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 continuosly inhabited cities in Asia, with a history stretching deep into antiquity.
The ancient town was besieged by Alexander the Great during the Mallian campaign in 326 BCE. 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, formed after reforms of Akbar in 1580, was one of the largest provinces of the Mughal Empire. The Sikh Empire ruled over Multan from 1818 till 1849 when it was captured by the British after a lengthy siege.
The city was among the most important trading centres of South Asia with strong ties to Iran, Central Asia and the rest of Persianate and Muslim world. A great centre of knowledge and learning during the medieval period, Multan attracted a multitude of Sufi mystics in the 11th and 12th centuries, earning the city the sobriquet "City of Saints." Multan, 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 BCE to 2800 BCE. 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 during the Kurukshetra War that is central to the Sanskrit epic poem, the Mahabharata. The neighbourhood was visited by the Greek admiral Skylax who sailed down the Indus River in 515 BCE; his account is preserved in the Histories of the Greek historian Herodotus which was written down in 400 BCE.
Invasion of Alexander the Great
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 the 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 region. During the siege of the city's citadel, Alexander reputedly leaped into the inner area of the citadel, where he faced the Mallian leader.Arrian (1893). Anabasis of Alexander. George Bell and Sons. OCLC 486120., p. 604 Alexander was wounded by an arrow that had penetrated his lung, leaving him severely injured.Dodge, Theodore (1890). Alexander. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 604. 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 Alchon Huns, a group of 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.
Umayyad conquest
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 area. The expedition, however, seems to have been directed towards exploration of the country as no attempt was apparently made to retain the conquest. After conquering Sindh, Muhammad ibn Qasim in 712 CE captured Multan 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
Abbasid Emirate
By the mid-800s, the Banu Munabbih (855–959) 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 a century. The city thus became capital of the Emirate of Multan in 855. Al-Masudi of Baghdad who visited Indus Valley in 915 mentioned in his The Meadows of Gold that it was one of the strongest frontier places of Muslims, and in its neighbourhood there were a hundred and twenty thousand towns and villages.
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, ("Frontier House of Gold"), reflecting the importance of the temple to the city's economy.
The Arab historian al-Ma'sudi 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 (the capital of Sindh) 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 Shahis. 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.
Isma'ili Emirate By the mid 10th century, Multan had come under the influence of the Qarmatian Isma'ilis. The Qarmatians had been expelled from Egypt and Iraq following their defeat at the hands of the Abbasids there. Qarmatian zealots had famously sacked Mecca,Mecca's History, from Encyclopædia Britannica. 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.Glassé, Cyril. 2008. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. Walnut Creek CA: AltaMira Press p. 369
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.Ahmad, I., & Reifeld, H. (Eds.). (2017). Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation and Conflict (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315144887
They wrested control of the city from the pro-Abbasid Emirate of Banu Munabbih, and established their own rule, while pledging allegiance to the Isma'ili 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.Asif, Manan. (2016). A Book of Conquest. Harvard University Press. The Qarmatian Isma'ilis 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.
High medieval period
Ghaznavid dynasty
In the 10th century, the Muslim emirs of Multan assisted Jayapala, the Hindu Shahi ruler, 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.
Mahmud of Ghazni led an expedition in 1005 against Multan's Qarmatian ruler Fateh Daud. The city 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 Isma'ilism in favour of the Sunni creed.Virani, Shafique N. The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 100. He destroyed the Isma'ili 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 Isma'ili community was still living in the city. Following the Ghaznavid invasion of Multan, the local Isma'ili 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 Isma'ili 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 Sandeśarāsaka, the only known Muslim work in the medieval Apabhraṃśa language.Influence of Islam on Hindi Literature, Volume 47 of IAD oriental original series: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, Saiyada Asad Alī, Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i Delli, 2000, p. 12-13, 195
Ghurid dynasty
In 1175, Muhammad Ghori conquered Isma'ili-ruled Multan,Andre Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. 2, 244. after having invaded the region via the Gomal Pass from Afghanistan into Punjab, and used the city as a springboard for his unsuccessful campaign into Gujarat in 1178. Multan was then annexed to the Ghurid Sultanate, and became an administrative province of the Mamluk dynasty—the first dynasty based in Delhi.
Mamluk dynasty Following the death of the first Mamluk sultan, Qutb al-Din Aibak in 1210, Multan came under the rule of Nasiruddin Qabacha, who in 1222, successfully repulsed an attempted invasion by Sultan Jalal al-Din Mangburni of the Khwarazmian Empire. Uch and Sindh were also in control of Qabacha.
Qabacha also captured Lahore many times and ruled all these regions. He repulsed a siege imposed on Multan city by Mongol forces who attempted to conquer the city. He gathered a large army from Uch, Multan and Bukkhar (Sukkur) and Mongols were repulsed.
Following Qabacha's death that same year, the Turkic king Iltutmish, the third sultan of the Mamluk dynasty, captured and then annexed Multan in an expedition. The Punjabi poet Baba Farid was born in the village of Khatwal near Multan in the 1200s.