Raja Dahir’s last battle, Sindh

01Debal to the Indus

Al-Hajjaj, governor of Iraq, sent his young kinsman Muhammad bin Qasim to Sindh. The port of Debal fell to his catapults in 711 or 712, and the army moved up to the Indus. Dahir, son of Chach, waited on the eastern bank. Muhammad crossed on a bridge of boats. The Chachnama, a Persian translation made in 1216 of an older Arabic account, describes the last fight: Dahir on his elephant in the centre, struck by an arrow, falling as the elephant broke for water, and killed. Al-Baladhuri’s ninth-century account agrees that he died in battle.

02Rawar and after

The Chachnama says Dahir’s queen, named Rani Bai, held Rawar fort with the remaining troops and, when it could not be saved, the women burned themselves rather than be taken. Dahir’s son Jaisiah fought on from Brahmanabad. Aror, the capital, and then Multan fell. Within a few years Qasim was recalled and killed in Iraq, and Jaisiah briefly regained Brahmanabad. The Arab hold stayed confined to Sindh and Multan, as the kings of Rajasthan and Gujarat turned back every further raid.

Person · Reigned c. 730–760 CENagabhata INagabhata I raised the Gurjara-Pratiharas from a western chiefdom to a power, and in the years after the fall of Sindh he threw back the Arab armies that had broken into Rajasthan and Malwa. His descendants later held Kanyakubja and most of the north.Read →