- 35th Meeting, 1992: The Original Title Of The Memoirs Of Babur
Mano Eiji
Kyoto University
The Original Title Of The Memoirs Of Bābur
35th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, 1992
The Memoirs of Zahīr al-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur is usually called Bābur-nāma. The designation is rather new and is not the one adopted by Bābur himself. Then what is the original title? For the question there are some opinions.
F. Teufel adopted “Waqāi‘” as the original title in 1883. A. S. Beveridge supported him in 1908, but changed her mind later and said in 1922 that it had no definite support and in numerous instances of its occurence to describe the acts or doings of Bābur, it could be read as a common noun. Recently M. E. Subtleny wrote that Bābur called his work a “history” (tārīkh) and the work ought to be viewed as a family history and not, anachronistically, as an autobiography in the modern sense (although it does contain autobiographical elements).
The present author checked all the accurence of the words, ie. “waqāi‘” and “tārīkh,” in the Bābur-nāma and concludes that Teufel was right and the original title is certainly “Waqāi‘” or ”A Record of Events”.