Kalda-kahār is some 20 miles north of Bhīra, a level land shut in[1405] amongst the Jūd mountains. In the middle of it is a lake some six miles round, the in-gatherings of rain from all sides. On the north of this lake lies an excellent meadow; on the hill-skirt to the west of it there is a spring[1406] having its source in the heights overlooking the lake. The place being suitable I have made a garden there, called the Bāgh-i-ṣafā,[1407] as will be told later; it is a very charming place with good air.
(Feb. 21st) We rode from Kalda-kahār at dawn next day. When we reached the top of the Hamtātū-pass a few local people waited on me, bringing a humble gift. They were joined with ‘Abdu’r-raḥīm the chief-scribe (shaghāwal) and sent with him to speak the Bhīra people fair and say, “The possession of this country by a Turk has come down from of old; beware not to bring ruin on its people by giving way to fear and anxiety; our eye is on this land and on this people; raid and rapine shall not be.”
We dismounted near the foot of the pass at breakfast-time,Fol. 224b. and thence sent seven or eight men ahead, under Qurbān of Chīrkh and ‘Abdu’l-malūk of Khwāst. Of those sent one Mīr Muḥammad (a servant ?) of Mahdī Khwāja[1408] brought in a man. A few Afghān headmen, who had come meantime with offerings and done obeisance, were joined with Langar Khān to go and speak the Bhīra people fair.
After crossing the pass and getting out of the jungle, we arrayed in right and left and centre, and moved forward for Bhīra. As we got near it there came in, of the servants of Daulat Khān Yūsuf-khail’s son ‘Alī Khān, Sīktū’s son Dīwa Hindū; with them came several of the notables of Bhīra who brought a horse and camel as an offering and did me obeisance. At the Mid-day Prayer we dismounted on the east of Bhīra, on the bank of the Bahat (Jehlam), in a sown-field, without hurt or harm being allowed to touch the people of Bhīra.
(k. History of Bhīra.)
Tīmūr Beg had gone into Hindūstān; from the time he went out again these several countries viz. Bhīra, Khūsh-āb, Chīn-āb and Chīnīūt, had been held by his descendants and the dependants and adherents of those descendants. After the death of Sl. Mas‘ūd Mīrzā and his son ‘Alī Asghar Mīrzā, the sons of Mīr ‘Alī Beg Fol. 225.viz. Bābā-i-kābulī, Daryā Khān and Apāq Khān, known later as Ghāzī Khān, all of whom Sl. Mas‘ūd M. had cherished, through their dominant position, got possession of Kābul, Zābul and the afore-named countries and parganas of Hindūstān. In Sl. Abū-sa‘īd Mīrzā’s time, Kābul and Zābul went from their hands, the Hindūstān countries remaining. In 910 AH. (1504 AD.) the year I first came into Kābul, the government of Bhīra, Khūsh-āb and Chīn-āb depended on Sayyid ‘Alī Khān, son of Ghāzī Khān and grandson of Mīr ‘Alī Beg, who read the khut̤ba for Sikandar son of Buhlūl (Lūdī Afghān) and was subject to him. When I led that army out (910 AH.) Sayyid ‘Alī Khān left Bhīra in terror, crossed the Bahat-water, and seated himself in Sher-kot, one of the villages of Bhīra. A few years later the Afghāns became suspicious about him on my account; he, giving way to his own fears and anxieties, made these countries over to the then governor Fol. 225b.in Lāhūr, Daulat Khān, son of Tātār Khān Yūsuf-khail, who gave them to his own eldest son ‘Alī Khān, and in ‘Alī Khān’s possession they now were.
(Author’s note on Sl. Mas‘ūd Mīrzā.) He was the son of Sūyūrghatmīsh Mīrzā, son of Shāhrukh Mīrzā, (son of Tīmūr), and was known as Sl. Mas‘ūd Kābulī because the government and administration of Kābul and Zābul were then dependent on him (deposed 843 AH.-1440 AD.)
(Author’s note to 910 AH.) That year, with the wish to enter Hindūstān, Khaibar had been crossed and Parashāwūr (sic) had been reached, when Bāqī Chaghānīānī insisted on a move against Lower Bangash i.e. Kohāt, a mass of Afghāns were raided and scraped clean (qīrīb), the Bannū plain was raided and plundered, and return was made through Dūkī (Dūgī).
(Author’s note on Daulat Khān Yūsuf-khail.) This Tātār Khān, the father of Daulat Khān, was one of six or seven sardārs who, sallying out and becoming dominant in Hindūstān, made Buhlūl Pādshāh. He held the country north of the Satluj (sic) and Sahrind,[1409] the revenues of which exceeded 3 krūrs.[1410] On Tātār Khān’s death, Sl. Sikandar (Lūdī), as over-lord, took those countries from Tātār Khān’s sons and gave Lāhūr only to Daulat Khān. That happened a year or two before I came into the country of Kābul (910 AH.).
(l. Bābur’s journey resumed.)