History of Multan

Multan in Punjab province of Pakistan is one of the oldest cities in South Asia, though its exact age has yet to be determined.

Quotes

• Al-Multan was named ‘Frontier-place of the House of Gold’ (Farj Bayt al-Dhahab), because Muhammad b. al-Qasim, the lieutenant of Hajjaj b. Yusuf, had obtained forty bhar of gold from a house there. One bhar is equal to three hundred and thirty-three mann. It was for this reason that the town was named ‘Frontier-place of the House of Gold’. [The word] al-farj is synonymous with al-thaghr [frontier]. The quantity of the gold obtained was 2,37,600 mithqal…From al-Sind costus, qana and al-khayzuran (bamboos) are imported.
  • Ibn Khurdadhbih in S. Maqbul Ahmad, pp., 3-4 • Ahmad, Maqbul, Indo-Arab Relations. An Account of India’s Relations with the Arab World from Ancient up to Modern times, Popular Prakashan, 1969 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 4

• The reason why Multan is designated “the boundary of the house of gold” is, that the Muhammadans, though poor at the time they conquered the place, enriched themselves by the gold which they found in it.
  • Ibn Haukal in Elliot and Dowson, vol. I, p., 36 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 4

• It is situated in the third of the seven climates…It has been mentioned in Masalik ul-Absar on the authority of some works that the villages of Multan are 126,000.
  • Subh-ul-A’sha in Zaki, pp., 64-65 • Zaki, M., Arab Accounts of India (during the fourteenth century), Idarah-I Adabiyat- I Delli, 1981 quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume II Chapter 4

• Multan has been identified as the capital of the Malli people, who offered a stiff challenge to Alexander during his invasion of 326-325 ace. It was known by several names, Kasyapapura, Hansapura, Sambapura, Prahladpura, and Adyasthana, all invocations to Vishnu or Surya. Tradition held that Multan was founded by Kasyapa, father of the twelve Adityas (or Sun gods) by Aditi; and of the Daityas (or Titans) by Diti. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Hiranya-kasipu (the Daitya), who refused to accept the omnipresence of Vishnu. Vishnu manifested himself in his Narasimha avatar at Multan during the reign of Hiranya-kasipu, whose son Prahalad was his ardent devotee. Hiranya-kasipu’s great-grandson, Banasur was an adversary of Krishna. ... The ancient belief in the origins of Multan validated its importance at the dawn of Indian history.
  • Jain, M. (2019). Flight of deities and rebirth of temples: Espisodes from Indian history.

• Muhammad bin Qasim massacred the men capable of bearing arms, but the children were taken captive, as well as the Purohits of the temple, to the number of six thousand. The Musulmans found there much gold in a chamber ten cubits long by eight broad, and there was an aperture above, through which the gold was poured into the chamber. Hence they call Multan ‘the Frontier of the House of Gold,’ for farj means ‘a frontier.’ The Budd (temple) of Multan received rich presents and offerings, and to it the people of Sind resorted as a place of pilgrimage. They circumambulated it, and shaved their heads and beards. They conceived that the image was that of the prophet Job—God’s peace be on him!43
  • Chachnama, in The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, Vol. 1, 123 quoted in Balakrishna, S. Invaders and infidels: From Sindh to Delhi : the 500- year journey of Islamic invasions. New Delhi : BloomsBury, 2021.

• He then crossed the Biyas, and went towards Multan... Muhammad destroyed the water-course; upon which the inhabitants, oppressed with thirst, surrendered at discretion. He massacred the men capable of bearing arms, but the children were taken captive, as well as the ministers of the temple, to the number of six thousand. The Muslamans found there much gold in a chamber ten cubits long by eight broad, and there was an aperture above, through which the gold was poured into the chamber.
  • Muhammad bin Qãsim (AD 712-715) In Multan (Punjab). Futuhu’l-Buldan by Al-Baladhuri. cited in Elliot and Dowson, Vol. I : Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. p. 122-123

• On reaching Mooltan, Mahomed Kasim also subdued that province; and himself occupying the city, he erected mosques on the site of the Hindoo temples.
  • Tarikh-i-Firishta, translated into English by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, 4 Volumes, New Delhi Reprint, 1981. p. 234-238 , in Hindu Temples, what Happened to Them, Volume 2

Multan during the Partition of India

• The temples and Gurdwaras in the city were looted and desecrated Many of them were burnt down The old Dharamsala of Bawa Sant Das, the Shivala in Serat Wan Wattan, the Jain temple outside Delhi Gate, the shrine of Baba Safra, Kultarianwalt Dharamsala, the local Gaushala, were all reduced to ashes The temple of Jog Maya and the Ram Tirath Temple were desecrated, the idols were smashed and thrown out The devotees living on the premises were slaughtered The Devpura Temple and Devta Khu were similarly attacked and the inmates done to death
  • Khosla G. D. (1989). Stern reckoning : a survey of the events leading up to and following the partition of india. Oxford University Press. 105ff

Gurbachan Singh Talib

Gurbachan Singh Talib in Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab 1947, 1950, Amritsar: Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee [1] [2] [3]

• In Multan attacks of a most destructive nature began on the 5th March, the day on which the Muslim League had decided to unleash its offensive in the Punjab. In violence, speed and the extent of destruction wrought this Multan campaign was in no way less than its Rawalpindi parallel. In both areas Hindus and Sikhs were in a small minority, and the Muslim population very inflammable. In Multan city itself the attack came on the 5th March. A procession of Hindu and Sikh students which was taken out to demonstrate against the formation of a communal Muslim League ministry in the Punjab, was suddenly and brutally attacked by a Muslim mob, with the help of the Police. Many of the students who were in this procession were killed. Then this mob fell upon Hindu and Sikh quarters of the town. A modest estimate places the number of Hindu and Sikhs killed on the first day at 300 and those injured at 500. The Muslim mob was led by a Sayad or Muslim holy man, reputedly a descendant of the Prophet of Islam, on a white charger, ‘inspiring’ the ‘faithful’ with the destruction of ‘Kafirs’. The police were watching all this and moved not their little finger to stop what could be stopped with firm action in a short space of time. So virulent had been the Muslim League propaganda, and such the fury into which the League had whipped the Muslim temper, that the mob did not even spare Hindu and Sikh patients in the T.-B. Hospital. Whole families were done to death, and on the least suspicion of being a non-Muslim a man was killed. Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, President of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee, was on that fateful night a guest in the house of Seth Kalyan Das of Multan. Dr. Kitchlew’s host and his entire family were butchered and the Doctor escaped death only on his proving to his assailants’ satisfaction that he was a Muslim. Hindu shops were looted and burned on a large scale. More than a dozen Sikh and Hindu holy places were also burned and desecrated: Eight factories belonging to Hindus were looted and destroyed by fire. Hindu and Sikh quarters were burned to cinders.(91)

• All this was done in village after village after the Muslims had given assurances of safety on the Koran to Hindus. Hindu women were molested and abducted. Altogether 50 villages in this tehsil were looted with arson, murder and abduction of women. Ears, noses and breasts of women were cut off, and they were raped in the presence of their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons. Such Hindus as approached Muslims with messages of peace were brutally and cynically murdered by these League gangs. Forcible conversions of Hindus occurred on a large scale. It is estimated that Hindus were wiped out in this district over an area of about 500 square miles. (91-92)

• The Muslim League leaders pursued a path contrary to the spirit in which an appeal like the Gandhi-Jinnah appeal should have been followed up. They continued to visit troubled areas like Amritsar for further incitement and for giving directions for new attacks. They continued with a pose of hypocritical innocence, to denounce imaginary Hindu-Sikh atrocities against Muslims. A full-hearted condemnation of the Rawalpindi Carnage or the Multan destruction never came from the Muslim League. (112)
  • Talib, S. G. S. (1950). Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus inthe Punjab, 1947. Amritsar: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. [4] [5] [6] [7]

• Multan District. All Hindu and Sikh places of worship in this District have been damaged, burned or desecrated.
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