The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c11.8

v1.c11.8

It was probably limited on this side by the Thar or the Indian Desert; on the south it was bounded by the sea, while on the south-west it included a considerable portion of Baluchistan and the Mukrān coast. Balādhuri,¹ describes the route of Muḥammad ibn Qāsim from Shiraz (the capital of Fars) *via* Mukrān to the cities of Qannazbur (Fannazbūr; mod. Panj-gūr²), Armā’il (Armabil), Qanīl (Qanbalī) and Daibul, all of which apparently belonged to *as-Sind*. It is also possible that the province known as Mukrān to the Arabs originally belonged to *as-Sind*. In the accounts of the earlier raids of the Arabs towards this portion of India, we find officers appointed ‘over the frontier of al-Hind.’ It was only after a series of raids and conquests on this frontier that Mukrān is mentioned as one of the conquests of Sinan ibn Salāmah about the year 48 A.H.³ It was after Ibn al-Harī al-Bāhilī had finally conquered the country ‘after a fierce and successful campaign’ (*circa* 61 A.H.) that Sa‘īd was for the first time appointed by Ḥajjāj over Mukrān (*circa* 79 A.H.).⁴ It is therefore very likely that this province was carved out of the territory which was politically and geographically known to them as *as-Sind*. Thus it appears that the Arabs understood by *as-Sind*, the whole of the lower Indus valley from Multan down to the sea, including nearly the whole of modern Baluchistan.⁵