or more properly AHMEDABAT, i.e. Ahmed's City, an ancient and celebrated city of Hindostan, in the province of Gujarat, of which it was formerly the Mahometan capital. It is situated on the banks of the river Sabarmatty, which washes its western walls, and, after a course of about 120 miles, falls into the Gulf of Cambay, near the city of this name. It was built about the year 1426 by the Sultan Ahmed Shah, on the site of a town still more ancient, and soon became a populous and splendid city; and in the early part of the 17th century it was a noted emporium of eastern commerce, to which the Dutch and other European merchants resorted for the purchase of goods. Here were manufactories of rich gold and silver flowered silks of every description; of steel, gold, ivory, enamel, mother-of-pearl, and lacquered ware, as well as of silk and cotton goods, which were exported through Cambay. The city has entirely declined from its ancient splendour; and its various manufactories, with some trifling exceptions, have fallen into decay and ruin. Its former grandeur is now only marked by the ruins of minarets, palaces, aqueducts, and caravansaries, which extend nearly 30 miles around. In 1780, from being one of the largest capitals in the East, Ahmedabad was reduced to a circumference of five miles and three quarters, surrounded by a high wall, with irregular towers every 50 yards, and 12 principal, besides many other inferior gates. On the outside of the walls the country was in a state of desolation, the resort of wild beasts and of noxious reptiles. This city was still further reduced by the oppressive exactions of the Mahrattas, who conquered it in the early part of the last century, and who levied a tax on every article, however trifling, whether of luxury or of necessity, which was either brought within or sent out beyond its walls. It was acquired by the British in 1818, who commuted all these extortions into an ad valorem duty of 2½ per cent. on indigo, raw silk, &c.; exempting from duty necessary articles of consumption, but augmenting, with their usual rapacious policy, the imposts on opium and tobacco, articles of general consumption throughout India. All restrictions on the transit of the agricultural products of the British territories through the district were removed. This city was afflicted by a pestilence in 1812; and it suffered greatly by an earthquake in 1819, when its population was estimated at 100,000; and it has probably not decreased since that period. Travelling distance from Bombay 321 miles; from Poona 359; from Delhi 610; and from Calcutta by Ojein 1234 miles. Long. 72. 42. E. Lat. 23. 1. N. (Hamilton's Description of Hindostan, East India Gazetteer.)