The Walled City of Lahore, also known as the Old City or Inner Lahore, refers to the historic core of Lahore, the capital and largest city of Punjab, Pakistan. The early settlements were established between the 1st and 7th centuries, with Lahore attaining the status of a proper city in 1040 which was fortified throughout the medieval era. It has been the primary cultural centre of the Punjab since the late-medieval era.
The Walled City rose in prominence after being selected as the Mughal capital, which resulted in the construction of the Lahore Fort – now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as the city's new reinforced walls. The Walled City was bestowed with numerous monuments during the Mughal era, with some of Lahore's most iconic structures being located in the Walled City, such as the lavishly decorated Wazir Khan Mosque, the massive Badshahi Mosque, and the Shahi Hammam. Under Sikh rule, the city was again selected as the capital, and the Walled City again rose in prominence with numerous religious buildings built in the Walled City at the time, including the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, and the Gurdwara Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das.
The Walled City today remains the cultural heart of Lahore, and is home to many of its tourist attractions. In 2012, the Pilot Urban Conservation and Infrastructure Improvement Project—the Shahi Guzargah Project was launched to restore a section of Shahi Guzargah ("Royal Passage") between the Wazir Khan Mosque and Delhi Gate under the management of the Walled City of Lahore Authority. The first phase of the project was completed in 2015 with support from the governments of Norway and the United States of America.
History
Founding The origins of Lahore are vague. According to carbon dating evidence from archaeological finds in the Lahore Fort, settlements in the region have existed as early as 2,000 BCE. Lahore had many names throughout its history. Mohallah Maulian represents one of the two most probable sites of first the original Lahore.
Medieval period
Though the modern city's founding may have been as early as 1000 CE, Lahore gained prominence only with the invasion of Muslim rulers from Central Asia. The city served as a capital during the Ghaznavid, Ghorid, and Delhi Sultanate periods, but was not widely mentioned until around 1400. Ibn Battuta knew of the city, but chose not to visit it, while Tamerlane spared the city destruction in his 1398 invasion, and delegated its sacking to a subordinate.
The entire city of Lahore during the medieval Ghaznavid era was probably located west of the modern Shah Alami, and north of the Bhatti Gate. Many of the city's pre-Mughal tombs were built along the perimeter of this outline, including the Data Darbar shrine, the Tomb of Malik Ayaz, and the Aybak tomb. The modern Gumti Bazaar forms an arc along what may have been the southern boundary of the pre-Mughal city.
Mughal period
By the time of Mughal rule, a majority of its residents did not live within the walled city itself, but instead lived in suburbs that had spread outside of the city's walls. Only 9 of the 36 urban quarters around Lahore, known as guzars, were located within the city's walls during the Akbar period. During this period, Lahore was closely tied to smaller market towns known as qasbahs, such as Kasur, Eminabad, and Batala in modern-day India. These, in turn, linked Lahore's markets to supply chains starting in villages surrounding each qasbah.
Urban administration under the Mughals was minimal, and most streets aside from major thoroughfares were privately maintained. The kotwal was imbued with the responsibility to manage day-to-day affairs in the city, and was subordinate to a Qazi judge. The local Mohalladar would surveil individual mohalla neighbourhoods, and register births and deaths within his mohallah. The positions were also maintained later during Sikh and British rule.
Akbar Lahore's eminence largely began after 1584, when the Emperor Akbar ordered a palace to be built at the site where the Lahore Fort now stands, after shifting his capital to Lahore from Fatehpur Sikri. He also ordered rebuilt and fortified the city's walls, and ordered their extension east of the modern Shah Alami Bazaar to encompass an open plain known as the Rarra Maidan. Lahore's old gates were also built around this time. Akbar also established the Akbari Mandi as a grain market at the city's easternmost edge - a grain market that still exists in the present day. During his reign, Mughal nobles were encouraged to build palaces and gardens in and around Lahore, and many of Lahore's first haveli mansions date from this period.
European visitors in the 16th and 17th centuries described the city as populous, with bazaars stocking valuable goods. Akbar's court chronicler, Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, described the city as a "grand resort of all countries" with manufacturers that produced an astonishing variety of items. The Venetian traveller, Niccolao Manucci, described the city's bazaars as being packed with foreigners.
Jahangir
During the reign of Emperor Jahangir, Lahore was still considered less important than the old Mughal capital of Agra, as evidenced by the construction of the Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah there rather than in Lahore. However, the importance of the city grew drastically with the presence of the Mughal Court, and the city's suburbs spread out more than 5 kilometres beyond the Walled City. The Emperor Jahangir was later buried in an extravagant tomb in the Shahdara Bagh across the River Ravi, whose construction was overseen by his wife, Nur Jahan. The family of Nur Jahan built several garden-residences within and around the Walled City, and was later buried in Shahdara Bagh.
Shah Jahan
The Emperor Shah Jahan was born in Lahore in 1592, and bestowed the city with its famous Shalimar Gardens. By the time of his reign, six times as many Lahoris lived outside of the city walls than within. As a nobleman under Shah Jahan, Wazir Khan embarked on a program of architectural patronage. His first monumental project in the city was the Wazir Khan Mosque, built at the site of a simple pre-Mughal shrine. As Lahore's first monumental mosque, it is lavishly embellished with extensive fresco-work that synthesises Mughal and Punjabi influences. It is now considered to be the most ornately decorated Mughal-era mosque. He also built two other mosques in the Walled City, as well as the Shahi Hammam - famous for its lavish use of frescoes as a decorative element. He built for himself a haveli in the old city near the Shah Alami Bazaar called the Peri Mahal, or "Fairy Palace." He also laid a pleasure garden south of the Walled City known as Nakhla Bagh, where he also built for himself a baradari.
Aurangzeb Shah Jahan's son, Emperor Aurangzeb, built the largest Mughal monument in Lahore, the iconic Badshahi Mosque. Emperor Aurangzeb also ordered the construction of the massive Alimgiri Gate at the Lahore Fort. He also improved civil infrastructure, and ordered the construction of the Alamgiri Bund - a channel built to divert the flow of the River Ravi.
Sikh period
Following the collapse of Mughal rule, Lahore ceased to function as an imperial city. Trade abruptly stopped, and large areas of the city's suburbs were abandoned. By 1780, the city had fallen under the rule of small Sikh states known as Misls. The city and its revenues were partitioned among 3 Sikh chiefs - Gujjar Singh, Lahna Singh, and Sobha Singh. Instability during the Misl period contributed to the rise of nearby Amritsar as a commercial centre. The city's population rapidly declined during this era, and the entire population of the city was said to live within the confines of the Walled City, with numerous citadels and suburbs depopulated.
Instability hindered Lahore's progress until the arrival of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who in 1799 made Lahore the Sikhs' administrative capital for the next 50 years, ruling from the Old City's Lahore Fort. Though the city's urban fabric lay in ruins by 1799, Sikh reconstruction from this era were based upon Mughal precedent. In 1812, they refurbished the city's defenses and added a second circuit of walls around the city that largely followed the outline of walls from the Akbari period. Numerous Mughal monuments were damaged, desecrated, or destroyed during this period.
Ranjit Singh and his descendant bestowed the Walled City with religious monuments such as the Gurdwara Dera Sahib, Gurdwara Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das, and Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, and numerous Hindu temples, as well as secular buildings such as the Haveli of Nau Nihal Singh, and Hazuri Bagh Baradari. They also refurbished the nearby Shalimar Gardens, while numerous gardens were laid outside the city walls by Sikh nobles.
By the end of Sikh rule, most of Lahore's massive Mughal haveli compounds had been occupied by settlers. New neighbourhoods occasionally grew up entirely within the confines of an old Mughal haveli, such as the Mohallah Pathran Wali, which grew within the ruins of a haveli of the same name that was built by Mian Khan. By 1831, all Mughal havelis in the Walled City had been encroached upon by the surrounding neighbourhood, leading to the modern-day absence of any Mughal havelis in Lahore.
British period
After the British captured Lahore from the Sikhs in 1846, annexation of the Punjab in 1849, the Walled City's administrative practices were largely maintained. By the early 20th century, the Walled City's mohallahs were incorporated into a new municipal administrative system. Several of the city's older Mughal and Sikh monuments were repurposed by British authorities during their early rule, as resources for planning and building new administrative buildings were scarce. The Tomb of Anarkali, for example, was appropriated first for office space, before its conversion in 1851 into an Anglican church until 1891. It thereafter was used once again for civil purposes as a document repository - a function which it serves until present day. Chauburji was used as a police station during British rule. Several other Mughal tombs were used as residences by high ranking British administrators.
Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, British colonialists destroyed Lahore's city walls, as well as its gateways, though several were later rebuilt. The British built the Lahore Junction railway station outside the city's former walls, in a unique fortified style complete with turrets and crenellations, and loopholes for directing rifle fire. The Circular Garden which once encompassed the Walled City on three sides was established by 1892. The Walled City's Rang Mahal was used first as a school for the American Presbyterian Mission, before being used as the first location of Lahore's prestigious Forman Christian College in 1896.
The British regarded the Walled City as a potential hotbed for disease and social instability, and instead focused development away from the Walled City, and into suburban areas to the south and east, where numerous British-era buildings now stand, along with the Lahore Cantonment - originally laid by British administrators. By the early 20th century, the Walled City's mohallahs came under the administration of British municipal laws which had only previously applied in Civil Station.
Urban form
The city of Lahore during the Ghaznavid era was probably located in the southwest portion of today's Walled City, with several of the city's pre-Mughal tombs built along the perimeter of this area. The Gumti Bazaar forms an arc along what may have been the southern boundary of the pre-Mughal city. A mud fort is believed to have surrounded the medieval city, and may have been built by Malik Ayaz, the first Muslim governor of Lahore.