Jam Nizamuddin II
Encyclopedia
Jám Nizámuddín II(Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

) جام نظام الدين ثاني
) was the most famous Ruler of the Samma Dynasty, which ruled in Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...

 and parts of Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

 and Balochistan (region)
Balochistan (region)
Balochistan or Baluchistan is an arid, mountainous region in the Iranian plateau in Southwest Asia; it includes part of southeastern Iran, western Pakistan, and southwestern Afghanistan. The area is named after the numerous Baloch tribes, Iranian peoples who moved into the area from the west...

 from 1351-1551 C.E. He was known by the nickname of Jám Nindó. His capital was at Thatta
Thatta
Thatta is a historic town of 220,000 inhabitants in the Sindh province of Pakistan, near Lake Keenjhar, the largest freshwater lake in the country. Thatta's major monuments especially its necropolis at Makli are listed among the World Heritage Sites. The Shah Jahan Mosque is also listed...

 in modern Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.

The Samma Dynasty reached the height of its power during the reign of Jam Nizamuddin II, who is still recalled as a hero, and his rule as a golden age.

His grave is located at Makli near Thatta. The tomb is a stone structure with fine ornamental carving similar to 15th century Gujrat style. After his death, his dilettante son Jám Feróz
Jám Feróz
Jam Ferozudin bin Jam Nizamudin , more usually known as Jam Feroz , was the last ruler of the Samma Dynasty of Sindh.- History :...

udin lost the Sultanate in 1525 C.E. to the invading army of Shah Beg Arghun, who had been thrown out of Kandahar by Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...

.

History

Jám Nizámuddín Shah was elected to the throne of the Kingdom by the joint counsels of all the wise and pious men of Thatta, as well as of the military people on the 25th of Rabi' al-awwal
Rabi' al-awwal
Rabi' al-awwal is the third month in the Islamic calendar. During this month, Muslims around the world celebrate Mawlid - the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Sunni Muslims believe the exact date of birth of Muhammad to have been on the twelfth of this month, whereas Shi'a Muslims believe...

, 866 (A. D. 1461), after the death of Jam Sanjar
Jam Sanjar
Jam Sanjar جام سنجر بن بابينه: On Ráinah’s death, Sanjar became the Jám of Sind. He is said to have been a very handsome person, and on that account was constantly attended by a large number of persons, who took pleasure in remaining in his company...

.

Shortly after his accession, he went with a large force to Bukkur
Bukkur
Bukkur is an island located in Rohri, Sukkur District, Pakistan.Named Bakar by the pious Sayed Muhammad Maki in the seventh century of Hijri, this island is a limestone rock, oval in shape, long by wide, and about in height. According to the Superintendent of Land Records and Registration,...

, where he spent about a year, during which time he extirpated the freebooters and robbers who annoyed the people in that part of the country. He filled the fort of Bukkur with provisions and then left the place in charge of his house-born slave Dilshád, returning to the capital.

For a period of forty-eight years he reigned at Tatta with absolute power. In his kingdom, men of piety and learning, and the Fakir
Fakir
The fakir or faqir ; ) Derived from faqr is a Muslim Sufi ascetic in Middle East and South Asia. The Faqirs were wandering Dervishes teaching Islam and living on alms....

s, spent their time in happiness, and the Sepoys and Ryuts were in comfortable circumstances. Travellers could pass throughout Sindh with no harm to their person or property. The people followed strict Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 rules. The congregations of both great and small assembled in the Mosques: no one was willing to say his prayers alone. The rise of Thatta as an important commercial and cultural center was directly related to his patronage and policies. Its civilization contributed significantly to the evolution of the prevailing architectural style that can be classified as Sindhi-Islamic.

In the last part of Jám Nindó’s reign, after 1490 CE, a Mughul army under Shah Beg Arghun came from Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...

 and fell upon many villages of Chundooha and Sideejuh, invading the town of Ágrí, Ohándukah, Sibi
Sibi
Sibi is a city of Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city is located at 29°33'0N 67°52'60E at an altitude of 130 metres and is headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.. According to the 2001 census of Pakistan the population of Sibi is 52,100...

 Sindichah and Kót Máchián. Jám Nindó sent a large army under his Vazier Darya Khan
Darya khan
Darya Khan is a town of Bhakkar District in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. The town is the headquarters of Darya Khan Tehsil. The town of Darya Khan is itself subdivided into two Union councils. During British rule the railway station at Darya Khan was built as part of the North-Western Railway...

, which, arriving at the village known by the name of Duruh-i-Kureeb, also known as Joolow Geer or Halúkhar near Sibi
Sibi
Sibi is a city of Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city is located at 29°33'0N 67°52'60E at an altitude of 130 metres and is headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.. According to the 2001 census of Pakistan the population of Sibi is 52,100...

, defeated the Mughuls in a pitched battle. Sháh Beg Arghun’s brother Abú Muhammad Mirzá was killed in the battle, and the Mughuls fled back to Kandahár, never to return during the reign of Jám Nizámuddín. Some time after this, Jám Nizámuddín died after a splendid reign of 48 years.

Character

It is said that at the commencement of his manhood he sought after knowledge, spending much of his time in the college and cloister. His disposition was modest and happy. He was celebrated for his good, affectionate temper. He was a very obliging man and an industrious person. He was very regular in his prayers and was very religious and practiced great abstinence. In his days mosques were always full at the time of prayers.

He visited his stables regularly every week and passed his hand over the forehead of his horses and said "O lucky beings, I do not wish to ride you in order to fight with others, unless to go against Kafir
Kafir
Kafir is an Arabic term used in a Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever" or "disbeliever"...

s. On all the four sides of us we have Mussalman rulers. May God never give us any cause other than in accordance with the religious law, to go elsewhere, or others to come here, lest innocent blood of Mussalmans be shed and I be ashamed in the august presence of God."

Jám Nizámuddín and Sultan Hoosain Lungah of Multan
Multan
Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

 were contemporary friends. They were always sending presents to each other.

Jám Nizámuddín was fond of the company of learned men, with whom he took pleasure in discussing literary subjects. There is a story that a learned man of Shíráz
Shiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...

, Jaláluddín Muhammad Roomi had come from Persia to Sindh and had sent his two worthy pupils Mír Shamsuddín and Mír Muín to Thattá to arrange for his sojourn there. Jám Nizámuddín, learning the intention of the Persian savant, ordered good houses to be fitted up for his reception and sent his two pupils with a large sum of money for expenses of the journey, ordering them to bring the learned man. But before their arrival their master had died. Mír Shamsuddín and Mír Muín therefore came back to Thattá and took up their abode at the place.

Tomb of Jám Nizamuddin

Cousens wrote in The Antiquities of Sind:

Lagecy

The British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 had earlier described Thatta
Thatta
Thatta is a historic town of 220,000 inhabitants in the Sindh province of Pakistan, near Lake Keenjhar, the largest freshwater lake in the country. Thatta's major monuments especially its necropolis at Makli are listed among the World Heritage Sites. The Shah Jahan Mosque is also listed...

 as ``a great citie as large as London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. It now had more than 50,000 houses, of which many were made of stone and mortar with vast verandahs, sometimes three or four storeys high. The textiles of Sindh were ``the flower of the whole produce of the East. The international commerce of Thatta ``gave Sindh a place among the nations. The city had 400 schools and 4000 boats. The Sindhis sipped the cups that cheered and sweetly inebriated.

See also

  • Samma (tribe)
  • Samma Dynasty


External references

  • Islamic culture‎ - Page 429, by Islamic Culture Board
  • A History of India Under the Two First Sovereigns of the House of Taimur, by William Erskine
  • The History and culture of the Indian people‎ - Page 224, by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bhāratīya Itihāsa Samiti
  • The Ṭabaqāt-i-Akbarī of K̲h̲wājah Nizāmuddīn Ahmad: a history of India, by Niẓām al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Muqīm, Brajendranath De, Baini Prashad
  • Bibliotheca Indica‎ - Page 778, by Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India)
  • Searchlights on Baloches and Balochistan‎, by Mir Khuda Bakhsh Marri
  • The Delhi Sultanate‎, by Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Asoke Kumar Majumdar, A. D. Pusalker
  • Babar‎, by Radhey Shyam
  • Indo-Arab relations: an English rendering of Arab oʾ Hind ke taʾllugat‎, by Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, Sayyid Sulaimān Nadvī, M. Salahuddin
  • The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians: The Muhammadan Period, by Henry Miers Elliot, John Dowson
  • Muslim Kingship in India‎, by Nagendra Kumar Singh
  • The Indus Delta country: a memoir, chiefly on its ancient geography and history‎, by Malcolm Robert Haig
  • The Samma kingdom of Sindh: historical studies, by G̲h̲ulāmu Muḥammadu Lākho, University of Sind. Institute of Sindology
  • Imperial Gazetteer of India, by William Wilson Hunter, James Sutherland Cotton, Richard Burn, William Stevenson Meyer, Great Britain. India Office, John George Bartholomew
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