Sindh
Sindh is a province of Pakistan, located in the southeastern region of the country. It is the third-largest Pakistani province by land area and second-largest by population. It is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the south and borders the provinces of Balochistan to the west and Punjab to the north; in addition to sharing an international border with the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan to the east. Karachi, located along the southern coast, is the capital and largest city. Sindh's landscape consisting mostly of alluvial plains flanking the Indus River, the Thar Desert in the eastern portion of the province along the international border with India, and the Kirthar Mountains in the western portion of the province.
The economy of Sindh is the largest in Pakistan and then comes the province of Punjab; its provincial capital Karachi is the most populous city in the country as well as its main financial hub. Sindh is home to a large portion of Pakistan's industrial sector and contains two of the country's busiest commercial seaports: Port Qasim and the Port of Karachi. The remainder of Sindh consists of an agriculture-based economy and produces fruits, consumer items and vegetables for other parts of the country.
Sindh is sometimes referred to as the Bab-ul Islam, as it was one of the first regions of the Indian subcontinent to fall under Islamic rule. The province is well known for its distinct culture, which is strongly influenced by Sufism, an important marker of Sindhi identity for both Hindus and Muslims. Sindh is prominent for its history during the Bronze Age under the Indus Valley civilization, and is home to two UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites: the Makli Necropolis and Mohenjo-daro.
Etymology
The Greeks who conquered Sindh in 325 BC under the command of Alexander the Great referred to the Indus River as Indós, hence the modern Indus. The ancient Iranians referred to everything east of the river Indus as hind. The word Sind is a Persian derivative of the Sanskrit term Sindhu, meaning "river," a reference to vast Indus River.The previous Perso-Arabic spelling Sind was discontinued in 1988 by an amendment passed in the Sindh Assembly.
History
Ancient era
Sindh and surrounding areas contain the ruins of the Indus Valley Civilization. There are remnants of ancient cities and structures, with a notable example in Sindh being that of Mohenjo Daro. Built around 2500 BC, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus civilization, with features such as standardized bricks, street grids, and covered sewerage systems. It was one of the world's earliest major cities, contemporaneous with the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Minoan Crete, and Caral-Supe. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BC as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920s. Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. The site is currently threatened by erosion and improper restoration. A gradual drying of the region during the 3rd millennium BC may have been the initial stimulus for its urbanisation. Eventually it also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise and to disperse its population to the east.During the Bronze Age, the territory of Sindh was known as Sindhu-Sauvīra, covering the lower Indus Valley, with its southern border being the Indian Ocean and its northern border being the Pañjāb around Multān. The capital of Sindhu-Sauvīra was named Roruka and Vītabhaya or Vītībhaya, and corresponds to the mediaeval Arohṛ and the modern-day Rohṛī. The Achaemenids conquered the region and established the satrapy of Hindush. The territory may have corresponded to the area covering the lower and central Indus basin. Alternatively, some authors consider that Hindush may have been located in the Punjab area. These areas remained under Persian control until the invasion by Alexander.
Alexander conquered parts of Sindh after Punjab for few years and appointed his general Peithon as governor. He constructed a harbour at the city of Patala in Sindh. Chandragupta Maurya fought Alexander's successor in the east, Seleucus I Nicator, when the latter invaded. In a peace treaty, Seleucus ceded all territories west of the Indus River and offered a marriage, including a portion of Bactria, while Chandragupta granted Seleucus 500 elephants.
Following a century of Mauryan rule which ended by 180 BC, the region came under the Indo-Greeks, followed by the Indo Scythians, who ruled with their capital at Minnagara. Later on, Sasanian rulers from the reign of Shapur I claimed control of the Sindh area in their inscriptions, known as Hind.
The local Rai dynasty emerged from Sindh and reigned for a period of 144 years, concurrent with the Huna invasions of North India. Aror was noted to be the capital. The Brahmin dynasty of Sindh succeeded the Rai dynasty. Most of the information about its existence comes from the Chach Nama, a historical account of the Chach-Brahmin dynasty. After the empire's fall in 712, though the empire had ended, its dynasty's members administered parts of Sindh under the Umayyad Caliphate's Caliphal province of Sind.
Medieval era
After the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Arab expansion towards the east reached the Sindh region beyond Persia. The connection between the Sindh and Islam was established by the initial Muslim invasions during the Rashidun Caliphate. Al-Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who attacked Makran in the year 649, was an early partisan of Ali ibn Abu Talib. During the caliphate of Ali, many Jats of Sindh had come under the influence of Shi'ism and some even participated in the Battle of Camel and died fighting for Ali. Under the Arab Umayyads, many Shias sought asylum in the region of Sindh, to live in relative peace in the remote area. Ziyad Hindi is one of those refugees. The first clash with the Hindu kings of Sindh took place in 636 under Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab with the governor of Bahrain, Uthman ibn Abu-al-Aas, dispatching naval expeditions against Thane, Bharuch and Debal. Al-Baladhuri states they were victorious at Debal but doesn't mention the results of other two raids. However, the Chach Nama states that the raiders of Debal were defeated and its governor killed the leader of the raids. These raids were thought to be triggered by a later pirate attack on Umayyad ships. al-Baladhuri adds that this stopped any more incursions until the reign of Uthman.In 712, Mohammed Bin Qasim defeated the Brahmin dynasty and annexed it to the Umayyad Caliphate. This marked the beginning of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. The Habbari dynasty ruled much of Greater Sindh, as a semi-independent emirate from 854 to 1024. Beginning with the rule of 'Umar bin Abdul Aziz al-Habbari in 854, the region became semi-independent from the Abbasid Caliphate in 861, while continuing to nominally pledge allegiance to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. The Habbaris ruled Sindh until they were defeated by Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1026, who then went on to destroy the old Habbari capital of Mansura, and annex the region to the Ghaznavid Empire, thereby ending Arab rule of Sindh.
The Soomra dynasty was a local Sindhi Muslim dynasty that ruled between early 11th century and the 14th century. Later chroniclers like Ali ibn al-Athir and Ibn Khaldun attributed the fall of Habbarids to Mahmud of Ghazni, lending credence to the argument of Hafif being the last Habbarid. The Soomras appear to have established themselves as a regional power in this power vacuum. The Ghurids and Ghaznavids continued to rule parts of Sindh, across the eleventh and early twelfth century, alongside Soomras. The precise delineations are not yet known but Sommrus were probably centered in lower Sindh. Some of them were adherents of Isma'ilism. One of their kings Shimuddin Chamisar had submitted to Iltutmish, the Sultan of Delhi, and was allowed to continue on as a vassal.
The Sammas overthrew the Soomras soon after 1335 and established the Sindh Sultanate. The last Soomra ruler took shelter with the governor of Gujarat, under the protection of Muhammad bin Tughluq, the sultan of Delhi. Mohammad bin Tughlaq made an expedition against Sindh in 1351 and died at Sondha, possibly in an attempt to restore the Soomras. With this, the Sammas became independent. The next sultan, Firuz Shah Tughlaq attacked Sindh in 1365 and 1367, unsuccessfully, but with reinforcements from Delhi he later obtained Banbhiniyo's surrender. For a period the Sammas were therefore subject to Delhi again. Later, as the Sultanate of Delhi collapsed they became fully independent. Jam Unar was the founder of Samma dynasty mentioned by Ibn Battuta. The Samma civilization contributed significantly to the evolution of the Indo-Islamic architectural style. The city of Thatta is famous for its necropolis of erstwhile royals, the Makli Necropolis, which covers 10 square km on the Makli Hill. The Sammas have left a mark on Sindh with magnificent structures in Thatta. They were later overthrown by the Turkic Arghuns in the late 15th century.
Modern era
In the late 16th century, Sindh was brought into the Mughal Empire by Akbar, himself born in the Sodha kingdom in Umerkot in Sindh. In 1591-1593, Akbar sent an army to conquer lower Sindh from the Tarkhan dynasty after defeating the last Tarkhan ruler, Mirza Jani Beg; Jani Beg and his son Mirza Ghazi Beg.Mughal rule from their provincial capital of Thatta was to last in lower Sindh until the early 18th century, while upper Sindh was ruled by the indigenous Kalhora dynasty holding power, consolidating their rule from their capital of Khudabad, before shifting to Hyderabad from 1768 onwards.
The Talpurs succeeded the Kalhoras and four branches of the dynasty were established. One ruled lower Sindh from the city of Hyderabad, another ruled over upper Sindh from the city of Khairpur, a third ruled around the eastern city of Mirpur Khas, and a fourth was based in Tando Muhammad Khan. They were ethnically Baloch, and for most of their rule, they were subordinate to the Durrani Empire and were forced to pay tribute to them.
They ruled from 1783, until 1843, when they were in turn defeated by the British at the Battle of Miani and Battle of Dubbo. The northern Khairpur branch of the Talpur dynasty, however, continued to maintain a degree of sovereignty during British rule as the princely state of Khairpur, whose ruler elected to join the new Dominion of Pakistan in October 1947 as an autonomous region, before being fully amalgamated into West Pakistan in 1955.