Vol. VI, No. 4.] A Passage in the Babar namah. 223 



[N.8.] 



contradict the account given by Babar himself in the same 

 chapter, and only a few pages previous. According to the 

 passage, Qutluq Muh. Barlas was one of the men who fled from 

 Akhsi at the same time as Babar did, but got separated from 

 him in the confusion and made his way to Andijan. He arrived 

 there just as the Khans, Babar's uncles, were entering the 

 place, and had his dream. He told it to the Khans, who 

 informed him that they had had a similar intimation. He then 

 went off with a party, found Babar, and rescued him just as he 

 was about to be seized and murdered, and brought him to 

 Andijan. Babar found his uncles there, stayed with them four 

 months, and then made up his mind to leave Farghana. With 

 this statement the chapter ends, and the next begins with the 



month 



But accord- 



own 



Khans were not at Andijan at the time when he fled from 

 Akhsi. They never had possession of Andijan fortress, but 

 they came to the outskirts of the place (Erskine, p. Ill, and 



was 



to Akhsi ♦ He got possession of the fort for a short time, but 



when 



000 men he had 



the place and fly for his life. But previous to doing so he had 

 heard that the Khans had raised the siege and retreated to 

 Kand Badam, Erskine 114. They went by Marglnan and 

 Kand Badam, and were followed to the former place by Tambal. 

 When Tambal saw that they were in full retreat he came to 

 Akhsi with the result that Babar had to fly. The reason why 

 the Khans retreated was because Tambal had applied to 

 ShaibanI for help, and the latter had replied that lie would 

 come shortly, Erskine 114. It was this retreat of the Khans 

 which disturbed Babar so much and made it impossible for him 

 to hold Akhsi. If the above view of the contradiction between 

 Babar's undoubted narrative and the Turkl passage be correct, 

 it must follow, I think, that the latter is not genuine. 



Fourthly. — It seems to me very extraordinary that if the 

 passage is genuine, Babar should not have gone on to describe ' 



verat Khojand, i.e., I presume, they crossed 

 bank. Apparently, their idea in retreating 



am 



they thought of joining the Tashkend army which was under Sultan 

 Muhammad the son of Sultan Mahmud, see T. Rashldl, 158. Haidar's 

 father was left at Uratipa. The Khans afterwards marched back to 

 Akhsi with Babar. They thought, says Haidar, that Shaibam could 

 not pass between two armies, viz., the Tashk nd army under Hah_ 

 mud's son, and the Uratipa army under Haidar's father. ButShaibani 

 did pass between them, taking Uratipa on his road. Haidar s father 

 thought he had come to besiege him, but instead of that Shaibam 

 went straight on in the night to Akhsi and crushed the Khans. News 

 was sent from Uratipa of his approach, but he went so taat that the 

 messen rs and his army reached the Khans at the same time. 



