Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.s1.20

c19.s1.20

materials) also notices Nahrwára as eight days' journey from Bárúh (Broach) across a flat country a place governed by a prince having the title of the Balhára, a prince with numerous troops and elephants, a place frequented by large numbers of Musalmáns who go there on business.¹ It is remarkable that though Vanarája (A.D. 720-780?) founded Anhilwára as early as about A.D. 750 no Arab geographer refers to the capital under any of the many forms into which its name was twisted before Al Istakhri in A.D. 951. At first Anhilwára may have been a small place but before the tenth century it ought to have been large enough to attract the notice of Ibni Khurdádbah (A.D. 912) and Al Masúdi (A.D. 915). In the eleventh century the Musalmán historians of Mahmúd's reign are profuse in their references to Anhilwára. According to Farishtah² after the capture of Anhilwára and the destruction of Somnáth (H. 414; A.D. 1025) Mahmúd was anxious to make Anhilwára his capital especially as it had mines of gold and as Singaldip (Ceylon) rich in rubies was one of its dependencies. Mahmúd was dissuaded from the project by his ministers.³ But two mosques in the town of Pattan remain to show Mahmúd's fondness for the city. The next Muhammadan reference to Anhilwára is by Núr-ud dín Muhammad U'fi, who lived in the reign of Shams-ud dín Altámsh (A.D. 1211).⁴ In his Romance of History U'fi refers to Anhilwára as the capital of that Jai Ráj, who on receiving the complaint of a poor Musalmán preacher of Cambay, whose mosque the Hindus instigated the fire-worshippers of the place to destroy, left the capital alone on a fleet dromedary and returning after personal enquiry at Cambay summoned the complainant and ordered the chief men of the infidels to be punished and the Musalmán mosque to be rebuilt at their expense.⁵