tuation was critical. Babar was equal to the
occasion. Opening communication with his partisans, by a
well-executed surprise he regained the place. His treatment of the
rebels was merciful in the extreme.

During the spring of that year, 1507, Shaibani Khan, the Uzbek chief,
who had formerly driven Babar from Samarkand, had attacked and taken
Balkh; then invaded Khorasan and occupied Herat. Kandahar, which had
been to a certain extent a dependency of the rulers of Herat, had
been seized by the sons of Mir Zulnun Beg, who had been its Governor
under Sultan Husen Mirza, and these had invoked the {22} assistance
of Babar against Shaibani. Babar, accordingly, marched for Kandahar.
On his way thither, he was joined by many of the flying adherents of
the expelled House of Sultan Husen. But, before he could reach
Kandahar, Shaibani Khan had put pressure on the sons of Zulnun, and
these had accepted his sovereignty. They notified this act to Babar
in a manner not to be mistaken. The latter, therefore, prepared to
make good his claims by force of arms.

His army was not numerous, but he had confidence in it and in
himself. From Kilat-i-Ghilzai, where he first scented the change of
front at Kandahar, he had marched to the ford across the Tarnak.
Thence, confirmed in his ideas, he moved in order of battle, along
the course of the stream, to Baba Wali, five or six miles to the
north of Kandahar, and had occupied the hill of Kalishad. Here he
intended to rest, and sent out his foragers to collect supplies. But,
soon after these had quitted the camp, he beheld the enemy's army, to
the number of five thousand, move from the city towards him. He had
but a thousand men under arms, the remainder being engaged in
foraging, but he saw it was not a time to hesitate. Ranging his men
in defensive order, he awaited the attack. That attack was led in
person by the sons of Zulnun with great gallantry; but Babar not only
repulsed it, and forced the assailants to flee, but, in his pursuit,
he cut them off from the city, which surrendered to him with all its
treasures. The spoils of the place were magnificently rich. Babar did
not, however, remain in {23} Kandahar. Leaving his brother, Nasir
Mirza, to defend it, he returned to Kabul, and arrived there at the
end of July (1507), as he writes, 'with much plunder and great
reputation.'

Hardly had he arrived when he learned that Shaibani Khan had arrived
before Kandahar and was besieging his broth