Punjab is a province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the most populous Pakistani province and the second most populous subnational polity in the world. Located in the central-eastern region of the country, it has the largest economy, contributing the most to national GDP in Pakistan. Lahore is the capital and largest city of the province. Other major cities include Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan.
It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-west, Balochistan to the south-west and Sindh to the south, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory to the north-west and Azad Kashmir to the north. It shares an international border with the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab to the east and Indian-administered Kashmir to the north-east.
The province forms the bulk of the transnational Punjab region, partitioned in 1947 between Pakistan and India. The most fertile province of the country, Punjab is considered the breadbasket of the nation, in addition to being the most industrialised. It is one of the more urbanised regions in South Asia, with approximately 40 per cent of its population being urban.
Punjabi Muslims form majority of the province. Their culture has been strongly influenced by Islamic culture and Sufism, with a number of Sufi shrines located across the province.Nizami, K.A., "Farīd al-Dīn Masʿūd "Gand͟j-I-S͟hakar"", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Punjab hosts several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Shalimar Gardens, the Lahore Fort, the archaeological excavations at Taxila, and the Rohtas Fort, among others.
Etymology The name "Punjab" consists of two parts ( and ), from Persian which are cognates of the Sanskrit words ( and ). The word pañj-āb is thus calque of Indo-Aryan pañca-áp and means "The Land of Five Waters", referring to the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas."Punjab." p. 107 in Encyclopædia Britannica (9th ed.), vol. 20. All are tributaries of the Indus River, Sutlej being the longest. References to a land of five rivers are found in the Mahabharata, in which one of the regions is named as Panchanada (). The ancient Greeks referred to the region as Pentapotamía ().Lassen, Christian. 1827. Commentatio Geographica atque Historica de Pentapotamia Indica [A Geographical and Historical Commentary on Indian Pentapotamia]. Weber. p. 4: "That part of India which today we call by the Persian name ''Penjab'' is named Panchanada in the sacred language of the Indians; either of which names may be rendered in Greek by Πενταποταμια. The Persian origin of the former name is not at all in doubt, although the words of which it is composed are both Indian and Persian.... But, in truth, that final word is never, to my knowledge, used by the Indians in proper names compounded in this way; on the other hand, there exist multiple Persian names which end with that word, e.g., Doab and Nilab. Therefore, it is likely that the name Penjab, which is now found in all geographical books, is of more recent origin and can be attributed to the Muslim kings of India, among whom the Persian language was predominantly in use. That the Indian name Panchanada is ancient and genuine is evident from the fact that it is already seen in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the most ancient Indian poems, and that no other exists in addition to it among the Indians; for Panchála, which English translations of the Ramayana render with Penjab...is the name of another region, entirely distinct from Pentapotamia...." Earlier, Punjab was also known as Sapta Sindhu in the Rigveda and Hapta Hendu in the Avesta, translating into "The Land of Seven Rivers"; the other two being Indus and Kabul which are included in the greater Punjab region.
The 14th-century author Ayn al-Mulk Mahru referred to the region as the wilayat of Punjab () in Insha-i-Mahru;For the original Persian text, see Punjab finds mention in the travelogue of Ibn Battuta and in the Tarikh-i-Wassaf of Ilkhanid historian Wassaf as well. For example, Wassaf describes Punjab as the region irrigated by Sind (Indus), Jelum (Jhelum), Lohawar (Lahore, now known as Ravi), Satlut (Satluj) and Biyaha (Beas) rivers. See PUNJAUB, Hobson-Jobson. The current name gained currency during the Mughal period.Canfield, Robert L. (1991). Persia in Historical Perspective. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 1 ("Origins"). . A term used in the Punjabi language for the Pakistani province is Lehnda Punjab while Indian Punjab is known as Chardha Punjab.
History
Ancient period The earliest evidence of human habitation in Punjab is traced to the Soan Valley of the Pothohar, between the Indus and the Jhelum rivers, where Soanian culture developed between 774,000 BCE and 11,700 BCE. This period goes back to the first interglacial period in the Ice age, from which remnants of stone and flint tools have been found. The Punjab region was the site of one of the earliest cradles of civilisation, the Bronze Age Harrapan civilisation that flourished from about 3000 BCE and declined rapidly 1,000 years later, followed by the Indo-Aryan migrations that overran the region in waves between 1500 and 500 BCE. The migrating Indo-Aryan tribes gave rise to the Iron Age Vedic civilisation, which lasted till 500 BCE. During this period, the Rigveda was composed in Punjab, laying the foundation of Hinduism. Frequent intertribal wars in the post-Vedic period stimulated the growth of larger groupings ruled by chieftains and kings, who ruled local kingdoms known as Mahajanapadas. Achaemenid emperor Darius the Great crossed the Indus in 518 BCE and annexed the land up to the river Jhelum. Taxila in Gandhara was the site of one of the oldest education centre of South Asia and was probably capital of the Achaemenid province of Hindush.
One of the early kings in Punjab was Porus, who fought in the Battle of the Hydaspes against Alexander the Great. The battle is thought to have resulted in a decisive Greek victory; however, A. B. Bosworth warns against an uncritical reading of Greek sources who were obviously exaggerative. Porus refused to surrender and wandered about atop an elephant, until he was wounded and his force routed. When asked by Alexander how he wished to be treated, Porus replied "Treat me as a king would treat another king". Despite the apparently one-sided results, Alexander was impressed by Porus and chose to reinstate him. The battle is historically significant because it resulted in the syncretism of ancient Greek political and cultural influences on the Indian subcontinent, yielding works such as Greco-Buddhist art, which continued to have an impact for the ensuing centuries. In south-central Punjab, the Mallians, together with nearby tribes, gathered a large army to face the Greek army. During the siege of the Mallian citadel, Alexander leaped into its inner area, where he was wounded by an arrow that had penetrated his lung, leaving him severely injured. The city was conquered after a fierce battle.
The region was then ceded by Seleucus I Nicator to the Maurya Empire in 302 BCE. Indo-Greeks became established in the region after campaigns of Greco-Bactrian Demetrius in 180 BCE; their greatest ruler, Menander had Sagala (present-day Sialkot) as capital. Menander is noted for becoming a patron and converting to Greco-Buddhism. Migrating central Asian tribes of Saka became entrenched in Punjab under Maues but were soon replaced by Pahlavas led by Gondophares, last of whom was the Apraca king Sases. By the middle of the first century CE, Kushans had expanded into the region and would go on to rule in Punjab for the next three hundred years, until their kingdom was destroyed in the Huns' invasions, most notable of whom was Alchon Hun Mihirakula (r. 515–542).
Medieval period
The Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited Punjab in the 7th century CE and described a large kingdom called Takka, which according to him covered territory between Indus and Sutlej and had capital at Sialkot. Following the Muslim conquests in the beginning of the 8th century, Arab armies of the Umayyad Caliphate advanced into Indus Valley, introducing Islam in Punjab. Their decline was followed by formation of various Arab-ruled principalities, notably the Emirate of Multan, in the 9th century, coinciding with the rise of the Odi Shahi dynasty of Gandhara in the northern Punjab and Kabulistan.
Ghaznavids and Ghurids
Punjab was annexed by the Ghaznavid dynasty in the 11th century. Peshawar was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni after defeating maharaja Jayapala of Punjab in 1001. The ruler of Multan, Abul Fateh Daud was defeated in 1010. Nandana, the last Shahi capital, fell in 1014 and Punjab became part of expanding Ghaznavid Empire. Lahore became secondary, and after 1163, sole capital of the Ghaznavids. They gradually declined as a power until the Ghurids conquered Lahore under Muhammad of Ghor in 1186, deposing the last Ghaznavid king Khusrau Malik.
After the assassination of Muhammad of Ghor at Dhamiak in 1206, the Ghurid state fragmented and was replaced by the Delhi Sultanate in the Indo-Gangetic plains. The Delhi Sultanate ruled Punjab for the next several centuries, led by five unrelated dynasties.
Delhi Sultanate
The first ruler of Delhi Sultanate was Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a mamluk, who died in Lahore while playing polo in 1210. Following his death his successor Iltutmish transferred capital from Lahore to Delhi. The relocation of regional centre was necessitated by the rise of Mongol Empire in the west. Mongols under Genghis Khan first invaded Punjab in 1221 while chasing the retreating armies of Khwarezmian prince Jalal al-Din Mangburni; Genghis Khan annihilated the Khwarezmians at the Battle of the Indus besides modern Attock. Mongols plundered Punjab plains but returned due to the hot climate of Punjab.
Throughout the 13th-century, Punjab bore the brunt of numerous Mongol invasions, and the towns of Lahore, Multan and Dipalpur were repeatedly sacked. Mamluk sultan Balban led several campaigns against them. Alauddin Khilji and his generals Zafar Khan, Nusrat Khan, Ulugh Khan and Malik Kafur inflicted a series of defeats over them and large-scale raids by Mongol khanates stopped. Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq, the former governor of Multan and Dipalpur, founded the Tughlaq dynasty in 1320. Earlier, he had served as the governor of Multan and had fought twenty-eight battles against Mongols from his base at Dipalpur, preserving Punjab and Sind from their advances. The mother of Ghiyath al-Din was from Punjab, as was the mother of Firuz Shah Tughlaq, who became the emperor in 1351.
The Tughlaq dynasty declined towards the end of 14th century. In 1398 Delhi Sultanate faced a devastating invasion by Emir Timur, who massacred the citizens of Delhi and Multan. Following his return, Khizr Khan established the Sayyid dynasty, the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with four rulers ruling from 1414 to 1451 for 37 years.See:
M. Reza Pirbha, Reconsidering Islam in a South Asian Context, , Brill The Islamic frontier in the east: Expansion into South Asia, Journal of South Asian Studies, 4(1), pp. 91–109