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' NOTES 'ON THE FIRST DISCOURSE
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Fakhru'd-Din Mas'dd, first of the Bamiyan line, brother of Husayn
Jahdn-fuz and't father' of odr author's special patron Husamu'd-Bin 'AH,
outlived the year 558/1163, in which, according to the Tabaqdt-i-Ndsir\ 1
^
'ha made war on his nephews Ghiyathu'd-Dirl and Shihab [or Mu'izz]u'd-
Din. The title Maliku'l-JibdJ ("~KJmg of the Mountains") given to him
in the text was common to all the rulers of th$ dynasty.
Shamsu'd-Din Muhammad, son of 'the above-mentioned Fakhru
'd-Din and second of the Bamiyan line, survived at any rate until the year
586/1190, when he aided his cousins Ghiyathu'd-Din and Shihab
r
[or
Sultan-shah ibn Il-arslan ibn
Mu'izz]u'd-Din in their struggle against
Atsiz Khvarazm-shah 2 .
Husamu'd-Din Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali, brother of the above-mentioned
Shamsu'd-Din, was our author's patron to -whom the Chahdr Maqdla is
dedicated, and who must therefore have been living in 5*51-2/11567
when it was written. He is only mentioned in the Tabaqdt-i-Ndsiri
(p. 104) amongs{ the children of Fakhru'd-Din Mas'iid, an4 further
particulars of his life are lacking.
II. The meaning of Tamghaj or Tapghdch.
(Text, p. 9; Persian notes, pp. 92-4.)
Tamghaj is generally explained as the name of a city or district in
China or Chinese Turkistan. In illustration of this view Mirza Muhammad
cites three passages from Arabic writers and some verses by the
Persian poet Mukhtari.
Din Khwarazm-shah
An-Nasawi, the biographer of Sultan Jalalu'd-
3
that it is the custom of the Great Khan to
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spend the summer "in Tamghaj, which is the centre of China, and its
environs"; and this statement is quoted by Abu'1-Fida (who, however,
writes the word Tumhaj or Tumkhaj) in his Geography. Al-Qazwini in
his Athdntl-Bild* describes Tamghaj as "a great and famous city in
the" land of the Turks, comprising many villages lying between two
mountains in a narrow defile by which only they can be approached."
Finally Mukhtari of Ghazna, in the course of a panegyric on Arslan Khan
of the Khaniyya dynasty of Transoxiana, speaks of "nimble Tamghaji
minstrels, quick at repartee."
It seems possible, however, that Tamghaj and Vafghach 5 are merely
variants of the Eastern Turkish word Tapghdch, meaning "worshipful,"
"renowned," and used repeatedly in the sense of "Chinese", in the
Orkhon inscriptions of the eighth osntury of our era. In tru's case the
title "Tamghaj (or Tapghach) Khan" commonly assumed by rulers of
the Khaniyya dynasty really signifies "the worshipful Khan," not "the
Khan of Tamghaj"; and the prevalent belief {hat there was a country
called Tamghaj arose from a misunderstanding, and from a false .analogy
with such titles as Khwarazm-shah, which does actually mean "King of ,
Khwarazm." Mirza Muhammad, however, in a lengthy
and learned
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1 Ed. Calcutta, pp. 29 et seqq.
2 Ibnu'l-Athir (ed. Tornberg), xiii, 28 ; Tabaqdt-i-Ndsiri, p. 52 ; Lubdbu'l-Alb&b
(ed. Browne), i, 321. v
3 Ed. Houdas, pp. 4-5.
4 Ed. Wiistenfeld, p. 275.
5 For this form see the Persian notes to the text, pp. 151, 1. 3, 189, 1. 12, etc.