Ulugh Beg's three-storey observatory
Editorial contextAmong the works of Timur's grandson Ulugh Beg, Babur singles out the observatory on the hill of Kohik: three storeys high, fitted with instruments, where the astronomical tables still in use in his day were made. He places it among the seven or eight observatories ever built, alongside Hulagu's at Maragha.
Another remarkable edifice is the observatory, erected on the skirts of the hill of Kohik, which is provided with an astronomical apparatus, and is three stories in height. By means of this observatory, Ulugh Beg Mirza composed the Zich-Korkani (or Korkani Astronomical Tables), which are followed at the present time, scarcely any other being used.
About Timurids (Ulugh Beg)
Forty stone pillars and a house of Chinese porcelain
Editorial contextIn the Garden of the Plain, Babur describes the Chehel Sutun (Forty Pillars), a two-storey hall built entirely on carved stone columns, twisted and fluted, and a throne cut from a single huge stone brought from far away. Nearby stood a pavilion whose walls were covered in Chinese porcelain, for which, he was told, someone had been sent to China.
In this garden, there is another state pavilion, the walls of which are overlaid with porcelain of China, whence it is called the Chinese House. It is said that a person was sent to Khita, for the purpose of bringing it.
About Timurids (Ulugh Beg)
Keep in mind
That the porcelain was fetched from China is what Babur was told.
A prince in exile sleeps in a felt tent of cross-poles
Editorial contextDriven out of his homeland, Babur set off for Khorasan with two or three hundred followers, most on foot. They had only two proper tents; Babur gave his to his mother and slept each night in a small felt tent on flexible poles. Erskine's note explains this alachuq was a felt-covered frame that folded up easily.
Such was our distress, that among us all we had only two tents. My own tent was pitched for my mother, and they erected for me at each stage a felt-tent of cross-poles, in which I used to take up my quarters.
About Babur's followers
Fifteen hundred stonecutters on Babur's buildings in India
Editorial contextBabur was scornful of Indian architecture but impressed by India's supply of craftsmen. He compares Timur's famous stone mosque in Samarkand, built with 200 masons from several countries, to his own works: 680 stonecutters at Agra alone, and 1,491 across his building sites. The buildings of this Timurid ruler were raised by local Indian hands.
In Agra alone, and of stone-cutters belonging to that place only, I every day employed on my palaces six hundred and eighty persons; and in Agra, Sikri, Biana, Dhulpur, Gualiar, and Koel, there were every day employed on my works one thousand four hundred and ninety-one stone-cutters.
About Babur's court; Indian craftsmen
The Uzbek turning charge
Editorial contextDescribing how he lost the battle, Babur explains the Uzbek method: they always tried to turn the enemy's flank (the tulghama), and charged front and rear together, shooting arrows at full gallop, chiefs and common men mixed together, retreating just as fast if driven back. Babur escaped by swimming his armoured horse across the Kohik river.
In battle, the great reliance of the Uzbeks is on the Tulghmeh (or turning the enemy's flank). They never engage without using the Tulghmeh. Another of their practices is to advance and charge in front and rear, discharging their arrows at full gallop, pell-mell, chiefs and common soldiers, and, if repulsed, they in like manner retire full gallop.
About Uzbeks of Shaybani Khan
A khan raised up on a white felt
Editorial contextBabur tells how his Mongol grandfather Yunis Khan was made khan: a leading beg seated him and his new wife on a white felt and proclaimed him, according to the ancient Mongol rules (tore). Erskine's footnote links it to the felt on which Genghis Khan was said to have been proclaimed.
Shir Haji Beg having seated the Khan and Ais-doulet Begum on a white felt, according to the Tureh, or ancient Institutions of the Moghuls, they proclaimed him Khan.
About Chaghatai Mongols
Keep in mind
Family history from before Babur's birth.
The veiled bride and the child who unveils her
Editorial contextVisiting his uncle in Samarkand at the age of five, Babur found the new bride still veiled 'according to the custom of the Turks', and was told to take the veil off. The translators' note explains the custom: a Turki bride stayed veiled for a time after marriage until a child of the family pulled the veil off and ran, which was thought to bring the child luck in marriage.
she still kept her face covered with a veil, according to the custom of the Turks. He directed me, and I took off her veil.
About Timurid Turks
Keep in mind
The explanation of the custom is in the translators' footnote.
A name the conquerors themselves rejected
Editorial contextIn his introduction Erskine explains that 'Tartar' was first used by thirteenth-century European travellers and that Genghis Khan's family disliked it. He cites Rubruck, who was warned at the court of Sartaq (actually Batu's son, not Genghis's grandson) to call him Moal, a Mongol, because the Tatars were a different, conquered tribe. The European name for the whole empire was thus the name of one of its subject peoples.
This name of Tartar, however, by which we are accustomed to designate Chengiz Khan and his successors as well as their empire, these princes themselves rejected with disdain. Rubriquis, who visited the court of Sartakh, Chengiz Khan's grandson, about the year 1254, was cautioned, therefore, to call him Moal (that is Moghul), and not Tartar
About Mongols and the Tatar tribe
Keep in mind
Editorial synthesis, not Babur. Sartaq was Batu's son, a great-grandson of Genghis Khan, and in Rubruck's own account the warning was not to call Sartaq a Christian; the remark that the Mongols disliked being called Tartars is Rubruck's general comment.
Tartar and Tartarus: why the name stuck in Europe
Editorial contextErskine reports that the Mongols (Kalmyks) regarded 'Tatar' as an insult meaning something like 'robber', and asks why a name its bearers rejected became so widespread. His answer is the old pun: 'Tartar' sounded like Tartarus, the classical underworld, and fitted the terror the invaders caused in Europe.
It is singular that a name thus rejected among the nations to whom it is applied, should have had so much currency. The resemblance between Tartar and the infernal Tartarus, joined with the dread and horror in which the Tartar invaders were held, while they scattered dismay over Europe, probably, as has been well conjectured, preserved the name in the west.
About Mongols and Turks (as named by Europeans)
Keep in mind
Editorial conjecture; Erskine says it 'has been well conjectured' by others.
'Were the name Moghul written in gold'
Editorial contextAfter his defeat by the Uzbek Shaybani Khan, Babur complains bitterly that the Mongol troops sent to help him did not fight but turned on his own men, unhorsing and stripping them, and he says this was their usual practice. He sums up with a couplet that shows how sharply a Timurid Turk could separate himself from the Mongols, though he was one by descent.
If the Moghul race were a race of angels, it is a bad race ; And were the name Moghul written in gold, it would be odious.
About Chaghatai Mongols (Moghuls)
Keep in mind
Written in anger after a defeat; a partisan judgement.
Babur: a Turk by his father, a Mongol by his mother
Editorial contextErskine explains that Babur belonged to 'both races of Tartars'. Through his father he descended from Timur, and so counted himself a Turk; through his mother he descended from Genghis Khan. Erskine adds that Babur's sympathies were entirely with the Turks and that he often speaks of the Mongols with hatred and contempt.
Baber had a close connexion with both races of Tartars, He traced up his descent on the father's side in a direct line to the great Taimur Beg, whence he always speaks of himself as being a Turk ; while by the mother's side he was sprung from Chengiz Khan, being the grandson of Yunis Khan, a celebrated prince of the Moghuls.
About Timurid Turks and Chaghatai Mongols
A Chaghatai prince makes wind and rain
Editorial contextIn India, Babur notes calmly that the Chaghatai prince Tokhta Bugha Sultan 'performed some of his enchantments' in his boat, and a high wind rose and it began to rain. This is the steppe weather magic with a rain-stone (yada) that Erskine's introduction calls wholly of Tartar origin and traces to a legendary stone given by Noah to Japhet.
I sent for the Sultans into the boat ; Tokhteh Bugha Sultan performed some of his enchantments. A high wind having risen, it began to rain.
About Chaghatai Mongol princes in Babur's army
Keep in mind
Babur records the rain following the rite without comment; the link to the rain-stone is Erskine's (introduction, p. xlvii, n58).