There appears some difficulty about this period, with respect to the succession to the government of Sind. It is asserted that, pre­vious to the arrival of Ghassán, Táhir bin Husain, who had been the main cause of the elevation of Mámún to the Khiláfat, received Sind as a portion of his eastern government, when he was appointed to Khurásán in 205 A.H. (820 A.D.), in which province he died before he had held it two years. Others, again, say that 'Abdu-lla bin Táhir (the Obaid-ulla of Eutychius)* received the province of Sind, when he succeeded to his father's government in Khurásán. Firishta also tells us, that the Sámánís extended their incursions to Sind and Thatta; but it may reasonably be doubted if either they, or the Táhirís,* exercised any power in the valley of Indus, any more than did the Suffárides (except perhaps Ya'kúb), or the Búwaihides, whose seats of government were much nearer, and who had many more facilities for establishing their power in that direction. There is a confusion, also, respecting the precise date of the Barmekide governor above alluded to.*

8. Al-Mu'tasim-bi-llah,

A.H. 218-227.

A.D. 833-841.

Músa, the Barmekide, after acquiring a good reputatíon, died in the year 221 H., leaving a son, named 'Amrán, who was nominated governor of Sind by Mu'tasim-bi-llah, then Khalif. 'Amrán betook himself to the country of Kaikán, which was in the occupation of the Jats, vanquished them, and founded a city, which he called Al Baizá, “the white,” where he established a military colony. He then re­turned to Mansúra, and thence went to Kandábel, which was in the possession of Muhammad bin Khalíl. The town was taken, and the principal inhabitants were transferred to Kusdár. After that, he sent an expedition against the Meds, killed three thousand of them, and constructed a causeway, which bore the name of “the Med's cause­way.” Upon encamping near the river Alrúr,* he summoned the Jats, who were dependent on his government. “When they obeyed the call, he stamped a seal upon their hands,* and received from them the capitation tax, directing that when they presented themselves to him, they should each be accompanied by a dog, so that the price of a dog rose as high as fifty dirhams.”

The meaning of this strange provision is not very evident, but we have seen above, that it originated with the Bráhman dynasty, and was approved by Muhammad Kásim. It does not appear whether the tribute-dogs were taken away by the Arabs, or whether it was intended to encourage the breed, by making it necessary that every man should have his dog. It is only for one of these two reasons that the price could have been enhanced. In the former case, they must have been taken, either for the purpose of being slaughtered* by the Arabs, in order to diminish their number, which might have amounted to a nuisance, or they were taken and kept to be used by themselves, as by the Tálpúr princes of later times, in hunting—or in watching flocks, as we see them employed to this day in the Delta, where they allow no stranger to approach a village. For the same reasons they are held in high repute in Bulúchistán.

Had any people but Saracens been rulers in Syria and Mesopo­tamia, we might have even surmised that these animals were an article of export, for the celebrity of Indian dogs was great among the ancient occupants of the same country, and by them they were largely imported, as they were considered the best for hunting wild beasts, and even lions were readily attacked by them.* Xerxes, as Herodotus tells us, was followed in his expedition to Greece by Indian dogs, of which “none could mention the number, they were so many” (vii. 187); and Tritæchmes, the satrap of Babylon, kept such a number of Indian dogs, that four considerable towns in the plains were exempted from all other taxes, and devoted to their maintenance” (i. 192). But, as dogs are held in abomination by Muhammadans, we cannot conceive that these tribute-dogs were dis­posed of in this fashion. Whatever may have been the cause of this article of the engagement, it is a curious fact, that the effect seems to have survived in the very scene of these operations; for it is notorious, that the rare crime of dog-stealing is practised to the west of Aral and Manchhar, and travellers are obliged to adopt especial precautions in passing through that district.*

After this triumphant affair with the Jats, 'Amrán again attacked the Meds at several different points, having many Jat chiefs under his banners; and he dug a canal, by which the sea-water flowed into their lake, so that the only water which they had to drink became salt.

The spirit of faction which prevailed between the Nizárian and Yamánían Arabs, was the cause of 'Amrán's death, he having been appointed by 'Umar bin 'Abdu-l 'Azíz al Habbárí, who espoused the Nizárian cause, and whose family, in Ibn Haukal's time, was supreme in Mansúra. It was during 'Amrán's government, that the Indians of Sindán* declared themselves independent; but they respected the mosque, which the Musulmáns of the town visited every Friday, for the purpose of reading the usual offices and praying for the Khalif. Sindán had been originally captured by Fazl bin Máhán, once a slave of the family of Sáma,—the same probably that afterwards made itself master of Multán. He sent an elephant to the Khalif Mámún, and prayed for him in the Jámí' Masjid, which he erected in Sindán. At his death, he was suc­ceeded by his son Muhammad, who fitted out a flotilla of seventy barks against the Meds of Hind, put many of them to the sword, and took Mália.* In his absence, one of his brothers, named Máhán, treacherously usurped the government of Sindán, and wrote to pro­pitiate the goodwill of Mu'tasim; but the Indians declared against him, and crucified him, and subsequently, as before stated, pro­claimed their independence, by renouncing allegiance to the Muhammadans (p. 129).

It was in 'Amrán's time, also, that the country of Al 'Usaifán,* situated between Kashmír, Kábul, and Multán, was governed by a certain prince of good understanding. His son falling ill, the prince asked the priests of one of the idols worshipped by the inhabitants, to beseech the idol to heal his son. The priests, after absenting themselves a short time, returned, and said the idol had heard their prayers, yet the son died notwithstanding. The prince, exasperated at their fraudulent pretensions, demolished the temple, broke the idol in pieces, and massacred the ministers. He then called before him some Musulmán merchants, who developed to him the proofs of the unity of God, upon which he readily became a convert to the faith (p. 129).

Among the notices of Mu'tasim's reign, we find it mentioned that, in order to reward Ikshín, the Turk, for his seizure of the notorious fanatic Bábek, who had spread great consternation by the effects of his first successes, the Khalif bestowed upon him twenty millions of dirhams from the province of Sind—which was equal to two years' revenue; but it does not appear that Ikshín ever went there to collect it, and it was probably a mere assignment upon the general revenues, which might be paid when convenient, or altogether repudiated. The mention of a particular province is strange, under the circum­stances of the time, and would seem to show that but little was received into the general treasury from that source. Ikshín, in short, was entitled to collect that amount, if he could, by rigid extortions in the province itself; just as, at a later period of Indian history, the miserable jágírdár was put off by assignments upon turbulent and rebellious provinces.* The value of such drafts, even upon the general treasury, may be estimated by an amusing anecdote related of the Khalif Al Hádí. An eminent Arab poet having once presented to him some of his lucubrations, the prince, who was a good judge of such performances, discovered such beauties in them that he was extremely pleased, and said to him:—“Choose for your recompense, either to receive 30,000 dirhams immediately, or 100,000 after you have gone through the delays and formalities of the Ex­chequer.” The poet replied with great readiness:—“Give me, I pray, the 30,000 now, and the 100,000 hereafter;” which repartee, we are told, was so pleasing to the Khalif, that he ordered the entire sum of 130,000 dirhams to be paid down to him on the spot, without any deduction.*

15. Al Mu'tamad-'alà-llah,	A.H. 256-279.	A.D. 870-892.
18. Al Muktadar-bi-llah,	A.H. 295-320.	A.D. 908-932.