The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c11.103

v1.c11.103

The Arab traveller also agrees with his predecessor in the statement that the city of Manṣūrah was surrounded by a branch of the Indus so that it looked like an island. The inhabitants were Musalmans, and the current coin was stamped at Kandahar, each piece being equivalent to five dirhams. The Tātarī coin was also current, each being in weight equal to a dirham and a third.⁴ He confirms Iṣṭakhrī by his statement that ‘the dress of the sovereigns of the country resembled in the trousers and tunic that worn by the kings of Hind.’ But it is significant that in his time the Moslems in certain parts had already begun to 'wear the same dresses and let their beards grow in the same fashion as the infidels.' This was another step in the formation of an Indian Moslem community as distinct from the conquerors from Arabia.¹