Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 6.djvu/14

INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF SIND. of their religion or their general condition at that period, no historic record exists. Alexander's expedition, against Oxycanas and Sambus found their people brave and warlike; and though the Greek forces overawed the tribes on the Indus generahy, they gave proof of high valour on many occasions.

From the period of the passage of the Greeks down the Indus to the sea, early in the third century before Christ, to that of the first Mahomedan invasion of Sind, there is no historic record. A thousand years of absolute historic darkness envelopes the land. It is probable that Hindoo, Kshettrya or Rajpoot dynasties, succeeded each other there as they did elsewhere in India, and that there were many revolutions and changes in ruling families; possibly, also, there may have been further Persian invasions; but they left no material trace, and it fell to the lot of the followers of the new sect of Mahomed to overrun and convert to their own faith the people of the wild countries, lying to the east and north-east of Arabia and Persia. The seat of government of the Ommiad Caliphs was fixed at Bagdad, and from thence their power was extended gradually along the shores of the Persian Gulf towards Sind. The Mahomedan historian of Sind, Mahomed Masooui, whose valuable history has been translated by Major Malet, and published in the Records of the Bombay Government sets forth that during the Caliphate of Abdool Mullik, some of the royal servants were dispatced to Sind to purchase female slaves and products of that country; and that on their route homewards they were attacked, and many of them slain. Some time afterwards, Hujjaj, the Caliph's Viceroy at Bussora, dispatched spies, with a firman, to the Hindoo King of Sind, with directions to ascertain the state of the country. They were well received by Rajah Dahir, the son of Pajah Chuk, and returned to their master, bringing the information he required. Hujjaj now proposed to the Caliph to invade Sind: and permission having been granted, a force of 15,000 men—6,000 horse, 6,000 on camels, and 3,000 foot—were dispatched under the command of his nephew, Mahomed Kasim, in 710.

This invasion of Sind proved entirely successful. Kasim carried all before him in Lower and Central Sind; and, in a last attempt to check the invader before Alore, then the capital of all Sind, the Pajah Dahir was slain, and the royal fort and city soon after submitted. This battle was fought on the 10 Rumzan, 93—. 711. The whole of the treasures of the Hindoo kingdom fell into the hands of the young conqueror, and in a short time the tribes of the country appeared before him, and made their submission. The Mahomedans then persued their conquest as far as Mooltan. A tragic fate, however, awaited the young Mahomedan general. He had dispatched two beautiful daughters of the Rajah Dahir to the Caliph, and on their arrival, one of them denounced Kasim as haivng violated her before she left Sind. The enraged Caliph at once crediting her tale, a rote an order for Kasim to be sewn up in a raw cow's hide and