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Kaiḳobād

(407 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, Muʿizz al-Dīn, king of Dihlī, was the son of Nāṣir al-Dīn Bug̲h̲rā, king of Bengal and second son of G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Balbān [v. balban] of Dihlī. On the death of his eldest son, Muḥammad Ḵh̲ān, who was slain by the Mug̲h̲uls, Balbān made his second son, Bug̲h̲rā Ḵh̲ān, who was governor of Bengal, his heir, but the prince could not endure the restraint of his father’s court, and was absent in Bengal when, in 1287, the throne became vacant, and the amīrs made his son, Kaiḳobād, king. Kaiḳobād, who was barely eighteen years of age at the time of his accession, had been most…

S̲h̲ikārī

(311 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a word formed from the Persian word s̲h̲ikār (“sport”, in the sense of hunting or shooting) and meaning a hunter. There are many castes in India whose occupation is the snaring, trapping, tracking, or pursuit of birds and beasts, but the caste which has adopted or received the word S̲h̲ikārī as its tribal name is found chiefly in Sind. A writer in 1822 said: “Shecarries are generally Hindoos of low caste, who gain their livelihood entirely by catching birds, hares, and all sorts of animals”, but the S…

Sar-i Pul

(242 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, “the head of the bridge”, called by Arab geographers Raʾs al-Ḳanṭara, is a town of Afg̲h̲Jān Turkistān situated in 36° 20’ N. Lat. and 65° ¶ 40’ E. Long, on the Āb-i Safīd from the bridge over which it takes its name. It is not to be confused with a village near Samarḳand or a quarter of Nīs̲h̲āpūr, both of the some name, each of which is historically as important as the Afg̲h̲ān town. Between the northern spurs of the Paropamisus and the sands to the south of the Oxus, in a fertile tract well watered by streams from t…

Fīrūz S̲h̲āh Tag̲h̲laḳ

(416 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, son of Malik Rad̲j̲ab, brother of G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Tag̲h̲īaḳ, and the daughter of Rānā Mal Bhaṭṭī of Abohar, was educated and advanced to high rank by his cousin, Muḥammad Ibn Tag̲h̲laḳ, on whose death near Ṭhaṭha on March 20, 1351, he was induced to ascend the throne. He extricated the army then employed in Sind from its difficulties and led it back to Dihlī, where in the meantime Aḥmad Ayāz Ḵh̲vād̲j̲a-yi Ḏj̲ahān, whom Muḥammad had left in charge of the capital, too hastily crediting a repo…

Ḳaṣr

(139 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a palace, castle, mansion or pavilion, in which sense it is synonymous with the Turkish kūs̲h̲k. The word occurs in the Ḳurʾān three times, once in the singular and twice in the plural ( ḳuṣūr), and is applied twice to castles on earth and once to the abodes of the faithful in Paradise. It is the common word for the palace of a king in his capital or of a governor in the chief city of a province, e. g. Ḳaṣr-i Ḳād̲j̲ār, the Palace of the Ḳād̲j̲ārs, near Ṭihrān. The word, with the article, has been naturalized in Spanish as alcazar and is applied to old Moorish castles, such as the al-cazar of …

S̲h̲īr ʿAlī

(529 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, Bārakzāī, Amīr of Afg̲h̲ānistān, was the third son of the Amīr Dust Muḥammad and succeeded his father, in accordance with his will, on June 9, 1863. His overtures to the Government of India on his accession were, unfortunately, coldly received. The Amīr found it necessary to march, almost immediately, into the Ḵh̲uram district to compel his brother ʿAẓīm Ḵh̲an to swear allegiance to him and early in the following year both ʿAẓīm Ḵh̲ān in Kuram and Afḍal Ḵh̲an, the eldest brother, in Balk̲h̲, re…

Muḥammad b. Sām

(695 words)

Author(s): Haig, T.W.
, Muʿizz al-Dīn , was the fourth of the S̲h̲ansabānī princes of G̲h̲ūr to rule the empire of G̲h̲aznī [see g̲h̲azna and g̲h̲ūrids ]. His laḳab was originally S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn, but he assumed that of Muʿizz al-Dīn. His elder brother G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn succeeded his cousin Sayf al-Dīn in 558/1163 and made Muḥammad governor of Harāt, entrusting to him also the duty of extending the dominion of the house in India. Muḥammad led his first expedition into India in 571/1175, expelled the Ismāʿīlī heretics who ruled Multān, placed an orthodox governor in that province, and …

Sūrat

(796 words)

Author(s): Haig, T.W. | Bosworth, C.E.
, a city and port of western India, on the south bank of the Tāptī and some 16 km/10 miles upstream from where the river debouches into the Gulf of Cambay (lat. 21° 10´ N., long 72° 54´ E.). The geographer Ptolemy (A.D. 150), speaks of the trade of Pulipula, perhaps Phulpāda, the sacred part of Sūrat city. Early references to Sūrat by Muslim historians must be scrutinised, owing to the confusion of the name with Sorath (Saurās̲h̲tra), but in 774/1373 F…

Muḥammad II

(245 words)

Author(s): Haig, T.W.
(780-99/1378-97), the fifth king of the Bahmanī dynasty of the Dakan, was the son of Maḥmūd K̲h̲ān, the youngest son of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Bahman S̲h̲āh, the founder of the dynasty, and was raised to the throne on 21 Muḥarram 780/20 May 1378, after the assassination of his uncle Dāwūd S̲h̲āh. Firis̲h̲ta’s statement that this king’s name was Maḥmūd has misled all European historians, but is refuted by inscriptions, legends on coins, and other historians. Muḥammad II was a man of peace, devoted to literature and poetry, and his reign was undisturbed by foreign wars. He invited Ḥāfiẓ [ q.v.] to visit…

Muḥammad II

(239 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, the fifth king of the Bahmanī dynasty of the Dakan, was the son of Maḥmūd Ḵh̲ān, the youngest son of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Bahman S̲h̲āh, the founder of the dynasty, and was raised to the throne on May 20, 1378, after the assassination of his uncle, Dāwūd S̲h̲āh. Firis̲h̲ta’s statement that this king’s name was Maḥmūd has misled all European historians, but is refuted by inscriptions, legends on coins, and other historians. Muḥammad II was a man of peace, devoted to literature and poetry, and his reign was undisturbed by foreign wars. He invited Ḥāfiẓ to visit his court, a…

Mālwā

(966 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
proper is an inland district of India bordered on the south by the Vindhyas, and lying between 23° 30′ and 24° 30′ N. and 74° 30′. To this tract, known in the age of the Mahābhārata as Nishadha, and later as Avanti, from the name of its capital, now Ud̲j̲d̲j̲ain, was afterwards added Akara, or Eastern Mālwā, with ¶ its capital, Bhīlsā, and the country lying between the Vindhyas and the Sātpūras. The province formed part of the dominions of the Mauryas, the Western Satraps, the Guptas of Magadha, the White Huns, and the Kingdom of …

Sabīl

(232 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a way, road, or path, is used in the Ḳurʾān (1) literally, e. g. man istaṭāʿa ilaihi sabīlan (Sūra iii. 91 etc.) “he who is able to journey thither”; (2) figuratively, as in the expression sabīl-Allāh, for which see d̲j̲ihād; (3) figuratively, in the sense of the true way, the Apostle’s way, as in the passage yā laitanī ittak̲h̲ad̲h̲tu maʿa ’l-rasūl sabīlan (Sūra xxv. 29) “Oh! would that I had taken with the Apostle a path!” i. e. his ¶ path, or the true path; (4) figuratively, in the sense of a means of attaining or acquiring an object, or a way out of a difficulty or trouble, as in the passage aw yad̲j…

Sepoy

(496 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
is the English corruption of sipāhī, the adjective formed from the Persian word sipāh, “army”. Sipāhī is used substantially for “member of an army, soldier”, and occurs in literary Persian, though it is no longer current in the modern language. The Turks and the French have borrowed the word, the latter in the form spahi, and in these languages as well as in Persian it invariably means a horse-soldier, in which sense it is used by the English traveller Hedges ( Diary

Sahāranpūr

(372 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a city of northern India, situated in 29° 57′ N. and 77° 33′ E., was …

Ḏj̲ahāndār S̲h̲āh

(273 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, Muḥammad Muʿizz al-Dīn, the thirteenth emper…

Ṣaffārids

(400 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a dynasty founded by Yaʿḳūb b. Lait̲h̲ al-Ṣaffār which originated in Sad̲j̲istān and reigned in Persia for thirty-three years. Yaʿḳūb, who was a coppersmith ( ṣaffār) by trade abandoned his handicraft and became a brigand, but his chivalrous conduct in his predatory calling, attracted the favourable attention of Ṣāliḥ b. Naṣr (or Naḍr), and he gave him the command of his troops. Yaʿḳūb rebelled against Dirham b. Naṣr. In 253 (867) he was master of the whole of Sīstān. Having thus established himself in Sīstān he captur…

Makrān

(415 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, the coastal region of Balūčistān, extending from about 59° to 65° 35′ E. and inland from the coast to the Siyāhān Range, a little beyond 27° north. This tract was known to the Greeks as Gedrosia, and was inhabited by the Ichthyophagi, or fish-eaters, the Persian translation ( Māhī-Ḵh̲urān) of whose name supplies a fanciful derivation for its present name, which is traced, with more probability, to a Dravidian source. In Persian legend Kaik̲h̲usraw of Īrān captured the country from Afrāsiyāb of Tūrān, and both Cyrus and Semiramis marched through it. In 325 b. c. it was traversed by Alexa…

Sammā

(633 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, the name of a Rād̲j̲pūt clan in Sind. As the hold of the G̲h̲aznawid kings on Sind relaxed, the Sumrās, a Rād̲j̲pūt tribe converted to Islām, established their rule in that country in 1053, and made Tūr their capital. They persecuted the Sammās, a rival Rād̲j̲pūt tribe which adhered to Hinduism, and drove many of them to take refuge in Kaččh, where, in 1320, they ousted the Čāvada prince who had protected them and seized his throne. This branch of the Sammās, known as Ḏj̲āded̲j̲a or the childr…

Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Mubārak

(471 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, the fifth and last king of the Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī dynasty of Dihlī, was the third son of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad. When his father died, on Jan. 2, 1316, the minister Malik Nāʾib raised to the throne Mubārak’s youngest brother, S̲h̲ihāb al-Dīn ʿUmar, a child of six, blinded his two elder brothers, Ḵh̲iḍr Ḵh̲ān and S̲h̲ādī Ḵh̲ān, and would have blinded Mubārak, had he not persuaded the soldiers sent to perform the task to put Malik Nāʾib to death. He assumed the regency, but on April 1, 1316, blinded his …

K̲h̲airpūr

(277 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a state in Sind, laying between 26° 10′ and 27° 46′ N. and 68° 20′ and 70° 14′ E. The state has no separate history until the fall of the Kalhora dynasty of Sind in 1783, when Mīr Fatḥ ʿAlī Ḵh̲ān Tālpur, a Balūč chief, established himself as ruler of Sind. Subsequently his nephew, Mīr Suhrāb Ḵh̲ān Tālpur founded the Ḵh̲aipūr branch of the family. His dominions at first consisted of the town of Ḵh̲airpūr and its environs, but he enlarged them by conquest and intrigue until they extended to Sabz…

Maḥmūd I

(163 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, Nāṣir al-Dīn, was Sulṭān of Bengal from 1446 to 1460. When the ferocious tyranny of S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Aḥmad S̲h̲āh, grandson of the usurper, Rād̲j̲ā Kāns, or Ganes̲h̲, could no longer be borne, he was put to death, and Nāṣir Ḵh̲ān, one of his amīrs, seized the throne, but after a reign of one week was slain by his amīrs, who would not submit to one of their own number. Their choice fell on Maḥmūd, who was a descendant of Ilyās, the founder of the old royal house, and he was raised to the throne. He…

Vid̲j̲ayanagar

(531 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a city of Southern India, now in ruins, situated in 15° 20′ N. and 76° 28′ N., on the southern bank of the Tungabhadra. It was founded about 1336 a. d., either by Vīra Ballāla III of Dvāravatīpūra, or by three Hindū chiefs variously described as being wardens of the northern marches of his kingdom and as officers of the Kākatīya kingdom of Warangal or of Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ [q. v.] of Dihlī. Two of these chiefs, Harihara and Bukka, established themselves in Vid̲j̲ayanagar while the Muslims, of ¶ the Deccan were in rebellion against Muḥammad b. Tug̲h̲luḳ, and later, while ʿAlāʾ a…

K̲h̲ald̲j̲ī

(646 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
or Ḵh̲ild̲j̲ī, the dynasty of Dihlī, was founded by Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Fīrūz (see fīrūz s̲h̲āh k̲h̲ild̲j̲ī) of the G̲h̲ilzāʾī or G̲h̲ild̲j̲āʾī tribe of Afg̲h̲ānistān. A Turkī descent has been claimed for this tribe but they had long been domiciled in Afg̲h̲ānistān and were regarded as Afg̲h̲āns. ¶ Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn Ftrūz ascended the throne in Kīlokhrī on June 13, 1290, and was murdered at Karra by his nephew and son-in-law, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad, on July 19, 1296. ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ascended the throne in Dihlī on Oct. 3, 1296, and captured the two son…

Ḳarya

(99 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a village or small town ( balad) It is not now used of a large town or city ( madīna) unless it is qualified by an epithet denoting greatness; but in the Ḳurʾān, where the word is of frequent occurrence, it is applied without a qualifying epithet to cities of whatever size, including Mekka and Jerusalem. It is now used chiefly of such villages and small towns as are in India styled mawḍiʿ that is to say fiscal units which are not the chief town of any district or local area. ¶ (T. W. Haig) Bibliography The lexica s. v.

Tarkīb Band

(185 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
is a poem composed of stanzas of from five to eleven couplets. Each stanza, like a g̲h̲azal, has its own rhyme, the first two hemistichs and the second hemistich of each succeeding couplet rhyming with one another, but the rhyme of each stanza varies from that of the others, though the metre must be the same throughout the poem. After each stanza occurs a couplet in the same metie as the rest of the poem, but with its own rhyme, the two hemistichs rhyming with one another. When the same couplet is repeated after each stanza, as a refrain, the poem is called Tard̲j̲īʿ Band, but the older writers on…

G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Tag̲h̲laḳ II

(111 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, fourth emperor of Dihlī of the Tag̲h̲laḳ dynasty, was the son of Fatḥ Ḵh̲ān, eldest son of Fīrūz S̲h̲āh Tag̲h̲laḳ. On the death of Fīrūz in Sept. 1388, his second son, Muḥammad, was in rebellion, and Tag̲h̲laḳ was placed on the throne in accordance with his grandfather’s will. He attempted, without success, to crush his uncle’s rebellion, and, after he had reigned five months, he and his minister Malik Fīrūz Ḵh̲ānd̲j̲ahān were put to death (Feb. 19th 1389) by Malik Rukn al-Dīn Canda, and his cousin Abu Bakr was raised to the throne. (T. W. Haig) Bibliography Niẓām al-Dīn Aḥmad, Ṭabaḳāt-i Akba…

Maḥmūd II

(116 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
of Gud̲j̲arāt, was the sixth son of Muẓaffar II, on whose death his eldest son, Sikandar, was raised to the throne, but was assassinated on July 12, 1526. The minister then placed on the throne Maḥmūd, who was an infant, in order that he might rule in his name, but Bahādur, the second son of Muẓaffar, who had been absent at Dihlī and Ḏj̲awnpūr, hastened back to secure his birthright, and on July 11, ascended the throne at Aḥmadābād and, marched on to Čāmpāner, where his infant brother was. He entered the fortress without opposition, and Maḥmūd was dethroned and secretly murdered within the year. (T…

Tafḍīl

(100 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
is the nomen actionis of the second formation of faḍala, it “exceeded”, or “was”, or “became redundant”, or “superfluous”. In grammar it is applied to the comparison of adjectives. Ism al-tafḍīl, “the noun of the attribution of excess, or excellence”, is the noun adjective in the comparative and superlative, or, as it is now usually called, the elative degree. This is also called afʿal al-tafḍīl because it is regularly of the measure afʿal. (T. W. Haig) Bibliography The standard Arabic lexica Wright-de Goeje, A Grammar of the Arabic Language, Cambridge 1896—1898, i. 140-141 de Sacy, Gramm…

Sāḥil

(69 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
is a reversed word, of the measure fāʿil instead of the measure mafʿūl, and its original meaning is “abraded (by the sea)”. Hence, the shore of the sea or of a great river, a seashore, sea-coast, or sea-board; also a tract of cultivated land, with towns or villages, adjacent to a sea or great river, and the side of a valley. (T. W. Haig) Bibliography The lexica s.v.

Karīm

(148 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, of persons: generous, benignant, liberal, honourable, noble, high-born; of things: bounteous, plenteous, honourable, noble, splendid. Al-Karīm is one of the ninety-nine attributes or “excellent names” (Sūra vii. 179) of God, but in the twentyseven passages in which the word occurs in the Ḳurʾan it is only twice applied to Him. It is applied to Muḥammad, to an angel, and, ironically, to misbelievers, but it more frequently qualifies things, e. g. the recompense and provision awaiting the faithful, the Ḳurʾān, …

K̲h̲āndes̲h̲

(348 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
the region bounded on the north by the Narbadā, on the east by the province or kingdom of Berār, on the south by the Ad̲j̲anta Hills, and on the west by the kingdom of Gud̲j̲arāt. It became an independent state in 1382, when Aḥmad Fārūḳī, entitled Rād̲j̲ā Aḥmad or Malik Rād̲j̲ā, having joined the rebellion of Bahrām Ḵh̲ān Māzandarānī against Muḥammad Bahmanī I of the Dakan, was obliged to flee from that country and established himself in Ḵh̲āndes̲h̲, which owes its name to him and his successor…

Laccadives

(254 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
( Lais̲h̲a divi, “the hundred thousand isles”), a group of coral atolls lying off the Malabār Coast between 8° and 14° N. and 71° 40′ and 74° E. There are thirteen islands in all, but only eight are inhabited, and these are divided into two groups — the northern, including the inhabited islands of Amini, Kardamat, Kiltan and Cetlat, and the southern, including the inhabited islands of Agatti, Kavaratti, Androth and Kalpeni. The northern group, for administrative purposes, forms part of the south K…

Siyālkūt

(329 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, officially spelt Sīālkot, is a town in the Pand̲j̲āb situated in 32° 30′ N. and 74° 32′ E., the foundation of which is attributed by legend to Rād̲j̲ā Sālā, the uncle of the Pāndawas, and its restoration to Rād̲j̲ā Sāliwāhan, in the time of Wikramāditya. Sāliwāhan had two sons, Pūran, killed by the instrumentality of a wicked step-mother, and thrown into a well, still the resort of pilgrims, near the town, and Rasālu, the mythical hero of Pand̲j̲āb folk-tales, who is said to have reigned at Siyālkūt. In a. d. 790 the fort and city were destroyed by Rād̲j̲ā Narawt with the help of t…

Maḥmūd I

(840 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī, of Mālwa, was the son of Malik Mug̲h̲īt̲h̲, sister’s son to Dilāwar Ḵh̲ān, the first independent Sulṭān of Mālwa. On May 12, 1436, Maḥmūd caused his cousin, Muḥammad G̲h̲ūrī, a debauched and barbarous prince, to be poisoned, frustrated an attempt to enthrone his young son, Masʿūd, and offered the crown to his own father, Mug̲h̲īt̲h̲, who refused it, whereupon Maḥmūd himself ascended the throne. He was beset by difficulties, and after quelling a rebellion raised on behalf of Aḥmad, a…

Saʿd

(394 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
b. Zangī Abū S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ Muhẓaffar al-Dīn, Salg̲h̲arid Atābeg of Fārs. According to the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Guzīda he claimed the throne at the death of his elder brother, Takla b. Zangī, but his claim was contested by his cousin Ṭug̲h̲ril, the son of his father’s elder brother Sunḳur, who had founded the dynasty. Ṭug̲h̲ril retained the royal title for nine years, but throughout that period warfare between him and his cousin continued without a decisive result for either, the country was wasted and depopulated, none …

S̲h̲āh ʿĀlam

(424 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
was the title borne, before his accession, by Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Muḥammad Muʿaẓẓam, third son of the Mug̲h̲al emperor Awrangzīb (ʿĀlamgīr I), but on ascending the throne of Dihlī the prince took the title of Bahadur S̲h̲āh [q. v.]. The only Mug̲h̲al emperor who bore the title while on the throne was ʿAlī Gawhar, son of ʿAzīz al-Dīn ʿĀlamgīr II, who succeeded his father in 1759 and in 1761 was recognised as emperor by Aḥmad S̲h̲āh Abdāll, who had then crushed the power of the Marāṭhas at the third battle of Panīpat. S̲h̲āh ʿĀlam was, throug…

Maḥmūd I

(921 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, Saif al-Dīn, Begarha, the greatest of the Sulṭāns of Gud̲j̲arāt, was a younger son of Muḥammad I, Karīm, and was born in 1444. In 1458 the nobles dethroned his nephew, Dāwūd, a vicious and depraved youth, and placed Maḥmūd on the throne. The boy immediately displayed great courage and resource in the suppression of a serious conspiracy and rebellion at the beginning of his reign, and in 1461/1462 he marched to the assistance of the youthful Niẓām S̲h̲āh of the Dakan, whose dominions had been inva…

G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Tag̲h̲laḳ

(373 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, eighteenth Muḥammadan emperor of Dihlī, was by birth a Ḳarawnīya Turk, but of Indian descent through his mother. He began his career as a private soldier under the brother of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī but early in the reign of Ḳuṭb al-Dīn Mubārak Ḵh̲ald̲j̲ī was in command of the frontier district of Dēbālpūr. Here, by his services against the Mug̲h̲als, whom he encountered no less then twenty-nine times, he earned the title of G̲h̲āzī Malik, and when Mubārak’s vile favourite, Ḵh̲usraw Ḵh̲ān, slew his master and usurped his throne Tag̲h̲laḳ’s eldest son, Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn Ḏj̲aunā, fled ¶ from …

Sebzewār

(383 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
is a city of Ḵh̲urāsān, situated sixty-four miles due west of Nīs̲h̲āpūr, and should not be confounded with the town of the same name in Western Afg̲h̲ānistān, south of Herāt; see the preceding article. Many legends of the heroic age of Persia are associated with Sebzewār, and the square in the centre of the town was long pointed out as the scene of the combat between Rustam and Suhrāb and was known as Maidān-i Dīv-i Safīd, “the plain of the White Demon”. Sebzewir was a town of some importance in the district of Baihaḳ [q. v.] and eventually took the place of Baihaḳ as…

Maldive Islands

(346 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, a group of coral islets in the Indian Ocean, lying between 7° 6′ N. and 0° 42′ S. lat., and 72° and 74° E. long., and consisting of seventeen atolls with a great number of islands, of which about 300 are inhabited, the population being estimated at 70,000. The Moorish traveller, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, lived for more ¶ than a year (1343—1344) in the islands, but the first Europeans to visit them were the Portuguese, who established a factory in them in 1518. The Maldives were much harassed by Māppilla (Moplah) pirates from the Malabar Coast and in 1645 the kin…

Fīrūz S̲h̲āh K̲h̲ild̲j̲ī

(370 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
(Ḏj̲alāl al-Dīn), the twelfth Muḥammadan emperor of Dihlī, was an Afg̲h̲ān of the Ḵh̲ild̲j̲ī or G̲h̲ild̲j̲ī tribe who first rose to eminence in Balban’s reign and later became governor of Sāmāna. When Muʿizz al-Dīn Kaiḳubād fell sick, he was summoned to Dihlī to assume the direction of affairs, but encountered much opposition from the Turkī amīrs, who, as the emperor grew feebler, proclaimed his infant son, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Kayūmart̲h̲. ¶ Fīrūz acknowledged the child but removed him from the custody of the Turks and seized the palace of Kīlūgharī where, with his co…

Ḳuṣdār

(286 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, or Ḳuzdār, is the name of a town in 27° 48′ N. and 66° 37′ E. and of the district in which it is situated, a long, narrow valley, important by reason of its central position at the point of convergence of roads from Kalāt on the north, Karāčī and Bela on the south, Kačhī on the east, and Makrān and Ḵh̲ārān on the west. Yāḳūt describes it as a small town in a fertile district, which he calls Ṭūrān, producing grapes, pomegranates, and other fruits, but not dates. It is a city of India, or rather, …

S̲h̲āh Mīr

(404 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, an adventurer who founded the first dynasty of Muḥammadan kings of Kas̲h̲mīr, settled in that country in a. d. 1315—1316 and, having ingratiated himself with the rād̲j̲a, Siṁhadeva, who was perhaps impressed by the stranger’s pretensions to descend from Ard̲j̲una, the Pāṇḍava, entered his service. Kas̲h̲mīr suffered two invasions during Siṁhadeva’s reign, that of Dulča, a Turk from Ḳandahār, and that of the Bhautta of Thibet, Rinčana, both of whom entered the country by the Zod̲j̲ī-lā. Rinčana usurped the throne, made…

Saifī

(228 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, Mawlānā, of Buk̲h̲ārā, is also known as ʿArūḍī, “the Prosodist,” from his work ʿArūḍ-i-Saifī. Little is known of his life, but he lived for many years at Hirāt, at the courts of the Tīmūrids, Sulṭān Abū Saʿīd (1459—1469), great-grandson of Tīmūr and grandfather of Bābur, and Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī Sulṭān Ḥusain Mīrzā (1473—1506), great-grandson of Tīmūr’s second son, ʿUmar S̲h̲aik̲h̲ Mīrzā. As a poet he was of little consideration, and hb poems are trivial. His fame rests on his work ʿArūḍ-i-Saifī, ed. Blocbmann, Calcutta 1867 (“Saifī’s Prosody”), also known as ʿArūḍ-i-Kāfīya (the amply su…

Ḳuṭbs̲h̲āhī

(339 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, one of the five indepenpent Muslim dynasties of the Dakan, which arose on the ruins of the Bahmanī Kingdom, named, like the others, from the title (Ḳuṭb al-Mulk) borne under the Bahmanī kings by its founder, Sulṭān Ḳulī, a Ḳaiāḳūyunlū Turk of Saʿdābād, near Hamadān, who, entering the service of Muḥammad III, was entitled by his son, Maḥmūd, Ḵh̲awāṣṣ Ḵh̲ān. When, in 1490, the provincial governors of Aḥmadnagar, Bīd̲j̲āpūr, and Barār proclaimed their independence of Bīdar, Sulṭān Ḳulī was still …

Ḥaidarābād

(230 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, now the capital of the Niẓām’s dominions in the Dakhan, was founded in 1590 by Muḥammad Ḳulī Ḳuṭb S̲h̲āh, fifth king of the Ḳuṭb S̲h̲āhī dynasty of Golkonda, who at first named it Bhāgnagar after his favourite Hindū mistress Bhāgmatī, but afterwards, regretting his infatuation, changed its name to Ḥaidarābād, the city of Ḥaidar, or ʿAlī. In 1591 he made it his capital and it remained the capital of the kingdom until the extinction of his dynasty in 1687. ¶ Ḥaidarābād then became the chief town of a ṣūbah of the Mug̲h̲al empire and in 1724 passed into the possession of Čīn…

Salg̲h̲urids

(714 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
, one of the dynasties known as Atābaks, or Regents, which arose on the ruins of the empire of the Sald̲j̲ūḳs. Salg̲h̲ur was the chief of a band of Turkmāns who migrated into Ḵh̲urāsān and attached themselves to Ṭug̲h̲ril Beg [q. v.], the first of the Great Sald̲j̲ūḳs. Būzāba [q.v.], one of Salg̲h̲ur’s descendants, was killed in battle by Sulṭān G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn Masʿūd, the fourth of the Sald̲j̲ak kings of ʿIrāḳ and Kurdistan, and his nephew, Sunḳur b. Mawdūd, rose against the Sald̲j̲ūḳ and in…

Maḥmūd

(216 words)

Author(s): Haīg, T. W.
, S̲h̲āh S̲h̲arḳī, succeeded his father, Ibrāhīm S̲h̲āh, on the throne of Ḏj̲awnpūr in 1436. In 1443 he obtained permission from Maḥmūd I of Mālwa to punish Naṣīr Ḵh̲ān, governor of Kālpī, which was a fief of Mālwa, for breaches of the law and customs of Islām committed by him, but Maḥmūd of Mālwa repented of his complaisance, and war broke out between Mālwa and Ḏj̲awnpūr. Hostilities, which were indecisive were terminated by a compromise. In 1452 Maḥmūd S̲h̲arḳī, on the invitation of some disaffe…

Salsabīl

(286 words)

Author(s): Haig, T. W.
is the name of a fountain in Paradise, mentioned only once in the Ḳorʾān, in Sūra lxxvi. 18. The passage runs: “And there shall they (the just) be given to drink of the cup tempered with ginger, from the fount therein whose name is Salsabīl”. Grammarians differ as to the derivation of the word. Some refer it to the triliteral root s-b-l while others derive it from a quinqueliteral root of which it is, except in its own feminine form, the sole derivative. Some explain it as meaning “that which slips or steals ( yansallu) into the throat”, as though the only radical letters were s and l. The derivation…
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