899 AH.— OCT. 12th. 1493 to OCT. 2nd. 1494 31
or move ; they paid attention to our proposal, gave it a harsh answer and moved forward.
But the Almighty God, who, of His perfect power and with- out mortal aid, has ever brought my affairs to their right issue, made such things happen here that they became disgusted at having advanced {i.e. from Qaba), repented indeed that they had ever set out on this expedition and turned back with nothing done.
One of those things was this : Qaba has a stagnant, morass- like Water,^ passable only by the bridge. As they were many, there was crowding on the bridge and numbers of horses and Fol. camels were pushed off to perish in the water. This disaster recalling the one they had had three or four years earlier when they were badly beaten at the passage of the Chir, they gave way to fear. Another thing was that such a murrain broke out amongst their horses that, massed together, they began to die off in bands.^ Another was that they found in our soldiers and peasants a resolution and single-mindedness such as would not let them flinch from making offering of their lives ^ so long as there was breath and power in their bodies. Need being therefore, when one yighach from Andijan, they sent Darwesh Muhammad Tarkhan* to us; Hasan of Yaq'ub went out from those in the fort ; the two had an interview near the Praying Place and a sort of peace was made. This done, SI. Ahmad Mirza's force retired.
Meantime SI. Mahmud Khan had come along the north of the Khujand Water and laid siege to Akhsi.^ In Akhsi was
1 batqaq. This word is underlined in the Elph. MS. by dil-dil and in the Hai. MS. by jam-jama. It is translated in the W.-i-B. by ab pur hila, water full of deceit ; it is our Slough of Despond. It may be remarked that neither Zenker nor Steingass gives to dil-dil or jam-jama the meaning of morass ; the Akbat-ndma does so. (H.B. ii, 112.)
2 tawila tawila atlar atghilib aula kirishti. I understand the word yighilib to convey that the massing led to the spread of the murrian.
3 jdn tardtmaqlar i.e. as a gift to their over-lord.
4 Perhaps, Babur's maternal great-uncle. It would suit the privileges bestowed on Tarkhans if their title meant Khan of the Gifts (Turki tar, gift). In the Baburnama, it excludes all others. Most of Ahmad's begs were Tarkhans, Arghuns and Chingiz Khanids, some of them ancestors of later rulers in Tatta and Sind. Concerning the Tarkhans seeT.R. p. 55 and note ; A.N. (H.B. s.n.) Elliot and Dowson's History of India , 498.
5 Cf. f. 6.
