1922,] History and Ethnology of North-Eastern India. 413 
tradition regarding the first conquest of Sylhet. This has 
previously been believed to have taken place in 786 A, ‘. 
though the name Shamsuddin as the reigning King of Bengal 
at the time and the fact that one of the chief participators 
(Shah Jalal) was a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, who died in 
725 A.H., might have suggested to Biochmann that the date 
was erroneous. That the conquest of Sylhet took place in the 
Review in August 1913. Though not a contemporaneous record 
it gives almost certainly (both from the date as well as from 
internal evidence) a truer version of the first invasion of Sylhet 
than local tradition has hitherto supplied us. The inscription 
(Pl. IX) runs as follows :— 
DeR0O Oy) Oye Jia ze ppose (4, plas ze reba 




oiSoe neds Crane | aye set allel i Sy 
cs7' | 31% jy? tals ae yo | sil? wis 
ad aS MRIS) ylec | yt azleage y dS bie 
Le yes | Boys SO y y3y whylalf oma | sais 
8576 (oySs) USaryt gy 65 jle 9 | ols 5 self is ei, : 
~Kilomady phe g vied aie sliol Slay | Gaile abel, 
“In honour of the greatness of the respected Shaikhu-l- 
Mushaikh (?) Shaikh Jalal, the hermit, son of Muhammad. oo 
“The first conquest by Islam of the town Arsah Sri a 
was by the hand of Sikandar Khan Ghazi in the time of Sultan 
Firtiiz Shah Defhijlavi in the year 703. es 
“This building (has been erected by) Ruka Khan, = sre 
queror of Hasht Gamhariyan, who being Wazir and cna 
for many months at the time of the conquest of Kamrt, art ~ 
Jaznagar and Urisha, served in the army in several places - 
the train of the King. (Written) in the year 918. tion is 
The excellent state of preservation of this SCA shi a 
due to the fact that (like the inscription of Shamsuddin ie 
Shah’s son, Hatim Khan, of 715), the back was ate tant 
considerations :— ee 
(1) Sultan Firaz Shah was actually om the throne of 
Bengal in 703 A.H. ears. t 
(2) As the grandson of Ghiyaguddin Balban oat 
called Dehlawi (cf. also the connexion of Firuz 5h 
Dehli in the Satganw tradition). 
