301 CHAPTER III. HUMAYUN IN AFGHÁNISTÁN. SECTION I. HUMAYUN'S CONQUEST OF KANDAHÁR AND KÁBUL. DITION TO BADAKHSHÁN. HUMAYUN INVADES KANDAHÁR. THE SKIRMISH MISSION OF PROGRESS GERMSÍR SURRENDERED TO HUMÁYUN. -CAPTURE OF BÍST. HIMSELF WITH HORSES BY PLUNDER. UNCERTAINTY OF HIS COUN- SELS.- HE SEIZES KANDAHÁR. SETS OUT FOR KÁBUL. AND OTHERS. IS JOINED BY Hindal, yádgár, DESERTIONS TO HUMÁYUN. - KÁMRÁN SENDS AN EMBASSY-ESCAPES TO GHAZNI. -HUMAYUN OCCUPIES KABUL AND RECOVERS AKBER. - KÁMRÁN FLIES TO SIND. -CONGRATULATORY EMBASSIES TO HUMÁYUN.-YÁDGÁR MÍRZA IMPRIHUMÁYUN SETS OUT FOR BADAKIISHÁN. —YÁDGÁR MÍRZA THE ARMY OF BADAKHSHÁN DEFEATED BY HU WHEN Humayun arrived in the province of Sístán, he CHAP. III. found the Persian troops that had been sent to his assistance, cantoned over the country. SECT. I. They were A.D. 1545. Humayun A. D. 1545. invades Kandahár. BOOK V. nominally under the command of Murád Mirza, the third son of the king of Persia, and an infant of two or three years of age; but were in reality commanded by Bidágh Khan, of the Túrki tribe of Kajar, from which the present royal family of Persia is descended. Humáyun, in compliance with the wish of Shah Tahmasp, as soon as he arrived, collected and reviewed the troops. He found them in high order, and instead of 12,000 cavalry, and 300 korchis, or royal horse-guards, that had been promised, the muster proved that they amounted to at least 14,000 horse. After remaining about a fortnight in Sístán, he put his troops in motion, and entered the dominions of his brother.* Affairs of It will be recollected that, at this time, Mírza Kámhis brothers. rám held the undisputed possession of Kábul, Ghazni and Kandahár, on one side of the mountains, as well as of Badakhshán, Kunduz, Kishem and other provinces, beyond them. His brother Askeri was governor of Kandahár. Hindal, another of his brothers, who, after abandoning Humáyun in Sind, had been besieged and made prisoner in Kandahár, though nominally, perhaps, governor of Júi-Sháhi, was now under surveil lance or free custody, and lived privately at the palace of his mother, Dildár Begum, at Kábul. Yádgár Násir Mírza, his cousin, who, as we have seen, had been compelled to leave Sind, was now also at Kábul, but suspected, and carefully watched. It has been mentioned that Kámrán, after his return from Hindustán, had marched to Badakhshán against Mírza Suleimán, who refused to acknowledge his authority; had defeated him, and deprived him of part of his dominions. No sooner, however, did Suleimán learn that Kámrán had marched to besiege Hindal in Kábul, than he collected a force, and recovered the districts which had been separated from his princi * Akbernáma, f. 61.; Jouler, c. 16. SECT. I. pality. This compelled Kámrán, on his return from CHAP. III. Kandahár, to cross the Hindu-kúsh mountains a second time. The hostile armies met at Anderáb. Suleimán was again defeated, and took refuge in Kila-Zefer, in which he was blockaded by Kámrán, to whom a great part of the territories of Badakhshán submitted. After a brave defence, Suleimán was compelled by famine. to surrender. He was thrown into prison, along with his son Mírza Ibráhím. Kámrán appointed Kásim Birlás to be governor of Badakhshán; and, leaving with him a force supposed to be sufficient to maintain it in tranquillity, returned to Kábul, carrying with him the captive Mirzas. For a whole month after his arrival, the city was in a state of continual festivity; and, from this period, he is said to have given himself up to indolence and voluptuous indulgence, paying little attention to the concerns of government, or to the complaints of his subjects.* Nor were these the only royal personages whom he held in custody. We have seen that when he parted from Humayun near Khusháb, on the Jelem, he was joined at Dínkot, on his way to the Indus, by Muhammed Sultan Mírza, the grandson of the great Sultan Husein of Herát, and by his sons, Ulugh Mírza and Shah Mirza. As these princes had also become objects of suspicion, they had been kept out of employment, and now dragged on an idle life at Kábul. A. . 949, A. D. 1542. 17. Sept. 28. Nothing, therefore, could, to appearance, be more prosperous than the situation of Kámrán. But his power was unsocial, guarded by suspicion and jealousy, not by the affection even of those nearest to him. He was a sovereign in whose success none of them felt a pleasure and a pride, as if it were their own; and it rested, therefore, on a narrow and a sandy foundation. As Humáyun, advancing from Sístán, entered the The Germ * Akbernáma, ff. 55, 56.; Tab. Akb. f. 154. sír surrendered. BOOK V. Capture of Preparations of Kámrán. Akber to Kabul, dominions of Kámrán, he was met near Laki, a fort on the right bank of the Helmend, by Abdal Hai, the governor of the Germsír, who approached him as a suppliant, wrapped in his winding sheet, with his quiver hanging from his neck; asked forgiveness for his former undutiful conduct, and surrendered the province into his hands. He was graciously received, and honoured with a command. A detachment was now sent, under Ali Sultan Taklu, one of the auxiliary chiefs, to reduce the important city and fort of Bíst, which lies near the confluence of the Arghandáb with the Helmend, and is the chief city and the key of the Zemín-dáwer. The Persian general having been killed by a matchlock shot soon after the siege began, his followers, who were Túrks of the Taklu tribe, placed his son, a boy of twelve years of age, in the command, and carried on the siege with renewed vigour. The place was soon compelled to surrender, when the principal officers, and most of the soldiers of the garrison, joined Humayun. Kámrán, who had long dreaded an invasion from the territories of Persia, had placed all his frontier for tresses in a state of defence. On hearing of the Emperor's return towards Sístán, his first concern was to remove the infant Akber, Humáyun's only son, from Kandahár, where he still remained under the care of He removes Askeri's wife, and of the nurses and household appointed by his father, and to bring him to Kábul. For that purpose he despatched one of his confidential officers, accompanied by a brother of Khizer Khan, the great Hazára chief, to bring the young prince from the castle of Kandahár. When they reached that place, and had explained the object of their mission, they found Mirza Askeri's ministers divided in opinion as to the policy of giving him up. Some advised that the child, attended by an honourable retinue, should be sent back to his father, who had now arrived on the SECT. I. frontier, as being the best means of conciliating the CHAP. III. injured and offended Emperor; while others maintained that things had gone too far for Askeri to think of obtaining any sincere forgiveness, and that, therefore, the great object now was not to throw away the favour of Kámrán. This advice prevailed, and though it was already the depth of winter, which in that country is particularly severe, the infant prince, and his sister, Bakhshi-bánu Begum, were sent off for Kábul, in the midst of rain and snow.* Kámrán was apprehensive of a rescue, on which account he had selected a chief of the Hazáras to conduct the party, as the road between Kandahár and Ghazni was partly inhabited, and had always been infested, by robbers of that tribe. That the princes might not be known on the road, Akber was addressed as Mírak, the princess as Bacheh.† On reaching Kilát, the party passed the night at the house of a Hazára. But the prince's rank was not easily concealed by attendants, who adored him; and, next morning, the master of the house expressed his persuasion that the child under his roof must be the young Akber. Khizer Khan's brother, on hearing these suspicions of his host, lost no time in resuming his journey, and hurried on to Ghazni, whence, without delay, the infant prince was conveyed to Kábul, where he was lodged with his grand-aunt Khanzáda Begum, the favourite sister of |