Shahpur

Shahpur, a town and district of British India, in Rawalpindi division of the Punjab. The town is near the left bank of the river Jhelum. Pop. (1901) 9386. The district of Shahpur has an area of 4840 sq. m. Its most important physical subdivisions are the Salt range in the north, the valleys of the Chenab and Jhelum, and the plains between those rivers and between the Jhelum and the Salt range. The characteristics of these two plains are widely different: the desert portion of the southern plain is termed the bar; the corresponding tract north of the Jhelum is known as the thal. The climate of the plains is hot and dry, but in the Salt range it is much cooler; the annual rainfall averages about 15 in. Tigers, leopards and wolves are found in the Salt range, while small game and antelope abound among the thick jungle of the bar. In 1901 the population was 524,259, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. The principal crops are wheat, millets, pulses and cotton. Irrigation is effected from government canals, and also from wells. The largest town and chief commercial centre is Bhera. The district is traversed by two branches of the North-Western railway.

Shahpur passed into the hands of the English along with the rest of the Punjab in 1849. During the Mutiny of 1857 the district remained tranquil, and though the villages of the bar gave cause for alarm no outbreak of sepoys occurred. Since annexation the limits and constitution of the district have undergone many changes.

Shahrastani [Abu'l-Fath Mahommed ibn `Abdalkarim ush-Shahrastani] (1076 or 1086-1153) Arabian theologian and jurist, was born at Shahrastan in Khorasan and studied at Jurjaniyah and Nishapur, devoting his attention chiefly to Ash`arite theology. He made the pilgrimage in 1116, on his way back stayed at Bagdad for three years, then returned to his native place. His chief work is the Kitab ul Milal wan-Nihal, an account of religious sects and philosophical schools, published by W. Cureton (2 vols., London, 1846) and translated into German. by T. Haarbrucker (2 vols., Halle, 1850-1851). After a preface of five chapters dealing with the divisicns of the human race, an enumeration of the sects of Islam, the objections of Satan against God and against Mahomet and the principles on which the sects may be classified, he deals with (i) the sects of Islam in detail, (2) the possessors of a written revelation (Jews and Christians) or something resembling it (the Magi), (3) the men who follow their own reason, i.e. the philosophers of Greece and their followers among the Moslems; the pre-Islamic Arabs, the Indians and the heathen. Among Shahrastani's other works still in manuscript only are a history of philosophers, a dogmatic text-book and a treatment of seven metaphysical questions.

A brief account of him is given on the authority of his pupil, the historian Sam`ani, in Ibn Khallikan, vol. ii., pp. 675 ff. (G. W. T.)