Namangan Davlat Universiteti Filologiya fakulteti

Translation is the bridge between nations. Translation brings the people closer to each other. There are three, most identified types of translation: literary, special and sociopolitical. The ways of achieving the adequacy and completeness in those three types of translation will never completely coincide with each other because of their diverse character and tasks set to translator. The object of literary translation is the literature itself, and its distinctive feature is a figurative-emotional impact on the reader, which is attained through a great usage of different linguistic means, beginning from epithet and metaphor up to rhythmical-syntactic construction of phrases. Thus, in order to preserve figurative-emotional impact on the reader while translating a work of art, the translator will try to render all specific features of the translating material. The objects of special translations are materials that belong to different fields of human activities, science and technology. The distinctive feature of this type of translation is an exact expression of the sense of translating material, which is attained through wide usage of special terms. Thus, in order to render an exact and clear meaning while translating such materials alongside with the selection of term equivalents. The objects of social-politic translations are the materials of propaganda and agitation character, and therefore a bright emotional sense abundant with special terms. Concerning the achievement of adequacy this type of translation possesses the features of literary and special types of translation as well.

Memoirs of Babur. This is the personal journal of Emperor Babur, founder of the Baburid dynasty. It records the events of his remarkable life from the age of 12 until his death in 1530. His grandson Akbar had the memoirs translated into Persian from their original Chaghatay Turkish so his grandfather’s achievements might be more widely known. This is the largest of four major illustrated copies made during Akbar’s reign. Written and illustrated around 1590, it contains 141 paintings by many different artists.

The "Memoirs of Babur" or Baburnama are the work of the great-great-great-grandson of Timur (Tamerlane), Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur (1483-1530). "Baburname" is the book including not only historical facts but a unique information on economic, political and social aspects, nature and geography-the information that is of tremendous world importance in the capacity of a unique historical and literary heritage. As their most recent translator declares, "said to 'rank with the Confessions of St. Augustine and Rousseau, and the memoirs of Gibbon and Newton,' Babur's memoirs are the first-and until relatively recent times, the only--true autobiography in Islamic literature." The Baburnama tells the tale of the prince's struggle first to assert and defend his claim to the throne of Samarkand and the region of the Fergana Valley. After being driven out of Samarkand in 1501 by the Shaibanids, he ultimately sought greener pastures, first in Kabul and then in northern India, where his descendants were the Baburid dynasty ruling in Delhi until 1858. The memoirs offer a highly educated Central Asian Muslim's observations of the world in which he moved. There is much on the political and military struggles of his time but also extensive descriptive sections on the physical and human geography, the flora and fauna, nomads in their pastures and urban environments enriched by the architecture, music and Persian and Turkic literature patronized by the Timurids. The selections here-all taken from his material on Fergana--have been chosen to provide a range of such observations from the material he recorded at the end of the 1490s and in the first years of the sixteenth century. It should be of some interest to compare his description of Samarkand with that of the outsider, Clavijo, from a century earlier.

This translation is based on that by Annette Beveridge, The Babur-nama in English, 2 v. (London, 1921), but with substantial stylistic revision to eliminate the worst of her awkward syntax. An elegantly produced modern translation is that by Wheeler M. Thackston, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor (Washington, D. C., etc., The Smithsonian Institution and Oxford University Press, 1996).  Interspersed in the text are illustrations, some being contemporary views of places Babur describes; the others taken from the miniatures of an illustrated copy of the Baburnama prepared for the author's grandson, the Baburid Emperor Akbar. It is worth remembering that the miniatures reflect the culture of the court at Delhi; hence, for example, the architecture of Central Asian cities resembles the architecture of Baburid India.  Nonetheless, these illustrations are important as evidence of the tradition of exquisite miniature painting which developed at the court of Timur and his successors.  Timurid miniatures are among the greatest artistic achievements of the Islamic world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.    The translation was ordered by Babur’s grandson, the Emperor Akbar, who ruled the Baburids Empire from 1556 to 1605. He had amasses a great library devoted to subjects such as history, classical Persian literature and translations of Sanskrit texts. Akbar entrusted the work of translating Babur’s memoirs into Persian to an army general and close friend called Abd al-Rahim, who enjoyed the title Khan-i khanan, meaning ‘commander of commaders’. In the Baburids world, conquest and culture went hand in hand. The Khan-i khanan was not only one of Akbar’s greatest army commanders; he was also known for his poetry and his writings on astrology. His combination of military experience and literary discernment made him ideal for the job. The two men had known each other since their youth: Abd al-Rahim’s father, Bayram Khan, had served as Akbar’s mentor in his early years. This copy of the ‘Memoirs of Babur’ was made around 1590. The Persian text is written in the flowing ‘nasta‘liq’ script, sometimes also known as the ‘bride of scripts’ because it was created by combining two earlier scripts: ‘naskhi’ and ‘nasta‘liq’. From the 15th century on, naskhi continued to be used for Islamic religious writings, while nasta‘liq came into its own for secular literature, especially poetry. Good nasta‘liq is distinguished by its more horizontal and cursive appearance, and by subtle transition and contrast between thick and thin lines. The elegant calligraphy is richly complemented by miniatures and decorative borders of outstanding quality painted by a team of at least 54 artists drawn from over two hundred employed in Akbar’s shop in Lahore. Of its 141 pictures, 68 are whole-page illustrations of Babur’s narrative. Akbar insisted on the highest standards from his artists. Though Akbar was a Muslim, his Hindu subjects were allowed to rise to high office. Most of the miniatures in this manuscript carry Hindu names. Four among them, Kisu, Sanwala, Jagannath and Mahesh are noted elsewhere as being master-painters in the royal studio. Fewer in number, the Muslim artists include Mansur, Ibrahim Qahhar and Farrukh.