She yearns not for Bābur; he fosters a hope
That her heart of steel God one day may melt.[1469]
(July 15th) On Friday the 17th of the month, Shaikh Mazīd Kūkūldāsh waited on me from Muḥammad-i-zamān Mīrzā, bringing taṣadduq tribute and a horse.[1470] Today Shāh Beg’s envoy Abū’l-muslim Kūkūldāsh was robed in an honorary dress and given leave to go. Today also leave was given for their own districts of Khwāst and Andar-āb to Khwāja Muḥammad ‘Alī and Tīngrī-bīrdī.
(July 21st) On Thursday the 23rd came Muḥ. ‘Alī Jang-jang who had been left in charge of the countries near Kacha-kot and the Qārlūq. With him came one of Hātī’s people and Mīrzā-i-malū-i-qārlūq’s son Shāh Ḥasan. Today Mullā ‘Alī-jān waited on me, returned from fetching his wife from Samarkand.
(z. The ‘Abdu’r-raḥman Afghāns and Rustam-maidān.)
(July 27th) The ‘Abdu’r-raḥman Afghāns on the Gīrdīz border were satisfactory neither in their tribute nor their behaviour; they were hurtful also to the caravans which came and went. On Wednesday the 29th of Rajab we rode out to over-run them. We dismounted and ate food near Tang-i-waghchān,[1471] and rode on again at the Mid-day Prayer. In the night we lost the road and got much bewildered in the ups and downs of the land to the south-east of Pātakh-i-āb-i-shakna.[1472] After a time we lit onFol. 238b. a road and by it crossed the Chashma-i-tūra[1473] pass.
(July 28th) At the first prayer (farẓ-waqt) we got out from the valley-bottom adjacent[1474] to the level land, and the raid was allowed. One detachment galloped towards the Kar-māsh[1475] mountain, south-east of Gīrdīz, the left-hand of the centre led by Khusrau, Mīrzā Qulī and Sayyid ‘Alī in their rear. Most of the army galloped up the dale to the east of Gīrdīz, having in their rear men under Sayyid Qāsim Lord of the Gate, Mīr Shāh Qūchīn, Qayyām (Aūrdū-shāh Beg?), Hindū Beg, Qūtlūq-qadam and Ḥusain [Ḥasan?]. Most of the army having gone up the dale, I followed at some distance. The dalesmen must have been a good way up; those who went after them wore their horses out and nothing to make up for this fell into their hands.
Some Afghāns on foot, some 40 or 50 of them, having appeared on the plain, the rear-reserve went towards them. A courier was sent to me and I hastened on at once. Before I got up with them, Ḥusain Ḥāsan, all alone, foolishly and thoughtlessly, put his horse at those Afghāns, got in amongst them and began to lay on with his sword. They shot his horse, thus made him fall, slashed at him as he was getting up, flung him down, knifed him from all sides and cut him to pieces, while the other braves looked on, standing still and reaching him no helping hand! On hearing news of it, I hurried still faster forward, and sent some of the household and braves galloping loose-rein ahead Fol. 239.under Gadāī T̤aghāī, Payānda-i-muḥammad Qīplān, Abū’l-ḥasan the armourer and Mūmin Ātāka. Mūmin Ātāka was the first of them to bring an Afghān down; he speared one, cut off his head and brought it in. Abū’l-ḥasan the armourer, without mail as he was, went admirably forward, stopped in front of the Afghāns, laid his horse at them, chopped at one, got him down, cut off and brought in his head. Known though both were for bravelike deeds done earlier, their action in this affair added to their fame. Every one of those 40 or 50 Afghāns, falling to the arrow, falling to the sword, was cut in pieces. After making a clean sweep of them, we dismounted in a field of growing corn and ordered a tower of their heads to be set up. As we went along the road I said, with anger and scorn, to the begs who had been with Ḥusain, “You! what men! there you stood on quite flat ground, and looked on while a few Afghāns on foot overcame such a brave in the way they did! Your rank and station must be taken from you; you must lose pargana and country; your beards must be shaved off and you must be exhibited in towns; for there shall be punishment assuredly for him who looks on while such a brave is beaten by such a foe Fol. 239b.on dead-level land, and reaches out no hand to help!” The troop which went to Kar-māsh brought back sheep and other spoil. One of them was Bābā Qashqa[1476] Mughūl; an Afghān had made at him with a sword; he had stood still to adjust an arrow, shot it off and brought his man down.
(July 29th) Next day at dawn we marched for Kābul. Pay-aster Muḥammad, ‘Abdu’l-‘azīz Master of the Horse, and Mīr Khūrd the taster were ordered to stop at Chashma-tūra, and get pheasants from the people there.