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Geography
The city of Karachi is located at latitude 24° 48´ N and longitude 66° 59´ E. The city occupies an area of over 4,000 km² and is expanding. Karachi is mostly made up of flat or rolling plains with hills on the western and northern boundaries of the urban sprawl. Two rivers pass through the city: the Malir River (north east to centre) and the Lyari River (north to south). Many other smaller streams also pass through the city as well with general drainage being from the western and northern areas towards the south. The Karachi Harbor is a protected bay to the south west of the city. The harbor is protected from storms by Kemari Island, Manora Island and Oyster Rocks, which together block the greater part of the harbor entrance in the west. The southern limit of the city is the Arabian Sea and forms a chain of warm water beaches that are rich in natural beauty.
Climate
Karachi is located on the coast and as a result has a relatively mild climate. The level of precipitation is low for most of the year. However, due to the city's proximity to the sea, humidity levels usually remain high throughout the year. The city enjoys mild winters and very warm summers. Karachi also receives the tail end of the monsoon rains. Since summer temperatures (the end of April through the end of August are approximately 30 to 48 degrees Celsius), the winter months (November through March) are the mildest time of the year.
History
The modern humans after their evolution in Africa spread to the rest of the world. Karachi lies along their coastal migration path to South Asia and beyond. The fertile Indus valley has been inhabited since the dawn of the history. The Indus Valley civilization of Pakistan traded with Mesopotamian civilization and with Persian Gulf communities. Karachi's natural harbor was probably served as the main port of the Indus Valley civilization. The earliest known reference of the area that is now Karachi is during the Alexander the Great's invasion of Pakistan in 326 B.C. Alexander the Great after conquering the Indus Valley, modern Pakistan, camped on the port city of "Krokola" on the return voyage to Mesopotamia. Alexander the Great planned to build a port city at this location for the trade and communication with his Indus valley satrapy and his empire. Alexander 's admiral Nearchus sailed back to Mesopotamia from 'Morontobara' port which is probably the modern Manora Island at Karachi harbor. According to legend, "Krokola" was started when an old woman by the name of Mai Kolachi, settled near the mouth of the Indus to start a community. A small fishing village developed in the area, which was called Kolachi-jo-Goth i.e. 'Village of Kolachi". The Arab general Mohammad Bin Qasim conquered Karachi in 712 A.D. and introduced Islam in Pakistan. The Arab empire stretched from Kashmir to Sindh along the Indus river, i.e. modern Pakistan. In the sixteenth century Ottoman empire was defending Arabian sea trade routes from the Portuguese pirates. Portuguese captured 'Keti Bandar' small port in Karachi harbor and also other ports along Sindh Gujarat ports during the war between Mughal emperor Humayun and Gujarat's ruler Bahadur Shah. The local governor requested help from the Ottoman empire. When the Ottoman governor of Egypt, Suleiman Pasha heard this, he left Suez on the 15th of Moharram of the Year 945 Hijri (1538 A.D.) with a well-equipped fleet of 80 vessels. Ottoman fleet sailed on to Sindh and after a successful battle, the two strongholds Kukeke and Ket (Keti-bender in the district of Karachi) were liberated from the Portuguese occupation. Ottoman Turkish Amir-ul-Bahr (Admiral) Sidi (Syed) Ali Reis (Rais) wrote his autobiography entitled 'Mirat al Memalik' (the Mirror of Countries) during the year 1553-1556 in which he mentions visiting port of Debal (Karachi) and described it as a important harbor on the Sindh coast. It was in 1729 that Kolachi-jo-Goth was transformed from a fishing village to a trading post when it was selected as a port for trade with Muscat and Bahrain. In the following years a fort was built and cannons brought in from Muscat were mounted on it. The fort had two doorways, one facing the Arabian sea called the 'Khara Darwaza' i.e. Brackish Gate and one facing the River Lyari called the 'Meetha Darwaza' i.e. Sweet Gate. Currently, the site of those gates corresponds to the location of the neighborhoods of Kharadar and Meethadar. In 1795 the city passed from the Khan of Kalat to the Talpur rulers of Sindh. British first visited Karachi in 1809 when a diplomatic mission visited the Talpur Mirs. The British saw the importance of the of Karachi and Indus River, believing it could be an important commercial highway. British also feared the invasion of South Asia from the expanding Russian empire and needed a route to supply and strengthen relations with Afghanistan. On 3rd February 1839, the British captured the Karachi and three years later, annexed it into British Empire as the district of Karachi. The British, who realized its potential as a port city for the produce of the Indus Valley, developed it into a commercial trading center. The harbor was developed, and a railroad that connected the city to the rest of South Asian British Empire was constructed in the 1880's. The city for which Sir Charles Napier once quoted, "One day it shall be the Queen of the East", quickly blossomed into a major commercial center that attracted businessmen from all over the world including communities of Goans, Zorastarians (Parsis), Lebanese, and other South Asian traders apart from the British. Thus was the beginning of the city of Karachi. After the creation of Pakistan, the city absorbed the tides of Muslim refugees into the new country, and it was made the capital of Pakistan. In 1961, the capital was shifted from Karachi to the new city of Islamabad, and Karachi fell a victim of mismanagement and bad governance. Since its beginnings, the city of Karachi has immensely swelled in size and population, and today ranks as one of the world's mega-cities with a unique culture, dynamism, and energy of its own.
Demography
The population of Karachi was estimated to be more than 15 million in 2005. Linguistically, approximately 45% are Urdu speaking, 15% Sindhis, 15% Punjabis, 15% Pakhtuns, 10% Balochis, and the rest are Kashmiris, Brahuis, Seraikis, Bengalis, Goans, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Iranians, Arabs, and Burmese. Religiously, approximately 97% are Muslim, 1% Christian, 1% Hindus, and the rest are Qadianis, Zorastarians, and Bahais.
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Multan is a city in south central Punjab province. It is built just east of the Chenab River. About 966 km from Karachi and more or less right in the center of the country lie the ancient city of Multan. Multan, the 'City of Pirs and Shrines' is a prosperous city of bazaars, mosques, shrines and superbly designed tombs.
Detailed History Of Multan
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has been found indicating that Pakistan might have been inhabited since at least the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise date of these remains is unclear, and archaeologists put it anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The fossils are the earliest human remains found in South Asia. Modern humans arrived from Africa after their evolution about 70,000 to 31,000 years ago and settled in South Asia.
The original inhabitants of ancient Multan region, and rest of ancient Pakistan, were the aborigine tribes speaking languages related to Munda languages. Pakistan was the site of the earliest known farming settlements between South Asia and the Iranian plateau, the earliest of which was Mehrgarh in Balochistan dated at 6500 BCE. Multan was sparsely populated by various Elamo-Dravidian and Indo-Iranian tribes for centuries following the decline of the nearby Harappa and Mohenjo Daro of Indus Valley Civilization to the east. The Indo-Aryan tribes invaded from Eurasian Steppe and settled in northern Punjab and Kashmir.
200 BCE The earliest history of Multan fades away in the mists of mystery and mythology. Most of the historians, however agree that Multan beyond any doubt, is the same Maii-us-than which was conquered by Alexander the Great who faced here tremendous resistance. He was fatally wounded while fighting to capture the citadel. For the first time his sacred shield, which he had taken from the temple of Illion, Athena, and which he used always to be carried before him in all his battles, rolled in dust while he fell unconscious on the ground with blood gushing out from his wounds. But that was the scene which inspired the Macedonians and seeing their king in that state they launched a lightening attack and captured the citadel without any further harm to Alexander the great. Alexander, however, never recovered fully well after this battle and died, on his way back, at Babylon.
400-600 CE History is silent for more than six centuries that is until 454 CE when White Huns, the barbarous nomads, stormed Multan under the banner of their leader Torman. After a fierce fight they conquered but did not stay for long and Hindu rule continued once again for about two hundred years.
600-700 CE Subsequent history of Multan is well established and more than sufficient light has been thrown on the cross section by world famous travelers, writers and historians who visited Multan including the Chinese historian Hiuen Tsang in 641 CE The Chinese traveler found the circuit of the city about 30 li which is equal to five miles. He described, "the soil rich and fertile and mentioned about eight Deva temples. He also mentioned that people do not believe in Buddha rule. The city is thickly populated-the grand temple dedicated to the Sun is very magnificent and profusely decorated - The image of Sun Deva also known as "Mitra" is cast in yellow gold and ornamented with rare gems. Its divine insight mysteriously manifested and its spiritual powers made plain to all and so on".
Multan was first visited by the Muslim arms during the reign of the Khalifa Abu Bekr, in 44 Hijri (664 CE), when Mohalib, the Arab General, afterwards an eminent commander in Persia and Arabia, penetrated to the ancient capital of the Maili. He returned with many prisoners of war. The expedition, however, seems to have been directed towards exploration of the country as no attempt was apparently made to retain the conquest.
700-800 CE Mohammad Bin Qasim, the great Muslim general invaded modern Pakistan in 712 CE, and conquered Sindh and Multan. The city was conquered after a fierce and long battle which lasted for seven days. Many distinguished officers of the Muslim army sacrificed their lives in the battle, but the Hindu army was defeated and Multan became part of the Muslim caliphate.
800-900 CE In the periods, of Caliph Mansoor, and Mostasim Bilia, Multan and the surrounding areas developed as commerce and trade was carried out with the rest of Muslim world.
900-1000 CE Ibn Khurdaba described in his book, "The book of Roads and Kingdoms", "Multan being two months journey from Zarani the capital of Sijistan, by the name of Farj because Mohammad, Son of Qasim, Lieutenant of At-Hajjaj, found vast quantities of gold in the city, which was forwarded to the Caliph's treasury so it was called by the Arabs the House of Gold".
Al-Masudi of Baghdad who visited the valley of the Indus in 303 A.H. (915 CE) mentioned about Multan in his book, "The Meadows of Gold", that "Multan is seventy five Sindhian Farsangs from Mansura. It is one of the strongest frontier places of the Musulmans and in its neighborhood there are a hundred and twenty thousand towns and villages". Both tstakhari of Istakhar, or Persepolis, who wrote about the middle of the tenth century 340 A.H. (951 CE) and Ibn Haukal of Baghdad who based his work on that of Istakhari, give glowing accounts of Multan which they described as a large, fortified and impregnable city, about half the size of Mansura, the ancient Muslim capital of Sindh. They also mentioned about the idol of Multan as being held in great veneration by Hindus who flocked to it from all parts of South Asia. Sultan Sabuktagin, the Afghan King conquered Multan, but after four years, that is, in 980 CE it was conquered by a Sardar of the Karamti tribe who ruled it for some time.
1000-1100 CE Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi conquered Multan for the first time in 1007 CE - and consolidated the Muslim rule in Punjab. The Multan rebelled and Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi reconquered Multan for the second time during 1010 CE.
1100-1200 CE Sultan Shahab-ud-din, who is also known as Sultan Mohammad Ghauri, finally defeated Pirthvi Raj and conquered South Asia. After consolidating his position in Delhi, led an army attack, against Multan and conquered it. As such, Multan, which had remained almost independent under the Arab rulers became a dependency of the house of Ghaznavi. Sultan Mohammad Ghauri appointed Ali Karmani as his Governor of Multan and Uch.
1200-1300 CE In 1218 CE barbaric Mongol Changez Khan, also spelled Genghis Khan, invaded Western Turkistan and for the next three centuries history of Multan is practically the history of incursions from Western and Central Asia to which the invasion of Changez gave rise. During this period Multan was nominally subject to the Delhi Empire. There were, however, two periods when Multan was practically a separate Kingdom independent of Delhi. At times the province was held by powerful governors who, though, unable to secure independence, were powerful factors in the dynastic changes of the time. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and many settled in Multan.
The Administration of Multan suffered due to preoccupation of Delhi Empire in repelling the repeated raids of Mughals from Khurasan and Central Asia. In 1 284 CE the Mughals under Taimur Khan, defeated and killed prince Muhammad, known as the Martyr Prince who then ruled Multan. In 1305 CE an invasion under Aibak Khan was repelled by the redoubtable warrior Ghazi Beg Tughlak, who is said to have 29 times defeated the invading hordes. In 1 327 CE a force under Turmsharin Khan over-ran the district and retreated on payment of bribe.
1300-1400 CE After the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, Multan became its western frontier. In the beginning it was governed by Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha, then captured by Jalal-al-Din Manakabarni and finally annexed by Shams-AI-Din Altamash. When Balban strengthened his frontier guard he posted his eldest son Sultan Muhammad
Khan-i-Shahid here and made him responsible for the defense. It was under his patronage that Amir Khusrau and Hasan Dehiavi lived in Multan and composed their poems. Multan, however, continuously suffered from Mongol invasions. In order to meet these Mongol pressures Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughlaq was appointed as a warden of the Frontier Marches. From Multan he rose to be the Sultan of Delhi - Multan remained under the Tughlaqs until it was conquered by Amir Taimur in 1 397 CE
During this long period the prosperity of Multan grew unabated. It was during this period that the city was adorned by important monuments that established a particular school of Multani Architecture. The Tombs of Baha-AI-Din Zakariya, Shah Rukn-AI-Din, Rukn-e-Alam and Shamas Sabzwari have given to Multan a unique place in the Muslim Architecture. The presence of these tombs of the saints mentioned above have also added a religious tone to the city.
In 1397 CE, came the invasion of Taimur whose troops occupied Uch and Multan, sacked Tiamba, raided the Khokhars of Ravi and passed across Beas to Pakpattan and Delhi.
1400-1500CE For about forty years after the departure of Taimur there was no government in South Asia in reality. Khizer Khan Syed governed the Kingdom in the name of Taimur but without any sovereign title or royal honors. During the troubled reign of his grand son Syed Mohammad, an insurrection broke out in Multan among the Afghans called Langas. Finally one of the Langa chiefs proclaimed himself as the king of Multan under the title of Sultan Kutab-ud-din Langa.
During the eighty years that Multan was held by Langa Dynasty, it became the principal caravan route between South Asia and Kandahar. Commerce and agriculture flourished. All the lands along the banks of the Chenab and the Ghagra as well as some on the Indus were cultivated and prosperity flourished once again.
1500-1600 CE In 1526 CE Shah Hussain Arghun, at that time the ruler of Sindh, seized Multan on behalf of Babar, the Mughal emperor. He bestowed it on his son Mirza Askari. The Mirza, assisted by Langar Khan, one of the powerful Amirs of Sultan Mahmud Langa, held possession of Multan during the rest of the Baber's reign. After the death of Mughal emperor Babar, Humayun found himself compelled to surrender Multan, in fact the whole of Punjab, to his eldest brother, Kamran Mirza. The prince established his court at Lahore and deputed one of his Amirs to take care of Multan. During the confusion that followed the flight of Humayun to Persia the Kingdom of Multan was captured by Balochis under their chieftain Fattah Khan who surrendered it to Hebat Khan, one of the commanders of Sher Shah Suri. Pleased with his services, Sher Shah Suri bestowed the Kingdom of Multan on Hebat Khan.
1600-1700 CE When Humayun recaptured his throne in 1555 CE Multan was also amalgamated in the Mughal Empire, Abul Fazal mentions in "Ain-e-Akbari" that: "Multan was one of the largest provinces of the empire, extending to the frontiers of Persia including within its limits the modern countries of Balochistan, Sindh, Shikarpore and Thatta, besides a portion of Doabas now attached to Lahore. A royal mint for silver and copper coins was established at Multan along with the mints at Delhi, Agra and a few other places". Under the Mughal Emperors, Multan enjoyed a long period of peace and was known as Dar-ul-Aman (city of peace). For more than two hundred years that is from 1548 to 1748 there was no warfare in this part of the Punjab. As a result of these peaceful conditions, cultivation increased, particularly in the riverain areas and commerce flourished. Multan thus became an emporium for trade. The city became the headquarter of a province which covered the whole of the South Western Punjab and, at times, included Sindh also.
1700-1800 CE At the decline of the Mughal Empire Multan had, at first escaped devastation which was experienced by other parts of the South Asia. The main reason was the change in the route of the invaders from Afghanistan to South Asia as it lay through Lahore. So the armies of Nadir Shah Durrani and Ahmed Shah Abdali left Multan unscathed. After having been a part of the Delhi empire, Multan in 1752, became a province owing allegiance to the Afghan kings of Kabul. During this period the country was ruled by Pakhtun Governors and under the rule of the Saddozais of Kabul. The Saddozais governed Multan for more than sixty six years but general conditions remained turbulent.
After consolidating their position at Lahore, the Sikhs marched to the south-west for over two hundred and fifty miles. They crossed the Indus and penetrating into the Deras' under their Commanders Sardar Hari Singh Bhangi and his sons, Jhanda Singh and Ganda Singh along with Hira Singh, the barbaric Sikhs destroyed everything, plundered many villages and killed the people mercilessly, set the houses of the Muslims on fire, raped Muslim women and demolished most of the mosques and tombs of Muslim saints. Ultimately, under the command of Jhanda Singh and Ganda Singh, they appeared before Multan on March 9 1764 CE (21 Ramadan 11 78 A. H.) looted its suburbs but after collecting millions of rupees they returned.
1800-1900 CE By the beginning of 1818 Ranjit Singh succeeded to raise a big army consisting of 25,000 soldiers equipped with necessary provisions which he placed under Diwan Misr Chand, his most trusted General. The over all charge of the campaign was entrusted to his elder son Khark Singh and the contingent set out for Multan with great pomp and show. The famous Zamzama Gun was also transported to Multan. Nawab Muzaffar Khan Saddozai who was the Governor of Multan for the past thirty nine years fought courageously but failed to save Multan from the clutches of Sikhs. The death of Muzaffar Khan was in fact the death of the Muslim rule in Multan. After capturing the Fort the Sikh soldiers were let loose to arson, rapes and debauchery and Latif recorded as under : "The city and Fort were now given up to be plundered by the uncivilized Sikh troops. Great were the ravages committed by the Sikhs on this occasion. About 400 to 500 houses in the Fort were razed to the ground and their owners deprived of all they had. The precious stones, jewelry, shawls and other valuables belonging to the Nawab were confiscated to the state and kept carefully packed by Diwan Ram Diyal for inspection of the Maharaja. In the town the Muslim houses were set on fire and nothing was left with the inhabitants that was worth having. Thousands were killed as city was mercilessly sacked and indeed there was hardly a soul who escaped both loss and violence".
The oppressive Sikh rule continued in the Punjab and Multan unchecked. The Sikhs army in Multan was over confident and after looting all the villages and towns under their control and now looked for new places to loot. The Sikh army crossed the Sutlej River and invaded the British colonial territory. They looted and pillaged Muslim villages on December 8th, 1845 CE and they also killed thousands of people, comitted rapes and kidnappings. Thr British were outraged and the British army invaded the Sikh kingdom and defeated the Sikhs. Thereafter a treaty was signed between the British and the Sikhs. Under this new treaty a Council of Regency was established at Lahore which empowered the British to intervene into many administrative matters.
The rogue Sikh Army in Multan which was the cause of British-Sikh war then rebelled unhappy over the restrictions in the treaty. The Sikh army murdered two British officers that were in Multan to oversee the implementation of the treaty. This open rebellion infuriated the British colonial government at Lahore and they decided that Multan should be captured and amalgamated into the British territory. The British army invaded in December 1848 and bombarded Multan. A shell from a mortar blew up the magazine located within the fort, containing gun powder, the explosion destroyed the great Blue Mosque and the lofty dome of Hadrat Baha-ud-Din Zakariya's tomb. On January 2, 1849, the British army finally captured Multan from the oppressive Sikh rule. Again, to quote Latif: "Terrible had been the carnage during the siege and frightful the effect of the British ordnance. The battered town of Multan presented the appearance of a vessel wrecked and broken by a tremendous storm which had driven it to an inhospitable shore. Not a house or wall had escaped the effects of the English shells. All had been scorched and blackened by the bombardment. Finally Multan was liberated from barbaric Sikhs as well as the end of the constant rapes, loot and plunder which was the main characteristic of the Sikh rule". The persecuted Muslims of Multan hailed the British as the liberators from the oppressive Sikh rule.
1900-1947 CE Multan, however, lost its very important position as soon as the British stronghold over the South Asia grew stronger. Although peace prevailed in the region but no real progress was made in developing the infrastructure of Multan. The people of Multan were deprived and lived in poverty as the economic situation remained bleak. The Muslim population of Multan enthusiastically supported the Muslim League and the establishment of the Islamic state of Pakistan.
Independence
Modern Pakistan gained it's independence from the British on 14th August 1947. The Hindu and Sikhs fanatics massacred over one million Muslims refugees fleeing from India.
At the time of Pakistan's independence in 1947, Multan city was in a very bad state. It was lacking industry, hospitals, and even places of higher education. Since independence, there has been economic development and the city's population has increased dramatically. But the old city continues to be in a dilapidated state, and many Muslim monuments wear the effects of the barbaric Sikh rule and British bombardments. Hospitals, schools, communications, industry, commerce, infrastructure, dry port and an international airport has been built in Multan. Multan has now become one of the major cities in Pakistan.
Demography and Society
Multan district is spread over an area of 3,721 square Kilometers with a population of approximately 4.1 million. The majority population speaks Seraiki, Punjabi, Balochi and Urdu. Over 99% of the population is Muslim and belong to Sunni Hanafi school of jurisprudence.
District
The Multan district has following four tehsils.
Multan Cantonment
Multan Sadar
Shujabad
Jalalpur Pirwala
Major towns are Makhdoom Rashid, Qadirpur Ran and Basti Maluk.
Education
Since independence many schools, colleges and universities have been built in Multan. Bahauddin Zikria University, Al-Khair University, Preston University and Nishtar Medical College.
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History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has been found indicating that Pakistan might have been inhabited since atleast the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise date of these remains is unclear, and archaeologists put it anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The fossils are the earliest human remains found in South Asia. More than 60% of Pakistanis have their mtDNA maternal roots in South Asian specific branches of haplogroup 'M'. Because of its great time depth and virtual absence in western Eurasians, it has been suggested that haplogroup M was brought to Asia after their evolution in Africa, along the southern route, by the earliest migration wave of anatomically modern humans, Homo Sapiens, nearly 60,000 years ago
The original inhabitants of Pakistan may have been the tribals speaking languages related to Munda family of languages. Pakistan was the site of the world's oldest 8,000 year old civilisation at Mehrgarh in the Balochistan province. The Mehrgarh declined about the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization only 200 Kilometers south east was developing. It has been surmised that the Mehrgarh residents moved to fertile Indus River valley as Balochistan became arid over time. The Dravidians invaded from the Iranian plateau and settled in the Indus valley around 4000 BCE. The Dravidian culture blossomed over the centuries and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan around 3000 BCE. The main site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Punjab was the city of Harappa. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline just prior to the invasion of Indo-European Aryan tribes from the Eastern Europe. A branch of these tribes called the Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic Civilization that have existed between Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BCE and also infuenced the Indus Valley Civilization. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia. Due to its location, the Punjab region came under constant attack and influence from the west. Conquered by the Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Afghans, and Sikhs, Pakistani Punjab developed a unique culture that combined that of significant Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences even prior to the coming of Islam.
The Punjabis were in ancient times were predominantly Buddhist and were in the process of coming under the influence of Hinduism when Umayyad Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Punjab, and the present Pakistan from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea, in 713. The predominant population of Punjab, and the rest of Pakistan, converted to Islam but there were significant non-Muslim populations including Hindus and later Sikhs. During the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni, the province became an important center and Lahore was made into a second capital of the Ghaznavid Empire. Various tribes such as the Gakhars would often dominate local affairs and would either act as vassals to the larger empires or lead local rebellions. Later, the Mughals took control of the region from 1524 until 1739 and would also lavish the province with building projects such as the Shalimar Gardens and the Badshahi Mosque. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and many settled in the Punjab. Following the decline of the Mughals, Nadir Shah sacked the province in 1739 and then the Afghan conquerer Ahmad Shah Durrani annexed the province into his Durrani Empire from 1747 until 1799. During the Mughal period, the religion of Sikhism was born and emerged as a formidable military force as the Sikhs wrested control from the weakened descendents of Ahmad Shah Durrani. Led by Ranjit Singh the province came under the brutal Sikh occupation from 1799 to 1849 during which the Muslims were persecuted. After the British defeated the Sikhs in 1849, the Muslims of Punjab hailed them as liberaters from the barbaric Sikh rule. In 1947 the Punjab province was divided along religious lines as the western Punjabis voted to join the new state of Pakistan while the easterners joined India. The Hindu and Sikhs fanatics massacred over one million Muslims refugees fleeing from India. Since the independence, province has rapidly industrialized and is the breadbasket of the country as well as home to the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, the Punjabis.
Geography
Punjab is Pakistan's second largest province at 205,344 km² (79,284 square miles) and is located at the northwestern edge of the geologic plate in South Asia. The capital and main city of Punjab is Lahore, which has been the historical capital of the region. Other important cities include Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, and Rawalpindi. The province is home to five rivers: the Indus, Sutlej, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi.
The province is a mainly a fertile region along the rivers valleys, while spare deserts can be found near the border with India and Balochistan. The region contains the Thar and Cholistan deserts. In the north province borders Kashmir, in the west by Sarhad and in south by Sindh. The Indus River and its many tributaries traverse the Punjab from north to south. The landscape is amongst the most heavily irrigated land on earth and canals can be found throughout the province. Weather extremes are notable from the hot and barren south to the cool hills of the north. The foothills of the Himalayas are found in the extreme north as well.
Demographics and Society
The population of the province is estimated to be 86,084,000 in 2005 and is home to over half the population of Pakistan. The major language spoken in the Punjab is Punjabi (which is written in Perso-Arabic script, known as Shahmukhi, in Pakistan) and Punjabis comprise the largest ethnic group. Punjabis themselves are a heterogenous group comprising different tribes and communities, The most important tribes within Punjab include the Gakhars, Jats, the Arain, the Gujjars and the Rajputs. Other smaller tribes are the :Awans, and Maliks. In addition, there is a significant shift towards the usage of Urdu by the educated classes of the province as the Punjabis are the most ardent supporters of the nation-state of Pakistan and all of its national insitutions. There is also a nationalist movement amongst the somewhat related Seraikis in the south of Punjab and many wish to see a separate the region into a new province of Seraikistan. Other smaller groups in the province include Hindko, Pakhtuns, Balochs, Kashmiris, Muhajirs and others.
The population of Punjab is over 99% Muslim with a Sunni majority and Shia minority. There are small non-Muslims groups of Christians, Ahmadis and Sikhs.
Economy and Education
Punjab is one of the most industrialized provinces of Pakistan; its manufacturing industries produce textiles, sports goods, machinery, electrical appliances, surgical instruments, metals, bicycles and rickshas, floor coverings, and processed foods.
Despite its dry climate, extensive irrigation makes it a rich agricultural region. Its canal-irrigation system established by the British is the largest in the world. Wheat and cotton are the largest crops. Other crops include rice, sugarcane, millet, corn, oilseeds, pulses, fruits, and vegetables. Livestock and poultry production are also important.
The province's population is increasingly becoming literate as education has expanded in the province in recent years.
Social issues
The Punjab is the most stable province of Pakistan as Punjabis comprise the largest ethnic group in the country and thus dominate much of the nation by sheer numbers. Aside from some Sereiki unrest, the province has had few problems.
Punjabis are prominent in business, agriculture, industry, government, and the military to the point that there is resentment from other ethnic groups. The Punjabi upper classes tend to ally themselves with Urdu speaking Muhajirs and show respect towards Sindhis, Kashmiris, Pakhtuns and Balochis.
Punjabi women enjoy comparable rights to females in Karachi and Islamabad in Lahore and other cities, but conservative elements are present and dominate the countryside.
Districts
Attock
Bahawalnager
Bahawalpur
Bhakker
Chakwal
Dera Ghazi Khan
Faisalabad
Gujaranwala
Gujrat
Hafizabad
Jhang
Jhelum
Kasur
Khanewal
Khushab
Lahore
Layyah
Lodhran
Mandi Bahauddin
Mianwali
Multan
Muzaffargarh
Nankana
Narowal
Okara
Pakpattan
Rahim Yar khan
Rajanpur
Rawalpindi
Sahiwal
Sargodha
Shiekupura
Sialkot
Toba Tek Singh
Vehari
Important cities
Lahore
Faisalabad
Rawalpindi
Gujranwala
Multan
Sargodha
Sialkot
Bahwalpur
Jhang
Sheikhupura
Okara
Gujrat
Kasur
Taxila
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History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has been found indicating that Pakistan might have been inhabited since atleast the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise date of these remains is unclear, and archaeologists put it anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The fossils are the earliest human remains found in South Asia. More than 60% of Pakistanis have their mtDNA maternal roots in South Asian specific branches of haplogroup 'M'. Because of its great time depth and virtual absence in western Eurasians, it has been suggested that haplogroup M was brought to Asia after their evolution in Africa, along the southern route, by the earliest migration wave of anatomically modern humans, Homo Sapiens, nearly 60,000 years ago
The original inhabitants of Pakistan may have been the tribals speaking languages related to Munda family of languages. Pakistan was the site of the world's oldest 8,000 year old civilisation at Mehrgarh in the Balochistan province. The Mehrgarh declined about the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization only 200 Kilometers south east was developing. It has been surmised that the Mehrgarh residents moved to fertile Indus River valley as Balochistan became arid over time.
The neolithic culture is indicated by the discovery of ground and polished stone axes, hoes, pestle, and bone implements at the well-known menhir-site of Burzahom, ten miles east of , Srinagar. Burazahoma is famous as one of the only two megalithic sites in the extreme north-west of Pakistan. We do not exactly know the cultural horizon of the Burazahoma megalithic, nor the Purpose for which they were erected, but the indications are, they were put in places towards the end of the neolithic period at that site, between 3000 BCE. The original inhabitants of ancient Kashmir, and rest of ancient Pakistan, were the aborigine tribes speaking languages related to Munda languages. The Tibetan tribes migrated to the Ladakh region of Kashmir. The Dravidians invaded from the Iranian plateau and settled in the Indus valley around 4000 BCE. The Dravidian culture blossomed over the centuries and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan around 3000 BCE. The main site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Punjab was the city of Harappa. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline just prior to the invasion of Indo-European Aryan tribes from the Eastern Europe. A branch of these tribes called the Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic Civilization that have existed between Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BCE and also infuenced the Indus Valley Civilization. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia. Due to its location, the Kashmir region came under constant attack and influence from the west. Influenced by Uighurs, Tibetans, Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Afghans, and Sikhs, Kashmir has developed a unique culture that combined that of significant Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences even prior to the coming of Islam.
The ancient name of Kashmir was 'Kashyapa'. The Kashmiris were in ancient times were foloowed tribal religions then Hinduism was arrived from India and later replaced by Buddhism. The Kashmiris were predominantly Buddhist and were in the process of coming under the influence of Hinduism when Muslim missionaries, Sayed Sharafuddin Bulbul Shah from Turkey and Shah Mir from Iran arrived in Kashmir. These Muslim missionaries converted thousands of Kashmiris including the Kashmir's Buddhist King Rinchan to Islam. After converting to Islam King Rinchan ruled as Sultan Malik Sadruddin in 1330 CE. After the death Sultan Malik Sadruddin, Shah Mir ascended the throne under the name of Sultan Shamas-ud-din, and his dynasty ruled the Kashmir for 222 years. The majority of Kashmiri population converted to Islam during the rule of this Muslim dynasty.. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate and settled in Kashmir. Emperor Akbar conquered Kashmir and the Mughals ruled from 1587 to 1752. The Afghanistan's ruler Sultan Ahmad Shah Durrani conquered Kashmir in 1752 and Afghans ruled until 1819. The Sikh invaded and conquered Kashmir in1819 and started reign of terror in Kashmir.
The British defeated the Sikhs in 1846 and 'sold' Kashmir province to a Hindu Dogra chieftain for 7.5 million rupees, nearly $160. The Hindu Dogra rulers persecuted the Muslim majority and promoted Hinduism and a large number Hindu migrants settled in the Jammu region. Athe time of independence, the Muslim majority of Kashmir wanted to join Pakistan in 1947 but the Hindu Dogra ruler instead signed to join Hindu India. This action led to invasion and occupation of Kashmir by the Indian army. The Pakistan's volunteers joined the Kashmiri Muslim armed resistence and liberataed nearly quater of Kashmir from Indian occupation. The UN Security Council resolution on April 21, 1948 demanded that the Kashmiri people should decide their own future in a democratic referendum. The India has refused to allow the referendum to take place since the Muslim population of Kashmir will vote to join Pakistan.
Geography
Kashmir province is bordered by China in the north, India in the east, Punjab and Sarhad provinces in the south. The Kashmir province is divided into four main regions Jammu, Ladakh, Kashmir Valley and the Northern areas. The total area of Kashmir is 222,236 km².
Demography and Society
The population of province of Kashmir is nearly 11 million in 2005. The ethnic groups of Kashmir are: Kashmiris, Dards, Ladakhis, Dogras, Hanjis, Gujjars, Hunzas, etc. Nearly 90% of the population is Muslim, approximately 7% Hindu and 2% Buddhists.
Districts
Anantnag
http://www.shaikhsiddiqui.com/kashmir.html
Astore
Baramulla
Budgam
Diamer
Doda
Ganche
Ghizer
Gilgit
Hunza
Jammu
Kargil
Kathua
Kupwara
Leh
Muzaffarabad
Poonch
Pulwama
Rajauri Garden
Skardu
Srinagar
Udhampur
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History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has been found indicating that Pakistan might have been inhabited since atleast the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise date of these remains is unclear, and archaeologists put it anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The fossils are the earliest human remains found in South Asia. More than 60% of Pakistanis have their mtDNA maternal roots in South Asian specific branches of haplogroup 'M'. Because of its great time depth and virtual absence in western Eurasians, it has been suggested that haplogroup M was brought to Asia after their evolution in Africa, along the southern route, by the earliest migration wave of anatomically modern humans, Homo Sapiens, nearly 60,000 years ago
The original inhabitants of Pakistan may have been the tribals speaking languages related to Munda family of languages. Pakistan was the site of the world's oldest 8,000 year old civilisation at Mehrgarh in the Balochistan province. The Mehrgarh declined about the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization only 200 Kilometers south east was developing. It has been surmised that the Mehrgarh residents moved to fertile Indus River valley as Balochistan became arid over time. The Dravidians invaded from the Iranian plateau and settled in the Indus valley around 4000 BCE. The Dravidian culture blossomed over the centuries and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan around 3000 BCE. The main site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Sindh was the city of Moenjo Daro and Moenjo Daro and smaller Chanhu Daro. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline just prior to the invasion of Indo-European Aryan tribes from the Eastern Europe. A branch of these tribes called the Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic Civilization that have existed between Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BCE and also infuenced the Indus Valley Civilization. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia. Due to its location, the Sindh region came under constant attack and influence from the west. Conquered by the Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Afghans and Balochs the Sindh developed a unique culture that combined that of significant Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences even prior to the coming of Islam.
The Sindh were in ancient times predominantly Buddhist and were in the process of coming under the influence of Hinduism when Umayyad Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh, and the present Pakistan from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea, in 713. The predominant population of Sindh, and the rest of Pakistan, converted to Islam but there were significant non-Muslim population of Hindus. Arab rule ended with the ascension of the Soomro dynasty, who were local Sindhi Muslims and who controlled the province directly and as vassals from 1058 to 1249. Various Turkish dynasties conquered the area by 977 CE and the region loosely became part of the Ghaznavid Empire and then the Delhi Sultanate which lasted until 1524. The Mughals conquered the region and their rule lasted for another two centuries, while another local Sindhi Muslim group the Samma challenged Mughal rule from their base at Thatta. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and many settled in Sindh. The Muslim Sufi played a pivotal role in converting the millions of native people to Islam. Sindh, though part of larger empires, continued to enjoy certain autonomy as a loyal Muslim domain and came under the rule of the Arghun Dynasty and Turkhan or Tarkhan dynasty from 1519 to 1625. Sind became a vassal-state of the Afghan Durrani Empire by 1747. It was then ruled by Kalhora rulers. It remained under Balochi Talpurs rule by 1783. British arrived in Sindh in 19th century and conquest in it 1843. In 1843 British forces under General Charles Napier conquered Sindh. Sindh was made part of British Empire and became a separate province in 1935. The British ruled the area for a century and Sindh was home to many prominent Muslim leaders including Muhammad Ali Jinnah who agitated for greater Muslim autonomy.
Following World War II, Britain withdrew and Sindh voted to join Pakistan in 1947 and the Hindu migrated to India while Muslim immigrants from India settled in Sindh. Relations in the province have since been defined by power struggles between the Urdu speakers and the local Sindhis who have also resented the influx of Pashtun and Punjabi immigrants to Karachi.
Geography
Sindh is located at the northeastern corner of South Asia just before the Iranian plateau in the west. It is the third largest province geographically. Its size is about 579 km north-south and 442 km (extreme) or 281 km (average) east-west, with an area of 140,915 km². Sindh is bounded by the Thar Desert to the east, the Kirthar Mountains to the west, and the Arabian Sea in the south. In the center is the fertile plain where the Indus river runs through. Largely irrigated, the Indus' devastating floods are now under control. The province of Sindh borders Punjab in the north and Balochistan in the west. Its capital is Karachi an other important cities include Thatta, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Shahdadpur, Tando Adam, Tando Allah Yar, Nawabshah, Larkana, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Badin.
Demography and Society
The population is approximately 45 million in 2005 with over half being urban dwellers, mainly found in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana. A large section of the population speak Sindhi and Urdu languages. Other languages spoken include Siraiki, Balochi, Brohi, Punjabi, Pakhtu, Rajasthani and Gujarati. Urban areas of Sindh are multi-ethnic centres and sometimes highly polarized as a result.
Sindh's population is over 98% Muslim and mainly Sunnis with large Shia minority. Nearly all Sunnis belong to the Hanafi school of juriprudence. The Shias predominantly belong to the Ithna 'ashariyah school of juriprudence. There are also small but important Shia Nizari Ismailis and Shia Dawoodi Bohras. The province of Sindh is also home to the vast majority of Hindus in Pakistan and they number less than one million. Smaller groups of Christians, Parsis or Zoroastrians and Ahmadis can also be found in the province.
The Sindhis as a whole are composed of various sub-groups related to the Punjabis and Siraikis minorities as well as of Baloch origin. A small group either partially descended from or claiming descent from early Muslim settlers including Arabs, Turks, and Persians is also found in the province and are referred to as Ashraf or nobles.
Economy
Sindh is the backbone of Pakistan economy as it generates approximately 70% of the total national revenue whereas in return federal government pays back just 23% from financial divisible pool. Sindh government considers that the formula of financial resource distribution i.e NFC award is solely population denominated.
Sindh is in many ways the main province of economic activity in Pakistan and has a highly diversified economy with heavy industry and finance centered in and around Karachi to a substantial agricultural base along the Indus. Pakistan's rapidly growing information technology sector (IT) is also centered in Karachi and manufacturing includes machine products, cement, plastics, and various other goods.
Agriculture is also very important in Sind. The main crops are Cotton, Rice, Wheat and Sugar Cane, with Rice being the most important. Other crops include fruits and vegetables especially Bananas and Mangoes.
Districts
Badin
Dadu
Ghotki
Hyderabad,
Jacobabad
Kamber Ali Khan
Karachi
Kashmore
Khairpur
Larkana
Matiari
Mirpurkhas
Naushero Feroze
Nawabshah
Sanghar
Shikarpur
Sukkur
Tando Allah Yar
Tando Muhammad Khan
Tharparkar
Thatta
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History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has been found indicating that Pakistan might have been inhabited since atleast the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise date of these remains is unclear, and archaeologists put it anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The fossils are the earliest human remains found in South Asia. More than 60% of Pakistanis have their mtDNA maternal roots in South Asian specific branches of haplogroup 'M'. Because of its great time depth and virtual absence in western Eurasians, it has been suggested that haplogroup M was brought to Asia after their evolution in Africa, along the southern route, by the earliest migration wave of anatomically modern humans, Homo Sapiens, nearly 60,000 years ago
The original inhabitants of Pakistan may have been the tribals speaking languages related to Munda family of languages. Pakistan was the site of the world's oldest 8,000 year old civilisation at Mehrgarh in the Balochistan province. The Mehrgarh declined about the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization only 200 Kilometers south east was developing. It has been surmised that the Mehrgarh residents moved to fertile Indus River valley as Balochistan became arid over time. The Dravidians invaded from the Iranian plateau and settled in the Indus valley around 4000 BCE. The Dravidian culture blossomed over the centuries and gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan around 3000 BCE. The main site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Sindh was the city of Moenjo Daro and Moenjo Daro and smaller Chanhu Daro. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline just prior to the invasion of Indo-European Aryan tribes from the Eastern Europe. A branch of these tribes called the Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic Civilization that have existed between Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BCE and also infuenced the Indus Valley Civilization. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia. Due to its location, the Sindh region came under constant attack and influence from the west. Conquered by the Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Afghans and Balochs the Sindh developed a unique culture that combined that of significant Middle Eastern and Central Asian influences even prior to the coming of Islam.
The Sindh were in ancient times predominantly Buddhist and were in the process of coming under the influence of Hinduism when Umayyad Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh, and the present Pakistan from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea, in 713. The predominant population of Sindh, and the rest of Pakistan, converted to Islam but there were significant non-Muslim population of Hindus. Arab rule ended with the ascension of the Soomro dynasty, who were local Sindhi Muslims and who controlled the province directly and as vassals from 1058 to 1249. Various Turkish dynasties conquered the area by 977 CE and the region loosely became part of the Ghaznavid Empire and then the Delhi Sultanate which lasted until 1524. The Mughals conquered the region and their rule lasted for another two centuries, while another local Sindhi Muslim group the Samma challenged Mughal rule from their base at Thatta. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and many settled in Sindh. The Muslim Sufi played a pivotal role in converting the millions of native people to Islam. Sindh, though part of larger empires, continued to enjoy certain autonomy as a loyal Muslim domain and came under the rule of the Arghun Dynasty and Turkhan or Tarkhan dynasty from 1519 to 1625. Sind became a vassal-state of the Afghan Durrani Empire by 1747. It was then ruled by Kalhora rulers. It remained under Balochi Talpurs rule by 1783. British arrived in Sindh in 19th century and conquest in it 1843. In 1843 British forces under General Charles Napier conquered Sindh. Sindh was made part of British Empire and became a separate province in 1935. The British ruled the area for a century and Sindh was home to many prominent Muslim leaders including Muhammad Ali Jinnah who agitated for greater Muslim autonomy.
Following World War II, Britain withdrew and Sindh voted to join Pakistan in 1947 and the Hindu migrated to India while Muslim immigrants from India settled in Sindh. Relations in the province have since been defined by power struggles between the Urdu speakers and the local Sindhis who have also resented the influx of Pashtun and Punjabi immigrants to Karachi.
Geography
Sindh is located at the northeastern corner of South Asia just before the Iranian plateau in the west. It is the third largest province geographically. Its size is about 579 km north-south and 442 km (extreme) or 281 km (average) east-west, with an area of 140,915 km². Sindh is bounded by the Thar Desert to the east, the Kirthar Mountains to the west, and the Arabian Sea in the south. In the center is the fertile plain where the Indus river runs through. Largely irrigated, the Indus' devastating floods are now under control. The province of Sindh borders Punjab in the north and Balochistan in the west. Its capital is Karachi an other important cities include Thatta, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Shahdadpur, Tando Adam, Tando Allah Yar, Nawabshah, Larkana, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Badin.
Demography and Society
The population is approximately 45 million in 2005 with over half being urban dwellers, mainly found in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana. A large section of the population speak Sindhi and Urdu languages. Other languages spoken include Siraiki, Balochi, Brohi, Punjabi, Pakhtu, Rajasthani and Gujarati. Urban areas of Sindh are multi-ethnic centres and sometimes highly polarized as a result.
Sindh's population is over 98% Muslim and mainly Sunnis with large Shia minority. Nearly all Sunnis belong to the Hanafi school of juriprudence. The Shias predominantly belong to the Ithna 'ashariyah school of juriprudence. There are also small but important Shia Nizari Ismailis and Shia Dawoodi Bohras. The province of Sindh is also home to the vast majority of Hindus in Pakistan and they number less than one million. Smaller groups of Christians, Parsis or Zoroastrians and Ahmadis can also be found in the province.
The Sindhis as a whole are composed of various sub-groups related to the Punjabis and Siraikis minorities as well as of Baloch origin. A small group either partially descended from or claiming descent from early Muslim settlers including Arabs, Turks, and Persians is also found in the province and are referred to as Ashraf or nobles.
Economy
Sindh is the backbone of Pakistan economy as it generates approximately 70% of the total national revenue whereas in return federal government pays back just 23% from financial divisible pool. Sindh government considers that the formula of financial resource distribution i.e NFC award is solely population denominated.
Sindh is in many ways the main province of economic activity in Pakistan and has a highly diversified economy with heavy industry and finance centered in and around Karachi to a substantial agricultural base along the Indus. Pakistan's rapidly growing information technology sector (IT) is also centered in Karachi and manufacturing includes machine products, cement, plastics, and various other goods.
Agriculture is also very important in Sind. The main crops are Cotton, Rice, Wheat and Sugar Cane, with Rice being the most important. Other crops include fruits and vegetables especially Bananas and Mangoes.
Districts
Badin
Dadu
Ghotki
Hyderabad,
Jacobabad
Kamber Ali Khan
Karachi
Kashmore
Khairpur
Larkana
Matiari
Mirpurkhas
Naushero Feroze
Nawabshah
Sanghar
Shikarpur
Sukkur
Tando Allah Yar
Tando Muhammad Khan
Tharparkar
Thatta
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History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has been found indicating that Pakistan might have been inhabited since atleast the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise date of these remains is unclear, and archaeologists put it anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The fossils are the earliest human remains found in South Asia. More than 60% of Pakistanis have their mtDNA maternal roots in South Asian specific branches of haplogroup 'M'. Because of its great time depth and virtual absence in western Eurasians, it has been suggested that haplogroup M was brought to Asia after their evolution in Africa, along the southern route, by the earliest migration wave of anatomically modern humans, Homo Sapiens, nearly 60,000 years ago
The original inhabitants of Pakistan may have been the tribals speaking languages related to Munda family of languages. Pakistan was the site of the world's oldest 8,000 year old civilisation at Mehrgarh in the Balochistan province. The Mehrgarh declined about the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization only 200 Kilometers south east was developing. It has been surmised that the Mehrgarh residents moved to fertile Indus River valley as Balochistan became arid over time. Shahi Tump in the valley of Kej in Mekran was also settled during Indus Valley Civilization era. Balochistan was invaded by various Eurasian groups including the Aryans, Persians, Greeks, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Mughals, Afghans, and the British. Aryan invasions appear to have led to the eventual demise of the Elamo-Dravidians with the exception of the Brahui who may have arrived much later as did the Balochis themselves. The Balochis began to arrive from their homeland in northern Iran and appear to be an offshoot of the Kurdish tribes from Kurdistan that would mainly populate the western end of the Iranian plateau. The Balochi tribes eventually became a sizable group rivalled only by another Iranian group, the Pakhtuns, while the Brahuis increasingly came under the cultural influence of the Balochis. Umayyad Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim conquered annexed the region and conversion to Islam was coupled with the Balochi assimilation of Arab culture as well. Today, many Balochis believe that their origins are Semitic and not Iranian contrary to linguistic and historical evidence. Balochi tradition holds that they left their Aleppo homeland in Syria at some point during the 1st millennium CE and moved to Balochistan, but it appears more likely that the Balochis are an Iranian group who have absorbed some Arab ancestry and cultural traits instead. Balochistan subsequently was dominated by empires based in Iran and Afghanistan as well as the Mughal empire based in South Asia. Ahmad Shah Durrani annexed the region as part of a greater Afghanistan. The area would eventually revert to local Balochi control, while parts of the northern regions would continue to be dominated by Pakhtun tribes. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and many settled in Balochistan. During the period of the British rule, there were four Princely States in Balochistan: Makran, Kharan, Las Bela and Kalat, the largest and most powerful. At independence in 1947, Balochistan became part of Pakistan. Parts of Balochistan were held by Oman as late as the 1950s, but they were eventually turned over to Pakistan. Included in these areas is the coastal city of Gwadar.
Geography
Balochistan is located at the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau and in the difficult to define border region between Southwest, Central, and South Asia. It is geographically the largest of the four provinces at 347,190 km² and composes 42% of the total land area of Pakistan. Balochistan province borders Sarhad and Afghanistan in the north, Punjab and Sindh in the east, Iran in the west and Arabian Sea in the South. The population density is very low due to the mountainous terrain and scarcity of water. The southern region is known as Makran. A region in the centre of the province is known as Kalat. The Sulaiman Mountains dominate the northeast corner and the Bolan Pass is a natural route into Afghanistan towards Kandahar. Much of the province south of the Quetta region is sparse desert terrain with pockets of inhabitable towns mostly near rivers and streams. The capital city is Quetta, located in the most densely populated district in the northeast of the province. Quetta is situated in a river valley near the border with Afghanistan, with a road to Kandahar in the northwest. At Gwadar on the coast the Pakistani government is currently undertaking a large project with Chinese help to build a large port. This is being done partially to provide the Pakistan Navy with another base, and to reduce Pakistan's reliance on Karachi and Port Muhammad Bin Qasim, which currently are the only major ports.
Demographics and Society
Balochistan has a population of around 10 million inhabitants. The Baloch numerically dominate the south of the province, while the Pakhtuns are the majority in and around Quetta and the north. Near the Kalat region and other parts of the region the Brahui are a significant presence, while along the coast various Makrani peoples of mixed origins can be found such as the Meds and small groups of descendents of African known as the Habshi, from Hubsh which means Ethiopia in Arabic, can also be found. Persian-speaking Dehwars also live in the Kalat region and further west towards the border with Iran. The major Baloch tribes are: Bugti, Mengal, Marri, Bizenjo, Jamali, etc. In addition, nearly one million Afghan refugees can be found in the province including Pakhtuns, Tajiks, and Hazaras. Sindhi farmers have also moved to the more arable lands in the east especially in Las Bela district. Over 99% of the population is Muslim with Sunni majority and a Shia minority. There are also small Zikri, Hindu and Christian minorities.
Economy
The economy of the province is largely based upon the production of natural gas, coal and minerals. The province's natural resources significantly help to meet the energy needs of Pakistan as a whole, but mainly benefit Pakhtun mine workers than the more nomadic Baloch. Infrastructure outside of Quetta is still in development as is the province as a whole. Tourism remains limited but has increased due to the exotic appeal of the province. Limited farming in the east as well as fishing along the Arabian Sea coastline are other forms of income and sustenance for the local populations. Due to the tribal lifestyle of many Baloch and Brahui, animal husbandry is important as are trading bazaars found throughout the province.Though the province remains underdeveloped, changes are coming as plans for pipelines running from Iran and as well Central Asian pipelines are all envisioned to be built in Balochistan.
Districts
Awaran
Barkhan
Bolan
Chagai
Dera Bugti
Gwadar
Jafarabad
Jhal Magsi
Kalat
Kharan
Kohlu
Khuzdar
Qilla Abdullah
Qilla Saifullah
Lasbela
Loralai
Mastung
Musakhel
Nasirabad
Panjgur
Pishin
Quetta
Sibi
Turbat or Kech
Zhob
Ziarat
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The Mughal Empire, (Mughal alternative spelling Mogul) was an empire that at its greatest territorial extent ruled parts of Afghanistan and most of the South Asia between 1526 and 1857. The empire was founded by the Turkish-Mongol leader Babar in 1526, when he defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First Battle of Panipat. The word "Mughal" is the Persian version of "Mongol".
In the early 16th century, descendants of the Mongols, Turks, Persians, and Afghans — the Mughals — invaded the South Asia under the leadership of Mohammad Zahir-ud-Din Babar. Babar was the great-grandson of Timur Lenk (Timur the Lame, from which the Western name Tamerlane is derived), who had invaded South Asia and conquered Delhi in 1398 and then led a empire based in Samarqand, Farghana valley (in modern-day Uzbekistan) that united Persian-based Mongols (Babar's maternal ancestors) and other West Asian peoples. Babar was driven from Samarqand and initially established his rule in Kabul in 1504; he later became the first Mughal ruler (1526–30). His determination was to expand eastward into Punjab, where he had made a number of forays including an attack on the Gakhar stronghold of Pharwala. Then an invitation from an opportunistic Afghan chief in Punjab brought him to the very heart of the Delhi Sultanate, ruled by Ibrahim Lodi (1517-26).
Babar, a seasoned military commander, entered South Asia in 1526 with his well-trained veteran army of 12,000 to meet the Sultan's huge but unwieldy and disunited force of more than 100,000 men. Babar defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodhi decisively at Panipat (in modern-day Haryana, about ninety kilometers north of Delhi). Employing gun carts, moveable artillery, and superior cavalry tactics, Babar achieved a resounding victory. A year later, he decisively defeated a Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sangha. In 1529 Babar routed the joint forces of Afghans and the Sultan of Bengal but died in 1530 before he could consolidate his military gains. He left behind as legacies his memoirs (Babarnama), several beautiful gardens in Kabul and Lahore, and descendants who would fulfil his dream of establishing an empire in the South Asia.
When Babar died, his son Humayun (1530–56) inherited a difficult task. He was pressed from all sides by a reassertion of Afghan claims to the Delhi throne, by disputes over his own succession, and by the Afghan-Rajput march into Delhi in 1540. He was defeated and he fled to Persia, where he spent nearly ten years as an embarrassed guest at the Safavid court of Shah Tahmasp. During Sher Shah's reign, an imperial unification and administrative framework were established, but would be further developed by Akbar later in the century. In 1545 Humayun gained a foothold in Kabul with Safavid assistance and reasserted his South Asian claim, a task made easier by the weakening of Afghan power in the area after the death of Sher Shah Suri in May 1545, and took control of Delhi in 1555. However, he was not in power a few years before he took a fatal fall down his library's stairs.
The empire was largely conquered by Sher Shah during the time of Humayun, but under Akbar, it grew considerably, and continued to grow until the end of Aurangzeb's rule. Jahangir, the son of Akbar, ruled the empire between (1605-1627). In October 1627, Shah Jahan, son of Jahangir, "succeeded to the throne", where he "inherited a vast and rich empire" in South Asia; and "at mid-century this was perhaps the greatest empire in the world". The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, commissioned between (1630 - 1653), the Taj Mahal, in Agra, South Asia.
After Aurangzeb died in 1707, the empire started a slow and steady decline in actual power, although it maintained all the trappings of power in the South Asia for another 150 years. In 1739 it was defeated by an army from Persia led by Nadir Shah. In 1756 an army of Ahmad Shah looted Delhi again. The British Empire finally dissolved it in 1857, immediately prior to which it existed only at the sufferance of the British East South Asia Company.
Religion
A picture from the inside of the Moghul palace Khas Mahal. The Mughal ruling class were jovial and clement Muslims, although many of the subjects of the Empire were non-Muslims. When Babar first founded the Empire, he did not emphasize his religion, but rather his Mughal heritage. Under Akbar, the court abolished the Jizya, the tax on non-Muslims, and abandoned use of the lunar Muslim calendar in favor of a solar calendar more useful for agriculture. One of Akbar's most unusual ideas regarding religion was Din-i-Ilahi ('Faith of God' in English), which was an eclectic mix of Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. It was proclaimed the state religion until his death. These actions were later retracted by Aurangzeb, known for his religiosity.
Political Economy
The Mughals used the mansabdar system to generate land revenue. The emperor would grant revenue rights to a mansabdar in exchange for promises of soldiers in war-time. The greater the size of the land the emperor granted, the greater the number of soldiers the mansabdar had to promise. The mansab was both revocable and non-hereditary; this gave the center a fairly large degree of control over the mansabdars.
Establishment and reign of Babar
In the early 16th century, descendants of the Mongol, Turkic, Persian, and Afghan invaders of Southwest Asia — the Mughals — invaded the South Asia under the leadership of Zahir-ud-Din Babar. Babar was the great-grandson of Timur Lenk (Timur the Lame, from which the Western name Tamerlane is derived), who had invaded South Asia and plundered Delhi in 1398 and then led a short-lived empire based in Samarkand (in modern-day Uzbekistan) that united Persian-based Mongols (Babar's maternal ancestors) and other West Asian peoples. Babar was driven from Samarkand and initially established his rule in Kabul in 1504; he later became the first Mughal ruler (1526–30). His determination was to expand eastward into Punjab, where he had made a number of forays including an attack on the Gakhar stronghold of Pharwala. Then an invitation from an opportunistic Afghan chief in Punjab brought him to the very heart of the Delhi Sultanate, ruled by Ibrahim Lodi (1517-26).
Babar, a seasoned military commander, entered South Asia in 1526 with his well-trained veteran army of 12,000 to meet the Sultan's huge but unwieldy and disunited force of more than 100,000 men. Babar defeated the Lodi Sultan decisively at Panipat (in modern-day Haryana, about ninety kilometers north of Delhi). Employing gun carts, moveable artillery, and superior cavalry tactics, Babar achieved a resounding victory. A year later, he decisively defeated a Rajput confederacy led by Rana Sangha. In 1529 Babar routed the joint forces of Afghans and the Sultan of Bengal but died in 1530 before he could consolidate his military gains. He left behind as legacies his memoirs (Babarnama), several beautiful gardens in Kabul and Lahore, and descendants who would fulfil his dream of establishing an empire in the South Asia.
Reign of Humayun
When Babar died, his son Humayun (1530–56) inherited a difficult task. He was pressed from all sides by a reassertion of Afghan claims to the Delhi throne, by disputes over his own succession, and by the Afghan-Rajput march into Delhi in 1540. He fled to Persia, where he spent nearly ten years as an embarrassed guest at the Safavid court of Shah Tahmasp. During Sher Shah's reign, an imperial unification and administrative framework were established, but would be further developed by Akbar later in the century. In 1545 Humayun gained a foothold in Kabul with Safavid assistance and reasserted his South Asian claim, a task made easier by the weakening of Afghan power in the area after the death of Sher Shah Suri in May 1545, and took control of Delhi in 1555. However, he was not in power a few years before he took a fatal fall down his library's stairs.
Reign of Akbar
Humayun's untimely death in 1556 left the task of further imperial conquest and consolidation to his thirteen-year-old son, Jalal-ud-Din Akbar (r. 1556–1605). Following a decisive military victory at the Second Battle of Panipat in 1556, the regent Bayram Khan pursued a vigorous policy of expansion on Akbar's behalf. As soon as Akbar came of age, he began to free himself from the influences of overbearing ministers, court factions, and harem intrigues, and demonstrated his own capacity for judgment and leadership. A workaholic who seldom slept more than three hours a night, he personally oversaw the implementation of his administrative policies, which were to form the backbone of the Mughal Empire for more than 200 years. He continued to conquer, annex, and consolidate a far-flung territory bounded by Kabul in the northwest, Kashmir in the north, Bengal in the east, and beyond the Narmada River in central South Asia — an area comparable in size to the Mauryan territory some 1,800 years earlier.
Akbar built a walled capital called Fatehpur Sikri (Fatehpur means Fortress of Victory) near Agra, starting in 1571. Palaces for each of Akbar's senior queens, a huge artificial lake, and sumptuous water-filled courtyards were built there. The city, however, proved short-lived, the capital being moved to Lahore in 1585. The reason may have been that the water supply in Fatehpur Sikri was insufficient or of poor quality, or, as some historians believe, that Akbar had to attend to the northwest areas of his empire and therefore moved his capital northwest. In 1599, Akbar shifted his capital back to Agra from where he reigned until his death.
Akbar adopted two distinct but effective approaches in administering a large territory and incorporating various ethnic groups into the service of his realm. In 1580 he obtained local revenue statistics for the previous decade in order to understand details of productivity and price fluctuation of different crops. Aided by Todar Mal, a Rajput king, Akbar issued a revenue schedule that the peasantry could tolerate while providing maximum profit for the state. Revenue demands, fixed according to local conventions of cultivation and quality of soil, ranged from one-third to one-half of the crop and were paid in cash. Akbar relied heavily on land-holding zamindars. They used their considerable local knowledge and influence to collect revenue and to transfer it to the treasury, keeping a portion in return for services rendered. Within his administrative system, the warrior aristocracy (mansabdars) held ranks (mansabs) expressed in numbers of troops, and indicating pay, armed contingents, and obligations. The warrior aristocracy was generally paid from revenues of nonhereditary and transferable jagirs (revenue villages).
An astute ruler who genuinely appreciated the challenges of administering so vast an empire, Akbar introduced a policy of reconciliation and assimilation of Hindus (including Maryam al-Zamani, the Hindu Rajput mother of his son and heir, Jahangir), who represented the majority of the population. He recruited and rewarded Hindu chiefs with the highest ranks in government; encouraged intermarriages between Mughal and Rajput aristocracy; allowed new temples to be built; personally participated in celebrating Hindu festivals such as Deepavali, or Diwali, the festival of lights; and abolished the jizya (poll tax) imposed on non-Muslims. Akbar came up with his own theory of "rulership as a divine illumination," enshrined in his new religion Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith), incorporating the principle of acceptance of all religions and sects. He encouraged widow re-marriage, discouraged child marriage, outlawed the practice of sati, and persuaded Delhi merchants to set up special market days for women, who otherwise were secluded at home. By the end of Akbar's reign, the Mughal Empire extended throughout most of South Asia north of the Godavari River. The exceptions were Gondwana in central South Asia, which paid tribute to the Mughals, Assam in the northeast, and large parts of the Deccan.
In 1600, Akbar's Mughal empire had a revenue of £17.5 million. By comparison, in 1800, the entire treasury of Great Britain totalled £16 million.
Akbar's empire supported vibrant intellectual and cultural life. A large imperial library included books in Hindi, Persian, Greek, Kashmiri, English, and Arabic, such as the Shahnameh, Bhagavata Purana and the Bible. Akbar sought knowledge and truth wherever it could be found and through a wide range of activities. He regularly sponsored debates and dialogues among religious and intellectual figures with differing views, and he welcomed Jesuit missionaries from Goa to his court. Akbar directed the creation of the Hamzanama, an artistic masterpiece that included 1400 large paintings.
Reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan
The Taj Mahal is the most famous monument built during Mughal ruleMughal rule under Jahangir (1605-27) and Shah Jahan (1628-5
was noted for political stability, brisk economic activity, beautiful paintings, and monumental buildings. Jahangir married a Persian princess whom he renamed Nur Jehan (Light of the World), who emerged as the most powerful individual in the court besides the emperor. As a result, Persian poets, artists, scholars, and officers--including her own family members--lured by the Mughal court's brilliance and luxury, found asylum in South Asia. The number of unproductive, time-serving officers mushroomed, as did corruption, while the excessive Persian representation upset the delicate balance of impartiality at the court. Jahangir liked Hindu festivals but promoted mass conversion to Islam; he persecuted the followers of Jainism and even executed Guru Arjun Dev, the fifth saint-teacher of the Sikhs. The release of 52 Hindu princes from captivity in 1620 is the basis for the significance of the time of Diwali to Sikhs. Noor Jahan's abortive efforts to secure the throne for the prince of her choice led Shah Jahan to rebel in 1622. In that same year, the Persians took over Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, an event that struck a serious blow to Mughal prestige.
Between 1636 and 1646, Shah Jahan sent Mughal armies to conquer the Deccan and the northwest beyond the Khyber Pass. Even though they aptly demonstrated Mughal military strength, these campaigns drained the imperial treasury. As the state became a huge military machine and the nobles and their contingents multiplied almost fourfold, so did the demands for more revenue from the peasantry. Political unification and maintenance of law and order over wide areas encouraged the emergence of large centers of commerce and crafts--such as Lahore, Delhi, Agra, and Ahmadabad--linked by roads and waterways to distant places and ports. The world-famous Taj Mahal was built in Agra during Shah Jahan's reign as a tomb for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It symbolizes both Mughal artistic achievement and excessive financial expenditures when resources were shrinking. The economic position of peasants and artisans did not improve because the administration failed to produce any lasting change in the existing social structure. There was no incentive for the revenue officials, whose concerns primarily were personal or familial gain, to generate resources independent of dominant Hindu zamindars and village leaders, whose self-interest and local dominance prevented them from handing over the full amount of revenue to the imperial treasury. In their ever-greater dependence on land revenue, the Mughals unwittingly nurtured forces that eventually led to the break-up of their empire.
Reign of Aurangzeb and decline of empire
Extent of Empire in the late 1600s: the Mughals ruled all but the southern tip of the subcontinent.The last of the great Mughals was Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707), who seized the throne by killing all of his brothers and imprisoning his own father. During his fifty-year reign, the empire reached its greatest physical size but also showed the unmistakable signs of decline. The bureaucracy had grown bloated and excessively corrupt, and the huge and unwieldy army demonstrated outdated weaponry and tactics. Aurangzeb was not the ruler to restore the dynasty's declining fortunes or glory. Awe-inspiring but lacking in the charisma needed to attract outstanding lieutenants, he was driven to extend Mughal rule over most of South Asia and to reestablish Islamic orthodoxy by adopting a reactionary attitude toward those Muslims whom he suspected of compromising their faith.
Aurangzeb was involved in a series of protracted wars: against the Pakhtuns in Afghanistan, the Sultans of Bijapur and Golkonda in the Deccan, the Marathas in Maharashtra and the Ahoms in Assam. Peasant uprisings and revolts by local leaders became all too common, as did the conniving of the nobles to preserve their own status at the expense of a steadily weakening empire. The increasing association of his government with Islam further drove a wedge between the ruler and his Hindu subjects. Aurangzeb forbade the building of new temples, destroyed a number of existing ones, and reimposed the jizya. A fundamentalist and a censor of morals, he banned music at court, abolished ceremonies, and persecuted the Sikhs in Punjab. These measures alienated so many that even before he died, challenges for power had already begun to escalate. Contenders for the Mughal throne were many, and the reigns of Aurangzeb's successors were short-lived and filled with strife. The Mughal Empire experienced dramatic reverses as regional nawabs or governors broke away and founded independent kingdoms. The Mughals had to make peace with Maratha armies, and Persian and Afghan armies invaded Delhi, carrying away many treasures, including the Peacock Throne in 1739.
Mughal Emperors
Babar 1526 1530
Humayun 1530 1556
Akbar 1556 1605
Jahangir 1605 1627
Shah Jahan 1627 1658
Aurangzeb 1658 1707
Bahadur Shah I (Shah Alam I), b. October 14, 1643 in Burhanpur, ruler from 1707-1712, d. February 1712 in Lahore.
Jahandar Shah, b. 1664, ruler from 1712-1713, d. February 11, 1713 in Delhi.
Furrukhsiyar, b. 1683, ruler from 1713-1719, d. 1719 in Delhi.
Rafi Ul-Darjat, ruler 1719, d. 1719 in Delhi.
Rafi Ud-Daulat (Shah Jahan II), ruler 1719, d. 1719 in Delhi.
Nikusiyar, ruler 1719, d. 1719 in Delhi.
Mohammed Ibrahim, ruler 1720, d. 1720 in Delhi.
Mohammed Shah, b. 1702, ruler from 1719-1720, 1720-1748, d. April 26, 1748 in Delhi.
Ahmad Shah Bahadur, b. 1725, ruler from 1748-1754, d. January 1775 in Delhi.
Alamgir II, b. 1699, ruler from 1754-1759, d. 1759.
Shah Jahan III, ruler 1760?
Shah Alam II, b. 1728, ruler from 1759-1806, d. 1806.
Akbar Shah II, b. 1760, ruler from 1806-1837, d. 1837.
Bahadur Shah II aka Bahadur Shah Zafar, b. 1775 in Delhi, ruler from 1837-1857, d. 1862 in exile in Rangoon, Burma.
A few descendants of the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, are known to be living in Delhi, Kolkata, and Hyderabad.
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Islamabad is the capital city of Pakistan, located in the Potwar Plateau, north-west of the country. It is located within the Islamabad Capital Territory, though the area has historically been a part of the crossroads of the Punjab, Kashmir and the Sarhad Province (the Margalla pass being a historic gateway to the Sarhad, and the Potwar plateau historically a part of the Punjab). Islamabad is located at 33°40'N 73°10'E.
Geography and Climate
The city is situated at the edge of the Potwar plateau, south of the Margalla hills. The modern capital Islamabad and the ancient Gakhar city of Rawalpindi stand side by side, displaying the country’s past and present. The area's micro-climate is regulated by three man-made lakes (Rawal, Simli and Khanpur). The city has hot summers with monsoon rains occurring during July and August. During the winters, even on the few days when pre-dawn temperatures fall below freezing, the afternoons are usually sunny and mild — in the coldest month, January, the average daily maximum temperature is 16°C (61°F) Islamabad saw its first snows in over 50 years in 2003.
History
From independence until 1958 Pakistan's capital was Karachi in Sindh in the far south. Worries about the concentration of investment and development in that city are said to have led to the idea of building a new capital in a different location. During the administration of Pakistani President Ayub Khan, a site immediately north of Rawalpindi was chosen. Rawalpindi was designated as the temporary capital. Work on the new capital started during the 1960s.
The planning and construction was largely headed by the Greek urban planner Constantinos A. Doxiadis. His plan revolved around the building of the city in sectors, each containing four sub-sectors separated by green belts and parks. There was a strong emphasis on greenery and open space. When Islamabad was finally built growth was slow - the government did not fully relocate to the city from Rawalpindi until the 1980s. During this time the capital's population was small, at around 250,000. This changed dramatically during the 1990s with the population increasing, instigating the building of new sectors. The Capital Development Authority or CDA for short under the Ministry of Interior was accorded the task of developing Islamabad as well as all major government buildings. CDA is also responsible for running the city of Islamabad and does most city services such as trash pickup, street cleaning etc. CDA was created by an act of the federal parliament and its chairperson is appointed by the Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan.
Demographics
Islamabad's population is estimated to be over 1.1 million in 2006. The ethnic groups are: Punjabis 60%, Pakhtuns 15%, Muhajirs 10%, Sindhi 5%, Kashmiri 5%, Baloch 3% and others including the foreign diplomatic staff. Over 99% of the population is Muslim and there is a small Christian minority.
Big Bang
About 13.7 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the universe. This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What existed prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation. The Big Bang produced a fireball of titanic proportions with a temperature measuring in the billions of degrees. In the first milliseconds immediately following the blast, matter and energy burst outward in all directions, literally stretching space. As space expanded, the matter and energy released by the fireball cooled. As matter cooled, highly energetic subatomic particles slowed enough to interact with each other, filling the universe with the simplest elements of Hydrogen and Helium. Driven by gravity and by their own momentum, these gases began to accumulate, first into small pockets and then into larger clumps that gradually grew hotter and brighter and evolved into stars. Stars were formed in this manner throughout the universe, and large groups of stars -- some numbering in the hundreds of billions -- formed the largest structures in the universe, galaxies. The elusive dark matter and dark energy were also created during the Big Bang. It is estimated by scientific studies that that the dark matter may form over 90% of all the matter in the Cosmos.
Galaxies
Galaxies tend to occur in groups known as clusters. One such cluster, called the local group, contains our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and our neighbor the Andromeda galaxy. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy; that is, if viewed from afar it would resemble a spiral. Other major galaxy types are globular clusters, elliptical galaxies, and barred spirals, which have bars of dust, gas, and stars running across the galaxy's center like the spokes of a wheel. Still other galaxies are irregular, with no definite form. Some clusters of galaxies contain thousands of galaxies, and there are roughly 100 billion galaxies in the universe.
Within the galaxies, stars continued to form, burn, explode, die, and re-form. In a remote corner of the Milky Way galaxy about 5 billion years ago, a single gaseous cloud began to contract under the force of gravity. In the process it became less amorphous in shape. Its interior temperature began to rise. At the center of the cloud, a hot, dense sphere of Hydrogen gas held together by gravitation began to radiate. A star had formed. This star was the Sun. Our local star, Sun, is third generation star i.e. it contains heavier elements like carbon, Iron and Uranium that were created by earlier stars which exploded in a Nova explosion when they ran out of their Hydrogen fuel. The heavier elements then seeded the new forming stars and planets. All life contains atoms that were created in the stars and we all are made of 'star dust'.
Solar System
Stars like the Sun form when giant clouds of gas and dust condense into a ball, igniting thermonuclear fusion, which is the conversion of primarily hydrogen and helium into heavier elements. Theory holds that the cloud ought to light up as the density increases during its collapse, which can take hundreds of millions of years. Theorists figure a pre-solar nebula began to collapse about 5 billion years ago, possibly triggered by a shock wave from a nearby exploding star. The Sun likely formed in a crowded environment before wandering to its present lonely location, many astronomers believe. As the cloud collapsed under its own weight and rotated faster, some material was spun into a doughnut-shaped disk. Clumps of dust became rocks. Some were destined to be planets. Others became asteroids, comets and smaller meteoroids. Smaller condensations of matter began to form within the gaseous cloud, slowly revolving around the Sun. These were the protoplanets, whirling accumulations of gas that would, in time, give rise to the planets. The protoplanets grew in size and, through the force of their own gravitation, absorbed other matter in the cloud, including other protoplanets. In this way the number of protoplanets lessened. Finally, the Solar System took its modern shape: spherical planets with their moons locked into orbit around a central sun, located some 30,000 light years away from the center of the Milky Way. Our Solar System was formed 4.6 billion years ago.
Earth
Scientists theorize that Earth began as a waterless mass of rock surrounded by a cloud of gas about 4.6 billions years ago. Radioactive materials in the rock and increasing pressure in Earth's interior produced enough heat to melt the interior of Earth. The heavy materials, such as Iron, sank. The light silicate rocks rose to Earth's surface and formed the earliest crust. The heat of the interior caused other chemicals inside Earth to rise to the surface. Some of these chemicals formed water, and others became the gases of the atmosphere.
The leading theory for the Moon's formation has a Mars-sized object slamming into Earth about 4 billion years ago, shortly after our planet formed. The evidence is partly in the Moon's composition, which is similar to the upper portions of Earth. The shock of the impact strips material from the outer layers of Earth and the impacting object. The mostly iron cores of both bodies meld into Earth's core. Moon was predominantly produced from material of the mantle of the impactor and also includes nearly 20% of Earth's crust blasted by the impact. The blasted material is captured by Earth's gravity and it forms a ring around the Earth. This ring of material would have coalesced to form the moon. In addition, the moon is moving away from the earth (currently at 2 inches per year), as it has been since its creation.
The known history of Earth is divided into four long stretches of time called eons. Starting with the earliest, the eons are Hadean, Achaean, Proterozoic, and Phanerozoic. The first three eons, which together lasted nearly 4 billion years, are grouped into a unit called the Precambrian. The Phanerozoic Eon, when life became abundant, is divided into three eras. They are, from the oldest to the youngest, the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras. Eras are divided into periods, and periods are divided into epochs. These divisions and subdivisions are named for places where rocks of each period were studied. Periods are mostly separated by important changes in the types of fossils found in the rocks. As a result, the lengths of eras, periods, and epochs are not equal.
Life
It was early in the Archaean Era, 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, that life first appeared on Earth. Our oldest fossils date to roughly 3.5 billion years ago, and consist of bacteria microfossils. In fact, all life during the more than one billion years of the Archaean was bacterial. Life began to flourish, and the autotrophic organisms had tapped a new niche allowing the biomass of Earth at the time to dramatically increase. Carbon Dioxide was constantly being absorbed by these organisms, and after the biological reactions responsible for creating energy in them, Oxygen would be released as a by-product. This meant that Oxygen began to accumulate in the oceans where life existed. This new material would in turn be taken advantage of by the adapting organisms leading to the creation of aerobic organisms, which used Oxygen as a component of their energy creation. The mitochondria are present in both animal and plant cells in today's world, suggesting that the arrival of the mitochondria in the evolutionary chain was slightly before recognizable taxonomical differences between animals and plants. The beginning of the Cambrian era saw a widespread arrival of multi-cellular organisms, particularly in the form of sponges. One major event in time is the development of sexual reproduction. Previous species method of reproduction was simply mitosis, repeated cell division which produced new organisms, and exact copy of their ancestors. Of course, mutations and other factors over time changed their genome causing them to evolve. The first animals in the fossil record appeared between 620 and 550 million years ago in the Vendian Period.
The Cambrian Period, about 544 million years ago, marks an important point in the history of life on earth; it is the time when most of the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record. This event is sometimes called the "Cambrian Explosion", because of the relatively short time over which this diversity of forms appears. Some point to the increase in Oxygen that began around 2 billion years ago supporting a higher metabolic rate and allowing the evolution of larger organisms and more complex body structures. Internal genetic factors were also crucial in the Cambrian Explosion. Recent research suggests that the period prior to the Cambrian explosion saw the gradual evolution of a "genetic tool kit" of genes that govern developmental processes. Once assembled, this genetic tool kit enabled an unprecedented period of evolutionary experimentation -- and competition. Once the body plans that proved most successful came to dominate the biosphere, evolution never had such a free hand again, and evolutionary change was limited to relatively minor tinkering with the body plans that already existed.
During the Ordovician, 505 million years ago, the first plants appeared. But it was not until the late Silurian before they resembled modern plants. The Silurean period, 440 millions years ago, was the time when some plants and animals left the water and colonized the land for the first time. Arthropods were the first animals to adapt to the land by about 420 million years ago. Fossil footprints of arthropods found in Western Australia that were made in the sandy flats surrounding temporary lakes, indicate that these animals may have accompanied the landward march of plants. In most ways they were pre-adapted to life on land. During the Devonian, 410 million years ago, two major animal groups dominated the land. The first Tetrapods, or land-living vertebrates, appeared during the Devonian, as did the first terrestrial arthropods, including wingless insects and the earliest arachnids which had already ventured onto land during the Silurian. In the oceans, brachiopods flourished. In the Carboniferous Period, 360 million years ago, the greatest evolutionary innovations were the amniotic egg which allowed early reptiles to move away from waterside habitats and colonize dry regions. The amniotic egg allowed the ancestors of birds, mammals, and reptiles to reproduce on land by preventing the embryo inside from drying out, so eggs could be laid away from the water. It also meant that in contrast to the amphibians the reptiles lay fewer eggs, they had no larval stage and fertilization was internal. In the Permian Period, 286 million years ago, the most striking transitions in the evolution of life occurred when mammals evolved from one lineage of reptiles.
Roughly 248 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic extinction occurred. This is the largest extinction known. About 95% of all species and about 60% of the genera died out, including many marine animals (like the trilobite). The cause of the Permian extinction might have been global cooling, volcanic eruptions, or a decrease in the continental shelf area during the formation of Pangaea. During the late Triassic, 220 million years ago, the first true mammals appeared. These primitive mammals were tiny and are thought to have been nocturnal. During the Jurassic Period, 213 million years ago, dinosaurs dominated the near-tropical Earth. The gigantic Sauropod dinosaurs, like the Diplodocus and Apatosaurus, diversified. Carnivorous Theropod, like Allosaurus and Compsognathus, were abundant. Bird-like dinosaurs also flourished. Cretaceous Period, 145 million years ago, was the age of the dinosaurs. Huge carnivores like Tyrannosaurus rex and Giganotosaurus appeared, as did Triceratops and many, many others. There was a tremendous diversity in dinosaur species. Mammals were flourishing, and flowering plants developed and radically changed the landscape. The Cretaceous period ended about 65 million years ago, a mass extinction due to impact of an asteroid at Chicxulub in Mexico wiped out the dinosaurs, except for the birds.
Mammals
The Paleocene epoch, 63 millions ago, is a crucial time in the history of mammals, it was a world without dinosaurs. Mammals appeared first in the late Triassic, at about the same time as dinosaurs. Throughout the Mesozoic, most mammals were small, fed on insects and lead a nocturnal life, whereas dinosaurs were the dominant forms of life on land. After the abrupt changes about 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs disappeared with the exception of their descendants, the birds, the world was practically without larger sized terrestrial animals. This unique situation was the starting point for the great evolutionary success of the mammals. Only ten million years later, at the end of the Paleocene, they had occupied a large part of the vacant ecological niches, often competing with giant carnivorous birds, especially in South America. By this time, the landscape was teeming with small insectivorous and rodent-like mammals, medium sized mammals were searching the forests for any kind of food they could cope with, the first large (but not yet gigantic) mammals were browsing on the abundant vegetation, and carnivorous mammals were stalking their prey.
Primates
Where and when the first primates - the group to which we belong - appeared remains uncertain, but the oldest confirmed primate fossils date to about 60 million years ago. It is widely agreed that primates emerged from archaic terrestrial and nocturnal insectivores (shrew-like animals) with early primates resembling lemurs or tarsiers and probably lived in trees in tropical or subtropical areas. Many of their characteristic features are well suited for this habitat: hands specialized for grasping, with five digits and, in most primates, opposable thumbs, rotating shoulder joints and stereoscopic (three dimensional) vision. Other traits include a large brain cavity and nails instead of claws. Modern primates range from Prosimians such as the pygmy mouse lemur, through the monkeys, to anthropoid apes such as the gorilla- and humans.
In the Pliocene epoch, 5.3 million years ago, the primates continued to diversify. Humans and Chimpanzees shared their last common ancestor around 7 million years ago, and have since followed separate evolutionary paths. We share about 98.8% of our DNA with Chimpanzees, which are thus our closest relatives amongst the primates. The first known hominids or humanlike primates evolve in eastern Africa about 5.2 million years ago. Hominids feature prominent jaws and most species have large brains relative to those of apes. Most hominids probably lived in groups either in or near forests and some later species made and used tools. The oldest fossils, a jawbone teeth and a toe bone found in Ethiopia, date to 5.3 million years. A younger near complete hominid skeleton named 'Lucy' by its discoverers and a set of remarkably preserved footprints in Hadar, Tanzania revealed more about their appearance and one of their most distinctive traits: even the earliest hominids could walk upright on two legs. This adaptation afforded certain advantages such as the ability to see over the top of high vegetation and to easily carry food or tools and weapons while traveling. The Pleistocene, 10 million to 10,000 years ago, also saw the evolution and expansion of Homo sapiens, and by the close of the Pleistocene, humans had spread through most of the world. A fossil jaw found in Mauer, Germany, of Homo Heidelbergensis dates these early humans to approximately 500,000 years ago. They display physical characteristics of modern humans, with an increased brain capacity, smaller teeth and a face that slopes less than that of other hominid ancestors. About 130,000 years ago modern humans, Homo Sapiens, disperse throughout Africa, the Middle East and Europe. They were characterized by a more gracile skeleton, and higher, domed skull than their European contemporaries, the Neanderthals. The Toba volcano explosion, Sumatra Island in Indonesia, about 73,000 years ago created world wide catastrophy as the volcanic fine ash accumulated in the upper atmosphere blocking the sunlight . The temperature dropped and many plant and animal life died. Nearly all of the humans died of starvation and only few survived this disaster. All the humans in the world today are the descendents of these few survivors. Cave paintings suggest that by 40,000 years ago, Paleolithic Period, Cro-Magnon had developed a sophisticated culture; some authors equate this to the appearance of complex spoken language.
The Age of Humans
The final epoch of the Quaternary period, spanning the time from the end of the Pleistocene, 10,000 years ago to the present is the Holocene epoch, also called the Anthropogene, the 'Age of Humans'. The DNA studies suggest that all humans descended from a single African ancestor who lived some 60,000 years ago. The modern humans migrated from Africa to colonize the rest of the world. During the Ice Age, water levels dropped and land bridges connected Africa with Asia, Asia with America, and Indonesian peninsula was very close to Australia. One human migration was from Africa to Australia passing through Arabia, Iran, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Indonesia. The other migration path took Humans to Central Asia. If Africa was the birth place of humanity then the Central Asia was its nursery. The humans migrated over the Bering Bridge connecting Asia to America about 10,000 years ago. The glaciers started to melt as Earth warmed up about 10,000 years ago, the sea level rose and land bridges disappeared under water, and many coastal areas were flooded and coastal highlands turned into Islands.
Mesolithic Era is marked by the transition from roaming and hunting to an agricultural society and begins around 11,000 years ago. The first evidence for domestication of plants and animals come from temporary campsites and are first seen from 11,000 years ago onwards. Village communities started appearing around 8,000 years ago and were common by 6,000 years ago. In the Neolithic era, cities began to be built around 8,000 to 6,000 years ago. Beginning around 8000 years ago, many human cultures became increasingly dependent on cultivated crops and domesticated animals to secure their supply of food. The oldest city in the world was excavated at Mehrgarh in Pakistan and it was settled about 9,000 BCE. By 7000 years ago sedentary agriculture was able to support towns such as Jericho in Palestine and Çatal Höyük in Turkey with populations of more than 1,000. By 3500 years ago the first civilizations appeared in the Mesopotamia Tigris- Euphrates valley in Iraq, Nile valley in Egypt, Indus valley in Pakistan, and Yellow river valley in China.
http://www.shaikhsiddiqui.com/evolution.html
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It is a common assumption that Urdu was born in the Mughal camps of Emperor Mohammad Shah Jahan (1628–58 CE) some time during the first half of the seventeenth century. It is hardly surprising that this is so wide spread because the proponents of the theory are such stalwarts as Maulana Mohammad Hussain Azad, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Mir Aman Dehlvi. These lines are written to keep the record straight and give the reader a general idea about this highly debatable, contentious and interesting issue.
It is not an easy job to dig out the roots any language, it can be likened to pinpointing the origin of a river : you can get entirely different results from following different courses. But the case of Urdu is a little different, which makes the job doubly difficult, as we shall explore in the following lines.
Like most other languages of the world, Urdu too started its literature through poetry. Now if we pin down the first Urdu poet, we should be able to trace down the origins of the language to a fair degree. So the million dollar question : Who was the first Urdu poet?
Various answers have been given to this question: Maulana Mohammad Hussain Azad wrote in the monumental Aab-e-Hayat' (Water of Life) asserts that Wali Deccani (1644-1707 CE) is the "Bava Adam" (founding father) of Urdu poetry. The line was stretched further back by subsequent research and the honor was handed over to Quli Qutub Shah (1565-1610 CE), a King of Golkanda.
Modern research, however, has dug even deeper and now Khawaja Masud Saad Salman a celebrated Persian poet whose era spans the 12th century AD is generally acknowledged as the first Urdu poet. The predicament here is that we don't have any written Kalaam, i.e. written work, of Khawaja with us, not even a single shair (stanza) ! All we know of his writing in Urdu (the language was certainly not known by this name in those times) is a statement by Amir Khusrau (1253-1325 CE) who reports in the preface of his famous book 'Ghuratul Kamal' that Khawaja Masud Saad Salman had his Dewan (poetry collections) in three languages : Persian, Turkish and Urdu.
Khawaja Masud Saad Salman was a resident of Lahore, which was the capital of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi and his predecessors from 413H to 583H, i.e 979-1030 AD. The first active interaction of South Asian languages with Persian must have started during this period because large number of Persian speaking Muslims flocked to Punjab. The army comprised of both the local and migrant soldiers. A fair number of preachers and Sufis, for example Hazrat Ali Hujveri popularly know as Data Ganj Bakhsh (died 465 CE) and Shah Yousuf (died 550 CE) started spreading the message of Islam to the local population. A lot of intermarriages must have taken place. The lively interaction between the cultures must have necessitated a common language. It is thought that even Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi may have some acquaintance with the local languages because his royal stamp bore an inscription in Sanskrit on one side and Arabic on the other side. Some Hindu poets had also written Qasidas (Eulogies) in honor of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi in Sanskrit.
Professor Hafiz Mahmud Shirani in his historic book "Punjab Mein Urdu" (Urdu in Punjab) stresses that this interaction between the local languages of Punjab with Persian of the settlers gave birth to a proto language. When Sultan Qutb-ud-Din Aibak (1150-1210 CE) shifted capital from Lahore to Delhi in 1193, hundreds of thousands of people - soldiers, scholars, writers, tribes, merchants, government employees, artists, Sufis and others -- migrated en masse with him and took this proto language with them. This language when interacted with the local dialects of Delhi and surrounding areas gradually developed into modern Urdu.
A crucial question arises at this juncture: which was or were the languages being spoken in Delhi at that time? To answer this question, we have to delve a little deeper into history in fact, right into the Stone Age!
It is generally assumed that the Dravidians were the original inhabitants of South Asia and the Aryans displaced them. But excavations at various sites in South Asia have shown that the Dravidians themselves were the invaders from Iran and they occupied the South Asia long before the Moenjodaro and Harrappa civilizations. The aboriginal people of South Asia are known as the Munda tribes, which are thought to be related to the Aborigines of Australia. The Munda people spoke various languages like Bhel, Svara, Kaul, etc. The languages of the two civilizations intermixed and gave rise to new languages. It is interesting to note that many word we used commonly in Urdu jhoNpaRee (hut), naanaa (grandfather), saalaa (brother-in-law), aaNchal (scarf), gehnaa (bracelot), kos (mile), dhatooraa, karailaa (Zucchini), phaaTak (door), DanDaa (stick), daalaan, DheeT (stubborn), aRos paRos, dhoom dhaam (lavish celebration) etc. actually date back to that Munda period, thousands of years ago. The interaction of the invading Dravidian with the Munda must have created some new languages, called the Dravidian languages.
Like Muslim invasion of the Indus valley at the turn of the millennium, a similar invasion of South Asia had taken place around 3500 years ago: the invasion of the fair, tall, horse-wielding warriors from Eurasian steppes, the Aryans. The Aryans came in several waves, over a period of several hundred years. Upon their entry in South Asia the Aryans encountered the Dravidian languages. It is interesting to note that Brahui, a living language spoken in Balochistan province of Pakistan, is also a Dravidian language, as are many Dravidian languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, etc. in the southern region of South Asia.
Aryans spoke pure Aryan language which later split into Sanskrit spoken by Aryans in South Asia and Avestan by Aryans of Iran. It is commonly believed that Aryan tribes from Eurasia invaded Iran and South Asia and they were closely related. Sanskrit was the language spoken by Aryan invaders and local inhabitants spoke various dialects of Dravidian and Munda languages. Naturally, over time, language of the rulers got mixed up with the local languages the scenario being not very different from what happened with the invasion of Muslim millennia later. The languages produced after this interaction are called Prakrits. Since different Dravidian languages were spoken in different part of the country, many kinds of Prakrits came into existence.
These Prakrits became the standard literary languages and the elite started exploiting them for religious and political purposes. At the same time, another type of languages, called the Up Bhransas, were slowly emerging. While the Prakrits were greatly influenced by Sanskrit, the Up Bharansas, being the vernacular, stood widely apart from Sanskrit.
The Up Bharansa languages have three major groups:
1. The Dravidian group : with contained Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Brahui, etc.
2. The Pushachi group : encompassing Khari Boli, Sindhi, Punjabi, Siraiki, Hindko, Kashmiri, Hariyanvi, etc.
3. The Darda group : which contains Pakhtun and Balochi.
The Pushachi group had a language called 'Khari Boli' which originated from a kind of Prakrit, called the Shorseni Prakrit. The name Khari Boli means "the standing language", which denotes that most verbs end at an "a", like khaayaa, aayaa, etc. at which differentiates it from other languages, which are called Pari Bolis "the sitting language", where the verbs usually end at "o", like khaa'io, aa'io, etc.
Most linguists think that this Khari Boli, rather than Brij Bhasha, was the language that was spoken in Delhi when Muslim arrived.
Now Khari Boli was an isolated, limited language, compared to other languages in nearby areas. Because both languages belonged to the Pushachi group, the Khari Boli and Punjabi were very similar. When the Punjabi speaking Muslims entered Delhi, they found Khari Boli very similar to Punjabi, which they had learned during their stay of near two century old sojourn in Punjab. They could relate to it easily and managed to learn it very quickly. They gave the language a new life by adopting it and introduced new vocabulary and idiom. Being the language of the ruling class, the language soon evolved to be the forerunner of modern Urdu. In those early times, it had a strong influence of Punjabi, but as time passed, it starting developing its own character.
More than any other sector of a society, the religious scholars and preachers need to be in touch with the masses. The Islamic Sufis also did the same thing; they addressed common folk in their own language. The first incidence of usage of Urdu as we know it came from a well known Sufi, Baba Fareed Ganj Shakar. Pir Shamsuddin Sabzwari (1241-1356 CE), Pir Sadruddin (1300-1416 CE), Pir Hasan Kabiruddin (1341-1449 CE), Pir Tajuddin (d. 1449 CE) and Syed Imam Shah, (d. 1520 CE) were also Sufis who wrote poetry in Urdu.
The first recorded Urdu sentence that we know of came in the form of a dialogue between Baba Fareed (died 1264 CE) and the maid of another famous Sufi, Khawaja Burhanuddin. Baba Fareed has also the distinction of writing the first piece of Urdu poetry.
Baba Fareed was quickly succeeded by an imposing figure, Amir Khusrau (1253-1325 CE). His was a multi dimensional personality in the true sense of the word. Besides being a great Islamic Sufi, a splendid Persian poet and probably the greatest maestro in the history of South Asia, Amir Khusrau stands tall in the world of Urdu as well. Although doubts persist over the authorship of several of his Urdu works, he undoubtedly played an important role in bridging the gap between the language of the elite and the folks. Many of his Geet (songs), Paheliyaan (puzzles) and keh-mukarniyaan still prevail.
In 1326, fearing an eminent attack from the barbarian Mongols, the eccentric Delhi Sultan Mohammad Tughlaq ordered the entire population of Delhi to migrate to the Southern city of Daulatabad nearly 1100 km away. The decree was so all encompassing that for a long time, the streets of Delhi were inhabited by jackals and hyenas.
Thousands of people died on their way, many more reached their new homeland. These people took with them, among other things, their language also, and soon Urdu was reverberating in the alien environs of Deccan, where the Indo-Aryan and Perso-Arabic Urdu must have been total stranger in an area dominated by Dravidian languages. The southern Behmanis Dynasty soon severed ties with the north and, declaring Deccan as an independent state. This secluded environment of Deccan served as a catalyst for the growth of Urdu, which was subsequently named Deccani. As always, the Sufis played their linguistic role and Urdu literature started appearing. Some people think that 'Mairajul Aashiqeen' by Khawaja Banda Nawaz Gaisu Draz (died, 1421 CE), is the first Urdu prose book. This book was written sometime in early fifteenth century. There is evidence that the Behmani rulers used Urdu as a state language, a factor that greatly contributed to its growth. In fact, the first 'Sahib-e-Dewan' (Person of poetic collection) Urdu poet, Sultan Quli Qutub Shah (1565-1610 CE), was a king of the Deccan state of Golkanda. Sultan Quli Qutub was a prolific poet and has left more than 50,000 couplets in Deccani, Telugu and Persian.
Sultan Quli Qutub Shah's contemporary and his courtier Mullah Wajhi is a landmark figure in the history of Urdu prose. Considered as the first important Urdu prose work, his immortal book 'Sab Ras' is still taught in MA Urdu courses in some Universities of both South Asia. Although translated from a Persian book, 'Sab Ras' tells an allegorical tale with consummate fluency and is considered a literary marvel across the board.
The first literary work in Urdu is that of Bidar poet Fakhruddin Nizami's Masnavi 'Kadam Rao Padam Rao' written between 1421 and 1434 A.D. Kamal Khan Rustami (Khawar Nama) and Nusrati (Gulshan-e-Ishq, Ali Nama and Tarikh-e-Iskandari) were two great Urdu poets of Bijapur.
All these advances paved the way for Wali Deccani (1635-1707 CE) , the first poet in our selection of 100 books. He visited Delhi some time in early eighteenth century and created quite a stir in the stagnant water of Northern Urdu literature, which had deteriorated under the influence of the state-sponsored Persian. As mentioned earlier, Wali is often called the Adam of Urdu poetry. Urdu poets like Siraj Aurangabadi (1715-1763 CE) also deserves mention.
Wali's stay in Delhi was so inspirational that it immediately bore fruit in the form of the so called Golden Period of Urdu poetry. Such giants as Shaikh Zahuruddin Hatim (1699-1781 AD), Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janan (1699-1781 AD), Mir Taqi Mir (1723-1810 CE), Mirza Mohammad Rafi Sauda (1713-80 CE), Khwaja Mir Dard (1721-85 CE), and Mir Hasan (1727- 1786 AD) were among a galaxy of other names that lived in that period. Each of these is still to be surpassed in their respective genres: Mir in Ghazal, Sauda in Qasida, Dard in Sufi poetry and Mir Hassan in Masnavi.
The 'Ghazal' in Urdu represents the most popular form of subjective poetry, while the 'Nazm' exemplifies the objective kind, often reserved for narrative, descriptive, didactic or satirical purposes. Under the broad head of the Nazm we may also include the classical forms of poems known by specific names such as 'Masnavi' (a long narrative poem in rhyming couplets on any theme: romantic, religious, or didactic), 'Marsia' (an elegy traditionally meant to commemorate the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, grandson of Prophet Mohammad, and his comrades of the Karbala fame), or 'Qasida' (a panegyric written in praise of a king or a nobleman), for all these poems have a single presiding subject, logically developed and concluded. However, these poetic species have an old world aura about their subject and style, and are different from the modern Nazm, supposed to have come into vogue in the later part of the nineteenth century.
Among the other important writers of Deccani Urdu were Shah Miranji Shamsul Ushaq (Khush Nama and Khush Naghz), Shah Burhanuddin Janam, Mullah Wajhi (Qutb Mushtari and Sabras), Ghawasi (Saiful Mulook-O- Badi-Ul-Jamal and Tuti Nama), Ibn-e-Nishati (Phul Ban) and Tabai (Bhahram-O-Guldandam). Wajhi's Sabras is considered to be a masterpiece of great literary and philosophical merit. Vali Mohammed or Vali Deccani (Diwan) was one of the most prolific Deccani poets of the medieval period. He developed the form of the Ghazal. When his Diwan (Collection of Ghazals and other poetic genres) reached philosophical, the poets of Delhi who were engaged in composing poetry in Persian language, were much impressed and they also started writing poetry in Urdu, which they named Rekhta.
When the Persian King Nadir Shah (1688-1747 CE) invaded and captured Delhi in 1739, many people, including Urdu writers, left Delhi and settled in Lucknow, which soon developed as the new hub of Urdu literature. In the peaceful environment of Lucknow, not only poetry but prose also thrived. Inshaullah Khan Insha wrote a magnificent tale, 'Rani Ketki Ki Kahani', in a language deliberately devoid of even a single word of Persian and Arabic. Some people opine that Rani Ketki in fact the first Urdu short story. Lucknow made its way as the third important centre of Urdu poetry with Ghulam Hamdani Mushafi (1725-1824 CE), Inshallah Khan Insha (1757-1817 CE), Khwaja Haidar Ali Atish (1778-1846 CE), Iman Baksh Nasikh (1787-1838 CE), Mir Babr Ali Anis (1802-74 CE) and Mirza Salamat Ali Dabir (1803-1875 CE). It reached its height of excellence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, drama started appearing at Urdu scene. The first dramatist is believed to be Amant Lucknowi, and his drama Indar Sabha is considered as the first Urdu drama.
The last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was a poet with unique style, typified by difficult rhymes, excessive word play and use of idiomatic language. He has authored four voluminous Dewans. Before the national uprising of 1857, the reign of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar witnessed the luxurious spring of Urdu poetry immediately followed by the chilly winds of autumn. Shaik Ibrahim Zauq was the Shah's mentor in poetry. Next to Sauda he is considered to be the most outstanding composer of Qasidas (panegyrics). Hakim Momin Khan Momin wrote ghazals in a style peculiar to him. He used ghazal exclusively for expressing emotions of love. Any description of Urdu literature can never be complete without the mention of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869 CE), who is considered as the greatest of all the Urdu poets. With his passion for originality, Ghalib brought in a renaissance in Urdu poetry. In the post - Ghalib period, Dagh (b. 1831 CE) emerged as a distinct poet, whose poetry was distinguished by its purity of idiom and simplicity of language and thought.
Modern Urdu literature covers the time from the last quarter of the 19th century to the present day and can be divided into two periods: the period of the Aligarh Movement started by Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan (1817-1898 CE) and the period influenced by Sir Mohammed Iqbal (1877-1938 CE) followed by the Progressive Movement and movements of Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zouq, Modernism and Post modernism. However, Altaf Hussain Hali (1837-1914 CE) is the actual innovator of the modern spirit in Urdu poetry. Hali's works include : 'Dewan-e-Hali', 'Madd-o-Jazr-e-Islam', 'Musaddas-e-Hali' (1879 CE), 'Shakwa-e-Hind' (1887 CE), 'Munajat-e-Beva' (1886 CE) and 'Chup ki Dad' (1905 CE). Hali showered the art of writing biographies with a critical approach in his biographies 'Hayat-e-Saadi' and 'Hayat-e-Jaweed'. Hali was the pioneer of modern criticism. His 'Muqaddama-e-Sher-o-Shaeri' is the foundation stone of Urdu criticism.
Maulana Shibli Naumani (1857- 1914 CE) is considered as the father of modern history in Urdu. He has produced several works based on historical research, especially on Islamic history, like 'Seerat-un- Nauman' (1892 CE) and 'Al Faruq' (1899 CE). Shibli also produced important works like 'Swanih Umari Maulana Rum', 'Ilmul Kalam' (1903 CE), 'Muvazina-e- Anis-o-Dabir' (1907 CE) and 'Sher-ul-Ajam' (1899 CE). Mohammed Hussain Azad was an important writer and poet of this period. He laid the foundation of modern poem in Urdu. 'Aab-e-Hayat', 'Sukhandan-e-Pars', 'Darbar-e-Akbari' and 'Nazm-e-Azad' are some of his outstanding literary works. Other leading poets of modern period include Syyid Akbar Husain Akbar Allahabadi (1846-1921 CE), who had a flair for extempore composition of satiric and comic verses, Khushi Mohammed Nazir (1872-1944 CE), who composed 'Jogi' and 'Pani Mein', Sir Allama Mohammed Iqbal (1873-1938 CE), 'Durga Sahai Suroor' (d.1910 CE), Mohammed Ali Jauhar (d.1931 CE) and Hasrat Mohani (d.1951 CE). Iqbal's poetry underwent several phases of evolution from Romanticism ('Nala-e-Yateem' and 'Abr-e-Guhar Bar') to South Asian Nationalism ('Tasvir-e-Dard', 'Naya Shivala' and 'Tarana-e-Hindi') and finally to Pan-Islamism ('Shakva', 'Sham-o-Shair', 'Jawab-e-Shakva', 'Khizr- e-Rah' and 'Tulu-e-Islam'). Fani Badayuni (1879-1941 CE), Shad Azimabadi (1846-1927 CE), Yagana Changezi (1884-1956 CE), Asghar Gondavi (1884-1936 CE), Jigar Moradabadi (1896-1982 CE), Akhtar Shirani, Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1912- 1985 CE), Miraji (1912-1950 CE), N.M.Rashid (1910-1976 CE), Akhtarul-Iman (b.1915 CE), Ali Sardar Jafri (b.1913 CE), Makhdoom Mohiuddin (1908 -1969 CE), Kaifi Azmi (b.1918 CE), Jan Nisar Akhtar (1914-1979 CE), Sahir Ludhianvi (1922-1980 CE), Majrooh Sultanpuri (1919-2000 CE), Asrarul Haq Majaz (1911- 1955 CE), Nasir Kazmi, Ibn-e-Insha and Dr Kalim Ajiz have taken the Urdu poetry to new heights.
A new generation of poets emerged around the sixth decade of twentieth century. The leading poets of this generation include Khaleelur Rahman Aazmi, Himyat Ali Shair, Balraj Komal, Ameeq Hanafi, Kumar Pashi, Makhmoor Saidi, Mazhar Imam, Dr Mughni Tabassum, Bani, Munir Niyazi, Suleman Areeb, Aziz Qaisi, Saqi Faruqi, Iftekhar Arif, Saleem Ahmed, Qazi Saleem, Shafiq Fatima Shera, Bashar Nawaz, Akbar Hyderabadi, Waheed Akhter, Shaz Tamkanat, Zubair Razvi, Muztar Majaz, Mushaf Iqbal Tausifi, Zohra Nigah, Kishwar Naheed, Zahida Zaidi, Siddiqa Shabnam and others.
The short story in Urdu began with Munshi Premchand's 'Soz-e-Vatan' (1908 CE). Premchand's short stories cover nearly a dozen volumes including Prem Pachisi, Prem Battisi, Prem Chalisi, 'Zad-e-Rah', 'Vardaat', 'Akhri Tuhfa' and 'Khak-e-Parvana'. Mohammed Hussan Askari and Khwaja Ahmed Abbas are counted among the leading lights of the Urdu Short story. The Progressive Movement in Urdu fiction gained momentum under Sajjad Zaheer (1905-1976 CE), Ahmed Ali (1912-1994 CE), Mahmood-uz- Zafar (1908-1994 CE) and Rasheed Jahan (1905-1952 CE). Urdu writers like Rajender Singh Bedi and Krishn Chander (1914-1977 CE) showed commitment to the Marxist philosophy in their writings. Krishn Chander's 'Adhe Ghante Ka Khuda' is one of the most memorable stories in Urdu literature. His other renowned short stories include 'Zindagi Ke Mor Par', 'Kalu Bhangi' and 'Mahalaxmi Ka Pul'. Bedi's Garm 'Kot' and 'Lajvanti' are among the masterpieces of Urdu short story. Bedi's important works include collections of short stories, Dana-o-Daam Girhen, Kokh Jali and Apne Dukh Mujhe Dedo etc., collection of plays 'Saat Khel' and a novel Ek Chadar Maili Si (1972 CE). Manto, Ismat Chughtai and Mumtaz Mufti form a different brand of Urdu writers who concentrated on the "psychological story" in contrast to the "sociological story" of Bedi and Krishn Chander. Some of Ismat Chughtai's leading short stories are 'Chauthi Ka Jora', 'Do Hath', 'Lehren' and 'Lihaf'. Manto dealt in an artistic way with many unconventional subjects, like sex, which were considered taboo by the Middle-class. His 'Thanda Gosht', which dealt with the subject of necrophilia, shocked the readers. Another of Manto's praise-worthy works was 'Khol Do', which tackled the horrors of partition. Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi (b.1915 CE) is another leading name in Urdu short story. His important short stories include 'Alhamd-o- Lillah', 'Savab', 'Nasib' and others. In the post-1936 period, the writers belonging to the Halqa-e-Arbab-e-Zauq produced several good stories in Urdu. Upender Nath Ashk (Dachi), Ghulam Abbas (Anandi). Intezar Hussain, Anwar Sajjad, Balraj Mainra, Surender Parkash and Qurratul- ain Haider (Sitaroun Se Aage, Mere Sanam Khane) are the other leading lights of Urdu short story. Several leading fiction writers emerged from the city of Hyderabad in the contemporary times, which include Jeelani Bano, Iqbal Mateen, Awaz Sayeed, Kadeer Zaman, Mazhr-uz-Zaman and others.
Novel writing in Urdu can be traced to Nazir Ahmed (1836-1912 CE) who composed several novels like Mirat-ul-Urus (1869 CE), Banat-un-Nash (1873 CE), Taubat-un-Nasuh (1877 CE), Fasana-e-Mubtala (1885 CE), Ibn-ul-Waqt (1888 CE), Ayama (1891 CE) and others. Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar's (1845-1903 CE) Fasana-e-Azad, Abdul Halim Sharar (1860-1920 CE)'s Badr-un- Nisa Ki Musibat and Agha Sadiq ki Shadi, Mirza Muhammed Hadi Ruswa's Umrao Jan Ada (1899 CE) are some of the great novels and novelettes written during the period. Niaz Fatehpuri (1887-1966 CE) and Qazi Abdul Gaffar (1862-1956 CE) were the other eminent early romantic novelists in the language. However, it was Premchand (1880-1936 CE) who tried to introduce the trend of realism in Urdu novel. Premchand was a prolific writer who produced several books. His important novels include Bazare-e-Husn (1917 CE), Gosha-e-Afiat, Chaugan-e-Hasti, Maidan- e-Amal and Godan. Premchand's realism was further strengthened by the writers of the South Asian Progressive Writers' Association like Sajjad Zaheer, Krishn Chander and Ismat Chughtai. Krishn Chander's Jab Khet Jage (1952 CE), Ek Gadhe Ki Sarguzasht (1957 CE) and Shikast are considered among the outstanding novels in Urdu literature. Ismat Chughtai's novel Terhi Lakir (1947 CE) and Qurratul-ain Haider's novel Aag Ka Darya are considered as important works in the history of Urdu novel. Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, Aziz Ahmed, Balwant Singh, Khadija Mastur, Intezar Hussain are the other important writers in Urdu in the contemporary times.
Urdu was not confined to only the Muslim writers. Several writers from other religions also wrote in Urdu. Prominent among them are Munshi Premchand, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Pandit Ratan Nath Sarshar (Fasana- e-Azad) and Brij Narain Chakbast (1882 - 1926 CE), who composed Subh-e- Watan and Tilok Chand Mahrum (1887-1966 CE), who composed Andhi and Utra Hua Darya, Krishn Chander, Rajindar Singh Bedi, Kanhaiyalal Kapur, Upendar Nath Ashk, Jagan Nath Azad, Jogender Pal, Balraj Komal and Kumar Pashi.
Akbar Allahabadi (1846-1921 CE) was the pioneer among the Urdu humorists and satirists. Majeed Lahori, Mehdi Ali Khan, Patras Bokhari (1898- 1958 CE), Mirza Farhatullah Beg, Shafiq-ur-Rahman, Azim Baig Chughtai, Ibn-e-Insha, Mushfiq Khwaja, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousifi, K.L.Kapur, Amjad Hussain, Mujtaba Hussain, Himayatullah and Talib Khundmeri are the other leading names in the field of humour.
Prof. Hafiz Mohammed Sheerani (1888-1945 CE) devoted long years to the field of literary criticism. Others in this field include Shaikh Mohammed Ikram (1907-1976 CE), Sayyid Ihtesham Hussain (1912 - 1976 CE), Mohammed Hasan Askari, Ale-Ahmed Suroor, Mumtaz Husain, Masud Husain, Shams-ur-Rahman Faruqi, Gopichand Narang, Mughni Tabassum (b.1930 CE) and others.
Farhang-e-Asifya is the first Urdu dictionary based on principles of the modern lexicography, which was produced by Maulana Sayyid Ahmed Dehlvi (1846-1920 CE) in 1892.
http://www.shaikhsiddiqui.com/urdu.html
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The land of Pakistan extends from the Himalaya Mountains to the Arabian Sea along the Indus River and its tributaries. Pakistan is the site of the earliest urban civilization in the world at Mehrgarh in Balochistan settled about 8,000 BCE. It was in these lands that the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the most brilliant in the annals of human history, flourished with its main centers at Moenjo Daro and Chanhu Daro in Sindh, Harappa in the Punjab and also influencing Kashmir, Shahi Tump at Kej in Balochistan and Mehrgarh in Balochistan and Judeiro Daro in the Sarhad. It was here that Buddhist culture blossomed and reached its zenith under the Kushans in the form of Gandhara civilization at the twin cities of Peshawar and Taxila. It was on this very soil that the Greco-Bactrian civilization had its best flowering and left the indelible marks of finest Greek art in the Potwar plateau around Rawalpindi and Kashmir. The entire Balochistan is strewn with the remains of the earliest products of man's activities. "Pakistan is a region which has been conspicuously important in the development of civilization." ('Pakistan and Western Asia', By Prof. Norman Brown).
History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has been found indicating that Pakistan might have been inhabited since at least the Middle Pleistocene era. The precise date of these remains is unclear, and archaeologists put it anywhere between 200,000 to 500,000 BCE. The fossils are the earliest human remains found in South Asia. The genetical studies have shown that more than 60% of Pakistanis have their Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) maternal roots in South Asian specific branches of haplogroup 'M'. Because of its great time depth and virtual absence in western Eurasians, it has been suggested that haplogroup M was brought to Asia after their evolution in Africa, along the southern route passing through Arabia and Iran, by the earliest migration wave of anatomically modern humans, Homo Sapiens, nearly 60,000 years ago
The original inhabitants of Pakistan may have been the tribals speaking languages related to Munda family of languages. Pakistan was the site of the world's oldest 8,000 year old civilization at Mehrgarh in the Balochistan province. The Mehrgarh declined about the same time as the Indus Valley Civilization only 200 Kilometers south east was developing. It has been surmised that the Mehrgarh residents moved to fertile Indus River valley as Balochistan became arid over time. The Elamo-Dravidians invaded from the Iranian plateau and settled in the Indus valley around 4000 BCE. The main site of the Indus Valley Civilization in Punjab was the city of Harappa and Moenjo Daro and Chanhu Daro in Sindh. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline just prior to the invasion of Indo-European Aryan tribes from the Eurasian Steppe nearly 3100 BCE. The Indo-European Aryan tribes moved passed through the northern Punjab and then turned south, avoiding the heavily populated Indus River valley civilization, and settled around the ancient Sarasvati River in India which flowed parallel to the Indus River nearly 300 Kilometer in the east. The descendents of Indo-European Aryan tribes developed Hinduism and the Sarasvati river became the holiest river in their religion. Sarasvati river dried up nearly 2800 BCE as its tributary rivers changed direction towards Indus River and Ganges River due to ancient earthquakes and movements of the tectonic plates. The descendents of Indo-European Aryan tribes then migrated to the Ganges River valley in northern India.
The Indus Valley Civilization of Pakistan and Gangetic Valley Civilization of India have remained separate entities. In fact Pakistan based governments ruled over northern India more often and for much longer periods than Indian based governments have ruled over Pakistan territories. What is more important, Pakistan as an independent country always looked westward and had more connections ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, commercial, as well as political with the Sumerian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Central Asian civilizations than with the Gangetic Valley. It was only from the Muslim period onward that it became subservient to northern Indian governments. Even this period is not devoid of revolts and successful assertion of independence by people of Pakistan. In the pre-Muslim period, India’s great expansion covering large portions of the South Asia took place only during the reigns of the Mauryas (3rd century BC), the Guptas (4th century AD), Raja Harsha (7th century AD), the Gurjara empire of Raja Bhoj (8th century AD) and the Pratiharas (9th century AD). It is important to note that except for the Maurya period lasting barely a hundred years, under none of the other dynasties did the Indian based governments ever rule over Pakistan. They always remained east of river Sutlej.
Babylonian Queen Semiramis invaded the Indus Valley about 800 BCE but was defeated. The Scythians invaded from Central Asia and settled in modern Pakistan. The Scythian empire ruled Pakistan around 650 BCE. The Persian King Cyrus invaded in 535 BCE defeated the Scythians and conquered Gandhara in northern Pakistan. Later the Persian Achaemenian Empire under King Darius conquered modern Pakistan in 521 BCE and it remained part of Persian empire for more than two hundred years. Alexander the Great of Macedonia also conquered Persian satrapy of Pakistan in 327 BCE and did briefly crossed into India but returned after his army refused to advance further into South Asia. Pakistan remained part of the Hellenic world for nearly two hundred years. Pakistan was part of the Greek-Bactrian empire of Demetrius who ruled in 190 BCE. The Kushan invaded in 162 CE and Pakistan became part of the Central Asian based Kushan empire.
The Syrian Umayyad Caliphate sent an Muslim Arab army led by Muhammad bin Qasim and it conquered Pakistan territories from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea, in 711 BCE. During the Arab rule, the territories of Pakistan were known as 'Sindh' and India was known as 'Hind'. The Arab dynasties ruled Pakistan from Baghdad in Iraq and Damascus in Syria for more than two hundred years. Many inhabitants of Pakistan converted to Islam during the long Arab rule. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia and many settled in the Pakistan.
The five thousand year history of Pakistan reveals that its independence had been a rule while its subservience to or attachment with India an exception. "Throughout most of the recorded history the north-west (i.e. Pakistan) has normally been either independent or incorporated in an empire whose centre lay further in the west. The occasions when it has been governed from a centre further east (India) have been the exception rather than the rule; and the creation of Pakistan which has been described as a geographer’s nightmare is historically a reversion to normal as Pakistan is concerned." ('A Study of History', by A J Toynbee).
During its five thousand year known history, Pakistan has been subservient to Central Indian governments only during the Maurya, the Turko-Afghan and British periods who were Buddhist, Muslim and Christian respectively. While the Mauryan (300-200 BC) and British (1848-1947) periods lasted barely a hundred years each, the Turko-Afghan period was the longest covering a span of more than 600 years. The Mughal Empire ruled most of Pakistan and large parts of India and Bangladesh for more than three hundred years.
Pakistan, the Indus land, is the child of the Indus in the same way as Egypt is the gift of Nile. The Indus has provided unity, fertility, communication, direction and the entire landscape to the country. Its location marks it as a great divide as well as a link between central Asia and south Asia. But the historical movements of the people from Central Asia and Middle East to South Asia have given to it a character of its own and have established closer relation between the people of Pakistan and those of: Iran, Afghanistan, Turkistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhistan, Uighuristan, Kyrghyzistan, Tataristan, Bashkiristan, Daghistan, Chechenistan, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Arab lands or Arabistan and Turkey in the field of culture, religion, ethnicity, language, literature, food, dress, furniture and folklore.
Independence
Modern Pakistan gained it's independence from the British on 14th August 1947 as the British empire in South Asia was divided on religious regions. The Hindu and Sikhs fanatics massacred over one million Muslims refugees fleeing from India. This modern Islamic nation was established after a long freedom struggle by the leaders of the Muslim League; Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Shair-e-Mashriq (Poet of the East) Mohammad Iqbal, Quaid-e-Millat (Leader of the Nation) Liaqat Ali Khan, and Madr-e-Millat (Mother of the Nation) Fatima Jinnah.
Trade
It is the Arabian Sea that has opened the doors for journey beyond to the Arabian world through the Persian Gulf and Red Sea right into the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia and Egypt. It is this Sea voyage that gave to the Indus Land its earliest name of Meluhha because the Indus people were characterized as Malahha (Sailor) or Meluhha in the Babylonian records. It is for this reason that the oldest civilization of this land, called Indus Valley Civilization, had unbreakable bonds of culture and trade link with the Persian Gulf States of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Qatar, Bahrain and right from Yemen and Oman to Kuwait and Persia. While a Meluhhan village sprang up in ancient Mesopotamia (Modern Iraq), the Indus seals, painted pottery, Lapis Lazuli and many other items were exchanged for copper, tin and several other objects from Oman and Persian Gulf States. It is to facilitate this trade that the Indus writing was evolved in the same proto-symbolic style as the contemporary cuneiform writing of Mesopotamia. The Baloch and Sindh coastal ports also carried extensive trade with African ports in Ethiopia, Somalia, Zanzibar, Kenya, and Tanzania. Pakistan ports were also very active in trade with Roman and Byzantine empires. The fables of Sindbad the sailor, 'Sindbad Jahazi' (Sindbad the Shipmate), (Sindbad is Sindh-abad) are also based on historical Sindhi trading expeditions to other parts of Southeast Asia, Africa, Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Much later in history it is the pursuit of this seaward trade that introduced Islam from Arabia in to Pakistan. Pakistani ports also had extensive trade with Ottoman and Safavid empires. The twin foundations of cultural and religious link have helped build the stable edifice of Islamic civilization in this country. All these cultural developments are embedded in the personality of the people of Pakistan.
Economy
Pakistan, a developing country, is the sixth most populous in the world and has faced a number of challenges on the political and economic fronts. Although a very poor country when it became independent in 1947, in the 1960s Harvard economists proclaimed it to be a model of economic development. In each of its first four decades, Pakistan's economic growth rate was better than the global average, but imprudent policies led to a slowdown in the late 1990s.
Since then, the Pakistani government has instituted wide-ranging reforms, and economic growth has accelerated in the current century. Pakistan's economic outlook has brightened and its manufacturing and financial services sectors have experienced rapid expansion. The growth of the non-agricultural sectors has changed the structure of the economy, and agriculture now only accounts for roughly one-fifth of the GDP. There has been a great improvement in its foreign exchange position and a rapid growth in hard currency reserves in recent years. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005, Pakistan's GDP growth rate was 8.4% which is (after China) the second-highest among the ten most populous countries in the world.
Pakistan economy is based on agriculture, industry and expanding services sector. The main agriculture crops are: Wheat, Rice, Sugar, Corn, Cotton, various fruits, legumes and vegetables. The main industries are: Textile, Steel, Machinery, Pharmaceutical, Cement, Automobile, and consumer goods.
Geography
Pakistan has a total area of 803,940 square kilometers (land area of 778,720 km²), approximately the combined land areas of France and the United Kingdom. To Pakistan's east is India, which has a 2,912 km (1,809 mile) border with Pakistan. To the west is Iran, which has a 909 km (565 mile) border with Pakistan. To Pakistan's northwest lies Afghanistan, with a shared border of 2,430 km (1,510 miles). China is towards the northeast and has a 523 km (325 mile) border with Pakistan. To the south is the Arabian Sea, with 1,046 km (650 mile) of coastline. The northern and western areas of Pakistan are mountainous. Kashmir contain some of the highest mountains in the world, including K2 and Nanga Parbat. Northern Pakistan has many areas of preserved moist temperate forest. In the southeast is the Cholistan or Thar Desert which extends into India. West-central Balochistan has a high desert plateau, bordered by low mountain ranges. Most areas of the Punjab, and parts of Sindh, are fertile plains where agriculture is of great importance.
Demographics and Society
The population of Pakistan in 2006 is estimated to be over 166 million. The capital of Pakistan is Islamabad (City of Islam). There are five provinces of Pakistan: Kashmir, Punjab, Sarhad, Balochistan, and Sindh. The languages of Pakistan are Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Kashmiri, Seraiki, Baloch, Brahui, etc. Arabic is the religious language, Persian or Farsi is the cultural language, Urdu is the national language and English is the official language of Pakistan.
Major ethnic groups in Pakistan are: Punjabis, Sindhis, Pakhtuns, Kashmiris, Muhajirs, Seraikis, Balochis, Brahuis, and others. The smaller ethnic groups are mainly found in the northern parts of the country such as Turwalis, Kafiristanis, Hindko, Khowar, Shina etc. Pakistan's census does not include the sizeable refugee population from neighboring Afghanistan, who are found mainly in the Sarhad, Balochistan and Karachi. From the 1980s, Pakistan accommodated over four million Afghan refugees - the largest refugee population in the world, including Pakhtuns, Tajiks, Turkmen, Uzbeks and Hazaras. Majority of the Afghan refugees have permanently settled in Pakistan. A large number of Bangali immigrants from Bangladesh have settled in Karachi, while hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Iran are scattered throughout the country. There is also a sizeable community of Muslim refugees from Myanmar (Burma) and Africa concentrated in Karachi. There is also a small and influential immigrant Arab minority.
Religion
The people of Indus river valley followed several ancient tribal religions. Later the Hinduism and Buddhism from India; Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism from Persia; and Hellenic religion from Greece, flourished in Pakistan. The Semitic religious traditions from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as expressed in Torah, Bible and Quran have been integral part of Pakistan’s religious identity.
Pakistan remains deeply conservative Islamic nation with over 98% Muslim population and high pilgrimage rate to Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia. The Muslims are divided into different sects which are called schools of jurisprudence i.e. 'Maktab-e-Fikr' (School of Thought) in Urdu. Nearly 80% of Pakistani Muslims are Sunnis and 20% are Shias. The nearly all Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to Hanafi school with a small Hanbali school represented by Wahabis. The Hanafi school is divided into Barelvis and Deobandis. While majority of Pakistani Shia Muslims belong to Ithna Ashari school with significant minority of Nizari Ismaili and a small Dawoodi Bohra schools. By one estimate, in Pakistan, Muslims are divided into following schools: the Barelvis 48%, Deobandis 25%, Ithna Ashari 19%, Ahle Hadith 4%, Ismailis 1%, Bohras 0.25%, and other smaller sects. The Ahle-e-Hadith is a small group of Sunni Muslims in Pakistan who do not consider themselves bound by any particular school of law and rely directly on the Prophet’s Sunnah. Nearly 65% of the total seminaries are run by Deobandis, 25 per cent by the Barelvis, six percent by the Ahle Hadith and three percent by various Shia organizations. There are small but influential small Shia sects belonging to Nizari Ismaili and Dawoodi Bohra schools of jurisprudence. Zikris are considered to be a heretical sect by mainstream Muslims.
The non-Muslim minorities are nearly 2% of the population and they include: Christians, Hindus, Parsis (Zoroastrians) and Ahmadis, and others.
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Muslims are followers of Islam. One of the three major monotheistic religions in the world, Islam calls for complete acceptance of and submission to the teachings and guidance of God. Anyone may become a Muslim, regardless of gender, race, or nationality, by reciting a declaration of faith and embracing a lifestyle in accord with Islamic principles. Specific acts, including fasting, daily prayer, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, are considered the pillars of Muslim spiritual life.
There are an estimated 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide. They live in every world region and belong to many different cultures and ethnic groups. The 10 countries with the largest Muslim populations, in descending order, are Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, and China. Of these, only Egypt is an Arab country, and despite the stereotypes, only 193 million of the world’s Muslims—15 to 18 percent of the total—are Arabs.
Islam is a system of religious beliefs and an all-encompassing way of life. The word Islam comes from the word salaam, which means submission or peace. Muslims believe that God (Allah) revealed to the Prophet Prophet Mohammad the rules governing society and the proper conduct of society's members. It is incumbent on the individual therefore to live in a manner prescribed by the revealed law and on the community to build the perfect human society on earth according to holy injunctions. Islam recognizes no distinctions between church and state. The distinction between religious and secular law is a recent development that reflects the more pronounced role of the state in society, and Western economic and cultural penetration. The impact of religion on daily life in Muslim countries is far greater than that found in the West since the Middle Ages.
The duties of Muslims form the five pillars of Islam, which set forth the acts necessary to demonstrate and reinforce the faith. These are the recitation of the Shahada ("There is no God but God and Prophet Mohammad is his prophet"), daily prayer (Salat), almsgiving (Zakat), fasting (Sawm), and pilgrimage (Hajj).
The believer is to pray in a prescribed manner after purification through ritual ablutions each day at dawn, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and nightfall. Prescribed genuflections and prostrations accompany the prayers, which the worshiper recites facing toward Mecca. Whenever possible men pray in congregation at the mosque with an imam, and on Fridays make a special effort to do so. The Friday noon prayers provide the occasion for weekly sermons by religious leaders. Women may also attend public worship at the mosque, where they are segregated from the men, although most frequently women pray at home. A special functionary, the muezzin, intones a call to prayer to the entire community at the appropriate hour. Those out of earshot determine the time by the sun. The Aazan (Arabic for announcement) is the call or summons to public prayers proclaimed by the Muezzmn (crier) from the mosque twice daily in all Muslim countries. In small mosques the Muezzin at Azan stands at the door or at the side of the building; in large ones he takes up his position in the minaret.
The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is Ramadan, a period of obligatory fasting in commemoration of Prophet Mohammad's receipt of God's revelation. Throughout the month all but the sick and weak, pregnant or lactating women, soldiers on duty, travelers on necessary journeys, and young children are enjoined from eating, drinking, smoking, or sexual intercourse during the daylight hours. Those adults excused are obliged to endure an equivalent fast at their earliest opportunity. A festive meal breaks the daily fast and inaugurates a night of feasting and celebration. The pious well-to-do usually do little or no work during this period, and some businesses close for all or part of the day. Since the months of the lunar year revolve through the solar year, Ramadan falls at various seasons in different years. A considerable test of discipline at any time of the year, a fast that falls in summer time imposes severe hardship on those who must do physical work.
All Muslims, at least once in their lifetime, should make the hajj to Mecca to participate in special rites held there during the twelfth month of the lunar calendar. Prophet Mohammad instituted this requirement, modifying pre-Islamic custom, to emphasize sites associated with God and Abraham (Hadrat Ibrahim), founder of monotheism and father of the Arabs through his son Hadrat Ismail.
The lesser pillars of the faith, which all Muslims share, are jihad, or the crusade to protect Islamic lands, beliefs, and institutions; and the requirement to do good works and to avoid all evil thoughts, words, and deeds. In addition, Muslims agree on certain basic principles of faith based on the teachings of the Prophet Prophet Mohammad: there is one God, who is a unitary divine being in contrast to the Trinitarian belief of Christians; Prophet Mohammad, the last of a line of prophets beginning with Abraham and including Moses (Hadrat Musa) and Jesus (Hadrat Isa), was chosen by God to present His message to humanity; and there is a general resurrection on the last or judgment day.
The Muslim year has two religious festivals--Id al Adha, a sacrificial festival on the tenth of Dhu al Hijjah, the twelfth month; and Id al Fitr, the festival of breaking the fast, which celebrates the end of Ramadan on the first of Shawwal, the tenth month. To Sunnis these are the most important festivals of the year. Each lasts three or four days, during which people put on their best clothes, visit, congratulate, and bestow gifts on each other. In addition, cemeteries are visited. Id al Fitr is celebrated more joyfully, as it marks the end of the hardships of Ramadan. Celebrations also take place, though less extensively, on the Prophet's birthday, which falls on the twelfth of Rabi al Awwal, the third month, and on the first of Muharram, the beginning of the new year.
Sharia
During his lifetime, Prophet Mohammad held both spiritual and temporal leadership of the Muslim community. Religious and secular law merged, and all Muslims have traditionally been subject to sharia, or religious law. A comprehensive legal system, sharia developed gradually through the first four centuries of Islam, primarily through the accretion of precedent and interpretation by various judges and scholars. During the tenth century, legal opinion began to harden into authoritative rulings, and the figurative bab al ijtihad (gate of interpretation) closed. Thereafter, rather than encouraging flexibility, Islamic law emphasized maintenance of the status quo.
The word “Islam” means “submission.” A “Muslim,” therefore, is one who submits to the will of God. Shariah, frequently translated as “Islamic law,” is neither a document nor a code in the strict sense, but rather an amalgamation of scriptural (Quranic) injunctions, sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, juridical rulings, and legal commentaries dealing with all aspects of social, economic and political life, similar to Jewish Halakhic law.
Islam, like Judaism, is a religion of laws – it is the legal code, not a theology, which establishes the criteria of right and wrong, proper and improper behavior. Like Halakhah, Shari’a is believed to be ordained by God and its scope to be total, ranging from the loftiest ideals to the minutiae of daily life. Even the words Halakhah and Shariah, have similar meanings and may be translated as the “path” or “road” to righteousness.
In its ideal form, Shariah ensures the rights of all in an Islamic state. Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence; it forms the basis of Shariah and is a process of ongoing interpretation. Thus it is neither static nor monolithic, and may take different forms in different countries or from one period of history to another. A classic text on Shariah, by the fourteenth-century scholar, Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, deals with a wide range of subjects, including purity of heart, fasting, divorce, backbiting, crimes, and rules of warfare.
The hudud can be characterized as the Islamic “penal code” prescribed by Shariah. The rules of hudud identify punishable crimes, the types of witnesses needed to convict someone of a crime, and the punishments for various crimes.
Islam has no basic concept of inalienable rights and does not permit the individual to enjoy the freedoms of action and association characteristic of a democracy. In Islamic states, where there is no formally recognized separation between religion and law, mosque and state, Shari‘a is enshrined and presented (if not always consistently implemented) as the final and ultimate formulation of the law of God, not to be revised or reformulated by mere mortal and fallible human beings. In Egypt, Algeria, and Palestine, the Shari‘a is virtually ignored as a guide to specific legislation or government policy on many vital issues. The remaining Muslim countries, which adopted Western-style legal and political systems under colonial tutelage, enshrine Islamic law in their codes and constitutions to various degrees. These nations range from Pakistan, with its intense political agitation over the interpretation and implementation of Shari‘a, to Indonesia, a self-proclaimed secular nation that is the home to more than 180 million Muslims.
Takfir -- the condemnation of a Muslim by another Muslim as a kafir (i.e., disbelievers outside the pale of Islam) -- is strictly prohibited in the Quran, the Hadith, and the writings of many eminent Muslim authorities. But fatwas of apostasy and heresy as well as kufr within the Muslim ummah are neither few nor far in between.
After Prophet Mohammad's death the leaders of the Muslim community consensually chose Hadrat Abu Bakr, the Prophet's father-in-law and one of his earliest followers, to succeed him. At that time some persons favored Hadrat Ali, Prophet Mohammad's cousin and the husband of his daughter Fatima, but Ali and his supporters (the Shia Ali, or Party of Ali) eventually recognized the community's choice. The next two caliphs (successors)--Hadrat Umar, who succeeded in A.D.634, and Hadrat Usman, who took power in A.D.644--enjoyed the recognition of the entire community. When Ali finally succeeded to the caliphate in A.D.656, Muawiyah, governor of Syria, rebelled in the name of his murdered kinsman Uthman. After the ensuing civil war, Ali moved his capital to Iraq, where he was murdered shortly there after.
Hadrat Ali's death ended the last of the so-called four orthodox caliphates and the period in which the entire community of Islam recognized a single caliph. Muawiyah proclaimed himself caliph from Damascus. The Shia Ali refused to recognize him or his line, the Umayyad caliphs, and withdrew in the first great schism to establish the dissident sect, known as the Shias, supporting the claims of Ali's line to the caliphate based on descent from the Prophet. The larger faction, the Sunnis, adhered to the position that the caliph must be elected, and over the centuries they have represented themselves as the orthodox branch.
There Ghulat or extremist are those who went to extremes in exalting a person or persons to the extent of raising him or them above the ranks of ordinary human beings. These ghlat sect are mostly extremeist Shia Ismaili sects. While Bahai and Ahmadi have left Islam as they follow latter day religious leaders.
Sects
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Haseen Khan
Hassan Alvi
Hassan Siddiqui
Hidayat Begum
Hina Anwer Mahmood
Hina Quraishi
Hira Mansur Mirza
Hisamuddin Siddiqui
Huma Malik
Huma Quraishi
Huma Shamsi
Humayun Rashid
Humayun Zaheer Siddiqui
Husn Ara Begum
Iftikhar Ahmad
Iftikhar Nabi
Ihteshamuddin Khan
Ijazi Begum
Iman Anwer
Imdad Hussain
Imran Ali
Imran Khalid Khan
Imran Quraishi
Imrana Mirza
Imranullah Khan
Inayat Fatima
Intezar Ahmad
Iqbal Ahmed
Iqbal Hussain
Iqbal Zaki
Iqra Ahmed
Iqtedar Ahmad
Iram Malik
Irfan Ahmad
Irshad Hussain
Irshad Nabi
Ishaq Ali
Ishtiaq Hussain
Ismail Khan
Izhar Hussain
Jahan Ara
Jahan Ara
Jahangir Ahmad
Jameel Ahmad
Jameel Khan
Jameela Begum
Jamila Ahmad
Jamshed Anwer Mahmood
Jamsheed Begum
Jani Begum
Javaid Ahmad
Javaid Ahmad Siddiqui
Javaid Shahid
Javaid Siddiqui
Javeriah Ahmad
Jawad Anwar Siddiqui
Jazib Rashid
Jibran Akhtar Siddiqui
Junaid Khan
Junaid Khan
Kaneez Fatima
Kanwal Parvaiz Siddiqui
Karamat Hussain
Kashif Sarosh
Kausar Ali
Kausur Khanum
Kehkashan Begum
Khaleeq Ahmad
Khaleeqa Begum
Khalid Jan Shah
Khazina Ishaq Khan
Khudaijah Khatoon
Khurram Ahmad Siddiqui
Khurram Aleem Siddiqui
Khurram Ali
Khurram Siddiqui
Khursheed Begum
Khursheed Begum
Khushnoodi Begum
Khusnoodi Begum
Kieran Arif Siddiqui
Kinza Ahmad
Kiran Ahmad
Kiran Mansur Mirza
Kiran Quraishi
Kishwari Khatoon
Kulsoom Fatima
Laeeqa Khatoon
Lateef Khan
Lisa Ann Khan
Lubna Farheen
Lucile Beatrice Ahmad
Maaz Khan
Madiha Mahmood
Maha Khan
Maham Ahmad
Mahbub Ahmad
Mahbub Ahmad Siddiqui
Mahed Iqbal Ahmed
Maheen Qaiser Siddiqui
Mahjabeen Khanum
Mahmood Nabi
Mahmud Zaki
Mahnoor Ahmad Shaikh
Mahvish Khan
Majeeda Begum
Majid Hussain Khan
Maleh Khan
Malik Quraishi
Malka Riffat Naz Khan
Mansoor Aslam
Mansur Mirza
Maqbool Nabi
Maqbul Fatima
Maqsud Zaki
Maria Ahmad
Maria Akhtar Siddiqui
Maria Aleem Siddiqui
Mashud Zaki
Masood Farooqi
Mehnaz Sultan Siddiqui
Mehrun Khatoon
Mehwish Akhtar Siddiqui
Mirza Fahad Baig
Mirza Waheed Baig
Misbah Mansur Mirza
Mohammad Aamir
Mohammad Ahmad
Mohammad Ahmad
Mohammad Ahmad
Mohammad Ameen
Mohammad Anees
Mohammad Anjum
Mohammad Arshad
Mohammad Asif
Mohammad Aslam
Mohammad Azhar
Mohammad Fasih
Mohammad Ghosi
Mohammad Haseen Khan
Mohammad Hayat
Mohammad Imran
Mohammad Imran Khan
Mohammad Kashif
Mohammad Khan
Mohammad Moazzam
Mohammad Nabi
Mohammad Rafi
Mohammad Rayyaan Ali
Mohammad Rizwan Khan
Mohammad Saqib
Mohammad Shafi
Mohammad Taqi
Mohammad Yasir
Mohammad Zaki
Mohammadi Jan
Mohammed Ahmad Shaikh
Mohriz Khan
Mona Siddiqui
Mukhtar Ahmad
Mukhtar Hussain
Mukhtar Nabi
Mumtaz Nabi
Muneeb Ahmed
Muneeza Mahmood
Muneeza Muneer
Musarat Begum
Mushtaq Ali
Mushtaq Hussain
Mushtaq Hussain
Mushtari Begum
Mustafai Khanum
Muzayyan Khan
Muzna Farooqi
Nabeel Aslam
Nabeel Khan
Nabiha Shezre Khan
Nabil Ahmad Khan
Nadeem Ahmed
Nadeem Ahmed
Nadeem Ali Siddiqui
Nadeem Khan
Nadia Ali
Nadia Khanum
Nadia Siddiqui
Nadira Khatoon
Naeema Khanum
Naila Khan
Najam Us Sahar
Najiba Khanum
Najib-ul-Nisa
Najma Ahmed
Najma Aleem Siddiqui
Najma Khatoon
Nargis Khatoon
Naseem Ahmad
Naseema Ali
Naseemullah Khan
Nasira Khatoon
Nasira Khatoon
Nasreen Jan Shah
Nauman Hussain Khan
Naumanullah Khan
Naushaba Farhat Khan
Navaid Shahid
Navaid Shakir
Naved Khan
Naveed Ali Siddiqui
Naveed-us-Sahar
Nawab Jan
Nayab Khanum
Nayla Barkat Ali
Nayla Khatoon
Nayyar Jahan
Nazeer Khan
Nazish Jameel
Neha Hayat
Nida Khan
Nighat Begum
Nighat Jamal
Nighat Siddiqui
Nina Siddiqui
Nishat Maqsood
Noman Khan
Noor Jahan
Noor Navaid
Noreen Ali
Noreen Khaum
Noreen Siddiqui
Nusrat Siddiqui
Nuzhat Jamal
Omair Anwar Siddiqui
Omar Ahmad Siddiqui
Omar Khan
Osman Ahmad Shaikh
Owais Ahmad
Owais Ahmad
Parvaiz Shahid
Qaiser Mahmud Siddiqui
Qamar Ahmad Siddiqui
Qamar Naheed Khan
Qamaruddin Khan
Quraisha Begum
Rabia Khanum
Rachel Sabira Khan
Raees Khan
Raeesa Khatoon
Rafia Zaki
Rafiq Ahmad
Rafiq Ahmad
Rafiqa Khatoon
Raghib Hussain
Rahmat Jan
Ramiz Iqbal Ahmed
Rasheeda Parveen
Rashid Anwar Siddiqui
Raveeda Gul
Raza Ali
Razia Begum
Rehan Siddiqui
Riasat Ali
Rida Mansoor Ali
Riffat Siddiqui
Rizwan Khan
Rizwanullah Khan
Roofi Khanum
Roohi Talat Khan
Rubi Ali
Rubina Siddiqui
Ruqiya Begum
Saad Farooqi
Saad Nabi
Saad Navaid
Saadia Khan
Saadia Khanum
Saba Alvi
Saba Anwer Mahmood
Sabahat Ahmad Khan
Sabeen Afsar
Sabina Siddiqui
Sabir Hussain
Sabira Khatoon
Saddo Begum
Sadia Grace Khan
Saeed Ahmad
Saeeda Khatoon
Saeedan Khatoon
Saema Khan
Safia Begum Khan
Saghir Ahmad
Sahab Begum
Sahar Mahmood
Saida Mansur Mirza
Saifullah Khan
Saima Malik
Sajid Hussain Khan
Sajida Khatoon
Sajjad Nabi
Sakhawat Hussain Khan
Salma Khatoon
Salman Ahmad Siddiqui
Salman Zaman Khan
Samar Arif Siddiqui
Sameed Ali Siddiqui
Sameen Qaiser Siddiqui
Sameen Sobia
Sameena Ali
Sameena Khatoon
Samina Abid Siddiqui
Sana Siddiqui
Sana Waheed Baig
Saqib Mansur Mirza
Sara Humyun Siddiqui
Sarah Ahmad
Sarah Nabi
Sarfaraz Nabi
Sarwari Begum
Sarwat Begum
Sarwat Khan
Sarwat Nabil
Sauda Khatoon
Seema Khatoon
Sehar Khanum
Shabana Khatoon
Shadia Khan
Shafaq Nadeem
Shafiq Ahmad
Shafqat Hussain
Shaheen Rizwana
Shahid Hussain
Shahida Khatoon
Shahrukh Alam
Shahzad Ali
Shahzad Mahmood
Shahzadi Begum
Shahzaib Parvaiz Siddiqui
Shahzeb Khan
Shaikh Abdullah
Shaikh Ahmad Jan
Shaikh Ali Hussain
Shaikh Ali Jan
Shaikh Amanullah
Shaikh Azeemuddin
Shaikh Azizuddin
Shaikh Azmatullah
Shaikh Fasihullah
Shaikh Ghulam Abbas
Shaikh Ghulam Murtaza
Shaikh Habib Jan
Shaikh Kamal Mohammad
Shaikh Kareem Baksh
Shaikh Karimullah
Shaikh Mohammad
Shaikh Mohammad Akbar
Shaikh Mohammad Aslam
Shaikh Mohammad Faizullah
Shaikh Mohammad Hashim
Shaikh Mohammad Hayat
Shaikh Mohammad Jan
Shaikh Mohammad Yusuf
Shaikh Nabi Jan
Shaikh Nur Mohammad
Shaikh Rahimullah
Shaikh Vilayat Hussain
Shakeela Khatoon
Shakeela Khatoon
Shakira Khatoon
Shama Afroz
Shameem Ahmad
Shameem Fatima
Shams Saeed
Shamsa Begum
Shamsa Khatoon
Shamshad Ali
Shamshad Hussain
Sharjeela Abid Siddiqui
Shaugfta Zaheer Siddiqui
Shazia Ali
Siddiqa Khanum
Siddiqa Khatoon
Simra Ali
Siraj Ahmad
Sofia Zaki
Soha Navaid
Sohaib Mahmood
Sohail Ahmad
Sophie Ariana Ahmad
Soraya Siddiqui
Sufia Siddiqui
Sultan Ahmad Siddiqui
Sultana Khanum
Sumera Khan
Suraya Jan Shah
Suraya Siddiqui
Surayya Khan
Syed Abdul Malik
Syed Barkat Ali
Syed Basit Ali
Syed Kashif Ali
Syed Mansoor Ali
Tafazzul Hussain
Taha Ali Siddiqui
Tahir Bhatti
Tahira Khatoon
Talat Rukhsana
Talat Siddiqui
Talha Ahmad
Talha Bin Faiz Khan
Talha Khan
Tameezan Khatoon
Tania Siddiqui
Tanveer Khanum
Tariq Nadeem Siddiqui
Taufiq Ahmad Khan
Taufiq Zaman Khan
Tauqeer Ahmad
Tausif Ahmad Khan
Tayaba Khatoon
Tayyaba Khatoon
Tayyaba Khatoon
Tehmina Khanum
Tipu Faiz Mohammad Saleem
Tooba Faiz Khan
Tulan Khan
Umair Khan
Umair Saeed Khan
Urooj Sabahat
Usman Ahmad
Uzma Khanum
Uzma Quraishi
Uzma Tausif
Varisha Pervez
Wahid Khan
Wajid Hussain Khan
Wajid Khan
Wajiha Mahmood
Waqar Ahmed Alvi
Wardah Khan
Waris Arif Siddiqui
Warishah Alam
Waseem Ahmad
Waseem Ahmad Siddiqui
Wasif Sultan Siddiqui
Yasmeen Farzana
Yusuf Saeed
Zafaruddin Khan
Zaheer Ahmad Siddiqui
Zahid Hussain
Zahida Khatoon
Zahir Ahmad
Zahurul Fatima
Zain Ahmad
Zain Alvi
Zain Qaiser Siddiqui
Zain Saeed
Zameer Ahmad
Zamir Ahmad
Zara Ahmad
Zara Nabi
Zarina Begum
Zarina Khan
Zaviyar Faisal Siddiqui
Zaynab Nabi
Zeba Ahmad
Zeenat Begum Khan
Zeeshan Akhtar Siddiqui
Zeeshan Quraishi
Zehra Nadeem Khan
Zehra Parvaiz Siddiqui
Zoha Ahmad
Zoha Ahmad
Zohra Khatoon
Zubaida Khatoon
Zubair Ahmad
Zubair Khan
Zunaira Ali
We have created this web site as a record for our family history and as register for our relatives around the world. We will keep record of all our family members and those who marry into our family. If you are member of our family and have not been added to this database please contact us by selecting Contact Us tab on the top of the web pages. If you want to suggest corrections, add more family members, upload family pictures then please contact us. The title of our family is 'Shaikh' which identifies our Arab heritage. The 'Siddiqui' indicates our family history through Hadrat (Saint) Abu Bakr Siddiq friend and confidant of Prophet Mohammad and the first Khalifa of Islam. According to our family traditions, our ancestors moved from Makkah to Baghdad in Iraq, then to Kabul in Afghanistan, and finally to Bareilly near the Himalayas mountains close to Nepal border in South Asia. According to our family history, our ancestors arrived in South Asia during the reign of Sultan (King) Mohammad Ghauri, and later settled in Bareilly during the reign of Mughal Emperor Mohammad Aurangzeb Alamgir. Nearly all members of our family resided in Bareilly until 1947, when they were forced flee to Pakistan due to massacres of Muslims by the Hindu and Sikh fanatics. Most of our family members settled in Karachi. Now our family members are scattered around the world and are beginning to lose contact with our ever growing family members. So we took upon ourselves to create this web site and make it as family register to keep names and album for photos of all our family members. This web site is currently being designed and web pages of the family member are being added. We plan to finish adding all family members then we plan to add multimedia content i.e. streaming audio and video. Please continue to revisit the web site as new information is being added nearly every day. All dead links, misdirected links, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, missing information, and suggestions should be emailed to us. The Family Trees can be accessed by choosing Family Tree on the top index of each page. It can also be accessed by clicking The Search can be used to search this web site for information about your family. You can enter your search criteria to find pages in this web site that have the information that you are searching. For example, search for 'Mohammad' will bring list of web pages in this site that contain that name. The Web Site Index page contains the index of all pages in this web site. The Links page contains links to our family's other websites, blogs and important links. We have representatives of our family in Pakistan, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United States, and Canada and the closest to your location will help confirm your relationship to our family and add your information to our database. We have also started DNA testing of our family members, The family members are encouraged to test their maternal mtDNA and paternal Y-DNA at Family Tree DNA. We have created Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish (Suomi), French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Urdu versions of the information pages of this web site. We have many Urdu documents about our family that will be uploaded to this web site in the near future.
icon. This icon is placed in the web pages beside the name heading. This icon is also placed in the Family Tree for ancestor or descendent Family Tree. The web page of individual family members can be accessed by clicking their names in the Family Tree. If this icon is before the name then it will display ancestor Family Trees and if it after the name then it will display descendent Family Trees. You can traverse the Family Trees in both directions.
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