Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/108

 92 S I N S I N Hyderabad with 338 pupils, and of a third at Shikarpur with 228 boys. The three passed 39 out of 48 candidates for matriculation at the Bombay university. Of vernacular or Sindi-Persian schools under native masters there were 34 which came under Government supervision in 1858, whereas there were in 1884-85 no less than 23 middle schools teaching the vernacular and English with 1165 pupils ; and in the primary schools the number of pupils was nearly 20,000. Language Captain (now Sir Richard) Burton has given a clear and instruc- and tive account of the language and literature of Sind. The large litera- proportion of Sanskrit and Arabic words admitted, the anomalous ture. structure of the grammar, and the special sounds of certain letters of its alphabet render the first remarkable ; and the original romantic poems and translations of Arabic religious works com- mand the attention of scholars to the second. Among the more celebrated of the native writers are Makhdum Hashim, Makhdum Abdullah, and Saiyid Abdu'l-Latif. History. The leading features of the two years' campaign of Alexander the Great in the Punjab and Sind have been touched on else- where (see INDIA, vol. xii. p. 787). About 711 A.D. the Hindus of Sind were conquered by Muhammad Kasim, the young general of the caliph "Walid, but his successors were unable to hold their ground. In reality it was the overwhelming irruption of Mahmiid of Ghazni three centuries later which finally subjugated the province. Nearly six centuries later still, Sind was annexed by the great Akbar to Delhi. In the meanwhile it had been governed by princes and petty chiefs, all of whom are celebrated in local history. After Akbar, and up to the time of Nadir Shah's invasion of India, there is little historically important to distinguish the province, separated from the other divisions of the Mughal empire, though its governors possessed a certain delegated power which might well have tempted the more ambitious to revolt. "When Nadir took possession of the lands west of the Indus, one Nur Muhammad Kalhora was the quasi ruler in Sind. The tribe to which he belonged claimed lineal descent from Abbas, uncle of the prophet, and had a widely-spread repute for sanctity. Their political influence had been, moreover, increasing for many years, and in the person of one or two of their stronger chiefs they had on sundry occasions risen in arms against the imperial troops. In 1701, or thirty-eight years before the Persian invasion, Yar Muhammad Kahora had obtained possession of Shikarpur, and managed to get from the Mughal emperor a firman conferring upon him the " subahdari " of the Dera districts, with the title of t( Khuda Yar Khan." On his death in 1719 he had extended his territory by the acquisition of the Kandiara and Larkhana districts, and of Sibi, a vast tract of country then in- cluding within its limits Sakhar as well as Shikarpur. He was succeeded by his son Nur Muhammad, who, as above shown, was in the unenviable position of having to account for his actions to no less notable an antagonist than Nadir himself. The latter was eventually appeased by an annual tribute of 20 lakhs of rupees, and on his return to Persia conferred upon the Kalhora prince the title of " Shah Kuli Khan. " On Nadir's death the Sind lands of Nur Muhammad became tributary to Ahmad Shah of Kandahar, the transfer being sealed by the bestowal of a new title, "Shah Nawaz Khan." This occurred in 1748, from which date till 1783 when Abdul Nabi, the last of the Kalhora princes, was defeated by Mir Fath ^Ali Khan, and the ruling dynasty forcibly superseded by the Talpiir Baluch chiefs the local history is a mere record of conflicts and reconciliations, treaties and evasions of treaty, as regards out- side powers, and of revolution and bloodshed within. The seat of government had become established at Hyderabad, founded by Ghulam Shah Kalhora in 1768. We now come to the Talpurs. These Baluchis had immigrated to Sind from their native hills under a Mir Shahdad in the early part of the 18th century, and had taken service under Nur Muhammad Kalhora. Shahdad, raised to rank and influence, died, leaving four sons, the third of whom, Mir Bahram, succeeded as head of the tribe. His murder by a grandson of Nur Muhammad was one of the main causes of the ill- feeling which had culminated in bitter hostility when later acts of treachery and barbarism sealed the fate of the tyrant rulers. The Talpurs entered Hyderabad as conquerors ; but unfortunately for the consolidation of their sovereignty the suspicious nature of Mir Fath Ali, the head of the house, alarmed his near relatives. His nephew Sohrab fled to Upper Sind, and founded the principality of Khairpur, while Tcara, moving eastward, became the independent chief of Mirpur. Later on, Mir Fath Ali, undeterred by divisions which he had no power to prevent, admitted to a share of his own government of Hyderabad his three younger brothers, Ghulam Ali, Karm Ali, and Murad Ali. On the death of Fath Ali in 1801 the three continued to rule together ; and when Ghulam Ali was killed in 1811 the duumvirate remained supreme ; but, on the death of Karm Ali in 1828 and Murad Ali a few years later, the old system was revived, and a government of four again instituted. Such was the state of things when British relations with the province had become necessarily an urgent consideration, owing to the Afghan expedition of 1838 (see vol. xii. p. 807). During this crisis of Anglo-Indian history the political officers in Sind and Baluchistan had a difficult task to perform, and it is infinitely to their credit that more mischief did not ensue in these countries from the many and heavy British disasters in the north. But the amirs of Sind were to be dealt with for infractions of treaty if not for open hostility ; and Sir Charles Napier had to call them to account soon after his arrival at Sakhar in the autumn of 1842. The long and complex narrative need not be here repeated. Suffice it to state that the outcome was the conquest of Sind, the immediate result of the battle of Miani, fought in the vicinity of Hyderabad in February 1843. A course of wise, firm, and kindly administration inaugurated by Sir Charles Napier himself, and continued by Messrs Pringle, Frere, Inverarity, Gen. John Jacob, Sir W. Merewether, and later commissioners, has since made the province an important section of the western presidency of India. The story of the eight years' rule of Sir Bartle Frere in Sind has yet to be written, but his name is associated with numerous matters of paramount importance, in relation especially to the position and fortunes of the deposed amirs, the rights and immunities of the old privileged landholders, the organization of municipal insti- tutions, the promotion of systematic education, the due administra- tion of justice, and the erection of public works of utility. See Huphes's Gazetteer of Sind; Burton's History of Sind; Bombay Government Records, Ko. xvii. ; Bombay Educational Report, 1885 ; Annual Report on Ad- ministration of Sind; Report of Director of Public Instruction, Bombay, 1857-58; Birdwood's Handbook to Indian Court, Paris, 1873. (F. J. G.) SINGAN, a form of the name SE-GAN Foo (q.v.). SINGAPORE, a British dependency, commercially and administratively the most important of the STKAITS SETTLEMENTS (q.v.), which form a separate colonial govern- ment. It consists principally of an island 27 miles long by 14 broad, lying off the south end of the Malay Penin- sula, but also includes upwards of 70 insignificant islets Singapore and its Environs. to the south and west within a radius of 10 miles. From the mainland of Johor, as this part of the peninsula is called, Singapore island is separated by a strait, Salat Tabras or Tambrosh, less than half a mile wide at the narrowest point, which was formerly the main channel of navigation to the Chinese seas. The name of Singapore Strait is given to the much wider channel which separates the island on the south from the various islands of Butang, Batang, Bintang, &c., belonging to the Dutch East Indies. The surface of Singapore is undulating, and diversified by hills ranging from 70 to rather less than 400 feet, the highest point being Bukit Timah, to the north-west of the town (about 519 feet). Geologically