Vol, X, No. 8.] The Date of Shah Beg Arghun's Death. 285 

 [N.S.] 



been mistaken. That he was there, is exceedingly unlikely, for 

 he had given up the keys and said farewell to the place in 923. 

 and in 926 and 927 he was at Tatta in Southern Sind and a 

 long way from Qandahar. He may very well have encouraged 

 the Qandaharis to resist Babur, without being there himself. 

 As regards the Qandahar inscription which says that the place 

 was taken on 13 Shawwal 928, it has to be stated that this differs 

 from Khwandamfr's account which makes Babur report tbe 

 capture earlier in the year. 



Erskine considers M'asum's chronology as confused, and 

 Malet's translation makes Shah Hasan (Shah Beg's son) be 

 present in Qandahar in 921, whereas he seems to have been 

 with Babur at that time. But the Persian original places Shah 

 Hasan's presence at Qandahar in 922, and one MS. of the 

 Tarkhannama says, Shah Hasan was two or three years with 

 Babur. 1 do not tind Masum's dates confusing. He gives 

 them year by year from 913 when Babur first conquered Qanda- 

 har, and I do not think that they conflict with Babur 's 

 Memoirs. He mentions how the Arghuns recovered possession 

 of Qandahar, and how Babur tried for successive years to 

 recover it. In 922 the Arghuns were hard pressed, though 

 Mehtar Sarnbhal contrived to get supplies of food into the 

 citadel. In 923 Shah Beg went to Shah and Sibul, and endured 

 great privations there for two years. Then he went further 

 south and fought two battles with the Jam and his son. In 928 

 Payanda Moghul was put in charge of Bhakkar by Shah Beg, 

 and the latter went on to take Gujarat, but died on the way at 

 Agham in the Hyderabad district. There is not a word in any 

 local historian about his going back to Qandahar in 927 or 928. 

 It may be remarked here that though Abul Fazl puts the con- 

 quest of Sind (by Shah Beg) into 929, Ferishta agreeing with 

 the local authorities, and the chronogram Ivharabf Sind, puts 

 it into 927. 



