The history of Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan is interwoven with that of broader South and West Asia. There is evidence of ancient human settlements in present-day Balochistan dating back to around 7000 BCE. Vague allusions to the region are also found in Greek historical records starting from around 650 BCE. Comparatively better accounts are available from the Muslim historians and geographers after 7th century CE. The Baloch people migrated to Makran after 10th/11th centuries, and the region may have came to be known after them only in the 18th century CE under the Khanate of Kalat.
Ancient history
The earliest evidence of human occupation in what is now Balochistan is dated to the Paleolithic era, represented by hunting camps, as well as chipped and flaked stone tools. The earliest settled villages in the region date to the ceramic Neolithic (c. 7000–5500 BCE), and included the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh located in the Kachi Plain. These villages expanded in size during the subsequent Chalcolithic, when interaction increased. This involved the movement of finished goods and raw materials, including chank shell, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and ceramics. By the Bronze Age in 2500 BCE, the region had become part of the Harappan cultural orbit, providing key resources to the expansive settlements of the Indus river basin to the east. Pakistani Balochistan marked the westernmost extent of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
The earliest people in present-day Balochistan were the Brahui people, a Dravidian speaking ethnolinguistic group primarily found in the region. Their language, Brahui, belongs to the Dravidian language family, although it is geographically separated from the main Dravidian speaking region of southern India. The origins of the Brahui people are uncertain, and several competing hypotheses have been proposed in scholarship, including suggestions that they may represent a remnant of an earlier Dravidian speaking population in the region. However, this view remains speculative and is not supported by conclusive historical or archaeological evidence. The Brahui population is today predominantly Sunni Muslim.
In 650 BC, the Greek historian Herodotus described the Paraitakenoi as a tribe ruled by Deiokes in north-western Persia (History I.101). The Achaemenids established the Satrapies of Gedrosia and Arachosia in the region after its conquest in 6th century BCE. Arrian described how Alexander the Great encountered the Pareitakai in Bactria and Sogdiana, and had Craterus conquer them (Anabasis Alexandrou IV). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea in the 1st century described the territory of the Paradon beyond the Ommanitic region on the coast of modern Baluchistan.
After the victory of the Mauryan Empire against the Greeks in the Seleucid–Mauryan war, much of Baluchistan came under the rule of Chandragupta Maurya. Chandragupta and Seleucus made a peace settlement in 303 BCE. Seleucus I Nicator ceded the satrapies, including Gedrosia and Arachosia, to the expanding Mauryan Empire. The alliance was solidified with a marriage between Chandragupta Maurya and the Seleucids. The outcome of the arrangement proved to be mutually beneficial. The border between the Seleucid and Mauryan Empires remained stable in subsequent generations, and friendly diplomatic relations are reflected by the ambassador Megasthenes, and by the envoys sent westward by Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka.
From the 1st century to the 3rd century CE, northern region of present-day Pakistani Balochistan was ruled by the Pāratarājas, the "Pātatahaa Kings", a dynasty of Indo-Scythian or Indo-Parthian origin. The Hindu Parata kings are essentially known through their coins, which typically exhibit the bust of the ruler with long hair in a headband on the obverse and a swastika within a circular legend on the reverse, written in Brahmi, usually silver coins, or Kharoshthi copper coins. These coins are mainly found in Loralai in western Pakistan. There were five major Parataraja kings in the 2nd century; Yolamira, son of Bagavera, Arjuna, son of Yolamira, Hvaramira, another son of Yolamira, Mirahvara, son of Hvaramira, and Miratakhma, another son of Hvaramira.Pankaj Tandon. New Light on the Pāratarājas p 19. In 635 or 636 CE, the Hindu Chach dynasty of Sindh controlled Makran under Chach of Aror.
Iranian Balochistan had some of the earliest human civilizations in history. The Burnt city near Dozaap (Zahidan) dates to 2000 BCE. All of what is now Baluchistan was incorporated in the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid empires.
At the time of the Umayyad conquest of Sindh in the early 8th century, Zuṭṭ (Jats) populated Makran and Turan (including Qiqan, modern Kalat) as far as the east bank of Indus, where cities of Mansura and Multan were located. Makran had a significant number of Zuṭṭ at the time (or before) the Muslim conquest who had moved eastward into Sind as well in the following centuries.
Medieval history
Arab Caliphates Arab forces invaded Makran, then a part of Sindh under Chach dynasty in the 7th century. In the 14th year of the Hijra, 636–6 CE, maharaja Chach marched and conquered Makran. However, in 643 the Arabs reached Makran. In early 644 CE, Caliph Umar sent Suhail ibn Adi from Bosra to conquer the Kerman region in Iran. He was made governor of Kerman. From Kerman he entered Makran and conquered the region near Persian frontiers.Ibn Aseer vol: 3 page no: 17 Western Makran was conquered during the campaign in Sistan that same year.
During Caliph Uthman's reign in 652, Makran was reconquered during the campaign against the revolt in Karman under the command of Majasha ibn Mas'ud. It was first time Makran came directly under the laws of the Caliphate and paid grain tributes.Fatu al Buldan page no:384 It was included in the dominion of Karman. In 654, Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura was made governor of Sistan. He led an Islamic army to crush the revolt in Zarang, now in southern Afghanistan. Conquering Zarang, a column moved northward to conquer areas up to Kabul and Ghazni in the Hindu Kush mountains while another column moved towards Qayqan (near modern Quetta or Khuzdar) and conquered the area up to the ancient cities of Dawar and Qandabil (Bolan).Tabqat ibn Saad vol: 8 pg: 471 By 654 the most of what is now Pakistani Baluchistan was under the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate except for the well-defended mountain town of Qayqan, which was conquered during Caliph Ali's reign.Fatuh al buldan pg:386 Abd al-Rahman ibn Samura made Zaranj his provincial capital and remained governor of these conquered areas from 654 to 656, until Uthman was assassinated.
During the reign of Caliph Ali, Makran again broke into revolt. Due to civil war in the Islamic empire Ali was unable to take notice of these areas, at last in the year 660 he sent a large force under the command of Haris ibn Marah Abdi towards Makran. Haris ibn Marah Abdi arrived in Makran and conquered it by force then moved north ward to Qandabil (Bolan), then again moving south finally conquered Kalat after a fierce battle.Rashidun Caliphate and Hind, by Qazi Azher mubarek Puri, published by Takhliqat, Lahore Pakistan In 663 CE, during the reign of Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I, Muslims lost control of northeastern Balochistan and Kalat when Haris ibn Marah and large part of his army died on the battle field suppressing a revolt in Kalat.Tarikh al Khulfa vol:1 pg :214-215,229 Muslim forces later re-gained the control of the area during Umayyads' reign. It also remained part of Abbasid Caliphate's empire.
Arab rule in Makran lasted until the end of the 10th century. The parts of the region best known to them were Turan (the Jhalawan country) with its capital at Khuzdar, and Nudha or Budha (Kachhi). Around 976, Ibn Hawqal found an Arab governor residing in Qayqan (probably the modern Nal) and governing Khuzdar during his second visit to India.
Ghaznavid Empire Shortly afterwards, western Balochistan fell to Nasir-ud-Din Sabuktigin. His son, Mahmud of Ghazni, conquered the whole of Makran. After the Ghaznavids, the area passed to the Ghurids. A little later, present-day Balochistan became part of the dominion of Sultan Muhammad Khan of Khwarazmian dynasty in 1219. However, in around 1223 a Mongol expedition under Chagatai, the son of Genghis Khan, penetrated as far as Makran. A few years later, southeastern Baluchistan briefly came under the rule of Sultan Iltutmish of Delhi Sultanate but soon came back under Mongol rule. The raids organised by the Mongols have left a lasting mark on the region, and the atrocities they caused are still well known.
Afterwards the history of region centres around Kandahar and it was in this area in 1398 that Pir Muhammad, the grandson of Timur, fought the Afghans in the Sulaiman Mountains. According to local tradition Timur himself passed through Marri country during one of his Indian expeditions.
Arghun dynasty Baloch tribes became prominent in the history of Makran after 13th and 14th centuries. They extended their power to Kalat, Kachhi, and Punjab, and the wars took place between Mir Chakar Khan Rind and Mir Gwahram Khan Lashari which are so celebrated in Baloch verse. In these wars a prominent part was played by Amir Zunnun Beg Arghun, who was governor of Kandahar under Sultan Husain Mirza of Herat about 1470. At the same time the Brahui people had been gradually gaining strength, and their little principality at this time extended through the Jhalawan country to Wadh. The Arghun dynasty gave way to Babur shortly afterwards. From 1556 to 1595 the region was under the Safavid dynasty. The army of Akbar the Great then brought what is now Balochistan under control of the Mughal Empire until 1638, when it was again transferred to Persia.
According to the Ain-i-Akbari, in 1590 the upper highlands were included in the sardar of Kandahar while Kachhi was part of the Bhakkar sarkar of the Multan Subah. Makran alone remained independent under the Buledais, and Gichkis, until Nasir Khan I of Kalat brought it within his power during the 17th century.
From the middle of the 17th century large parts of Baluchistan remained under the Safavids until the rise of the Ghilzai in 1708. Nadir Shah defeated Ghilzai and in the first part of the 18th century, he made several expeditions to, or through, Baluchistan. Ahmad Shah Durrani followed. The northeastern part of the country, including almost all of the areas now under direct administration, remained under the more or less nominal suzerainty of the Sadozais and Barakzais until 1879, when Pishin, Duki, and Sibi passed into British hands by the Treaty of Gandamak. The whole of Western Baluchistan had been consolidated into an organized state under the Brahui Khans.
Khanate of Kalat
The Brahui Khans of Kalat built an independent Khanate in the 17th century in the mountainous territory of Kalat. They were never fully independent; there was always a paramount power to whom they were subject. In the earliest times they were merely petty chiefs: later they bowed to the orders of the Mughal emperors of Delhi and to the rulers of Kandahar, and supplied men-at-arms on demand. Most peremptory orders from the Afghan rulers to their vassals of Kalat are still extant, and the predominance of the Sadozais and Barakzais was acknowledged so late as 1838. It was not until the time of Nasir Khan I that the titles of Beglar Begi (Chief of Chiefs) and Wali-i-Kalat (Governor of Kalat) were conferred on the Kalat ruler by the Afghan kings.