Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/227

 L A H L A I 215 of the hills, which was called the Lahore canal. Other canals of the same kind he executed elsewhere. His chief work at Lahore is the tomb of his mother (1627), where he himself also was buried (1657), and which is known as the tomb of Ali Mardan Khan. Warn- Khan s chief works at Lahore arc his own laradari or summer house (1631), the sarai and hammdm (baths) in the street now called Hira Mandi (1635), the Rang Mahal or painted palace (1635), and the Pari Mahal or fairy palace (1638). Prince Dara Shiko, the emperor s son, who made Lahore his place of residence, built (1640) the tomb of Mian Mir, his religious teacher. Of the other works at Lahore of Shah Jahan s time the principal are the tombs of Nawab Jafur Khan (1631), of Shah Bilawal (1636), of Abu l Hassan Khan (1641), of Shah Jamal (1651), and of the emperor s son, Prince Parviz (1651), also the tombs of two notable literary men, Muhammad Salah, author of Bahdr Ddnish, and Sheikh Inayat-Ullah, author of the historical work called Shah- jahdn-ndmah. The mosque in the city called Wazir Khan s was built (1641) by the emperor in honour of his faithful servant whose name it bears. It is faced with beautiful kdshi work of various colours, a kind of ornamentation largely used in the buildings of this time at Lahore. Decorated in the same manner is the gateway of the Guldbi Bagh made by Sultan Beg, the emperor s son-in-law. The Shalamar garden, restored and largely extended by Shah Jahan (1640), is one of the finest works at Lahore of his time. During Shah Jahan s reign Lahore was visited (1626) by two English travellers Mr Crowther and Mr Still ; in 1638 by Mandelslo, a member of the Holsteiu embassy to Persia; and three years later by Manriquez, a Spaniard. Aurangzib (1658-1707), though he lived little at Lahore, contri buted to it one of the largest and most important of the existing buildings, the Bddshdhi Masjid, or imperial mosque, built 1673-80. Two buildings at Lahore are connected with the name of Aurang- zib s daughter, Zib-un-nissa, authoress of a book of poems called the Blwdn-i- Makhfi. One is the gateway of her garden (1665) called Chau-burji (four towered) and now Si-bur ji (three towered), one of the corner minarets having been cut away by the water of a neigh bouring nullah. The other is her tomb, built 1670. The tombs of Shah Chiragh (1658), of Sultana Begam, daughter of Shah Jahan, wife of Sultan Beg (1660), and of Abd ur Rizuk, Makki (1673), which is known as the lilagumbaz, or blue dome, are the best of the other remains at Lahore of the work of Aurangzib s reign. From the reign of Aurangzib s successor, Bahadur Shah (Shah Alam I.), Lahore has little to show except two small buildings of 1710, one Hindu and one Mohammedan the Chaubara, or hall, of Chajji i Bliagat, and the tomb of Pir Ain-ul-Kamal. One of the city gates bears the name of Shah Alam. In the reign of Mohammed Shah, the third from Shah Alam (1719-48), Lahore came in the path of another of the ruthless invaders from the west, Nadir Kuli Khan, better known as Nadir Shah (1737), who rapidly swept over the plains of the Punjab to the chief city. He was met but not actively resisted by the governor of Lahore, and Nadir s army en camped for a time at Shalamar. Again, in the repeated invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdali (1748-1767), in the reigns of his namesake Ahmad Shah and of Alamgir II., Lahore had to take its part, with varied fortunes, but with no important permanent result. To the reign of Ahmad Shah (1748-54) belongs one little building which makes some show in the city, the Masjid Tildi, or golden (now commonly called Simahri which has the same meaning), having its domes covered with gilt plates of copper (1750). This is the latest work of the kind at Lahore before the Mohammedan power in the Punjab was subverted by the Sikhs, who obtained temporary pos session of the city eight years later, and, with rapidly growing influence as well as numbers, soon became a formidable enemy of the nominal rulers, till, finally, they became masters of Lahore, .under Ranjit Singh. Lahore was conferred upon Ranjit in the end of last century by the last of the invaders of India from the west, Zaman Shah, when the last of the reigning Mughals, Shah Alam II., had lost all real hold of this northern part of his empire. The long, vigorous, and expansive rule of Kanjit Singh brings Lahore within the general history of the Sikhs and of the Punjab, and con nects the Punjab directly with the history of British India. Except the additions which Ranjit Singh made to the defences of the city little work of usefulness or adornment was done in his days at Lahore which did not owe something very directly to works of earlier times. Ranjit built a large summer house, which he called Tar-rjhctr, on the remains of prince Kamran s Dil-kusha, or country palace, on the bank of the Ravi opposite Lahore. The fine marble laradari which he set up in the middle of the Huzuri Bagh was taken from Jahangir s tomb at Shahdara. Lahore in the time of Ranjit Singh has been the subject of many descriptions and narratives from many pens. Very interesting are the accounts in Victor Jacquemont s Letters and Sir Henry Law rence s Adventurer in the Punjab. The pictures of Ranjit s court at Lahore introduce also the figures of men whose nnmes became very familiar to English ears in the later days of Ranjit s reign : the Hindu brothers Dhyan Singh and Glmhib Singh, the men of action and intrigue ; ihe Mussulman brothers Aziz-ud-di n and Nur-ud-din (of the Fakir family as it is called), the men of business ; the sagacious counsellor Dina Nath; the French military officers Allard, Ventura, Court ; and others. But the great figure always in these Lahore pictures is the small, one-eyed maharaja himself. Unedu cated, but full of knowledge, which was power, of a feeble frame worse enfeebled by himself, but of astonishing energy and indomi table will, he made the whole Punjab his own, and created for his own use an army the most powerful and best organized that Britain has ever encountered in India. Ranjit Singh died in 1839, leaving to his successors this dangerous legacy, consisting of sixty regiments of regular infantry and a larger force of irregulars, numbering in all 92,000 ; cavalry, 31,800 ; artillery, 171 garrison guns and 384 field pieces. Immediately after the close of his life began the wild anarchy and bloodshed of which Lahore was the constant scene for years follow ing. Within four months Ranjit s son and successor Kharak Singh was removed by death, in what way is not clearly known. The reign of Nan Nihal Singh, who came after him, lasted a few days only. A longer time of power was enjoyed by Shir Singh, who at length was murdered in 1843. After a time of worse confusion, constant fighting, and more murders, Dhalip Singh, a young son of Ranjit, became maharaja, the government, such as it was, being in the hands of his mother, and of the vizier Lai Singh. Seven years after Ranjit Singh s death a great part of his great army, which had come to feel its strength and make it felt, when no longer held in the -iron grasp of its only master, crossed the Sutlej into British territory, and took thus the first step towards its own destruction. The result, after four great conflicts, one of them a conflict of unexampled peril to the British power in India, was the first occupation of Lahore by English troops in March 1846. Of Lahore in British hands an account has been given above. The tomb of Ranjit Singh, a building of no great architectural merit, which stands just outside the Roshnaigate, was in progress when the city was taken possession of in 1846, and was completed after the annexation of the Punjab in 1849. See A in-i-Akbari; Elliot, Historians of India; Calcutta Reviete, vols. i.,ii.,vi., viii., ix., xxvi., &c.; Lahore, by T. II. Thornton and J. L. Kipling; Bernier s Travels ; D. J. Martin Honigberger, Thirty-Five Years in the East ; Thevenot s Travels ; Joannes de Laet, De Imperio Magni Mogolis; Manouehi, General History of the Mogul Empire; Victor Jacquemont, Journey in India; Adventurer in the Punjab (republished as Adventures of Bellasis); Annual Administration Keports of the Punjab, &c. (R. M L.*) LAHR, chief town of an official district in the circle of Offenburg, Baden, is situated on the Schutter, about 9 miles south of Offenburg. As one of the busiest towns in Baden, it carries on manufactures of tobacco and cigars, woollen goods, chicory, leather, pasteboard, hats, and nume rous other articles, and has besides considerable trade. The population in 1875 was 8491. LAIBACH, or LAYBACH (Slovenian, Ljubljana), capital of the duchy of Carniola, Austria, is situated on the Laibach near its influx into the Save, and on the Crown Prince Rudolph and Austrian Southern Railways, 45 miles north-east of Trieste, in 46 3 N. lat., 14 31 E. long. It consists of the town proper and eight suburbs, and pos sesses a cathedral in the Italian style, ten churches, the palaces of the prince and count of Auersperg, an ancient castle on the Schlossberg now used as a military depot and prison, besides the usual public buildings and educational establishments of a provincial capital and episcopal see. There are manufactories of earthenware, linen and woollen cloth, silk, fire-hose, and cigars ; oil, paper, and chicory mills; a sugar refinery, and a bell-foundry. On the 31st December 1880 the civil population was 24,618 (11,185 males, 13,433 females); together with the military it was 20,284. The native language is Slovenian, but the educated classes speak German or Italian. Laibach occupies the site of the ancient Emona or yEmona. In 388 A.D. Emona was visited by the emperor Theodosius ; in 400 it was besieged by Alaric ; and in 451 it was desolated by the Huns. In 900 Laibach suffered much from the Magyars, who were, how ever, defeated thi rc in 914. In the 12th century the town passed into the hands of the dukes of Carinthia ; in 1270 it was taken by Ottocarof Bohemia; and in 1277 it came under the sway of the Hapsburgs. In the early part of the 15th century the town was several times besieged by the Turks. The bishopric was founded in 1461. On the 17th March 1797 and again 3d June 1809 Laibach was taken by the French, and from 1809 to 1813 it became the seat of their general government of the Illyrian provinces. From 1816 to 1849 Laibach was the capital of the kingdom of Illyria. For the congress of Laibach (January to May 1821) see vol. xiii. p. 486.