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Islāmābād

(435 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the new capital of Pakistan [ q.v.], was set up in 1960 on the recommendation of a special commission, headed by General Yaḥyā Ḵh̲ān, then (1971) president of Pakistan. Situated between 33° 19′ and 33° 50′ N. and 72° 34′ and 72° 23′ E., ¶ some 8 miles from Rawalpindi, the general headquarters of the Pakistan army, the site elected “answers all questions relating to climate, landscape, communication, defence...”. Off the road to Murree, a nearby hill station, and spreading over an area of 351 sq. miles, consisting mostly of natural terrac…

al-D̲j̲awnpūrī

(1,749 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, Sayyid Muḥammad al-Kāẓimī al-Ḥusaynī b. Sayyid K̲h̲ān alias Bad́d́h Uwaysī (cf. Āʾīn-i Akbarī , Bibl. Ind., ii, 241) and Bībī Āḳā Malik , the pseudo-Mahdī [ q.v.], was born at D̲j̲awnpur [ q.v.] on Monday, 14 D̲j̲umādā I 847/10 September 1443. None of the contemporary sources mentions the names of his parents as ʿAbd Allāh and Āmina, as claimed by the Mahdawī sources ( e.g., Sirād̲j̲ al-Abṣār , see Bibliography), in an obvious attempt to identify them with the names of the Prophet’s parents so that the prediction made in the aḥādīt̲h̲ al-Mahdī (cf. Ibn Taymiyya, Minhād̲j̲ al-Sunna

Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh Langāh I

(582 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, son of Rāy Sahrā entitled Ḳuṭb al-Dīn, the founder of the Langāh dynasty of Multān, who had usurped the throne by treacherously ousting his son-in-law, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Yūsuf Ḳurays̲h̲ī, succeeded to the rule on the death of his father in 874/1469. Adventurous by nature, he began his reign by launching a succession of campaigns against the neighbouring forts of S̲h̲ōr (modern S̲h̲orkōt́), Činiōt́ [ q.v.] and Kahrōŕ (modern Kahrōŕ Pucca), which he easily reduced. At this time S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Yūsuf Ḳurays̲h̲ī, who had taken refuge with Buhlōl Lōdī, the king of Delhi, p…

Iʿtibār Ḵh̲ān

(230 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a-sarāʾī (eunuch) who ultimately rose to the high office of a provincial governor under the emperor D̲j̲ahāngīr [ q.v.]. Originally in the service of a grandee of Akbar’s court, on his death he joined the service of the Great Mogul who appointed him nāẓir (comptroller) of the household of Prince Salīm (later Ḏj̲ahāngīr) on his birth in 977/1569. He served the prince well and soon after his accession to the throne Salīm rewarded him by assigning to him the district of Gwāliyār as his d̲j̲āgīr in 1025/1607. Thereafter he received one promotion aft…

Burhān al-Mulk

(863 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, mīr muḥammad amīn b. sayyid muḥammad naṣīr al-mūsawī , was a native of Nīs̲h̲āpūr who founded the Awadh dynasty of Nawwāb-Wazīrs (1136/1724-1167/1754). The exact date of his arrival in India is not known, but this much is certain, that he was in the service of Sarbuland Ḵh̲ān, commandant of Karā-Mānikpūr, in 1123/1711. On the accession of Farruk̲h̲-siyar to the throne of Delhi (1124/1713-1131/1719), he managed to obtain the post of a nāʾib-karōrī (a revenue official), through the good offices of Muḥammad Ḏj̲aʿfar, a manṣabdār . In 1132/1719 he was appoint…

al-Dāmād

(952 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, “son-in-law”, an honorific title given to mīr muḥammad bāḳir b. s̲h̲ams al-dīn muḥammad al-Ḥusaynī al-astarābadī , Called also al-Muʿallim al-T̲h̲ālit̲h̲ , the “third teacher” in philosophy ¶ after al-Fārābī. This title properly belongs to his father who was the son-in-law of the famous S̲h̲īʿī theologian ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAbd al-ʿĀlī al-Karakī, called al-Muḥaḳḳiḳ al-T̲h̲ānī (Brockelmann, S II, 574), but it was extended to the son, who is more correctly called Dāmādī or Ibn al-Dāmād. Born at Astarābād, Mīr-i Dāmād spent h…

Āzurda

(562 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, ṣadr al-dīn ḵh̲ān b. luṭf allāh , Indian writer of Kas̲h̲mīrī extraction, was born in Delhi in 1204/1789. He learnt the traditional sciences from S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-Ḳādir [ qq.v.] and the rational sciences from Faḍl-i Imām of Ḵh̲ayrābād, whom he succeeded in 1243/ 1827 as the last grand muftī and ṣadr al-ṣudūr of Imperial Delhi. In addition to his proficiency in various branches of knowledge he was a great authority on the Urdū language, and celebrated poets like G̲h̲ālib and Muʾmin often invited his opini…

Bannū

(417 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, town and headquarters of the district of the same name in West Pakistan, situated in 33° 0′ N. and 70° 36′ E. Population in 1951 was 27, 516 for the town and 307,393 (district). The present town was founded by Lt. Edwardes Herberts in 1848 on a strategic site and named Edwardesābād. The name, however, did not become popular and soon fell into disuse, giving place to Bannū, the old name of the valley derived from the Bannʿučīs, an Afg̲h̲ān tribe of mixed descent. The valley, strewn with ruins of great antiquity, was, according t…

Gulbadan Bēgam

(491 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the talented and accomplished daughter of the emperor Bābur [ q.v.] by one of his wives, Dildār Bēgam, who was a lineal descendant of the Central Asian ṣūfī Aḥmadi-Ḏj̲ām Zinda-Pīl , was born c. 929/1523 in Ḵh̲urāsān (Kabul?), two years before her father set out from Kabul on his last but historic expedition across the Indus in 932/1525, which won him the empire of India. That very year she was adopted by Māham Bēgam, mother of Humāyūn [ q.v.] and the senīor wife of Bābur, to rear and educate. In 936/1529 she left for Āgra [ q.v.], the seat of Bābur’s government, under the care of her fost…

Iʿtimād al-Dawla

(897 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, title of Mīrzā G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Muḥammad Teherānī, commonly known as G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ Bēg, son of Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad S̲h̲arif, onetime minister to the Ṣafawid S̲h̲āh Ṭahmāsp [ q.v.], father of Nūr D̲j̲ahān, wife of D̲j̲ahāngīr [ q.v.]. Both his father and an uncle Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Aḥmad, father of the historian Amīn-i Rāzī, author of Haft Iḳlīm , held high offices of state under Ṭahmāsp. After the death of his father in 984/1576-7 he, for reasons not precisely known, left for India to seek his fortune. It is, however, clear that he …

Īsar-Dās

(548 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(or īs̲h̲war-dās ), one of the two Hindu historians of the reign of Awrangzīb [ q.v.], was a Nāgarā Brahman of Pat́an (Nahrawālā or Anhalwaŕa [ q.v.] of Muslim historians). Born in 1066/1655 he seems to have received a good education in Persian language and belles-lettres at his native town. Up to 1096/1684 he was employed, most probably, as letter writer and scribe, with the ḳāḍī , S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām b. ḳāḍī ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, who was Ḳāḍī al-las̲h̲kar from 1086/1675 to 1096/1683. On account of certain differences with the Emperor Awrangzīb, S̲h̲ayk…

Ambāla

(606 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, town in East Pand̲j̲āb, India, situated 30° 21′ N and 76° 52′ E, 125 miles from Delhi on the way to Sirhind. The town consists of the old town and the cantonments, four miles away. The population in 1951 was 146,728. Though the neighbourhood of Ambāla played an important role in early Indian history, the town itself is first mentioned in the Safar-nāma-i Ḳāḍī Taḳī Muttaḳī (Bid̲j̲nawr 1909, 2 ff.), according to which it was occupied by the Muslims at the time of the second invasion of India by Muʿizz al-Dīn b. Sām in 587/1192. Iltutmis̲h̲ (608-33/1211-36) is reported to have appointed a ḳāḍī

D̲j̲aypur

(737 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, formerly a princely state in India, now a part of the Indian Union, lying between 25° 41′ and 28° 34′ N. and 74° 13′ E., with an area of 15,579 sq. miles and a population of 1,650,000 in 1951. The ruling dynasty claimed descent from a son of Rāma, the legendary king of Ayōdhyā and the hero of the Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa by Valmīki, in spite of the fact that the ex-ruler was also the head of the Kačhwāha clan of Rād̲j̲pūts. The fi…

Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh Arg̲h̲ūn

(967 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(also known as Mīrza S̲h̲āh Ḥasan ) b. S̲h̲āh Bēg Arg̲h̲ūn, the founder of the Arg̲h̲ūn dynasty of Sind, was born in 896/1490 most probably at Ḳandahār which was then held by his father. On Bābur’s occupation of Ḳandahār in 913/1507 S̲h̲āh Bēg came to Sind and occupied the adjoining territories of S̲h̲āl and Sīwī (modern Sibī). In 921/1515 Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh fell out with his father and joined the service of Bābur, with whom he remained for two years. The domestic quarrel having been …

Islāmābād

(282 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the name given by the emperor Awrangzīb [ q.v.] to several towns in India, for reasons not precisely known. All these towns were already included in the Mug̲h̲al territories and were not freshly conquered from the Hindus to provide an excuse for their rechristening. Of these Čittāgong [ q.v.], now in E. Pakistan, at the head of the Bay of Bengal, is still known occasionally in religious circles as Islāmābād, the official name remaining the original Čittāgong. Mathurā, on the river Yamunā, known for its numerous temples and Hindu shrines, was…

Bharatpūr

(470 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, formerly a princely State in India, now forming a part of Rād̲j̲astʿhān, lying between 26° 43′ and 27° 50′ N. and 76° 53′ and 77° 46′ E. with an area of 1,982 sq. miles. The chief city is Bharatpūr, situated in 27° 13′ N. and 77° 30′ E., 34 miles from Agra, with a population of 37,321 in 1951. Paharsar, 14 miles from Bharatpūr, was first conquered in the 5th/11th century by the troops of Maḥmūd of G̲h̲azna, under the Sayyid brothers, D̲j̲alāl al-Dīn and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, who claimed descent from Imām D̲j̲aʿfar al-Ṣādiḳ, in about 3 hours, as the local tradition goes, whence the place derives its name pahar…

Iʿtiḳād Ḵh̲ān

(314 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a Kas̲h̲mīrī of obscure origin, whose name was Muḥammad Murād, was originally in the service of Bahādur S̲h̲āh I ( reg . 1119/1707-1124/1712), enjoying a rank of 1,000 and the title of Wakālat Ḵh̲ān. On the accession to the throne of the ill-starred Farruk̲h̲siyar [ q.v.] in 1125/1713 his name was included among those listed for execution but on the intercession of the (Bārha) Sayyid brothers, ʿAbd Allāh Ḵh̲ān and Ḥusayn ʿAlī Ḵh̲ān, known as king-makers ( Bāds̲h̲āh-gar ), he was spared, promoted to a high office, appointed as basāwal (harbinger) of the army, a…

Aẓfarī

(531 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, muḥammad ẓahīr al-dīn mīrzā ʿalī bak̲h̲t bahādur gūrgānī , a lineal descendant of Awrangzīb and a grandson of ʿIffat Ārāʾ Begum (daughter of Muḥammad Muʿizz al-Dīn Pāds̲h̲āh (i.e. Ḏj̲ahāndār S̲h̲āh), son of S̲h̲āh ʿĀlam (Bahādur S̲h̲āh I), was born in the Red Fort at Delhi in 1172/1758 and educated within the fort. Like other princes of the line of Tīmūr, Aẓfarī was in receipt of an allowance from the East India Company. Aẓfarī decided in 1202/1789 to escape from the fort. Passing…

Dilāwar K̲h̲ān

(622 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, founder of the kingdom of Mālwa [ q.v.], whose real name was Ḥasan (Firis̲h̲ta, Nawalkishore ed., ii, 234); or Ḥusayn (Firis̲h̲ta, Briggs’s tr., iv, 170; so also Yazdani, op. cit. below); or ʿAmīd S̲h̲ah Dāwūd ( Tūzuk-i Ḏj̲ahāngīrī . tr. Rogers and Beveridge, ii, 407, based on the inscriptions of the D̲j̲āmiʿ masd̲j̲id (= Lāt́ masd̲j̲id) in Dhār, cf. Zafar Hasan, Inscriptions of Dhār and Mānḍū , in EIM, 1909-10, 11-2 and Plates III and IV). He was believed to be a lineal descendant of ¶ Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Sām, S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn G̲h̲ūrī, and this belie…

Ḥāfiẓābād

(232 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, headquarters of a taḥṣīl of the same name in the Gūd̲j̲rāńwāla [ q.v.] district of West ¶ Pakistan, lying between 31° 45′ and 32° 20′ N. and 73° 10′ and 73° 50′ E. on the east bank of the river Čenāb, with an area of 894 sq. miles. It is 33 miles by road from Gūd̲j̲rāńwāla with a population (1961) of 34,576. It is an ancient town and was of considerable importance during Mug̲h̲al times, as it finds mention in the Āʾīn-i Akbarī , where it is described as the seat of a maḥāll . Its importance declined with the rise of Gūd̲j̲rāńwāla, which lies on the main rail-road t…

Burhānpūr

(1,097 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, town in Madhyā Pradēs̲h̲ (India) situated in 21° 18′ N. and 76° 14′ E., along the north bank of the Tāptī, with bathing-steps ( ghāts ) on the river-side and a solid masonry wall, pierced by a number of massive gates and wickets, on all the other sides. This wall was constructed by Niẓām al-Mulk Āṣaf D̲j̲āh I [ q.v.] in 1141/1728, during his governorship of Burhānpūr. The population in 1951 was 70,066. While the walled town occupies an area of 2½ sq. miles, numerous remains outside show that the suburbs, which now comprise ʿĀdilpūra, must have been very extensive. This town, which was of grea…

Bak̲h̲tāwar K̲h̲ān

(513 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a favourite eunuch, confidant and personal attendant of Awrangzīb [ q.v.] who entered his service in 1065/1654 while the latter was still a prince. In 1080/1669 he was appointed Dārōg̲hā-i Ḵh̲awāṣṣān . He died after a short illness at Aḥmadnagar on 15 Rabīʿ I, 1096/168 5 after faithfully serving Awrangzīb for 30 years. His death was personally mourned by the Emperor who led the funeral prayers and carried the bier for some paces. His dead body wa brought to Delhi where he was buried in a tomb that he had built for himself in…

Bōgrā

(352 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, town and head-quarters of the district of the same name in East Pakistan, situated in 24° 51′ N. and 89° 23′ E. on the west bank of the Karātōyā. Population, (1951) was 12,80,581 for the district and 25,303 for the town. The town is predominantly ¶ Muslim; even before the partition of the sub-continent in 1947 it had the largest number of Muslims in the whole of Bengal. They are mostly couverts from the Kōč or Rād̲j̲bansīs of the northern areas although there are some Pathāns and Sayyids also. The district and the town are both liable to …

D̲j̲ahāngīr

(2,354 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the fourth Mug̲h̲al emperor of India in the line of Bābur [ q.v.], the first surviving child of Akbar, others born earlier having all died in infancy, was born on 17 Rabīʿ I 977/31 August 1569 of a Rād̲j̲pūt queen, called Miryam al-Zamānī, at (Fatḥpur) Sīkrī, near Āgrā, in the hermitage of a recluse S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Salīm Čis̲h̲tī, to whose intercession the birth of a son was attributed. The young prince was named Salīm after the S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ but Akbar always called him S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ū Bābā, scrupulously avoiding the …

Farīdkōt́́

(291 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, formerly a small feudatory princely state in the Pand̲j̲āb, now merged with the Fīrūzpur Division of the Indian Pand̲j̲āb, and lying between 30° 13′ and 30° 50′ N. and 74° 31′ and 75° 5′ E. with an area of 642 sq. miles. Both the State and the principal town of the same name are unimportant. The town, lying in 30° 40′ N. and 74° 49′ E., 20 miles south of Fīrūzpur [ q.v.], has a fort built by Rād̲j̲a Mokulsī, a native Rād̲j̲pūt chief, in the time of Farīd al-Dīn Gand̲j̲-S̲h̲akar [ q.v.], popularly known as Bāwā (Bābā) Farīd, after whom the fort was named Farīdkōt́ ( kōt́ = fort)…

Ḳāniʿ

(393 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
mir ʿalī s̲h̲er , historian of Sind, son of ʿIzzat Allāh al-Ḥusaynī al-S̲h̲īrāzī, was born in T́hat́t́a, the capital of Sind in the Mug̲h̲al and pre-Mug̲h̲al period, in 1440/1727 and died there in 1203/1788. His grave still exists on the nearby Maklī hills. He received his education from local scholars, some of whom are mentioned in his Maḳālāt-al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ (Karachi 1957, 114, 150, 339, 359, 817). In 1175/1761 he was commissioned by the Kalhōfa ruler of Sind, G̲h̲ulām S̲h̲āh ʿAbbāsī (1170-86/1757-72), to write a Persian history of the ruling dynasty on the lines of the S̲h̲āhnāma

(Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī) Imdād Allāh

(1,056 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
al-Muhād̲j̲ir al-Hindī al-Makkī b. Muḥammad Amīn al-Fārūḳī , the spiritual guide and preceptor of a number of leading religious personalities of India (including Muḥammad Ḳāsim al-Nānawtawī, founder of the Dār al-ʿUlūm at Deōband [ q.v.], Ras̲h̲īd Aḥmad al-Anṣārī of Gańgōh (d. 1323/1905), a well-known muḥaddit̲h̲ , faḳīh , divine and scholar of his days and As̲h̲raf ʿAlī Thānawī [ q.v.]), was born at Nānawta (dist. Sahāranpūr, India) in 1231/1815. A ḥāfiẓ of the Ḳurʾān, he was moderately well educated in Persian, Arabic grammar and syntax and…

Ismāʿīl S̲h̲ahīd

(1,599 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, Muḥammad , the only son of S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-G̲h̲ānī, youngest son of S̲h̲āh Walī Allāh al-Dihlawī [ q.v.], was born at Phulat (dist. Muẓaffarnagar, India) on 12 Rabīʿ II 1193/29 April 1779. His father having died in Rad̲j̲ab 1203/April 1789, when he was only ten years old, he was adopted by his uncle S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-Ḳādir [ q.v.], the first Urdu translator of the Ḳurʾān, who had no male issue and who later married his grand-daughter Kult̲h̲ūm to him. Educated by ʿAbd al-Ḳādir, he also drew upon the vast learning of his uncles S̲h̲āh Rafīʿ al-Dīn, anothe…

Ḏj̲āt́́

(1,567 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
the central Indo-Aryan (Hindī and Urdū) form corresponding to the north-west Indo-Aryan (Pand̲j̲ābī, Lahndā) D̲j̲aťť, a tribe of the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent found particularly in the Pand̲j̲āb, Sind, Rād̲j̲āsthān and western Uttar Pradēs̲h̲. The name is of post-Sanskritic Indian origin (Middle Indo-Aryan * d̲j̲at́t́a ), and the form with short vowel is employed by the Persian translator of the Čač-nāma (compiled 613/1216), the author of the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Sind ( Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Maʿṣūmī ) and S̲h̲āh Walī Allāh al-Dihlawī [ q.v.] in his Persian letters. For the Arabicized form Zuṭṭ [ q.…

al-Banūrī

(848 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, muʿizz al-din abū ʿabd allāh ādam b. s. ismāʿīl , one of the premier Ḵh̲ulafāʾ of Aḥmad Sirhindī [ q.v.], was a native of Banūr [ q.v.]. He claimed descent from Imām Mūsā al-Kāẓim [ q.v.], but it was disputed on the ground that his grandmother belonged to the Mashwānī tribe of the Afg̲h̲āns and he too lived and dressed after the fashion of the Afg̲h̲āns. His nasab was again questioned when in 1052/1642 he was in Lahore accompanied by 10,000 of his disciples, mostly Afg̲h̲āns, by ʿAllāmī Saʿd Allāh Ḵh̲ān Chinyōtī, the chief Minister of Shāhd̲j̲ahān, and by ʿAbd al-Ḥakīm al-Siyālkōtī [ q.v.], who …

Ḥaydarābād

(912 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(Sind), a town in the former province of Sind (West Pakistan) situated between 25° 23′ N. and 68° 20′ E. and covering an area of 36 sq. miles, is the third largest city in West Pakistan after Karachi and Lahore, pop. (1961) 434,537 (of which the Muslims numbered 422,786). Built on the site of the ancient Nīrūńkot́, which fell to the arms of Muḥammad b. Ḳāsim al-T̲h̲akafī at the time of the first Muslim conquest of Sind in the 2nd/8th century, the town …

Ilāhī Bak̲h̲s̲h̲ “Maʿrūf”

(1,098 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, Urdu poet, born c. 1156/1743, was the youngest son of Mīrzā ʿĀrif D̲j̲ān, the younger brother of S̲h̲araf al-Dawla Ḳāsim D̲j̲ān, a grandee of the empire during the vizierate of D̲h̲u ’l-Faḳār al-Dawla Nad̲j̲af K̲h̲ān (a street in old Delhi, Galī Ḳāsim D̲j̲ān, is still named after S̲h̲araf al-Dawla; in it once resided many famous men, such as the Urdu-Persian poet G̲h̲ālib [ q.v.], S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn, the spiritual guide of the last Mughal emperor Bahādur S̲h̲āh “Zafar” [ q.v.], and the physician Raʾīs al-Aṭibbāʾ Muḥammad S̲h̲arīf K̲h̲ān, great-grandfather of S̲h̲if…

Ibrāhīm Lōdī

(887 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
was the last of the Lōdī Sultans of Delhi, who was defeated and slain on the battlefield by Bābur [ q.v.] in the historic first battle of Pānīpat in 932/1526. His death opens a new chapter in the annals of India as it marks the end of the Dihlī Sultanate [ q.v.] and the beginning of the Mog̲h̲ul rule which was to last for more than four centuries. The eldest son of Sikandar Lōdī ( reg . 894/1489-923/1517) he succeeded to the throne on 8 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda 923/22 November 1517, one day after his father’s death. Since he was distrustful and ungenerous, t…

Harkarn

(364 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, b. Mathurādās , a Kańbōh [ q.v.] of Multān, known chiefly for his collection of letters ( ins̲h̲āʾ ), entitled Irs̲h̲ād al-ṭālibīn but popularly called Ins̲h̲āʾi Harkarn . Nothing is known about his early life or the teachers from whom he learnt Persian, the court language of the day. He was employed for some time as a secretary ( muns̲h̲ī ) by Iʿtibār K̲h̲ān k̲h̲wād̲j̲a-sarāy , most probably a Hindu convert to Islam and an influential eunuch, who was from very early years a confidant and retainer of the Mug̲h̲al emperor D̲j̲ahāngīr [ q.v.]. It is not exactly known when Harkarn entered…

Bhōpāl

(1,966 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, formerly a princely State in India, lying between 22° 29′ and 23° 54′ N. and 76° 28′ and 78° 51′ E. with an area of 6,878 sq. miles, with a population of 838,474 in 1951. It was the second most important Muslim State, next to Ḥaydarābād [ q.v]. Bhōpāl was founded by a military adventurer, Dōst Muḥammad Ḵh̲ān, a native of Tīrāh (in the tribal area of present-day Pakistan) who belonged to the Mirzaʾī Ḵh̲ēl tribe of the Āfrīdī Pathans. In 1120/1708 he went to Delhi, at the age of 34, in search of employment, and succeeded in obtaining from Bahādur S̲h̲āh I [ q.v.], emperor of Delhi, the lease of Bērāsia par…

As̲h̲raf Ḏj̲ahāngīr

(436 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
b. S. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm was born in 688/1289 at al-Simnān (Ḵh̲urāsān), the principality of his father. His mother, Ḵh̲adīd̲j̲a, was a grand-daughter of Aḥmad Yasawī [ q.v.]. A ḥāfiẓ of the Ḳurʾān, with its seven readings, he completed his education at the age of 14. His love for mysticism took him to ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla al-Simnānī [ q.v.], a leading ṣūfī of his days, whose company he frequented. Succeeding his father, on the latter’s death in 705/1305-6, to the principality he soon abdicated in favour of his brother Muḥammad and set out …

Iltutmis̲h̲

(1,286 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, b. Ēlam K̲h̲ān , the greatest of the so-called Slave kings who laid the foundations of Muslim rule in India, came of the Ilberī (or Alprī) branch of the Karāk̲h̲itā’i Turks. The third sultan of the Slave dynasty and the founder of the S̲h̲amsiyya line of rulers, he ascended the throne of Delhi in 607/1211 after defeating Ārām S̲h̲āh, son and successor of his master Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Aybak [ q.v.], who had purchased him as a slave in Delhi. Nothing in detail is known about his early life except that he spent a part of it in slavery at G̲h̲azna, Buk̲h̲ārā and Bag̲h̲dād.…

Muḥammad Bayram Ḵh̲ān

(2,019 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, ḵh̲ān-i ḵh̲ānān ( Amīr al-Umarāʾ ), affectionately and respectfully addressed by the emperor Akbar [ q.v.] as Ḵh̲ān Bābā or Bābā-am [(My) Good Old Man!] during the latter’s minority, was a Turkoman of the Bahārlū tribe, a branch of the Ḳarā Ḳoyūnlū, who played a leading rôle in Diyār Bakr after the death of Malik S̲h̲āh Sald̲j̲ūḳī [ q.v.]. ʿAlī S̲h̲ukr Bēg, one of the ancestors of Bayram Ḵh̲ān, whose sons served Abū Saʿīd Mirzā, and after his defeat by Uzun Ḥasan in 837/1433-4, Maḥmud Mīrzā, his son ( Babur-nama , transl. A. S. Beveridge, i, 49), held large est…

Ins̲h̲āʾ

(1,273 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, mak̲h̲laṣ of the famous Urdu poet, one of the most remarkable figures in Urdu literature, Ins̲h̲āʾ Allāh K̲h̲ān . The eldest son of Mīr Mās̲h̲āʾ Allāh K̲h̲ān “Maṣdar” al-D̲j̲aʿfarī al-Nad̲j̲afī, he was born between 1756 and 1758 at Murs̲h̲idābād [ q.v.], where the family had settled after its migration from ʿIrāḳ, the grandfather of Ins̲h̲āʾ, S̲h̲āh Nūr Allāh al-Nad̲j̲afī having also been born in this town. Mās̲h̲āʾ Allāh K̲h̲ān had established himself as a physician and became one of the courtiers of the last independent Muslim ruler of Bengal, Nawwāb Sirād̲j̲ al-Dawla [ q.v.]; on the…

Gūd̲j̲ar

(1,340 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
( Gud̲j̲d̲j̲ar , Gurd̲j̲d̲j̲ar ), name of an ancient tribe, wide-spread in many parts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, akin to the Rād̲j̲pūts, the Ḏj̲āt́s [ q.v.], and the Ahīrs, who are claimed by Gud̲j̲d̲j̲ar historians as off-shoots of the main stock. Both Western and native writers agree that the tribe migrated to the plains of Hindustan from Central Asia sometime in the middle of the 5th century A.D. Tall, handsome, wirily-built, and of a fair complexion, they are believed to be descendants of either the Scythian…

Kāńgŕā

(1,188 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the Nagarkot́ of Muslim historians of India, occasionally referred to as Kōt Kāńŕgā, is also the headquarters of the taḥṣīl of the same name in the Indian Pand̲j̲āb. Kāńgŕā lies between 30° 5′ N. and 76° 16′ E. on the northern slope of the ¶ low mountain ranges which run through the district, facing Dharamsālā, a fine hill resort in summer, and commands a view of the verdant Kāńigŕā valley below. The pre-Mug̲h̲al history of the town is not definitely known. It was, however, a stronghold of the Katōč Rād̲j̲pūt rād̲j̲ās who held sway over the entire valley and one o…

Dard

(786 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, one of the four pillars of Urdū literature and one of the greatest of Urdū poets, K̲h̲wād̲j̲a Mīr (with the tak̲h̲alluṣ of Dard) b. K̲h̲wād̲j̲a Muḥammad Nāṣir “ʿAndalīb” al-Ḥusaynī al-Buk̲h̲ārī al-Dihlawī, claimed descent from K̲h̲wādia Bahāʾ al-Dīn Naḳs̲h̲band and in the 25th step from the Imām Haṣan al-ʿAskarī [ q.v.]. Born in 1133/1720-21 in the decadent Imperial Dihlī, Dard received his education at home, mostly from his father, a very well-read man and the author of Nāla-i ʿAndalīb , a voluminous Persian allegory dealing with metaphysical and a…

Gūd̲j̲rāńwāla

(443 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, an industrial town of West Pakistan and headquarters of the district of the same name, situated in 32° 9′ N. and 74° 11′ E., on the main railway line between Lahore and Peshawar [ qq.v.]; population (1961) 196,154. The town, a mere village till the middle of the 19th ¶ century, owes its origin to a tribe of the Gūd̲j̲ars [ q.v.] who were expelled by Sāńsī Ḏj̲āt́s from Amritsar [ q.v.]. On changing hands the village was renamed Ḵh̲ānpur, after the head-man of the Sāńsīs. But this name never gained popularity. It was of little importance during Mug̲h̲al days and consequently finds no mention in the Ā…

al D̲j̲azarī

(486 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
the historian S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Abu ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Mad̲j̲d al-Dīn Abī Isḥāḳ Ibrāhīm b. Abī Bakr b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-D̲j̲azarī al-Dimas̲h̲ḳī (not to be confused with his compatriot Abu ’l-K̲h̲ayr S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Muḥammad..., better known as Ibn al-D̲j̲azarī [ q.v.], the author of Ḥiṣn Ḥaṣīn and a contemporary of Tīmūr), was born at Damascus on 10 Rabīʿ I 658/25 February 1260. He studied with a number of teachers including al-Fak̲h̲r ʿAlī al-Buk̲h̲ārī, Ibrāhīm b. Aḥmad b. Kāmil al-Taḳī al-Wāsiṭī, Ibn al-Mud̲j̲āwir and al-Dimyāṭī [ q.v.]. Hard of hearing, he …

G̲h̲anī

(562 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, tak̲h̲alluṣ of the Persian poet Mullā Muḥammad Ṭāhir As̲h̲a’ī of Kas̲h̲mīr, who flourished during the reign of the Mug̲h̲al emperors, S̲h̲āhd̲j̲ahān and Awrangzīb [ qq.v.]. Nothing is known with certainty either about the date of his birth or the origins of the clan—the As̲h̲aʾīs—to which he belonged. It is, however, certain that he was the son of an obscure poor s̲h̲ālbāf (a weaver of woolen ¶ shawls). A pupil of Muḥsin Fānī, assumed by some scholars to be the author of Dabistān-i mad̲h̲āhib , G̲h̲anī began writing poetry at the early age of twenty. The…

Dīr

(992 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a princely state, which acceded to Pakistan in 1947, with an area of 2,040 sq. miles and a population of 148, 648 in 1951, lies to the south of Čitrāl in 35° 50′ and 34° 22′ N. and 71° 2′ and 72° 30′ E., taking its name from the village of Dīr, seat of the ruler, lying on the bank of a stream of the same name and a tributary of the Pand̲j̲kōŕā. Politically the Dīr territory roughly comprises the country watered by the Pand̲j̲kōŕā and its affluents. The state gained prominence in the second half of the 19th century for its hostility to the cause of the mud̲j̲āhidīn , remnants of t…

Bāḳargand̲j̲

(382 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(Backergunge), formerly a district in East Pakistan with headquarters at Bārīsāl, (now itself a district comprising Bāḳargand̲j̲), lying between 21° 54′ N and 91° 2′ E; Area: 4,091 sq. m., of which 51 sq. m. are covered with water. The ¶ population in 1951 was 3,642,185, of whom 2,897,769 were Muslims. The area was known as Bākla (Ismāʿīlpūr) and constituted a sarkār in Mug̲h̲al times prior to its occupation by Āg̲h̲ā Bāḳar, a prominent person at the Mug̲h̲al Court at Dacca, owing allegiance to the Nawāb of Murs̲h̲idābād, and a land-…

Bānkīpūr

(254 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the Western suburb of the city of Patna, the ʿAẓīmābād of the Muslim historians, situated in 25° 37′ N. and 85° 8′ E. on the right bank of the Ganges. The great landmark of Bānkīpūr is the brick-built beehive-shaped silo or grain storehouse constructed by Warren Hastings after the terrible famine of 1769-70. In Oriental circles the town is famous for its fine collection of Arabic and Persian manuscripts, some of which are extremely rare. The Bānkīpūr…

Begum

(283 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(Indo-Persian begam , Turkish bigim ), feminine of beg [ q.v.]. During the Mug̲h̲al period of Indian history its use, as an honorific, was confined to the royal princesses only. D̲j̲ahānārā Begam [ q.v.] the unmarried daughter of S̲h̲āhd̲j̲ahān [ q.v.], bore the official title of Pāds̲h̲āh Begam during the reign of her father. She retained it even after the dethronement and subsequent incarceration of S̲h̲āhd̲j̲ahān. During Akbar’s rule the Begams (queens and princesses) received from 1028 to 1610 rupees per annum as privy purse. Afte…

ʿIṣāmī

(675 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, tak̲h̲elluṣ and family surname of a Persian poet who flourished in the 8th/14th century in India and composed in 750-1/1349-50 an epic poem dealing with the exploits of the Muslim conquerors and rulers of India and their military commanders from the G̲h̲aznawids down to the date of composition. Practically nothing is known about ʿIsāmī, as no biographical work on Indian poets mentions him; the present article is based mainly on the scattered references which he makes about…

Ḵh̲wād̲j̲a Bāḳī Biʾllāh

(485 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, abū ’l-muʾayyid raḍī al-dīn , also called ʿAbd al-Bāḳī or Muḥamma Bāḳī b. ʿAbd al-Salām Uwaysī Naḳs̲h̲bandī, was born at Kābul on 5 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 971/16 Dec. 1563 and died at Delhi on Saturday, 25 Ḏj̲umādā II 1012/2 July, 1603. He received his early education from Ṣādiḳ Ḥalwāʾī, in whose company he went to Samarḳand to pursue his studies further. It was during his stay there that he cultivated a taste for taṣawwuf . On the invitation of some of his friends, who held high posts in India, he left for that country, but instead of entering the Imperial army, as i…

G̲h̲ulām Ḳādir Rohilla

(708 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
b. Ḍābiṭa Ḵh̲ān b. Amīr al-Umarāʾ Nad̲j̲īb al-Dawla [ q.v.], founder of the town of Nad̲j̲ībābād, remembered chiefly for his cruel treatment of the Mug̲h̲al emperor S̲h̲āh ʿĀlam ( reg . 1173-1221/1759-1806), and his family. While still young G̲h̲ulām Ḳādir Ḵh̲ān was left at the Imperial court as his father’s representative, most probably as a hostage. He escaped from custody, however, in 1190/1776 on the defeat of the imperial forces by Ḍābiṭa Ḵh̲ān, and joined his father at the fort of G̲h̲awt̲h̲gaŕh, the family head-quarters near Thāna Bhawan, the birth place of As̲h̲raf ʿAlī Thānawī [ q…

Badīʿ al-Dīn

(610 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
surnamed Ḳutb al-Madār (axis of the Universe) and popularly known as S̲h̲āh Madār, is the Methuselah of Indian hagiological literature and one of the most celebrated saints of India. He is said to have been born at Aleppo in 250/864, and to have been descended from Abū Hurayra [ q.v.], one of the companions of the Prophet. The statement in the Mirʾāt-i Madārī that he was a Jew and embraced Islam at al-Madīna is not supported by other authorities. Like his descent, his date of birth is also controversial, the Tad̲h̲kirat al-Muttaḳīn givesit as 1 S̲h̲awwāl 442/16 Feb. 1051; the Mirʾāt i Madārī

Dāwūdpōtrās

(2,615 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a rival branch of the tribe to which also belonged the Kalhōrās, one time rulers of former Sind. They and the Kalhōrās both claimed descent from Abu ’l-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. The rulers of the former princely state of Bahāwalpūr, now merged with West Pakistan, belong to the Dāwūdpōtras, who unlike their collaterals, the Kalhōrās, take pride in calling themselves the ʿAbbāsīs. Their claim to nobility and high birth appears, however, based more on tradition, hallowed through a long …

D̲j̲īwan

(738 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
the ʿurf of Mullā Aḥmad b. Abī Saʿīd b. ʿUbayd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ b. Mak̲h̲dūm K̲h̲assa-i K̲h̲udā al-Ḥanafī al-Ṣāliḥī (he claimed descent from the Prophet Ṣāliḥ) was born at Amēt́hī, near Lucknow, in 1047/1637, as he was 21 (?) lunar years old in 1069/1658 when he completed his al-Tafsīr al-Aḥmadī (cf. Ḥadāʾiḳ al-Ḥanafiyya , 436). The same source, however, states that he was 83 years of age at the time of his death in 1130/1717. Gifted with an extraordinary memory, he learnt the Ḳurʾān by heart at the age of seven. Studyi…

Bīdil

(884 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, mīrzā ʿabd al-ḳādir b. ʿabd al-ḵh̲āliḳ arlās (or Barlās), of Buk̲h̲āran origin, was born at ʿAẓīmābād (Patna) in 1054/1644, where his family had settled. He losthis father in 1059/1649 and wasbrought up by his uncle Mīrzā Ḳalandar (d. 1076/1665) and maternai uncle Mīrzā Ẓarīf (d. 1075/1664), who was well-versed in ḥadīt̲h̲ literature and fiḳh . In 1070/ 1659 he visited a number of places in Bengal along with Mīrzā Ḳalandar. In 1071/1660 he went to Cuttack (Orissa) where he stayed for three years. It was here in Orissa that Mīrzā Ẓarīf, who also ha…

Bāndā

(278 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, town in Uttar Pradesh (India), situated in Lat. 25° 28′ N and Long. 80° 20′ E; headquarters of the district of the same name. Pop. (1951) 30,327. The town, otherwise unimportant, attracted notice during the Sepoy Revolt of 1857 when its last ruler, Nawāb ʿAlī Bahādur II, put up a hard fight against the British. The town, however, finally surrendered in April 1858. A mere village till the end of the 12th/18th century, it began rapidly to expand when S…

Bak̲h̲t K̲h̲ān

(653 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, Commander-in-Chief of the ‘rebel’ native forces, with the unusual and pompous title of ‘Lord-Governor Bahādur General Bak̲h̲t Ḵh̲ān’, during the military uprising (also known as the Mutiny) of 1857 in India, was born at Sulṭānpūr (Awadh) C. 1212/1797, where his father ʿAbd Allāh Ḵh̲ān, a lineal descendant of G̲h̲ulām Ḳādir Rohilla, had settled after the dispersai of the Rohillas following the death of Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat Ḵh̲ān [ q.v.]. ʿAbd Allāh Ḵh̲ān had married a princess of the deposed Awadh ruling family and thus claimed close relationship with Royalty (C. T. Metcalfe, Two-Native Narra…

Barōda

(470 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, formerly capital of the Indian State of the same name, now merged with Madhya Bharat, situated in 22° 18′ N. and 73° 15′ E. on the Vis̲h̲wāmitrī river. Population in 1951 was 211,407. It is known to the inhabitants as Wadōdara, said to be a corruption of the Sanskrit word vatōdar which means ‘in the heart of the banyan-trees’, and the vicinity of the town still abounds in these trees. The word baṛ in Urdu also means a banyan-tree. An old name of the town is Vīraks̲h̲etra or Vīrāwatī which means ‘a land of warriors’ and was used by the 11th/17t…

Amarkot

(376 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, town situated 25° 22′ N and 69° 71′ E, in the Tharparkar district of West Pakistan (population in 1951: 5,142, including 1,957 Muslims), was, according to tradition, founded by a branch of the Sūmra Rād̲j̲pūts who embraced Islam during the reign of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī (694/1294-716/1316). The Sūmras lost the town in 624/1226 to the Soda Rād̲j̲pūts, who were expelled in 731/1330 by the Sūmras. In 843/1439 the Sodas again came into power. In 949/15…

Bilgrāmī

(666 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, (i) ʿabd al-d̲j̲alīl b. sayyid aḥmad al-ḥusaynī al-wāsiṭī was born on 13 S̲h̲awwāl 1071/ 10 Nov. 1660 at Bilgrām. He received his education first at his home-town from Saʿd Allāh Bilgrāmī and later at Agra from Faḍāʾil Ḵh̲ān, one of the secretaries of Awrangzīb. When S̲h̲āh Ḥusayn Ḵh̲ān was appointed dīwān of the sarkār of Lucknow he accompanied him there and remained with him for 5 years. It was here that he attended the lectures of G̲h̲ulām Naḳs̲h̲band Lakhnawī (d. 1126/1714). He attained a high degree of proficiency in va…

Dardistān

(740 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the name given to the area, lying between the Hindū Kus̲h̲ and Kāg̲h̲ān, between lat. 37° N. and long. 73° E., and lat. 35° N. and long. 74° 30ʹ E., the country of the Dardas of Hindū mythology. In the narrowest sense it embraces the S̲h̲inā-speaking territories, i.e., Gilgit, Astor, Gurayz, Čilās, Hōdur, Darēl, Tangir etc., or what is now known as Yāg̲h̲istān. In a wider sense the feudatory states of Hunza, Nāgar and Chitrāl [ q.v.] (including the part known as Yāsīn), now forming the northern regions of Pakistan, comprise Dardistān; in the widest sense parts of what …

Banūr

(324 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, an ancient town (East Pand̲j̲āb, India) situated in 30° 34′ N. and 76° 47′ E., 9 miles from Ambālā and 20 miles from Sirhind. The old Sanskrit name was Vahnīyūr which became, during the course of centuries, Banīyūr and finally Banūr. The ruins extend right up to Čhat [ q.v.] (another ancient town, now in ruins) 4 miles away. It was first mentioned by Bābur when it was, and still continues to be, famous for its white jasmine flowers and the otto distilled from them. Another ancient name of Banūr, according to tradition, was Pus̲h̲pā Nagarī or Pus̲h̲pāwatī (lit. city of flowers) …

Aʿẓamgarh

(365 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, town and bead-quarters of the district of the same name in the province of Uttar Pradesh (India), situated in 26° 5′ N. and 83° 12′ E. on the river Tōns, notorious for its frequent and devastating floods; it was founded in 1076/1665-6 by Aʿẓam Ḵh̲ān I, a scion of an influential Rād̲j̲pūt family, whose head Abhīman Singh, embraced Islām during the reign of Ḏj̲ahāngīr (1014/1605-1037/1627) and was named Dawlat Ḵh̲ān. Population in 1951: 26,632; distric…

al-Fatāwā al-ʿĀlamgīriyya

(263 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a compendium of Ḥanafī law, in India ranking second only to al-Marg̲h̲īnānī’s Hidāya , compiled by order of Awrangzīb during the years 1075/1664-1083/1672. ¶ The intention was to arrange in systematic order the most authoritative decisions by earlier legists which were scattered in a number of fiḳh books, and thus provide a convenient work of reference. The board in charge of the compilation was presided over by S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Niẓām of Burhānpur (d. 1090/1679), who had four superintendents under him: S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Wad̲j̲īh a…

Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh

(531 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(1), Sayyid al-Sādāt ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abu ’l-Muẓaffar S̲h̲āḥ Ḥusayn Sulṭān (to quote his full titles) b. al-Sayyid As̲h̲raf al-Ḥusaynī al-Makkī , the founder of the Ḥusayn-S̲h̲āhī dynasty of Bengal, claimed descent from the S̲h̲arīf s of Mecca. His father migrated from Tirmid̲h̲ [ q.v.] and settled in Rādh, a small village in the district of Čāndpūr, where he received his education from the local ḳādī , whose daughter he later married. After completing his education he entered the service of the Ḥabs̲h̲ī Sultan S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muẓaffar S̲h̲āh ( reg . 897/1491-899/14…

ʿInāyat Allāh Kanbū

(408 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, elder brother of Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ Kańbū, author of ʿAmal-i Ṣāliḥ or S̲h̲āhd̲j̲ahān-nāma , a history of the Mog̲h̲ul emperor S̲h̲āhd̲j̲ahān [ q.v.], was born at Burhānpūr [ q.v.] on 19 Ḏj̲ūmādā I 1017/31 August 1608, though his ancestral home was at Lahore. How and when his parents came to Burhānpūr is not known. His father seems to have died at an early age, when the family returned to Lahore. Himself well-educated, he attended to the education of his orphaned younger brother, who speaks of him in very affectionate terms and calls him his patron. In early life he held an office under the Mog̲h̲ul ¶…

Bulands̲h̲ahr

(634 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(baran), an ancient town in India situated in 28° 15′ N. and 77° 52′ E. on the main road from Agra and ʿAlīgarh to Meerut. Population (1951) was 34,496. Its old name was Baran (by which it is even now sometimes called but only in the nisba Baranī) given to it by its legendary founder. one Ahībaran. Its antiquity is ¶ established by the discovery of inscribed copperplates of the 5th century A.D. and coins of much older dates. It came to be called Bulands̲h̲ahr (“hightown”) from its elevated position near the bank of the Kālī Naddī, which flows past the to…

Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat K̲h̲ān

(3,040 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, b. S̲h̲āh ʿĀlam K̲h̲ān b. Maḥmūd K̲h̲ān b. S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn known as Kōt́ā Bābā... b. Bharēč K̲h̲ān... b. Ḳays ʿAbd al-Ras̲h̲īd, the legendary ancestor of the Pat́hāns or Afg̲h̲āns, a ḥāfiẓ (memorizer) of the Ḳurʾān, was the head of an important ruling family of Rohilkhand during the 12th/18th century. Some of his ancestors had migrated from S̲h̲ōrābak in the Pis̲h̲in district of West Pakistan to Čač Hazāra where the family ultimately settled. He was born in 1120/1708 at Tor S̲h̲ahāmatpūr. a small little-known village in rōh ( i.e., a hilly country, a term loosely applied to the t…

ʿIwaḍ Wad̲j̲īh

(698 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a leading scholar and theologian, originally from Ak̲h̲sīkat near Samarḳand [ q.v.], was considered peerless in his day in both rational and traditional sciences. He received his education at Balk̲h̲ in the “dars” of his namesake Mīr ʿIwaḍ Tās̲h̲kentī. After completing his education he returned to his native village where he began teaching. Later he moved to Balk̲h̲ and was still teaching when that town fell to the Mug̲h̲al army under Awrangzīb. He came to India in 1056/1646; he entered the imperial service and was appointed muftī of the army. In 1069/1659,…

Baltistān

(486 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, known to Muslim writers as Tihbat-i Ḵh̲urd or Little Tibet, lying between 34° and 36° N and 75° and 77° E between Gilgit and Ladāk̲h̲, extends some 150 miles on either bank of the Indus, covering an area of 8,522 sq. miles. A mountainous country, it has some of the highest peaks in the world: Godwin Austen (K 2), 28,250 ft., conquered in 1953; Gasherbrum, 26,470 ft., conquered in 1958, and Haramosh, 24,000 ft. Skārdū the chief town, was electrified in 1951. It has an airstrip, a modern hospital and a number of schools. A new bāzār has been recently built. The Baltīs were converted to Islam in …

Bareilly

(703 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(Barēlī) a district town in the Uttar Pradesh, India, situated in 28° 22′ N. and 79° and 24′ E. stands on a plateau washed by the river Rāmgangā. Population (1951): 194,679. Founded in 944/1537, the town derives its name, according to tradition, from Bās Dēō, a Barhēlā Rād̲j̲pūt by caste. It is popularly known as Bāns Bareilly, partly to distinguish it from Rāē Barēlī, the birth-place of Sayyid Aḥmad Brēlwī [ q.v.], and partly due to the proximity of a bamboo ( bāns ) jungle. During the reign of Akbar, a fort was built here to check the depredations of the Rād̲j̲pūt tribes of Ro…

D̲j̲urʾat

(464 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, tak̲h̲alluṣ of Ḳalandar Bak̲h̲s̲h̲, an Urdū poet of Indian origin, whose real name was Yaḥyā Amān, son of Ḥāfiẓ Amān, one of whose ancestors Rāy Amān, after whom a street in Old Dihlī is still known, suffered at the hands of Nādir S̲h̲āh’s troops during the sack of Dihlī in 1152/1739. The title of Amān or Mān was conferred on the ancestors of D̲j̲urʾat, according to Mīrzā ʿAlī Luṭf ( Guls̲h̲an-i Hind , 73), by the Emperor Akbar. Born at Dihlī, D̲j̲urʾat was brought up at Fayḍābād and later joined the service of Nawwāb Muḥabbat K̲h̲ān of Bareilly, a son of Ḥāfiẓ Raḥmat K̲h̲ān Rohilla [ q.v.] at an e…

Farruk̲h̲ābād

(1,215 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, name of a town and district in the Uttar Pradesh state of India; situated between the Ganges and the Yamuna (Ḏj̲amnā) between 26° 46′ and 27° 43′ N. and 78° 8′ and 80° 1′ E., with an area of 1,685 sq. miles. Before the establishment of Pakistan the Muslims were in a majority but many of them later migrated to Pakistan. While the district can boast of an ancient past, the town itself is of comparatively recent growth, having been founded in 1126/1714 by Muḥammad K̲h̲ān Bangas̲h̲ (b. c. 1076/1665), an Afghan military adventurer belonging to Maʾū-Ras̲h̲īdābād (now a mere name), a vil…

Fayḍī

(1,486 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(later Fayyāḍī ), Abu ’l-Fayḍ b. S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Mubārak al-Mahdawī , Persian poet, commentator of the Ḳurʾān, one of the nine jewels ( naw ratan) of the court of Akbar, younger brother of the historian Abu ’l-Faḍl ʿAllāmī [ q.v.], was of Yamanī extraction; one of his ancestors S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Mūsā had migrated to Sind and settled at Rēl, a small place near Sīwastān (modern Sehwān). His grandfather S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ K̲h̲iḍr came down to Nāgor [ q.v.], where Fayḍī’s father Mubārak was born. In 950/1543-4 S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Mubārak migrated to Āgra, where he married and his first child Fayḍī w…

Ḥiṣār Fīrūza

(1,168 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, (now simply known as Ḥiṣār; Anglo Indian: Hissār), a citadel town in the Indian Pand̲j̲āb, situated in 29 10′ N. and 75° 44′. E. on the railway from Lahore to Delhi via Bhat́t́ind́a ¶ [ q.v.]. It is the headquarters of the district, of the same name, which lies in a dry sandy plain, known from ancient times as Harīāna. It was founded by Fīrūz S̲h̲āh Tug̲h̲luḳ (reigned 752/1351-790/1388) in 757/1356, after whom it takes its name, on the site of two villages known as Kadās Buzurg and Kadās K̲h̲wurd (cf. S̲h̲ams Sirād̲j̲ ʿAfīf, Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Fīrūz S̲h̲āhī , Calcutta 1891, …

As̲h̲raf ʿAlī

(414 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
b. ʿabd al-ḥaḳḳ al-fārūḳī , was born at Tʾhāna Bhawan (Muẓaffarnagar district, India) on 12 Rabīʿ I, 1280/19 March 1863 and died on 6 Rad̲j̲ab 1362/9 July 1943. He received his education at his home-town and at Deoband [ q.v.]. Leaving Deoband in 1301/1883-4 he started life as a teacher at Cawnpore. The same year he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca where he met Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Imdād Allāh al-Hindī al-Muhād̲j̲ir al-Makkī with whom he was already in correspondence. He renewed his bayʿa , contracted in absentia, and formally became his disciple. In 1307/1889-90 he again left for Mecc…

Āzād Bilgrāmī

(540 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, mīr g̲h̲ulām ʿalī b. nūḥ al-ḥusaynī al-wāsiṭī , b. at Bilgrām on 25 Ṣafar 1116/29 June 1704; he received his early education from Mīr Ṭufayl Muḥammad Bilgrāmī ( Subḥat al-Mard̲j̲ān 99-4) and later studied with Mīr ʿĀbd al-Ḏj̲alīl Bilgrāmī ( Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-Kirām , i, 257-77). In 1151/1738 he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and learnt ḥadīt̲h̲ from S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Muḥammad Ḥayāt Sindī al-Madanī and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb Ṭanṭāwī ( Maʾāt̲h̲ir al-Kirām, i, 162). He returned to India in 1152/1739, and settled at Awrangābād where he died in 1200/1786; he was buried at Ḵ…

Idrākī Bēglārī

(735 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a native of T́hat́t́a [ q.v.], the old capital of lower Sind, belonged to the Arg̲h̲ūn tribe of Turkomans (cf. ʿAlī S̲h̲ēr Ḳāniʿ, Maḳālāt al-s̲h̲uʿarāʾ , Karachi 1958, 80). No biographical details about him are available beyond the fact that ‘Idrākī’ was his poetical name. As to his nisba Bēglārī, it is not clear whether it was a surname or whether he adopted it on account of his close association with the Bēglār family of lower Sind. His patron, S̲h̲āh Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Sulṭān (d. 1039/1621) b. S̲h̲ah Ḳāsim K̲h̲ān-i Zamān, was well-known for his valour and literary accomplishments. A ¶ nobleman …

ʿImād al-Mulk

(728 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, G̲h̲āzi ’l-Dīn K̲h̲ān , Fīrūz D̲j̲ang (III), was named S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn after his great-grandfather G̲h̲āzi ’l-Dīn K̲h̲ān, Fīrūz D̲j̲ang I [see s̲h̲ihāb al-dīn , mir ]. His mother was the daughter of the wazīr , Ḳamar al-Dīn K̲h̲ān (d. 1161/1746). He was eight years old when his father, (Mir) Muḥammad ¶ Panāh [ q.v.] died suddenly at Awrangābād in 1165/1752 during his abortive attempt to seize the viceroyalty of the Deccan. On his father’s departure for the Deccan, S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn had been left behind at Delhi in the care of the minister, Abu ’l-Manṣūr Ṣafdar D̲j̲ang [ q.v.]. He seems to ha…

ʿImād S̲h̲āhī

(3,372 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the title of a ruling family, founded by a Hindu convert to Islam, which ruled over Berar [ q.v.] for nearly a century from 896/1490 until 982/1574. The founder of the dynasty, Daryā K̲h̲ān, better known to history by his title Fatḥ Allāh ʿImād al-Mulk, was descended from the Canarese Brahmans of Vid̲j̲yanagar [ q.v.]. He fell as a prisoner of war in 827/1423 into the hands of K̲h̲ān-i D̲j̲ahān, the commander-in-chief of the Bahmani [ q.v.] forces in Berar, who appointed him to his personal bodyguard. Impressed by his talents and ability K̲h̲ān-i D̲j̲ahān quickly promo…

G̲h̲ulām Ḥusayn “Salīm”

(246 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
Zaydpurī, one of the earliest Muslim historians of Bengal, migrated from his home-town Zaydpur, near Bāra Bańkī in Awadh, to English Bāzār or New Mālda (Bengal), also called Ańgrēzābād, and became D́āk Muns̲h̲ī , or Postmaster, there under George Udny (Udney), the Commercial Resident of the East India Company’s factory at that place. Apparently a well-educated man, he undertook to write, at the request of Udny, a history of Bengal, which he named Riyāḍ al-salāṭīn (chronogram of 1207/1787-8, the date of completion). ¶ This work is divided into a muḳaddima and four rawḍās

Gakkhaŕ

(2,355 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a war-like Muslim tribe, inhabiting mostly the Hazāra district and parts of the districts of Rāwalpindī, Attock and Ḏj̲ehlam (Jhelum) of West Pakistan and that part of the Indian-held territory of Ḏj̲ammū which lies to the west of the Čināb; it is of indigenous origin. Agriculturists by profession, the Gakkhars are considered socially high and stand apart from the local tribes of Rād̲j̲pūt descent who resent their arrogance and racial pride. Many of the religious and social ceremonies observed…

Mīr Ḏj̲aʿfar

(1,056 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
or Mir Muḥammad D̲j̲aʿfar K̲h̲ān ( Siyar al-mutaʾak̲h̲k̲h̲irīn , vol. ii in both the text and rubrics, and not D̲j̲aʿfar ʿAlī K̲h̲ān), son of Sayyid Aḥmad al-Nad̲j̲afī, of obscure origin, rose to be the Nawwāb of Bengal during the days of the East India Company. A penniless adventurer, like his patron Mīrzā Muḥammad ʿAlī entitled ʿAlīwirdī K̲h̲ān Mahābat D̲j̲ang (see the article ʿalī werdi k̲h̲ān ), he married a step-sister, S̲h̲āh K̲h̲ānim, of ʿAlīwirdī and served his master and brother-in-law as a commandant, before the latter ascended the masnad of Bengal i…

Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh

(861 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
(2), b. Maḥmūd S̲h̲āh S̲h̲arḳī ( reg . 840/1436-862/1458) was the last of the line of the S̲h̲arḳī Sultans of the independent kingdom of Ḏj̲awnpūr [ q.v.], who ascended the throne in 863/1458 after the death, in an armed conflict, of his elder brother Muḥammad S̲h̲āh, at that time engaged in hostilities against Buhlōl Lōdī [ q.v.], the king of Delhi. Ḥusayn, immediately on his accession, concluded a four-year truce with Buhlōl. He utilized the respite by leading a powerful army into Tirhut and Orissa, both of which he reduced, compelling the Hindu ru…

Faḍl-i Imām

(598 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
b. Muḥammad Ars̲h̲ad al-ʿUmarī al-Hargāmī , b. Muḥ. Ṣālih b. ʿAbd al-Wād̲j̲id b. ʿAbd al-Mād̲j̲id b. Ḳāḍī Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Ḥanafī , was a contemporary of S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dihlawī, and the first Indian Muslim scholar to have accepted the post of muftī and ṣadr al-ṣudūr of Delhi under the East India Company, the highest office, equivalent to the modern sub-judge in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent; which the Company could confer on its native employees. His duties, as ṣadr al-ṣudūr, included examining candidates for the posts of ḳāḍī s, scrutiny of request…

Mīrzā Hindāl

(695 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, Abū Nāṣir Muḥammad , surnamed Hindāl, the name by which he is known to history, since he was born during his father’s campaign to India, the youngest surviving son of the emperor Bābur [ q.v.], by his wife Dildār Bēgam, the mother of Gulbadan Bēgam [ q.v.]. He was born in Kābul in 925/1519 and educated there under the care of his foster-mother Māham, the first wife of Bābur and the mother of Humāyūn [ q.v.]. At the time of Bābur’s death in 937/1530 he was in Badak̲h̲s̲h̲ān fighting against the Özbeks, deputizing for Humāyūn who was away in Kābul. On the accession of H…

As̲h̲raf ʿAlī K̲hān

(414 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, foster-brother of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh, King of Delhi (1161/1748-1167/1754) was born in Delhi c. 1140/1727. His father Mīrzā ʿAlī Ḵh̲ān “Nukta” was a courtier of Muḥammad S̲h̲āh [ q.v.]. His uncle Īrad̲j̲ Ḵh̲ān was the nāẓim of Murs̲h̲idābād during the reign of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh. A composer of poetry in both Urdu and Persian, he wrote under the pen-name of “fug̲h̲ān ” ( fig̲h̲ān ) and enjoyed the title of “Ẓarīf al-Mulk Kokaltās̲h̲ Ḵh̲ān Bahādur”, conferred on him by Aḥmad S̲h̲āh. He lived in Delhi till the dethronement of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh in 1167/1754, when he left for Murs̲h̲idābād. He …

D̲j̲awān

(393 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, Mirzā Kāẓim ʿAlī , one of the pioneers of Urdū prose literature and a muns̲h̲ī at Fort William College (Calcutta), originally a resident of Dihlī, migrated to Lucknow after the break-up of the cultural and social life of the Imperial capital following the invasion of Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Abdālī in 1174/1760, and was living in Lucknow in 1196/1782 when Ibrāhīm K̲h̲ān K̲h̲alīl was busy compiling his tad̲h̲kira (see Gulzār-i Ibrāhim , ʿAlī-gaŕh 1352/1934, 93). A writer of simple, chaste and unornamented Urdū prose and a scholar of Persian and Arabic (…

al-Dihlawī, S̲h̲āh Walī Allāh

(1,488 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, the popular name of Ḳuṭb al-dīn aḥmad abu’l-fayyāḍ , a revolutionary Indian thinker, theologian, pioneer Persian translator of the Ḳurʾān, and traditionist, the first child of the 60-year-old S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-ʿUmarī of Dihlī, by his second wife, was born in 1114/1703 at Dihlī, four years before the death of Awrangzīb. A precocious child, he memorized the Ḳurʾān at the early age of seven and completed his studies with his father, both in the traditional and rational sciences…

ʿAẓīm Allāh K̲h̲ān

(682 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, said to have been the brain of the political upheaval (known as the Mutiny) of 1857 in India, came of a poor Pathān family which had settled in Cawnpore long before the famine of 1837-8 (George Dunbar, A History of India from the Earliest Times to the Present Day , London 19433, ii, 483). An orphan, saved from starvation by a Christian missionary, he began life as a k̲h̲idmatgār in an Anglo-Indian family of Cawnpore (Mowbray Thompson, The Story of Cawnpore , London 1859, 54; G. O. Trevelyan, Cawnpore, London 1907, 58), who sent him to school, where he learnt English and French, an…

Čīnīōt

(626 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
( Čīnyōt ), An ancient town in the district of Ḏj̲hang (West Pakistan), situated in 31° 43′ N. and 73° 0′ E., on the left bank of the Čīnāb with a population of 39,042 in 1951. It was, in all probability, once a settlement of Chinese who not only gave their name to the town but also to the river that flows past at a distance of 2 miles only. Attempts have been made to identify it with Sākala, the capital of the White Huns, visited b…

al-Bihārī

(375 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, muḥibb allāh b. ʿabd al-s̲h̲akūr al-ʿut̲h̲mānī al-ṣiddīḳī al-ḥanafī was born at Karā, a village near Muḥibb ʿAlīpūr in the province of Bihār (India). He belonged to the Malik community, of exotic origin, still unidentified. He received his early education from Ḳuṭb al-Dīn al-Anṣārī al-Sihālwī and read some books with Ḳuṭb al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī al-S̲h̲amsābādī. After completing his studies he went to the Deccan where Awrangzīb was at the time engaged in military operations against the…

Bhattinda

(1,132 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, head-quarters of the Govindgarh taḥṣīl of the former Patiala State, now merged with the Pand̲j̲āb State of the Indian Union, situated in 30° 13′N. and 75° E. Population (1951) was 34,991. An ancient town, seat of the Bhātiyā or Bhattī Rād̲j̲pūts, it commanded the strategie routes from Multān to Rād̲j̲asthān and the Gangetic valley, including such historic places as Pānīpat and farther on Indrāpat (Delhi), for invaders from the north-west of the Indian sub-continent. In ancient times it stood on an affluent of the Ghaggar rivulet which still flows past Ambālā [ q.v.] and the surrounding ¶ …

Faḍl-i Ḥaḳḳ

(596 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
al-ʿUmarī , al-Ḥanafī , al-Māturīdī , al-Čīs̲h̲tī (not al-Ḥabas̲h̲ī as misread by Brockelmann, S II, 458), al-K̲h̲ayrābādī b. Faḍl-i Imām [ q.v.] was born at K̲h̲ayrābād [ q.v.] in 1211/1796-7. Having studied first at home with his father, he later studied ḥadīt̲h̲ with S̲h̲āh ʿAbd al-Ḳādir al-Dihlawī [ q.v.] and at the age of thirteen completed his studies. He entered service as a pīs̲h̲kār to the Commissioner of Delhi under the East India Company and later served with the Chiefs of Ḏj̲had̲j̲d̲j̲ar, Alwar, Tonk and Rāmpur. He was a le…

Bhakkar

(787 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, a fortress situated on a lime-stone rock in the middle of the river Indus (27° 43′ N and 68° 56′ E), which is identified with the Sogdi of Alexander. The island is connected with Rōhrī and Sukkur by a cantilever bridge. With the decline of Arōr, the ancient Hindū capital of Sind, about the middle of 2nd/8th century, when the river Indus changed its course, Bhakkar soon attained the highest strategie importance. The island must have been fortified and…

Čhat

(442 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, an ancient town, situated on the bank of the Ghaggar and 14 miles from Ambāla (India), is now practically desolate, with the exception of a few huts of Gud̲j̲d̲j̲ars (milk-sellers) and other low-caste people atop a prehistoric mound, still unexcavated. It was a maḥāll in the sarkār of Sirhind, ṣūba of Dihlī, during the reign of Akbar, with a cultivable area of 158,749 bīghas yielding a revenue of 750,994 dāms annually. Its name suggests that in pre-Muslim days it was a settlement of Čhattas, i.e., Čhattaris (more accurately Ks̲h̲attriyas), a martial Hindū …

Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh Langāh II

(388 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, son of Maḥmūd langāh ( reg . 904/1498-9—931/1524-5), the ruler of Multān, was still a minor when he succeeded to the throne on the death of his father in 931/1524-25. Taking advantage of the ruler’s minority and prompted by Bābur [ q.v.], Ḥusayn S̲h̲āh Arg̲h̲ūn [ q.v.], the ruler of Sind, set out against Multān. Maḥmūd Langāh marched out to defend his kingdom, but while he was only one or two stages away from his capital he suddenly died, poisoned, it was believed, by Langaŕ K̲h̲ān Langāh, the commander of his army, who later deserted to Ḥ…

al-Fārūḳī

(894 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
, Mullā Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. S̲h̲āḥ Muḥammad al-D̲j̲awnpūrī , one of the greatest scholars and logicians of India, was born at D̲j̲awnpūr [ q.v.] in 993/1585. This date is, however, doubtful as the Mullā died in 1062/1652 when he was, according to his family tradition, less than forty years of age (cf. Mullah [sic] Mahmood’s Determinism and Freewill (ed. Ali Mahdi Khan), Allahabad 1934, 19-22). He received his early education from his grandfather and later from Ustād̲h̲ al-Mulk Muḥammad Afḍal b. Ḥamza al-ʿUt̲h̲mānī al-D̲j̲awnpūrī…

Badāʾūn

(686 words)

Author(s): Bazmee Ansari, A.S.
( budāʾūn or badāyūn ), an ancient town, about a mile east of the river Sot and headquarters of the district of the same name in India, situated in 28° 2′ N. and 79° 7′ E.; it is variously spelt by native historians as bēdāmaʾūn , bhadāʾūn and badāwan . Population (1951) was 53,521. Little authentic is known about the town before the advent of the Muslims towards the end of the 6th/12th century when Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Aybak [ q.v.], the walī ʿahd of Muʿizz al-Dīn b. Sām in India, invaded and captured it in 594/1197-8 (Fak̲h̲r-i Mudabbir, ed. Ross, 24). Traditio…
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