1 The Shah assists
2 Himaytin with troops.
3 Himayiin conquers
4 Afghanistan.
5 Lxhibition of the boy
6 Akber on the ramparts
7 of the Kabul citadel.
8 Distracted state of
9 the empire of India.
10 Reeonrse to an old
11 method of divination
12 Hitmaiytiu marches
13 on Peshawar,
14 132 THSTORY OF TUE PANJAB.
15 accounts for the ill-feelings which my brothers entertain towards me.” The
16 Shah furnished Himaytin with a contingent of 10,000 cavalry, under the
17 eee of his younger son, Murad Mirza and General Budagh Khan
18 ajar,
19 On reaching Kandahar, Himayiin was joined by his old generals,
20 Muhammad Sultan Mirza, Alugh Mirza, Kasim Husain, Sultan Mirza Mirak,
21 Sher Afgan Beg, Fazil Beg and others, who, having quarrelled with Kamran
22 Mirza, the emperor’s brother, had left his service. After protracted wars
23 with his brothers, Himdyin became undisputed master of the whole of
24 Afghanistén.
25 It is related that, in one of these wars, when siege was laid to Kabul,
26 Kamran Mirza, who was in possession of the city, exhibited, on the ramparts
27 of the citadel, the boy Akber, then four years old, bound to a funeral pile,
28 meaning that the child would be forthwith put to death if the father
29 advanced. Hutmayiin, however, disregarded the threat, and, unmoved by
30 the painful sight, pressed the siege and compelled the garrison to retreat.
31 He found his boy safe in the arms of the Sultana, and, taking him up in his
32 arms, kissed him, exclaiming that, though, like Joseph, he had been put to
33 extremities through the envy of his brothers, yet he hoped, by the grace of
34 God, to reach the summit of glory, and he prayed that his son might reach
35 the same degree of power and magnificence. Askari Mirza was, after these
36 transactions, released from his confinement in Badakshan and permitted to
37 proceed to Mecca, but he died, while crossing the deserts of Arabia, in 1554.
38 Hindal Mirza, another brother, lost his life in an attack on the Khaibar.
39 The third brother, Kamran, was blinded, and eventually obtained permission
40 to go to Mecca, and, after residing there for three years, died a natural death.
41 In the year 1453, Hiimdéyiin, having taken up his residence in Kabul,
42 sent his son Akber, then about twelve years of age, to the government of
43 Ghazni under the charge of the Wazir Jalal-ud-din Muhammad. The same
44 year, another son having been born to Himaytin, he was named Muhammad
45 Hakim Mirza. About this time the civil wars in Hindostan had distracted
46 the whole empire. The representatives of the Sur family were fighting with
47 one another for supremacy, and Omerahs and viceroys of various provinces
48 had raised the standard of revolt. The people had become wearied of the
49 ill-cemented Pathan rule and of the Pathans themselves. The friends of
50 Himaytn wrote to him from Agra and Delhi, inviting him to return and
51 take possession of the country, which, they asserted, would fall an easy prey
52 to his enterprise. The-king felt considerable hesitation in yielding to their
53 request. Unlike his father, who, contrary to the advice of his astrologers,
54 had directed his first attack against Delhi on a day pronounced by them to
55 be unlucky, Humayun was a believer in divination, and, feeling melancholy
56 on the subject, was advised to try an experiment.
57 Accordingly, three messengers were sent in different directions and told
58 to come back with the names of the first persons they met. The mes-
59 sengers returned. The first was met by a traveller named Daulat, or
60 “Wealth,” the second by a man who called himself Mordéd, or “ Good
61 Fortune,” and the third by a villager whose name was Sa-ddat, or “ Object of
62 Desire.” The omens, says Ferishta, were declared propitious and prepara-
63 tions for a march were forthwith made.
64 The king could muster only 15,000 horse. Leaving Monim Khan in
65 charge of the government of Kabul, and making over to him his minor son,
66 Muhammad Hakim Mirza, Humayun marched from Kabul in December, 1554.
67 the Indus, Bahram Khan, Zurkman, his veteran general, joined him, with
68 body of : : r ’ : . :
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