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430
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA. not take into account the Dihlt inscriptions from the years 587 (E. Thomas, The Chronicles of the Pathán Kings of Dehli, p. 22 or Journal Asiatique, V série, vol. XVI (1860), p. 274) and of 592 (E. Thomas, Chronicles, p. 24, and Jour. Asiat., p. 240), we have here the oldest dated Muhammadan one in India, viz. of 593 (of the same year is also a Dihli inscription,-see Jour. Asiat. u.8. p. 240). Shaikh Ni'mat Ullah's tomb has no original inscription relating to this pious man, and is a remnant of even an older period for the saint in 559 A.H. became a martyr in Sultan Shihab uddin Ghöri's attack upon the fort of Hånsi (see Mr. Garrick's Report, p. 13). Not a few inscriptions evidently are also very old, but they bear no dates.
8. The rectangular sandstone, with the following inscription of one line, measuring 4' 11" by 6", serves now as a lintel to the doorway of the third enclosure of Shaikh Ni'mat Ullah's tomb. Formerly it belonged to a mosque built by 'Ali, son of Isfandiyar; it is of the 5th year of Muhammad ibn Sam's reign :
ماية
امر ببنا هذ المسجد العبد علي بن اسفندیار في عشر ذي الحجة سنه ثلث وتسعين وخمس
“This mosque was ordered to be built by the slave (of God) Ali, son of Isfandiyar on the 10th Zil Hijja, 593 (24th October, 1197).”
9. The masjid walls of the second enclosure of Shaikh Ni'mat Ullah's tomb contain also other inscriptions that originally had nothing to do with it. Into the outer western wall & rectangular light-coloured sandstone has been built horizontally, bearing one line (size 3' by 1), and mentioning the monarch's name under whose rule the inscription falls. Originally it was the jamb of a door. It is frightfully decayed, but the following is quite legible :
ابر المظفر محمد بن سام ناصر امیرالمومنین ...
“[Abu'll Muzaffar Muhammad, son of Så m, the helper of the Khalif of the faithful."
The other jamb contains also one line (measuring 3' 7}" by 11"); the lintel has not been found :
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم من بنا لله مسجدا في الدنيا بنا [الله له قصرا في الجنة ......
"In the name of the merciful and compassionate God! Who builds a mosque in this world for God, God will build for him a castle in paradise......"
Other inscriptions from Muhammad ibn Sam's reign, besides the above-mentioned Dihli ones, have been published by E. Thomas in his Chronicles of the Pathán Kings, pp. 24 (A.A. 594) and 25 (A.H. 596).
Of no historical value are the inscriptions over the doorway inside (l' by 11"), only a fragment, in large characters, containing two words, being a part of a king's title
1.1: over the northern window in the outer wall (% 5" by 31"), the first half of Qorán, Sara ü, verse 215–, and in the northern inside wall (1' 7" by 6'), a fragment,
lly airy wolwe dla small (Qorán, Sara ix, verse 9). But there is no reference to the age of all.
10. South-east of the town, about 150 yards from the walls, is the tomb of the four Qutb or Saints (cf. Mr. Garrick's Report, p. 14, and plate vii). In the wall of the
