History of Multan
Armies led by Al Muhallab ibn Abi Suffrah launched numerous raids from Persia into India in 664 for inclusion of the area into their empires.
When the Karmatians occupied Multan, Jalam Ibn Shaiban, the usurper, broke the idol into pieces and killed its priests.
[17] During this era, the Multan Sun Temple was noted by the 10th century Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi to have been located in a most populous part of the city.
[14] The 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi noted Multan as the city where Central Asian caravans from Islamic Khorasan would assemble.
Arabic was spoken in both cities,[14] though the inhabitants of Multan were reported by Estakhri to also have been speakers of Persian,[19] reflecting the importance of trade with Khorasan.
[19] The 10th century Hudud al-'Alam notes that Multan's rulers also controlled Lahore,[19] though that city was then lost to the Hindu Shahi Empire.
Qarmatians zealots had famously sacked Mecca,[21] and outraged the Muslim world with their theft and ransom of the Kaaba's Black Stone, and desecration of the Zamzam Well with corpses during the Hajj season of 930 CE.
[22] They wrested control of the city from the pro-Abbasid Amirate of Banu Munabbih,[23] and established the Emirate of Multan, thereby ruling large parts of Punjab and Kashmir including within its limits modern day capital of Pakistan Islamabad, and pledged allegiance to the Fatimid Dynasty based in Cairo.
[19][15][24] Jalam bin Shayban, a proselytizing Da'i that had been dispatched to the region by the Fatimid Caliph Imam al-Mu'izz,[25] was dispatched to replace the city's previous Da'i who had been accused of promoting a syncretic version of Islam that incorporated Hindu rites[14] – though his replacement was likely the result of doctrinal differences regarding succession in the Ismaili Imamate.
After being granted power, Niwasa Khan renounced Islam, and attempted to secure control of the region in collusion with Abdul Fateh Daud.
[28] In an effort to gain his allegiance, the Fatimid Ismaili Imam-caliph al-Hakim dispatched an envoy to Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi two years later.
This attempt appeared to be unsuccessful and the Ghaznawids continued to attack other Ismaili strongholds in Sindh to suppress any resurgence of the community in the region.
In 1032, Mahmud's very own vizier, Hasanak was executed for having accepted a cloak from the Imam-caliph on suspicions that he had become an adherent of the Ismaili fiqh.
[31] After Sultan Muhammad Ghori's victories in India, and his establishment of a capital in Delhi, Multan was made a part of his empire.
[32] Following Qabacha's death that same year, the Turkic king Iltutmish, the third Sultan of the Mamluk dynasty, captured and then annexed Multan in an expedition.
[33] Alauddin Khalji of Delhi dispatched his brother Ulugh Khan in 1296 to conquer Multan in order to eliminate surviving family members of his predecessor.
The countryside around Multan was recorded to have been devastated by excessively high taxes imposed during the reign of Ghiyath's son, Muhammad Tughluq.
[19] Multan had also been noted to be a centre for slave-trade, though slavery was banned in the late 1300s by Muhammad Tughluq's son, Firuz Shah Tughlaq.
[17] Multan experienced prosperity during this time, and a large number of Baloch settlers arrived in the city at the invitation of Shah Husayn.
[17] Multan's Langah Sultanate came to an end in 1525 when the city was invaded by rulers of the Arghun dynasty,[17] who were either ethnic Mongols,[40] or of Turkic or Turco-Mongol extraction.
[41] In 1541, the Pashtun king Sher Shah Suri captured Multan, and successfully defended the city from the advances of the Mughal Emperor Humayun.
[42] In 1543, Sher Shah Suri expelled Baloch dynasty, who under the command of Fateh Khan Mirrani had overrun the city.
[44] It rose as an important trading and mercantile centre in the setting of political stability offered by the Delhi Sultanate, the Lodis, and Mughals.
[19] Multan had also been noted to be a centre for slave-trade, though slavery was banned in the late 1300s by Muhammad Tughluq's son, Firuz Shah Tughlaq.
[44] Multan would remain an important trading centre until the city was ravaged by repeated invasions in the 18th and 19th centuries in the post-Mughal era.
Afterwards it was ruled from Kabul by numerous Afghan dynasties for a while, including Ahmed Shah Durrani, who, in 1750, appointed a Hindu Subahdar Malik Banwari Lal to administer Multan (and later nearby Shujabaad and Pak Pattan areas).
After repeated invasions following the collapse of the Mughal Empire, Multan was reduced from being one of the world's most important early-modern commercial centres, to a regional trading city.
However, attempts to take the Multan fort failed and they retreated after collecting several million rupees loot from the ruler Shuja Khan Saddozai.
Sikh armies under General Hari Singh Nalwa defeated the ruler of Multan, Muzaffar Khan Saddozai.
During this time, Sardar Karan Narain's son became an icon during the British Raj and was awarded titles 'Rai Bahadur' and Knighted 'Sir' by Her Majesty.
