264 Abdul Wall— Antiquity and Traditions of ShGhzadpur. [Ho. 3, 
Dumber of his followers, too, were killed by stratagem, in one or other 
of these battles. The lady, who was the sister of the Makhdum Sahib, 
preferred death to dishonour, and is believed to have thrown herself 
into a water-pool and perished. 
A soldier of the enemy, who was concealed, cut off the head of the 
saint, while the latter was deeply engaged in saying his afternoon ( l asr ) 
namaz. The man left at once, with the head, for the raja of the Suba- 
i-Bihar. The head being placed before the king, the latter perceiving 
in it celestial radiance and supernatural calm became very much aston¬ 
ished, and intensely sorry and ashamed at the conduct of the soldier. 
Having summoned the leading Musalmans of Bihar, the head was 
buried with due solemnity and a masjid constructed over the brick- 
tomb. A fair is held every year near the place, ever since. 
At Shahzadpur, on the other hand, the head-less body was depo¬ 
sited into a stone-coffin, and buried by the surviving nephew, Khwaja 
Shah Nur, and his other followers, about ten rasis to the south of the 
mosque. 1 * * 
2.— The Tombs „ 
As stated above, there fell in the struggle a large number of the 
Muslims. The shrine of the Makhdum Sahib “Shahid” (the Martyr) 
being in a low-lying tract, at some distance from the mosque, those who 
used to go there to perform ziyarat had to suffer discomfort or were 
exposed to danger, in wading their way through marshes in the rains, 
and on account of the suakes. The saint appeared to one of the faith¬ 
ful, and directed the coffin to be removed. Accordingly it was buried 
by the side of the mosque. The tombs or graveyards are all on the 
south of the masjid. Besides the shrine of the Makhdum Sahib and 
his nephews, there exist 18 other tombs, viz., the tombs of the 12 
Darvishes, named—(1) Shamsud-d-Din Tabriz!; (2) Shah Yusuf; (8) 
Shah Kheng-sawar; (4) Shah A‘zmat; (5) Hasila-pzr; (6) Shah Bodla; 
(7) Shah Ahmad; (8) Shah Mahmud. The names of the other four are 
not remembered. The names of 6 other aulyci —who settled and died 
subsequently—are (13) Shah Mastan, 8 (14) Shah Habibullah, (15) 
1 lam not informed who the Suba-i-Bihar Raja was. “The lower Gangetic 
Talley, from Bihar downwards, was still [daring the early Muhammadan invasion] 
in parts governed by Pal or Buddhist dynasties, whose names are found from 
Benares to jungle-buried hamlets deep in the Bengal Delta.”— Indian Empire, 
p. 322. Was he a real Raja or a chief of the banditti, who ravaged the country in 
armed bands, like the Maghs and Bargis of the later times ? 
2 Sometimes, in the dark night, it is said, a column of light, brighter far than 
the electricity, is seen ascending up from the astana of “ Shah Mastan ” towards the 
sky, which phenomenon lasts a few minutes. 
