Peshawar is the capital and the largest city in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the eighth-most populous Pakistani city, with a population of over 1.9 million. It is located in the north-west of the country, lying in the Peshawar Valley, a broad area situated east of the Khyber Pass.
Peshawar's recorded history dates back to at least the sixth century BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in South Asia. One of the principal cities of the ancient Gandhara, Peshawar (then known as Puruṣapura) served as the capital of the Kushan Empire during the rule of Kanishka the Great in the second century CE. A variety of Muslim empires ruled the city following the conquest of Peshawar by the Ghaznavids from the Hindu Shahis in 1001 CE. It was an important trading centre of the Mughal Empire, later serving as the winter capital of the Durrani Empire from 1776 until its capture by the Sikh Empire in 1823. In 1849, the city was annexed by the East India Company along with rest of Punjab and subsequently became part of the British Raj. In 1901, Peshawar was made capital of the North-West Frontier Province after it was created by bifurcating the northwestern districts of Punjab Province. Following the Partition of British India in 1947, it became part of Pakistan.
Peshawar is a major cultural, political and economic centre of the region. During the colonial period and well into the early years after independence, the lingua franca of Peshawar was Hindko; in the succeeding decades, the rapid urbanization and the high rate of migration from the rural and the former tribal areas of the province, as well as the influx of Afghan refugees following the Soviet–Afghan War, transformed Peshawar from a Hindko to a Pashto-speaking city. Today Peshawar is largely populated by Pashtuns, although the original urban population, known as Peshoris, still have a significant presence in the central areas of the old Walled City.
Etymology
The modern name of the city 'Peshawar' is derived from reconstructed Sanskrit: Puruṣapura, lit. 'City of Men''. Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang's 7th-century account of a city in Gandhāra called the city Po-la-sha-pu-lo (Chinese: 布路沙布邏, bùlùshābùló), and an earlier 5th-century account by Faxian records the city's name as Fou-lou-sha (Chinese: 弗樓沙, fùlóushā), the Chinese equivalent of Puruṣapura. Sanskrit and Gandhari, written in the Kharoṣṭhī script, were the literary languages employed by the Buddhist kingdoms which ruled over the area during its earliest recorded period.
The city's name may have been instead derived from the Sanskrit name Poshapura, 'City of Flowers', a name found in an ancient Kharoṣṭhī inscription that may refer to Peshawar. An ancient inscription from the Shapur era identifies a city in the Gandhāra Valley by the name pskbvr, which may be a reference to Peshawar. The Arab historian and geographer al-Masudi noted that by the mid-tenth century, the city was known as Parashāwar. The name was noted as Purshawar and Purushavar by al-Biruni.
The city began to be known as Peshāwar by the era of Mughal emperor Akbar. It was named so by from its old name Parashawar, the meaning of which Akbar did not understand. Akbar's bibliographer, Abu'l-Fazl, lists the city's name as both Parashāwar, transcribed in Persian as پَرَشَاوَر, and Peshāwar (پشاور).
The current name is said by some to have been based upon the Persian word for "frontier town" or, more literally, "forward city", though transcription errors and linguistic shifts may account for the city's new name. One theory suggests that the city's name is derived from the Persian words Pesh Awardan, literally "place of first arrival" or "frontier city", as Peshawar was the first city in the Indian subcontinent after crossing the Khyber Pass.
History
Ancient history
Foundation
Peshawar was established as the city of Puruṣapura, on the Gandhara Plains in the broad Peshawar Valley, after the 100 CE. It may have been named after a Hindu raja, who ruled the city, known as Purush. The city likely first existed as a small village in the 5th century BCE, near the ancient Gandhāran capital city of Puṣkalāvatī, near present-day Charsadda.
Greek invasion
In the winter of 327–26 BCE, Alexander the Great subdued Gandhāra during his invasion of the Indus Valley, as well as the nearby Swat and Buner valleys. Following Alexander's conquest, the Peshawar Valley came under the suzerainty of Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Empire. A locally made vase fragment that was found in Peshawar depicts a scene from Sophocles' play Antigone.
Mauryan Empire
Following the Seleucid–Mauryan war, the region was ceded to the Mauryan Empire in 303 BCE. Around 300 BCE, the Greek diplomat and historian Megasthenes noted that Puruṣapura was the western terminus of a Mauryan road that connected the city to the empire's capital at Pataliputra, near the city of Patna in the modern-day Indian state of Bihar.
As Mauryan power declined, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom based in modern Afghanistan declared its independence from the Seleucid Empire, and quickly seized the region around 190 BCE. The city was then captured by Gondophares, founder of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. Gondophares established the nearby Takht-i-Bahi monastery in 46 CE.
Kushan empire
In the first century CE, Puruṣapura came under control of Kujula Kadphises, founder of the Kushan Empire. It was made the empire's winter capital. The Kushan's summer capital at Kapisi (modern Bagram, Afghanistan) was seen as the secondary capital of the empire, while Puruṣapura was considered to be the empire's primary capital. Puruṣapura's population was estimated to be 120,000, which would make it the seventh-most populous city in the world at the time. As a devout Buddhist, the emperor built the grand Kanishka Mahavihara monastery. After his death, the magnificent Kanishka Stupa was built in Peshawar to house Buddhist relics. The golden age of Kushan empire in Peshawar ended in 232 CE with the death of the last great Kushan king, Vasudeva I.
Around 260 CE, the armies of the Sasanian emperor Shapur I launched an attack on Peshawar, and severely damaged Buddhist monuments and monasteries throughout the Valley of Peshawar. Shapur's campaign also resulted in damage to the city's monumental stupa and monastery. The Kushans became subordinate to the Sasanians and their power rapidly dwindled, as the Sasanians blocked lucrative trade routes westward out of the city.
Kushan emperor Kanishka III was able to temporarily reestablish control over the entire Valley of Peshawar after Shapur's invasion, but the city was then captured by the Central Asian Kidarite kingdom in the early 400s CE.
White Huns
The White Huns devastated ancient Peshawar in the 460s CE, and ravaged the entire region of Gandhara, destroying its numerous monasteries. The Kanishka stupa was rebuilt during the White Hun era with the construction of a tall wooden superstructure, built atop a stone base, and crowned with a 13-layer copper-gilded chatra. In the 400s CE, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian visited the structure and described it as "the highest of all the towers" in the "terrestrial world", which ancient travelers claimed was up to 560 ft (170 m) tall, though modern estimates suggest a height of 400 ft (120 m).
In 520 CE the Chinese monk Song Yun visited Gandhara and ancient Peshawar during the White Hun era, and noted that it was in conflict with nearby Kapisa. The Chinese monk and traveler Xuanzang visited ancient Peshawar around 630 CE, after Kapisa victory, and expressed lament that the city and its great Buddhist monuments had decayed to ruin — although some monks studying Theravada Buddhism continued to study at the monastery's ruins. Xuanzang estimated that only about 1,000 families continued in a small quarter among the ruins of the former grand capital.
Medieval history
Until the mid-seventh century, the residents of ancient Peshawar were ruled by Kabul Shahis, who were then displaced by the Hindu Shahis of Kabul. Islam is believed to have been first introduced to the Buddhist, Hindu and other indigenous inhabitants of Puruṣapura in the later seventh century.
Ghaznavid empire
In 986–87 CE, Peshawar's first encounter with Muslim armies occurred when Sabuktigin invaded the area and fought the Hindu Shahis under their king, Anandpal.
On 28 November 1001, Sabuktigin's son Mahmud Ghazni decisively defeated the army of Jayapala, at the Battle of Peshawar, and established rule of the Ghaznavid Empire in the Peshawar Valley. During the Ghaznavid era, Peshawar served as an important stop between the Afghan plateau, and the Ghaznavid garrison city of Lahore. During the 10th–12th century, Peshawar served as a headquarters for Hindu Nath Panthi Yogis, who in turn are believed to have extensively interacted with Muslim Sufi mystics.
As the first Pashtun tribe to settle in the region, the Dilazak tribe began settling in the Valley of Peshawar, and are believed to have settled regions up to the Indus River by the 11th century. The Arab historian and geographer al-Masudi noted that by the mid tenth century, the city had become known as Parashāwar.
Delhi sultanate
In 1179–80, Muhammad Ghori captured Peshawar, though the city was then destroyed in the early 1200s at the hands of the Mongols. Several other Pashtun tribe began settling rural regions around Peshawar in the late 15th and 16th centuries. The Ghoryakhel and Khashikhel tribes pushed the Dilazaks east of the Indus River following a battle in 1515 near the city of Mardan. Hindko continued to be the language of trade and business in the city.
Early modern history
Mughal Empire
In July 1526, emperor Babur captured Peshawar. During Babur's rule, the city was known as Begram, and he rebuilt the city's fort. Babur used the city as a base for expeditions to other nearby towns. Peshawar remained an important centre on trade routes between India and Central Asia during Mughal period. The Peshawar Valley was a cosmopolitan region in which goods, peoples, and ideas would pass along trade routes. Its importance as a trade centre is highlighted by the destruction of over one thousand camel-loads of merchandise following an accidental fire at Bala Hissar fort in 1586. Under the reign of Babur's son, Humayun, direct Mughal rule over the city was briefly challenged with the rise of the Pashtun king, Sher Shah Suri, who began construction of the famous Grand Trunk Road in the 16th century. Mughal rule in the area was tenuous, as Mughal suzerainty was only firmly exercised in the Peshawar Valley, while the neighbouring valley of Swat came under Mughal rule only during the reign of Akbar.
Peshawar was an important trading centre on the Grand Trunk Road. During Akbar's rule, the name of the city changed from Begram to Peshawar. In 1586, Pashtuns rose against Mughal rule during the Roshani Revolt under the leadership of Pir Roshan, founder of the egalitarian Roshani movement, who assembled Pashtun armies in an attempted rebellion against the Mughals. The Roshani followers laid siege to the city until 1587.
Peshawar was bestowed with its own set of Shalimar Gardens during the reign of Shah Jahan, which no longer exist. Emperor Aurangzeb's governor of Kabul, Mohabbat Khan used Peshawar as his winter capital during the 17th century, and built in the city its famous Mohabbat Khan Mosque in 1630.
Yusufzai tribes rose against Mughal rule during the Yusufzai Revolt of 1667, and engaged in pitched-battles with Mughal battalions nearby Attock. Afridi tribes resisted Mughal rule during the Afridi Revolt of the 1670s. The Afridis massacred a Mughal battalion in the nearby Khyber Pass in 1672 and shut the pass to lucrative trade routes. Mughal armies led by Emperor Aurangzeb himself regained control of the entire area in 1674.
Following the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, his son Bahadur Shah I, former governor of Peshawar and Kabul, became the new Mughal emperor. As Mughal power declined following the death of Aurangzeb, the empire's defenses were severely weakened.
On 18 November 1738, Peshawar was captured from the Mughal governor Nawab Nasir Khan by the Afsharid armies during the Persian invasion of the Mughal Empire under Nader Shah.
Durrani Empire
In 1747, Peshawar was taken by Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Afghan Durrani Empire. The city was captured in spring of 1758 by the Maratha Confederacy in alliance with the Sikhs. Before that, the fort of Peshawar was being guarded by Durrani troops under Timur Shah Durrani and Jahan Khan. When Raghunathrao, Malhar Rao Holkar and Sikh alliance of Charat Singh and Jassa Singh Ahluwalia left Peshawar, Tukoji Rao Holkar was appointed as the representative in this area.
In the following year Ahmad Shah again occupied the city. Under the reign of his son Timur Shah, the Mughal practice of using Kabul as a summer capital and Peshawar as a winter capital was reintroduced, with the practice maintained until the Sikh invasion. Peshawar's Bala Hissar Fort served as the residence of Afghan kings during their winter stay in Peshawar, and it was noted to be the main centre of trade between Bukhara and India by British explorer William Moorcroft during the late 1700s. Peshawar was at the centre of a productive agricultural region that provided much of north India's dried fruit.
Timur Shah's grandson, Mahmud Shah Durrani, became king, and quickly seized Peshawar from his half-brother, Shah Shuja Durrani. Shah Shujah was then himself proclaimed king in 1803, and recaptured Peshawar while Mahmud Shah was imprisoned at Bala Hissar fort until his eventual escape. In 1809, the British sent an emissary to the court of Shah Shujah in Peshawar, marking the first diplomatic meeting between the British and Afghans. His half-brother Mahmud Shah then allied himself with the Barakzai Pashtuns, and captured Peshawar once again and reigned until the Battle of Nowshera in March 1823.