Tempo:
28
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
CHAP. II
own progenitors had before entered and defended and
absorbed the dominions of Augustus and Trajan.
Tughril Beg and Saladin are the counterparts of Stilicho and Theodoric, and the Mullas and Saiyids of
Bagdad were as anxious for the conversion of unbelievers as the bishops and deacons of the Greek and
Latin Churches. The migratory barbarians who fell
upon Europe became Christians, and those who plundered Asia adopted, v/ith perhaps greater ease and
ardour, the more congenial creed of Islam. Their vague
unstable notions yielded to the authority of learning
and civilization, and to the majesty of one omnipotent
God, and thus armed with religion as a motive, and
empire as an object, the Turks precipitated themselves
upon India and upon the diminished provinces of the
Byzantine Caesars.
Muhammad crossed the Indus in the year 1001, not
long after Shankar Acharj had vainly endeavoured to
vades
arrest the progress of heresy, and to give limits to the
India,
diversity of faith which perplexed his countrymen.
AD. 1001.
The Punjab was permanently occupied, and before the
sultan's death, Kanauj and Gujrat had been overrun.
The Ghaznivides were expelled by the Ghoris about
1183. Bengal was conquered by these usurpers, and
when the Ibak Turks supplanted them in 1206, HinduHindustan
becomes a
stan became a separate portion of the Muhammadan
separate
world. During the next hundred and fifty years the
portion of
whole of India was subdued; a continued influx of
the Muhammadan world Mughals in the thirteenth, and of Afghans in the
fifteenth century, added to their successive authority
under the
Ibaks.
as rulers, gradually changed the language and the
A.D. 1206.
thoughts of the vanquished. The Khiljis and Tughlaks
and Lodis were too rude to be inquisitorial bigots; they
had a lawful option in tribute, and taxation was more
profitable, if less meritorious, than conversion. They
adopted as their own the country which they had conquered.
Numerous mosques attest their piety and
munificence, and the introduction of the solar instead
of the intractable lunar year, proves their attention to
ordinary business and the wants of agriculture.^ The
Muhammad in-
1
The solar, i.e. really sidereal year, called the 'Shabur
San', or vulgarly the 'Sur San', that is, the year of (Arabic)
months, was apparently introduced into the Deccan by Tughlak
Shah towards, the middle of the fourteenth century of Christ,
or between 1341 and 1344, and it is still used by the Marathas
in all their more important documents, the dates being inserted
in Arabic words written in Hindi (Marathi) characters. (Cf.
Prinsep's Useful Tables, ii. 30, who refers to a Report by Lieut.Colonel Jervis, on Weights and Measures.)
The other 'Fasli'.
or 'harvest' years of other parts of India, were not introduced
until the reigns of Akbar and Shah Jahan, and they mostly
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
CHAP. II
own progenitors had before entered and defended and
absorbed the dominions of Augustus and Trajan.
Tughril Beg and Saladin are the counterparts of Stilicho and Theodoric, and the Mullas and Saiyids of
Bagdad were as anxious for the conversion of unbelievers as the bishops and deacons of the Greek and
Latin Churches. The migratory barbarians who fell
upon Europe became Christians, and those who plundered Asia adopted, v/ith perhaps greater ease and
ardour, the more congenial creed of Islam. Their vague
unstable notions yielded to the authority of learning
and civilization, and to the majesty of one omnipotent
God, and thus armed with religion as a motive, and
empire as an object, the Turks precipitated themselves
upon India and upon the diminished provinces of the
Byzantine Caesars.
Muhammad crossed the Indus in the year 1001, not
long after Shankar Acharj had vainly endeavoured to
vades
arrest the progress of heresy, and to give limits to the
India,
diversity of faith which perplexed his countrymen.
AD. 1001.
The Punjab was permanently occupied, and before the
sultan's death, Kanauj and Gujrat had been overrun.
The Ghaznivides were expelled by the Ghoris about
1183. Bengal was conquered by these usurpers, and
when the Ibak Turks supplanted them in 1206, HinduHindustan
becomes a
stan became a separate portion of the Muhammadan
separate
world. During the next hundred and fifty years the
portion of
whole of India was subdued; a continued influx of
the Muhammadan world Mughals in the thirteenth, and of Afghans in the
fifteenth century, added to their successive authority
under the
Ibaks.
as rulers, gradually changed the language and the
A.D. 1206.
thoughts of the vanquished. The Khiljis and Tughlaks
and Lodis were too rude to be inquisitorial bigots; they
had a lawful option in tribute, and taxation was more
profitable, if less meritorious, than conversion. They
adopted as their own the country which they had conquered.
Numerous mosques attest their piety and
munificence, and the introduction of the solar instead
of the intractable lunar year, proves their attention to
ordinary business and the wants of agriculture.^ The
Muhammad in-
1
The solar, i.e. really sidereal year, called the 'Shabur
San', or vulgarly the 'Sur San', that is, the year of (Arabic)
months, was apparently introduced into the Deccan by Tughlak
Shah towards, the middle of the fourteenth century of Christ,
or between 1341 and 1344, and it is still used by the Marathas
in all their more important documents, the dates being inserted
in Arabic words written in Hindi (Marathi) characters. (Cf.
Prinsep's Useful Tables, ii. 30, who refers to a Report by Lieut.Colonel Jervis, on Weights and Measures.)
The other 'Fasli'.
or 'harvest' years of other parts of India, were not introduced
until the reigns of Akbar and Shah Jahan, and they mostly
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