(aa. Bābur visits one of his officers.)
(Dec. 13th) On Sunday the last day of the month (Rabī‘ I. 30th)[2369] I went to Sl. Muḥammad Bakhshī’s house. After spreading a carpet, he brought gifts. His offering in money and goods was more than 2 laks.[2370] When food and offering had been set out, we went into another room where sitting, we ate ma‘jūn. We came away at the 3rd watch (midnight?), crossed the water, and went to the private house.
(bb. The Āgra-Kābul road measured.)
(Dec. 17th) On Thursday the 4th of the latter Rabī‘, it was settled that Chīqmāq Beg with Shāhī t̤amghāchī’s[2371] clerkship, should measure the road between Āgra and Kābul. At every 9th kuroh (cir. 18m.), a tower was to be erected 12 qārīs high[2372] and having a chār-dara[2373] on the top; at every 18th kuroh (cir. 36m.),[2374] 6 post-horses were to be kept fastened; and arrangement was to be made for the payment of post-masters and grooms, and for horse-corn. The order was, “If the place where the horses are fastened up,[2375] be near a crown-domain, let those there provide for the matters mentioned; if not, let the cost be charged on the beg in whose pargana the post-house may be.” Chīqmāq Beg got out of Āgra with Shāhī on that same day.
Fol. 351b.(Author’s note on the kuroh.) These kurohs were established in relation to the mīl, in the way mentioned in the Mubīn:—[2376]
| (Turkī) | Four thousand paces (qadam) are one mīl; Know that Hind people call this a kuroh; The pace (qadam) they say is a qārī and a half (36 in.); That each tūtām is four fingers (aīlīk), Each aīlīk, six barley-corns. Know this knowledge.[2377] |
The measuring-cord (t̤anāb)[2378] was fixed at 40 qārī, each being the one-and-a-half qārī mentioned above, that is to say, each is 9 hand-breadths.
(cc. A feast.)
(Dec. 18th) On Saturday the 6th of the month (Rabī‘ II.) there was a feast[2379] at which were present Qīzīl-bāsh (Red-head), and Aūzbeg, and Hindū envoys.[2380] The Qīzīl-bāsh envoys sat under an awning placed some 70-80 qārīs[2381] on my right, of the begs Yūnas-i-‘alī being ordered to sit with them. On my left the Aūzbeg envoys sat in the same way, of the begs ‘Abdu’l-lāh being ordered to sit with them. I sat on the north side of a newly-erected octagonal pavilion (tālār) covered in with khas[2382]. Five or six qārīs on my right sat Tūkhtā-būgha Sl. and ‘Askarī, with Khwāja ‘Abdu’sh-shahīd and Khwāja Kalān, descendants of his Reverence the Khwāja,[2383] and Khwāja Chishtī (var. Ḥusainī), and Khalīfa, together with the ḥāfiz̤es and mullās dependent on the Khwājas who had come from Samarkand. Five or six qārīs on my left sat Muḥammad-i-zamān M. and Tāng-ātmīsh Sl.[2384]Fol. 352. and Sayyid Rafī‘, Sayyid Rūmī, Shaikh Abū’l-fatḥ, Shaikh Jamālī, Shaikh Shihābu’d-dīn ‘Arab and Sayyid Daknī (var.Zaknī, Ruknī). Before food all the sult̤āns, khāns, grandees, and amīrs brought gifts[2385] of red, of white, of black,[2386] of cloth and various other goods. They poured the red and white on a carpet I had ordered spread, and side by side with the gold and silver piled plenishing, white cotton piece-cloth and purses (badra) of money. While the gifts were being brought and before food, fierce camels and fierce elephants[2387] were set to fight on an island opposite,[2388] so too a few rams; thereafter wrestlers grappled. After the chief of the food had been set out, Khwāja ‘Abdu’sh-shahīd and Khwāja Kalān were made to put on surtouts (jabbah) of fine muslin,[2389] spotted with gold-embroidery, and suitable dresses of honour, and those headed by Mullā Farrūkh and Ḥāfiz̤[2390] had jackets put on them. On Kūchūm Khān’s envoy[2391] and on Ḥasan Chalabi’s younger brother[2392] were bestowed silken head-wear (bāshlīq) and gold-embroidered surtouts of fine muslin, with suitable dresses of honour. Gold-embroidered jackets and silk coats were presented to the envoys of Abū-sa‘īd Sl. (Aūzbeg), of Mihr-bān Khānīm and her son Pulād Sl., and of Shāh Ḥasan Fol. 352b.(Arghūn). The two Khwājas and the two chief envoys, that is to say Kūchūm Khān’s retainer and Ḥasan Chalabī’s younger brother, were presented with a silver stone’s weight of gold and a gold stone’s weight of silver.
(Author’s note on the Turkī stone-weight.) The gold stone (tāsh) is 500 mis̤qāls, that is to say, one Kābul sīr; the silver stone is 250 mis̤qāls, that is to say, half a Kābul sīr.[2393]