He now took refuge among the hills near Uratipa, finding amusement in observing the life of the villagers, and especially in conversing with the mother of the headman, an old lady of a hundred and eleven, whose descendants, to the number of ninety-six, lived in the country round about.  One of her relatives had served in the army with which Timur had invaded India, and she entertained the future Emperor of Hindustan by telling him stories of his ancestor’s adventures.

After several fruitless raids with the few troopers who remained faithful to him, he allied himself with his two uncles, Mahmud and Ahmad Khan, in an attack against Tambal, one of the powerful nobles who had revolted against him and set up Jahangir, his brother, on the throne of Farghana.  At a critical moment his uncles left Babar to the mercy of his enemy, and he was again forced to fly for his life, hotly pursued by Tambal’s horsemen.  He was overtaken by two of them, who, not daring to pit themselves against Babar’s prodigious strength and courage, tried to inveigle him into a trap.  Babar gives a moving description of this great crisis in his life.  Thoroughly exhausted, and seeing no prospect of escape, he resigned himself to die:—­

“There was a stream in the garden, and there I made my ablutions and recited a prayer of two bowings.  Then surrendering myself to meditation, I was about to ask God for His compassion, when sleep closed my eyes.  I saw (in my dream) Khwaja Yakub, the son of Khwaja Yahya, and grandson of his Eminence the Khwaja ’Obaid-Allah (a famous saint of Samarkand), with a numerous escort, mounted on dappled grey horses, come before me and say, ’Do not be anxious, the Khwaja has sent me to tell you that he will support you and seat you on the throne of sovereignty; whenever a difficulty occurs to you, remember to beg his help, and he will at once respond to your appeal, and victory and triumph shall straightway lean to your side.’  I awoke with easy heart, at the very moment when Yusuf the constable and his companions (Tambal’s soldiers) were plotting some trick to seize and throttle me.  Hearing them discussing it, I said to them, ’All you say is very well, but I shall be curious to see which of you dares to approach me,’ As I spoke the tramp of a number of horses was heard outside the garden wall.  Yusuf the constable exclaimed, ’If we had taken you and brought you to Tambal, our affairs would have prospered much thereby; as it is, he has sent a large troop to seize you; and the noise you hear is the tramp of horses on your track,’ At this assertion my face fell, and I knew not what to devise.

“At this very moment the horsemen, who had not at first found the gate of the garden, made a breach in its crumbling wall, through which they entered.  I saw they were Kutluk Muhammad Barlas and Babai Pargari, two of my most devoted followers, with ten or twenty other persons.  When they came near to my person they threw themselves off their horses, and, bending the knee at a respectful distance, fell at my feet, and overwhelmed me with marks of their affection.