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OCTOBER, 1875.]
EIGHT ARABIC AND PERSIAN INSCRIPTIONS.
289
EIGHT ARABIC AND PERSIAN INSCRIPTIONS FROM AHMADABAD.
BY H. BLOCHMANN, M.A., CALCUTTA MADRASAH. SHORT time ago, Mr. Burgess sent me times a large town had stood on the bank A eight very excellent photozincographs of the Sabarmati, where now only jungle grew. from rubbings of Ahmad & bad inscriptions, The name of the town had been Bad în båd. of which I now give readings and translations, This town had suddenly disappeared. Ahmad together with a few notes.
Shâh asked whether he might not build a new These inscriptions add somewhat to our know- town on the spot. Khizr said that he might ledge of Gujarati history; but it would be do so; but the foundations would not be safo desirable to have more, and also to obtain a unless four persons of the name of Ahmad complete set of Gujarati coins of the Muham- came together who had never in their life omitmadan period.
ted the afternoon prayer 'asr). Ahmad Shah Inscriptions I and II belong to mosques built searched throughout the whole of Gujarat, but by Ahmad Shah (I.) of Gujarât, who is de- found only two Ahmads that fulfilled the conscribed as the son of Muhammad Shah dition, viz.one Qazi Ahmad and one Malik and grandson of Muzaffar. Muzaffar appears Ahmad. These two the king took to Shaikh to have been a converted Hindû; for Muham- Ahmad Khattû, who then said, 'I am the madan historians generally call him Muzaffar third.' The king said, "Then I am the fourth Tâņk, i.e. Muzaffar of the Tank tribe.. It is Ahmad.' The town was thus founded. When noticeable that his grandson does not style him the walls of the fort had been raised to about a
Shâh'; in fact, only in Inscription V does man's height, the foundations unexpectedly gave he appear with this title. Lik the founder way at one place. The king and the Shaikh inof the Jaunpûr dynasty, he does not seem to spected the locality, when a man whose namo have struck coins. On the other hand, Mu- was Manik Jogi came forward, and said that hammad Shah, Ahmad Shah's father, though the presence of the four Ahmads at the laying styled Shah, has no place in history; but he is of the foundation was not sufficient to secure mentioned in inscriptions and on coins.
the permanence of the undertaking: the place Ahmad Shah, or, according to his full where the fort had been commenced was his name, Nasiruddin Abul Fath Ahmad property, and the fort would not stand without Shah, built Ahmad & bad near the old village his consent. The difficulty was, however, setor town of A śâ wal. The foundation took place tled when the king agreed to call a part of on 7th Zi Qa'dah 813, or 4th March 1411, when Ahmadabad after the name of Manik Jogi. I the presence of the four pious Gujarati Ahmads' No other misfortune befell the rising town. rendered the undertaking auspicious. According Shaikh Ahmad Khattû died in 849 A.H., three to the legendt, the saint Ahmad Khattû years after Ahmad Shih. He lies buried at (so called from the town of Khatta, near Nagor) Sarkhaj, south-west of Almadabad, near the had settled in Gujarat during the reign of Sul- right bank of the river. tân Muzaffar, who held him in great respect. Inscription III belongs to the reign of QutbAhmad Shah, too, often visited the Shaikh, and
uddin Abul Muzaffar Ahmad Shah on one occasion expressed a desire to see the II., often called in histories Qutb Shah. His prophet Khizr (Elias). The Shaikh's prayers
full name is now known. and certain ascetic penances performed by Ah
Inscription IV is from Dastůr Khan's mad Shâh brought about the desired meeting, Mosque-the same as figured in Fergusson's and when the king asked Khizr to tell him some- Architecture of Ahmalábad, plates 86, 87. thing wonderful, the prophet said that in former Malik Ghani Dastûr ul-Mulk (i. e.Vazir of the
Regarding the Tank tribe vide Beames's edition of Elliot's Races of the N. W. P. vol. I. pp. 109, 114; Cunningham, Arch. Reports, vol. II. p. 8; Tod's Rajasthan, vol. I. pp. 103ff. (Mad. ed., p. 94ff.).
+ Vide Ain translation, I. p. 507, where a biographical note will also be found on Mir Abd Turab, whose mau. soleum in Ahmadabad is described by Ferguson, Architecture of Ahmadabad, p. 62.
Hence the Manik Burj, or Månik Bastion, west of Shah Ahmad's Mosque, where the Bhadr touches the Såbarmati; vide the plan of Ahmadábåd in Fergusson's Architecture of Almedaba.
From Hazari Shah's' Mosque, near the Karanj. It is a small building on the plan of the Mandap of a Jina temple with double pillars in front. It has every appearance of having been an appropriation of a Srivak fane.-ED.
