Chapter DIRZEE to DIUL-SIND of D by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

its ancient Grandeur and Opulency; but at present not above one-fourth of the City is inhabited.”—A. Hamilton, i. 137; [ed. 1744, i. 136].

DIUL-SIND, n.p. A name by which Sind is often called in early European narratives, taken up by the authors, no doubt, like so many other prevalent names, from the Arab traders who had preceded them. Dewal or Daibul was a once celebrated city and seaport of Sind, mentioned by all the old Arabian geographers, and believed to have stood at or near the site of modern Karachi. It had the name from a famous temple (devalya), probably a Buddhist shrine, which existed there, and which was destroyed by the Mahommedans in 711. The name of Dewal long survived the city itself, and the specific addition of Sind or Sindi being added, probably to distinguish it from some other place of resembling name, the name of Dewal-Sind or Sindi came to be attached to the delta of the Indus.

c. 700.—The earliest mention of Dewal that we are aware of is in a notice of Chinese Voyages to the Persian Gulf under the T’ang dynasty (7th and 8th centuries) quoted by Deguignes. In this the ships, after leaving Tiyu (Diu) sailed 10 days further to another Tiyu near the great river Milan or Sinteu. This was, no doubt, Dewal near the great Mihran or Sindhu, i.e. Indus.—Mém. de l’Acad. des Insc. xxxii. 367.

c. 880.—“There was at Debal a lofty temple (budd) surmounted by a long pole, and on the pole was fixed a red flag, which when the breeze blew was unfurled over the city…Muhammad informed Hajjáj of what he had done, and solicited advice.… One day a reply was received to this effect:—‘Fix the manjaník…call the manjaník-master, and tell him to aim at the flagstaff of which you have given a description.’ So he brought down the flagstaff, and it was broken; at which the infidels were sore afflicted.”—Biladuri, in Elliot, i. 120.

c. 900.—“From Nármasírá to Debal is 8 days’ journey, and from Debal to the junction of the river Mihrán with the sea, is 2 parasangs.”—Ibn Khordádbah, in Elliot, i. 15.

976.—“The City of Debal is to the west of the Mihrán, towards the sea. It is a large mart, and the port not only of this, but of the neighbouring regions.…”—Ibn Haukal, in Elliot, i. 37.

c. 1150.—“The place is inhabited only because it is a station for the vessels of Sind and other countries…ships laden with the productions of ’Umán, and the vessels of China and India come to Debal.—”Idrisi, in Elliot, i. p. 77.

1228.—“All that country down to the seashore was subdued. Malik Sinán-ud-dín Habsh, chief of Dewal and Sind, came and did homage to the Sultan.”—Tabakat-i-Nasiri, in Elliot, ii. 326.

[1513.—“And thence we had sight of Diulcindy.”—Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 239.]

1516.—“Leaving the Kingdom of Ormuz…the coast goes to the South-east for 172 leagues as far as Diulcinde, entering the Kingdom of Ulcinde, which is between Persia and India.”—Barbosa, 49.

1553.—“From this Cape Jasque to the famous river Indus are 200 leagues, in which space are these places Guadel, Calara, Calamente, and Diul, the last situated on the most westerly mouth of the Indus.”—De Barros, Dec. I. liv. ix. cap. i.

c. 1554.—“If you guess that you may be drifting to Jaked…you must try to go to Karaushi, or to enter Khur (the estuary of) Diúl Sind.”—The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Ben. v. 463.

„ “He offered me the town of Lahori, i.e. Diuli Sind, but as I did not accept it I begged him for leave to depart.”—Sidi ’Ali Kapudan, in Journ. As. 1st Sertom. ix. 131.

[1557.—Couto says that the Italians who travelled overland before the Portuguese discovered the sea route ‘found on the other side on the west those people called Diulis, so called from their chief city named Diul, where they settled, and whence they passed to Cinde.’]

1572.—

“Olha a terra de Ulcinde fertilissima
E de Jaquete a intima enseada.”

Camões, x. cvi.

1614.—“At Diulsinde the Expedition in her former Voyage had deliuered Sir Robert Sherley the Persian Embassadour.”—Capt. W. Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.

[1616.—“The riuer Indus doth not powre himself into the sea by the bay of Cambaya, but far westward, at Sindu.”—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i. 122.]

1638.—“Les Perses et les Arabes donnent au Royaume de Sindo le nom de Diul.”—Mandelslo, 114.

c. 1650.—Diul is marked in Blaeu’s great Atlas on the W. of the most westerly mouth of the Indus.

c. 1666.—“…la ville la plus Méridionale est Diul. On la nomme encore Diul-Sind, et autrefois on l’a appellée Dobil.…Il y a des Orientaux qui donnent le nom de Diul au Païs de Sinde.”—Thevenot, v. 158.

1727.—“All that shore from Jasques to Sindy, inhabited by uncivilized People, who admit of no Commerce with Strangers, tho’ Guaddel and Diul, two Sea-ports, did about a Century ago afford a good Trade.”—A. Hamilton, i.