Inscription on the Muqbura at Hailan.*

(Communicated by the Punjab Auxiliary Committee of the Asiatic Society.) [Received 16th February, 1864]

کتبه جانب شمال بر مزار

تاد عليا مظهر العجائب تَجِدُهُ عَوْناً لَكَ فِي الخَوَانِبِ مِنْ كُلِ

و غم سَيَنْجَلِي بِفضلك يا اللهُ بِنُبُونَكَ يَا مُحَمَّدُ بولا يَتَكَ يَا

الله الله لا اله الا هو الحي القيوم لا تاخذه سنة انا فِي ولا نوم له ما السمواتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ مَن ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ يشْفَعُ عِنْدَهُ الا باذنه يعلم ما الا

112

ވ

بين ايديهم وما خلفهم ولا يحيطون بشي علمه الا بما شاء وسع

محمد رسول الله عليه السلام .

او بر كيطرف لكها هوا تها

العظيم

أمير المؤمنين ابو بكون الصديق امير المؤمنين عثمان ابن عفان عُثْمَانَ

A

نیچی کی طرف

ވއވ. ވއ

دو

امير المؤمنين عمر الفاروق امير المؤ منين علي ابن ابي

طَالِبُ اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِصَاحِب القبر

مزار مرزا مرحوم پر بمقام سر بالای مزار شریف بخط میرانی مثلث تین خانه بنا کر لکها هوا هی

* See ante. p. 404

کتبہ پہلے خانہ کا

"

وما توفيقي الا بالله عليه توذلت و اليه راجعون .

نہین توفیق مجکو مگر بامداد خدا کے اور اوپر خدا کے توکل کی مین نے اور طرف خدا کي هی باز گشت .

بهه قبر مرحومه بخشي هوئي كي طرف خدا غني اور رحیم کے

کتبه تیسری خانه

علي خان عرب

تحرير بتاريخ شهر رجب سنه ۹۹۹ هـ كتبه بالاي مزار شریف کا یهه هی توا بکوے اجل هم گدار خواهد بود قرار گاه تو دار القرار خواهد بود ترا به تخته تابوت در کشند روزي اگر خزانه و لشکر هزار خواهد بود لحد ترا بكنج چون بهی بباید خفت تن تو طعمه هر مور و مار خواهد بود مگر که کرده کردار خود نهان داري یقین بدان که همه آشکار خواهد بود بسی سوار که انجا پیاده خواهد شد بسی پیاده که انجا سوار خواهد برد بدین عمل که تو داري بهشت ميطلبي بهشت منزل پرهیز کار خواهد بود بساز توشه رفتن که همرهان رفتند که سعدي از تو همین یاد گار خواهد بود

قطعه

شبی با فلك گفتم از روي حسرت که اي کار تو سر بسر بی وفائي

بسی

دا نهائي نهي با دل من گه از دوستانم جدا می نمائي جوابی بگو دارم از تو سوا لے که یا بد دل از قید عالم رهائي چه بد تر ز اندوه مرگ آدمي بگفتا جدتي جدائي جدائي رباعي

اي با مراد خویش بودم تا مرادی ساختی با مراد خویش بودم خواستم عيش تمام خانه عيش مرا ماتم سرا ئی سا ختي

فلک با من عجب نقشى غريبي ساختي

قعطه

فغان زگردش ایام و چرخ نافرجام من و تو از میان عجب جد انداخت تر

ترا بملك غريبي مرا بكوشه غم ترا کجا و من زار را کجا انداخت امیدوار چنانم که سر نگون گردد فلک که طرح جدائي ميان ما انداخت ربا في

شاها بیا که حسن و جوا في مدام نیست دایم شراب عیش کسی را بجام نیست ايك روز خور مي بجهان تا بشام نیست محبوب در کنار کسی را مدام نیست وبامي فلك بكشتن من این قدر شناب مکن که خواهم از ستمت مرد اضطراب مكن فلک بکام تو گر نیست اضطراب مکن بیک قرار نماند جهان شتاب مکن

Peculiarities and Uses of the Pillar Towers of the British Islands, by DR. T. A. WISE.

[Received 25th March, 1864.]

So much has been written on the Pillar Towers of the British Islands, and so conflicting are the conclusions drawn, that it may be of use to direct the attention of members of the Asiatic Society, to these remarkable monuments of antiquity, in the expectation of obtaining more correct suggestions than have hitherto been made, regarding their use; as there is a growing belief that they are of Asiatic origin. In the course of the following remarks several examples of Indian Pillar Towers will be mentioned; and it is hoped that photography will afford aid to prove their relationship with those in Europe. Their number must necessarily be few, owing to the lapse of centuries, and to their having been generally destroyed by the persecuting Brahmans; and they will therefore only be found in distant and unfrequented places.

There are no records of the people who built these Towers, or the purposes for which they were built in Ireland and Scotland; and they are so ancient that the most general traditions among the people are that they were the work either of fairies, or the "good people," or "the weird people of the Beghts"; or of saintly old women; or of the Danes, the last conquerors, and cruel devastators of Ireland in ancient times. Without stopping to criticise such fancies, I shall confine myself to a general description of the peculiarities and uses of these remarkable structures, with a few remarks on the probable age in which they were built.

General description.-The graceful outline, and simple style and construction of the Pillar Towers, standing in the solitary waste, or rising unchanged amidst mouldering ruins of churches and tombstones, and their mysterious origin and uses, have long occupied attention, and afforded scope for the ingenuity of antiquarian speculators.

There are 118 of those Pillar Towers in Ireland, and two in Scotland; and they appear to have been constructed by powerful and intelligent missionaries, animated by religious zeal and a sense of security. Such an origin would explain their resemblance to each other, in their graceful form

and peculiar structure. They are from fifty to sixty feet in circumference, and eight or nine in diameter throughout, and are divided into from three to seven or twelve stages, forming apartments of different heights. Their floors are supported in some instances by ridges taken off the thickness of the walls, or by abutments or rests four or six inches in size. In the older Towers, holes are left for the reception of beams to support the floors.

Some of the Pillar Towers have holes in the lintel-stones to receive the hinges of the door. In other Towers the door appears to have been kept shut by a ladder resting upon the opposite wall, and against the closed door; in others again by a bar across the back of the door, the extremities resting in holes behind it, to keep it shut; which fact, with the depth of the floor below the door, prove that security was attended to. The different stages or apartments of the Pillar Towers were reached by a ladder drawn up from the elevated door, and from floor to floor as required, in times of danger. The entrance was from eight to twelve feet from the ground, was generally wider below than above, and flat, or rounded at the top. There were two kinds of windows; those near the top were generally four* in number turned to the cardinal points of the compass, and below these were small oblong openings at intervals, generally in opposite directions, to give light to the different stages of the Tower. Their size, position, and number, vary considerably in different Pillar Towers. The Towers are usually covered with a conical top, sometimes laid with horizontal, and in other cases by herring-bone masonry.

Neither the number of stories, nor the direction of the entrance or windows were of any material importance to the object of the building, as they varied so much in different Towers. The Towers generally resemble each other in the entrance being elevated seven, ten or thirteen feet above the surface of the ground; whereas the floor of the Towers is often three or four feet below the level of the door; and up to this elevation, the Tower is generally solid, sometimes with a projecting ridge of four inches, on the outside, level with the ground. The foundation descends two or three feet below the surface, except where the Tower is built on the solid rock.

* There are nine in the Pillar Tower of Clonmacuoise, and none in that of Dunnoughmore.