Even as early as the deposition and recall of Muhammad Kásim, we find him alluding to the clannish feud between the Sakifís and Sakásaks. “Had he chosen to appeal to the sword,” he exclaims, “no cavaliers of the tribes of Sakásak or 'Akk could have wrested from him the country he had conquered, or laid violent hands upon his person.” These were both Yamánían tribes; the first was de­scended from Saksak bin Ashrab, and the second was an offshoot of the great tribe of Azd, which, under Muhallab, was the first to carry the Arab arms into India, and which rendered itself so conspicuous in the conquest of Khurásán.* The Sakifí tribe, to which Muhammad Kásim belonged, was originally from Táif, about fifty miles south­east of Mecca. It continues a powerful people to this day, pos­sessing the some fertile region on the eastern declivity of the Hijjáz chain of mountains. In the wars of the Wahábís, they defended their ancient stronghold of Táif with a spirit worthy of their ancestors.

We have seen above, under the Khiláfat of Mu'tasim, that the rancour, which prevailed between the Yamánían and Nizárian tribes, again broke out into open hostility in Sind. It was not, however, in Sind only, but wherever the Muhammadan standard was displayed, that these two great divisions were arrayed against each other; and as this feeling operated as one of the main causes of the success of the 'Abbásides against the Ummayides, its original malignity could not fail to be aggravated in every Moslim country, as long as the remembrance of that change of dynasty survived.

What imparted additional acerbity to these feuds in Sind, was the persecution of the adherents of 'Alí, which, though with some in­termissions, especially about Mámún's time, was maintained with considerably rigour during the period of Arab occupation. We have in the preceding note seen some instances of these religious quarrels, and they must have been of frequent occurrence in Sind; for its position on the remote eastern frontier of the Empire, and the difficulty of access to it over mountains and barren sands, must have offered a promising asylum to political refugees, of which we have ample evidence that they readily availed themselves. Hence hetero­doxy, during the period of the Khiláfat, flourished with unusual vigour in Sind and Makrán; and hence such schismatics as Khárijís, Zindíks, Khwájas, Sháríites, and the like, as well as Muláhida, or atheists of various denominations, throve, and propagated;* more especially the Karmatians, who, after being first introduced through this kingdom, maintained their hold in Western and Northern India long after they were suppressed in other provinces of the Empire.

The 'Alite refugees have preserved many traces of their resort to Sind, to which we may refer the unusual proportion of Saiyid families to this day resident in that country, the names of such places as Lakk-'alaví and Mut-'alaví,* founded and still inhabited by 'Alites, and the many Saiyids of even Eastern India, who trace their first settlements to Thatta, Bhakkar, and other places in the valley of the Indus.

These vague reminiscences, indeed, may be considered to com­prise one of the most enduring monuments of Arab dominion in Sind. They were almost the only legacy the Arabs left be­hind them; affording a peculiar contrast in this respect to the Romans, after they had held Britain for the same period of three centuries. Notwithstanding that their possession was partial and unstable, our native soil teems with their buildings, camps, roads, coins, and utensils, in a manner to show how completely they were the master-spirits of that remote province.* But with regard to the Arab dominion in Sind, it is impossible for the traveller to wander through that land, without being struck with the absence of all record of their occupation. In language, architecture, arts, tra­ditions, customs, and manners, they have left but little impress upon the country or the people. We trace them, like the savage Sikhs, only in the ruins of their predecessors; and while Mahfúza, Baizá, and Mansúra have so utterly vanished, that “etiam periêre ruinæ,” the older sites of Bhambúr, Alor, Multán, and Sihwán still survive to proclaim the barbarism and cruelty of their destroyers. It has, indeed, been observed, as a circumstance worthy of remark, that no people ever constructed so many edifices as the Arabs, who extracted fewer materials from the quarry: the buildings of their first settlers being everywhere raised from the wrecks of cities, castles, and fortresses which they had themselves destroyed.*

With respect to the descendants of the early Arab conquerors, we find it stated, by two local historians, that when 'Abdu-r Razzák, Wazír of Sultán Mahmúd, and the first Ghaznivide governor of Sind, was in the year 415 H. (1024 A.D.) directed to proceed to that country from Multán,* and that when, after having captured Bhakkar, and established his power upon a firm basis, he proceeded in 417 to Siwistán and Thatta, he found in those places, among the descendants of old Arab settlers, “only a very few, who had remained bound, as it were, to the country by family ties and encumbrances; and who, being men of learning and ability, were at that time holding posts of honour, and in the enjoyment of certain religious endowments.”*

Eighteen Sindian families, or tribes, are said to have sprung from these ancestors:—the Sakifí,* Tamím, Mughairide, 'Abbásí, Sadíkí, Fárúkí, 'Usmání, Pahanwar,* Mankí,* Chabria, Bin-i Asad, 'Utba, Bin-i Abí Sufyán,* Bájaride,* and the Bin-i Jaríma Ansárí, who were the progenitors of the tribe of Sapya, the lords of Siwistán. To these are to be added the Jats and Bulúchís, descendants of Hárún Makrání. It will be observed that, although the families are said to be eighteen, the enumeration extends to only seventeen, unless the Sapya and the descendants of Jaríma Ansárí are reckoned as two.

The same authority mentions, that some of the tribes now in Sind, and who appear from their names and occupations to have been originally Hindú, are in reality descendants of the Arabs. Thus, the Thím were originally Tamím; the Morya are pronounced to be descendants from Mughaira; and the Súmra are likewise held to be the offspring of adventurers from Sámarra, who accompanied the Tamím in great numbers. All these affiliations are gratuitous guesses, and about as probable as the one mentioned in the preceding paragraph, of the descent of the Jats and Bulúchís from Hárún Makrání. But that some of the inferior tribes are descendants of the Arabs is by no means opposed to reason or probability, and this more especially among those now classed as Bulúchís. The Rind, for instance, when they assert that they came originally from Aleppo and Damascus, may have truth on their side; but we should be cautious in admitting nominal resemblances or ambitious genealo­gies; especially where, as in the case of the Súmras, Sammas, Dáúdputras, and Kalhoras, there has been a political purpose to serve, and sycophants ready at all times to pander to a despot's aspirations.