History

Overview

The history of Pakistan (which for the period preceding the nation's founding in 1947, is intermittently shared with those of Afghanistan, India, and Iran) traces back to the beginnings of human life in South Asia. Spanning the western expanse of the Indian subcontinent and the eastern borderlands of the Iranian plateau, the region of present-day Pakistan served both as the fertile ground of some of South Asia's major civilisations and as the subcontinent's gateway to the Middle East and Central Asia.

Pakistan is home to some of the most important sites of archaeology, including the earliest palaeolithic hominid site in South Asia in the Soan River valley. Situated on the first coastal migration route of anatomically modern Homo sapiens out of Africa, the region was inhabited early by modern humans. The 9,000-year history of village life in South Asia goes back to the Neolithic (7000-4300 BC) site of Mehrgarh in Pakistan, and the 5,000-year history of urban civilisation in South Asia to the various sites of the Indus Valley Civilisation, including Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.

The ensuing millennia saw the region of present-day Pakistan absorb many influences-represented among others in the Vedic-Buddhist site of Taxila, the Greco-Buddhist site of Takht-i-Bahi, the 14th-century Islamic-Sindhi monuments of Thatta, and the 17th-century Mughal monuments of Lahore. From the late 18th century, the region was gradually appropriated by the British East India Company-resulting in 90 years of direct British rule, and ending with the creation of Pakistan in 1947, through the efforts, among others, of its future national poet Allama Iqbal and its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Since then, the country has experienced both civilian-democratic and military rule, resulting in periods of significant economic and military growth as well those of instability; significant during the latter, was the secession, in 1971, of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh.

A military coup led by General Zia ul-Haq took place in 1977, and former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979. During the 1990s, there were several changes of government amid allegations of corruption and in 1991, there was increased violence within the country, particularly in Sind. In 1999, 600 highly trained militia crossed the 1949 cease-fire line into Kashmir, provoking retaliatory air strikes from India, re-opening the conflict over the region. When the democratically elected Premier Nawaz Sharif developed into an elected dictator, there was another military coup in 1999, led by General Pervez Musharraf, and Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth; Musharraf be-came President. He was elected to a five year term in Jan 2002 in a controversial referendum, and elections to the National Assembly took place in October. Meanwhile tensions with India over Kashmir continued to increase, bringing the two countries to the brink of war in 2002.

7000-3300 BC: Mehrgarh

Mehrgarh, one of the most important Neolithic sites in archaeology, lies on the Kachi plain of Baluchistan, Pakistan, and is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia. Mehrgarh was discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige, and was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh-in the northeast corner of the 495-acre site-was a small farming village dated between 7000 BC-5500 BC. Early Mehrgarh residents lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned tools with local copper ore, and lined their large basket containers with bitumen. They cultivated six-row barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, jujubes and dates, and herded sheep, goats and cattle. Residents of the later period (5500 BC to 2600 BC) put much effort into crafts, including flint knapping, tanning, bead production and metal working. The site was occupied continuously until about 2600 BC.

Sometime between 2600 and 2000 BC, Mehrgarh was abandoned. Since the Indus civilisation was in its initial stages of development at that time, it has been surmised that the inhabitants of Mehrgarh migrated to the fertile Indus valley as Balochistan became more arid due to climatic changes.

3300-1700 BC: Indus Valley Civilisation

The Indus Valley civilisation was one of the most ancient civilisations, on the banks of Indus River. The civilisation spanned much of what is today Pakistan, but suddenly went into decline around 1800 BC. Indus civilisation settlements spread as far south as the Arabian Sea coast of India, as far west as the Iranian border, and as far north as the Himalayas. Among the settlements were the major urban centres of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, as well as Dholavira, Ganweriwala, Lothal and Rakhigarhi. The Mohenjo-daro ruins were once the centre of this ancient society. At its peak, some archaeologists opine that the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of well over five million.

The Indus Valley civilisation has been tentatively identified as proto-Dravidian, however, the Indus Valley script has not been definitively deciphered. To date, over a thousand cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the Indus River valley in Pakistan and western India.

The Kulli culture was a prehistoric culture in Southern Balochistan (Gedrosia), ca. 2500 - 2000 BC. The culture was named after an archaeological site discovered by Sir Aurel Stein. Several settlement sites are known to have existed there however very few were excavated. Some of them have the size of small towns and are similar to those of the Indus Valley Civilisation. The houses were built of local stone. Agriculture was the economical base of this people. At several places dams were found, providing evidence for a highly developed water management. The pottery and other artefacts were similar to those of the Indus Valley Civilisation and it not sure whether the Kulli culture is a local variation of the Indus Valley Civilisation or an own culture complex.

1500-500 BC: Vedic Period

Although the Indus Valley Civilisation flourished in much of current-day Pakistan for over 1500 years, it disappeared abruptly around 1700 BC. It has been conjectured that a cataclysmic earthquake might have been the cause, or, alternately, the drying up of the Ghagger-Hakra river. Soon thereafter, Indo-European speaking tribes from the Central Asia or the southern Russian steppes poured into the region.

These so-called Aryans settled in the Sapta Sindhu region, extending from the Kabul River in the north to the Sarasvati and Upper Ganges-Yamuna Doab in the south. It was in this region that the hymns of the Rigveda were composed and the foundations of Hinduism laid. Mainstream scholarship places the Vedic culture lasting from the early second millennium BC to the middle of the first millennium BC, and the end of this period was marked by linguistic, cultural and political changes. Although not much archaeological or epigraphic evidence of the migration exists in South Asia, similar migrations of Indo-European speaking people were recorded in other regions.

The city of Taxila, in present-day Pakistan, became important in Hinduism (and later in Buddhism). The great Indian epic Mahabharata was, according to tradition, first recited at Taxila at the great snake sacrifice of King Janamejaya, one of the heroes of the story.

6th -4th Century BC: Persian and Greek Invasion

520 BC: Achaemenid Empire

The lands of Pakistan were ruled by the Persian Achaemenid Empire (c.520 BC) during the reign of Darius the Great until Alexander the Great's conquest. It became part of the empire as a satrapy that included the lands of present-day Pakistani Punjab, the Indus River, from the borders of Gandhara down to the Arabian Sea, and other parts of the Indus plain. According to Herodotus of Halicarnassus, it was the most populous and richest satrapy of the twenty satrapies of the empire.

It was during the Persian rule that name India was coined. When the Indus River valley became the eastern most satrapy of Persians, they named it because of the Indus River. Vedic Aryans called the area Saptha Sindhu with the main river was called Sindhu. Persians had difficulty in pronouncing s, called it Hindu. As per the inscriptions of Darius, they called the satrapy Hindush. Greeks took this name from Persians and called the river Indus and the region India. Herodotus (490-425 BC), in his book 'The Histories', described this satrapy of Darius as India.

Achaemenid rule lasted about 186 years. The Achaemenids used Aramaic script for the Persian language. After the end of Achaemenid rule, the use of Aramaic script in the Indus plain was diminished, although we know from Asokan inscriptions that it was still in use two centuries later. Other scripts, such as Kharosthi (a script derived from Aramaic) and Greek became more common after the arrival of the Macedonians and Greeks.

334 BC: Alexander's Empire

The interaction between Hellenistic Greece and Buddhism started when Alexander the Great conquered Asia Minor, the Achaemenid Empire and the lands of Pakistan in 334 BC, defeating Porus at the Battle of the Hydaspes (near modern-day Jhelum) and conquering much of the Punjab region. Alexander's troops refused to go beyond the Beas River - which today runs along part of the Indo-Pakistan border - and he took most of his army southwest, adding nearly all of the ancient lands in present-day Pakistan to his empire. Alexander created garrisons for his troops in his new territories, and founded several cities in the areas of the Oxus, Arachosia, and Bactria, and Macedonian/Greek settlements in Gandhara, such as Taxila, and Punjab. The regions included the Khyber Pass - a geographical passageway south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains - and the Bolan Pass, on a trade route connecting Drangiana, Arachosia and other Persian and Central Asia areas to the lower Indus plain. It is through these regions that most of the interaction between South Asia and Central Asia took place, generating intense cultural exchange and trade.

3rd Century BC to 5th Century AD: The Golden Age

From 3rd century BC to 5th century AD, the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent came under continuous invasions of different Turko-Iranian, Bacterians, Sakas, Parthians, Kushans, and Huns.

It is surmised that Iranian tribes existed in western Pakistan during a very early age and that Pakhtun tribes were inhabitants around the area of Peshawar prior to the period of Alexander the Great as Herodotus refers to the local peoples as the 'Paktui' and as a fearsome pagan tribe similar to the Bactrians. Iranian Balochi tribes did not arrive at least until the first millennium AD and would not expand as far as Sindh until the 2nd millennium.

321-184 BC: Maurya Dynasty

The Mauryan dynasty lasted about 180 years, nearly as long as Achaemenid rule, and began with Chandragupta Maurya. Chandragupta Maurya lived in Taxila and met Alexander and had many opportunities to observe the Macedonian army there. He raised his own military using Macedonian tactics to overthrow the Nanda Dynasty in Magadha. Following Alexander's death on June 10, 323 BC, his Diadochi (generals) founded their own kingdoms in Asia Minor and Central Asia. General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Kingdom, which included the Pakistan region. Chandragupta Maurya, taking advantage of the fragmentation of power that followed Alexander's death, invaded and captured the Punjab and Gandhara. Later, the Eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (third century to second century BC).

Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka the Great is said to have been the greatest of the Mauryan emperors. Ashoka the Great was the ruler of the Mauryan Empire from 273 BC to 232 BC. A convert to Buddhism, Ashoka reigned over most of South Asia and parts of Central Asia, from present-day Afghanistan to Bengal and as far south as Mysore. He converted to the Buddhist faith following remorse for his bloody conquest of the kingdom of Kalinga in Orissa. He set in stone the Edicts of Asoka. Nearly all of the Asokan edicts found today in Pakistan are written either in the Aramaic script (Aramiac had been the lingua franca of the Achaemenid Empire) or in Kharosthi, which is believed to be derived from Aramaic.

4th Century BC to 5th Century AD: Greco-Buddhist Period

Greco-Buddhism is the cultural syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the fourth century BC and the fifth century AD. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Buddhism, and in particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it was adopted by Central and Northeastern Asia from the 1st century AD, ultimately spreading to China, Korea and Japan.

180-10 BC: Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

The invasion of northern India in 180 BC by the king Demetrius (the son of the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus) went as far as Pataliputra and established an Indo-Greek kingdom that lasted nearly two centuries, until around 10 BC. To the south, the Greeks captured Sindh and nearby Arabian Sea coastal areas. The invasion was completed by 175 BC, and the Sungas were confined to the east, although the Indo-Greeks lost some territory in the Gangetic plain. Meanwhile in Bactria, the usurper Eucratides overcame the Euthydemid dynasty, killing Demetrius in battle.

Menander I was one of the Greek kings of the Indo-Greek Kingdom in ancient lands under modern day Pakistan from 155 to 130 BC. As a general, Menader drove the Greco-Bactrians out of Gandhara and beyond the Hindu Kush, becoming king shortly after his victory. Menander's territories covered the eastern dominions of the divided Greek empire of Bactria (from the areas of Panjshir and Kapisa) and extended to the modern Pakistani province of Punjab, with diffuse tributaries to the south and east, possibly even as far as Mathura. Sagala (modern Sialkot) became his capital and prospered greatly under Menander's rule. Menander is one of the few Bactrian kings mentioned by Greek authors, among them Apollodorus of Artemita, who claimed that he was an even greater conqueror than Alexander the Great. Strabo says Menander was one of the two Bactrian kings who extended their power farthest into South Asia. Sagala (modern Sialkot) became his capital and prospered greatly under Menander's rule.

Menander's empire survived him in a fragmented manner until the last independent Greek king, Strato II, disappeared around 10 AD. The Indo-Greeks suffered a new attack from the descendants of Eucratides around 125 BC, as the Greco-Bactrian king Heliocles, son of Eucratides, was fleeing from the invasion of the Yuezhi in Bactria and trying to relocate in Gandhara. The Indo-Greeks retreated to their territories east of the Jhelum River as far as Mathura, and the two houses coexisted in the northern South Asia. Various kings ruled into the beginning of the first century AD, as petty rulers (such as Theodamas) and as administrators, after the conquests of the Scythians, Parthians and Yuezhi, a Central Asian people possibly of Tocharian origins who founded the Kushan dynasty.

Indo-Greek Kingdom

The Indo-Greek Kingdom covered almost all regions of Pakistan from 180 BC to around 10 AD, and was ruled by a succession of more than thirty Greek kings. The kingdom was founded when the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius who invaded Pakistan and India in 180 BC, creating an entity which seceded from the powerful Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centred in Bactria (today's northern Afghanistan).

The last known mention of an Indo-Greek ruler is suggested by an inscription on a signet ring of the 1st century AD in the name of a king Theodamas, from the Bajaur area of Gandhara, in modern Pakistan. No coins of him are known, but the signet bears in kharoshthi script the inscription 'Su Theodamasa', 'Su' being explained as the Greek transliteration of the ubiquitous Kushan royal title 'Shau' ('Shah', 'King').

2nd Century BC to 1st Century BC: Scythian Invasion

The Indo-Scythians were a local dynasty descended from the Sakas (Scythians) who migrated from southern Siberia into ancient Bactria, Sogdiana, Kashmir and finally into Arachosia from the middle of the 2nd century BC to the 1st century BC. They displaced the Indo-Greeks and ruled a kingdom that stretched from Gandhara in Pakistan to Mathura in India. Scythian tribes disseminated further east into northwestern India and throughout the Iranian plateau in the west.

1st Century AD: Parthian Empire

The Parni were a Central Asian nomadic Iranian tribe who defeated and supplanted the Seleucid rulers of Iran and later annexed all of what is today Pakistan. Following the decline of the central Parthian authority in Iran following clashes with the Roman Empire, a local Indo-Parthian Kingdom was established during the 1st century AD, by a Parthian leader named Gondophares, and covered much of what is today southeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India. The Kingdom's capital was at Taxila, (Pakistan).

60-240 AD: Kushan Empire

The kingdom was founded by King Heraios, and greatly expanded by his successor, Kujula Kadphises. Kadphises' son, Vima Takto, conquered territory now in India, but lost much of the western parts of the kingdom, including Gandhara, to the Parthian king Gondophares. The rule of Kanishka I, the fourth Kushan emperor, who flourished for at least 28 years from 127 AD, was administered from a winter capital in Purushapura (now Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan) and a summer capital in Bagram (then known as Kapisa).

The rule of the Kushans linked the seagoing trade of the Indian Ocean with the commerce of the Silk Road through the long-civilized Indus Valley. At the height of the dynasty, the Kushans loosely oversaw a territory that extended to the Aral Sea through present-day Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan into northern India. The loose unity and comparative peace of such a vast expanse encouraged long-distance trade, brought Chinese silks to Rome, and created strings of flourishing urban centres. Kanishka is renowned in Buddhist tradition for having convened a great Buddhist council in Kashmir. This council is attributed with having marked the official beginning of the pantheistic Mahayana Buddhism and its scission with Nikaya Buddhism.

The art and culture of Gandhara, at the crossroads of the Kushan hegemony, are the best known expressions of Kushan influences to Westerners. The interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures continued over several centuries until it ended in the 5th century AD with the invasions of the White Huns and later, the expansion of Islam. During the remaining centuries before the coming of Islam in 711, the White Huns, Indo-Parthians, and Kushans shared control of what is today Pakistan with the Sassanid Persian empire which dominated much of western and southern Pakistan.

240-550: The Gupta Empire

The Gupta Empire arose in northern India around the second century AD and much of what is today Sindh made up the northwesternmost province of the empire. The era of the Guptas was marked by a local Hindu revival, although Buddhism continued to flourish.

226-651: The Sassanid Period

The Sassanid Empire of Persia, who were close contemporaries of the Guptas, began to expand into Pakistan, where they established their rule. The mingling of Indian and Persian cultures in this region gave birth to the Indo-Sassanid culture, which flourished in the western part of the Punjab and in the western areas now known in Pakistan as the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan. The last western Hindu dynasty, the Shahis, may have been influenced by this culture.

712-1526: The Middle Age

712-997: Arab Rule

Before the birth of Islam in the 7th century, the region was dominated by native rulers in the east and the Sassanid Persians in the west. Early in the 8th century (712 AD), and more than half a century after the defeat of the Sassanids at the hands of the Ummayad empire, a Syrian Muslim chieftain named Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the region and extended Umayyad rule to the Indus River. Qasim, a youth of 20, led a small force of 6,000 Syrian tribesmen and reached the borders of Kashmir within three years.

Muhammad Bin Qasim's conquests could not be sustained for very long. Umayyad rule, which extended from Lisbon, Portugal to Lahore, Punjab was spread too thin to be manageable. Upon Qasim's departure to Baghdad, the domain of Muslim rule shrank to Sindh and southern Punjab, where consolidation took place and conversion to Islam was widespread, especially amongst the native Buddhist majority. However, in regions north of Multan, Buddhists, Hindus and other non-Muslim groups remained numerous. During the 300-year period (712-1000), the Umayyad territory in South Asia was carved into two parts: the northern region comprising of the Punjab reverted back to the control of Hindu kingdoms, while the southern areas, comprising of Multan, Sindh, and Balochistan, which remained Muslim and owed allegiance to the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs, became known as the administrative province of As-Sindh with capital at Al-Mansurah, 72 km north of present-day Hyderabad.

1027-1187: The Ghaznavid Dynasty

In 997 AD, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (in modern Afghanistan) conquered the major territory of Khorasan and in 1005 marched further into Peshawar. From this strategic location Mahmud was able to capture Panjab in 1007, Tanseer fell in 1014, Kashmir was captured in 1015 and Qanoch fell in 1017. By 1027, Sultan Mahmud had captured Pakistan and parts of northern India.

In 1010, Mahmud captured what is today the Ghor Province, and by 1011 annexed Balochistan. Sultan Mahmud had already had relationships with the leadership in Balkh through marriage and its local emir Abu Nasr Mohammad offered his services to Sultan Mahmud and offered his daughter to Muhammad son of Sultan Mahmud. After Nasr's death, Mahmud brought Balkh under his leadership. This alliance greatly helped Mahmud during his expeditions into Pakistan and northern India.

In 1030, Sultan Mahmud fell gravely ill and died at the age of 59. He was succeeded by his son, Mohammad, whose reign lasted five months before he was overthrown by his twin Ma'sud I. Nine years later Mohammad was reinstated for a year before being slain by his nephew Maw'dud.

Ghaznavid rule in Pakistan lasted for over one hundred and seventy five years from 1010 to 1187. It was during this period that Lahore assumed considerable importance as the eastern-most bastion of Muslim power and as an outpost for further advance towards the riches of the east. Apart from being the second capital-after Malik Ayaz was awarded the throne of Lahore-and later the only capital of the Ghaznavid kingdom, Lahore had great military and strategic significance. Whoever controlled this city could look forward to and be in a position to sweep the whole of East Punjab to Panipat and Delhi.

By the end of his reign, Mahmud's empire extended from Kurdistan in the west to Samarkand in the northeast, and from the Caspian Sea to the Yamuna. All of what is today Pakistan and Kashmir came under the Ghaznavid empire. The wealth brought back to Ghazni was enormous, and contemporary historians (e.g. Abolfazl Beyhaghi , Ferdowsi) give detailed descriptions of the building activity and importance of Lahore, as well as of the conqueror's support of literature.

Universities were formed to study various subjects such as math, religion, the humanities and medicine were taught, but only within the laws of the Sharia. Islam was the main religion of his kingdom and the Perso-Afghan dialect of Dari language was made the official language.

Often reviled as a persecutor of Hindus (and in many cases Hindu temples were looted and destroyed) much of Mahmud's army consisted of Hindus and some of the commanders of his army were also of Hindu origin. Sonday Rai was the Commander of Mahmud's crack regiment and took part in several important campaigns with him. The coins struck during Mahmud's reign bore his own image on one side and the figure of a Hindu deity on the other.

1187 to 1206: Muhammad of Ghor

Muhammad Ghori was a Perso-Afghan conqueror from the region of Ghor in Afghanistan. Before 1160, the Ghaznavid Empire covered an area running from central Afghanistan east to the Punjab, with capitals at Ghazni, a city on the banks of Ghazni river in present-day Afghanistan, and at Lahore in present-day Pakistan. In 1160, the Ghorids conquered Ghazni from the Ghaznevids, and in 1173 Muhammad was made governor of Ghazni. He raided eastwards into the remaining Ghaznevid territory, and invaded Gujarat in the 1180s, but was rebuffed by Gujarat's Solanki rulers. In 1186-7 he conquered Lahore, ending the Ghaznevid Empire and bringing the last of Ghaznevid territory under his control.

In 1191, he invaded the territory of Prithviraj III, who ruled much of present-day Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab, but was defeated at Tarain, near Bhatinda, by Govinda-raja of Delhi, Prithviraj's vassal. The following year Muhammad Ghori assembled 120,000 horsemen and once again invaded the Kingdom of Ajmer. Muhammad's army met Prithviraj's army again at Tarain, and this time Muhammad was victorious; Govinda-raja was slain, Prithviraj captured and subsequently executed, and Muhammad advanced on Delhi, capturing it soon after. Within a year Muhammad controlled northern Rajasthan and the northern part of the Ganges-Yamuna Doab. Muhammad returned east to Ghazni to deal with the threat to his eastern frontiers from the Turks and Mongols, but his armies, mostly under Turkish generals, continued to advance through northern India, raiding as far east as Bengal.

1206-1526: Delhi Sultanate

Muhammad returned to Lahore after 1200 to deal with a revolt of the Rajput Ghakkar tribe in the Punjab. He suppressed the revolt, but was killed during a Ghakkar raid on his camp on the Jhelum River in 1206. Upon his death, his most capable general, Qutb-ud-din Aybak took control of Muhammad Ghori's Indian conquests and declared himself the first Sultan of Delhi, and established the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, the Slave or Mamluk dynasty (mamluk means 'slave born to free parents').

The territory under control of the Muslim rulers in Delhi expanded rapidly. By mid-century, Bengal and much of central India was under the Delhi Sultanate. Several Turko-Afghan dynasties ruled from Delhi:

• the Mamluk (1211-90)
• the Khalji (1290-1320)
• the Tughlaq (1320-1413)
• the Sayyid (1414-51)
• the Lodhi (1451-1526)

As the Muslims extended their rule into southern India, only the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar remained immune, until it too fell in 1565. Although some kingdoms remained independent of Delhi in the Deccan and in Gujarat, Malwa (central India), and Bengal, almost all of the area in Pakistan came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate.

The sultans of Delhi enjoyed cordial relations with Muslim rulers in the Near East but owed them no allegiance. The sultans based their laws on the Quran and the sharia and permitted non-Muslim subjects to practice their religion only if they paid the jizya or head tax.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of the sultanate was its temporary success in insulating the South Asia from the Mongol invasion from Central Asia in the thirteenth century, which nonetheless led to the loss of Afghanistan and western Pakistan to the Mongols.

The sultanate ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance resulting from the stimulation of Islam by Hinduism. The resulting 'Indo-Muslim' fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature and religion. In addition, it is surmised that the language of Urdu (literally meaning 'horde' or 'camp' in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Dehli Sultanate period as a result of the mingling of Sanskritic prakrits and the Persian, Turkish, Arabic favoured by the Muslim invaders of India. The sultanate suffered from the sacking of Delhi in 1398 by Timur (Tamerlane) but revived briefly under the Lodhis before it was conquered by the Mughals in 1526.

1526-1757: The Early Modern Period

The 16th century saw the arrivals of the Mughal empire, which played a huge role in the development of the region not only economically but also culturally.

1526-1707: The Mughal Empire

The arrival of people from the Central Asian nations such as the Turks and Mongols was a significant turning point in the history of South Asia. The Qalandars (wandering Sufi saints) from Central Asia, Persia and Middle East preached a mystical form of Islam that appealed to the Buddhist and Hindu populations of Pakistan. The concepts of equality, justice, spirituality and secularism of the Sufi strain of Islam greatly attracted the masses towards it. The Sufi orders or triqas were established gradually, over a period of centuries. Present-day Pakistan was a place of great cultural and religious diversity. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to Islamic Sultanate in South Asia. The Muslim Sufi missionaries played a pivotal role in converting the millions of native people to Islam.

The Mughals were the descendants of Persianized Central Asian Turks (with significant Mongol admixture) and would establish a formidable empire over the breadth of South Asia and beyond. The Mughal Empire included modern Pakistan and reached as far north as eastern Afghanistan and as far south as southern India. It was one of the three major Islamic empires of its day and sometimes contested its northwestern holdings such as Qandahar against invasions from the Uzbeks and the Safavid Persians. Although the first Mughal emperor Babur favoured the cool hills of Kabul, his conquests would lay the foundations for a dynasty that would hold sway over South Asia for over two centuries. Most of his successors were capable rulers and during the Mughal period the Shalimar Gardens were built in Lahore during the reign of Shah Jehan, and the Badshahi Mosque was erected during the reign of Aurangzeb. However, Aurangzeb was a controversial emperor, who was accused for his persecution of those that refused to convert to Islam. Dangerous criminals were at times set free because they were Muslims. One notable emperor, Akbar the Great was both a capable ruler and an early proponent of religious and ethnic tolerance and favoured an early form of multiculturalism.

India and Pakistan still bear the architectural monuments built by the Mughal emperors. During the Mughal period, the cities of Agra, Delhi, and Lahore were at times the capital of the empire. Humayun's Tomb, the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal are just some of the architectural marvels that were the results of the growth of Islamic culture and rule over the South Asia. The Mughals also implemented federal regulations including taxation, social welfare reforms, justice, development of the transport and agricultural system and water canals. The mansabdar system gained prominence during the Mughal Empire and was used to implement a form of ranking military official and landowners throughout the empire.

1747-1823: Durrani Empire

In 1739 Nadir Shah attacked India and after defeating the Mughal Emperor Mohammed Shah claimed Punjab, the North-West Frontier Province, Balochistan and Sind as provinces of his empire. Upon the death of Nadir Shah, one of his generals, a Pashtun named Ahmed Shah Abdali (also Ahmad Shah Durrani) established the kingdom of Afghanistan in 1747 and claimed Kashmir, Peshawar, Daman, Multan, Sindh and Punjab for his new state.

When the Abdali kingdom weakened early in the 19th century due to internecine warfare, an independent kingdom arose in western Punjab headed by the Sikh leader Ranjit Singh. In the south, the province of Sind had begun to assert its independence from the waning days of Mughal emperor Aurengzeb's rule, and a succession of semi-independent dynasties under the Daudpotas, Kalhoras and Talpurs was to rule over this province until the British conquest in 1843 AD. Meanwhile, most of Balochistan came under the sphere of influence of the Khan of Kalat, except for a few coastal cities such as Gwadar which were controlled by the Sultan of Oman.

1801-1849: The Sikh Empire

In the early 19th century, the Mughal Empire and the Afghan Durrani Empire weakened in power. Taking advantage of the situation, Sikhs conquered most of the Punjab, and parts of Kashmir and Eastern Afghanistan. Sikh warrior Ranjit Singh defeated the Afghans and took the title of Maharaja (High King) of the Punjab and eventually sovereign of the Sikh Empire, stretching from within the shadows of Delhi to beyond Peshawar, with his capital at Lahore. It was also the last territory of South Asia to fall to the British Empire mainly due to the betrayal by its top Dogra Generals, during the two bloody Anglo-Sikh wars in 1845-6 and 1848-49. The outcome was a very narrow victory for the British resulting in the annexation of the Punjab and the fall of Sikh rule.

1757-1947: Colonial Era

During the middle of the second millennium, several European countries, such as Great Britain, Portugal, Holland and France were initially interested in trade with South Asian rulers including the Mughals and leaders of other independent Kingdoms. The Europeans took advantage of the fractured kingdoms and the divided rule to colonise the country. Most of India came under the crown of the British Empire in 1857 after a failed insurrection, popularly known as the First War of Indian Independence, against the British East India Company by Bahadur Shah Zafar. Present-day Pakistan remained part of British India until August 14, 1947.

1839-1878: The Anglo-Afghan Wars

The two Anglo-Afghan wars that involved Pakistan directly took place in 1839 and again in 1842 and 1878 and resulted in the eventual loss of Pashtun/Afghan territory to the expanding British Indian Empire. Following the 2nd Anglo-Afghan war, a tenuous peace resulted between Afghanistan and the British Empire based in India. Decades later, what is today western Pakistan would come to be annexed by the British.

1893: The Durand Line

For Afghan ruler Abdur Rahman Khan, delineating the boundary with India (through the Pashtun area) was far more significant, and it was during his reign that the Durand Line was drawn. Under pressure, Abdur Rahman agreed in 1893 to accept a mission headed by the British Indian foreign secretary, Sir Mortimer Durand, to define the limits of British and Afghan control in the Pashtun territories. Boundary limits were agreed on by Durand and Abdur Rahman before the end of 1893, but there is some question about the degree to which Abdur Rahman willingly ceded certain regions. There were indications that he regarded the Durand Line as a delimitation of separate areas of political responsibility, not a permanent international frontier, and that he did not explicitly cede control over certain parts (such as Kurram and Chitral) that were already in British control under the Treaty of Gandamak.

The Durand Line cut through both tribes and villages and bore little relation to the realities of topography, demography or even military strategy. The line laid the foundation, not for peace between the border regions, but for heated disagreement between the governments of Afghanistan and British India, and later, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The issue revolves around the Pashtun nationalist movement known as Pashtunistan.

The Great Game

During much of the 19th century, the British and Russian Empires engaged in what came to be known as the Great Game as both sides intrigued over Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Often arming local Pashtun and Tajik tribesmen, both sides sought to undermine the other, while the rulers of Afghanistan were able to maintain some measure of independence in-spite of the loss of territories to the east to British India.

Pakistan Movement

The first proponents of an independent Muslim nation began to appear in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century under the British Raj. Following the first War for Independence, the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885. Some Muslims felt the need to address the issue of the Muslim identity within India, leading to Sir Syed Amir Ali forming the Central National Muhammadan Association in 1877 to work towards the political advancement of the Muslims. The organisation declined towards the end of the nineteenth century but was replaced in 1906 by the All-India Muslim League. Although the League originally demanded constitutional guarantees for Muslims, several factors including sectarian violence prompted a reconsideration of the League's aims. The All India Muslim League was founded on the sidelines of the 1905 conference of the Muslim Anglo-Oriental Conference. This party was not, right until 1940, separatist. The idea of a separate nation was mooted in humour, satire and on the fringes of the political milieu.

By 1930, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who ultimately led the movement for a separate state, had despaired of Indian politics and particularly of getting mainstream parties like the Congress (of which he was a member much longer than the League) to be sensitive to minority priorities. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that he felt that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated South Asia. The Sindh Assembly passed a resolution making it a demand in 1935.

Iqbal, Jauhar and others then worked hard to draft Mohammad Ali Jinnah to lead the movement for this new nation. Jinnah later went on to become known as the Father of the Nation, with Pakistan officially giving him the title Quaid-e-Azam or 'Great Leader'.

1940: Pakistan (Lahore) Resolution

In 1940, Jinnah called a general session of the All India Muslim League in Lahore to discuss the situation that had arisen due to the outbreak of the Second World War and the Government of India joining the war without taking the opinion of the Indian leaders. The meeting was also aimed at analysing the reasons that led to the defeat of the Muslim League in the general election of 1937 in the Muslim majority provinces. Jinnah, in his speech, criticised the Congress and the nationalist Muslims, and espoused the Two-Nation Theory and the reasons for the demand for separate Muslim homelands. Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Chief Minister of the Punjab region, drafted the original Lahore Resolution, which was placed before the Subject Committee of the All India Muslim League for discussion and amendments. The resolution, radically amended by the subject committee, was moved in the general session by Shere-Bangla A.K. Fazlul Huq, the Chief Minister of Bengal, on 23 March and was supported by Choudhury Khaliquzzaman and other Muslim leaders.

The Lahore Resolution ran as follows:

"That the areas where the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the Northwestern and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute 'independent states' in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign".

The Resolution was adopted on 23 March 1940.

Origin of Name

The name 'Pakistan' was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali. He devised the word and first published it on January 28, 1933 in the pamphlet "Now or Never". He saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the 'homelands' of Muslims in South Asia. (P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan, thus forming 'Pakstan.' An i was later added to the English rendition of the name to ease pronunciation, producing Pakistan.) The word also captured in the Persian language the concepts of 'pak', meaning 'pure', and 'stan', meaning 'land' or 'home', thus giving it the meaning 'Land of the Pure'. All Arabic-speaking countries refer to Pakistan as Bakistaan, as the Arabic language lacks the phoneme p.

1947: Partition of the British Indian Empire

As the British granted independence to their dominions in India in mid-August 1947, the two nations joined the British Commonwealth as self-governing dominions. The partition left Punjab and Bengal, two of the biggest provinces, divided between India and Pakistan. In the early days of independence, more than two million people migrated across the new border and more than one hundred thousand died in a spate of communal violence. Non-Muslims who lived in Pakistan were forced the leave the area, which was one major factor in causing a violent reaction amongst the populations of the newly founded nations. The partition also resulted in tensions over Kashmir leading to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947.

1947-1956: Dominion of Pakistan

Pakistan's independence was won through a democratic and constitutional struggle. Pakistani political history is divided into alternating periods of authoritarian military government and democratic civilian/parliamentary rule. Since independence, Pakistan has also been in constant dispute with India over the territory of Kashmir which has led to complicated relations. In addition, Pakistan has been at odds with Afghanistan over the Pashtunistan issue for much of its history as well.

1948-1952: Language Movement

In 1948, Jinnah declared in Dhaka that Urdu and only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan. This sparked protests in East Bengal (later East Pakistan), where Bengali language was spoken by most of the population.

The movement reached its peak in 1952. On February 21, 1952, Pakistan Police and Army fired on students protesting for equal status of Bengali, near the Dhaka Medical College. Several protesters were killed, and the movement gained further support throughout the East Pakistan. Later, the Government agreed to provide equal status to Bengali as the state language of Pakistan, a right later codified in the 1956 constitution.

1956 - Present: Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Pakistan was a Dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations from 1947, before declaring it itself an Islamic Republic in 1956.

1958-1968: Military Coup and Wars

Just two years following the formation of a Constitution and a declaration as an Islamic Republic, the military took control of the nation in 1958. Field Marshall Ayub Khan also started Basic Democracy in which the people elected electors who in turn voted to select the President. He nearly lost the national elections to Fatima Jinnah. During Ayub's rule, relations with the United States and the West grew stronger. A formal alliance including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey was formed during the Ayub Khan period and was called the Baghdad Pact (later known as ADNTO), which was to defend the Middle East and Persian Gulf from Soviet designs. Pakistan engaged in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 with India over Kashmir and the Rann of Kutch.

1971: Separation of Bangladesh

Between 1947 and 1971, Pakistan consisted of two disconnected regions, West Pakistan and East Pakistan, geographically separated by India in between. During the 1960s, there was a rise in Bengali nationalism, and of allegations that economic development and hiring for government jobs favoured West Pakistan. An independence movement in East Pakistan began to gather ground. After a nationwide uprising in 1969, General Ayub Khan stepped down from office, handing over power to General Yahya Khan, who promised to hold general elections at the end of 1970. On the eve of the elections, a cyclone struck East Pakistan killing approximately 500,000 people. Despite the tragedy, and the additional difficulty experienced by affected citizens to reach the voting sites, the elections were held, and the results showed a clear division between the East and the West Pakistan. The Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won a majority in the National Assembly, with 167 of the 169 East Pakistani seats, but with no seats from West Pakistan, where the Pakistan Peoples Party led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won 85 seats. Yahya Khan and Bhutto refused to hand over power to Mujib.

Meanwhile, Mujib initiated a civil disobedience movement, strongly supported by the general population of East Pakistan including most government workers. A round-table conference between Yahya, Bhutto and Mujib was convened in Dhaka, which, however, ended without a solution. Soon thereafter, the West Pakistani Army commenced Operation Searchlight, an organised crackdown on the East Pakistani army, police, politicians, civilians and students in Dhaka. Mujib and many other Awami League leaders were arrested, while others fled to neighbouring India. On March 27, 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman, a Bengali war-veteran of the East Bengal Regiment of Pakistan Army, declared the independence of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh on behalf of Mujib. The crackdown widened and escalated into guerrilla warfare between the Pakistani Army and the Mukti Bahini-Bengali 'freedom fighters'. The fighting continued for 9 months. India supplied the Bengali rebels with arms and training, and, in addition, hosted more than 10 million Bengali refugees who had fled the turmoil.

Outflanked and overwhelmed, the West Pakistani army surrendered on December 16, 1971, with nearly 90,000 soldiers taken as prisoners of war. The official figure of Bengali civilian death toll from the war was reported to be 3 million, although other sources put the number between 1.25 to 1.5 million. The result was the emergence of the new nation of Bangladesh. Discredited by the defeat, President Gen. Yahya Khan resigned.

1972-1977: Civilian Rule

Civilian rule returned after the war when General Yahya Khan handed over power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In 1972, Pakistani intelligence learned that India was close to developing a nuclear bomb, and in response, Bhutto formed a group of engineers and scientists, headed by nuclear scientist Abdus Salam (who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics) to develop nuclear devices. Pakistan was alarmed by the Indian nuclear test of 1974, and Bhutto promised that Pakistan would also have a nuclear device "even if we have to eat grass and leaves".

In 1973, Parliament approved the 1973 Constitution. During Bhutto's rule, a serious rebellion also took place in Balochistan and led to harsh suppression of Baloch rebels with purported assistance from the Shah of Iran lending air support in order to avoid a spilling over the conflict into Sistan Balochistan in Iran.

Elections were held in 1977, with Bhutto winning. Bhutto's victory was challenged by the opposition, which accused him of rigging the vote. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq took power in a bloodless coup, Bhutto was later executed, after being convicted of authorising the murder of a political opponent, in a controversial 4-3 split decision by Pakistan's Supreme Court.

1977-1988: Military Rule

Pakistan had been a US ally for much of the Cold War, from the 1950s and as a member of ADNTO and SEATO. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan renewed and deepened the US-Pakistan alliance. The Reagan administration in the United States helped supply and finance an anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, using Pakistan as a conduit. In retaliation, the KHAD, under Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah, carried out (according to the Mitrokhin archives and other sources) a large number of terrorist operations against Pakistan, which also suffered from an influx of weaponry and drugs from Afghanistan. In the 1980s, as the front-line state in the anti-Soviet struggle, Pakistan received substantial aid from the United States and took in millions of Afghan (mostly Pashtun) refugees fleeing the Soviet occupation. The influx of so many refugees - believed to be the largest refugee population in the world - had a heavy impact on Pakistan and its effects continue to this day.

Also under the new military ruler President Zia-ul-Haq's Martial Law dictatorship the following initiatives were taken:

• Strict Islamic law was introduced into the country's legal system by 1978.
• Pakistan fought a war by proxy against the Communists in Afghanistan in the Soviet-Afghan War, greatly contributing to the eventual withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
• Secessionist uprisings in Balochistan were put down by the province's authoritarian Martial Law ruler, General Rahimuddin Khan.
• The socialist economic policies of the previous civilian government, which also included aggressive nationalisation, were gradually reversed; and Pakistan's Gross National Product increased greatly.

General Zia lifted Martial Law in 1985, holding partyless elections and handpicking Muhammad Khan Junejo to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who rubber-stamped Zia as Chief of Army Staff till 1990. However, Junejo gradually fell out with Zia as his politically administrative independence grew. Junejo also signed the Geneva Accord, which Zia disagreed upon. After a large-scale blast at a munitions dump in Ojhri, Junejo vowed to bring those responsible for the significant damage caused to justice, implicating several senior generals.

President Zia, infuriated, dismissed the Junejo government on several charges in May 1988. He then called for the holding of fresh elections in November. General Zia-ul-Haq never saw the elections materialise however, as he died in a plane crash on August 17, 1988, which was later proven to be highly sophisticated sabotage, the perpetrators of which remain unproven.

1988-1999: Civilian Democracy

From 1988 to 1999, Pakistan was ruled by civilian governments, alternately headed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who were each elected twice and removed from office on charges of corruption. Economic growth declined towards the end of this period, hurt by the Asian financial crisis, and economic sanctions imposed on Pakistan after its first tests of nuclear devices in 1998. The Pakistani testing came shortly after India tested nuclear devices and increased fears of a nuclear arms race in South Asia. The next year, the Kargil Conflict in Kashmir threatened to escalate to a full-scale war.

During the late 1990s, Pakistan was one of three countries that recognised the Taliban government and Mullah Mohammed Omar as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan. Allegations have been made of Pakistan, and other countries providing economic and military aid to the group from 1994 as a part of supporting the anti-Soviet alliance. It is alleged that some post-invasion Taliban fighters were recruits, drawn from Pakistan's madrassahs.

In the election that returned Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister in 1997, his party received a heavy majority of the vote, obtaining enough seats in parliament to change the constitution, which Sharif amended to eliminate the formal checks and balances that restrained the Prime Minister's power. Institutional challenges to his authority, led by the civilian President Farooq Leghari, military chief Jehangir Karamat and Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah were put down and all three were forced to resign, Shah doing so after the Supreme Court was stormed by Sharif partisans.

1999 Coup

On 12 October 1999, Sharif attempted to dismiss army chief Pervez Musharraf and install ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) director Khwaja Ziauddin in his place. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif ordered the Jinnah International Airport (Quaid-e-Azam International Airport) to prevent the landing of the airliner, which then circled the skies over Karachi.

Senior Army generals refused to accept Musharraf's dismissal. In a coup, the generals ousted Sharif's administration and took over the airport. The plane landed with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and General Pervez Musharraf assumed control of the government. General Musharraf arrested Nawaz Sharif and those members of his cabinet who took part in the decision.

President Clinton and King Fahd pressured General Musharraf to exile Nawaz Sharif in Saudi Arabia, guaranteeing he would not be involved in politics for five years. General Musharraf later expelled Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia. Nawaz Sharif lived in Saudi Arabia for more than six years before moving to London in 2005.

2002 Elections

On May 12, 2000 the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered Pervez Musharraf to hold general elections by October 12, 2002. In an attempt to legitimise his presidency and assure its continuance after the impending elections, he held a national referendum on April 30, 2002, which extended his presidential term to a period ending five years after the October elections. General Musharraf continues to hold post of the army chief.

General elections were held in October 2002 and the centrist, pro-Mushararraf PML-Q won a plurality of the seats in the Parliament. However, parties opposed to Musharraf's Legal Framework Order effectively paralysed the National Assembly for over a year. The deadlock ended in December 2003, when Musharraf and some of his parliamentary opponents agreed upon a compromise, and pro-Musharraf legislators were able to muster the two-thirds supermajority required to pass the Seventeenth Amendment, which retroactively legitimised Musharraf's 1999 coup and many of his subsequent decrees. In a vote of confidence on January 1, 2004, Musharraf won 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was elected to the office of President.

Recent Events

While economic reforms undertaken during his regime have yielded some results, social reform programmes appear to have met with resistance. Musharraf's power is threatened by extremists who have grown in strength since the September 11, 2001 attacks and who are particularly angered by Musharraf's close political and military alliance with the United States, including his support of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, and his liberal views on reforming Islam. Musharraf has survived assassination attempts by terrorist groups believed to be part of Al-Qaeda, including at least two instances where the terrorists had inside information from a member of his military security detail.

Pakistan continues to be involved in a dispute over Kashmir, with allegations of support of terrorist groups being levelled against Pakistan by India, while Pakistan charges that the Indian government abuses human rights in its use of military force in the region. That both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons makes this dispute a source of special concern for the world community. This led to a nuclear standoff in 2002 when militants (supposedly backed by the ISI) attacked the Indian parliament. In reaction to this and following diplomatic tensions, India and Pakistan deployed 500,000 and 120,000 troops to the border respectively. While the Indo-Pakistani peace process has since made progress, it is sometimes stalled by infrequent insurgent activity in India (including the 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings).

Pakistan also has been accused of contributing to nuclear proliferation; indeed, its leading nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted to selling nuclear secrets, though he denies any governmental knowledge of his activities.

The Pakistani government sent thousands of troops into the region of Waziristan in 2002 to hunt for bin Laden and other al-Qaeda fugitives. In March 2004, heavy fighting broke out at Azam Warsak, near the South Waziristan town of Wana, between Pakistani troops and an estimated 400 militants holed up in several fortified settlements. It was speculated that bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri was among those trapped by the Pakistani Army. On September 5, 2006 a truce was signed with the militants (who call themselves the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan) in which the rebels were to cease supporting cross-border jihadist attacks on Afghanistan in return for a general ceasefire and a hand-over of border patrol and check-point responsibilities formerly handled by the Pakistan Army.

2007 was marked by unrest in the country, including deadly riots in Karachi and the Lal Masjid siege.