284 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [August, 1914. 



Agham on the 23rd of the month of Sha'ban, 928 a.h. (18 July , 

 1522)." Curiously enough, Elliot has, by a clerical error, over- 

 stated the extent of the conflicting evidence for he quotes the 

 Tarkhannama as giving the date of 926 whereas MSS. show, 

 and Elliot himself tells us at p. 312 of the same volume, that 

 the Tarkhannama gives the date as 928. 



As a fact, all the local histories (they are, apparently, four 

 in number), except the Tarlkh Tahiri, give the date as 928, 

 and the authority of this last is destroyed not only by 

 its being a comparatively modern work, but by its giving 

 the impossible date of 924. > It is remarked by Elliot that 

 the author of the Tuhfta-1-kiram gives satisfactory reasons 

 why the statements of the Tarlkh Tahiri should not be 

 accepted. On referring to the Tuhfat'l find that the author 

 says that the Tarlkh Tahiri in one place says that Shah Beg 

 died in Qandahar, and in another that he died in Multan. 

 "Both statements," he continues, " are far from the truth, for 

 Babur had taken Qandahar from Shah Beg, and the latter had 

 taken Shal and Sibui; how in so short a time could Shah Be? 

 go back to Qandahar? " To Elliot's authority may be added 

 that of Major Raverty, who though always ready to find fault 

 with Elliot and Dowson, saysin his Notes on Afghanistan, p. 587, 

 note, that there is not the shadow of a doubt that Shah Beg 

 died in the seventh_month of 928. Erskine, rather inconsis- 

 tently, accepts M'asum's date for the day and the month, but 

 rejects it for the year, and makes no mention of M'asum's 

 chronogram, Shahr Sha'ban, which yields 92*. 



The only real ground for doubting the date 928 is one 

 which is not taken by Erskine, and is the circumstance that 

 the date appears to conflict with the Hablbu-s-siyar and the 

 Qandahar inscription. Khwandamlr certainly seems to imply 

 that fehah Beg was in Qandahar in 928, and he quotes a passage 

 ot a letter, or an oral statement of Babur's, to the effect that 

 he hoped to take Qandahar and to send Shah Beg in chains to 

 Herat. But Khwandamlr does not say in so many words that 

 bhah Beg was in Qandahar in 928, and there is no mention of 

 926-932 m Babur ' s Memoirs f or there is a gap in these from 



QK-i^ W ^ ndSmir is ' no doubt > » valuable writer, and he is 

 JJiah Beg s contemporary, but his subject was not Afghanis- 

 tan, but Persia, and Shah Ism' all. He does not give details of 

 the sieges of Qandahar, and does not even mention the fact 



l /i£f ^ g Senfc the ke y 8 of Qandahar to Babur in 923 by 

 ms (JUiwandamir's) grandson Ghlasu-d-dln. If he indeed 

 thought that Shah Beg was in Qandahar in 928, he may have 



J I M alS ^-> giveS the chr onogram KharSb 



This v ;« li r oof j wm cnronogram Kharabi Sind for the conquest of Smd- 

 Shah Beg ' ° ther authorities say that the conqueror was 



