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932 AH. OCT. 18th 1525 TO OCT. 8th 1526 AD. 479
of 4 laks of slidhrukkis and having shared this out to the army and auxiliaries, returned to Kabul. JFrom then till now we laboriously held tight1 to Hindustan, five times leading ah army into it.2 The fifth-time, God the Most High, by his own mercy and favour, made such a foe as SI. Ibrahim the vanquished and loser, such a realm as Hindustan <our conquest and possession.
(b. Three invaders from Tramontana^)
From the time of the revered Prophet down till now 3 three men from that side4 have conquered and ruled Hindustan. SI. Mahmud Ghazi$ was the first, who and whose descendants sat long on the seat of government in Hindustan. SI. Shihabu'd-din of Ghur was the second,6 whose slaves and dependants royally shepherded 7 this realm for many years. I am the third.
But my task was not like the task of those other rulers. For why ? Because SI. Mahmud, when he conquered Hindustan, had the throne of Khurasan subject to his rule, vassal and obedient to him were the sultans of Khwarizm and the Marches(Ddru'l-mars), and under his hand was the ruler of Samarkand. Though his army may not have numbered 2 laks, what question is there that it8 was one. Then again, rajas were his opponents ; all Hindustan was not under one supreme head (jpddskdh), but each raja ruled independently in his own country. SI. Shihabu'd-din again, though he himself had no rule in Khurasan, his elder brother Ghiyasu'd-dln had it. The Tabaqdt-t-ndsiri^ brings it forward
1 alurushiib, Pers. trs. chaspida, stuck to.
2 The first expedition is fixed by the preceding passage as in 925 AM. which was indeed the first time a passage of the Indus is recorded. Three others are found recorded, those of 926, 930 and 932 ah. Perhaps the fifth was not led by Babur in person, and may be that of his troops accompanying 'Alam Khan in 931 AH. But
' he may count into the set of five, the one made in 910 ah. which he himself meant to cross the Indus. Various opinions are found expressed by European writers as to the dates of the five.
3 Muhammad died 632 ad. (ii AH.).
4 Tramontana, n. of Hindu-kush. For particulars about the dynasties mentioned by Babur see Stanley Lane-Poole's Muhammadan Dynasties.
s Mahmud of Ghazni, a Turk by race, d. 1030 ad. (421 ah.).
6 known as Muh. Ghiiri, d. 1206 ad. (602 ah.).
7 surubturlar, lit. drove them like sheep (cf. f. 154^). 3 thud, itself, not Babur's only Hibernianism.
9 "This is an excellent history of the Musalman world down to the time of SI. Nasir of Dihll a.d. 1252. It was written by Abu 'Umar Minhaj al Jurjanl. See Stewart's catalogue of Tipoo's Library, p. 7" (Erskine). It has been translated by Raverty.
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