The desire, the will, the urge, the urgency was there. But, these
were seriously hampered by two handicaps. Firstly, my own ability and
knowledge was not good enough to write, factually and with credibility,
about such a glorious past and rich history of my proud motherland. Secondly,
not much published literary resource was available in this place, Singapore,
far far away from Sindh.
Months of patient wandering in search for some material on Sindh, I finally found
what I had been looking for at one of my friend's house in Singapore. My friend,
Hidayat Baluch, is a well-known literary figure from Sindh, presently, working as
a manager with Pakistan International Airline's freight divison in Singapore.
The book that he showed me was "Pearls From Indus : Studies In Sindh Culture"
by Professor Annemarie Schimmel, a German scholar, and an admirer of Sindh,
the people of Sindh and the Sufi poets of Sindh.
With such an authentic and original work in my possession, I would, with due humility,
be sharing within these pages the historical facts, that I have learnt from
Dr Schimmel's treatise.
Introduction : The Uniqueness of Sindhi Entity
Sindh...click, that beautiful country along the lower Indus and the delta of this river, situated between the Latitudes of 20 degrees and 35 minutes North and 28 degrees and 39 minutes North, and the Longitudes of 66 degrees 40 minutes East and 71 degrees and 10 minutes East, is a wonderful landscape which has had its own history...click through the centuries, is quite different from the main body of the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent. The Arabic names "Hind" and "Sind" show the cultural...click differences between the Indus Valley and the country East of the river.
The Sindhu:
Isolated from neighbouring countries - by the Baluchistan Hills in the West, the Thar Desert in the East, and the Arabian Sea in the South - Sindh was depenedent upon the River Indus, the Sindhu or Mehran, for which it is named. Sindhis reverantly call the river Sindhu or Mehran. It is known as Abasin, the Father of Rivers, in the Pathan North. Sindhu is at the same time a source of fertility and of destruction. During the millenia it has often changed its course, and this is the reason for the destruction of old and the development of new centres of civilization along its ever-changing shores. The inhabitants were aware of the power of the river. It was revered and worshipped by the Hindus...click from time immemorial, as certain Vedic hymns prove. The remains of this cult, which worshipped Sindhu, are preserved in the veneration of Zinda Pir near Rohri, Sindh. Zinda Pir, a saint whom Muslim...click piety identifies with Khwaja Khidir, the mysterious saint of water and greenery.
The Oldest Civilzation
Not far from the river, one of the oldest civilizations of the world was discovered. This place, which the population called Moenjodaro...click, the Hill or Mound of the Dead, is a remarkable place, which dates back to ca. 3200 B.C., and has for years attracted the interest of archeologists and philologists, although the attempts to decipher the mysterious signs on the seals have not yet yielded any convincing results. Yet, the cultural importance of the ruins, situated about 300 kilometres North of Karachi and about 20 kilometres from Larkana, the hometown of that worthy son of Sindh, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto...click, and his daughter, the first and, perhaps the only, woman Prime Minister of Pakistan, is immense. These ruins prove that the inhabitants, who were apparently worshippers of a mother-goddess and furtility deities, had reached and practiced an almost modern system of city planning, with their own brick-dwellings, spacious baths, elaborate irrigation and drainage sytems. This, bright chapter in the history of Sindh, was at a time when rest of the world was still living in bush, on trees, and under barbaric darkness.
Sindh And Other Civilizations:
Sindh co-existed in peace and harmony with other ancient civilizations of that era. It seems to be beyond doubt that Moenjadaro had healthy relations with another great civilizations existing at that time, the Sumerian culture in Iraq. From this time onward, commercial and cultural relations between the lower Indus basin and the Semitic area - later particularly South Arabia - were established.
The People Of Sindh:
The inhabitants of Moenjodaro belonged to a non-Aryan race. Aryans entered the Indus Valley in approximately 1500 B.C. Sehwan (Sivistan) was, than, one of the important centres of Shiva religion. Sehwan's religious character had been preserved throughout the ages to the present. The shrine of that great sufi saint, La'al Shahba'az Qalander, is situated here, where countless devotees, from near and far, visit to pay their homage.
Invaders And Dynasties:
About 500 B.C. Sindh was annexed to the Persian Empire by Darius Hystaspes. It remained a Persian province until Alexander the Great passed through the country in 325 B.C. Afetr his death, Sindh fell to the Maurya. In the second century B.C. the Parthians annexed it once more to Iran. This is one of the reason, why we see the ancient tombs and mosques in Sindh designed and built according to the Persian architecture. There is a stunning similarity between the Great Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, and the Great Mosque in Thatta...click, Sindh. Persians were followed by the Scythians and than by other invaders from Central Asia. The last group in this sequence of dynasties was the Ra'ai dynasty, which was overthrown by a Rajput general known as Chach in the mid-seventh century of the Christian era (A.D). At that time Budhism flourished in Sindh. Chach, according to traditions, a Hindu Rajput, easily overcame the peaceful and docile Budhist inhabitants of Sindh.
The Muslim Conquest Of Sindh:
During the reign of Chach's son, Raja Dahir, the Muslim Arabs conquered Sindh and were welcomed by the remanants of peace-loving Budhist population of Sindh, as related in the Sindhi epic, the Chachnamo. As early as during the reigns of the Caliphs, the chief civil and religious Rulers of the Islamic world, Umar (634-644 A.D.) and Uthman (644-656 A.D>), the Arabs made their first attacks on Sindh. But, it was only in the Umayyad times that the country was completely conquered and made a Muslim province.
At the time of Caliph al-Walid, the seventeen-year-old Muslim general, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim ath-Thaqafi, was sent to Sindh in 711. The powerful governor, al-Hajjaj, had ordered him to take revenge for the maltreatment of some Muslim merchants at the hand of Raja Dahir's men. Muhammad Bin Qasim conquered Daibul...click, the bustling seaport of the the country of Sindh. From here, the seventeen year old General, reached Nerankot, near present-day Hyderabad, Sindh.
Prince Dahir was defeated by Muhammad Bin Qasim on 10th Ramadan 93 of the Hijra Calendar...click, that is, June 712 A.D. near Rawar. Then, the Arabs conquered the old capital of Alor, not far from the present Rohri. After this, in 713 A.D., the Arabs conquered Multan with its famous temple of the sun. Although young and still a child, with wisdom, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim granted the indigenous population the same rights as Christians and Jews enjoyed in the main Islamic lands, treating them as dhimmis and levying the tax or jizya. Because of this 'wisdom,'
a town in Sindh, Bin Qasim, is named after him, where the largest Steel Mill of the land is situated alongwith the second largest Port in the country. Alas! No such honour for the sons of the soils, like Raja Dahir and others. The sad fact is that the invaders, the marauders, the conquerers of our mother Sindh are the heroes and the honourable ones; the children, the sons, the protectors of the motherland are the villains and the wicked ones. The screams of mother Sindh will one day tear apart the sky and the seven heavens
and reach the abode of Truth and Justice, and the showers of Mercy and Benevolence shall surely fall on my motherland, my fatherland...click and her children...click.
Muhammad Bin Qasim was later recalled by Caliph al-Walid's successor, the Caliph Suleyman, and was cruelly executed at Wasit due to some forged accusations against him, but, probably because of his close association with the late governor, al-Hajjaj.
Sindh has seen numerous emigrants over the ages. Sindhis, like Jews, are not a race but a
complex rainbow of peoples ranging from those who look variously like Central Eurasians, Arabs, Dravidians, Abysinian Africans, and of course, Indians.
Historically, there is enough evidence to conclude that Sindh was a land of asylum for refugees and dissidents fleeing
religious persecution, at various times from lands to its East, West 0and North. The most detailed and well documented account of Sindh's History before the Arab invasion of Sindh is Dr. H. T. Lambrick's,
"Sind: Before the Muslim Conquest" (218pp, 1972, English, distributed
by Oxford U. Press, published by Sindhi Adabi Board).
Dr. Lambrick (b. 1904), then a Fellow at Oxford University, descended
from a family whose members served in Sind before and after its
annexation by the British in 1843. He was an extensive contributor to
the Journal of the Sind Historical Society and the Society's President 1940-1943.
The book starts with the archeological evidence and then covers about 3000 years of Sindh's history. He also mentions in his book that:
Lambrick's historical account shows Sindh subsequently successively under:
Click here for... The Arab And Islamic Influence in Sindh
Click here for... The Beauty Of Sindhi Language
Click here for... The Soomra Rulers Of Sindh
Click here for... The Sama Rulers Of Sindh
Click here for... The Arghun And Targhun Rulers Of Sindh
Click here for... The Mughal Rule In Sindh
Click here for... The Kalhora Rulers Of Sindh
Click here for... The Talpur Rulers Of Sindh
Click here for... The British and The Pakistan Rule In Sindh
Sindh - My Motherland My Fatherland
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