Page:Babur-nama Vol 1.djvu/95
899 AH.— OCT. 12TH. 1493 TO OCT. 2nd. 1494 25
then 25 but youth notwithstanding, his rules and management were very good indeed. A few years later when Ibrahim Begchik was plundering near Aush, he followed him up, fought him, was beaten and became a martyr. At the time, SI. Ahmad Mirza was in the summer pastures of Aq Qachghai, in Aura- tipa, 18 ytghdch east of Samarkand, and SI. Abu-sa'id Mirza was at Baba Khaki, 12 yighach east of Hiri. People sent the news post-haste to the Mirza(s),^ having humbly represented it through 'Abdu'l-wahhab Shaghawal. In four days it was carried those 120 yighach of road.^
Hafiz Muhammad Beg Duldai was another, SI. Malik Kash- ghari's son and a younger brother of Ahmad Haji Beg. After the death of Khudai-birdi Beg, they sent him to control 'Umar Shaikh Mirza's Gate, but he did not get on well with the Andijan begs and therefore, when SI. Abu-sa'id Mirza died, went to Samarkand and took service with SI. Ahmad Mirza. At the time of the disaster on the Chir, he was in Aura-tipa and made it over to 'Umar Shaikh Mirza when the Mirza passed through on his way to Samarkand, himself taking Foi- 13^- service with him. The Mirza, for his part, gave him the Andijan Command. Later on he went to SI. Mahmud Khan
grosse, vier-eckige, hohe Halle, deren Boden etwa 2 m. uber den Weg erhoben ist. In dieser Halle, welche alle passiren muss, der dutch das Thor eingeht, reitet oder fahrt, ist die Thorwache placiert. Tagsuber sind die Thore bestandig offen, nach Eintritt der Dunkelheit aber werden dieselben geschlos- sen und die Schlussel dera zustandigen Polizeichef abgeliefert. ... In den erwahnten Thorhallen nehmen in den hoch unabhangigen Gebieten an Bazar- tagen haufig die Richter Platz, um jedem der irgend ein Anliegen hat, so fort Recht zu sprechen. Die zudiktierten Strafen werden auch gleich in diesem selben locale vollzogen und eventuell die zum Hangen verurteilten Verbrecher an den Deckbalken aufgehangt, so dass die Besucher des Bazars unter den gehenkten durchpassieren mussen."
1 bu khaharni 'Abdu'l-wahhab shaghdwaldin 'arza-ddsht qilib Mirzagha chapturdilar . This passage has been taken to mean that the shaghawal, i.e. chief scribe, was the courier, but I think Babur's words shew that the shagha- wal's act preceded the despatch of the news. Moreover the only accusative of the participle and of the verb is khabarni. 'Abdu'l-wahhab had been 'Umar Shaikh's and was now Ahmad's officer in Khujand, on the main road for Aura- tipa whence the courier started on the rapid ride. The news may have gone verbally to 'Abdu'l-wahhab and he have written it on to Ahmad and Abu-sa'id.
2 Measured from point to point even, the distance appears to be over 500 miles. Concerning Baba Khaki see H.S. ii. 224 ; for rapid riding i.a. Kostenko iii, cap. Studs.