 |
History
Isolated remains of Homo Erectus in has
been found
indicating that
Pakistan might have
been inhabited since
at least the Middle
Pleistocene era. The
precise date of
these remains is
unclear, and
archaeologists put
it anywhere between
200,000 to 500,000
BCE. The fossils are
the earliest human
remains found in
South Asia. The genetical
studies have shown
that more than 60%
of Pakistanis have
their Mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA) maternal
roots in South Asian
specific branches
of haplogroup
'M'. Because of its
great time depth and
virtual absence in
western Eurasians,
it has been suggested
that haplogroup M
was brought to Asia
after their evolution
in Africa, along the
southern route passing
through Arabia and
Iran, by the earliest
migration wave of
anatomically modern
humans, Homo Sapiens,
nearly 60,000 years
ago.
The original inhabitants of Pakistan
may have been the
tribals speaking
languages related
to Munda family
of languages. Pakistan
was the site of
the world's oldest
8,000 year old
civilization
at Mehrgarh
in the Balochistan
province. The Mehrgarh
declined about the
same time as the
Indus
Valley Civilization
only 200 Kilometers
south east was developing.
It has been surmised
that the Mehrgarh
residents moved
to fertile Indus
River valley as
Balochistan became
arid over time.
Sarhad was sparsely
populated by various
Elamo-Dravidian
and Indo-Iranian
tribes for centuries
following the decline
of the nearby Harappa
and Mohenjo
Daro of Indus
Valley
Civilization
to the east. Since
ancient times the
Sarhad region has
been invaded by
numerous groups
including the Aryans,
Persians, Greeks,
Scythians, Kushans,
Huns, Arabs, Turks,
Mongols, Mughals,
Sikhs, and the British.
It has been speculated
that early pre-Aryan
populations in the
Sarhad were an Elamo-Dravidian
group, but this
remains unproven.
Between 2000 and
1500 BCE Aryan invaders
split off into an
Iranian branch,
represented by the
Pakhtuns who dominated
most of the region,
and various Dardic
peoples which came
to populate much
of the north.
The Vale of Peshawar
was home to the Kingdom of Gandhara
starting around the 6th century
BCE and later ancient Peshawar
became a capital of the Kushan
Empire. The region was visited
by such notable historical figures
as Darius II, Alexander the
Great, Marco Polo, Mountstuart
Elphinstone, and Winston Churchill
among others.
The region was, in ancient times, a major
center of Buddhism
as attested by recent
archaeological and
hermeneutic evidence. The
Gandharan scrolls,
written on birch-bark
in the Ghandaran
language and the
Kharosthi script,
are the oldest surviving
Buddhist literature
, which has hitherto
been known to us
only from later
and modern Buddhist
canons. Gandhara
ha trade links with
Central Asia and
China along the
Silk Road. The area that Peshawar occupies was
then occupied by the Greco-Bactrian King
Eucratides (170 -159 BCE), and was
controlled by a series of Greco-Bactrian
rulers. It was later held for some time
by several Parthian kings, another group
of Iranians from Central Asia, the most
famous of whom, Gondophares, was still
ruling 46 BCE, and was briefly followed
by two or three of his descendants
before they were displaced by the first
of the "Great Kushans", Kujula Kadphises,
around the middle of the 1st century. Around 1500 BCE, or perhaps much
earlier, the group that now dominates
Peshawar began to arrive from the
Suleiman mountains to the south and
southwest, the Pakhtuns. It is debatable
as to whether or not the Pakhtuns
existed in the region even earlier as
evidence is difficult to attain. Some
writers such as Sir Olaf Caroe write
that a group that may have been the
Pakhtuns existed in the area and were
called the Paktye by Herodotus and the
Greeks, which would place the Pakhtuns
in the area of Peshawar much earlier
along with other Indo-Iranian tribes.
Regardless, over the centuries the
Pakhtuns would come to dominate the
region and Peshawar has emerged as an
important center of Pakhtun culture
along with Kandahar and Kabul as well as
Quetta in more recent times. Muslim Arab
and Turkic annexed the region
before the beginning of the 2nd
millennium. The Pakhtuns began to
convert to Islam after establishment of
Umayyad Arab rule from Khurasan,
in what is today western Afghanistan and
northeastern Iran. Buddhism remained prominent in the region
until the Muslim
Arabs and Turks
conquered the area
before the 2nd millennium
CE. Umayyad Muslim
Arab army led by
Muhammad bin Qasim
conquered annexed
the region and conversion
to Islam
was coupled with
the Pakhtun assimilation
of Arab culture
as well. Today,
many Pakhtun believe
that their origins
are Semitic and
not Iranian contrary
to linguistic and
historical evidence.
Over the centuries
local Pakhtun and
Dardic tribes were
converted to Islam,
while retaining
some local traditions
such as Pakhtunwali
or the Pakhtun code
of honor. The Sarhad
became part of larger
Islamic empires
including the Ghaznavid
Empire and the empire
of Muhammad
of Ghaur and
was nominally controlled
by the Delhi Sultanate
and Ilkhantate Empire
of the Mongols.
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 including
Peshawar region.
The Sarhad was an important borderland
that was often contested
by the Mughals
and Safavids of
Persia. During the
reign of the Mughal
emperor Aurangzeb,
the Sarhad required
formidable military
forces to control
and the emergence
of Pakhtun nationalism
through the voice
of local warrior
poet Khushal Khan
Khattak united some
of the tribes against
the various empires
around the region.
The area, as a predominantly
Pakhtun region,
merged following
a loya jirga with
the Durrani Empire
founded by Ahmad
Shah Durrani in
1747 and remained
mainly under Afghan
control until the
coming of the British.
The British
conquered
the area and named
is as North West
Frontier Province
(NWFP). At the time
of independence
in 1947 the people
of Sarhad
voted to join
Pakistan
in a referendum.
The Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA)
are historical parts
of Sarhad that are
administrated
separately.
The Federally Administered
Tribal Areas comprise
seven Agencies:
Khyber, Kurram,
Bajaur, Mohmand,
Orakzai, and North
and South Waziristan.
The main towns include
Miran Shah, Razmak,
Bajaur, and Wana.
Geography
The NWFP sits mainly on the Iranian plateau
and lies primarily
in Central Asia,
while parts of it
overlap onto South
Asia as well and
this has led to
considerable seismic
activity (see 2005
Kashmir earthquake)
in the province.
Sarhad province
borders Kashmir
in the north, Punjab
in the east, Balochistan
in the south and
Afghanistan in the
west. The famous
Khyber Pass links
the province to
Afghanistan, while
the Attock bridge
is a major crossing
point over the Indus
river in the east.
The province has
an area of 74,521
km² and its
districts include
Hazara Division,
home to the town
of Havelian, the
western starting
point of the Karakoram
Highway. The capital
and largest city
of the province
is Peshawar and
other main cities
include Nowshera,
Mardan, Mansehra,
Charsadda and Abbottabad.
The region varies
in topography from
dry rocky areas
in the south to
forests and green
plains in the north.
The climate can
be extreme with
intensely hot summers
to freezing cold
winters. Despite
these extremes in
weather, agriculture
remains important
and viable in the
area. The hilly
terrain of Swat,
Kalam, Naran and
Kaghan is renowned
for its beauty and
attracts a great
many tourists from
neighboring regions
and from around
the world. Swat-Kalam
is also termed 'a
piece of Switzerland'
as there are many
landscape similarities
between it and the
mountainous terrain
of Switzerland.
Demographics and Society
The Sarhad has an estimated population
of over 25 million
that does not include
more than 3 million
Afghan refugees
and their descendents
in the province.
The major language
spoken in the Sarhad
is Pashto, and most
of its residents
are Pakhtuns, especially
in the lowlands
and the southern
areas of the Sarhad.
The main local tribes
include the Marwat
Afridi, Orakzai,
Bangash, Khattak,
Mahsud, Mohmand,
Wazir, and Yusufzai
and many other smaller
tribes. Further
north, live other
tribes including
the Swatis, Tareens,
Jadoons and Mashwanis.
The mountainous
extreme northern
regions of the province
known as the Kohistan
District is also
home to diverse
ethnic groups and
languages, such
as Khowar, Hindko,
Kohistani, Shina,
Torwali, Kashmiri
and Kalami. In addition,
Afghan refugees,
although predominantly
Pakhtun (including
the Ghilzai and
Durrani tribes),
include hundreds
of thousands of
Persian-speaking
Tajiks and Hazaras
as well other smaller
groups found throughout
the province. Nearly
all of the inhabitants
of the Sarhad are
Muslim with a Sunni
majority and small
minority of Shia
and Ismaili.
Economy
Sarhad is on the way to economic recovery,
largely due to stable political
and law-and-order conditions.
Agriculture remains important
and the main cash crops include
wheat, maize, rice, sugar beets,
as well as various fruits are
grown in the province. Some
manufacturing and high tech
investments in Peshawar has
helped improve job prospects
for many locals, while trade
in the province involves nearly
every product known to man as
the bazaars in the province
are renowned throughout Pakistan.
Unemployment has been reduced
due to establishment of industrial
zones. Numerous workshops throughout
the province support the manufacture
of small arms and weapons of
various types. Trade with Afghanistan
remains important as well.
Districts
Abbotabad
Bannu
Battagram
Buner
Charsadda
Chitral
Dera Ismail Khan
Dir Bala
Dir Payan
Hangu
Haripur
Karak
Kohat
Kohistan
Lakki
Malakand
Mansehra
Mardan
Nowshehra
Peshawar
Shangla
Swabi
Swat
Tank
Agencies
Bajaur
Khyber
Kurram
Mohmand
North Waziristan
Orakzai
South Waziristan
Page last updated:
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 01:04:07 PM -0500 |
|
