494 H. G. Ravert.y —The Mihrdn of Sind and its Tributaries. [Ex. No. 
If Bakliar had then been an island, and he had the control of the vessels 
on the river as stated, he might have defied all the efforts of the enemy 
as long as food lasted ; while, if it had been at all like what it was when 
Mirza Shah Husain, son of Shall Beg Khan, Arghun, re-built it anew, 
there was not standing room for an enemy’s force, however small, at 
the foot of the walls, and from which position only a few men could 
attack it, at a time when artillery was not in use. The breadth of the 
fortress and the island of Khwajali Kbizr together is but five hundred 
and two yards. 
I may also add, that Sakliar is not noticed in the A’in-i-Akbari, 
although Bakliar, Rurhi, and Aror are. The chief place of the mahdll 
or sub-district of the Bakliar sarJcdr of the subah of Multan, to which it 
belonged, was Bakliar itself. It is also quite certain that when Huma- 
yun Badshah, Akbar Badshah’s father, invested the place for some two 
years, there were not so many islands existing as there are now. 
effected his escape by getting on board a vessel, and made for his strongholds of 
Akar and Bakar, as Rashid-ud-Din, in the Jami’-ut-Tawarikh, writes the names, 
which, he says, were on two jazirahs, which word means both peninsula and island, 
in the Ab-i-Sind. The Jahan-Ivusha’e however, says, that Akar and Bakar were 
tivo fortresses on one island or 'peninsula. 
It will not be amiss now to give some extracts from a few old travellers res¬ 
pecting Bakliar, Sakliar, and Rurhi or Lurhi, and also show a few of the wild theories 
entertained by some modern “ authorities ” on the subject. 
Ibn Batutah is the first eastern traveller that we know of who visited Bakhar, 
the place not having been in existence in the time of the still older ones. He was 
in Sind in 734 H. (1333-31 A.D.), just a century and a quarter after the death of 
Kaba-jah, and sixty-seven years before Amir Timur invaded India. All he says is 
that “ Bakar,” as he writes it, is a handsome city, divided by an arm of the Sind 
river.” Prom thence he went on to Lf ohch h and Multan. 
In the time of Jahan-gir Badshah, about eight or ten years only after the death 
of Mir Ma’sum of Bakhar, Mr. Joseph Salbanke, who made a journey from India 
through Persia and Turkey in 1G09, in the fourth year of that monarch, says ; 
“ Reuree is a towne consisting of husbandmen, and painfull people, who deal also in 
merchandize, as cotton cloth, indico, and other commodoties, and are a peacable 
people to deal withall. 
“ Buckar stands towards Lahor , where we received kind entertainment of the 
Governour. Sword blades are very good chaffer in this towne : my-selfe having 
experience, who might have had ten pounds sterling for my sword, the blade being 
worth a noble in England. Close by this citie of BucJcar runneth the River Damiadee 
[See the old map, page 297, also that at page 321], which within eight days journey 
runneth into the Riuer of Synde, which falletli into the Ocean Sea, between the coun¬ 
treys of Guadel and Gnzerat. On the Riuer passe Barkes of fortie and fiftie Tunnes, 
by means whereof, there is traffique into diuerse parts of India” “ Sucker is situated 
on an Hand [ sic. he appears to have mistaken Sakhar for Bakhar and vice versa, as what 
follows clearly indicates] in the Riuer, and consisteth most of Weauers and Diers, 
