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The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c24: Appendix C. Conversion of the Khokars

The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c24

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Appendix C. Conversion of the Khokars

c24.2

Among the tribes who rose against Muizzuddin in 1206 in the western Punjab was the Khokar, whom Briggs (*trans. Ferishta*, I, p. 183-4) identified with the Gakkar; this was also done in the *JASB*, (1871, p. 67). The Gakkar however do not come into prominence until the reign of Babur. The error was corrected in the *IA*, (1907, p. 1-7) and also in Rose : *Glossary of the Punjab Tribes and Castes*, (II, p. 54). Raverty also questioned the identification in his *Notes on Afghanis-tan*, pp. 367.

c24.3

Ferishta, I, p. 59-60, in describing the process of the Khokar’s conversion to Islam by Muizzuddin, speaks of their former custom of polyandry and female infanticide. This has been unreservedly accepted in the *IA*, (1907, p. 1) as an authenticated detail of the early history “of the essentially Punjab tribe, the Khokars”. Raverty, in his *Notes* rightly questioned the story of their conversion but *CHI*, (III, p. 47) still adheres to it. The fact is, that Ferishta who based his account demonstrably on Ibnul Asir, (XII, p. 98) has confused the Khokars under discussion with another trans-Indus tribe inhabiting “the districts of Sankuran and Makran”. This tribe or people, whom Ibnul Asir calls the Tirahiah, were also a source of constant trouble to the Mussalmans of Peshawar since the days of Subuktigin. They also rose in rebellion in 1205-6 but were effectively quelled by Yalduz, the governor of the district. It is this tribe to whom Ibnul Asir ascribes the practices of polyandry and female infanticide and whom Muizzuddin succeeded in converting. Ferishta also mentions the Tirahiah, (p. 60) but wrongly asserts that both the Tirahiah and the Khokar were converted during the campaigns of 1205-6 and adds that upto 1018/1609 they continued to remain Muslims. Ibnul Asir however, speaks of the conversion only of the Tirahiah; the Khokars are invariably described both by Hasan Nizami and Minhaj as infidels. Could Tirahiah be a misreading for the Siah, mentioned by Fakhre Mudir as one of the tribes who joined the Khokar rebellion? The ‘Siahan’, in any case, seems to be the persianised name of the present Sehi tribe listed in Rose: *Glossary of the Punjab Tribes and Castes*, (III, p. 394).

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