473 



Brief History of Kalat, brought down to the deposition and death of 

 Mehrab Khan, Braho-ee. By Major Robert Leech. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It had been my intention to delay writing on this subject, until I 

 could procure a written history of the Ahmadzyes, which I have rea- 

 son to believe is in existence, and until I could obtain a collection of 

 national ballads from the hereditary Brahoee sha'ars, or min- 

 strels ; but the interest at present felt in every thing relating to Ba- 

 lochisthan, arising from the disturbed, and to many no doubt, inexpli- 

 cable state of affairs in that country, has induced me, perhaps prema- 

 turely, to attempt the task ; and for being able to perform it I am 

 chiefly indebted to a Persian manuscript, drawn up in the summer of 

 1838 at my request, by Myan Sibaghatulla, Sahabzadah of Sarhind, 

 whose family had been settled at Kalat for nearly 50 years. 



Mistakes will no doubt be found to exist, as I have had no oppor- 

 tunity of corroborating the original accounts, but I am confident they 

 will all be found, if any, in the early history, and thus only be liable 

 to mislead the curious antiquary, and not the operative politician. 



Cabool, 1st June, 1841. 



P. S. Myan Sibaghatulla, it must be told, while at Kalat, was a 

 partisan of the wakeel's family. 



The word Kullat, in Arabic, signifies a mountain-top: and the 

 The word Kullat wor( * Kalat, * n Persian, is applied to a fort built on 

 a commanding eminence; in this sense there are 

 three Kalats familiar to the natives of Central Asia; viz. Kalat-i-Nadio 

 to the N. E. of Mushud ; Kalat-i-Ghilzye to the E. N. E. of Candahar ; 

 and Kalat-i-Nasseer, the capital of Balochisthan. In the Balochee 

 language, which is corrupted Persian, Kalat is applied to a fort in ge- 

 neral, and here it is used par excellence as " the fort." 



This fort was formerly known as Kalat-i-Sewa, from a former 



v . . . a Hindoo ruler, by name Sewamal : and his being 



Kalat-i-Sewa. J & 



known by this name militates against the supposi- 

 tion entertained by Pottinger, of Sewa being an hereditary title in the 



