Acting on this decision, we rode out of Yār-yīlāq after the Mid-day Prayer, and on through the dark till mid-night when we reached Khān-yūrtī. Here we had word that the Samarkandīs knew of our coming; for this reason we went no nearer to the town but made straight back from Khān-yūrtī. It was dawn when, after crossing the Kohik-water below Rabāt̤-i-khwāja, we were once more in Yār-yīlāq.
One day in Fort Asfīdik a household party was sitting in my presence; Dost-i-nāṣir and Nuyān536 Kūkūldāsh and Khān-qulī-i-Karīm-dād and Shaikh Darwesh and Mīrīm-i-nāṣir were all there. Words were crossing from all sides when (I said), ‘Come now! say when, if God bring it right, we shall take Samarkand.’ Some said, ‘We shall take it in the heats.’ It was then late in autumn. Others said, ‘In a month,’ ‘Forty days,’ ‘Twenty days.’ Nuyān Kūkūldāsh said, ‘We shall take it in 14.’ God shewed him right! we did take it in exactly 14 days.
Just at that time I had a wonderful dream; – His Highness Khwāja ‘Ubaid’l-lāh (Aḥrārī) seemed to come; I seemed to go out to give him honourable meeting; he came in and seated himself; people seemed to lay a table-cloth before him, apparently without sufficient care and, on account of this, something seemed to come into his Highness Khwāja’s mind. Mullā Bābā (? Pashāgharī) made me a sign; I signed back, ‘Not through me! the table-layer is in fault!’ The Khwāja understood and accepted the excuse.537 When he rose, I escorted him out. In the hall of that house he took hold of either my right or left arm and lifted me up till one of my feet was off the ground, saying, in Turkī, ‘Shaikh Maṣlaḥat has given (Samarkand).’538 I really took Samarkand a few days later.
(d. Bābur takes Samarkand by surprise.)
In two or three days move was made from Fort Asfīdik to Fort Wasmand. Although by our first approach, we had let our plan be known, we put our trust in God and made another expedition to Samarkand. It was after the Mid-day Prayer that we rode out of Fort Wasmand, Khwāja Abū’l-makāram accompanying us. By mid-night we reached the Deep-fosse-bridge in the Avenue. From there we sent forward a detachment of 70 or 80 good men who were to set up ladders opposite the Lovers’-cave, mount them and get inside, stand up to those in the Turquoise Gate, get possession of it and send a man to me. Those braves went, set their ladders up opposite the Lovers’-cave, got in without making anyone aware, went to the Gate, attacked Fāẓil Tarkhān, chopped at him and his few retainers, killed them, broke the lock with an axe and opened the Gate. At that moment I came up and went in.
(Author’s note on Fāẓil Tarkhān.) He was not one of those (Samarkand) Tarkhāns; he was a merchant-tarkhān of Turkistān. He had served Shaibānī Khān in Turkistān and had found favour with him.539
Abū’l-qāsim Kohbur himself had not come with us but had sent 30 or 40 of his retainers under his younger brother, Aḥmad-i-qāsim. No man of Ibrāhīm Tarkhān’s was with us; his younger brother, Aḥmad Tarkhān came with a few retainers after I had entered the town and taken post in the Monastery.
The towns-people were still slumbering; a few traders peeped out of their shops, recognized me and put up prayers. When, a little later, the news spread through the town, there was rare delight and satisfaction for our men and the towns-folk. They killed the Aūzbegs in the lanes and gullies with clubs and stones like mad dogs; four or five hundred were killed in this fashion. Jān-wafā, the then governor, was living in Khwāja Yaḥya’s house; he fled and got away to Shaibāq Khān.540
On entering the Turquoise Gate I went straight to the College and took post over the arch of the Monastery. There was a hubbub and shouting of ‘Down! down!’ till day-break. Some of the notables and traders, hearing what was happening, came joyfully to see me, bringing what food was ready and putting up prayers for me. At day-light we had news that the Aūzbegs were fighting in the Iron Gate where they had made themselves fast between the (outer and inner) doors. With 10, 15 or 20 men, I at once set off for the Gate but before I came up, the town-rabble, busy ransacking every corner of the newly-taken town for loot, had driven the Aūzbegs out through it. Shaibāq Khān, on hearing what was happening, hurried at sun-rise to the Iron Gate with 100 or 140 men. His coming was a wonderful chance but, as has been said, my men were very few. Seeing that he could do nothing, he rode off at once. From the Iron Gate I went to the citadel and there dismounted, at the Bū-stān palace. Men of rank and consequence and various head-men came to me there, saw me and invoked blessings on me.
Samarkand for nearly 140 years had been the capital of our dynasty. An alien, and of what stamp! an Aūzbeg foe, had taken possession of it! It had slipped from our hands; God gave it again! plundered and ravaged, our own returned to us.
Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā took Harāt541 as we took Samarkand, by surprise, but to the experienced, and discerning, and just, it will be clear that between his affair and mine there are distinctions and differences, and that his capture and mine are things apart.
Firstly there is this; – He had ruled many years, passed through much experience and seen many affairs.
Secondly; – He had for opponent, Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā, an inexperienced boy of 17 or 18.
Thirdly; – (Yādgār Mīrzā’s) Head-equerry, Mīr ‘Alī, a person well-acquainted with the particulars of the whole position, sent a man out from amongst Sl. Ḥusain Mīrzā’s opponents to bring him to surprise them.
Fourthly; – His opponent was not in the fort but was in the Ravens’-garden. Moreover Yādgār Muḥ. Nāṣir Mīrzā and his followers are said to have been so prostrate with drink that three men only were in the Gate, they also drunk.
Fifthly; – he surprised and captured Harāt the first time he approached it.
On the other hand: firstly; – I was 19 when I took Samarkand.
Secondly; – I had as my opponent, such a man as Shaibāq Khān, of mature age and an eye-witness of many affairs.
Thirdly; – No-one came out of Samarkand to me; though the heart of its people was towards me, no-one could dream of coming, from dread of Shaibāq Khān.
Fourthly; – My foe was in the fort; not only was the fort taken but he was driven off.
Fifthly; – I had come once already; my opponent was on his guard about me. The second time we came, God brought it right! Samarkand was won.
In saying these things there is no desire to be-little the reputation of any man; the facts were as here stated. In writing these things, there is no desire to magnify myself; the truth is set down.
The poets composed chronograms on the victory; this one remains in my memory; – Wisdom answered, ‘Know that its date is the Victory (Fatḥ) of Bābur Bahādur.’
Samarkand being taken, Shavdār and Soghd and the tūmāns and nearer forts began, one after another, to return to us. From some their Aūzbeg commandants fled in fear and escaped; from others the inhabitants drove them and came in to us; in some they made them prisoner, and held the forts for us.
Just then the wives and families of Shaibāq Khān and his Aūzbegs arrived from Turkistān;542 he was lying near Khwāja Dīdār and ‘Alī-ābād but when he saw the forts and people returning to me, marched off towards Bukhārā. By God’s grace, all the forts of Soghd