32. The Date of the Death of Shah Beg Arghun, the 



ruler of Sind. 



By H, Beveridge. 



It is curious that there should be any doubt about the 

 exact date of Shah Beg's death for he was a distinguished man, 

 a conqueror and a man of letters, and his death occurred in a 

 well-known part of Sind and so late as the first quarter of the 

 sixteenth century. But there is a conflict, and one that 

 extends to years, and not to days and months, for Ferishta 

 and Erskine say he died in 1524 (930 a.h.), whereas the local 

 historians, and Elliot (vol. I, Appendix 502), and Aitken in the 

 new Gazetteer of Sind, hold that he died in 1522 (928 a.h.) 



On looking into the sources we find that the earliest 

 authority for the date 1524 is Nizamu-d-dln Ahmad in his 

 tabaqat Akbarl. Near the end of his history he has a chapter 

 on Sind, and at p. 637 of the Newal Kishore edition he gives 

 the date of the death as 930. He does not mention where 

 it took place. His history was completed in 1594 (1003 a.h.), 

 Elliot V, 183, and is thus a few years earlier than the work 

 of Mir M'asum Bhakharl, the local historian of Sind, which 

 was completed in 1600 But Mir M'asum had long meditated 

 his history, and had collected materials for it for several years, 

 though he only finished it in his old age. He was Nizamu-d- 

 dln's contemporary and assisted him in writing his history. 

 See the Maasiru-1-Umara which speaks, vol. Ill, 327, of the 

 association of the two men. Nizamu-d-din Ahmad also mentions 

 in his preface the Tarikh Sind as one of his sources, and this 

 can hardly be any other book than M'asum's. It follows that 

 as regards date of information M'asum is as good an authority 

 as Nizamu-d-dln, and he had a far better opportunity of 

 knowing the truth, for his forefathers had been for some gene- 

 rations in Qandahar, and he himself was born and bred in 

 Bhakkar. He is also far more circumstantial than Nizamu-d- 

 din for he gives Shah Beg's last words, ani he tells us where 

 he died, and gives the day and the month as well as the year, 

 and adds a chronogram. 



Ferishta, it is true, gives 930 a.h. as the date, but his 

 statement adds nothing to the authority of Nizamu-d-din for 

 he merely copies him, and is equally vague about the place 

 and date of the death. He is also a later writer than M'asum. 

 Elliot is clear for 928 (1522), saying " under these conflicting 

 evidences, we may rest assured that the chronogram is correct, 

 and that Shah Beg Arghun, the conqueror of Sind, died at 



