1 8. A Passage in the Turki Text of the Babarnamah 



By H. Beveridge. 



In the two published texts of Babar's Memoirs in the 

 original Turki there is a long passage at the end of the year 

 908 A.H., 1502-03 A.D., which completes the story of Babar's 

 flight from Akhsi and his final deliverance. The passage does 

 not occur in the Elphinstone MS. of the Turki, nor in any of 

 the Persian translations. All the Persian MSS. end with 

 Babar's being in a garden, and in imminent danger of being 

 captured. The last words are part of a melancholy Persian 

 verse quoted by Babar. The two Turk! texts take up the 

 narrative at this place and describe Babar's deliverance, and 

 his rejoining his maternal uncles at Andijan. A consideration 

 of the passage seems to me to prove that the passage is an 

 interpolation, and that in all probability it was added by some 

 one many years after Babar's death. Possibly it is one of the 

 four passages which his great-grandson Jahangir added to the 

 text (see Tuzuk, 2nd year, p. 52 of S. Ahmad's edition). My 

 reasons for disbelieving the authenticity of the passage are as 

 follows: — 



Firstly. — It is a very suspicious circumstance that the 

 passage does not occur in the Elphinstone MS. of the Turki, 

 nor in any of the numerous MSS. of the Persian translation 

 of the Memoirs. If the Alwar MS. is to be believed, the 

 Persian translation existed in the time of Humayun, and at 

 all events it existed in the time of Akbar. It is commonly said 



made 



good 



'Abdu-r-Rahlm. He mi 



We know that there was one in Babar's own handwriting in 

 the Imperial Library as late as the time of Shah Jahan, see 

 Padshahnamah, I, 42 and II, 703— and it is impossible to 

 suppose that he would pass over so important and even thrill- 

 ing a passage It occurs, so far as is yet known, in two Turki 

 MSS., namely, Kehr's MS. on which Ilminsky founded his 

 edition, and the Haidarabad MS. in Sir Salar Jang's library. 

 The age of neither of these MSS. is known, but they do not 

 seem to be more than one hundred and fifty or two hundred 

 years old, and so are later than the Elphinstone. The Kehr 

 MS., at all events, cannot be older than Jehangir's time, for it 

 contains fragments translated from Abul-1-Fazl's Akbarnama. 

 If the passage had occurred in any early Turk! MS. it would 

 surelv have been referred to in Ferishta's long account of 

 Babar's reign. He makes copious use of the Memoirs, and 



