Multan
Multan is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the sixth-largest city in the country; and serves as the administrative headquarters of its eponymous division and district. A major cultural, religious and economic centre of the Punjab region, Multan is one of the oldest inhabited cities of Asia, with a history stretching deep into antiquity.
Multan was part of the Achaemenid Empire in the early 6th century BC. The ancient city was besieged by Alexander the Great during the Mallian campaign. Later it was conquered by the Umayyad military commander Muhammad bin Qasim in 712 CE after the conquest of Sindh. In the 9th century, it became capital of the Emirate of Multan. The region came under the rule of Ghaznavid and the Delhi Sultanates in the medieval period. In 1445, it became capital of Langah Sultanate. Multan Subah was one of the largest provinces of the Mughal Empire. The Sikhs ruled over Multan from 1818 till 1849 when it was conquered by the British and made part of the British Punjab.
The city was among the most important trading centres of South Asia with strong ties to Iran, Central Asia and the rest of the Persianate and Muslim world. It was a great centre of knowledge and learning in medieval South Asia during the Turkish-Persian rule, and attracted a multitude of Sufi mystics in the 11th and 12th centuries, becoming a centre of spirituality in South Asia and earning the city the sobriquet "City of Saints." The city, along with the nearby city of Uch, is known for its large number of Sufi shrines dating from that era.
Etymology
The origin of Multan's name is unclear. An ancient known name of the city was Malli-istan; Malli was the name of a tribe that inhabited the region and city. The city name may have been derived from the deity of the ancient Multan Sun Temple. Some have suggested the name derives from the Old Persian word mulastāna, 'frontier land', while others have ascribed its origin to the Sanskrit word mūlasthāna.History
Origin
The region around Multan is home to several archaeological sites dating to the early Harappan period of the Indus Valley Civilisation between 3000 BC to 2800 BC. According to the Hindu religious texts, Multan was founded by the sage Kashyapa. These texts also assert that Multan was the capital of the Trigarta Kingdom ruled by the Katoch dynasty during the Kurukshetra War that is central to the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata. The city was visited by Greek admiral Skylax, who passed through the area in 515 BCE. The city was also mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus in 400 BC.Greek Invasion
Multan is believed to have been the Malli capital that was conquered by Alexander the Great in 326 BCE as part of the Mallian Campaign. The Mallian people, together with nearby tribes, gathered an army of 90,000 personnel to fight against an army of 50,000 Greeks. This was perhaps the largest army faced by Greeks in the entire subcontinent. During the siege of the city's citadel, Alexander reputedly leaped into the inner area of the citadel, where he faced the Mallian leader. Alexander was wounded by an arrow that had penetrated his lung, leaving him severely injured. After a fierce battle at the site of 'Khooni Burj' the Mallian army eventually surrendered, preventing further bloodshed. During Alexander's era, Multan was located on an island in the Ravi river, which has since shifted course numerous times throughout the centuries.In the mid-5th century CE, the city was attacked by White Huns, a group of Barbarian Hephthalite nomads led by Toramana. After a fierce fight they conquered Multan, but did not stay long.
By the mid 7th century CE, Multan was conquered by Chach of Alor, of the Buddhist Rai dynasty. Chach appointed a thakur to govern from Multan, and used his army to settle boundary disputes with Kashmir.
Kathi period
Several historians have suggested that before the Muslim invasion, the Valas, a prominent clan of the Kathi Rajputs, were among the early rulers of the Thatta region. These groups are thought to have originally resided along the Indus River, encompassing areas such as Thatta and Multan, before migrating to the Kathiawar region of present-day Gujarat, India. In the bardic tradition, the Vala rulers are associated with the birad, or blessing, of "Tatta Multan ka Rao", a title that underscores their historical ties to these locations.Islamic invasion
Multan was first invaded by a Muslim army after the reign of the caliph Ali, in 664 CE, when Mohalib, an Arab general, occupied the city. The expedition, however, seems to have been directed towards exploration of the country as no attempt was apparently made to retain the conquest. After his conquest of Sindh, Muhammad ibn Qasim in 712 CE captured Multan from Raja Dahir following a two-month siege. Following ibn Qasim's conquest, the city's Subjects remained mostly non-Muslim for the next few decades under the Umayyad Caliphate.Emirate of Multan (9th and 10th century)
In the 10th century, the Bhati Rajput rulers near Multan as well as the Muslim Emir of Multan were eager to assist Jayapala, the Hindu Shahi ruler of Afghanistan, because of the slave incursions into their territories by the rulers of Ghazni. However, Jayapala was unable to conquer Ghazni, and the alliance he had formed quickly fell apart.Abbasid ''Emirate''
By the mid-800s, the Banu Munabbih also known as the Banu Sama, who claimed descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad's Quraysh tribe came to rule Multan, and established the Emirate of Banu Munabbih, which ruled for the next century.During this era, the Multan Sun Temple was noted by the 10th century Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi to have been located in a most populous part of the city. The Hindu temple was noted to have accrued the Muslim rulers large tax revenues, by some accounts up to 30% of the state's revenues. During this time, the city's Arabic nickname was Faraj Bayt al-Dhahab,, reflecting the importance of the temple to the city's economy.
The 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi noted Multan as the city where Central Asian caravans from Islamic Khorasan would assemble. The 10th century Persian geographer Estakhri visited the area. At the time Mansura along with Multan were the only two major Arab principalities in South Asia. Arabic was spoken in both cities, though the inhabitants of Multan were reported by Estakhri to also have been speakers of Persian, reflecting the importance of trade with Khorasan. Polyglossia rendered Multani merchants culturally well-suited for trade with the Islamic world.
The 10th century Hudud al-'Alam notes that Multan's rulers were also in control of Lahore, though that city was then lost to the Hindu Shahi. During the 10th century, Multan's rulers resided at a camp outside of the city named Jandrawār, and would enter Multan once a week on the back of an elephant for Friday prayers.
Ismaili ''Emirate''
Multan became capital of Emirate of Multan in 855. Al Masudi of Baghdad who visited Indus valley in 915 A.D mentioned in his book "Meadows of Gold" that it is one of the strongest frontier places of Muslims and in its neighbourhood there are a hundred and twenty thousand towns and villages".By the mid 10th century, Multan had come under the influence of the Qarmatian Ismailis. The Qarmatians had been expelled from Egypt and Iraq following their defeat at the hands of the Abbasids there. Qarmatians zealots had famously sacked Mecca, and outraged the Muslim world with their theft and ransom of the Kaaba's Black Stone, and desecration of the Zamzam Well with corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE.
The governor of Jhang, Umar bin Hafas, was a clandestine supporter of the Fatimid movement and the Batiniya influence spread in Southern Punjab. Then, the Qarmatians who had established contacts with the Fatimids in Egypt set up an independent dynasty in Multan and ruled the surrounding areas.
They wrested control of the city from the pro-Abbasid Amirate of Banu Munabbih, and established the Emirate of Multan, while pledging allegiance to the Ismaili Fatimid dynasty based in Cairo.
During this period, Uch and Multan remained a central pilgrimage site for Vaishnavite and Surya devotees, and their admixture with Isma’īlīsm created the Satpanth tradition. Hence, the beginning of the eleventh century witnessed a sacral and political diversity in Uch that was both unique and precarious. The Qarmatian Ismailis opposed Hindu pilgrims worshipping the sun, and destroyed the Sun Temple and smashed its revered Aditya idol in the late 10th century. The Qarmatians built an Ismaili congregational mosque above the ruins to replace the city's Sunni congregational mosque that had been established by the city's early rulers.
11th-16th century CE
Ghaznavid dynasty
in 1005 led an expedition against Multan's Qarmatian ruler Abul Fateh Daud. The city was surrendered, and Fateh Daud was permitted to retain control over the city with the condition that he adhere to Sunnism. In 1007, Mahmud led another expedition to Multan against his former minister and Hindu convert, Niwasa Khan, who had renounced Islam and attempted to establish control of the region in collusion with Abul Fateh Daud of Multan.In 1010, Mahmud led his third and punitive expedition against Daud to depose and imprison him, and suppressed Ismailism in favour of the Sunni creed. He destroyed the Ismaili congregational mosque that had been built above the ruins of the Multan Sun Temple, and restored the city's old Sunni congregational mosque, built by Muhammad bin Qasim.
The 11th century scholar Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi reported that the Ismaili community was still living in the city. Following the Ghaznavid invasion of Multan, the local Ismaili community split, with one faction aligning themselves with the Druze religion, which today survives in Lebanon, Syria, and the Golan Heights. Following Mahmud's death in 1030, Multan regained its independence from the Ghaznavid empire and came under the sway of Ismaili rule once again. Shah Gardez, who came to Multan in 1088, is said to have contributed in the restoration of the city.
By the early 1100s, Multan was described by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi as being a "large city" commanded by a citadel that was surrounded by a moat. In the early 12th century, Multani poet Abdul Rahman penned the Sandesh Rasak, the only known Muslim work in the medieval Apabhraṃśa language.