A Ghaznavid Historical Inscription from Uegrm, Swt Author(s): Muhammad Nazir Khan Reviewed work(s): Source: East and

West, Vol. 35, No. 1/3 (September 1985), pp. 153-166 Published by: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29756717 . Accessed: 18/02/2013 11:39
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A Ghaznavid Historical Inscription from Udegr?m, Sw?t

by Muhammad Nazir Khan

1.

Introduction We have little historical

Ac? of Sw?t. of the early Islamization knowledge the Ghaznavid, during the first three decades cording to holy tradition, Mahm?d the conquest crowned his work with Sw?t. He of the 11th century conquered a holy near present-day Udegr?m, of the fortress of R?ja Gir?, by appointing man commander in chief of the troops, according to instructions he had received in a dream. holy man's name was life in the decisive attack. The mortal This Pir Kushh?l Gh?zl

B?b?, and he lost his are still vener? spoils of the brave Gh?zl to him at the foot of R?ja Gir? ated in the sanctuary dedicated (1). the This tradition is not confirmed by sources that, although mentioning numerous the Indo? for the purpose of conquering made by Mahm?d expeditions never refer to Sw?t. silence of the other sources The Pakistan sub-continent, to some extent by some archaeological evidence of the presence is compensated ancient times, e.g. the coins and in comparatively of Islam in the Sw?t Valley Mission potsherds unearthed during the excavations by the Italian Archaeological

Udegr?m (fig. 2), the site that Sir Aurel Stein (3) identified as the heir to the
ancient Or a conquered by Alexander. It was during one of my routine visits to the Castle at Udegr?m in April

to be univocally confirmed by a document in general. interest for the history of Sw?t, and of the NWFP of fundamental the foundation This document consists of a fine Ghaznavid inscription celebrating near on the slopes of R?ja Gir?, of a mosque (fig. 1), accidentally discovered The local sacred tradition appears

in 1956-1960 (2) of the fortress built on the northwest spur of theR?ja Gir?.

(1) See A. Stein, An Archaeological Tour inUpper Sw?t and Adjacent Hill Tracks, MASI, Calcutta 1930, p. 38; Inayat-ur-Rahman, Folk Tales of Sw?t, I, IsmeoRepMem, XIII 1, 42,
Rome atic

(2) U.

1968,

Scerrato, 'Labyrinths in the Wooden

EW, 33, 1983, p. 27, fn. 13;

pp.

8-9,

figs.

24-38.

Mosques
G. Gullini,

of North Pakistan.
'Udegr?m', in D.

A Problem?
Faccenna,

G. Gullini, Reports on the Campaigns Rome 1962, pp. 325-327.

(3) Stein, op. cit., pp. 38-41.

Presence',

cf.

1956-1958

in Sw?t Pakistan,

IsmeoRepMem,

I,

[1]

153

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walls.

the nature the debris After removing (fallen stones), I was standing just inside the mihr?b of a mosque. clear ?

I saw a niche in a partially emerging ruined wall relaxing a while After examining in detail the niche noticed before. I suspected that it might be the corner of a votive st?pa or something else of considerable interest. archaeological After I had never of the ruin became

1984, thatwhile descending from theCastle I sat in the shade of some ruined

It was there that I was informed that a few cup of tea by an old friend of mine. someone had found a marble slab with an inscription in Arabic. This days back turned out to be an ancient historical the first of this kind inscription, probably A description discovered from this area till date. and a preliminary study of it are given in the following pages. I am grateful to the Italian Archaeological Mission in Sw?t and particularly to Professor Umberto Scerrato ration of this article. Thanks are also due for their help and encouragement to Professors Giovanna Ventrone in the prepa? Vas

Then I went down to the village of Udegr?m where I was invited for a

sallo and Maurizio both of the Istituto Universitario Taddei, Orientale, Naples, the former for her guidance in the reading of the inscription, the latter for his useful suggestions in the interpretation of the S?hi relief (4).

2.

Side A ofMarble Block with foundation Inscription (fig. 1) This inscriptionis carved on the reverse side of a white block of reutilized
bearing a carved S?hi decoration on the other side (see section 3, infra).

marble

The marble is white and contained large crystals,brightlyvisible at the points

of fracture; the block measures 36.5 X 36 cm. and varies in thickness from 6 _to cm. at the cm. at the centre. The text of the inscription is six 6.5 edges, and 15 lines long and is enclosed by a simple straight-line frame. It iswritten in cursive script (nashi) with diacritical marks and vowels. Here is the text:

1)
2) 3) 4) jy^

^
y\ v^U-l

<u\
jv.Nl y\

JljjJ <dJ! <?cUJ$cJ^y p] fbl J<>*~1\ b IIa JLrt-*? ts*cl ^j^b <j 5) 4?!JIaJtfU ?Jj)jJyuj\4JL^
6) aIaI* j^J-j 41*

(4) In Fall 1985 the Italian Archaeological Mission has undertaken the excavation of the mosque on the slopes of R?ja Gir?, under the direction of Prof. Umberto Scerrato.

154

[2]

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Fig. 1 Marble

block from R?ja Gir? Mosque: side A with (Dep. CS Neg. L. 15276/24a; F. Noci).

inscription

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PLAN SKETCH OF /^l STRONGHOLD ROWED CASTLE R?JA-GIR?'S

UQE GRAM

L ^ f%^-r~7v . P>4 ]: ? ,
1Vr-*^???? o

u- ;?*'

******.

??

scale

^C,-:

;^f""**.

UeU-*.

- Sketch Fig. 2 plan of R?ja Gir?

after Stein, op. cit.

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Translation:

1) In the dement and merciful name of God

2) Has ordered the prince (al-amlr) the chamberlain (al-hagtb) Abu Mans?r

3) N?stegin the charitable (al-hairl),may God make his satisfaction (his

prosperity) months last,

4) the construction of this mosque and doors (? al-b?wab [sic]) in the 5) of the year 440 (1048-1049); may God accept (them)
6) from him common ?mara and appreciate his efforts. in the inscription, to be built', or e.g.: 'the construction of; formulas \bi\bin? are used 'has ordered

Fairly 3-4)

3) ?d?ma ?ll?hu
formula 5-6) is 6) wa There laqabbaia sakara

God make his prosperity last'; taufigatahu 'may

minhu 'and of 'may God appreciate inaccuracies accept from him', while a rarer

?ll?hu sa 'iahu

his efforts'. of

are also

a number

what appears is *L , while or it should have read 1~j

the verb ?mara

word
'door'; be

it is nevertheless

although it might refer to the root^

an unusual plural.

a grammatical nature in 1.4; the construction with ^ , requires in 1.4 we find the ; there are also lexical errors:

and theword ^1j=

be

interpreted as alphabetic since a reading elements text. not

In the top left cornerwe find a few curved lines that, although they could
signs, of as ornamental should, I think, be considered man iamaru 'he who commands', would

incorrect, and should be

Although executed

,which would be hard to justifyin this

particular was

of palaeographic characters, e.g. several links, recalling a model of docu? no other local mentary script rather than a 'monumental' model. Unfortunately, is available on which evidence to make a comparison. The only ancient Arabic number no.

of excellent quality, the cursive script used in the inscription a sure hand. Since it is a foundation by inscription of the mid 11th century, kufic script would it must have appeared more likely. However, not be overlooked that we are in a frontier region where expert calligraphers would have been difficult to find. Careful of the inscription reveals a scrutiny

inscriptionknown in thewhole NWFP,

49A), is very carelessly executed

i.e. that of the Tochi Valley

airy angular Kufic script

(Shakur
is a

in an

and

good two centuries older, dated as it is 13Gum?d? I of 243/ 7 September 847

[5]

157

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(D

+0.98 +2.85

Ma>k

Oliven,

from KJ.O,

(DpXsj34Z4)

Plan

of

the R?ja

Gir? Mosque.

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+ 0.14

+0.32

10m

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A.D.

to spread, as is shown by a fine, hitherto epigraphy began unpub? lished, foundation inscription re-utilized in the mihr?b of the Masgid-e 'Idgah of i.e. roughly the same period as our the name of sultan Mawd?d, Ghazni, by is in any case one of the earliest 'monu? The Udegram inscription inscription Arabic mental' foundation inscriptions to be written in cursive script. monumental

with the epigraphic monuments of Ghazni is pointless since, of works of excellent quality carried out in the very capital although consisting of the empire, it was here that, about the mid 11th century, the use of nashi in C). Comparison

Mase?d

i.e. 440/1048-1049 in the epigraph, The year mentioned falls in a A.D., The year 440 is probably time of great crisis for the Ghaznavid that of empire. The latter was followed by three kings in rapid succession: the death of Mawd?d.

II, rAli and rAbd ar-RasId ?440-?443 / ? 1049-1052 (r).

who

al-amlr al-h?gib Ab? Mans?r Nustegin al-hairi is not explicitly mentioned one of the several in all likelihood, sources, although he was, by sources of the time (8). in Ghaznavid mentioned Anustegin Tentatively, we could as the Nustegin was consider him later appointed h?gib that by cAbd ar-Rasid as governor of the Indian territories east of the Indus (9), perhaps the same person This the available

played an important part in eliminating the usurper Toghril Beg, thus sup? (443-451 A.D.) (10). porting the ascent to power of Farruh-Z?d / 1052-1059 the name, al-amir and al-h?gib, were frequently The two titles accompanying times. The first was often followed by an attribute and the used in Ghaznavid

already in use at the timeofMahm?d for this category thewords al-h?gib al-ag?l (cf.RCEA, no. 2059).
The slaves and name Nustegin or Anustegin was is composed of two fairly usual is found also in the inscription on common

second denotes

a general

or a commander.

According

to GardizI,

the latter was

the tomb of Sabuktegin,

which

The title of al-h?gib

actually bears

elements,

among the Turkish military a Turkish one ? tegin, and

(5) A.H. Dani, H. Humbach & R. Gobi, Tochi Valley Inscriptions in the Peshawat to the Museum', Ancient Pakistan, I, 1964, pp. 126-131. See M.A. Shakoor, A Handbook in the Peshawar Museum, Peshawar 1946, no. 49. Inscriptions Gallery (6) I wish to thank Prof. Umberto Scerrato for this information. The epigraph in is being published by Prof. Giovanna Ventrone Vassallo. For the the name of Mawd?d use of Kufic in Ghaznavid monumental inscriptions during the second half of the 9th century at Ghazni, see those corresponding to the time of Ibrahim (451-492/1059-1099
A.D.). Cf. S.

pp. 72-75, pis. XI, fig. 1; XIII, fig. 1. (7) C.E. Bosworth, The Later Ghaznavids:
(8) Bosworth, op. cit., p. 46.

Flury,

'Le

decor

epigraphique

des

monuments

de

Ghazna',

Syria,

VI,

1925,

Splendour and Decay,

Edinburgh

1977.

(9) Ferishta, History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, trans. J. Briggs, 1981, pp. 76-77; Bosworth, op. cit., pp. 39, 63. I, repr. New Delhi
(10) Bosworth,

(n) C.E.

Bosworth, The

op.

cit.,

p.

46.

Titulature of the Early Ghaznavids', Oriens,

15, 1962, p. 223.

160

[8]

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an Iranian more

one ?

or less 'immortally-born

nus/anus,

from anos prince' (rz).

immortal;

the name

would

thus mean

3.

The Mosque
According to the indications given by the chance discoverer of the inscrip?

tion, the site in which the findwas made is situated on the lower slopes of the R?ja Gir? to the north of the circle of walls enclosing a large number of ruins
to the outer part of the inhabited area of the ancient city-fortress. In? cluded among the latter, situated on a terrace some hundred or so metres from on the north bastion of the fortress, there is a rectangular construction marked related (fig. 2) (13). This construction has the appearance of an enclosure

The enclosure has an east-west orientation, with an place by thin schist wedges. entrance on the east side (figs. 3-5). On the west side there is a deep square niche (fig. 4). In the corners of the niche in the central position there are re? cesses for the small angular columns. The niche is covered by a false-domed pointed
vault.

built of typical Gandharan masonry, consisting of blocks of stone held firmlyin

Stein's map

on

third of the enclosure; the remaining part consisted of the or not. this was colonnaded sahn, although we do not know whether It is rather small: 21.60 m. wide and 28 m. long, with a ratio of three to It is not known whether this four, i.e. with a somewhat oblong ground plan. of layout was the result of ground conditions, or whether an Abbasid-Samar type ran construction had been used as a model (H), i.e. the same one as had probably been used in the sultan's mosques ancient mosque The of Banbhore of Ghazni. had an almost much of the the measurements square ground plan, i.e. 39 X 37 m. C); to are not known, although it too is believed of Mansura (16) larger mosque cit., pp. 153-154.

to be a mosque. The prayer hall probably had naves, parallel to the qibli wall and with a flat roof, probably supportedbywooden pillars. It probably occupied
about half or one

the wall

In view of the orientationof the niche on the qibla and its central position
(i.e. it can be identified as the mihr?b), the construction is believed

(12) Cf. Bosworth, The Later Ghaznavids,

(13) Stein, op. cit., pi. 6.

(14) K.A.C. Creswell, A Short Account of Early Muslim Architecture, Harmondsworth 1958, figs. 57-58. (15) S.M. Ashfaque, The Grand Mosque of Banbhore', Pakistan Archaeology, 6, 1969, p. 186, fig. 26 ('128 feet east to west and 122 feet north to south in external dimension'),
p. Id., 187.

(16) Cf. H.
'Excavations

Cousens,
at

'Brahmanabad-Mansura in Sind', ASIAR,

Sind', ASIAR,

1903-1904, pp.
pp. 79-87.

131-144;
Exca?

vations are being carried out in the impoitant monument by the Archaeological Depart? ment of Pakistan directed by Dr Muhammad Ishtiaq Khan.

Brahmanabad-Mansura,

1908-1909,

[9]

161

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Fig. 3 Mosque

at R?ja Glr?

(Dep. CS Neg. L.

15309/18; U.

Scerrato).

Fig. 4 Mosque

at R?ja Gir?:

the mihr?b

(Dep. CS Neg. L.

15309/20; U.

Scerrato).

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have

been In

and is certainly in the pre-Seljuk style.

the absence a building

square

in shape.

The

rectangular mihr?b

was

of the oriental to say whether

type (,7) it was

of archaeological testing, it is difficult or a new construction. that had been modified

The 440 A.H. inscriptionseems to have been found in the vicinity of, or even inside, the building. In all probability, it refers to themosque that has recentlybeen discovered. This would thus be the oldest mosque to be dated It ismore difficult to identifythe reference in the inscriptionto the build? of doors, probably in the formof defensiveworks to protect thispart of the ing outskirts of the fortifiedcomplex of R?ja Glr?.
so far in Pakistan, after those of Banbhore and Mansura.

Fig. 5 Mosque

at R?ja Glr?

(Dep. CS Neg. L.

15309/23; U.

Scerrato).

(17) Creswell,

op.

cit.,

p.

277.

[11]

163

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4.

Side B ofMarble Block (figs.6-7)

It is a white marble two rows panel, almost entirely each row of petals, lotus by a full-blown The of eight petals. consisting the corners are decorated with a scroll-like motif that occupied

as the Dh?mek prototypes Stupa from the Ganges Valley, images panel

a portion of a tenon. The Only one of the smaller sides of the slab preserves in position, the panel if there were other tenons, or other devices for holding chiselled away when re-used as a the slab was have been lost, probably any, for the Arabic support inscription. in our panel has its roots in such Gupta The type of scroll-like decoration at S?rn?th but or the haloes of the main Buddha the comparative crudeness of the work and

unrolls round a beaded plaque partially hidden by the lotus flower.

showing edge of the panel

flower

is beaded;

in this context) from a Hindu there is no reason temple. Actually to a Buddhist rather than a that this panel the hypothesis belongs one has to keep inmind that S?hi art inmarble is almost Hindu monument, though are ex? from this period But architectural marble Hindu. pieces exclusively rare, in any case. tremely in itself, which was Since our panel is a separate piece, complete certainly a frieze), it is not easy to imagine what a larger composition part of (perhaps similar It may well have been be like. such a composition would something appropriate to dismiss

a very clear example of S?hi sculpture. One may suggest a date approxi? in the 8th or 9th century A.D. (l8). mately lies in its being an architectural piece, pre? The of the panel importance if we want to use a Greek word, only partly sumably part of a frieze (a 'metope',

of the simplification themotif, along with the use of white marble, make this

at M?rul, L?hul, attributed to the ceiling decoration Devi Temple in the Markul? to the middle of the 11th century (u>). In this case, one slab in? H. Goetz by and floral (lotus) decoration cludes several panels, both with ('"), figural groups (18) For the marble
'The pp. Turki 375-407, P.

production
S?his and and the &

in the S?hi period,

Brahmanical cited literature

the reader

is referred to Sh.

Kuwayama, 26, 1976,

Relevant earlier F.

in Afghanistan', EW, Sculptures recent contributions More therein.

are the following: G. Verardi,

1977, pp. la region 277-83; de Bernard Caboul',

'Ganesa Seated on a Lion:

Grenet, 10, 'Dicouverte 1981, pp. Iranica,

a New
d'une

S?hi Marble',
du dieu

EW,

27,

statue

solaire

S?rya

2, 1955, pp. 65 ff. (19) H. Goetz, 'The Mediaeval Sculpture of Kashmir'.. M?rg, VIII inH. Goetz, Studies in the History and Art of Kashmir and the Indian Himalaya, (repr. The M?rul frieze is reproduced in pi. XXV Wiesbaden (top) of the 1969, pp. 68-76). (20) The slab reproduced by Goetz includes four large square panels (above) with figure groups, and five minor panels (below), three of which (a longer one in the middle,
two smaller ones on the sides) also contain figures, while the other two are 'metopes' with full-blown lotus flowers. reprint.

dans

Studia

127-46.

164

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Fig. 6 Marble block from R?ja Gir? Mosque: (Dep. CS Neg. L. 15276/14a; F. Noci).

side B

^ ^^^^^^^^
Fig. 7 Marble block fromR?ja Gir?: a detail of side B (Dep. GS Neg. L. 15276/17a; F. Noci).

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between this and the lotus flowers pletely different kind, the great similarity
in the M?rul

to surmise that, in larger friezes, each of the lotus it is quite reasonable although out of a separate slab. panels was made to which the Udegram panel belonged was of a com? Even if the composition ceiling relief is nevertheless is that we the one a safely reliable comparison

point of view. logical and stylistic

Another miri'-type If we accept possibility ceiling, such as

from a typo?

this possibility, a thorough reworking, in the course of which large portions of the original piece were the slab as it is now apparently does not lend itself removed. Indeed, to acting as a keystone in a 'Kashmiri' roofing or, for that matter, in a ceiling of any type.
* * *

are dealing with the central slab of a 'Kash in the temple at P?ndreth?n near Srinagar we must also surmise that our slab is the result of

this chance discovery on the slopes of R?ja GM is extremely conclusion, it provides us with excellent proof of the Ghaznavid because conquest important of Sw?t, as well as being the earliest Islamic epigraphic monument in the region. this has allowed us to identify a mosque that is almost certainly of the Indeed, same period. more significant in view of the fact The latter document is all the at the beginning of this note, there is so little certain knowledge that, as mentioned In about come across a fine S?hi sculpture, whose importance lies in the fact that it is a piece of marble architectural decoration, probably from a temple, i.e. belonging to a monumental class for which there is little evidence in this period. the early Islamization Furthermore, we have of this area.

(21) R. Ch. Kak, Ancient Monuments 1971), pp. 112 f., pi. LXVI.

of Kashmir,

London

1933

(repr., New

Delhi

166

[14]

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