The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s1: I. Sind
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c29.s1
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I. Sind
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THE history of Sind from the period of the Arab conquest early in the eighth century to the time when it became a province is fragmentary and obscure. From the first conquest until A.D. 1010, when it was conquered by Mahmūd of Ghaznī it was ruled by a governor or governors who pretended to represent the ‘Abbāsid Caliphs of Baghdād, but were more probably hereditary rulers who obtained the Caliph’s recognition as a matter of form, and in some cases, doubtless, neglected even this formality. From its conquest by Mahmūd until 1053, in the reign of Farrukhzād, the tenth of his line, it was, at least nominally, a province of the empire of Ghaznī, but in that year, while the empire was still in confusion owing to the recent usurpation of Tughril ‘the Ingrate,’ the Sūmras, a native Rājput tribe of Lower Sind established themselves in that region, but failed to extend their authority over Upper Sind and Multān. The province was conquered by Mu‘izz-ud-dīn Muhammad Ghūrī, and was governed by his lieutenant, Nāsir-ud-dīn Qabācha, who attempted, after his master’s death, to assert his independence, but was conquered by Shams-ud-dīn Iltutmish. Of the nature and extent of the authority exercised by the later Slave kings over the province little is known, but it probably varied with the personal character of the monarch and of the ruler of Sind. The province owned the authority of Ghiyās-ud-dīn and of the Khaljīs of Delhi, whose power preserved it from becoming the prey of the Mughuls, but retained so much autonomy, even during the reign of Muhammad Tughluq, whose empire included the whole of India except Kashmīr and some tracts in the neighbourhood of Cape Comorin in the extreme south and in Kāthiāwār in the extreme west, as enabled the Sammās, a Rājput tribe of Cutch and Lower Sind, to oust the Sūmras and to usurp, without the interference of any central authority, the government of the country. There are many discrepancies as to the date of this event, and one authority places it in 1439, which is at least a century too late. From a consideration of all the circumstances it is safe to conclude that it occurred about 1336.
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The Sammās, of whom Abu-’l-Fazl enumerates, in the *Āīn-i-Akbarī* sixteen, and Muhammad Ma‘sūm, in the *Tārīkh-i-Sind*, seventeen, had adopted Islam, and propagated that religion in their dominions. They used, as rulers, the title of Jām, still retained by the chiefs of Nawanagar in Kāthiāwār, which is explained as an assertion of a claim to descent from Jamshīd, and the explanation, though not convincing, is the only one which has been offered.
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The first three princes of this line acknowledged, by the payment of tribute, the supremacy of Muhammad Tughluq, but the third, by harbouring and protecting the rebel Taghī, repudiated his allegiance to Delhi, and was enabled, by the opportune death of his suzerain and the defection of his allies, to escape the punishment of rebellion, but his successor, Timājī, was compelled by the arms of Fīrūz Tughluq to return to his allegiance, and to signalize his obedience by a protracted sojourn at the court of Delhi.
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The chroniclers of Sind make no mention of the victory of Shihāb-ud-dīn of Kashmīr (1359–1378)¹ over the Jām of Sind on the banks of the Indus, the only authorities for which are the chronicles of Kashmīr, so vague on the point as to be worthless.
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¹ See Chapter XII.
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The disruption of Muhammad Tughluq’s great empire after the death of Fīrūz, and the contraction of the kingdom of Delhi, after the invasion of Tīmūr, to a few districts round the capital absolved the Jāms of Sind from their allegiance to a central authority, and they ruled their principality as independent sovereigns until, in the reign of Jām Nizām-ud-dīn, commonly known as Nanda, who succeeded in 1439 and reigned for sixty years, the Mughuls of the Arghūn clan began to make their influence felt in Lower Sind, and the Sammās sought to increase their power by a close alliance with Gujarāt. Daughters were given in marriage to the kings of that country, and, in one instance, to one of their dependants, Qaisar Khān Fārūqī, who belonged to the ruling family of Khāndesh, and whose grandson succeeded to that principality, but in 1521 Shāh Beg Arghūn, driven from Qandahār by Bābur, conquered Sind and expelled Jām Fīrūz, the last of the Sammās, who found an asylum at the court of Gujarāt and gave his daughter in marriage to Sultān Bahādur of that country.
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Shāh Beg Arghūn died in 1524, and was succeeded by his son, Shāh Husain, who in 1528, after a siege of more than a year’s duration, took Multān, then nominally ruled by Sultān Husain Langāh II, devastated the city, carried the inhabitants between the ages of seven and seventy into captivity, and appointed Khvāja Shams-ud-dīn its governor, with Langar Khān, who had formerly commanded the army of Multān, as his assistant. Shortly afterwards Langar Khān, having collected the scattered inhabitants and restored a measure of prosperity to the city, expelled Shams-ud-dīn and governed Multān as an independent ruler.
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Shāh Husain Arghūn was reigning in 1541 when Humāyūn, fleeing from Lahore, took refuge in Sind. Sultān Mahmūd of Bukkur shut himself up in his island fortress and refused to assist in any way the fallen emperor, nor was Shāh Husain more inclined to protect the man whose father had expelled him from Qandahār. Humāyūn attempted to persuade him to join him in an attack on Gujarāt, but Shāh Husain, having kept his envoys in attendance for five or six months, dismissed them without a decided answer, and while Humāyūn was besieging Bukkur and Sehwān cut off his supplies. Humāyūn left Sind in May, 1542, and, having vainly endeavoured to obtain assistance from the rajas, Māldeo of Jodhpur and Lonkaran of Jaisalmer, returned to the country later in the year. His son Akbar was born at Umarkot on November 25, 1542, and Humāyūn fled through Sind towards Persia, crossing the Indus at Sehwān.
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Shāh Husain Arghūn suffered from continued fever, and his health was so enfeebled that his nobles deserted him and elected as their sovereign Mīrzā Muhammad ‘Īsā Tarkhān, a member of the elder branch of the Arghūn clan. Shāh Husain and Sultān Mahmūd, the governor of Bukkur, were united in their opposition to ‘Īsā, but were compelled to sue for peace and to cede to him a great part of Sind, the whole of which fell into his possession on the death of Shāh Husain in 1556.
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Muhammad ‘Īsā Tarkhān died in 1567, and was succeeded by his son, Mīrzā Muhammad Bāqī Tarkhān, who, after crushing the revolt of his younger brother, reigned peacefully until 1585, when he committed suicide in a fit of insanity. His son Mīrzā Pāyanda Muhammad Tarkhān, being likewise insane, was excluded from the succession, which passed to his son, Mīrzā Jānī Beg Tarkhān, the grandson of Muhammad Bāqī.
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Akbar, who regarded Sind as a province of his empire, resented Jānī Beg’s failure to appear at his court, and in 1591 sent ‘Abd-ur-Rahīm Khān, Khān Khānān, to invade the country. He defeated Jānī Beg in two engagements, compelled him to surrender both Tattah and Sehwān, and carried him to Akbar’s court at Lahore. Here he was well received, and was appointed governor of the Multān province, and shortly afterwards, owing to the clamours of the Arghūn clan for the return of their old ruler, was restored to Sind as governor of the province. He died at Burhānpur in 1599, and his son Mīrzā Ghāzī Beg Tarkhān was appointed to the government of Sind, the history of which was merged thenceforward in that of the Mughul empire.