256 H. Blochmann —Geography and History of Bengal. [No. 3, 
Regarding the coinage of Ilyas Shah, vide Thomas, Initial Coinage of 
Bengal, Journal, As. Soc. Bengal, 1867, pp. 57, 58. 
V. Abul Muja'hid Sikandar Sha'h. 
Ilyas Shah was succeeded by his eldest son Sikandar Shah. The begin¬ 
ning of his reign was marked by a second attempt* * * § made by Firuz Shah to 
annex Bengal; but as in the first, Ekdalah held out, and Firuz returned to 
Dihli, and never again interfered in Bengal matters. 
‘ In 766,’ says the Riyaz,f £ Sikandar commenced to build the Adinah 
\i. e. Friday] Mosque; but he had not finished it when he died, and the 
building remained half completed, and now-a-days parts of the edifice may 
be seen in the jungle near Panduah, about a kos from it. I have seen it 
myself: it is, indeed, a fine mosque and must have cost a great deal of 
money. May Sikandar’s efforts be thankfully remembered !’ 
According to the same author, Sikandar Shah died after a reign of nine 
years and some months—a statement also given in the Tabaqat—of wounds 
which he had received ‘ on the field of Goalparah,’ fighting with his favourite 
son Ghiyas, whom the machinations of a jealous step-mother had driven into 
rebellion.]; 
* Sikandar was the contemporary of the revered saint ’Alaul Flaq.’ 
Several inscriptions belonging to Sikandar’s reign have been found. 
One of the year 765, from Dinajpur, was published by me in the Journal for 
1872, p. 105. I remarked there on the beauty of its characters ;§ but the in¬ 
scriptions inside and outside the Adinah Mosque, rubbings of which the Society 
owes to General Cunningham and Mr. W. L. Heeley, are the finest that I 
have seen. The characters are beautiful, and the rubbings have created 
sensation wherever I have shewn them. The inscription inside is 13|-ft. long 
and 1-d ft. broad, but contains only verses from the Qoran [Sur. IX, 18,19], 
on the top in Kufic and below in (what people call now-a-days in India) 
* In 760, according to tlie Tabaqat andtbe Riyazj Stewart has 761. Regarding 
Firuz Shah’s desire to reinstate Zafar Khan, Mubarak Shah’s son-in-law, in the 
government of Sunnargaon, the cause that led to the expedition, vide Dowson, Elliot’s 
History of India, III, 301, ff. 
1 Stewart has 763. 
J Ghiyaz marched with a large army from Sunnargaon, and pitched his camp 
at Sunnargarhi. Stewart has Sunnarkot. From the other side, his father issued 
forth with a terror-inspiring army, and the next day, on the field of Goalparah, both 
parties engaged in deadly strife. The whole story is only to be found in the Riyaz. 
The Goalparah meant here is, no doubt, the village quite close to Panduah, S. W. 
of it. I have not identified Sunnargarhi. 
§ It was written by one Ghiyas. General Cunningham is inclined to think that 
the Ghiyas is Sikandar’s son. 
