1875.] H. G. Raverty— Who were the Pathifn Sultans of Dihli? 37 



The ' Masalik ul-Mamalik' states that " the Khalj are a tribe of 

 Turks, which in former days — this work was written long before the time 

 of Mahmud of Ghazni — settled in Garmsir, between Sijistan'and the region 

 of Hind. They are in appearance and dress like Turks, and observe the 

 customs of that race, and all speak the Turki language." The same work 

 also states in two or three places, that there is a town called Khalj in that 

 part ; and in the account of Jaj, also Chaj, of Mawar-an-Nahr says that it 

 is a populous and nourishing city, the people of which are Ghuzz and Khalj, 

 all Musahnans of the sect of Ghazi. 



The Ghalzis, so called after the illicit son of the tradition of Bibi 

 Matu and Shah Husain, have no tribe, subdivision, or family among them 

 styled either " Lodi" or " Sur" ; but two other sons were born to Bibi 

 Matu, one of whom was named Ibrahim, who is surnamed Lo-e-daey, signi- 

 fying in the Afghan language " (he) is great or elder", respecting which 

 name a tradition is attached which need not be related here. It has been 

 corrupted or rather shortened, into Lodi and Ludi, and Ibrahim is the 

 progenitor of the Ludi tribe. From him sprung two sons, one of whom, 

 named Siani, had two sons, Pranki and Isma'il. Pranki is the ancestor, 

 eight generations back, of Buhlul, of the Shahu Khel, a clan of the Ludi 

 tribe, who, according to the authors I have been quoting, and as all educat- 

 ed Afghans themselves will affirm, was the first of the race of 'Abd-ur-Ra- 

 shid Patan that attained sovereign power. He is the founder of the 

 Ludiah dynasty, but the thirtieth ruler of Dihli, counting from Kutb-ud- 

 din, the Turkish slave of the Tajik Sultan Mu'izz-ud-din Muhammad, 

 son of Baha-ud-din Sam Ghuri. 



From Isma'il, brother of Pranki and son of Siani, son of Ludi, sprung 

 two sons, one of whom was named Sur, who had four sons, from one of 

 whom, Tunas by name, in the ninth generation, descended Farid, after- 

 wards Sher Shah, who dethroned the second Mughul emperor Humayun, 

 and was the first of the Sur division of the Ludi tribe who attained sover- 

 eignty ; and Ahmad Khan, son of Saidu, afterwards Sultan Sikandar, his 

 kinsman, was the last of the Afghan or Patau dynasty. The name Sur 

 appears to have struck those who were in search of a mare's-nest, and they 

 at once jumped at the conclusion, that, as Suri was the name of one of the 

 Tajik chiefs of Ghur, and Ghur lay near the tract then occupied by the 

 Afghans, ihe Ghuris must be Afghans or Patans and the Afghans Ghuris, 

 and so this error has been handed down from one writer to another 

 up to this present day. Although Firishtah falls into error in supposing 

 Suri and Sur to be the same name and to refer to the same person, he never 

 turns Ghuris and Turks into Afghans or Patans. 



One example more and I have done. At page 197, Vol. 2, Dow, 

 under the reign of Ibrahim Sur, says: "In the mean time, Muhammad 



