580 



MEDIzEVAL HISTORY. 



[Part V. 



ventured to trust to them, began in the fourth and 

 fifth centuries to estabhsh themselves as merchants at 

 Cambay and Surat, at Mangalore, Cahcut, Coulam, and 

 other Malabar ports \ whence they migrated to Ceylon, 

 the government of whicli was remarkable for its tolera- 

 tion of aU religious sects ^, and its hospitable reception 

 of fugitives. 



It is a curious circumstance, related by Beladory, who 

 lived at the court of the Khalif of Bagdad in the ninth 

 century, that an outrage committed by Indian pirates 

 upon some Mahometan ladies, the daughters of traders 

 who had died in Ceylon, and whose families the King 

 Daloopiatissa II., a.d. 700, was sending to their homes 

 in the valley of the Tigris, served as the plea under 

 which Hadjadj, the fanatical governor of Irak, directed 

 the first Mahometan expedition for subjugating the vaUey 

 of the Indus.^ 



From the eighth till the eleventh century the Persians 

 and Arabs continued to exercise the same influence 



^ GiLDEMEiSTEK, Scriptoivs Arahi 

 de Hebifs IncUci's, p. 40. 



~ Edeisi, torn. i. p. 72. 



^ The chief of the Indus was the 

 Buddhist Piiuce Daher, whose 

 capital was at Daybal, near the 

 modern Karachee. The story, as it 

 appears in the IMS. of Beladory in 

 the library of Leyden, has been ex- 

 tracted by Eeinaijd in his FrcifpHms 

 Arahcs et Persans relatifs a Vlnde, 

 No. V. p. 161, with the following- 

 translation : — 



" Sous le gouvernement de Mo- 

 hammed, le roi de I'ile du Rubis 

 (Djezyi-et-Alyacout) offrit a Iladjadj 

 des femmes nmsulmanes qui avaient 

 re9u le jour dans ses etats, et dont 

 les peres, li\Tes a la profession du 

 commerce, etaient morts. Le prince 

 esperait par la gagner I'amitie de 

 Iladjadj ; mais le navire oil Ton 

 avait embarque ces femmes fut at- 

 taque par ime peuplade de race Meyd, 

 des environs de Daybal, qui etait 

 montee sur des barques. Les Meyds 



enleverent le navire avec ce qu'il 

 renfermait. Dans cette extremite, 

 une de ces fennnes de la tribu de 

 Yarl^oua, s'ecria : ' Que n'es-tu la, oh 

 Hadjadj !' Cette nouvelle etant par- 

 venue a Iladjadj, il repondit : ' Me 

 voila.' Aussitot il euvoya im depute 

 a Daher pour I'inviter a faire mettre 

 ces femmes en liberte. Mais Daher 

 repondit : ' Ce sont des pirates qui 

 ont enleve ces femmes, et je n'ai 

 aucune autorite sur les ravisseurs.' 

 Alors Hadjadj engagea Obeyd Allah, 

 fils de Nabhan, a faire une expedition 

 contre Daybal."— P. 100. 



The " Island of Rubies" was the 

 Persian name for Ceylon, and in this 

 particular instance Feeishta con- 

 firms the identical application of these 

 two names, vol. ii. p. 402. See 

 Journal Asiat. vol. xlvi. p. 131, 163 

 Reinatjd, Mem. sur Vlnde, p. 180 

 Relation des Voyages, Disc. p. xli, 

 Aboulfeda, Introcl. vol. i. p 

 ecclxxxv. ; ELrniNSTONE's India, b 

 V. ch. i. p. 260. 



