Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 6.djvu/15

INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF SIND. sent to him. This savage order was literally obeyed. When his body reached the Caliph it was shown to the Hindoo princesses, who then confessed that they had made a false accusation in revenge for their father's death, and they did not wish to live. They were then tied together by their hair, and dragged through the city till they died. As Ferishta, and other Mahomedan authors of repute, confirm this horrible tale, the facts may be accepted as characteristic of the times. The event of the conquest of Sind, and subjection of its Hindoo monarchy, becomes especially interesting, as marking the exact period of the first Mahomedan invasion of, and settlement in, India.

To the Ommiad Caliphs, the Abbaside Caliphs succeeded, and held Sind till 1025, when Ul Khadir Billa, the Caliph's Viceroy, was obliged to surrender it to Sultan Mahmood of Ghuzni. In the confusion which ensued after his death, a Rajpoot tribe of Sind, called Soomrah or Soomera, established themselves in 1054, and maintained their position till overthrown by the Sammahs, another Rajpoot tribe, in  1315. The Hindoos were, however, obliged to pay tribute to the Moslem Kings of Kandahar. This local government of Hindoos seems to have been disturbed in 1224–5, when the King of Delhi, having wrested the province from Nasur-ood-deen Kubbacha, who held it on behalf of Kandahar, annexed it to Delhi, and it continued in this condition till  1336, when a chief of the Soomera Rajpoots, or possibly the old rulers, the Sammahs, re-established themselves, and assumed the title of "Jam." The Emperors of Delhi had, however, by no means abandoned their claims to the sovereignty of Sind, and in 1360 the province was invaded by the Emperor Mahomed Toghluk in person, who took the reigning prince. Jam Bany, to Delhi, whence he was honourably dismissed, under an engagement to pay tribute. About 1380, the reigning Jam of Sind became a Mahomedan; but retaining their local title, the family continued to reign till 1519–20, when the last prince was dethroned by Shah Beg Arghoon, prince of Kandahar. Thus a new Mahomaedan dynasty commenced, which maintained its position against the recently established Mogul dynasty of Delhi, and having taken Mooltan, deposed the king of the "Lunga" dynasty, and annexed his dominions to Sind.

In the year 1543, the province was invaded by Hoomayoon, Emperor of Delhi, when Shah Hussein Arghoon, the son of Shah Beg, was drowned in the Indus, and having left no issue, the Arghoon family became extinct. After two years of confusion, the Toorkhans, local chiefs in the services of the late king, took possession of Sind, but could not maintain their footing against the imperial power, and the province was once more annexed to Delhi. The Toorkhans were, however, permitted by the Emperor Akbur to remain in possession of the local government, which they continued to hold; but shortly before the invasion of Nadir Shah, in 1739, the Toorkhans had been subverted by the Kuloras, a Sind