1904.] 
W. Haig —Some Notes on the Bahmani Dynasty. 
7 
call him Muhammad. In the second place he is contradicted by an 
inscription, dated A.H. 892, on the Muhammadi gate of the fortress of 
Narnala in Berar, in which Shahabu-d-din Mahmud Shah, the fourteenth 
king of the Bahmani dynasty is described as “ the son of Sultan Muham¬ 
mad, the son of Sultan Humayun, the son of Sultan Ahmad, the son 
of Sultan Muhammad.” The inscription is not necessarily a better 
authority than Firishta, and the account of Shahabu-d-din Mahmud’s 
descent which it gives is unquestionably wrong, but the Sultan Muham¬ 
mad to whom the descent is traced was evidently the fifth king of the 
Bahmani dynasty, so that in this respect the inscription corroborates 
the mass of evidence against Firishta. Finally we have the evidence 
of the coins. All the known coins of the fifth king of the Bahmani 
dynasty bear the name Muhammad. None bears the name Mahmud. 
This fact alone is sufficient to decide the question. Even Firishta 
would have hesitated to assert that the officials of the mint did not 
know the name of the king whom they served. 
It is, however, worth while to consider a possible source of Firishta’s 
error. He may have seen this Sultan mentioned in some inscription, 
sanad, or other authentic document by his name Nasiru-d-din followed 
by his father’s name, thus :— Nasiru-d-din-i-Mahmud , the izafat, which 
would be omitted in Persian script, denoting the patronymic. Similar 
errors in nomenclature have occurred. Thus, the Arab conqueror of 
Sindh, Muhammad-i-Qasim or Muhammad hin Qasim, has been styled 
b J historians who should have known better, “Muhammad Qasim,” as 
though Qasim were his own name instead of being his father’s. 
(5) The Offspring of Muhammad II. 
The fifth king had two sons. Sultan Gfhivasu-d-din Muhammad, 
or Bahman 1 and Sultan Shamsu-d-din Da’ud. The former succeeded 
him at the age of 17, according to Firishta, 2 or 12 according to the 
author of the Burhan-i-Ma’asir, z and was deposed and blinded after 
a reign of little more than a month. His younger brother Shamsu- 
d-din was then placed on the throne, at the age of 15, according to 
Firishta, 4 or 6, according to the author of the Burhan-i-Ma’cisir . 6 
His reign lasted, according to Nizamu-d-din Ahmad 6 and Firishta 7 
fifty-seven days, and according to the author of the Burhan-i-Ma’asir 8 
five mouths and seven days. The discrepancy may be due to a misread- 
ing. 
1 King, p. 34, 4 Firishta, i. 583. 7 Firishta, i. 586. 
2 Frishta, i. 581. 6 King, p. 35. 8 king, p. 36, 
8 King, p. 34. 8 Tabaqut-i-AJcbari, 411. 
