国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

516   TRAVELS OF IBN BATUTA IN BENGAL, CHINA,

forced to conform to Mahomedanism on the change of masters. Of these, a principal one is the Raja of Baniachong (a place between the Barak and Surma, about forty miles S.W. of Silhet). The first invasion of Kamrup by the Mahomedans took place in 1205-6 under Mahomed Bakhtiyar Khilji, Governor of Bengal; a second in 1253-57 under another Governor called Toghral Beg Malik Yuzbek (see Stewart's History of Bengal, pp. 45, seqq.). Both these invasions ended in disaster ; but, as far as can be understood, both appear to have been directed through the Silhet territory, and then across the passes of the Kasia or Jaintia Hills into Assam. In the accounts of both invasions mention is made of a great river called Bangamati, on which stood a chief city which was captured by Bakhtiyar Khilji. This name is not now applied to any river in that quarter ; but it seems highly probable that it may be connected with the Habank (Habanga) of Ibn Batuta, and that this was situated at or near Silhet, perhaps at the place now called BANGA, at the bifurcation of the Surma and Barak, twenty or thirty miles above Silhet. The Bangamati is described in the account of the Khilji's campaign as

three times as big as the Ganges". But this might easily be accounted for if (as is very possible) the rivers of Silhet then chanced to occupy a more concentrated channel than at present, or if (as Captain Fisher suggests) the annual inundation had not quite subsided. This inundation, when at its height, as I have seen it from the Kasia Hills, appears like a vast estuary, covering the whole plain, eighty miles in width, between the Kasia and the Tipura Hills.

So far I had written when the answer arrived from my friend's correspondent, the Rev. W. Pryse of the Silhet mission. My questions had related to Jalaluddin and Habank, and whether any traces of a city existed at Banga. Mr. Pryse states that the name of Jalaluudin Tabrizi was known to the learned Mahomedans at Silhet only as that of a Pf r or Saint in Hindustan, but not locally either in Silhet or Cachar. He then proceeds :-

SHAH JELALL, according to tradition, came to Silhet about the middle of the fourteenth century (A.D.) accompanied by a hundred and eighty Arab Pirs [Holy Men] from Yemen. There is a Persian MS. called

Suhayli-Yemen" still partly in existence at Shah Jelall's Musjid here, which I have seen, but unfortunately the date and a large portion of the MS. are not legible, from the effect of the climate. Shah Jelall's tomb once was, but is not now, a place of pilgrimage.

" HABANG is the name of a small Tillahl in the Pergunnah of Dinarpore south of Hubbigunge in this Zillah, running along the eastern or left

bank of the Barak or Koosiara River. In tradition it is noted for its Firs, under the name of' " Habangia Tillah", or, as pronounced in the neighbourhood, " Hapaniya Tillah"... .

" Chor Goola Tillah, to the south-east of Latoo, some ten or twelve miles S.E. of Banga Bazar (which still exists just at the separation of Soorma and Koosiara Rivers, on the western confines of Cachar), was for-

1 Tula is the word commonly applied in Eastern Bengal to low and often

c :I      isolated hills starting up from the plain. At the town of Silhet there are
several such, on which the houses of the European officials are built.