Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c19.s3.t2.35

c19.s3.t2.35

Rahma or Ruhmi, according to the merchant Sulaimān (A.D. 851) borders the land of the Balhāras, the Jurz, and Tāfān. The king who was not much respected was at war with both the Jurz and the Balhāra. He had the most numerous army in India and a following of 50,000 elephants when he took the field. Sulaimān notices a cotton fabric made in Rahma, so delicate that a dress of it could pass through a signet-ring. The medium of exchange was cowries Cypræa moneta shell money. The country produced gold silver and aloes and the whisk of the ed'mara or yāk Bos poephagus the bushy-tailed ox. Ibni Khurdādbah¹² (A.D. 912) places Rahmi as the sixth kingdom. He apparently identified it with Al Rahmi or north Sumātra as he notes that between it and the other kingdoms communication is kept up by ships. He notices that the ruler had five thousand elephants and that cotton cloth and aloes probably the well-known Kumāri