The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c11.97

v1.c11.97

According to Mas‘ūdī Manṣūrah was 75 Sindian parasangs (1 parasang=8 miles) from Multan. Towards the north it extended as far as al-Rūr which was included within its boundary. ‘The estates and villages dependent on Manṣūrah,’ says he, ‘amounted to 300,000.¹ The whole country is well cultivated and covered with trees and fields. It is constantly at war with a nation called the Meds, who are a race of Sind, and also with other races on the frontiers of Sind.’² Its king was a Quraishite, descended from Habbār ibn al-Aswad. He had eighty war-elephants every one of which was supported by five hundred infantry in battle, and ‘opposed thousands of horses.’ The ‘Meds’ with whom the king of Manṣūrah was at war appear to have been the same sea-robbers who infested the ports of Sind and Surāṣṭra in the 8th century and whose depredations were one of the immediate causes of the attack on Dāhir by Muḥammad ibn Qāsim. We know from Balādhurī that soon after his conquest of Sind Muḥammad was compelled to make peace with these sea-dogs.¹ It is interesting to note that they remained a source of trouble to the Arabs even in the 10th century. In Iṣṭakhrī's time Manṣūrah was about ‘a mile long, and a mile broad,’ and was ‘surrounded by a branch of the Mihrān.’ The inhabitants were Musalmans and the dress of the people was like the people of ‘Irāq, but the dress of their kings resembled that of the Indian kings in respect of hair and the tunic.’² This last point is extremely interesting, showing the tendency of these Arab States to become Indian in character. Al-Rūr, according to this traveller, approached Multan in size. It was protected by two walls and was situated ‘on the borders of Manṣūrah.’ In the time of Ibn Ḥauqal the limits of Manṣūrah, in the west appear to have touched the borders of Mukrān, for he places the village of Rahūk (or Dahūk) a dependency of Manṣūrah, on the borders of that land.³ Ibn Ḥauqal further noticed that the Mālik of the country still belonged to the Quraish tribe, claiming descent from Hubād ibn Aswad, doubtless the same family which ruled in the time of Mas‘ūdī. This prince still acknowledged the spiritual authority of the Caliph by reading the Khuṭba in his name.