Túr.—Muhatampúr.—Dirak.—Vijeh-kot.

Túr was the ancient capital of the Súmra dynasty, called also by the name of Mehmetúr, and written by the local historians as Muha-tampúr and Muhammad-Túr. It was situated in the Pargana of Dirak, and its destruction has been mentioned in the Extracts from the Táríkh-i Táhirí (p. 256). But its real ruin dates only from 'Aláu-d dín's invasion of Sind.

The ancient Pargana of Dirak is represented by the modern divisions of Cháchagám and Badban on the borders of the Tharr, or sandy desert between Parkar and Wanga Bázár. There is a Par­gana of Dirak still included in Thatta, which may be a portion of the older district of that name.

Another capital of the Súmras is said to have been Vijeh-kot, Wageh-kot, or Vigo-gad (for it is spelt in these various forms), five miles to the east of the Púrán river, above the Allah-band.

The site of Túr has been considered to be occupied by the modern Tharri, near Budína, on the Gúngrú river. There are, to be sure, the remains of an old town to the west of that place; nevertheless, the real position of Túr is not to be looked for there, but at Sháka-púr, a populous village about ten miles south of Mírpúr. Near that village, the fort and palace of the last of the Súmras is pointed out, whence bricks are still extracted of very large dimensions, measur­ing no less than twenty inches by eight.* Other fine ruins are scattered about the neighbourhood, and carved tomb-stones are very numerous. Fragments of pearls and other precious stones are occa­sionally picked up, which have all apparently been exposed to the action of fire. The people themseves call this ruined site by the name of Mehmetúr, so that both the name and position serve to verify it, beyond all doubt, as the ancient capital of the Súmras.

The curious combination of Muhammad-Túr, is an infallible indi­cation that “Mehmet” and “Muhatam” are merely corruptions of “Muhammad,” for this name is wretchedly pronounced in Sind. The present mode is Mammet—our own old English word for an image, or puppet, when in our ignorance we believed Mawmetrie, or the religion of the false prophet, to be synonymous with idolatry, and Mahound with the Devil. So Shakespere, in Romeo and Juliet, says—

“A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender.”

And Spenser, in his Faerie Queene—

“And oftentimes by Termagant and Mahound swore.”

The still grosser corruption of Muhammad into “Baphomet,” or “Baffomet,” is not to be laid to the charge of our nation. This was the name of the idol, or head, which the Templars are falsely alleged to have worshipped,—quoddam caput cum barbâ quod adorant et vocant salvatorem suum. Raynouard argues that this word ori­ginates from a misprint, or mispronunciation, of Muhammad; but Von Hammer and Michelet lean to a Gnostic origin, which we need not stay to consider, being satisfied that “Baffomet” is only another, and still more extravagant disguise, under which Europeans have exhibited the name of Muhammad.*