, Indo-Muslim military leader. Known to Kas̲h̲mīr chroniclers as Sulṭān G̲h̲āzī S̲h̲āh Čak, he was the son of Kād̲j̲ī Čak, the leader of the Čaks [ q.v.] and a powerful chief. Nothing is known of G̲h̲āzī Ḵh̲ān’s early life except that in 933/1527 G̲h̲āzī with other chiefs defeated the Mug̲h̲als sent by Bābur to help Sikandar, son of Sulṭān Fatḥ S̲h̲āh, against Muḥammad S̲h̲āh the reigning Sulṭān of Kas̲h̲mīr. Next year, however, the Čaks were defeated, and G̲h̲āzī Ḵh̲ān, who fought under his father, was taken prisoner. I…

rose to power in Mysore (Mahisur) during the second half of the 18th century. His family claimed descent from the Ḳurays̲h̲ and to have migrated to India from Mecca at the end of the 10th/16th century. He was born in 1721 at Dodballāpur, 27 miles north-west of Bangalore. When he was five years of age his father, Fatḥ Muḥammad, a soldier of fortune, lost his life while in the service of the Nawāb of Sira. Left an orphan, Ḥaydar was brought up by his cousin, Ḥaydar Ṣāḥib, an officer in the Mysore …

, Indian Muslim noble and traveller to the West, the son of Nawwāb Muʿazzaz K̲h̲ān (Nawwāb in 1769), descended from ʿAbd Allāh Beg, the Mug̲h̲al governor of Broach, a town in Gud̲j̲arat [see bharoč ], situated on the right bank of the Narbada river about 30 miles from its mouth. Since the town of Broach was an important trading and manufacturing centre and the Nawwāb would not allow the English to establish a factory there, the governor of Bombay decided to seize it. Under the pretext that the Nawwāb had violated the treaty with the East India …

, ruler in D̲j̲awnpur [ q.v.], the eldest son of Ibrāhīm S̲h̲āh S̲h̲arḳī. ascended the throne in 844/1440. In 846/1442, he decided to invade Bengal, but owing to reasons not clear he refrained from carrying out his plans. The account in the Maṭlaʿ al-saʿdayn that he did so because of a warning from the Tīmurīd S̲h̲āh Ruk̲h̲. seems to be apocryphal. In 847/1443, hearing that Nāṣir S̲h̲āh, ruler of Kalpī (Maḥmūdābād), had plundered the town of ¶ S̲h̲āhpūr and harassed its Muslim population, Maḥmūd decided to punish him, and with the permission of Maḥmūd K̲h̲ald̲j̲ī [ q.v.] of Mālwā, whose fe…

, the name of two of the Dihlī sultans of mediaeval India. 1. Maḥmūd I, Nāṣir al-Din was the son of Iltutmis̲h̲ (Firis̲h̲ta, i, 70-1; Minhād̲j̲-i Sirād̲j̲ D̲j̲ūzd̲j̲ānī, i, 471-2) and not his grandson, as some modern historians have asserted. He ascended the throne on 23 Muḥarram 644/10 June 1246 through the joint efforts of Balban [ q.v. in Suppl.], and Maḥmūd’s mother. Since Maḥmūd was weak and of a retiring disposition, devoting himself “to prayers and religious observances”, and he owed his throne to Balban, the latter became very powerful. He fur…

, the name of several mediaeval rulers of Bengal. 1. Maḥmūd i, Nāṣir al-Dīn (846-64/1442-59), was a descendant of Ilyās S̲h̲āhī dynasty of Bengal. On the assassination of the tyrant, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn ( ca. 846/1442), the grandson of the usurper, Rād̲j̲ā Ganes̲h̲ (817-21/1414-18), a scramble for power began among the nobles, which led one of them, named Nāṣir K̲h̲ān, to seize power by killing his rival, S̲h̲ādī K̲h̲ān. But within a week, Nāṣir K̲h̲ān himself was put to death. Thereupon, the nobles chose Maḥmūd, who was a descendan…

, the name of two mediaeval rulers of Mālwā [ q.v.] in India. 1. Maḥmūd Khald̲j̲ī I, the son of Malik Mug̲h̲īt̲h̲, whose mother was the sister of Dilāwar K̲h̲ān, the founder of the G̲h̲ūrī dynasty of Mālwā. On the death of Sulṭān Hus̲h̲ang S̲h̲āh on 8 D̲h̲u ’l-Ḥid̲j̲d̲j̲a 838/5 July 1435, his son G̲h̲aznī S̲h̲āh succeeded with the support of Maḥmūd K̲h̲ān and assumed the tide of Muḥammad S̲h̲āh G̲h̲ūrī. He was weak and cruel and, thinking that Maḥmūd K̲h̲ān wanted to usurp the throne, tri…

, a town in the northwest of Pakistan, with a population of 4,671, situated on the right bank of the Gilgit river, a tributary of the Indus, 4,890 ft. above sea level. Owing to its geographical position, being near the borders of several countries and because roads radiate from it into the surrounding valley and beyond to Sinkiang and Transoxiana, it has always been an important trading centre and of considerable strategic significance. Gilgit’s ancient name was Sargin, which, owing to reasons unknown, was changed to Gilgit. But its people call their country S̲h̲īnak…

, Kas̲h̲mīrī soldier, scholar and engineer. He was the son of Ḥasan Malik of Čādura, a village about 10 miles south of Srīnagar, and descended from Rāmčandra, the commander-in-chief of Rad̲j̲a Suhādeva (1301-20). His family seemed to have gone into eclipse during the early period of the Sultanate, but with its conversion to S̲h̲īʿīsm early in the 10th/16th century, it became active in the social and political life of Kas̲h̲mīr. Ḥaydar Malik’s grandfather, Malik Muḥammad Nād̲j̲ī, played an import…

, the name of three mediaeval rulers of Gud̲j̲arāt, [ q.v.] in India. 1. Maḥmūd I, Sayf al-Dīn , Begaŕhā or Begŕā , a younger brother of Sulṭān Ḳuṭb al-Dīn and son of Muḥammad S̲h̲āh, ascended the throne on 1 S̲h̲aʿbān 863/3 June 1459, at the age of thirteen, with the title of Abu ’l-Fatḥ Muḥammad S̲h̲āh, after the nobles had dethroned his uncle Dāwūd. He is known as Maḥmūd Begaŕhā because of the two forts ( gaŕh s) of Girnār and Čāmpāner which he conquered. Four months after his accession, Maḥmūd was faced with a conspiracy of some leading nobles aimed at overthrowing his able m…

, a tribal group which emigrated to Kas̲h̲mīr from Dardistān under their leader Lankar Čak during the reign of Rād̲j̲ā Sūhadeva (1301-20). S̲h̲ams al-Dīn (739-42/1339-42), the founder of the Sultanate in Kas̲h̲mīr, made Lankar Čak his commander-in-chief, patronising the Čaks in order to counteract the power of the feudal chiefs. During the early part of Sulṭān Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn’s reign, Pāndū, the leader of the Čaks, organised a strike as a protest against corvée labour, and set fire to the Sulṭān’s palace and some government buildings. As a puni…

, a religio-political group active in the political life of early Islamic Kas̲h̲mīr. The Bayhaḳī Sayyids migrated to Kas̲h̲mīr from Dihlī in the time of Sulṭān Sikandar (791-816/1389-1413), and played a very important part in the social and political life of the Valley until its conquest by the Mug̲h̲als in 996/1588. Owing to their descent from Prophet Muḥammad, through his daughter Fāṭima, they were treated with great respect by the Sulṭāns, who gave them d̲j̲āgīr s and high offices and entered into matrimonial relations with them. At first they …

, the fourteenth ruler of the Bahmanī dynasty [ q.v.] in the Dakhan (Deccan). He ascended the throne at Muḥammadābād-Bīdar at the age of twelve on the death of his father, S̲h̲ams al-Dīn Muḥammad III, on 5 Ṣafar 887/26 March 1482. During Maḥmūd’s long reign of twenty-six years, the kingdom continued on its downward course on account of his own incompetence and the greed and intrigues of his nobles. The bitter rivalry between the Dakhanīs, consisting of the natives and old settlers, and the Newcomers call…

(Sanskrit: Kas̲h̲mīra; Persian: Kas̲h̲mīr; Kas̲h̲mīrī: Kas̲h̲īr), a region of northern India. i. before 1947 1. Geography. It is situated in the western Himālayas about 5,000 ft. above sea-level, and is shaped like an elliptical saucer with a similarly-shaped level ¶ valley in the centre. This valley, comprising an area of 1,800 or 1,900 sq. miles, is about 84 miles in length, from south-west to north-east, while its width varies from 20 to 25 miles. It is surrounded by high mountain ranges, whose highest peaks rise up to 18,000 ft. …