Note 146 — ARAB REFERENCES.1

Al Masúdi correctly describes the position of Málkhet as eighty Sindh or eight-mile farsakhs that is six hundred and forty miles from the sea in a mountainous country. Again he notices that the language spoken in Mánkír was Kiriya,146 called from Karah or Kanara the district where it was spoken. The current coin was the Tártariyeh dirham (each weighing a dirham and a half)147 on which was impressed the date of the ruler’s reign. He describes the country of the Balháras as stretching from the Kamkar (or Konkan) in the south or south-west north to the frontiers of the king of Juzr (Gujarát), “a monarch rich in men horses and camels.” Al Istakhri (a.d. 951) describes Mánkír as the dwelling of the wide-ruling Balhára. Ibni Haukal (a.d. 968–976) repeats almost to the letter the information given by Al Istakhri. The destruction of Málkhet (Mánya Kheta) by the western Chálukya king Tailappa in a.d. 972 explains why none of the writers after Ibni Haukal mentions Mánkír.