Azad Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir, abbreviated as AJK and known as Azad Kashmir, is a nominally self-governing jurisdiction administered by Pakistan. The territory lies west of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, was part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Azad Kashmir is part of the greater Kashmir region, the subject of a long-running conflict between Pakistan and India; the territory shares a border with Gilgit-Baltistan, together with which it is referred to by the United Nations and other international organisations as "Pakistan administered Kashmir". Azad Kashmir is one-sixth of the size of Gilgit-Baltistan; the territory borders Pakistan's Punjab province to the south and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to the west. To the east, Azad Kashmir is separated from the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan. Azad Kashmir has a total area of 13,297 square kilometres, a total population of 4,045,366 as per the 2017 Census.
The territory has a parliamentary form of government modeled after the Westminster system, with its capital located at Muzaffarabad. The President is the constitutional head of state, while the Prime Minister, supported by a Council of Ministers, is the chief executive; the unicameral Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly elects both President. The state has its own Supreme Court and a High Court, while the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan serves as a link with Azad Kashmir's government, although Azad Kashmir is not represented in the Parliament of Pakistan; the 2005 earthquake killed 100,000 people and left another three million people displaced, with widespread devastation. Since with help from the Government of Pakistan and foreign donors, reconstruction of infrastructure is underway. Azad Kashmir's economy depends on agriculture, services and remittances sent by members of the British Mirpuri community. Nearly 87% of the households own farms in Azad Kashmir, while the region has a literacy rate of 72% and has the highest school enrollment in Pakistan.
The northern part of Azad Jammu and Kashmir encompasses the lower area of the Himalayas, including Jamgarh Peak. However, Hari Parbat peak in Neelum Valley is the highest peak in the state. Fertile, mountainous valleys are characteristic of Azad Kashmir's geography, making it one of the most beautiful regions of the subcontinent; the region receives rainfall in the summer. Muzaffarabad and Pattan are among the wettest areas of Pakistan. Throughout most of the region, the average rainfall exceeds 1400 mm, with the highest average rainfall occurring near Muzaffarabad. During the summer season, monsoon floods of the rivers Jhelum and Leepa are common due to extreme rains and snow melting. At the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the British abandoned their suzerainty over the princely states, which were left with the options of joining India or Pakistan or remaining independent. Hari Singh, the maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, wanted his state to remain independent. Muslims in Western Jammu province and the Frontier Districts Province had wanted to join Pakistan.
In Spring 1947, an uprising against the Maharaja broke out in Poonch, an area bordering the Rawalpindi division of West Punjab. Maharaja's administration is said to have started levying punitive taxes on the peasantry which provoked a local revolt and the administration resorted to brutal suppression; the area's population, swelled by demobilised soldiers following World War II, rebelled against the Maharaja's forces and gained control of the entire district. Following this victory, the pro-Pakistan chieftains of the western districts of Muzaffarabad and Mirpur proclaimed a provisional Azad Jammu and Kashmir government in Rawalpindi on October 3, 1947. Ghulam Nabi Gilkar, under the assumed name "Mr. Anwar," issued a proclamation in the name of the provisional government in Muzaffarabad. However, this government fizzled out with the arrest of Anwar in Srinagar. On October 24, a second provisional government of Azad Kashmir was established at Palandri under the leadership of Sardar Ibrahim Khan.
On October 21, several thousand Pashtun tribesmen from North-West Frontier Province poured into Jammu and Kashmir to liberate it from the Maharaja's rule. They were equipped with modern arms; the Maharaja's crumbling forces were unable to withstand the onslaught. The raiders captured the towns of Muzaffarabad and Baramulla, the latter 20 miles northwest of the state capital Srinagar. On October 24, the Maharaja requested military assistance from India, which responded that it was unable to help him unless he acceded to India. Accordingly, on October 26, 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh signed an Instrument of Accession, handing over control of defence, external affairs and communications to the Government of India in return for military aid. Indian troops were airlifted into Srinagar. Pakistan intervened subsequently. Fighting ensued between the Indian and Pakistani armies, with the two areas of control more or less stabilised around what is now known as the "Line of Control". India approached the United Nations, asking it to resolve the dispute, resolutions were passed in favour of the holding of a plebiscite with regard to Kashmir's future.
However, no such plebiscite has been held on either side, since there was a precondition which required the withdrawal of the Pakistani Army along with the non-state elements and the subsequent partial withdrawa
Ghilji
The Ghilji, Persian: غلزایی) called Khaljī, Khiljī, Ghilzai, or Gharzai, are the largest Pashtun tribal confederacy. The Ghilji at various times became rulers of present Afghanistan region and were the most dominant Pashtun confederacy from c. 1000 AD until 1747 AD, when power shifted to the Durranis. The Ghilji tribes are today scattered all over Afghanistan and some parts of Pakistan, but most are concentrated in the region from Zabul to Kabul province, with Ghazni and Paktika provinces in the center of their region; the Ghilji Lilizai tribes are settled in Balochistan' Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Hazara Division in Pakistan. Many of the migrating Kochi people of Afghanistan belong to the Ghilji confederacy. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the current President of Afghanistan belongs to the Ghilji tribe. From 1709 to 1738, the Ghilji ruled the Hotak Empire based first in Kandahar and from 1722–1728, in Isfahan, Persia; the founder of the Hotak Empire was Mirwais Hotak. Another famous Ghilji from the 18th century was Azad Khan Afghan, who rose to power from 1752 to 1757 in western Iran.
Etymologically the word Ghilji is derived from ghar-zai, meaning "son of mountain". The most plausible theory suggests that the Ghilji descended from the Khalaj people, who early settled in the Siah-band range of the Ghor mountains, first rose into the notice in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni, whom they accompanied in his invasions of India; the German orientalist Bernard Dorn, in volume 2 of his book "The History of Afghans", based on Tārīkh-e Khān Jahānī wa Makhzan-e Afghānī of Nimat Allah al-Harawi, supports the Ghilji descent from Bibi Mato, daughter of Shaykh Beṭ Nīkə, in the following words: "To Ghilzye, who belongs to the Matis, God Almighty granted three sons, Ibrahim and Poor. Ibrahim had two sons Shabak. Haijub had thirteen sons, Alikhail, Karikhail, Paroki, Chani and Tanokhel Tanoli. Sahbak had two sons and Ismailkhail. Toor, Ghilzye's son, had three sons, Tarakai and Andar." In the beginning of the 18th century, the Ghilji revolted against their Persian rulers, established themselves under Mir Wais as independent rulers at Kandahar and overrun Persia.
When the Hotak tribe, under the leadership of Mirwais Hotak and Nasher Khan of the Ghaznavid revolted against the Safavids in 1709, the Ghilji came into conflicts with their western neighbors. Mir Wais, an influential Afghan tribal leader and founder of the Hotak dynasty, had visited the Persian court and studied their military weaknesses; the Afghan tribes rankled under the ruling Shia Safavids because of their continued attempts to convert the Pashtuns from Sunni to Shiaism Spawning Afghan nationalism, Mir Wais succeeded in expelling the Safavids from Kandahar. His eldest son, effected a successful invasion of Persia which culminated in the conquest of Isfahan and the deposition of the Safavid Shah Sultan Husayn. Mahmud was crowned Shah and ruled for a brief period before being deposed by his own clansmen, his cousin and successor reigned for nearly five years before being killed by Baloch tribes while fleeing towards Kandahar. Their rule ended after the Siege of Kandahar in 1738. Amb known as Tanawal was a princely state of the former British Indian Empire ruled over by chiefs of the Tanoli tribe from Ghilji Pashtun descent.
Following Pakistani independence in 1947, for some months afterwards,The nawabs of Amb remained unaligned. However, at the end of December 1947 he acceded to Pakistan, while retaining internal self-government. Amb continued as a Princely state of Pakistan until 1969, when it was incorporated into the North West Frontier Province. Phulra was a minor Muslim princely state in the days of British Raj and ruled by the Tanoli tribe of Pashtun Ghilji confederation, located in the region of the North West Frontier to the east of the nearby parent princely state of Amb. In Afghanistan the Ghilji are scattered all over the country but settled around the regions between Zabul and Kabul provinces; the Afghan province of Paktika is considered to be a heartland of the Ghilji tribe. Ghilji sub-tribes in Paktika include the Kharoti in the Sar Hawza and Urgon districts, the Andar and the largest single Ghilji sub-tribe, the Suleimankhel, who are the majority in northern and western areas of Paktika such as. After the great Ghilji rebellion in 1885–1886, led by Alam Khan Nasher, many members of the Ghilji tribe, such as.
Pashtun tribes Tanoli Lohani Povindah Ghiljo Bazar, a settlement in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan
Nurzai
The name Nurzai or Noorzai, linguistically, is a combination of Arabic and Pashto meaning son of the light. The word "nūr" derives from the Arabic word for the light. While the word "zai" derives from the Pashto word for son or son of. Zai affixed to the end of Pashtun tribal names is the Pashto equivalent of the popular Persian "zada" affixed to the end of names belonging to indigenous Persian peoples. In the mid 18th century, during the invasions of northwestern India, including the modern day Pakistan, by Ahmad Shah Abdali, the ruler of Durrani Empire c. 1750s–60s, a contingent of Tareens came into prominence for the role they played at the Third Battle of Panipat, January 1761, against the Maratha Empire. This little community belonging chiefly to the Batezai section of the Tor Tareen/Tarin, thereafter gained wide renown as their chiefs were appointed as governors and administrators of the lower Hazara plains, as well as the neighbouring Chach area of Attock in Northern Punjab; the Pashtuns believe.
In the case of the Tareen, they believe they are descended from his first son, his son Sharkhbun, his son Tareen, the founder of the tribe. Tareen had a number of sons. One was named Bor Tareen renamed Abdali, the legendary founder of the Durrani tribe. Thus, the Abdali/Durrani are in effect descended from the elder Tareen lineage; the Nurzai, spelled as "Noorzai" is the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and are a clan of Durrani Pashtuns. The other same called named Noorzai Subtribe of Tor Tareen settled in District Pishin province of Balochistan; the Historical place or birth land of Tor Tareen Noorzai tribe are Khushab Province Kandahar-Pishin border. This tribe at last migrated to east of the Great Khorasan to main district Pishin and hold the mountainous area called Shrana and after-all they occupied the land between Malikyar and Batezai tribes; the land which Noorzai are setteld are namely called Tora Shah, Iskan Khan Qilla and mountainous range of land from Kamalzai to Surkhab
Tajiks
Tajiks are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Tajikistan, the second largest in Afghanistan which constitutes over half of the global Tajik population, they speak varieties of a Western Iranian language. In Tajikistan, since the 1939 Soviet census, its small Pamiri and Yaghnobi ethnic groups are included as Tajiks. In China, the term is used to refer to its Pamiri ethnic groups, the Tajiks of Xinjiang, who speak the Eastern Iranian Pamiri languages. In Afghanistan, the Pamiris are counted as a separate ethnic group; as a self-designation, the literary New Persian term Tajik, which had some previous pejorative usage as a label for eastern Persians or Iranians, has become acceptable during the last several decades as a result of Soviet administration in Central Asia. Alternative names for the Tajiks are Eastern Persian, Fārsīwān, Dīhgān which translates to "farmer or settled villager", in a wider sense "settled" in contrast to "nomadic" and was used to describe a class of land-owning magnates as "Persian of noble blood" in contrast to Arabs and Romans during the Sassanid and early Islamic period.
The Tajiks are an Iranian people, speaking a variety of Persian, concentrated in the Oxus Basin, the Farḡāna valley and on both banks of the upper Oxus, i.e. the Pamir Mountains and northeastern Afghanistan and western Afghanistan. The ancient Tajiks were chiefly agriculturalists before the Arab Conquest of Iran. While agriculture remained a stronghold, the Islamization of Iran resulted in the rapid urbanization of historical Khorasan and Transoxiana that lasted until the devastating Mongolian invasion. Several surviving ancient urban centers of the Tajik people include Herat, Bukhara, Khujand and Kabul. Contemporary Tajiks are the descendants of ancient Eastern Iranian inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular, the Sogdians and the Bactrians, other groups, with an admixture of Western Iranian Persians and non-Iranian peoples. According to Richard Nelson Frye, a leading historian of Iranian and Central Asian history, the Persian migration to Central Asia may be considered the beginning of the modern Tajik nation, ethnic Persians, along with some elements of East-Iranian Bactrians and Sogdians, as the main ancestors of modern Tajiks.
In works, Frye expands on the complexity of the historical origins of the Tajiks. In a 1996 publication, Frye explains that many "factors must be taken into account in explaining the evolution of the peoples whose remnants are the Tajiks in Central Asia" and that "the peoples of Central Asia, whether Iranian or Turkic speaking, have one culture, one religion, one set of social values and traditions with only language separating them." Regarding Tajiks, the Encyclopædia Britannica states:The Tajiks are the direct descendants of the Iranian peoples whose continuous presence in Central Asia and northern Afghanistan is attested from the middle of the 1st millennium bc. The ancestors of the Tajiks constituted the core of the ancient population of Khwārezm and Bactria, which formed part of Transoxania. Over the course of time, the eastern Iranian dialect, used by the ancient Tajiks gave way to Farsi, a western dialect spoken in Iran and Afghanistan; the geographical division between the eastern and western Iranians is considered and to be the desert Dasht-e Kavir, situated in the center of the Iranian plateau.
According to John Perry The most plausible and accepted origin of the word is Middle Persian tāzīk'Arab', or an Iranian cognate word. The Muslim armies that invaded Transoxiana early in the eighth century, conquering the Sogdian principalities and clashing with the Qarluq Turks consisted not only of Arabs, but of Persian converts from Fārs and the central Zagros region. Hence the Turks of Central Asia adopted a variant of the Iranian word, täžik, to designate their Muslim adversaries in general. For example, the rulers of the south Indian Chalukya dynasty and Rashtrakuta dynasty referred to the Arabs as "Tajika" in the 8th and 9th century. By the eleventh century, the Qarakhanid Turks applied this term more to the Persian Muslims in the Oxus basin and Khorasan, who were variously the Turks' rivals, models and subjects. Persian writers of the Ghaznavid, Seljuq and Atābak periods adopted the term and extended its use to cover Persians in the rest of Greater Iran, now under Turkish rule, as early as the poet ʿOnṣori, ca.
1025. Iranians soon accepted it as an ethnonym, as is shown by a Persian court official's referring to mā tāzikān "we Tajiks"; the distinction between Turk and Tajik became stereotyped to express the symbiosis and rivalry of the nomadic military executive and the urban civil bureaucracy. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the oldest known usage of the word Tajik as a reference to Persians in Persian literature can be found in the writings of the Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi; the 15th century Turkic-speaking poet Mīr Alī Šer Navā'ī used Tajik as a reference to Persians. An exampl
Ahmad Shah Durrani
Ahmad Shāh Durrānī known as Ahmad Khān Abdālī, was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan. He began his career by enlisting as a young soldier in the military of the Afsharid kingdom and rose to become a commander of the Abdali Regiment, a cavalry of four thousand Abdali Pashtun soldiers. After the assassination of Nader Shah Afshar in 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani was chosen as King of Afghanistan. Rallying his Afghan tribes and allies, he pushed east towards the Mughal and the Maratha empires of India, west towards the disintegrating Afsharid Empire of Persia, north toward the Khanate of Bukhara. Within a few years, he extended his control from Khorasan in the west to Kashmir and North India in the east, from the Amu Darya in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south. Durrani's mausoleum is located at Kandahar, adjacent to the Shrine of the Cloak in the center of the city. Afghans refer to him as Ahmad Shāh Bābā. Durrani was born in Multan in 1722 to Mohammad Zaman Khan, chief of the Abdali tribe and Governor of Herat, Zarghuna Begum, daughter of Khalu Khan Alkozai.
Durrani was born as Ahmed Khan. Abdali's father suffered "Persian captivity for many years" at Kirman before being released from prison in 1715; as a refugee, he "made his way to India" and joined his kinsmen at Multan. After he raised his family there, he was recognized as the "scion of hereditary Sadozai chiefs", it is believed that Zaman Khan returned to Afghanistan to fight the Persians and his Afghan rivals, but left one of his wives at Multan because she was "in the family way". So other sources believe that, Abdali was born at Multan in 1722, after which she returned to Afghanistan to reunite with her husband, he lost his father during his infancy. Durrani's forefathers were Sadozais but his mother was from the Alakozai tribe. In June 1729, the Abdali forces under Zulfiqar had surrendered to Nader Shah Afshar, the rising new ruler of Persia. However, they took over Herat as well as Mashad. In July 1730, he defeated a military commander and brother of Nader Shah; this prompted Nader Shah to retake Mashad and intervene in the power struggle of Harat.
By July 1731, Zulfiqar returned to his capital Farah where he had been serving as the governor since 1726. A year Nadir's brother Ibrahim Khan took control of Farah. During this time Zulfiqar and the young Durrani fled to Kandahar where they took refuge with the Ghiljis, they were made political prisoners by Hussain Hotak, the Ghilji ruler of the Kandahar region. Nader Shah had been enlisting the Abdalis in his army since around 1729. After conquering Kandahar in 1738, Durrani and his brother Zulfiqar were freed and provided with leading careers in Nader Shah's administration. Zulfiqar was made Governor of Mazandaran while Durrani remained working as Nader Shah's personal attendant; the Ghiljis, who are from the territories east of the Kandahar region, were expelled from Kandahar in order to resettle the Abdalis along with some Qizilbash and other Persians. Durrani proved himself in Nader Shah's service and was promoted from a personal attendant to command the Abdali Regiment, a cavalry of four thousand soldiers and officers.
The Abdali Regiment was part of Nader Shah's military during his invasion of the Mughal Empire in 1738. Popular history has it. On, according to Pashtun legend, it is said that in Delhi Nader Shah summoned Durrani, said, "Come forward Ahmad Abdali. Remember Ahmad Khan Abdali, that after me the Kingship will pass on to you. Nader Shah recruited him because of his "impressive personality and valour" because of his "loyalty to the Persian monarch". Nader Shah's rule abruptly ended in June 1747; the guards involved in the assassination did so secretly so as to prevent the Abdalis from coming to their King's rescue. However, Durrani was told. Despite the danger of being attacked, the Abdali contingent led by Durrani rushed either to save the Shah or to confirm what happened. Upon reaching the Shah's tent, they were only to see his severed head. Having served him so loyally, the Abdalis wept at having failed their leader, headed back to Kandahar. Before the retreat to Kandahar, he had "removed" the royal seal from Nader Shah's finger and the Koh-i-Noor diamond tied "around the arm of his deceased master".
On their way back to Kandahar, the Abdalis had "unanimously accepted" Durrani as their new leader. Hence he "assumed the insignia of royalty" as the "sovereign ruler of Afghanistan". At the time of Nadir's death, he commanded a contingent of Abdali Pashtuns. Realizing that his life was in jeopardy if he stayed among the Persians who had murdered Nader Shah, he decided to leave the Persian camp, with his 4,000 troops he proceeded to Qandahar. Along the way and by sheer luck, they managed to capture a caravan with booty from India, he and his troops were rich. In short, they formed a formidable force of young Pashtun soldiers who were loyal to their high-ranking leader. One of Durrani's first acts as chief was to adopt the titles Padishah-i-Ghazi, Durr-i-Durrani. Following his predecessor, Durrani set up a special force closest to him consisting of his fellow Durranis and other Pashtuns, as well as Tajiks and other Muslims, he began his military conquest by capturing Ghazni from the Ghiljis and wresting Kabul from the local ruler, thus strengthened his hold over Khorasan.
L
Gilgit-Baltistan
Gilgit-Baltistan known as the Northern Areas, is the northernmost territory administered by Pakistan. It borders Azad Kashmir to the south, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north, the Xinjiang region of China, to the east and northeast, the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir to the southeast. Gilgit-Baltistan is part of the greater Kashmir region, the subject of a long-running conflict between Pakistan and India; the territory shares a border with Azad Kashmir, together with which it is referred to by the United Nations and other international organisations as "Pakistan administered Kashmir". Gilgit-Baltistan is six times the size of Azad Kashmir; the territory borders Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir state to the south and is separated from it by the Line of Control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan. The territory of present-day Gilgit-Baltistan became a separate administrative unit in 1970 under the name "Northern Areas".
It was formed by the amalgamation of the former Gilgit Agency, the Baltistan district and several small former princely states, the larger of which being Hunza and Nagar. In 2009, it was granted limited autonomy and renamed to Gilgit-Baltistan via the Self-Governance Order signed by Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari, which aimed to empower the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. However, scholars state that the real power rests with the governor and not with chief minister or elected assembly; the population of Gilgit-Baltistan wants to be merged into Pakistan as a separate fifth province and opposes integration with Kashmir. The Pakistani government has rejected Gilgit-Baltistani calls for integration with Pakistan on the grounds that it would jeopardise its demands for the whole Kashmir issue to be resolved according to UN resolutions. Gilgit-Baltistan covers an area of over 72,971 km² and is mountainous, it had an estimated population of 1,800,000 in 2015. Its capital city is Gilgit. Gilgit-Baltistan is home to five of the "eight-thousanders" and to more than fifty peaks above 7,000 metres.
Three of the world's longest glaciers outside the polar regions are found in Gilgit-Baltistan. The main tourism activities are trekking and mountaineering, this industry is growing in importance; the rock carvings found in various places in Gilgit-Baltistan those found in the Passu village of Hunza, suggest a human presence since 2000 BC. Within the next few centuries after human settlement in the Tibetan plateau, this region became inhabited by Tibetans, who preceded the Balti people of Baltistan. Today Baltistan bears similarity to culturally. Dards are found in the western areas; these people are the Shina-speaking peoples of Gilgit, Chilas and Diamir while in Hunza and in the upper regions Burushaski and Khowar speakers dominate. The Dards find mention in the works of Herodotus, Megasthenes, Pliny and the geographical lists of the Puranas. In the 1st century the people of these regions were followers of the Bon religion while in the 2nd century they followed Buddhism. Between 399 and 414, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian visited Gilgit-Baltistan, while in the 6th century Somana Palola was ruled by an unknown king.
Between 627 and 645, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang travelled through this region on his pilgrimage to India. According to Chinese records from the Tang dynasty, between the 600s and the 700s, the region was governed by a Buddhist dynasty referred to as Bolü transliterated as Palola, Balur, they are believed to be the Palola Sāhi dynasty mentioned in a Brahmi inscription, are devout adherents of Vajrayana Buddhism. At the time, Little Palola was used to refer to Gilgit, while Great Palola was used to refer to Baltistan. However, the records do not disambiguate the two. In mid-600s, Gilgit came under Chinese suzerainty after the fall of Western Turkic Khaganate due to Tang military campaigns in the region. In late 600s CE, the rising Tibetan Empire wrestled control of the region from the Chinese. However, faced with growing influence of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Abbasid Caliphate to the west, the Tibetans were forced to ally themselves with the Islamic caliphates; the region was contested by Chinese and Tibetan forces, their respective vassal states, until the mid-700s.
Rulers of Gilgit held back the Arabs with their help. Between 644 and 655, Navasurendrāditya-nandin became king of Palola Sāhi dynasty in Gilgit. Numerous Sanskrit inscriptions, including the Danyor Rock Inscriptions, were discovered to be from his reign. In late 600s and early 700s, Jayamaṅgalavikramāditya-nandin was king of Gilgit. According to Chinese court records, in 717 and 719 delegations of a ruler of Great Palola named Su-fu-she-li-ji-li-ni reached the Chinese imperial court. By at least 719/720, Ladakh became part of the Tibetan Empire. By that time, Buddhism was practiced in Baltistan, Sanskrit was the written language. In 720, the delegation of Surendrāditya reached the Chinese imperial court, he was referred to by the Chinese records as the king of Great Palola. The Chinese emperor granted the ruler of Cashmere, Chandrāpīḍa, the title of "King of Cashmere". By 721/722, Baltistan had came under the influence of the Tibetan Empire. In 721–722, Tibetan army attempted but failed to capture Gilgit or Bru
Punjab, Pakistan
Punjab is Pakistan's second largest province by area, after Balochistan, it is the most populated province, with an estimated population of 110,012,442 as of 2017. Forming the bulk of the transnational Punjab region, it is bordered by the Pakistan provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the enclave of Islamabad, Azad Kashmir, it shares borders with the Indian states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. The provincial capital of Punjab is the city Lahore, a cultural, historical and cosmopolitan centre of Pakistan where the country's cinema industry, much of its fashion industry, are based. Punjab has been inhabited since ancient times; the Indus Valley Civilization, dating to 2600 BCE, was first discovered at Harappa. Punjab features in the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, is home to Taxila, site of what is considered by many to be the oldest university in the world. In 326 BCE, Alexander the Great defeated King Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes near Punjab; the Umayyad empire conquered Punjab in the 8th century CE.
In the subsequent centuries, Punjab was invaded and conquered by the Ghaznavids, Delhi Sultanate, Mughals and the Sikhs. Punjab reached the height of its splendour during the reign of the Mughal Empire, which for a time ruled from Lahore. During the 18th century, Nader Shah’s invasion of the Mughal Empire caused Mughal authority in the Punjab to fall apart and it thus fell into chaos; the Durranis under Ahmad Shah Durrani wrested control of Punjab only to lose it to the Sikhs after a successful rebellion which allowed Sikh armies to claim Lahore in 1759. The Sikh Empire was ruled by Ranjit Singh with his capital based in Lahore, until its defeat by the British. Punjab was central to the independence movements of both India and Pakistan, with Lahore being site of both the Declaration of Indian Independence, the resolution calling for the establishment of Pakistan; the province was formed when the Punjab province of British India was divided along religious boundaries in 1947 by the Radcliffe Line after Partition.
Punjab is Pakistan's most industrialised province with the industrial sector making up 24% of the province's gross domestic product. Punjab is known in Pakistan for its relative prosperity, has the lowest rate of poverty amongst all Pakistani provinces. A clear divide is present between the southern portions of the province. Punjab is one of South Asia's most urbanized regions with 40% of people living in urban areas, its human development index rankings are high relative to the rest of Pakistan. Punjab is known in Pakistan for its liberal social attitudes; the province has been influenced by Sufism, with numerous Sufi shrines spread across Punjab which attract millions of devotees annually. The founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak, was born in the Punjab town of Nankana Sahib near Lahore. Punjab is the site of the Katasraj Temple, which features prominently in Hindu mythology. Several UNESCO World Heritage Sites are located in Punjab, including the Shalimar Gardens, the Lahore Fort, the archeological excavations at Taxila, the Rohtas Fort.
The region was called Sapta Sindhu, the Vedic land of the seven rivers flowing into the ocean. The Sanskrit name for the region, as mentioned in the Ramayana and Mahabharata for example, was Panchanada which means "Land of the Five Rivers", was translated to Persian as Punjab after the Muslim conquests; the region was known to the Greeks as Pentapotamia. The word Punjab was formally introduced in the early 17th century CE as an elision of the Persian words panj and āb, thus meaning the five rivers, similar in meaning to the Sanskrit and Greek name for the region; the five rivers, namely Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej, flow via the Panjnad River into the Indus River and into the Arabian Sea. Of the five great rivers of Punjab, four course through Pakistan's Punjab province. Due to its location, the Punjab region came under constant attack and witnessed centuries of foreign invasions by the Persians, Kushans, Scythians and Afghans; the northwestern part of South Asia, including Punjab, was invaded or conquered by various foreign empires, including those of Tamerlane, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan.
The oldest evidence of life in Pakistan has been found in Soan River valley. It was here that some of the earliest signs of humans have been discovered during the excavations of prehistoric mounds. Tools up to two million years old have been recovered in potohar plateau. In the Soan River, many fossil bearing rocks are exposed on the surface. 14 million year old fossils of gazelle, crocodile and rodents have been found there. Punjab during Mahabharata times was known as Panchanada. Punjab was part of the Indus Valley Civilization, more than 4000 years ago; the main site in Punjab was the city of Harrapa. The Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of what is today Pakistan and evolved into the Indo-Aryan civilization; the Vedic civilisation flourished along the length of the Indus River. This civilization shaped subsequent cultures in South Afghanistan. Although the archaeological site at Harappa was damaged in 1857 when engineers constructing the Lahore-Multan railroad used brick from the Harappa ruins for track ballast, an abundance of artefacts have been found.
Punjab was part of the great ancient empires including the Gandhara Mahajanapadas, Macedonians, Kushans and Hin
