198 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVI, 
Manghar and Kanji, I have ventured to draw attention to the 
necessity and importance of studying the orthographic tradi- 
tion in regard to Mughal mint-names. I beg permission to 
point out to-day that the name of the place where Akbar was 
born is never spelt Amirkot with an (>. It is always written 
Se! or S950! Amarkot or Amarkot, by every one of the 
Mughal chroniclers whose works are cited below. (Badaoni. 
Muntakhabu-t-Tawarikh, Bibl. Ind. Text, I, p. 440, 1. 9; p. 
442, 1. 2; Tabagqat-i- -Akbari, Lakhnau Lithograph, p. 206, 1. 
3B, 207, ll. 8, 13; Abul Fazl, Ain. Bibl. Ind. Text, I, p. 508, 
1.2; p. 557, 1. 10; p. 558 ; Col. 2, 1.3; Il, p. 32; Col. 2 oe 
Akbarnama, Ibid. I, p. 18, 1. 19; p. 23, 16. p. 25.1 
182, 1.3; p. 184, I. 25 ; LiL, p, 602, 1. 9 p. 605, 1. 22; We. 
1. 10: Iqbalnama, 274, 1. Pe ‘Abdul Hamid Lahori, Badishah- 
nama, Ibid. I, i, p. 66, Ea ; Khafi Khan. Muntakhabu- 1-Lubab, 
Ibid. I, p. 127, 3.5 ” Madatrut. Umara, Ibid. I, p. 467, 1. 6; p. 
711, 114 p. 829, 1. 4; II, p. 387, 1.7; TIL, p. 312, 1. 5.) 
he local pronunciation appears to be ‘Umarkot or Amat- 
ko t oO A.S.B., 1886, Pt. i, 83-84). ‘The town of Umarkot,” 
writes the compiler of the Imperial Gadsttost, ‘‘is said to 
have been founded by one Umar, a chief of ho Sumra tribe. 
but at what date is not known’! (XXIV, 118). The name 
of the eponymous founder is aheays spelt by the Musalman 
author of a provincial history called the Tartkh-i-Tahiri 
with an ‘ain (ec ), and in allusion to his supposed namesake 
the Khalifa ‘Umar, wa is ae iecterpee of as “ this chief- 
tain unworthy of his sacred name that tyrant mis- 
named ‘ Umar.” (B.D. , 260, 263 anid sistent. For the same 
reason and under the iene of the popular etymology, the 
name of the town is written o,f or by him and by the anony- 
200), author of the Beglarnama ? (Ibid. 260, 292, 296, 297, 
Hindostan (Ed. 1812), II, 137, Hamilton, =e India pose (1818); 
a ig wart, Memoirs of Humayiin (1832), 3 8, 42, 44, and Erskine, 
istory of Baber and Humayiin (1854), IT, fog 255. ao Anglo-Indian 
transliteration was in those nite most ‘lawless and erratic. Briggs 
(Translation of of hogy Reprint, II, 95) has 2 weir Malet (History 
(Reprint 1373, > aah ct Forbes es Mala, 1856), Oomurkot 
: rnton azetteer, Ne BE 
neue = Omercote, or reserrp oth OP pepe 
Literary — of — ay ev 1875), Vo. TI, 
: go Ftidel mene Ghiri ma ‘oleae Sumra a tne 
porary of Alauddin Khilji who is said to =e ave conquered his country 
and taken him prisoner, Elliot and Dowson, I, 265-6. Akbar’s peire the 
