CHAP. II.] INDIAN, AKABIAN, PERSIAN AUTHORITIES. 



381 



ventured to trust to them, began in the fourth and 

 fifth centuries to establish themselves as merchants at 

 Cambay and Surat, at Mangalore, Calicut, Coulam, and 

 other Malabar ports 1 , whence they migrated to Ceylon, 

 the government of which was remarkable for its tolera- 

 tion of all religious sects 2 , 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 

 Dalupiatissa IL, 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 valley 

 of the Indus. 3 



From the eighth till the eleventh century the Persians 

 and Arabs continued to exercise the same influence 



1 GILDEMEISTER, Scriptores Arabi 

 de Rebus Indicia, p. 40. 



2 EDRISI, torn. i. p. 72. 



3 The chief of the Indus was the 

 Buddhist Prince Daher, whose 

 capital was at Daybal, near the 

 modem Kurachee. The story, as it 

 appears in the MS. of Beladory in 

 the library of Leyden, has been ex- 

 tracted by EEINATTD in his FrtuHnau 

 Arabes ct Persons relatifs ft FInde, 

 No. v. p. 161, with the following 

 translation : 



" Sous le gouvernement de Mo- 

 hammed, le roi de 1'ile du Rubis 

 (Djezyret-Alyacout) oflrit a Hadjadj 

 des femmes musulmanes qui avaient 

 1-6511 le jour dans ses e"tats, et dont 

 les peres, livres a la profession du 

 commerce, e"taient morts. Le prince 

 esperait par la gagner 1'amitie" de 

 Hadjadj ; mais le navire on 1'on 

 avail embarque" ces femmes fut at- 

 taque par ime peuplade de race Meyd, 

 des environs de Daybal, qui dtait 

 montee sur des barques. Les Meyds 



enleverent le navire avec ce qu'il 

 renfermait. Dans cette extremite", 

 une de ces femmes de la tribu de 

 Yarboua, s'e"cria : ' Que n'es-tu la, oh 

 Hadjadj ! ' Cette nouvelle e"tant par- 

 venue a Hadjadj, il repondit : ' Me 

 voila.' Aussitot il envoya un depute" 

 a Daher pour 1'inviter a faire mettre 

 ces femmes en liberte. Mais Daher 

 re"pondit : ' 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 Nathan, a faire une expedition 

 contre Daybal." P. 190. 



The Island of Rubies" was the 

 Persian name for Ceylon, and in this 

 particular instance FERISHTA con- 

 firms the identical application of these 

 two names, vol. 11. p. 402. See 

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

 REINATJD, Mem. sur VInde, p. 180 ; 

 Relation des Voyages, Disc. p. xli. 

 AHOULFEDA, Introd. vol. i. p. 

 ccclxxxv. ; ELPHINSTONE'S India, b. 

 v. ch. i. p. 2(>0. 



