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936 TO 937 AH. 1529 TO 1530 AD. 60,7
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and Qila'-i-zafar, might be able to surmise if the date of Hind-Si's start northward for which Humayun is likely to have waited, were found by dovetailing the Muharram of Sa'id's start, the approximate length of his journey to Sarlgh-chflpan, andHaidar's reception of news that Hind-al had been 12 days in the fort.
Humayun's arrival in Agra is said by Abu'1-fazl to have been cheering to the royal family in their sadness for the death of Alwar (end of 935 AH.) and to have given pleasure to his Father. But the time is all too near the date of Babur's letter (f. 348) to Humayun, that of a dissatisfied parent, to allow the supposition that his desertion of his post would fail to displease.
That it was a desertion and not an act of obedience seems clear from the circumstance that the post had yet to be filled. Khalifa is said to have been asked to take it and to have refused ;x Humayun to have been sounded as to return and to have expressed unwillingness. Babur then did what was an honourable sequel to his acceptance in 926 AH. of the charge of the fatherless child Sulaiman, by sending him, now about 16, to take charge where his father Khan Mlrza had ruled, and by still keeping him under his own protection.
Sulaiman's start from Agra will not have been delayed, and (accepting Ahmad-i-yadgar's record,) Babur himself will have gone as far as Lahor either with him or shortly after him, an expedition supporting Sulaiman, and menacing Sa'ld in his winter leaguer round Qila'-i-zafar. Meantime Humayun was ordered to his fief of Sambhal.
After Sulaiman's appointment Babur wrote to Sa'ld a letter of which Haidar gives the gist: It expresses surprise at Sa'id's doi ngs in Badakhshan, says that Hind-al has been recalled and Sulaiman sent, that if Sa'ld regard hereditary right, he will
1 The statement that Khalifa was asked to go so far from where he was of the first jmportance as an administrator, leads to consideration of why it was done. So little is known explicitly of Babur's intentions about his territories after his death that it is possible only to put that little together and read between its lines. It may be that he Was now planning an immediate retirement to Kabul and an apportionment during life °f his dominions, such as Abu-sa'Id had made of his own. If so, it would be desirable to have Badakhshan held in strength such as Khalifa's family could command, and especially desirable because as Barlas Turks, that family would be one with Babur '"desire to regain TransOxiana. Such a political motive would worthily explain the oner of the appointment.
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