Travels Into Bokhara (Volume 2); Containing the Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus from the Sea to Lahore, with Presents from the King of Great

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 edition. Excerpt: ...sacred to Ali, who is said to have visited it, --a pious lie, which is not supported by any authority, since the son-in-law of Mahommed never saw Cabool, though his reputed deeds in this neighbourhood be both 150 GHUZNI. Chap. vi. numerous and wonderful. We fed the fish with bread, which disappeared in a moment, torn from our hands by some thousands of them: they are molested by no one, since it is believed that a curse rests on the head of an intruder. Before entering the valley of the river, we left the famous Ghuzni to the south: it is only sixty miles from Cabool. This ancient capital is now a dependency on that city, and a place of small note: it contains the tomb of the great Mahmood, its founder. There is a more honourable monument to his memory in a magnificent dam, which he constructed at great expense, and the only one of seven now remaining. It is worthy of remark, that the ruler of the Punjab, in a negotiation which he lately carried on with the ex-King of Cabool, Shooja ool Moolk, stipulated, as one of the conditions of his restoration to the throne of his ancestors, that he should deliver up the sandal-wood gates at the shrine of the Emperor Mahmood, --being the same which were brought from Somnat, in India, when that destroyer smote the idol, and the precious stones are said to have fallen from his body. Upwards of eight hundred years have elapsed since the spoliation, yet the Hindoo still remembers it, though these doors have so long adorned the tomb of the Sultan Mahmood. Baber expresses his wonder that so great a monarch should have ever made Ghuzni his capital; but the natives will tell you that the cold renders it inaccessible for some months in the year, which gave him greater confidence while desolating Hindoostan...