330 =. ~—- Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XV, 
rank, in Simau Tau at a road-station called Haji Tash. This 
note is also given by Kehr, in a Latin translation, and it is 
curious that neither he nor Klaproth explains the enigmatical 
words Simau Tau. There is a place called Simau Tau in Asia 
Minor which possibly may be the place where the gift was 
‘made. See infra. There is also a Haji Tash marked on the 
maps of Badakhshan. The note cannot, I think, be by Hu- 
mayun. The bad spelling of the word Haji is against this and 
also against the notion that Kamran was the writer. It seems 
probable that the donee was on his way to Bukhara and that 
he carried the MS. there, for another Turki note shows that it 
was bought at Bokhara many years afterwards by a member 
of the suite of Florio of Beneventum (?) who was the ambas- 
sador of Peter the Great about 1721. 
I now proceed to give translations of the note of the Rus- 
sian Muhammadan who acquired the Bokhara MS. and of 
Babur’s letter to his son Kamran. 
TRANSLATION OF THE TURKI NOTE O¢ TIMUR POULAD IN THE 
Boxnara Ms ‘ 
“This book of the Baburnama was purchased by me Timur 
Pulad (Pilat in text, it means steel) s. Mirza Rajab s. Pai- 
chin when I came to Bokhara in company with Florio Beg 
Banivin (Beneventum ?), the Russian ambassador of the great 
king (the Czar), who is the crown of the Sun and the ruler of 
Soldiers brave as leopards, and numerous as the stars. May 
the purchase be fortunate ! ”’ 
Note. 
Klaproth gives 1718 as the date of the dispatch of the 
embassy, but it appears from Schuyler’s book on Turkistan 
that the period of the embassy was 1721-25. Peter the Great 
died on 28th January, 1725, and apparently Florio did not 
return to Russia til! after the emperor’s death. rom ap- 
roth’s note in the article of 1810 it appears that the Turki note 
of 957 A.H. is at the end of the Baburnama MS. The letter to 
Kamran says nothing about the dispatch of the Baburnama. 
It may have gone separately and later. Nor does the letter 
say anything about the poisoning of Babur, or about the send- 
ing of Ibrahim’s child. The attempt to poison Babur took 
place in December 1526, eight or nine months after the battle 
of Panipat. Ibrahim’s son and mother were sent to Kamran 
in January 1527. The Fathnama spoken of in the letter is 
not the one drawn up by Shaikh Zain for the victory over 
Rana Sangi. It is an earlier one written shortly after the 
battle of Panipat. and which we have not got, there being no 
copy of it in the Memoirs. It follows, I think, that the letter 
to Kamran was written in 932 A.H. and probably in April or May 
