1841.] Of the early History of Sindh. 1 89 



or any authority over the robbers who had committed it. Hijjaj gained 

 the Khalifs permission to send an officer named Buzeel to Mukran, 

 where he was instructed to levy troops, and attack Sindh. Dahir 

 Buzeel killed. sent his son Jaiseh, who defeated BuzeeVs forces, 

 killed him, and took many prisoners. In the mean time the Khalif 

 h. 92 a. d. 710. died, and was succeeded by his son Wulleed, {Bin Ab- 

 doul Mulk) ; Hijjaj urged him to renew the war, and to send a force 

 under Mahomed Bin Cassim, (a cousin of Hijjaj,) to release the faith- 

 ful, and punish the unbelievers, as his father, the former Khalif, had 



Bin Cassim appoint- intended to have done. The Khalif Wulleed gave 



ed to command the .... 



army. the necessary orders to Hijjaj for the preparation 



and equipment of a force from the public treasury. In one month he 

 collected an army of 15,000 men, 6,000 of whom were horse, 6000 

 mounted on camels, and 3,000 foot, with 30,000 dinars for expenses ; 

 five catapultas for levelling forts were dispatched in boats. Bin Cassim 

 Arrives at Deebul. marched, and arrived at the fort ofDeehul, to conquer 

 Sindh, in the year 92 h. (a. d. 710.) Jaiseh, the son of Dahir, was 

 at that time governor of the fort of Nierunkote* and sent intelligence 

 of the arrival of the Mahomedan army to his father at Alor ; Dahir 

 asked advice of the Ullafees, (a tribe which he had sheltered after an 

 outrage which they had committed on some of the deputies of Hijjaj); 

 they counselled him to avoid meeting the powerful army of Bin Cas- 

 Takes Deebul. sim, and to entrench himself in the fort of Alor. Bin 

 Cassim took the fort of Deebul, in which was a large Hindoo temple, so 

 sacred, f that it was supposed to act as a talisman, and to prevent the 

 capture of the fort. Bin Cassim threw it down with a catapulta, des- 

 troyed the temples of the idolaters, building musjeeds on their sites, re- 

 leased the prisoners of the Faithful who were confined there, and putting 

 his material on board boats, proceeded to Nierunkote. After a diffi- 

 cult journey of seven days, the roads being blockaded by the Sindians, 

 and the troops of Bin Cassim's army suffering much from drought, 

 owing to the river not swelling,^ the army of the Faithful arrived 

 before the fort of Nierunkote, the governor of which was Sumnee, 

 who had succeeded the son of Dahir {Jaiseh,) in consequence of the 



* Near the modern city of Hyderabad, see Capt. McMurdo's paper on Sindh. 

 f Hence its name from the Hindoo, for a temple, Deebul or Deewul. 

 X The Mahomedan army joined in prayer for relief from this calamity; their 

 supplications were answered by a plentiful fall of rain and a swell of the river. 



