28 FARGHANA
by nature and habit, a stingy, severe, strife-stirring person, false, self-pleasing, rough of tongue and cold-of-face.
Wais Laghari,^ one of the Samarkand Tughchi people, was another. Latterly he was much in 'Umar Shaikh Mirza's con- fidence ; in the guerilla times he was with me. Though some- what factious, he was a man of good judgment and counsel.
MirGhiyas Taghai was another, a younger brother of 'Ali-dost Taghai. No man amongst the leaders in SI. Abu-sa'id Mirza's Gate was more to the front than he ; he had charge of the Mirza's square seal^ and was much in his confidence latterly. He was a friend of Wais Laghari, When Kasan had been given to SI. Mahmud Khan (899AH.-1494AD.), he was continuously in The Khan's service and was in high favour. He was a laugher' a joker and fearless in vice.
'Ali-darwesh Khurasani was another. He had served in the Khurasan Cadet Corps, one of two special corps of serviceable young men formed by SI. Abu-sa'id Mirza when he first began Foi. 15/;. to arrange the government of Khurasan and Samarkand, and, presumably, called by him the Khurasan Corps and the Samar- kand Corps. 'Ali-darwesh was a brave man ; he did well in my presence at the Gate of Bishkaran.^ He wrote the naskh tal'iq hand clearly.4 His was the flatterer's tongue and in his character avarice was supreme.
Qambar-'ali Mughal of the Equerries (akhtachi) was another. People called him The Skinner because his father, on first coming into the (Farghana) country, worked as a skinner. Qambar-'ali had been Yunas Khan's water-bottle bearer,^ later on he became a beg. Till he was a made man, his conduct was excellent ; once arrived, he was slack. He was full of talk and of foolish talk, — a great talker is sure to be a foolish one, — his capacity was limited and his brain muddy.
1 Wais the Thin. AD Cf. Chardin ed. Langles v, 461 and ed. 1723 AD. v, 183.
2 n.e. of Kasan. Cf. f. 74. Hai MS., erroneously, Samarkand.
3 An occasional doubt arises as to whether a tauri of the text is Arabic and dispraises or Turki and laudatory. Cf. Mems. p. 17 and Mims. i, 3.
4 Elph. and Hai. MSS. aftabachi, water-bottle bearer on journeys ; Kehr (p. 82) aftabchi, ewer-bearer ; Ilminsky (p. 19) akhtachi, squire or groom. Circumstances support aftabachi. Yunas was town-bred, his ewer-bearer would hardly be the rough Mughul, Qambar-'ali, useful as an aftabachi.
