Page:Akbar and the Rise of the Mughal Empire.djvu/24

 CHAPTER II

BÁBAR CONQUERS KÁBUL

At this period the kingdom of Kábul comprehended solely the provinces of Kábul and Ghazní, the territory which we should call Eastern Afghánistán. Herát was the capital of an independent empire, at this time the greatest in Central Asia; and Kandabár, Bajáur, Swát, and Pesháwar, were ruled by chiefs who had no connection with Kábul. The tribes of the plains and outlying valleys alone acknowledged the authority of the King of that country. The clans of the mountains were as independent and refractory as their descendants were up to a recent period. Kábul at this time was in a state bordering upon anarchy. The late King, Abdul-rizák, a grandson of the Abusáid referred to in the preceding chapter, had been surprised in, and driven from, the city, by Muhammad Mokim, a son of the ruler of Kandahár, and that prince, taking no thought of the morrow, was reigning as though all the world were at peace, and he at least were free from danger.

Bábar, I have said, tired of his wandering life, had resolved to march on Khorásán. He crossed the Oxus, therefore, and joined by Bákí, the son of Sultán