of the year, after the privation of winter therefore, that he reached Kabul. When he re-occupied Samarkand in 917 AH., he had given Kabul to his half-brother Nasir Mlrza ; the Mlrza received him now with warm welcome and protestations of devotion and respect, spoke of having guarded Kabul for him and asked permission to return to his own old fief GhaznI. His behaviour made a deep impression on Babur ? it would be felt as a humane touch on the sore of failure.
921 AH. FEB. 15th 1515 to FEB. 5th 1516 AD. ci. Rebellion of chiefs in Ghazni.
Nasir Mirza died shortly after {dar hamdn ayyani) his return to Ghazni. Disputes then arose amongst the various commanders who were in Ghazni; Sherim Taghal was one of them and the main strength of the tumult was given by the Mughuls. Many others were however involved in it, even such an old servant as Baba of Pashaghar taking part (f. 234^; T.R. p. 356). Haidar did not know precisely the cause of the dispute, or shew
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