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2. Monuments. Over the centuries T́hat́t́ā has endured invasions, destruction as well as the fluctuations of the Indus river bed. This is reflected in the chequered history of its monuments. Two early mausoleums of saints remain in the most western part of the city by what was once an enlarged part of the river bed. Presumably after the sack of the town by the Portuguese in 1555, boats were built in that area under Akbar. Two maḥalla s formed the western part of the town and in the northern part stood the masd̲j̲id Walī-i-Niʾmat, which appears to have been used as the Ḏj̲āmiʿ masd̲j̲id …

, an ancient Indian, and then mediaeval Indo-Muslim town of the southwestern Pand̲j̲ab, subsequently coming within the Bahāwalpūr [ q.v.] Native State and now in Pākistān. It is situated some 56 km/35 miles to the west of Bahāwalpūr town and not far from the junction of the Indus and Chenab-Jhelum rivers (lat. 27° 18’ N., long. 71° 12’ E.). 1. History Alexander the Great seems to have founded a city called in the Greek sources Ussa-Alexandria. Uččh ¶ was certainly an ancient Hindu centre, known up to the 12th century as Dēōgaŕh "stronghold of the gods", and it is only th…

, a Persian dynasty which ruled in Transoxania and then in Ḵh̲urāsān also, at first as subordinate governors of the Ṭāhirids [ q.v.] and then later autonomous, virtually independent rulers (204-395/819-1005). ¶ 1. History, literary life and economic activity. The early history of the Sāmānid family is obscure. They may have stemmed either from Sog̲h̲dia or, perhaps more likely, from Ṭuk̲h̲āristān south of the Oxus, probably from the petty landowners of the Balk̲h̲ area. It was not possible to connect the Sāmānids with a noble Arab tr…

, fortress and town of Central India. 1. History. Once the fortress-capital of Mālwā [ q.v.] and now a village 34 km. south of Dhār in Madhya Pradesh, in lat. 22° 21′ N and long. 75° 26′ E. The first rulers took full advantage of a natural outcrop of the Vindhya range, overlooking the Nimar plain to the south. A deep and jagged ravine, the Kakra Khoh, isolates it on the sides. The plateau, well-supplied with lakes and springs, stretches unevenly over 5 km. and more f…

, the older Indian Sindhu , the name for the region around the lower course of the Indus river (from which the region takes its name, see mihrān ), i.e. that part of the Indus valley south of approximately lat. 28° 30’ N., and the delta area, now coming within the modern state of Pākistān. There are alluvial soils in the delta and in the lands along the river, liable to inundation when the river ¶ rises in spring from the melting snows of the northern Indian mountains and rendered fertile by a network of irrigation canals and channels for flood control. To the west of …

, an ancient city of Transoxania, the Arabic Māʾ warāʾ al-Nahr [ q.v.], situated on the southern bank of the Zarafs̲h̲ān river or Nahr Ṣug̲h̲d. In early Islamic times it was the first city of the region in extent and populousness, even when, as under the Sāmānids (3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries [ q.v.]), Buk̲h̲ārā [ q.v.] was the administrative capital. Samarḳand’s eminence arose from its position at the intersection of trade routes from India and Afg̲h̲ānistān via Balk̲h̲ and Tirmid̲h̲ [ q.vv.] and from Persia via Marw [see marw al-s̲h̲āhid̲j̲ān ] which then led …

(a.), ceramics. The radical transformation of ceramics under the rule of Islam took place chiefly in areas where their production had long been established, such as near the vital river beds of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Transoxiana, as well as on the banks of ancient inland seas, lakes and the shorter rivers of Syria and Iran. Pre-Pharaonic beakers, bowls from Jericho, jugs from Eridu, ewers from Sialk, all point to early skills in shaping and painting. By the 20th century B.C. in Egypt, the glassy…