935 AH. SEP. 15th 1528 TO SEP. 5th 1529 AD. 625
over-looked that common people mostly say alama or ailaman} Besides that, this Al is rare in names.2 May God bless and prosper him in name and person ; may He grant us to keep Al-aman (peace) for many years and many decades of years ! 3 May He now order our affairs by His own mercy and favour ; not in many decades comes such a chance as this ! " 4
"Again : On Tuesday the 1 ith of the month {Nov. 23rd) came the false rumour that the Balkhls had invited and were fetching Qurban 5 into Balkh."
" Again : Kamran and the Kabul begs have orders to join thee ; this done, move on Hisar, Samarkand, Herl or to whatever side favours fortune. Mayst thou, by God's grace, crush foes and take lands to the joy of friends and the down-casting of adversaries ! Thank God ! now is your time to risk life and slash swords.6 Neglect not the work chance has brought; slothful life in retirement befits not sovereign rule :
(Persian) He grips the world who hastens ; Empire yokes not with delay ; All else, confronting marriage, stops, Save only sovereignty.'
If through God's grace, the Balkh and H'?ar countries be won and held, put men of thine in Hisar, Kamran's men in Balkh. Should Samarkand also be won, there make thy seat. H'sar, God willing, I shall make a crown-domain. Should Kamran regard Balkh as small, represent the matter to me ; please God! I will make its defects good at once out of those other countries." "Again : As thou knowest, the rule has always been that
1 The words Babur gives as mispronunciations are somewhat uncertain in sense ; manifestly both are of ill-omen : Al-aman itself [of which the alama of the Hai. MS. and Ilminsky may be an abbreviation,] is the cry of the vanquished, '' Quarter ! mercy!"; Ailaman and also alaman can represent a Turkman raider.
2 Presumably amongst Timurids.
3 Perhaps Babur here makes a placatory little joke.
* i. e. that offered by Tahmasp's rout of the Auzbegs at Jam.
5 He was an adherent of Babur. Cf. f. 353.
6 The plural "your " will include Humayunand Kamran. Neither had yet shewn himself the heritor of his father's personal dash and valour ; they had lacked the stress which shaped his heroism.
7 My husband has traced these lines to Nizaml's Khusrau and Shirin. [They occur on f. 25615 in his MS. of 317 folios.] Babur may have quoted from memory, since his version varies. The lines need their context to be understood ; they are part of ohirln's address to Khusrau when she refuses to marry him because at the time he is fighting for his sovereign position ; and they say, in effect, that while all other work stops for marriage (kadkhndai), kingly rule does not.
