Masum Shah

• 1. A Tower in Sukkur

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  Masum Shah left behind a red-brick minaret in the town of Sukkur, and on a clear day people can spot it from miles away. The man who ordered it was a sixteenth-century Sindhi Muslim historian who also served an emperor. That combination raises several questions. What did he write, and why does a history of Sindh still carry his name? How did a scholar come to command an army? And who is buried in the courtyard at the foot of the tower?

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• 2. The Historian of Sindh

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  Bakhar, in Sindh, in what is now Pakistan, was the home town of Mir Muhammad Masoom Shah Bakhri. He also went by the name Syed Nizamuddin Mir Muhammad Masoom Shah. Around the year 1600, he published his history of Sindh, titled Tarikh i Sind. The work has a second title, Tarikh i Masumi, which honours the author himself. Readers use both names for the same book. That book is the main reason a Mughal official is remembered as a writer first. His pen did not stay at the desk for long, though, because the emperor had other uses for him.

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• 3. Akbar's Lieutenant

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  Around 1595, Masum Shah rode out at the head of the emperor Akbar's army. Akbar trusted him as a lieutenant, and the target was Sibi, a stronghold of the Panni Afghans in the northwest of Quetta. The campaign had large consequences. Baluchistan was annexed into the Mughal empire as a result of the fighting. Three years later, in 1598, Akbar rewarded him by appointing him governor of Sind and Sibi. That post placed him in charge of the same region he had written about, and it set him up to leave a mark on the landscape of Sukkur.

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• 4. The Minaret

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  The year 1607 is the approximate date given for the minaret, which is also called the minaret of Ali Abuzar. Masum Shah was serving Akbar as governor when he was named Nawab of Sukkur, and the tower belongs to that Mughal era. Builders used red brick and shaped the structure into a rough cone. It leans slightly off the perpendicular. A dome crowns the top, and an internal stone staircase leads up to it. The tower measures about 26 metres around and about 31 metres high. Visitors who climb it count 84 steps. Local belief holds that it served as a watch tower. Below it lies a courtyard with a quieter purpose.

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• 5. Family and Custodianship

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  The courtyard around the minaret is a cemetery, and Mir Masum Shah lies there with members of his family. His descendants did not leave. The family and offspring of Nizam-ud-Din Mir Muhammad Masum Shah still live in old Sukkur, where he lived during his time in power. Their hold on the site has a complication. The minaret and its surroundings remain under the sway of the Masumi family. Yet the Government of Pakistan has taken over management control of this historical site, so two authorities now share responsibility for the governor's tower and his grave.

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