Islamic Culture July 1946

Bring Cup-bearer all that is left of the wine ! In the Garden of Paradise vainly thou'lt seek The lip of the fountain of Ruknabad And the bowers of Mosalla where roses twine. [...] 'shag belongs the credit for having brought into relief the confusing difficulties in the determination of the date of the first Arab expeditions to India and for having successfully exposed the' myth of al-Mughira's death at ad-Daibul in Sindh.1 But the author has failed in his efforts to invalidate the statement of al-Mdä'ini giving 15 A. H. as the year of the first expedition and to establis [...] The present writer has had occsion to make a critical study of the relevant data on the point in the course of his researches on the subject of The History of Sind under the Arabs ; ' hence the venture to respond to the invitation of the Editor Islamic Culture to contribute to the discussion. [...] The thesis put forward in the following pages is briefly (1) that the statement of al-Madd'ini which is quite independent of that of Abu Mikhnaf must be regarded as highly authentic and (2) that the appointment of 'Uthman in al-Barain in is A. H. which presents the main difficulty in the way of its acceptance is authentic beyond all doubt in view of its confirmation in several trustworth [...] Ishaq has done grave injustice in treating the statement of Aba-Mikhnaf as being on a par with that of aMada on the sole plea that the latter happened to be a pupil of the former.3 In the first instance the statement of al-Mad'MI* differs from that of Abil-Milchnaf both in text and in context and therefore cannot be said to have been borrowed from his master.