in whose pargana the post-house may be." Chlqmaq Beg got out of Agra with Shah! on that same day.
(Author's note on the kuroh.) These kurohs were established in relation to the mil., in the way mentioned in the Mubin : '
(Turki) Four thousand paces (qadam) are one mil; Know that Hind people call this a kuroh ; The pace (qadam) they say is a qiiri and a half (36in.);
Know that each qCiri (24in.) is six hand-breadths (tutam) That each tiita.11 is four fingers (ailik).
Each ailik, six barley-corns. Know this knowledge.2
The measuring-cord .(tanab) 3 was fixed at 40 qari, each being the one-anda-half qari mentioned above, that is to say, each is 9 hand-breadths.
{cc. A feast.)
{Dec. 18th) On Saturday the 6th of the month (Rabi' II.) there was a feast4 at which were present Oizil-bash (Red-head), and Auzbeg, and Hindu envoys.5 The Qtzll-bash envoys sat
1 Neither Erskine (Mems. p. 394), nor de Courteille (A/Jms. ii, 37°) recognized the word Mubin here, although each mentions the poem later (p. 431 and ii, 461), deriving his information about it from the Akbar-nama, Erskine direct, de Courteille by way of the Turk! translation of the same Akbar-nama passage, which Ilminsky found in Kehr's volume and which is one of the much discussed " Fragments", at first taken to be extra writings of Babur's (cf. Index in loco s.n. Fragments). Ilminsky (p. 455) prints the word clearly, as one who knows it ; he may have seen that part of the poem itself which is included in Beresine's Chrestomathie Turque (p. 226 to p. 272), under the title Fragment d'un podme inconnu de Babour, and have observed that Babur himself shews his title to be Mubin, in the lines of his colophon (p. 271),
Chu bian qildim anda shar'iytit,
Ni 'ajab gar Mubin didim at ? (Since in it I have made exposition of Laws, what wonder if I named it Mubin (exposition)?) Cf. Translator's Note, p.437. [Beresine says (Ch.T.) that he prints half of his " unique manuscrit" of the poem.]
2 The passage Babur quotes comes from the Mubin section on tayammum masd'la (purification with sand), where he tells his son sand may be used, Suyuraq biilsa sindin air bir mil (if from thee water be one mil distant), and then interjects the above explanation of what the mil is. Two lines of his original are not with the Baburnama.
3 The tanao was thus 120ft. long. Cf. A.-1-A. Jarrett i, 414 ; Wilson's Glossary oj Indian Terms and Gladwin's Revenue Accounts, p. 14.
4 Babur's customary method of writing allows the inference that he recorded, in due place, the coming and reception of the somewhat surprising group of guests now mentioned as at this entertainment. That preliminary record will have been lost in one or more of the small gaps in his diary of 935 AH. The envoys from the Samarkand Auzbegs and from the Persian Court may have come in acknowledgment of the Fathnama which announced victory over Rana Sanga ; the guests from Farghana will have accepted the invitation sent, says Gul-badan, "in all directions," after Babur's defeat of Si. Ibrahim Ludi, to urge hereditary servants and Timurid and Chlnglz-khanid kinsfolk to come and see prosperity with him now when '' the Most High has bestowed sovereignty" (f. 293a ; Gul-badan's H.N. f. 11).
5 Hindu here will represent Rajput. D'HerWlot's explanation of the name Qizilbash (Red,-head) comes in usefully here : " Kezel basch or Kizil basch. Mot Turc qui^fignifie Tite rouge. Les Turcs appellent les Persans de ce nom, depuis qu'Ismael Sofi, fondateur de la Dynastie des princes qui regnent aujourd'hui en Perse,
