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THE MEMOIRS OF BABUR
SECTION I. FARGHANA.
IN the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
In[1] the month of Ramzan of the year 899 (June 1494) and in the twelfth year of my age,[2] I became ruler[3] in the country of Farghāna. Haidarabad MS. fol. 16.
(a. Description of Farghāna.)
Farghāna is situated in the fifth climate[4] and at the limit of settled habitation. On the east it has Kāshghar; on the west, Samarkand; on the south, the mountains of the Badakhshān border; on the north, though in former times there must have been towns such as Almālīgh, Ālmātū and
- ↑ The manuscripts relied on for revising the first section of the Memoirs, (i.e. 899 to 908 AH.-1494 to 1502 AD.) are the Elphinstone and the Haidarābād Codices. To variants from them occurring in Dr. Kehr's own transcript no authority can be allowed because throughout this section, his text appears to be a compilation and in parts a retranslation from one or other of the two Persian translations (Waqi'at-i-baburi) of the Babur-nāma. Moreover Dr. Ilminsky's imprint of Kehr's text has the further defect in authority that it was helped out from the Memoirs, itself not a direct issue from the Turki original. Information about the manuscripts of the Babur-nāma can be found in the JRAS for 1900, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908. The foliation marked in the margin of this book is that of the Haidarābād Codex and of its facsimile, published in 1905 by the Gibb Memorial Trust.
- ↑ Bābur, born on Friday, Feb. 14th. 1483 (Muharram 6, 888 AH.), succeeded his father, 'Umar Shaikh who died on June 8th. 1494 (Ramzan 4, 899 AH.).
- ↑ pād-shāh, protecting lord, supreme. It would be an anachronism to translate pādshah by King or Emperor, previous to 913 AH. (1507 AD.) because until that date it was not part of the style of any Timūrid, even ruling members of the house being styled Mirzā. Up to 1507 therefore Babur's correct style is Bābur Mirza. (Cf. f. 215 and note.)
- ↑ See Ayin-i-akbari, Jarrett, p. 44.
