CHAPTER III

.

THE TURKI MSS. AND WORK CONNECTING WITH THEM.

This chapter is a literary counterpart of "Babur Padshah's Stone-heap," the roadside cairn tradition says was piled by his army, each man laying his stone when passing down from Kabul for Hindustan in the year of victory 1525 (932).[11]

For a title suiting its contents is "Babur Padshah's Book-pile," because it is fashioned of item after item of pen-work done by many men in obedience to the dictates given by his book. Unlike the cairn, however, the pile of books is not of a single occasion but of many, not of a single year but of many, irregularly spacing the 500 years through which he and his autobiography have had Earth's immortality.

## Part I. The MSS. themselves.

_Preliminary._—Much of the information given below was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1900 onwards, as it came into my possession during a search for reliable Turki text of the _Babur-nama_. My notes were progressive; some MSS. were in distant places, some not traceable, but in the end I was able to examine in England all of whose continued existence I had become aware. It was inevitable that some of my earlier statements should be superseded later; my Notes (_see s.n._ JRAS.) need clearing of transitory matter and summarizing, in particular those on the Elphinstone Codex and Klaproth's articles. Neither they nor what is placed here makes claim to be complete. Other workers will supplement them when the World has renewed opportunity to stroll in the bye-paths of literature.

Few copies of the _Babur-nama_ seem to have been made; of the few I have traced as existing, not one contains the complete autobiography, and one alone has the maximum of dwindled text shewn in the Persian translation (1589). Two books have been reputed to contain Babur's authentic text, one preserved in Hindustan by his descendants, the other issuing from Bukhara. They differ in total contents, arrangement and textual worth; moreover the Bukhara book compiles items of divers diction and origin and date, manifestly not from one pen.

The Hindustan book is a record—now mutilated—of the Acts of Babur alone; the Bukhara book as exhibited in its fullest accessible example, Kehr's Codex, is in two parts, each having its preface, the first reciting Babur's Acts, the second Humayun's.

The Bukhara book is a compilation of oddments, mostly translated from compositions written after Babur's death. Textual and circumstantial grounds warrant the opinion that it is a distinct work mistakenly believed to be Babur's own; to these grounds was added in 1903 the authoritative verdict of collation with the Haidarabad Codex, and in 1921 of the colophon of its original MS. in which its author gives his name, with the title and date of his compilation (JRAS. 1900, p. 474). What it is and what are its contents and history are told in Part III of this chapter.

## Part II. Work on the Hindustan MSS.

BABUR'S ORIGINAL CODEX.

My latest definite information about Babur's autograph MS. comes from the _Padshah-nama_ (Bib. Ind. ed. ii, 4), whose author saw it in Shah-i-jahan's private library between 1628 and 1638. Inference is justified, however, that it was the archetype of the Haidarabad Codex which has been estimated from the quality of its paper as dating _cir._ 1700 (JRAS. 1906, p. 97). But two subsequent historic disasters complicate all questions of MSS. missing from Indian libraries, namely, Nadir Shah's vengeance on Dihli in 1739 and the dispersions and fires of the Mutiny. Faint hope is kept alive that the original Codex may have drifted into private hands, by what has occurred with the Rampur MS. of Babur's Hindustan verses (App. J), which also appears once to have belonged to Shah-i-jahan.

I

Amongst items of work done during Babur's life are copies of his book (or of the Hindustan section of it) he mentions sending to sons and friends.

II

The _Tabaqat-i-baburi_ was written during Babur's life by his Persian secretary Shaikh Zainu'd-din of Khawaf; it paraphrases in rhetorical Persian the record of a few months of Hindustan campaigning, including the battle of Panipat.

TABLE OF THE HINDUSTAN MSS. OF THE BABUR-NAMA.[12]

----------------------+---------------+--------------------+-----------+ | Date of | Folio-standard | | Names. | completion. | 382.[13] |Archetype. | ----------------------+---------------+--------------------+-----------+ 1. Babur's Codex. |1530. |Originally much | -- | | |over 382. | | | | | | 2. Khwaja Kalan |1529. |Undefined 363(?), |No. 1. | _Ahraris_ Codex. | |p. 652. | | | | | | | | | | 3. Humayun's Codex |1531(?). |Originally = No. 1 |No. 1. | = (commanded | |(unmutilated). | | and annotate?).[14]| | | | | | | | 4. Muhammad Haidar |Between 1536 |No. 1 (unmutilated).|No. 1 or | _Dughlat's_ Codex. |and 40(?). | |No. 2. | | | | | 5. Elphinstone Codex. |Between 1556 |In 1816 and 1907, |No. 3. | |and 1567. |286 ff. | | | | | | 6. British Museum MS. |1629. |97 (fragments). |Unknown. | | | | | | | | | 7. Bib. Lindesiana MS.|Scribe living |71 (an extract). |Unknown. | [now John Rylands] |in 1625. | | | | | | | | | | | 8. Haidarabad Codex. |Paper indicates|382. |(No. 1) | |_cir._ 1700. | |mutilated. | | | | | ----------------------+---------------+--------------------+-----------+

----------------------+-------------+------------------+---------------- | | Latest known | Names. | Scribe. | location. | Remarks. ----------------------+-------------+------------------+---------------- 1. Babur's Codex. |Babur. |Royal Library |Has disappeared. | |between 1628-38. | | | | 2. Khwaja Kalan |Unknown. |Sent to Samarkand |Possibly still _Ahraris_ Codex. | |1529. |in Khwaja | | |Kalan's family. | | | 3. Humayun's Codex |`Ali'u-'l- |Royal Library |Seems the = (commanded | katib(?). |between 1556-1567.|archetype of and annotate?).[14]| | |No. 5. | | | 4. Muhammad Haidar |Haidar(?) |Kashmir 1540-47. |Possibly now in _Dughlat's_ Codex. | | |Kashghar. | | | 5. Elphinstone Codex. |Unknown. |Advocates' Library|Bought in | |(1816 to 1921). |Peshawar 1810. | | | 6. British Museum MS. |`Ali'u'l- |British Museum. | -- | _kashmiri_.| | | | | 7. Bib. Lindesiana MS.|Nur-muhammad |John Rylands | -- [now John Rylands] |(nephew of |Library. | |`Abu'l-fazl).| | | | | 8. Haidarabad Codex. |No colophon. |The late Sir |Centupled in | |Salar-jang's |facsimile, 1905. | |Library. | ----------------------+-------------+------------------+----------------

III

During the first decade of Humayun's reign (1530-40) at least two important codices seem to have been copied.

The earlier (_see_ Table, No. 2) has varied circumstantial warrant. It meets the need of an archetype, one marginally annotated by Humayun, for the Elphinstone Codex in which a few notes are marginal and signed, others are pell-mell, interpolated in the text but attested by a scrutineer as having been marginal in its archetype and mistakenly copied into its text. This second set has been ineffectually sponged over. Thus double collation is indicated (i) with Babur's autograph MS. to clear out extra Babur matter, and (ii) with its archetype, to justify the statement that in this the interpolations were marginal.—No colophon survives with the much dwindled Elph. Codex, but one, suiting the situation, has been observed, where it is a complete misfit, appended to the Alwar Codex of the second Persian translation, (estimated as copied in 1589). Into the incongruities of that colophon it is not necessary to examine here, they are too obvious to aim at deceit; it appears fitly to be an imperfect translation from a Turki original, this especially through its odd fashion of entitling "Humayun Padshah." It can be explained as translating the colophon of the Codex (No. 2) which, as his possession, Humayun allowably annotated and which makes it known that he had ordered `Ali'u-'l-katib to copy his father's Turki book, and that it was finished in February, 1531, some six weeks after Babur's death.[15]

The later copy made in Humayun's first decade is Haidar Mirza's (_infra_).

IV

Muhammad Haidar Mirza _Dughlat's_ possession of a copy of the Autobiography is known both from his mention of it and through numerous extracts translated from it in his _Tarikh-i-rashidi_. As a good boy-penman (p. 22) he may have copied down to 1512 (918) while with Babur (p. 350), but for obtaining a transcript of it his opportunity was while with Humayun before the Timurid exodus of 1541. He died in 1551; his Codex is likely to have found its way back from Kashmir to his ancestral home in the Kashghar region and there it may still be. (_See_ T.R. trs. Ney Elias' biography of him).

V

The Elphinstone Codex[16] has had an adventurous career. The enigma of its archetype is posed above; it may have been copied during Akbar's first decade (1556-67); its, perhaps first, owner was a Bai-qara rebel (d. 1567) from amongst whose possessions it passed into the Royal Library, where it was cleared of foreign matter by the expunction of Humayun's marginal notes which its scribe had interpolated into its text. At a date I do not know, it must have left the Royal Library for its fly-leaves bear entries of prices and in 1810 it was found and purchased in Peshawar by Elphinstone. It went with him to Calcutta, and there may have been seen by Leyden during the short time between its arrival and the autumn month of the same year (1810) when he sailed for Java. In 1813 Elphinstone in Poona sent it to Erskine in Bombay, saying that he had fancied it gone to Java and had been writing to `Izzatu'l-lah to procure another MS. for Erskine in Bukhara, but that all the time it was on his own shelves. Received after Erskine had dolefully compared his finished work with Leyden's (tentative) translation, Erskine sadly recommenced the review of his own work. The Codex had suffered much defacement down to 908 (1502) at the hands of "a Persian Turk of Ganj" who had interlined it with explanations. It came to Scotland (with Erskine?) who in 1826 sent it with a covering letter (Dec. 12th, 1826), at its owner's desire, to the Advocates' Library where it now is. In 1907 it was fully described by me in the JRAS.

VI

Of two _Waqi'at-i-baburi_ (Pers. trs.) made in Akbar's reign, the earlier was begun in 1583, at private instance, by two Mughuls Payanda-hasan of Ghazni and Muhammad-quli of Hisar. The Bodleian and British Museum Libraries have copies of it, very fragmentary unfortunately, for it is careful, likeable, and helpful by its small explanatory glosses. It has the great defect of not preserving autobiographic quality in its diction.

VII

The later _Waqi'at-i-baburi_ translated by `Abdu'r-rahim Mirza is one of the most important items in Baburiana, both by its special characteristics as the work of a Turkman and not of a Persian, and by the great service it has done. Its origin is well-known; it was made at Akbar's order to help Abu'l-faẓl in the Akbar-nāma account of Babur and also to facilitate perusal of the _Babur-nama_ in Hindustan. It was presented to Akbar, by its translator who had come up from Gujrat, in the last week of November, 1589, on an occasion and at a place of admirable fitness. For Akbar had gone to Kabul to visit Babur's tomb, and was halting on his return journey at Barik-ab where Babur had halted on his march down to Hindustan in the year of victory 1525, at no great distance from "Babur Padshah's Stone-heap". Abu'l-faẓl's account of the presentation will rest on `Abdu'r-rahim's information (A.N. trs. cap. ci). The diction of this translation is noticeable; it gave much trouble to Erskine who thus writes of it (_Memoirs_ Preface, lx), "Though simple and precise, a close adherence to the idioms and forms of expression of the Turki original joined to a want of distinctness in the use of the relatives, often renders the meaning extremely obscure, and makes it difficult to discover the connexion of the different members of the sentence.[17] The style is frequently not Persian.... Many of the Turki words are untranslated."

Difficult as these characteristics made Erskine's interpretation, it appears to me likely that they indirectly were useful to him by restraining his diction to some extent in their Turki fettering.—This Turki fettering has another aspect, apart from Erskine's difficulties, _viz_. it would greatly facilitate re-translation into Turki, such as has been effected, I think, in the Farghana section of the Bukhara compilation.[18]

VIII

This item of work, a harmless attempt of Salim (_i.e_. Jahangir Padshah; 1605-28) to provide the ancestral autobiography with certain stop-gaps, has caused much needless trouble and discussion without effecting any useful result. It is this:—In his own autobiography, the _Tuzuk-i-jahangiri s.a_. 1607, he writes of a Babur-nama Codex he examined, that it was all in Babur's "blessed handwriting" except four portions which were in his own and each of which he attested in Turki as so being. Unfortunately he did not specify his topics; unfortunately also no attestation has been found to passages reasonably enough attributable to his activities. His portions may consist of the "Rescue-passage" (App. D) and a length of translation from the _Akbar-nāma_, a continuous part of its Babur chapter but broken up where only I have seen it, _i.e._ the Bukhara compilation, into (1) a plain tale of Kanwa (1527), (2) episodes of Babur's latter months (1529)—both transferred to the first person—and (3) an account of Babur's death (December 26th, 1530) and Court.

Jahangir's occupation, harmless in itself, led to an imbroglio of Langlés with Erskine, for the former stating in the _Biographie Universelle_ art. Babour, that Babour's Commentaries "_augmentés par Jahangir_" were translated into Persian by `Abdu'r-rahim. Erskine made answer, "I know not on what authority the learned Langlés hazarded this assertion, which is certainly incorrect" (_Memoirs_, Preface, p. ix). Had Langlés somewhere met with Jahangir's attestations? He had authority if he had seen merely the statement of 1607, but Erskine was right also, because the Persian translation contains no more than the unaugmented Turki text. The royal stop-gaps are in Kehr's MS. and through Ilminski reached De Courteille, whence the biting and thorough analysis of the three "Fragments" by Teufel. Both episodes—the Langlés and the Teufel ones—are time-wasters but they are comprehensible in the circumstances that Jahangir could not foresee the consequences of his doubtless good intentions.

If the question arise of how writings that had had place in Jahangir's library reached Bukhara, their open road is through the Padshah's correspondence (App. Q and references), with a descendant of Ahrari in whose hands they were close to Bukhara.[19]

It groups scattered information to recall that Salim (Jahangir) was `Abdu'r-rahim's ward, that then, as now, Babur's Autobiography was the best example of classic Turki, and that it would appeal on grounds of piety—as it did appeal on some sufficient ground—to have its broken story made good. Also that for three of the four "portions" Abu'l-fazl's concise matter was to hand.

IX

My information concerning Baburiana under Shah-i-jahan Padshah (1628-58) is very meagre. It consists of (1) his attestation of a signature of Babur (App. Q and photo), (2) his possession of Babur's autograph Codex (_Padshah-nama_, Bib. Ind. ed., ii, 4), and (3) his acceptance, and that by his literary entourage, of Mir Abu-talib _Husaini's_ Persian translation of Timur's Annals, the _Malfuzat_ whose preparation the _Zafar-nama_ describes and whose link with Babur's writings is that of the exemplar to the emulator.[20]

X

The Haidarabad Codex may have been inscribed under Aurang-zib Padshah (1655-1707). So many particulars about it have been given already that little needs saying here.[21] It was the _grande trouvaille_ of my search for Turki text wherewith to revive Babur's autobiography both in Turki and English. My husband in 1900 saw it in Haidarabad; through the kind offices of the late Sayyid Ali _Bilgrami_ it was lent to me; it proved to surpass, both in volume and quality, all other Babur-nama MSS. I had traced; I made its merits known to Professor Edward Granville Browne, just when the E. J. Wilkinson Gibb Trust was in formation, with the happy and accordant result that the best prose book in classic Turki became the first item in the Memorial—_matris ad filium_—of literary work done in the name of the Turkish scholar, and Babur's very words were safeguarded in hundred-fold facsimile. An event so important for autobiography and for Turki literature may claim more than the bald mention of its occurrence, because sincere autobiography, however ancient, is human and social and undying, so that this was no mere case of multiplying copies of a book, but was one of preserving a man's life in his words. There were, therefore, joyful red-letter days in the English story of the Codex—outstanding from others being those on which its merits revealed themselves (on Surrey uplands)—the one which brought Professor Browne's acceptance of it for reproduction by the Trust—and the day of pause from work marked by the accomplished fact of the safety of the _Babur-nama._

XI

The period from _cir._ 1700, the date of the Haidarabad Codex, and 1810, when the Elphinstone Codex was purchased by its sponsor at Peshawar, appears to have been unfruitful in work on the Hindustan MSS. Causes for this may connect with historic events, _e.g._ Nadir Shah's desolation of Dihli and the rise of the East India Company, and, in Baburiana, with the disappearance of Babur's autograph Codex (it was unknown to the Scots of 1800-26), and the transfer of the Elphinstone Codex from royal possession—this, possibly however, an accident of royal travel to and from Kabul at earlier dates.

The first quarter of the nineteenth century was, on the contrary, most fruitful in valuable work, useful impulse to which was given by Dr. John Leyden who in about 1805 began to look into Turki. Like his contemporary Julius Klaproth (_q.v._), he was avid of tongues and attracted by Turki and by Babur's writings of which he had some knowledge through the `Abdu'r-rahim (Persian) translation. His Turki text-book would be the MS. of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,[22] a part-copy of the Bukhara compilation, from which he had the India Office MS. copied. He took up Turki again in 1810, after his return from Malay and whilst awaiting orders in Calcutta for departure to Java. He sailed in the autumn of the year and died in August 1811. Much can be learned about him and his Turki occupations from letters (_infra_ xiii) written to Erskine by him and by others of the Scottish band which now achieved such fine results for Babur's Autobiography.

It is necessary to say something of Leyden's part in producing the _Memoirs_, because Erskine, desiring to "lose nothing that might add to Leyden's reputation", has assigned to him an undue position of collaboration in it both by giving him premier place on its title-page and by attributing to him the beginning the translation. What one gleans of Leyden's character makes an impression of unassumption that would forbid his acceptance of the posthumous position given to him, and, as his translation shews the tyro in Turki, there can be no ground for supposing he would wish his competence in it over-estimated. He had, as dates show, nothing to do with the actual work of the _Memoirs_ which was finished before Erskine had seen in 1813 what Leyden had set down before he died in 1811. As the _Memoirs_ is now a rare book, I quote from it what Erskine says (Preface, p. ix) of Leyden's rough translation:—"This acquisition (_i.e_. of Leyden's trs.) reduced me to rather an awkward dilemma. The two translations (his own and Leyden's) differed in many important

## particulars; but as Dr. Leyden had the advantage of translating

from the original, I resolved to adopt his translation as far as it went, changing only such expressions in it as seemed evidently to be inconsistent with the context, or with other parts of the _Memoirs_, or such as seemed evidently to originate in the oversights that are unavoidable in an unfinished work.[23] This labour I had completed with some difficulty, when Mr. Elphinstone sent me the copy of the _Memoirs of Baber_ in the original Tūrkī (_i.e._ The Elphinstone Codex) which he had procured when he went to Peshawar on his embassy to Kabul. This copy, which he had supposed to have been sent with Dr. Leyden's manuscripts from Calcutta, he was now fortunate enough to recover (in his own library at Poona). The discovery of this valuable manuscript reduced me, though heartily sick of the task, to the necessity of commencing my work once more."

Erskine's Preface (pp. x, xi) contains various other references to Leyden's work which indicate its quality as tentative and unrevised. It is now in the British Museum Library.

XII

Little need be said here about the _Memoirs of Baber_.[24] Erskine worked on a basis of considerable earlier acquaintance with his Persian original, for, as his Preface tells, he had (after Leyden's death) begun to translate this some years before he definitely accepted the counsel of Elphinstone and Malcolm to undertake the _Memoirs_. He finished his translation in 1813, and by 1816 was able to dedicate his complete volume to Elphinstone, but publication was delayed till 1826. His was difficult pioneer-work, and carried through with the drawback of working on a secondary source. It has done yeoman service, of which the crowning merit is its introduction of Babur's autobiography to the Western world.

XIII

Amongst Erskine's literary remains are several bound volumes of letters from Elphinstone, Malcolm, Leyden, and others of that distinguished group of Scots who promoted the revival of Babur's writings. Erskine's grandson, the late Mr. Lestocq Erskine, placed these, with other papers, at our disposal, and they are now located where they have been welcomed as appropriate additions:—Elphinstone's are in the Advocates' Library, where already (1826) he, through Erskine, had deposited his own Codex—and with his letters are those of Malcolm and more occasional correspondents; Leyden's letters (and various papers) are in the Memorial Cottage maintained in his birthplace Denholm (Hawick) by the Edinburgh Border Counties Association; something fitting went to the Bombay Asiatic Society and a volume of diary to the British Museum. Leyden's papers will help his fuller biography; Elphinstone's letters have special value as recording his co-operation with Erskine by much friendly criticism, remonstrance against delay, counsels and encouragement. They, moreover, shew the estimate an accomplished man of modern affairs formed of Babur Padshah's character and conduct; some have been quoted in Colebrooke's _Life of Elphinstone_, but there they suffer by detachment from the rest of his Baburiana letters; bound together as they now are, and with brief explanatory interpolations, they would make a welcome item for "Babur Padshah's Book-pile".

XIV

In May 1921 the contents of these volumes were completed, namely, the _Babur-nama in English_ and its supplements, the aims of which are to make Babur known in English diction answering to his _ipsissima verba_, and to be serviceable to readers and students of his book and of classic Turki.

XV

Of writings based upon or relating to Babur's the following have appeared:—

Denkwurdigkeiten des Zahir-uddin Muhammad Babar—A. Kaiser (Leipzig, 1828). This consists of extracts translated from the Memoirs.

An abridgement of the Memoirs—R. M. Caldecott (London, 1844).

History of India—Baber and Humayun—W. Erskine (Longmans, 1854).

Babar—Rulers of India series—Stanley Lane-Poole (Oxford, 1899).

Tuzuk-i-babari or Waqi`at-i-babari (_i.e._ the Persian trs.)—Elliot and Dowson's History of India, 1872, vol. iv.

Babur Padshah _Ghazi_—H. Beveridge (Calcutta Review, 1899).

Babur's diamond, was it the Koh-i-nur?—H. Beveridge, Asiatic Quarterly Review, April, 1899.

Was `Abdu'r-rahim the translator of Babur's Memoirs? (_i.e._ the _Babur-nama_)—H. Beveridge, AQR., July and October, 1900.

An Empire-builder of the 16th century, Babur—Laurence F. L. Williams (Allahabad, 1918).

Notes on the MSS. of the Turki text (_Babur-nāma_)—A. S. Beveridge, JRAS. 1900, 1902, 1921, 1905, and Part II 1906, 1907, 1908, p. 52 and p. 828, 1909 p. 452 (_see_ Index, _s.n._ A. S. B. for topics).

[For other articles and notes by H. B. _see_ Index _s.n._]

## Part III. The "Bukhara Babur-nama".

This is a singular book and has had a career as singular as its characteristics, a very comedy of (blameless) errors and mischance. For it is a compilation of items diverse in origin, diction, and age, planned to be a record of the Acts of Babur and Humayun, dependent through its Babur portion on the `Abdu'r-rahim Persian translation for re-translation, or verbatim quotation, or dove-tailing effected on the tattered fragments of what had once been Kamran's Codex of the Babur-nama proper, the whole interspersed by stop-gaps attributable to Jahangir. These and other specialities notwithstanding, it ranked for nearly 200 years as a reproduction of Babur's authentic text, as such was sent abroad, as such was reconstructed and printed in Kasan (1857), translated in Paris (1871), catalogued for the Petrograd Oriental School (1894), and for the India Office (1903).[25]

Manifest causes for the confusion of identity are, (1) lack of the guidance in Bukhara and Petrograd of collation with the true text, (2) want of information, in the Petrograd of 1700-25, about Babur's career, coupled with the difficulties of communication with Bukhara, (3) the misleading feature in the compiled book of its author's retention of the autobiographic form of his sources, without explanation as to whether he entered surviving fragments of Kamran's Codex, patchings or extracts from `Abdu'r-rahim's Persian translation, or quotations of Jahangir's stop-gaps. Of these three causes for error the first is dominant, entailing as it does the drawbacks besetting work on an inadequate basis.

It is necessary to enumerate the items of the Compilation here as they are arranged in Kehr's autograph Codex, because that codex (still in London) may not always be accessible,[26] and because the imprint does not obey its model, but aims at closer agreement of the Bukhara Compilation with Ilminski's gratefully acknowledged guide—_The Memoirs of Baber_. Distinction in commenting on the Bukhara and the Kasan versions is necessary; their discrepancy is a scene in the comedy of errors.[27][28][29][30]

OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE COMPILATION.

An impelling cause for the production of the Bukhara compilation is suggested by the date 1709 at which was finished the earliest example known to me. For in the first decade of the eighteenth century Peter the Great gave attention to Russian relations with foreign states of Central Asia and negociated with the Khan of Bukhara for the reception of a Russian mission.[31] Political aims would be forwarded if envoys were familiar with Turki; books in that tongue for use in the School of Oriental Languages would be desired; thus the Compilation may have been prompted and, as will be shown later, it appears to have been produced, and not merely copied, in 1709. The Mission's despatch was delayed till 1719;[32] it arrived in Bukhara in 1721; during its stay a member of its secretariat bought a Compilation MS. noted as finished in 1714 and on a fly-leaf of it made the following note:—

"_I, Timur-pulad son of Mirza Rajab son of Pay-chin, bought this book Babur-nama after coming to Bukhara with [the] Russian Florio Beg Beneveni, envoy of the Padshah ... whose army is numerous as the stars.... May it be well received! Amen! O Lord of both Worlds!_"

Timur-pulad's hope for a good reception indicates a definite recipient, perhaps a commissioned purchase. The vendor may have been asked for a history of Babur; he sold one, but "Babur-nama" is not necessarily a title, and is not suitable for the Compilation; by conversational mischance it may have seemed so to the purchaser and thus have initiated the mistake of confusing the "Bukhara Babur-nama" with the true one.

Thus endorsed, the book in 1725 reached the Foreign Office; there in 1737 it was obtained by George Jacob Kehr, a teacher of Turki, amongst other languages, in the Oriental School, who copied it with meticulous care, understanding its meaning imperfectly, in order to produce a Latin version of it. His Latin rendering was a fiasco, but his reproduction of the Arabic forms of his archetype was so obedient that on its sole basis Ilminski edited the Kasan Imprint (1857). A collateral copy of the Timur-pulad Codex was made in 1742 (as has been said).

In 1824 Klaproth (who in 1810 had made a less valuable extract perhaps from Kehr's Codex) copied from the Timur-pulad MS. its purchaser's note, the Auzbeg?(?) endorsement as to the transfer of the "Kamran-docket" and Babur's letter to Kamran (_Mémoires relatifs à l'Asie_ Paris).

In 1857 Ilminski, working in Kasan, produced his imprint, which became de Courteille's source for _Les Mémoires de Baber_ in 1871. No worker in the above series shews doubt about accepting the Compilation as containing Babur's authentic text. Ilminski was in the difficult position of not having entire reliance on Kehr's transcription, a natural apprehension in face of the quality of the Latin version, his doubts sum up into his words that a reliable text could not be made from his source (Kehr's MS.), but that a Turki reading-book could—and was. As has been said, he did not obey the dual plan of the Compilation Kehr's transcript reveals, this, perhaps, because of the misnomer Babur-nama under which Timur-pulad's Codex had come to Petrograd; this, certainly, because he thought a better history of Babur could be produced by following Erskine than by obeying Kehr—a series of errors following the verbal mischance of 1725. Ilminski's transformation of the items of his source had the ill result of misleading Pavet de Courteille to over-estimate his Turki source at the expense of Erskine's Persian one which, as has been said, was Ilminski's guide—another scene in the comedy. A mischance hampering the French work was its falling to be done at a time when, in Paris 1871, there can have been no opportunity available for learning the contents of Ilminski's Russian Preface or for quiet research and the examination of collateral aids from abroad.[33]

THE AUTHOR OF THE COMPILATION.

The Haidarabad Codex having destroyed acquiescence in the phantasmal view of the Bukhara book, the question may be considered, who was its author?

This question a convergence of details about the Turki MSS. reputed to contain the _Babur-nama_, now allows me to answer with some semblance of truth. Those details have thrown new light upon a colophon which I received in 1900 from Mr. C. Salemann with other particulars concerning the "_Senkovski Babur-nama_," this being an extract from the Compilation; its archetype reached Petrograd from Bukhara a century after Kehr's [_viz._ the Timur-pulad Codex]; it can be taken as a direct copy of the Mulla's original because it bears his colophon.[34] In 1900 I accepted it as merely that of a scribe who had copied Senkovski's archetype, but in 1921 reviewing the colophon for this Preface, it seems to me to be that of the original autograph MS. of the Compilation and to tell its author's name, his title for his book, and the year (1709) in which he completed it.

TABLE OF BUKHARA REPUTED-BABUR-NAMA MSS. (_Waqi`nama-i-padshahi?_).

--------------------+-----------------+-------------------+ Names. | Date of | Scribe. | | completion. | | --------------------+-----------------+-------------------+ | | | 1. Waqi`nama-i- | 1121-1709. Date |`Abdu'l-wahhab | padshahi _alias_ | of colophon of | _q.v._ | Babur-nama. | earliest known | Taken to be also | | example. | the author. | | | | 2. Nazar Bai | Unknown. | Unknown. | Turkistani's MS. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 3. F. O. Codex | 1126-1714. | Unknown. | (Timurpulad's | | | MS.). | | | | | | | | | 4. Kehr's Autograph | 1737. | George Jacob | Codex. | | Kehr. | | | | | | | 5. Name not learned.| 1155-1742. | Unknown. | | | | | | | 6. (Mysore) A.S.B. | Unknown. JRAS. | Unknown. | Codex. | 1900, Nos. vii | | | and viii. | | | | | 7. India Office | Cir. 1810. | Unknown. | Codex (Bib. | | | Leydeniana). | | | | | | 8. "The Senkovski | 1824. | J. Senkovski. | Babur-nama." | | | | | | | | | | | | 9. Pet. University | 1839? | Mulla Faizkhanov? | Codex. | | | --------------------+-----------------+-------------------+

--------------------+-------------------+-------------+-------------- Names. | Last known | Archetype. | Remarks. | location. | | --------------------+-------------------+-------------+-------------- | | | 1. Waqi`nama-i- | Bukhara. | Believed to | _See_ padshahi _alias_ | | be the | Part III. Babur-nama. | | original | | | compilation.| | | | 2. Nazar Bai | In owner's | No. 1, the | Senkovski's Turkistani's MS. | charge in | colophon of | archetype who | Petrograd, 1824. | which it | copied its | | reproduces. | (transferred) | | | colophon. | | | 3. F. O. Codex | F.O. Petrograd, | Not stated, | Bought in (Timurpulad's | where copied in | an indirect | Bukhara, MS.). | 1742. | copy of | brought to | | No. 1. | Petro. 1725. | | | 4. Kehr's Autograph | Pet. Or. School, | No. 3. | _See_ Codex. | 1894. | | Part III. | London T.O. 1921. | | | | | 5. Name not learned.| Unknown. | No. 3. | Archetype | | | of 9. | | | 6. (Mysore) A.S.B. | Asiatic Society | Unknown. | -- Codex. | of Bengal. | | | | | | | | 7. India Office | India Office, | No. 6. | Copied for Codex (Bib. | 1921. | | Leyden. Leydeniana). | | | | | | 8. "The Senkovski | Pet. Asiatic | No. 2. | Bears a copy Babur-nama." | Museum, 1900. | | of the | | | colophon of | | | No. 1. | | | 9. Pet. University | Pet. Univ. | No. 5 (?). | -- Codex. | Library. | | --------------------+-------------------+-------------+--------------

Senkovski brought it over from his archetype; Mr. Salemann sent it to me in its original Turki form. (JRAS. 1900, p. 474). Senkovski's own colophon is as follows:—

"_J'ai achevé cette copie le 4 Mai, 1824, à St. Petersburg; elle a éte faite d'àpres un exemplaire appartenant à Nazar Bai Turkistani, négociant Boukhari, qui etait venu cette année à St. Petersburg. J. Senkovski._"

The colophon Senkovski copied from his archetype is to the following purport:—

"_Known and entitled Waqi`nama-i-padshahi (Record of Royal Acts), [this] autograph and composition (bayad u navisht) of Mulla `Abdu'l-wahhāb the Teacher, of Ghaj-davan in Bukhara—God pardon his mistakes and the weakness of his endeavour!—was finished on Monday, Rajab 5, 1121 (Aug. 31st, 1709).—Thank God!_"

It will be observed that the title Waqi`nama-i-padshahi suits the plan of dual histories (of Babur and Humayun) better than does the "Babur-nama" of Timur-pulad's note, that the colophon does not claim for the Mulla to have copied the elder book (1494-1530) but to have written down and composed one under a differing title suiting its varied contents; that the Mulla's deprecation and thanks tone better with perplexing work, such as his was, than with the steadfast patience of a good scribe; and that it exonerates the Mulla from suspicion of having caused his compilation to be accepted as Babur's authentic text. Taken with its circumstanding matters, it may be the dénoument of the play.

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