288 Arabic and Persian Inscriptions in the Hugl'i District. [No. 4, 



This inscription is written on two long basalt tablets which 

 are now imbedded in the northern side of Zafar Khan's tomb, 

 in the second enclosure of the Tribeni Astdnah. The second 

 tablet, which commences with the words bi-amril Khan, frc, has 

 been placed by the ignorant masons first, and was pretty correctly 

 deciphered by Mr. D. Money. According to the Kursindmah pre- 

 served by the Mutawallis of Zafar's Tomb, it would appear that 

 Zafar Khan came from Manrganw (jjfrjil* ), in the Parganah 

 Kunwar Partab, Chaklah Murshidabad (Makhc/igabad).* From the 

 above inscription it is clear that his name was Khan Muham- 

 mad, Zafar Khan being his title. Common people, as Mr. Money 

 says, pronounce Darap Khan, an interchange in position of an / 

 and a liquid, as in qicfl (Arabic, a lock) and qui/, the pronuncia- 

 tion current among the people. I heard also people pronounce 

 Bapar. 



The king mentioned in this inscription is Shamsuddin 

 AbulMuzaffar Firuz Shah Sultan. His name is not 

 given in the Tabaqdt i Akbari, nor by Firishtah, who copied from 

 the Tabaqdt. Mr. E. Thomas, the distinguished numismatician, was 

 the first that assigned him his proper place. In his essay on the 

 Initial Coinage of Bengal, which forms the basis of our historical 

 knowledge of the early Muhammadan period of Bengal (Journal, 

 A. S. Bengal, 1867, pp. 1 to 73), Mr. Thomas describes coins 

 struck by this Firuz Shah of Bengal between A. H. 715 and 722 ; 

 another coin perhaps belongs to the year 702. The above inscription 

 mentions 713, and it is clear that Firuz Shah must have then been 

 firmly established in Western Bengal. 



It is remarkable that neither this inscription, nor the coins 

 published by Mr. Thomas (/. c, p. 45), mention the name of the 

 father of Firiiz Shah, or the words ^Ua-L, ^j 5 which are not left 

 out on the coins of Euknuddin Kai Kaus ; and secondly, that the 

 preceding inscription of A. H. 698, mentions no king at all, which 

 agrees with the fact that up to the present time no coins have been 

 found struck by a Bengal king between 695 and 702, i. e. for the 

 beginning of the reign of 'Alauddin of Dihli. 



* I am told, there is a legend still current at Marganw that Ugwan Khan, 

 Zafar's son, defeated Manpat Singh, Rajah of Birbhum. 



