It is in the Ḥaidarābād MS. (f. 118b), in Kehr’s MS. (p. 385), in Ilminsky’s imprint (p. 144), in Les Mémoires de Bābour (i, 255) and with the St. P. University Codex, which is a copy of Kehr’s.
On the other hand, it is not with the Elphinstone Codex (f. 89b); that it was not with the archetype of that codex the scribe’s note shews (f. 90); it is with neither of the Wāqi‘āt-i-bāburī (Pers. translations) nor with Leyden and Erskine’s Memoirs (p. 122).[2757]
Before giving our grounds for rejecting what has been offered to fill the gap of 908 AH. a few words must be said about the lacuna itself. Nothing indicates that Bābur left it and, since both in the Elphinstone Codex and its archetype, the sentence preceding it lacks the terminal verb, it seems due merely to loss of pages. That the loss, if any, was of early date is clear,—the Elph. MS. itself being copied not later than 1567 AD. (JRAS. 1907, p. 137).
Two known circumstances, both of earlier date than that of the Elphinstone Codex, might have led to the loss,—the first is the storm which in 935 AH. scattered Bābur’s papers (f. 376b), the second, the vicissitudes to which Humāyūn’s library was exposed in his exile.[2758] Of the two the first seems the more probable cause.
The rupture of a story at a point so critical as that of Bābur’s danger in Karnān would tempt to its completion; so too would wish to make good the composed part of the Bābur-nāma. Humāyūn annotated the archetype of the Elphinstone Codex a good deal but he cannot have written the Rescue passage if only because he was in a position to avoid some of its inaccuracies.
CONTEXT AND TRANSLATION OF THE RESCUE PASSAGE.
To facilitate reference, I quote the last words preceding the gap purported to be filled by the Rescue passage, from several texts;—
(a) Elphinstone MS. f. 89b,—Qūptūm. Bāgh gosha-sī-gha bārdīm. Aūzūm bīla andesha qīldīm. Dīdīm kīm kīshī agar yūz u agar mīng yāshāsā, ākhir hech....
(b) The Ḥai. MS. (f. 118b) varies from the Elphinstone by omitting the word hech and adding aūlmāk kīrāk, he must die.