Jahāngīr Mīrzā must have lagged on the road, for when he got opposite Bāmīān and went with 20 or 30 persons to visit it, he saw near it the tents of our people left with the baggage. Thinking we were there, he and his party hurried back to their camp and, without an eye to anything, without regard for their own people marching in the rear, made off for Yaka-aūlāng.[1173]
(b. Action of Shaibāq Khān.)
When Shaibāq Khān had laid siege to Balkh, in which was Sl. Qul-i-nachāq,[1174] he sent two or three sult̤āns with 3 or 4000 men to overrun Badakhshān. At the time Mubārak Shāh and Zubair had again joined Nāṣir Mīrzā, spite of former resentments and bickerings, and they all were lying at Shakdān, below KishmFol. 184. and east of the Kishm-water. Moving through the night, one body of Aūzbegs crossed that water at the top of the morning and advanced on the Mīrzā; he at once drew off to rising-ground, mustered his force, sounded trumpets, met and overcame them. Behind the Aūzbegs was the Kishm-water in flood, many were drowned in it, a mass of them died by arrow and sword, more were made prisoner. Another body of Aūzbegs, sent against Mubārak Shāh and Zubair where they lay, higher up the water and nearer Kishm, made them retire to the rising-ground. Of this the Mīrzā heard; when he had beaten off his own assailants, he moved against theirs. So did the Kohistān begs, gathered with horse and foot, still higher up the river. Unable to make stand against this attack, the Aūzbegs fled, but of this body also a mass died by sword, arrow, and water. In all some 1000 to 1500 may have died. This was Nāṣir Mīrzā’s one good success; a man of his brought us news about it while we were in the dale of Kāhmard.
(c. Bābur moves on into Khurāsān.)
While we were in Kāhmard, our army fetched corn from Ghūrī and Dahāna. There too we had letters from SayyidFol. 184b. Afẓal and Sl. Muḥammad Dūldāī whom we had sent into Khurāsān; their news was of Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s death.
This news notwithstanding, we set forward for Khurāsān; though there were other grounds for doing this, what decided us was anxious thought for the reputation of this (Tīmūrid) dynasty. We went up the trough (aīchī) of the Ājar-valley, on over Tūp and Mandaghān, crossed the Balkh-water and came out on Ṣāf-hill. Hearing there that Aūzbegs were overrunning Sān and Chār-yak,[1175] we sent a force under Qāsim Beg against them; he got up with them, beat them well, cut many heads off, and returned.
We lay a few days in the meadow of Ṣāf-hill, waiting for news of Jahāngīr Mīrzā and the clans (aīmāq) to whom persons had been sent. We hunted once, those hills being very full of wild sheep and goats (kiyīk). All the clans came in and waited on me within a few days; it was to me they came; they had not gone to Jahāngīr Mīrzā though he had sent men often enough to them, once sending even ‘Imādu’d-dīn Mas‘ūd. He himself was forced to come at last; he saw me at the foot of the valley when I came down off Ṣāf-hill. Being anxious about Khurāsān, we neither paid him attention nor took thought for the clans, but went right on through Gurzwān, Almār, Qaiṣār, Chīchīk-tū, and Fakhru’d-dīn’s-death (aūlūm) into the Bām-valley, Fol. 185.one of the dependencies of Bādghīs.
The world being full of divisions,[1176] things were being taken from country and people with the long arm; we ourselves began to take something, by laying an impost on the Turks and clans of those parts, in two or three months taking perhaps 300 tūmāns of kipkī.[1177]
(d. Coalition of the Khurāsān Mīrzās.)
A few days before our arrival (in Bām-valley?) some of the Khurāsān light troops and of Ẕū’n-nūn Beg’s men had well beaten Aūzbeg raiders in Pand-dih (Panj-dih?) and Marūchāq, killing a mass of men.[1178]