er there. He was puzzled
how to act, for he was not strong enough to meet Shaibani in the
field. A strategist by nature, he recognised at the moment that the
most effective mode open to him would be to make an offensive
demonstration. He doubted only whether such a demonstration should be
directed against Badakshan, whence he could threaten Samarkand, or
against India. Finally he decided in favour of the latter course,
and, as prompt in action as he was quick in decision, he set out for
the Indus, marching down the Kabul river. When, however, he had been
a few days at Jalalabad, he heard that Kandahar had surrendered to
Shaibani. Upon this, the object of the expedition having vanished, he
returned to Kabul.

I must pass lightly over the proceedings of the next seven years,
eventful though they were. In those years, from 1507 to 1514, Babar
marching northwards, recovered Ferghana, defeated the Uzbeks, and
took Bokhara and Samarkand. But the Uzbeks, returning, defeated Babar
at Kulmalik, and forced him to abandon those two cities. Attempting
to recover them, he was defeated again at Ghajdewan and driven {24}
back to Hisar.[2] Finding, after a time, his chances there desperate,
he returned to Kabul. This happened in the early months of 1514.

[Footnote 2: There are two other Hisars famous in Eastern history:
the one in India about a hundred miles north of Delhi: the other in
the province of Azarbijan, in Persia, thirty-two miles from the
Takht-i-Sulaiman. The Hisar referred to in the text is a city on an
affluent of the Oxus, a hundred and thirty miles north-east of
Balkh.]

Again there was an interval of eight years, also to be passed lightly
over. During that period Babar chastised the Afghans of the
mountains, took Swat, and finally acquired Kandahar by right of
treaty (1522). He took possession of, and incorporated in his
dominions, that city and its dependencies, including parts of the
lowlands lying chiefly along the lower course of the Helmand.

Meanwhile Shah Beg, the eldest son of the Zulnun, who had formerly
ruled in Kandahar, had marched upon and had conquered Sind, and had
made Bukkur the capital. He died in June, 1524. As soon as this
intelligence reached the Governor of Narsapur, Shah Hasan, that
nobleman, a devoted adherent of the family of Taimur, proclaimed
Babar ruler of the country, and caused the Khatba, or prayer for the
sovereign, to be read in his name throughout Sind. There was
considerable op