History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I.] INVASION OF GUJARAT. 43

tioned in connection with them. After they had spread from Sanjan to other places in Gujarat, two or three centuries elapsed during which we may suppose that nothing of importance occurred, and certainly no mention is made of anything if it did occur. All that we are told is that the Parsis chiefly occupied themselves wherever they settled in agricultural pursuits. They seem to have lived amicably with the Hindus, for during this long period of five hundred years no misunderstanding between them and the children of the soil is ever mentioned.

About the year 1305 a circumstance occurred which roused the old fire and warlike spirit of the Parsis. In that year they are affirmed to have greatly distinguished themselves in assisting the Hindu chief of Sanjan against the aggression of Muhamed Shah or Ala-ud-din Khilji. This chief formed a design for subverting the independence of Sanjan, and despatched to Gujarat a large army under a skilful general named Alp Khan to effect that object. several Zoroastrian disciples from Persia, and a number of Mahomedans and Hindus are said to have become his followers. He was a philosopher, and taught the religion philosophically to his disciples, and also wrote a work on the philosophy of religion entitled Mukasefale Azar Kevan (Dabistan).

1 Dr. J. Wilson (J. B. B. R. A. S, i. 182) has suggested that the Mahmud Shah of the Missah-i-Sanjan was Mahmud Begada, who reigned in Gujarat from 1459 to 1513. The mention of Champaner as his capital makes it probable that the writer of the Kissah-c-

Sanjan thought the Mussulman prince was the well-known Mahmud Begada. But the completeness of Alp Khan’s conquest of Gujarat