1875.] H. Blochmann — History and Geography of Bengal. — No. III. 279 



the source of Major Raverty's information. But any one that lias worked 

 for six months among Indian coins, will reject the legend as unnumismatic. 

 The same must be said of Major Raverty's inscription on the coinage of 

 A'ram Shah, Aibak's son.* 



The Turkish word ^T ai, ' a moon', occurs also in other names of 

 Indian history ; but the oldest dictionaries give the pronunciation e. 

 Thus in Ai-tigin or E'-tigin, and Ai-lititimish, the emperor " Altamsh", 

 the shortened Indian spelling and pronunciation of whose name has been 

 proved by metrical passages, inscriptions, and good MSS., to be E'ltitmish, 

 Iltitmish, E'ltimish, and E'litmish. I look upon Major Raverty's spelling 

 ' I-yal-timish ' as behind modern research.! 



Tbe next point which claims our attention is the name of the Muham- 

 madan conqueror of Bengal. The only thing we knew hitherto (and I 

 believe it is all we know now) is that the conqueror of Bengal was called 



Muhammad Bakhtyar, 

 and that the name of his paternal uncle was 



Muhammad Mahmud. 



The names of these two persons Major Raverty breaks up, by intro- 

 ducing an artificial izafat, or sign of the genitive, into four names, viz. 

 Muhammad-i-Bakhtyar, and Muhammad-i-Mahmud. This would give, if 

 correct, the following genealogical tree — 



Mahmtid 



1. Bakhtyar 2. Muhammad 



Muhammad 

 (conqueror of Bengal.) 



* It is odd that the printer's devil should have left his mark on Major Baverty's 

 legend of A'ram Shah's pseudo-com ; the devil has hdzd Id dirham, Sec, and I agree with 

 him. 



I take this opportunity to justify Abul-Fazl. Major Baverty says (p. 529) — " Abid- 

 Fazl makes the astonishing statement that A'ram Shah was Qutbuddin's brother .'" 

 Abul-Fazl states twice and distinctly that A'ram Shah was Aibak's son ; vide my A'in 

 text, pp. ar • and $rr. 



f Major Baverty introduces dangerous innovations in other names. I only speak 

 of names that occur in pp. 500 to 600. On page 577, he speaks of a " Salar [a leader, 

 chief] Zaffir." This should be ' Salar Zafar', where Salar belongs to the name. 

 "Zaffir" is not used in names. He calls the town of Kalpi " Kalbi" ; Guhram, "Kuh- 

 ram" ; Badaon, "Buda'un"; Sarsuti, " Sursuti" ; Siwistan, " Siwasti'm" ; Juniada, 

 "Jamadi"; Shaikh-ul-'A'rifin, " Shaikh-ul-'A'rifain" ; Tazkirah, " Tazkarah" ; Abu 

 Bakr, "Abti Bikr" ; shajarah, " shajirah" ; Siraj, " Saraj" ; Dinajpiir, "Dinjapur" ; 

 "Waina-Ganga, " "Wana-G-anga" ; Godawari, " GudawCiri" ; Baisin, "Basin"; Chutiya 

 Nagptir, " Chhotah Nagpiir" ; A'cjaf, " A'cif" ; Jharkhand, " Jbarkundah" ; Kai-amnasa, 

 " Karmahnasah" ; Bikrampur, " Bikrampur" ; Dak'liin, " Dak'han". 



