34 FARGHANA
('ami), and though town-bred, unmannered and homely. Of genius he had no share. He was just and as his Highness the Khwaja was there, accompanying him step by step,^ most of his affairs found lawful settlement. He was true and faithful to his vow and word ; nothing was ever seen to the contrary. He had courage, and though he never happened to get in his own hand to work, gave sign of it, they say, in some of his en- Fol. 19. counters. He drew a good bow, generally hitting the duck^ both with his arrows (auq) and his forked-arrows (tir-giz), and, as a rule, hit the gourd ^ in riding across the lists {maidan). Latterly, when he had grown stout, he used to take quail and pheasant with the goshawks,4 rarely failing. A sportsman he was, hawking mostly and hawking well; since Aulugh Beg Mirza, such a sporting padshah had not been seen. He was extremely decorous ; people say he used to hide his feet even in the privacy of his family and amongst his intimates. Once settled down to drink, he would drink for 20 or 30 days at a stretch ; once risen, would not drink again for another 20 or 30 days. He was a good drinker ;^ on non-drinking days he ate without conviviality (basit). Avarice was dominant in his character. He was kindly, a man of few words whose will was in the hands of his begs.
p. His battles.
He fought four battles. The first was with Ni'mat Arghun, Shaikh Jamal Arghim's younger brother, at Aqar-tuzi, near Zamin. This he won. The second was with 'Umar Shaikh Mirza at Khwas ; this also he won. The third affair was when he encountered SI. Mahmud Khan on the Chir, near Tashkint Fol. 19b. (895 AH.-1469 AD.). There was no real fighting, but some Mughul plunderers coming up, by ones and twos, in his rear and laying hands on his baggage, his great army, spite of its numbers,
1 Khwajaning ham ayaghlari arada idi.
2 ilbasun, a kind of mallard {Abushqa), here perhaps a popinjay. Cf. H.S. ii, 193 for Ahmad 's skill as an archer, and Payne-Gallwey's Cross-bow p. 225.
3 qabdq, an archer's mark. Abu'l-ghazi (Kasan ed. p. 18 l. 5) mentions a hen tuquq) as a mark. Cf. Payne-Gallwey I.c. p. 231,
4 qirghicha, astar palumbarius. (Shaw's Voc. Scully.)
5 Perhaps, not quarrelsome.
