The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c11.58.1

v1.c11.58.1

But, as I have said, in spite of these occasional raids and alliances² the Arab power did not prosper in Sind. Tamīm, the successor of Junayd, though famous for his generosity, was not apparently fitted to carry on the vigorous policy of his predecessors. Balādhurī tells us that in the time of al-Ḥakam ibn 'Awānah, who came to Sind, not long after Tamīm, 'the people of al-Hind apostatized with the exception of the inhabitants of Qaṣṣah.'...... 'A place of refuge,' we are told, 'to which the Moslems might flee was not to be found, so he built on the further side of the lake, where it borders on al-Hind, a city which he named al-Maḥfūẓah (the guarded), establishing it as a place of refuge for them, where they should be secure, and making it a capital.'³ Another city that was built at this time was al-Manṣūrah (the victorious; near modern Hyderabad).⁴ Alor was probably the first viceregal seat of the Arab governors of Sind,⁵ but in the time of Balādhurī (*circa* 892-93) the governors resided at al-Manṣūrah,⁶ in Lower Sind. From Balādhurī's description it seems clear that the cities were not far from each other, both being built on the sides of an unknown lake; and it is therefore likely that other portions of Sind were practically lost to the Arabs. But al-Ḥakam, we are told, "won back from the hands of the enemy all that they had conquered from him.