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MUHAMMADAN INSCRIPTIONS FROM BENGAL.
295
TRANSLATION. Metre: Hazaj
By God's grace (it was) in the time of the most noble king Mahmud, the sincere monarch, when this fine mosque, whose first builder was Jalil al Raqa, one of the confidential chiefs, was rebuilt and newly adorned by Hammad Khåțir. .......
It was in 798 A. H. (began the 16th October 1395). Preserve its foundation in security, O God.'
This and the Mahmud Shah inscription of A. H. 799 (Journ. of As. Soc. Beng. vol. XLII, p. 304), are valuable, because they show that Nusrat Khân, the opposing king, who was advanced as a claimant to the throne by Sa'adat Khân A.H. 797, was not acknowledged in Bihår. It is not easy to form a correct picture of the complicated conditions then existing in the empire. Khwaja- i Jahan (Malik ashsharq Khroája-i Sarái), the founder of the Jaunpûr kingdom, had got into his possession the provinces of Qanauj, Karah, Audh, Sandela, Dalamau, Bahraich, Bihar, and Jaunpar; the emperor Mahmûd was confined for some years only to old Dibli, the fortress of Siri, and the Jåhånpanah, while the districts of the Doâb, of Sambhal, Pânîpat, Jhajhar and Rohtak were occupied by Nusrat Khân, viz., Sultan Naşiraddin, who had his residence at FirôzAbåd. Other provinces perpetually changed their masters, ambitious amérs and maliks, who combatted each other angrily. The harvest was fully ripe for the bloody reaper Timur.
26. Three lines (size 5'9" by 1 4") -
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله وسيق الذين اتقوا ربهم إلى الجنة زمرا حتى اذا جاها رفتحت أبوابها وقال لهم خزنتها سلام عليكم طبتم ودخلوها خالدين
ساكنا بعزله قلبي
كان تنت في فكر ممن هذا الباب
ل من تله كان امينة
طريق الأمر قال بمقلي على
رری رفعت نهاد [ بر اتمام ]
شاه چون در روضة مقدس
خردم بهر این خجسته مقام از خرد جستم سال انجامش
در دولت. کشازده باد درام ] کشودة ركفتا بدعا لب
• TRANSLATION. There is no God, etc. But those who fear their Lord, etc. (Qoran, Sur. xxxix,
73).
Metre: Ramal
I was thinking to make out the chronogram of this gate, my heart was quiet by His (God's) power. My mind said by way of command "say, who entered it was safe." Metre: Khafif -
When the gate of the holy sepulchre of the king raised its face towards completion, I asked the mind the year of its finishing. For this auspicious place the mind opened the lip of blessing, and said, "may the door of power remain open for ever."
