Page:Babur-nama Vol 1.djvu/125

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900 AH.— OCT. 2nd. 1494 TO SEP. 21ST. 1495 AD. 55

tomb. I left at the hour of the Friday Prayer {i.e., about mid- day) and reached Andijan, by the Band-i-salar Road between the Evening and Bedtime Prayers. This road i.e. the Band-i- salar, people call a mneylghdch road.^

One of the tribes of the wilds of Andijan is the Jigrak^ a numerous people of five or six thousand households, dwelling in the mountains between Kashghar and Farghana. They have many horses and sheep and also numbers of yaks [quids), these hill-people keeping yaks instead of common cattle. As their mountains are border-fastnesses, they have a fashion of not paying tribute. An army was now sent against them under (Sayyid) Qasim Beg in order that out of the tribute taken from them something might reach the soldiers. He took about 20,000 of their sheep and between 1000 and 1500 of their horses and shared all out to the men.

After its return from the Jigrak, the army set out for Aura- Foi. 34. tipa. Formerly this was held by *Umar Shaikh Mirza but it had gone out of hand in the year of his death and SI. 'Ali Mirza was now in it on behalf of his elder brother, Bai- sunghar Mirza. When SI. 'Ali Mirza heard of our coming, he went off himself to the Macha hill-country, leaving his guardian, Shaikh Zii'n-niin ArghUn behind. From half-way between Khujand and Aura-tipa, Khalifa^ was sent as envoy to Shaikh Zu'n-nun but that senseless mannikin, instead of giving him a plain answer, laid hands on him and ordered him to death. For Khalifa to die cannot have been the Divine will ; he escaped and came to me two or three days later, stripped bare and having suffered a hundred tumdiis (1,000,000) of hardships and fatigues. We went almost to Aura-tipa but as, winter being near, people had carried away their corn and forage, after a few days we turned back for Andijan. After our retirement. The Khan's men moved on the place when the Aura-tipa

^ Cf. f. 4& and note. From Babur's special mention of it, it would seem not to be the usual road.

^ The spelling of this name is uncertain. Variants are many. Concerning tlie tribe see T.R. p. 165 n.

^ Nizamu'd-din 'Ali Barlds : see Gul-badan's H.N. s.n. He served Babur till the latter's death.