MULTAN, or MOOLTAN, The capital of a district of the Punjab, British India, 190 miles southwest of Lahore. and 4 miles from the left hank of the Chenab. the inundations of which sometimes reach the city (Map: India, 11 2). It possesses railway communication with all the principal cities of India, and has. in the Indus Valley Railway, a commercial ()Mkt from Central Asia, the Punjab, and the United Prov inces, to the Arabian Sea at Karaviii. Steamers ply to Hyderabad. a distance of 570 miles. The city, situated in a district reou:o'kahge for its fertility, is built on a mound consisting of the ruins of ancient cities, and is surrounded by a dilapidated wall from 40 to 50 feet high. The vicinity abounds in mosques, tombs.. and shrines, attesting the city's antiquity and former mag nificence. The most important of these. situated in the old fort, is the tomb of Rukn-i-Alain. lar of the dating front 1340. an octagonal
red-brick structure covered with multicolored glazed tiles and raised mosaics. and forming a conspicuous object in the surrounding land seape, being 100 feet high and built on an eh•vation. The tomb of Bhawal Ilakk, dating from 1264. and the tomb of Shams-i-Tabriz, are also noteworthy. The bazaars are numerous, extensive, and well stoeked, and the stores are adequately supplied with European and Asiatic eommodities. Thera are manufactures of silks. cottons, shawls, scarfs, brocades, tissues. and extensive banking interests. The local merchants are proverbially rich. Multan is a military station, with an important cantonment one and one-half miles to the east. Alultan was taken by the British in the second Sikh War, in January. 1:449. Population, in 1891, 74,562: in 1901, 87,394.