232 H. G. Raverty —The Mihran of Sind and its Tributaries. [No. 4, 
capitulated. Proceeding north-eastwards, he came to a river which 
flows on this [the west] side of the Mihran, 184 which he crossed, and then 
took a place called Sahban [Sisam of the Chach Namah, and Salim of 
others], after which he moved to the banks of the Mihran. His object 
was to attack Bahman-abad, the place of greatest importance in that part 
of Sind ; but, before doing so, he had to detach part of his force to recover 
possession of Siw-istan, which had previously been surrendered to him, 
but which had now revolted, the exact situation of which, with Bahman- 
abad, and Aror, or Alor, there is no possible doubt about. His detaching 
this force, as he did, clearly shows, that, at that time, the Mihran of 
Sind or Great Mihran, as some of the old writers call it, did not flow 
even so near to Siw-istan or Sadusan, as it did when the Masalik wa 
Mamalik and Ibn Haukal’s work were written, some two hundred years 
after these events ; for, according to the maps in those works, the river 
appears to have still passed some distance east of it. 185 Had this not 
When Ra’e Dahir heard of the fall of Debal, he made light of it, saying that it 
was “a place merely inhabited by low people and traders ; and he directed his son, 
Jai Sinha, to leave a Samani [Priest] there in charge, and repair himself to old 
Bahman-abad.” Nirun was surrendered to the ’Arabs by the Samani in ques¬ 
tion. 
The Chach Namah states, that, “ in the night following tbe fall of Debal, one 
Jahin, by name, got his women over the walls, and on arriving outside, found horses 
and a dromedary waiting them, which had been sent by Ra’e Dahir, and mounting at 
once, pushed on until they reached a cutting or small channel of the Mihran, which 
they call Gar Mitti [Gar Mitti] on the east side of the Mihran. From thence Jahin 
sent an elephant to convey tbe news of the fall of Debal to Dahir, who enquired 
what village Jahin had reached ; and he was told that “ he had reached “ Gar 
Mitti,” that is to say “ Kul-i-Shor” [village of Misfortune or Calamity”]. 
184 This may refer to the western branch of the Mihran of Sind, which, near 
Kalari, some forty miles above Bahman-abad, turned to the north-westwards, and 
then south again, but more probably refers to one of the old channels from the 
Sindhu or A'b-i-Sind, which flowed between Siw-istan and Bahman-abad, noticed 
farther on. According to the Chach Namah this river was called the Kunbh. 
185 After halting some days at Nirun and suffering for want of forage, that place 
was given up, and Muhammad, leaving a Shahnah or Commissioner there, moved 
towards “ the fortress of Siw-istan, situated to the west of the Mihran on the sum¬ 
mit of a hill.” He determined that he would reduce this stronghold first, and 
having set his heart at rest respecting that part of Sind, on his return from thence 
he would make preparations for crossing that river, and attacking Dahir. Elliot 
has “re-cross” but as he had not crossed it, he needed not to re-cross. 
I may mention here, that the Chach Namah, which is taken from ’Arabic annals, 
containing the statements of persons who were present along with the Amir, ’Imad- 
ud-Din, Muhammad, son of Kasim, and who had related the events to their 
descendants some years only after they occurred, was translated in the reign of 
Sultan Nasir-ud-Din, Iyaba-jah, nearly four hundred years after the Balazari wrote 
his work, just one hundred and thirty-five years after the invasion of Sind. The 
