Search

, the name of a large and powerful Paṭhān tribe, with an estimated fighting strength of 50,000, on the northwest frontier of Pākistān. The territories inhabited by the Afrīdīs stretch from the eastern spurs of the Safīd Kūh through the northern half of Tirāh and the Khyber (Ḵh̲aybar) [ q.v.] pass to the west and south of the Pes̲h̲āwar district. On the east they are bounded by the settled districts of Pākistān; on the north by the territories of the Mohmunds; on the west by the S̲h̲inwārīs; and on the south by the Ōrakzays and Bangas̲h̲ tribes…

(c. 1844-1901), Amīr of Afg̲h̲ānistān, was the son of Afḍal Ḵh̲ān, the eldest surviving son of Dōst Muḥammad Ḵh̲ān, the founder of the Barakzay dynasty in Afg̲h̲ānistān. In 1853 he proceeded to Afg̲h̲ān Turkistān where his father was serving as governor of Balk̲h̲. Despite his youth he took part in a series of operations which extended Dōst Muḥammad’s power over Katag̲h̲ān, Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ān, and Derwāz. Before his death in 1863 Dōst Muḥammad had nominated a younger son, S̲h̲īr ʿAlī, as his success…

, a former, Muslim-ruled princely state of India, now in Gujarat State of the Indian Union but in British Indian times included in the Western India States Agency. The territory incorporated in this agency included the area formerly known as Kāthiāwār together with the Cutch and Pālanpūr agencies. Its creation in October 1924 marked the end of the political control of the Government of Bombay and the beginning of direct relations with the Government of India. The old Pālanpūr Agency with its headquarters at the town of Pālanpūr was a group of states in Gud̲j̲arāt [ q.v.] lying between 23° …

, the descendants of Sayyid Abu ’l-Faraḥ of Wāsiṭ near Bag̲h̲dād, who with his twelve sons emigrated to India in the 7th/13th century and settled in four villages near Patiāla in the sarkār of Sirhand in the sūba of Dihlī. The four main branches of the farnily were named after these four villages. Sayyid Dāʾūd settled in Tihanpūr; Sayyid Abu ’l-Faḍl in Čhatbanūr or Čhatrauri; Sayyid Abu ’l-Faḍāʾil in Kūndlī; and Sayyid Naẓm al-Dīn Ḥusayn in Jagner or Jhajari. From this area they later migrated into the Muẓaffarnagar district of the Ganges-Jumna doāb . The Kundlīwāl…

, inhabitants of India, who claim to be the modern representatives of the Ks̲h̲atriyas of ancient tradition. (From the Sanskrit rād̲j̲aputra “a king’s son”. For the connection between Rād̲j̲anya and Ks̲h̲atriya see Macdonell and Keith, Vedic index, i, s.v. Kṣatriya) The term Rād̲j̲pūt has no racial significance. It simply denotes a tribe, clan, or warlike class, the members of which claim aristocratic rank, a claim generally reinforced by Brahman recognition. The origin of the Rād̲j̲pūts is a problem which bristles with difficulties. The theory which was held earl…

, abu ’l-fatḥ ḏj̲alāl al-dīn muḥammad (15 Oct. 1542-16 Oct. 1605), the greatest of the Mug̲h̲al emperors of India, was born at Umarkot in Sind while his father Humāyūn, who had been ousted by the Afg̲h̲ān usurper S̲h̲īr S̲h̲āh Sūr, was escaping to Persia. A grandson of Bābur, he was both a Tīmūrid Turk and a Čag̲h̲atāy Mongol. His mother, Ḥamīda Bānū, was a Persian. After thirteen years of exile Humāyūn, because of the decline of Sūr power, decided to attempt the reconquest of H…

, a town on the south bank of the Ganges in the S̲h̲āhābād district of the Patna division of the Indian State of Bihār. Population: 18,087. (1951 Census). It seems to have been a place of great sanctity in ancient times and was originally called Vedagarbha ‘the womb of the Vedas’. Local tradition derives the name of the town from a tank originally called aghsar , or effacer of sins, which was later changed to baghsar , the tiger tank. It was at Buxar, on 23 October 1764, that the forces of Mīr Ḳāsim, ex-nawāb of Bengal, and S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ al-Dawla, na…

, a small town in the Bulands̲h̲ahr district of Uttar Pradesh, founded in 1704 by Sayyid ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, a descendant of Sayyid Ḏj̲alāl al-Ḥusayn of Buk̲h̲ārā. (C. Collin-Davies)

, tract of mountainous country in the Dīr, Swāt, and Čitrāl agency of the Pes̲h̲āwar division, West Pākistān. It is bounded on the north by Dīr; on the east by Dīr and Swāt; on the southeast and south by the Utmān Ḵh̲ēl and Mamund territories; and on the west by Afg̲h̲ānistān. It has an area of about 5,000 square miles and is intersected by five valleys—the Čahārmung, Bābūkara, Watalai, Rūd, and Sūr Kamar. In the absence of any census the population has been estimated at 100,000. Bād̲j̲awr is th…

, a village, fort, and district in the upper Yārkhūn valley at present included in the Dīr, Swāt and Čitrāl Political Agency of the North-West Frontier Province of India. It apparently formed part of the ancient territory of Śyāmāka (M. Sylvain Levi, in J. A., xi., vol. v., p. 76; and Lüders, Weitere Beiträge zur Geschichte und Geographie von Ostturkestan, 1930, p. 29 sqq.). Stein identifies Mastūd̲j̲ with the territory of Čü-wei or S̲h̲ang-mi which was visited ¶ by the Chinese pilgrim Wu-K’ung in the viiith century a. d. ( Ancient khotan, i., foot note on p. 15—16; Serindia, i. 18). An insc…

, inhabitants of India, who claim to be the modern representatives of the Ks̲h̲atriyas of ancient tradition. (From the Sanskrit rād̲j̲aputra “a king’s son”. For the connection between Rād̲j̲anya and Ks̲h̲atriya see Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, i., s. v. Kṣatriya). The term Rād̲j̲pūt has no racial significance. It simply denotes a tribe, clan, or warlike class, the members of which claim aristocratic rank, a claim generally reinforced by Brahman recognition. The origin of the Rād̲j̲pūts is a problem which bristles with difficulties. The theory which at present …

(Odra-deça), a part of the modern Indian province of Bihar and Orissa, has an area of 13,706 square miles and a population of 5,306,142, of which only 124,463 profess the Muslim faith. For administrative purposes it is divided into the five districts of Cuttack, Balasore, Purl, Angul and Sambalpur. There are in addition twenty-four native states, the Orissa feudatory states, with a population of 4,465,385, the Muḥammadans numbering only 17,100 (Census of India, 1931). Modern Orissa, which embraces the deltas of the Mahānadī and neighbouring rivers, extends from the Ba…

, a Muslim state in India now included in the Western India States Agency and situated to the south-west of Pālanpūr. The rulers of Rādhanpūr trace their descent from a Muslim adventurer who came to India from Iṣpahān about the middle of the xviith century. His descendants became fawd̲j̲dārs and farmers of revenue in the Mug̲h̲al province of Gud̲j̲arāt [q. v.]. Early in the xviiith century Ḏj̲awān Mard Ḵh̲ān Bābī, the head of the family at that time, received a grant of Rād̲h̲anpūr and other districts ( Mīrʾāt-i Aḥmadī, Ethé, N°. 3599, fol. 742). With the decline of the Mug̲h̲al em…

, a Muslim state in India now included in the Western India States Agency. The territory incorporated in this agency includes the area formerly known as Kāthiāwār together with the Cutch and Pālanpūr agencies. Its creation in October 1924, marked the end of the political control of the Government of Bombay and the beginning of direct relations with the Government of India. The old Pālanpūr Agency with its headquarters at the town of Pālanpūr was a group of states in Gud̲j̲arāt [q. v.] lying betw…

, a town and taḥṣīl in the Karnāl district of the Pand̲j̲āb [q. v.]. On three occasions has the fate of Hindustān been decided on the plain of Pānīpat: in 1526, when Bābur [q. v.], the Barlās Turk, defeated Ibrāhīm Lodī; in 1556, when Akbar [q. v.] crushed the forces of Hēmū; and lastly, in 1761, when the Marāṭhās where defeated by Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Durrānī [q. v.]. The geographical factor combined with internal decay and a weak system of frontier defence has been chiefly responsible for this. From the s…

, a district in the Belgaum division of the Indian State of Mysore. It has an area of 5,305 square miles and a population of 1,575,386 of whom 15% are Muslims (1951 Census). Until the 7th/13th century it remained free from the Muslim invader. In the following century it formed part of Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ’s extensive empire. After the decline of Tug̲h̲luḳ power its geographical position, especially its proximity to the Rāyčūr Dōʾāb, made it a bone of contention between the Bahmanī kingdom of th…

, the first of the Sadōzay rulers of Afg̲h̲ānistān and founder of the Durrānī empire, belonged to the Sadōzay section of the Popalzay clan of the Abdālī [ q.v.] tribe of Afg̲h̲āns. In the early 18th century the Abdālīs were to be found chiefly around Harāt. Under their leader Zamān Ḵh̲ān, the father of Aḥmad Ḵh̲ān, they resisted Persian attempts to take Harāt until, in 1728, they were forced to submit to Nādir S̲h̲āh. ¶ Some time later they rebelled under Ḏh̲u’l-Fiḳār Ḵh̲ān, the brother of Aḥmad Ḵh̲ān, but were once more defeated by the Persian r…

, town in the Indian State of Bombay, 56 m. north of Poona. Its proximity to the Nānā Pass made it an important trade centre linking the Deccan with the west coast. The fort of D̲j̲unnar was built by Malik al-Tud̲j̲d̲j̲ār in 840/1436. The district around D̲j̲unnar was one of the ṭarafs or provinces of the Bahmanī kingdom of the Deccan during the administration of Maḥmūd Gāwān [ q.v.]. It later formed part of the Sultanate of Aḥmadnagar. In 1067/1657 the town was plundered by S̲h̲iwad̲j̲ī, the Marāt́hā leader, who was born in the neighbouring hill-fort of S̲h̲iwn…

(bijnor), a town and district in the Rohilk̲h̲and division of the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. The district has an area of 1,867 square miles with a population of 984,196, of which 36% are Muslims. The town has a population of 30,646 (1951 Census). Little is known of the district’s early history. In 1399 it was ravaged by Tīmūr. Under Akbar it formed part of the sarkār of Sambhal in the sūba of Dihlī. During the decline of Mug̲h̲al power it was overrun by Rohillas under ʿAlī Muḥammad. It contains the town of Nad̲j̲ibābād founded about 1750 by Nad̲j̲ib al-Dawla who became wāzīr …

, a city and district of British India in the Central Division of the Bombay Presidency. The district has an area of 5,332 square miles and a population of 1,169,798 of whom 54,997 are Muslims ( Census Report, 1931). It was included in the powerful Āndhra kingdom of the Dakhan which came to an end about the middle of the third century a. d.. The available ¶ evidence also points to the fact that later the Western Čālukyas, the Rās̲h̲trakūtas, and the Deogīrī Yādavas ruled over this area. With the Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī and Ṭug̲h̲luḳ [see muḥammad ṭug̲h̲luḳ] invasions of the Dakhan it came under Muslim…