20. A New Persian Authority on Babur % 



By L. F. Rushbrook Williams. 



The discrepancies between the Indian and the Persian 

 historians who deal with the relations between Babur and Shah 

 Isma'll, are well known, and capable of a more or less satisfactory 

 explanation. But the discrepancies between Khwandamir and 

 Haidar Mirza are of a different order. Each writer was excep- 

 tionally well-informed : each gathered his information at first 

 hand, yet the contradictions are often glaring. This is the 

 more to be regretted, in that each is a source of the utmost 

 importance for Babur's history during the years a.d. 1510-11. 

 I have some hopes that a third writer has come to light, who 

 may perhaps help to clear up some of the disputed points. 



While I was working in the famous library of H.EL the 

 Nawab of Rampur, I was fortunate enough to make the 

 acquaintance of Nawab Sahib Abdussalam Khan, father of the 

 Chief Secretary of Rampur State. From time to time this 

 gentleman, who possesses an excellent collection of historical 

 works, has been kind enough to furnish me with excerpts which 

 he thinks will help me in my investigation of Babur' s career. 

 One of these excerpts was from a work quite unfamiliar to me, 

 the Ahsanal-Siyar of Mirza Barkhwardar Turkman. The 

 extract was of great value for the events of a.d. 1510-11, al- 

 though it was quickly apparent that the author was greatly 

 indebted to the Habibal-Siyar. 



A subsequent visit to Rampur put me in possession of the 

 following particulars. The volume consists of 411 pages num- 

 bered in a modern hand, each page measuring 6" by 9§". The 

 writing is a fairly clear semi-nasta'liq — the hand of a scholar 

 rather than of a scribe. There are twenty-two lines to the 

 page. The volume was purchased by the present owner in 

 Lucknow some years ago, and the flyleaf bears a note that it 

 had been purchased twice before, once in Shahjahanabad, once 

 in Lucknow. One of the previous owners has written a Per- 

 sian couplet, expressing his appreciation of the fact that his 

 ownership is but transitory. The general condition of the 

 volume is good, although the illuminated head-piece on the 

 page bearing the hi smVlloih has been cut away, and the page 

 itself is neatly mounted upon modern paper, glued into the 

 binding. 



Worms have wrought little damage. 



The original work was apparently in four volumes, of which 

 the present is the fourth and concluding instalment : for on 

 p. 306 there is mention of the author's second volume, and on 



