[10][5] The boundaries of Sialkot are joined by Jammu in the north east, the districts of Narowal in the southeast, Gujranwala in the southwest and Gujrat in the northwest.

It was made capital of the Indo-Greek kingdom by Menander I in the 2nd century BCE — a time during which the city greatly prospered as a major center for trade and Buddhist thought.

[31][43] the text offers an early description of the city's cityscape and status as a prosperous trade centre with numerous green spaces.

[47] Around 460 CE, the Alchon Huns invaded the region from Central Asia,[48] forcing the ruling family of nearby Taxila to seek refuge in Sialkot.

[58] Ghaznavid expansion in northern Punjab encouraged local Khokhar tribes to stop paying tribute to the Rajas of Jammu.

[60][35] He also extensively repaired the Sialkot Fort around the time of his conquest of Punjab,[59] and left the region in charge of Hussain Churmali while he returned to Ghazni.

[61] Sialkot was then quickly laid siege to by Khokhar tribesmen,[62] and Khusrau Malik,[60] the last Ghaznavid sultan, though he was defeated during Ghauri's return to Punjab in 1186.

[63] Around 1223, Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the last king of the Khwarazmian dynasty of Central Asia that had fled invasion of Genghis Khan there, briefly captured Sialkot and Lahore,[64] before being driven out by Iltutmish's forces towards Uch Sharif.

[72] In 1525–1526, Alam Khan, uncle of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, invaded from Afghanistan, and was able to capture Sialkot with the aid of Mongol forces.

[74][75][76] After Abdul Hakim Sialkoti's death in 1656, his son Maulvī Abdullah became chief scholar of Sialkot, and his madrassa became a centre of learning.

He is said to have met Hamza Ghaus, a prominent Sufi mystic based in Sialkot, at a site now commemorated by the city's Gurdwara Beri Sahib.

During the Akbar era, Sialkot's pargana territory was placed in the jagir custodianship of Raja Man Singh, who would repair the city's fort, and sought to increase its population and develop its economy.

[80] Paper-makers from Kashmir migrated to the city during the Akbar period,[81] and Sialkot later became renowned as the source of the prized Mughal Hariri paper – known for its brilliant whiteness and strength.

[86] Under Aurangzeb's reign, Sialkot became known as a great centre of Islamic thought and scholarship,[87][88] and attracted scholars because of the widespread availability of paper in the city.

[89] Following the decline of the Mughal empire after the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, Sialkot and its outlying districts were left undefended and forced to defend itself.

[1] In the wake of the Persian invasion, Sialkot fell under the control of Pashtun powerful families from Multan and Afghanistan – the Kakayzais and Sherwanis.

[93] During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the two Bengal regiments based in Sialkot rebelled against the East India Company,[94] while their native servants also took up arms against the British.

[95] In 1877, the Sialkot native poet Allama Iqbal, who is credited for inspiring the Pakistan Movement, was born into a Kashmiri family that had converted to Islam from Hinduism in the early 1400s.

The city also became a centre for sports goods manufacturing for British troops stationed along with the North West Frontier due to the availability of nearby timber reserves.

[110] The couplet and religiopolitical slogan Pakistan ka matlab kya, La Illaha Il-Allah (Urdu: پاکستان کا مطلب کیا لاالہ الا اللہ — ; lit.

While Muslim refugees had poured into the city escaping riots elsewhere, Sialkot's Hindu and Sikh communities began fleeing in the opposite direction towards India.

[118] Hindu and Sikh refugees were unable to exit Pakistan towards Jammu on account of conflict in Kashmir, and were instead required to transit via Lahore.

[119] The city's economy rebounded, and Sialkot now forms part of the relatively industriazised region of northern Punjab that is sometimes referred to as the Golden Triangle.

[146] Clustering of sports goods industrial units has allowed for firms in Sialkot to become highly specialised, and to benefit from joint action and external economies.

[154] The industry is made up of a few hundred small and medium size enterprises, supported by thousands of subcontractors, suppliers, and those providing other ancillary services.

[119] Sialkot now produces a wide array of sporting goods, including footballs and hockey sticks, cricket gear, gloves that are used in international games comprising the Olympics and World Cups.

Sialkot's infrastructure was paid for by local taxes on industry,[119] and the city was one of the few in British Raj to have its own electric utility company.

[119] Modern Sialkot's business community has assumed responsibility for developing infrastructure when the civic administration is unable to deliver requested services.

[22] The city's Chamber of Commerce established the Sialkot Dry Port, the country's first dry-port in 1985 to reduce transit times by offering faster customs services.

[citation needed] In 1966, the Government of Pakistan awarded a special flag, the Hilal-i-istaqlal to Sialkot (also to Sargodha and Lahore) for showing severe resistance to the enemy during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 as these cities were targets of the Indian aggression.