Swords From the East (81 page)

Using England for example, the townspeople and valley farmers of Babar's lands were like the ancient Welsh-the Moghuls, the Saxons-the Uzbeks, the Normans.

*Turkestan here means the boundary of the Turks-the northern deserts where the Uzbeks came from. Modern Turkestan covers all Babar's kingdoms.

`The boy king, Babar, had done what no other member of his numerous family dared to attempt: he had drawn the sword against the invading Uzbeks. But the Khan, his uncle, and the scheming Moghul chieftain Tambal-who had already settled themselves in Babar's hill cities to the north-would send him at first only a few hundred men. To Babar, who was accustomed to fighting his way with a handful of followers, a thousand warriors seemed an army large enough to challenge the Uzbeks, with whose fierce fighting qualities he was still unfamiliar. Babar's uncle and brother and Tambal were well satisfied to let him take the risks: they gathered the spoils.

*Perhaps the Great Bear.

'This was Babar's first encounter with the dreaded Mongol "swoop." His left wing had been turned by the swift-riding and more numerous Uzbeks; and in facing his center about to meet this danger, he had opened a gap between his main forces and his right wing. The veteran Shaibani Khan attacked this gap from front and rear, and Babar had lost his first battle almost before he knew what was happening. But the young king never forgot this lesson and made use of the "swoop" himself thereafter.

*Babar's bitter invective against the race of his ancestors was wrung from him by repeated desertion and treachery on the part of the Moghul hardy nomads-true marauders. He was learning that he could only count on the warriors who followed him for his own sake.

*In the Uzbek annals it is related that Babar's sister was part of the capitulation, that she was in love with the barbarian Shaibani Khan, and entered his harem. Characteristically, Babar has no word of reproach for his sister. Having done his utmost to defend Samarkand, he tried to put the disaster out of his mind, and even managed to enjoy a horse race in the Prince of Wales manner.

The mountain capital, Babar's childhood home, now held by Tambal, the Moghul chieftain who kept Babar's brother with him and was waiting to cast his lot with the winning side.

*The title Kwajah is given to a man of learning or sanctity.

*It must be remembered that the Moghuls (Mongols) were descendants of the warriors of Genghis Khan.

*Babar was beginning to realize that he had been neatly trapped. His uncles were fleeing, Tambal and the Uzbeks approaching. Bayezid held the citadel and the streets, Babar only the stone fort near the outer wall.

'Tambal's plans had worked out with the precision of a beautiful checkmate. Probably he had allowed Jahangir to escape to join Babar so the two youths could be caught in the trap. He had anticipated Babar's usual carelessness in guarding himself or suspecting others. It was a point of honor with Babar to keep faith with Bayezid.

*Remember that Babar had pledged a truce with Sheikh Bayezid, and he was glad that his enemy had not been slain while he was a captive. But with Bayezid released and the whole trap revealed, Babar rejoiced heartily when they met face to face. Bayezid, it seems, was armed by them.

'If Babar and his two brothers fell into the hands of the renegade at the same time, they would have been turned over to Shaibani Khan.

*The purification before death-washing the hands, feet, and head. The young Babar, it seems, had determined to die fighting rather than be taken captive before Tambal. His invincible hopefulness had kept him watching until now for aid to turn up. To the two who betrayed him, the king was more valuable alive than dead-and they had a healthy respect for his sword.

`The transcriber wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the translators of the Babar-nameh, Dr. Leyden and Mr. William Erskine, from whose excellent version written a hundred years ago the following narrative is taken-also to the valuable commentary of Dr. Stanley Lane-Poole.

BBabar went through the Kaluga Pass, little thinking that he, with his shepherds and marauders, was about to play a part similar to the great conquerors his ancestors, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, who had gone through that pass-called the Iron Gate-before him.

t1504

*Canopus-this star is not visible in the northern latitudes.

'The Hazaras were a people descended from a remnant of the horde of Genghis Khan, which passed near here. Babar was entering the hill passes of the Hindu Kush, the breeding ground of the fierce-fighting Afghan and Pathan tribes. In nearly every case these tribes flocked to give battle to Babar, but, after a beating, followed him cheerfully in the hope of more sword strokes and plunder. They poured out of the passes of the Hindu Kush a thousand strong. But it was no easy matter to keep them in hand.

'Roum-modern Turkey-in Asia; Chin-modern China.

*Babar refers to the mountains held by the Afghan tribes, due south of Kabul.

'Modern India.

*Delayed by the earthquake, Babar did not advance into Hindustan at this time, but thrashed the neighboring tribes to his heart's content. The Afghans and Hazaras began to have a healthy respect for the Tiger when he stormed their mountain sangars and erected pyramids of the heads of the slain. He also held his turbulent warriors in iron restraint. He still dreamed of driving Shaibani Khan from his homeland.

*Babar soon saw that the play-acting princes were not the sort that could oppose his enemy, Shaibani Khan. Nor could they bring themselves to let the young king, a veteran of ten years' warfare, strike a blow against the invader. Babar guessed shrewdly that if he did not head back at once to Kabul, he would have no kingdom left by spring. It was now mid-January, the road by which he had come was closed, and he set out to find a new route over the snowbound Hindu Kush.

*The Zard Sang pass, over the Koh-I-Baba, reaching some 12,ooo feet.

*Babar's recklessness in crossing the Hindu Kush was rewarded. His determination to share the lot of his men, even at risk to his own life, earned their steadfast loyalty. Alone among Oriental monarchs of his age, he could raise armies of nobles, warriors, and wanderers by lifting his standard. His personal courage was almost unmatched. Once, when reduced to dire straits, he challenged an enemy chieftain to a mounted duel. The chieftain declined, but five of his champions accepted. Babar met them in turn, killing or disabling all of them. This incident, by the way, is not to be found in his memoirs.

-The Emperor without ceremony and quite cheerfully saluted his step-grandmother who had set up her own grandson as king in his stead. She was abashed and knew not what to say. Saying `What right has one child to be angered because the motherly affection descends on another?' he laid his head on the lap of the imperial princess and tried to sleep. He acted thus to reassure her." (From the account of the chief conspirator's son.

*Shaibani Khan, the Tiger's great adversary, was cut down in battle with the Persians soon after this. But the Uzbeks and now the Persians were too strongly entrenched in Babar's former kingdoms to be driven out-although the young king made one last effort to do so. Having failed to make himself king in Samarkand, he decided hopefully to conquer India-a country still unknown to him.

*Midway down the Khyber gorge, where the British now have a fort.

*A preparation of hemp, called sometimes hashish, after the Assassins of Persia, who were devotees of the drug. Only the mullahs, kwajahs, and exceedingly devout Muhammadans abstained from wine in this age. Babar drank no wine until middle age, but went to it with a vim when he began. He had a remarkable constitution and would appear in the saddle before daybreak after successive nights of drinking and drug-taking.

*Babar's line of march was almost due southeast from Kabul. He skirted the border of modern Kasmir and the foothills of the Himalayas, crossing all of the five rivers of the Punjab. Sultan Ibrahim was assembling his host near Delhi and gave battle to the Tiger at Panipat, some fifty miles north of the city.

*In the Turki Mss of the memoirs the following note appears at this place: "As my honored father mentions in commentaries the occasion of his first using the razor. In humble emulation of him I have noted down the same circumstance. I was then eighteen years of age. Now I, Muhammad Humayun, am transcribing a copy of these Memoirs from the manuscript in his late majesty's handwriting."

*Khutbeh, prayer for the health and long life of the reigning monarch. Ibrahim being slain and his head presented to Babar, the Tiger saw to it that the prayer was read in his name.

This may have been the "Great Moghul" or Koh-i-nur diamond, or the "Ocean of Light." The Hindus who presented it to Humayun were the family of the slain Raja Bikramajit, and their act was not altogether under compulsion. They were not allies of Ibrahim's Afghan dynasty, and Humayun had placed a guard over them to protect them from inevitable plundering at the hands of the Moslem inhabitants of the city.

*Babar gave his officers and the new Afghan nobles palaces and districts that were still unconquered. Naturally, they set out with considerable zeal to take possession.

*Babar does not mention by name either the princess or her grandson-a forbearance remarkable in an emperor of Asia, or Christian Europe in the early sixteenth century. The war-ridden provinces of Hindustan were discovering that he was an able ruler, and many were submitting to him. One whole Afghan army came in and surrendered. He rewarded the newcomers royally. Babar was always generous, and did not care to hoard up a treasure for himself. This allegiance of the fighting Afghan clans, and his splendid treatment of them, probably saved his throne in the coming struggle with the Rajputs.

The Rajputs were the most warlike of the races of India. They were chivalrous warriors, and experienced, if impetuous soldiers. Rana Sanga was old in years and wisdom, with fifty sword and lance scars on his body, blind in one eye, with an arm cut off and one leg crippled. Seven Rajas and a hundred chieftains, eighty thousand horse, and five hundred elephants were at his back. He was in all things a foeman to delight Babar.

`Muhammadan warriors of this period were incurably anxious about the first omens of a battle. An initial success, however slight, was taken as assurance of victory. Babar knew this very well. And he needed all his vigilance during these trying days. Rana Sanga's army is recorded as numbering two hundred thousand. This is exaggerated, but the whole power of the Rajputs was in the field with ten thousand allies, followers of the dead Sultan Ibrahim. Babar had been deserted by his allies, and the odds of seven or eight to one were enough to awe even the fiery Moghuls. Never had an army been so confident of victory as the Rajputs. The account of the battle in the memoirs is quoted from a rhetorical bombast of a certain Sheikh Zein, utterly different from the calm simplicity of Babar. In order to give any clear idea of the battle, it has been necessary to rewrite the version of the worthy sheikh, which begins after these paragraphs.

`Seldom, if ever, had a Rajput army been defeated by inferior numbers. Their terrible overthrow at Kanwaha was due to Babar's generalship and his maneuvering of the disciplined Moghuls. It marked, in Asia, the passing of the horseman as the supreme factor in battle-as Crecy and Agincourt had done in Europe. From the date of Kanwaha, February 1527, no Rana of a reigning house in Rajputana took the field against the Moghuls. Rana Sanga kept the field, it is true, and vowed never to enter his city of Chitore except as a victor, but he died soon after and his successors began the usual quarreling among themselves. The overthrow of the Rajput chivalry made Babar master of India and gave a central government to that much harried land, but the days of the Tiger were numbered and he did not long survive his victory.

*Babar is speaking again.

*This was the johur, the terrible sacrifice that accompanied the loss of a Rajput stronghold. Usually the inner wall of the citadel was fired, after the women had shut themselves up in it, and the men, clad in saffron garments, went out to slay and be slain. No one survived. In this case the swift attack of the Moghuls had hurried the ghastly preparations. Babar, who praised the bravery of the Rajputs at Kanwaha, has no praise for the johur.

*The Tiger of ten years earlier would not have waited a day to cross. Constant fever, the pain of old wounds, and the effect of the Indian climate were beginning to tell on Babar. He longed to return to Kabul to rest, but saw clearly that his new empire must be ruled from Agra and not Kabul. Six months later he fought his last battle against the king of Bengal, and won it. After this the Moghuls held all central and northern India, and ruled it until India passed into the hand of the British Raj.

`Kizilbashas, the Persians. In these imperial feasts Babar's adherents offered him large amounts of money, etc., as tribute, and received back in turn liberal gifts of horses, garments of honor, weapons, etc. Their estates were held as gifts from the crown-everything belonged to the emperor. The spoils of battle, elephants, and weapons were offered him, and he gave them back, or other presents as he might be inclined. This system of gifts and countergifts dates back to the early Mongol and Turki monarchs. It is very well illustrated by the great diamond that came into Humayun's hand at Agra. He presented it to his father as a tributeoffering, and Babar returned it to his son as a gift. Later Moghuls were not as generous as the Tiger.

*These were the last words the Tiger wrote, and were found in a fragment of his papers long afterward. In about a week he died, in what should have been the prime of his life, the age of forty-eight. He had spent thirty-six of these years in the field of war-in camp or saddle, and, weakened by old wounds and fever, he met his death without misgiving, a gallant gentleman. There have been other Moghuls of India, but not in all Asia a second Babar.

`This is my prefatory remark rather than Arthur Sullivan Hoffman's. The reader's letter was quite lengthy and dealt with bow matters addressed to other writers, so I have extracted only the relevant question. -HAJ