English
1 ThiB sanguinary civil war in Bengal, about tho end of the fifteenth century, between the Royalists on one side and the people on the other, headed by the nobles, reminds one of a similar war between king John and his barons m England, and illustrates that the people in Bengal woro not “ dumb, driven cattle,” but that they had sufficient political life and strength and powers of 9rgamzation to control the monarchy, when its aots exceeded all constitutional bounds, as set by the Sham’ or Mnhammadau law. Indeed, Moslem monar- chies, wherever established, (barring individual aberrations) have been consti- utional m the strict sense of the word, from the time, when, in the seventh cen ary, the first Khalifate was established in Arabia (see 8ir W. Muir’a Annala of the Early Caliphate * ( P ,S namB 0X1 iu8Cri P tionB and coin8 (published in J.A.8.B. for 1873 PP- -290), appears to be Rhamsu-d-din Abn-Nasr Muzaffar ghah. His ° d COin8 Sh ® w that he fron > 898 to 899 A.H. (that is, mnnth rr " 10 Histories allot to his reign three years and five • He was an Abyssinian, and his original name was SIdi Badr. 128 The field was heaped up with the slaughtered: You might say another rampart had been raised ! At length, the zephyr of victory wafted on the standard of the nobles. Muzaffar Shah, with a number of his associates and adherents, was killed on the field. And according to the state¬ ment of Haji Muhammad Qaudahavi, during that time, from the beginning to the eud of the war, one lakh and twenty thousand people, of both Musalman and Hindu persuasions, passed to the regions of destruction. And Sycd Husain Sharif Maki, gaining the throne, raised the standard of sovereignty. And in the history of Nizamu-d-din Ahmad,* it is related that when the people got disgusted with the misconduct of Mnzaffar Shah, Syed Sharif Maki becoming aware of this state of national disgust, won over to his side the Commandant of the Household troops and, one night, with thirteen men entering the inner chambers, slew Muzaffar Shah, and next morning mounted the throne, and proclaimed himself Sultan ‘Alau-d-din. The reign of Muzaffar Shah lasted three years and five mouths. A mosque, amongst his other build¬ ings, exists at Gaur. THE REIGN OF ‘ALAU-D-DIN SYED HUSAIN SHARIF MAKI. 8 Syed Husain Sharif Maki, during the period of his Vizarat, used to treat the people with affability. He used to tell them l Nizimu-d-din Ahmad was Bakhshi under Akbar, and was a patron of the historian Badaonl. Nizamu-d-din completed his history called Tabsqat^- Akbari is 1590 A.C.; ha i. the Brat writer who gives a ~nc, 8 e co n „eeted account of the Independent Musalman kings of Bengal from 1388 A.C. to 153 YhU oaore on coins and iascriptioos (vide J.A.8.B. tor 1873, pp. 392.293), (a ■■ Alau-d-din AMI Mozzafar Husain Shah, son of Syed Nowhere on coins and inscriptions is he called “Shanf Maki, as in ?h"“-Akhari simply cads him Alauddiu ^FeriahU calls him “ Syed Sharif Maki "-, whilst Stewart meorrcotly calls b,m Shan Mecca.” He reigned from 899 to 927 A.H. (according toeoio. and m.cnpt,on. ■ The Wvoz staterthot Alaoddin, after arriving a. an adventurer n Bengah P K ; r n’l>“r r n e“I.t^: P :the place when, the Hnsain dynasty of Beoga. 120 “Mnzaffar Shah is very stingy, and rude in behaviour. Although I advise him to attend to the happiness of the army and the independent kings had its adopted home, because Husain Shah first obtained power in the adjacent district of Faridpur or Fathihabad (which latter at the time was included in, or rather included portions of, Jessore), where his firs t coins were struck in 899 A.U. (Marsden’s |>l. XXXVIII, No. DCCLXXIX), ami also because Husain Shah’s son, Nasrnt Shih, erected a mint at the neighbour¬ ing place of Khali fata bad (or Bagerliat, formerly in Jessore district) and minted thjre coius in the lifetime of bin father in 922 A.H. (see p. 297* J.A.S.B. for 1873 and pi. IX, No. 10). Anothor circumstance which also sup¬ ports the above theory of Professor Blochmaun about the locule of Alau-ddiu Hussain Shah’s adopted home, appears to be this, that the names of Husain Shah, his brother Yusuf Shah, nud his sons Nasrat Shall, and Mahmud Shih, are found in connection with several parganas of Jessore (Jasar) district (as formerly constituted, before its being split up into Pabna, Khulna and Farid¬ pur districts), saoh os parganas Nasratshahi and Mahmudshibi and Yusuf- Shahi, and Malimudabad (a whole Sirkar including Northern Jessore or Jasar and Bosnah). In regard to Alauddm Husain Shih, Professor Blocbmann observes (J.A.S. for 1873, p. 291) that “ uf- the reign of no king of Beugal— perhaps of all Upper Iudia before the middle of the 10th century—do we possess so many inscriptions. Whilst the names of other Bengal kings scarcely ever occur in legends, and remain even unrecognized in the geographi¬ cal names of the country, tho name of 4 Husaiu Shah the Good * is still remembered from the frontiers of Orissa to the Brahmaputra.” This great and good king extended his empire iuto Orissa, into Assam, into Chittagong, and reigned over all north Bohar, and all south Behar up to the western limits of Sarkar Monghyr, whore his son Danyal erected a vault over tho shrine of Peer Nafa. (See Tubaqat-i-Akbari and also Badnoui, Vol. I, p. 371). A cathedral mosque amongst his other edifices was erected by this king, in 907 A.H. at Machain, opposite to Faridpur in Dhakah ; the inscription of this mosquo appeal's ill J.A.S. for 1873, p. 293. The Husain Shahi dynasty con¬ sisted of four sovereigns: (1) Alauddm Husain Shah who reigned from 899 to 929 A.H. (2) Alau-d-dlu’s sou, Na$lru-d-dln Abul Mozaffar Nasrat Shih (929 to 939), (3) Alaa-d-din Firaz Shah (939), a son of No. 2, and (4) Ghiaeu-d-din Mahmud Shah. (940-945 A.H.) the last Independent king of Bengal, who was defeated by Sher Shah’s army at Gaur under Jalal Khan and Khwa? Khan in 944 A.H. or 1538 A.D. That is, for forty-four years, this Husaini dynasty consisting of four kings, reigned over Bengal. (See J A.8.B. for 1872, p 332). The Tabaqat-i-Akbari’s notice of Bengal closes with an account of the reign of Nasrat Shih, the second king of the above Husaini dynasty. The fourth king of the Husaini dynasty, it may be of iuterest to remark, is the u El Hay Mamnd de Bengal a” of the Portuguese, who described Gaur, the capital at the time, as being 4< three leagues iu length, well-fortified and with wide and straight roads, along which rows of trees wore phmted to sliade the people.” Thii Mahmud Shah died iu 945 A.H. at Colgong (Kihalgaou), where he lies buried. 17 130 nobility, ami dissuade him from evil pursuits, it is all in vain; for be is simply bent on hoarding wealth.” In consequence, the nobles looked upon Husain ns their friend, patron and sympathiser. As bis virtues and Muzaffar Shah’s vices were known to the public and to the elite, on the day that Muzaffar Shah was slain, all the nobles held a council for the purpose of electing a king, and favoured the installation of Syed Sharif Maki, and said, “ If we elect you king, in what way will you conduct yourself towards us? ” Sharif Maki said: “I will meet all your wishes, and im¬ mediately I will allot to you whatever may be found over-ground in the city, whilst all that is under-ground I will appropriate to myself.” The patricians as well as the plebeians fell in with this tempting offer, and hurried out to pillage the city of Gaur, which at this time eclipsed Cairo (in point of wealth). In this way, a city was pillaged: You might say, it was swept by the broom of plunder. Syed Sharif Maki by this easy contrivance, seized the umbrella of sovereignty, and introduced the IQiutba and the coin in his own name. Historians write that his name 'was Syed Sharif Maki, 1 and that when he ascended the throne, he styled himself ‘Alau-d-din. But I note that throughout the kingdom of Bengal and in the neighbourhood of Gaur, his name as Husain Shall is on the lips of the elite and the mass. Since I did not find the name of Husain Shah in history, I was in doubt. After much research, by deciphering wordings of inscriptions which exist up to this day, and are engraved on the ruins of the City of Gaur, on the stone of the large gate-way of the Qadam Rasul building, 2 and on the Golden Mosqne, and also on some other shrines, which are amongst the edifices erected by Saltan Husain Shah and his sons Nagrat Shah and 1 The Tnbaqat-i-Akbari and Bndaoni (p. 317 vol. 1) simply call him Alauddin (which however was obviously the Jains name), Ferishta erro¬ neously calls him “Sayid Sharif Maki," whilst Stewart incorrectly calls him “ Shlref Mecca,” erroneously led no donbt by the remark of the Riyaz ’ whose author thinks that Husain’s father or one of h.s an**™* might perhaps have been a Rherif of Mecca. The Alamgimamah (p. 730) ca\\b him Husain Shah. 2 The inscription dated 937 A.H. on the Qadam Rasul building at Gaur is published in J.A.S.B. for 1872, p. 338; in it Na,rat Shih is described as son o, Husain Shah, eon of Sve-1 Ashrafal Husaim. 131 t Mahmud Shah, it appears that Syed ‘ Alau-d-din Abul Muzaffar Husain Shah is the son of Syed A.shrafal-Husaini. In regard to the months and years of Syed Sharif Maki’s period, all these inscriptions tally, and thus all doubts are set at rest. It appears that apparently his venerable father—Syed Afjhrafal Husaini—was Sharif of Makka ; hence the son also was known as Sharif-i-Maki; or else, his name was Syed Husain. In a pamphlet, I have noticed that Husain Shah and his brother Yusuf, together with their father, Sayyid Ashrafal Husaini, were residents of the town of Tarmuz.