History of Pashtuns

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Map of Peshawar ‘Through the Ages’.

The index references the different areas of the city as they were established and developed under different ruling entities:
Pre Muslim Era
Muslim Era
Sikh Era
British Era
Pakistan Era

Source: Ahmad Hassan Dani’s “Peshawar -

 

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"About sixty miles from Islamabad, I found myself on a bridge, on the Grand Trunk Road to Peshawar.

Downstream was the Attock Fort...Upstream was a confluence of two great rivers: the Kabul, which had travelled some two hundred and fifty miles from its source, in the mountains west of the Afghan capital; and the Indus, one of the legendary rivers of Asia, which begins high in the Tibetan Himalayas.

The two rivers grudgingly accommodated each other. The Kabul was a sludgy burnt-sugar colour, the Indus a brilliant blue-green, like a child's painting of a mountain stream.

Below the confluence, the two colours remained clearly visible, one river with two distinct streams, as though geography as well as history wished to make a point about this place and the boundary that it marks—between the land of the Pashtun and the Punjab, the heartland of Pakistan."

(Isabel Hilton - The Pashtun Code - Newyorker Dec 2001).

 

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Humayun Akund ; The Peshoris ; history The 16 Gates

Rampura Gate, Reti, Kachehri, Asamai, Kabuli, Bajouri, Dabgari, Ramdas, Beriskian, Sard Chah, Sirki, Kohati, Yakka Thoot, Ganj, Lahori, Hashtnagri

According to historians, Sikhs captured Peshawar in 1818 before ruling it until 1849. The old city wall was built during the reign of Sikh Governor General Avitabile, who was basically an Italian mercenary and remained in office from 1838 to 1842. It was made of mud, which was later replaced with bricks by Britishers after they took over the city in 1849.

The original wall ran around the old city and had 16 gates. Two of them exist in original form, Sir Asia Gate and Thund Khui Gate (Sard Chah Gate), while others have been rebuilt on the government orders. !!!!!

 

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Afghan nomads in the Khyber Pass, 1939 (c).

Picture Courtesy:- Tarikh-i-Pakhtunkhwa