24 ARAB CONQUEST OF SIND of the temple to pray to the idol for his son's recovery. They retired for a short time, and then returned and said: " We have prayed and our supplications have been accepted." But no long time passed before the youth died, whereupon the king attacked the temple, destroyed and broke in pieces the idol, and slew its priests. He afterwards invited to his court a party of Mohammedan traders, who made known to him the unity of God, so that he believed in the unity and became a Mussulman. This happened in the caliphate of Mu'tasim bi- Allah/ This last section concludes al-Baladhuri's account of the conquest of Sind, but by way of supplement and to bring the history of this particular province down to the time of Mahmud of Ghazni, it seems appropriate to add here, in abridged form, the excellent sketch by Sir Henry M. Elliot himself, tracing the main current of events down to the extinction of the Arab dominion in Sind. His account occupies the remainder of this chapter.
- During the nine reigns which occupied the period
between the reigns of al-Mu'tasim (833-841 A. D.) and al-Muktadar (908-932 A. D.), the power of the caliphs had been gradually on the decline. The Turkish guard had become more and more outrageous and arbitrary; independent dynasties, such as the Tahirids and Saf- arids, after having shorn the kingdom of some of its fairest provinces, had themselves died out; eunuchs, and even women, had sat upon the judgment seat and dispensed patronage, while corruption and venality
