Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.s3.t2.23

c19.s3.t2.23

The king of Jurz was at war with the Balháras as well as with the neighbouring kingdom of Táfak or the Panjáb. The details given under Bhinmál page 468 show that Sulaimán's tongue of land, by which he apparently meant either Káthiávád or Gujarát was an imperfect idea of the extent of Gurjjara rule. At the beginning of the tenth century A.D. 916 Sulaimán's editor Abu Zaid describes Kanauj as a large country forming the empire of Jurz,¹ a description which the Gurjjara Vatsarāja's success in Bengal about a century before shows not to be impossible. Ibni Khurdādbah (A.D. 912) ranks the king of Jurz as fourth in importance among Indian kings. According to him "the Tātariya" dirhams were in use in the Jurz kingdom.² Al Masūdi (A.D. 943) speaks of the Konkan country of the Balhāra as on one side exposed to the attacks of the king of Jurz a monarch rich in men horses and camels. He speaks of the Jurz kingdom bordering on Tāfān apparently the Panjāb and Tāfān as bounded by Rahmi³ apparently Burma and Sumātra. Ibni Haukal (A.D. 968-976) notices that several kingdoms existed, including the domain of the Balhāras of the north Konkan within the land of the Balhāra between Kambāyah and Saimūr.⁴ Al Bīrūni (A.D. 970-1031) uses not Jurz, but Gajārāt.⁵ Beyond that is to the south of Gajārāt he places Konkan and Tāna. In Al Bīrūni's time Nārāyan near Jaipūr, the former capital of Gajārāt, had been taken and the inhabitants removed to a town on the frontier.⁶ Al Idrisi (end of the eleventh century really from tenth century materials) ranks the king of Jurz as the fourth and the king of Sāfān or Tāfān as the second in greatness to the Balhāra.⁷ In another passage in a list of titular sovereigns Al Idrisi enters the names of Sāfir (Tāfān) Huzr (Jazr-Jurz) and Dumi (Rahmi).⁸ By the side of Jurz was Tāfak (doubtfully the Panjāb) a small state producing the whitest and most beautiful women in India; the king having few soldiers; living at peace with his neighbours and like the Balhāras highly esteeming the Arabs.⁹ Ibni Khurdādbah (A.D. 912) calls Tāfan the king next in eminence to the Balhāra. Al Masūdi (A.D. 943) calls Tāfak the ruler of a mountainous country like Kashmir¹⁰ with small forces living on friendly terms with neighbouring sovereigns and well disposed to the Moslims.¹¹ Al Idrisi (end of eleventh century but materials of the tenth century) notices Sāfān (Tāfān) as the principality that ranks next to the Konkan that is to the Rāshtrakūtas.