Tuzk-e-Babri (Baburnama, Memoirs of Babur)

Tuzk-e Babri is also known as the Memoirs of Babur or Baburnama. The founder of Mughal Empire in India, Babur, recorded his impressions about India country is his autobiography, styled the Tuzk-e-Babri.

Tuzk-e-Babri was originally written by Babur during his intervals of leisure in his mother tongue Turki. It was four times translated into Persian, first by Zain Khan, next by Payanda Khan and, subsequently, by Abdur Rahim Khan Khana and Mir Abu Talib Turbati. It has been translated into several European languages, particularly French and English. Three important translations of the ‘Memoirs of Babur’ in English are those of King, Leyden and Erskine, and A.S. Beveridge. Mrs. Beveridge translated the work of Tuzk-e Babri from the original Turki, while the others had translated it from the Persian version. Beveridge’s translation, therefore, is the most authentic and reliable.

Babur’s style is at once plain and graceful. Unlike other writers of the time he comes straight to the subject, does not give elaborate introduction and is matter of fact, brief and yet exhaustive in his descriptions. He was master of a flawless style in Turki. The work is characterized by a candor and freshness which were all his own. Babur has frankly given his faults, failings and vices as well as virtues. The entire work of Tuzk-e-Babri reads like romance. Once a reader commences reading he wants to finish it, for the interest in the story never flags.

Besides describing political and military events and giving pen-pictures of notable celebrities of the age, Tuzk-e-Babri gives detailed description of the physical features and the nature of the country, its animals and birds, flowers and trees. The Tuzk-e-Babri reveals Babur as one intensely found of the beauties. Of nature and adorned with essentially human virtues and faults. Baburnama is are considered to be one of the most enthralling and romantic works in the literature of all time. The Tuzk-e-Babri or the Memoirs of Babur is a first-rate authority on his history of the age. Unfortunately, it is not complete and all the known copies have three gaps – from 1508 to 1519, from 1520 to 1525, and from 1529 to 1530.