Emirate of Multan

The Emirate of Multan became independent after Disintegration of Abbasid Caliphate. Principally located in Southern Punjab, it bordered Hindu Shahi Kingdom in northern Punjab and Habbarid Emirate at south in Sindh.

{{Further|Arab Sind|Anarchy at Samarra}}

Multan along with Sindh came under rule of Muslims by conquest of Umayyad Caliphate under General Muhammad Bin Qasim. Over the course of the mid-ninth century, Abbasid authority in Sind gradually waned. As the central government's authority over Sind declined, the region underwent a period of decentralization.Baloch and Rafiqi, p. 294 Multan also became capital of an independent emirate under an Arab tribe Banu Munabbih.

By the mid-800s, the Banu Munabbih (also known as the Banu Sama), who claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad's Quraysh tribe came to rule Multan, and established the Emirate, which ruled for the next century.{{cite book|last1=Rafiq|first1=A.Q.|last2=Baloch|first2=N.A.|title=THE REGIONS OF SIND, BALUCHISTAN, MULTAN AND KASHMIR: THE HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING|publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-103467-1|url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/silkroad/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_IVa%20silk%20road_the%20regions%20of%20sind,%20baluchistan,%20multan%20and%20kashmir.pdf}} At the opening of 10th century, Ibn Rusta was first to report a well established Emirate in Multan. Muhammad III, whose full name was Muhammad bin al-Qasim bin Munabbih, was reported by Al-Biruni to be the first of the Banu Munabbih (Samid) rulers of Multan - he conquered Multan and issued silver dammas bearing his Hindu epithet "Mihiradeva" ("Sun god") on the reverse.{{cite book|last1=Rafiq|first1=A.Q.|last2=Baloch|first2=N.A.|title=THE REGIONS OF SIND, BALUCHISTAN, MULTAN AND KASHMIR: THE HISTORICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING|publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-103467-1|url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/silkroad/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_IVa%20silk%20road_the%20regions%20of%20sind,%20baluchistan,%20multan%20and%20kashmir.pdf}}

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.{{cite book|last1=MacLean|first1=Derryl N.|title=Religion and Society in Arab Sind|date=1989|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004085510}} The Hindu temple was noted to have accrued the Muslim rulers large tax revenues,{{cite book|title=Divine Prostitution By Nagendra Kr Singh|year=1997|pages=44|isbn=9788170248217|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYEdPoGAaz0C&q=multan+sun+temple+huein+tsang&pg=PA44|last1=Singh|first1=Nagendra Kr}} by some accounts up to 30% of the state's revenues. During this time, the city's Arabic nickname was Faraj Bayt al-Dhahab, ("Frontier House of Gold"), reflecting the importance of the temple to the city's economy.{{cite book|last1=Flood|first1=Finbarr Barry|title=Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval "Hindu-Muslim" Encounter|date=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691125947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLNE_li8C10C&q=Multan+sun+temple+destroyed&pg=PA155}}

File:Abbasid Caliphate 850AD.png

By the mid 10th century, Multan had come under the influence of the Qarmatians. The Qarmatians had been expelled from Egypt and Iraq following their defeat at the hands of the Abbasids there. They wrested control of the city from the pro-Abbasid Amirate of Banu Munabbih,{{cite book|last1=Osimi|first1=Muhammad|title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia (vol. 4, part-1)|year=1992|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass, 1992|isbn=9788120815957|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lodSckjlNuMC&q=multan+sun+jalam+al-biruni&pg=PA297}} and pledged allegiance to the Fatimid Caliphate based in Cairo instead of Abbasid Caliphate at Baghdad.{{cite book |last1=Habib |first1=Irfan |title=Economic History of Medieval India, 1200–1500 |date=2011 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=9788131727911}}{{cite book|title=A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West ..., Volume 1 By H.A. Rose|year=1997|pages=489|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=9788185297682|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aw3hRAX_DgC&q=sun+temple+of+multan&pg=PA489}}

Jalam bin Shayban, a proselytizing Da'i that had been dispatched to the region by the Fatimid Caliph Imam al-Mu'izz,{{cite book|last1=Tajddin|first1=Mumtaz Ali|author-link1=ISMAILI RULE IN SIND AND HIND|title=Encyclopaedia of Ismailism|url=http://ismaili.net/heritage/node/10457|access-date=12 March 2017}} 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 – though his replacement was likely the result of doctrinal differences regarding succession in the Ismaili Imamate.from: Multan, 20 March 2017. It was during the later part of his rule,{{Efn|The Sun Temple is mentioned in al-Muqaddasi's chronicle of 985. We do not know about the date of Shayban's death but his successor Shaykh Hamid entered into a truce with Sabuktigin in 991. So, the temple must have been demolished sometime in-between.}} that the Multan Sun Temple was destroyed (alongside another long-established Sunni Jama Mosque) and a new mosque erected at the site.

{{main|Lodi dynasty of Multan}}

The Lodi/Lawi dynasty was founded by Sheikh Hamid, Hamid's origins are disputed. According to some scholars, Hamid was supposedly a descendant of Sama (or Usama) Lawi who was son of Ghalib Lawi.{{Cite book |last=MacLean |first=Derryl N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNn7EAAAQBAJ |title=Religion and Society in Arab Sind |date=2023-10-20 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-66929-1 |language=en|page=533}}{{Cite book |last1=Seyfeydinovich |first1=Asimov, Muhammad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=18eABeokpjEC |title=History of civilizations of Central Asia: The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century |last2=Edmund |first2=Bosworth, Clifford |last3=UNESCO |date=1998-12-31 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |isbn=978-92-3-103467-1 |language=en|pages=302–303}} Other sources state that he was from the Lodi tribe of Pashtuns.{{Cite web |title=Lōdīs |url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EIEO/COM-0584.xml |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=referenceworks |language=en|quote="The Lōdīs are related to a clan of the Ghilzay tribe of Afghanistān [see ghalzay] and ruled over parts of north India for 77 years. Afghāns came to the Indus plains from Rōh [q.v.] as early as 934/711-12 with the army of Muḥammad b. Ķāsim, the conqueror of Sind, and allied themselves politically with the Hindū-Shāhī [q.v.] rulers of Lahore, and receiving part of Lāmghān [see lāmghānāt ] for settlement, built a fort in the mountains of Peshawar to protect ¶ the Pandjāb from raids. During Alptigin's government at Ghazna, when his commander-in-chief Sebüktigin raided Lāmghān and Multān, the Afghans sought help from Rādjā Djaypāl who appointed their chief, Shaykh Ḥamīd Lōdī, viceroy of the wilāyats of Lamghān and Multān. Shaykh Ḥamīd appointed his own men as governors of those districts, and thereby the Afghāns gained political importance; their settlements stretched southwards from Lāmghān to Multān, incorporating the tracts of Bannū and Dērā Ismā‘īl Khān. Later, a family of the Lōdī tribe settled at Multān, which was ruled in 396/1005 by Abu 'l-Fatḥ Dāwūd, a grandson of Shaykh Ḥamīd.}}{{Cite book |last=Lal |first=Kishori Saran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFy5wY04HooC&q=Shaikh+Hamid+Lodi+Afghan |title=Studies in Asian History: Proceedings of the Asian History Congress, 1961 |date=1969 |publisher=[Published for the] Indian Council for Cultural Relations [by] Asia Publishing House |isbn=978-0-210-22748-0 |language=en|page=}}{{Cite book |last=Ahmad |first=Zulfiqar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SHgtAAAAMAAJ&q=Shaikh+Hamid+Lodi+Afghan |title=Notes on Punjab and Mughal India: Selections from Journal of the Punjab Historical Society |date=1988 |publisher=Sang-e-Meel Publications |language=en|page=533}} Al-Masudi who visited Multan after 912 AD states that the ruler Abu Lahab al-Munabbah bin Asad al-Qarshi was descended from the clan of Usama or Sama bin Lu'ayy bin Ghalib.{{cite book |author=Ahmad Nabi Khan |editor1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor2=Waheed-uz-Zaman |date=1974 |chapter=Multan During the Rule of the Arabs and the Ismailis |title=Proceedings of the First Congress of Pakistan History & Culture Held at the University of Islamabad, April 1973: Addresses and proceedings and papers |pages=280–282 |publisher=University of Islamabad Press}}{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B0zSeyK8afYC&pg=PA387 |author=Finbar Barry Flood |editor1=Rebecca M. Brown |editor2=Deborah S. Hutton |date=27 April 2011 |chapter=Conflict and Cosmopolitanism in "Arab" Sind |title=A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture |page=387 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4443-9632-4 |access-date=January 23, 2022}} Hudud al-'Alam mentions that the ruler was a Quraishite.{{cite journal |author=Samuel Miklos Stern |date=October 1949 |title=Ismā'ili Rule and Propaganda in Sīnd |journal=Islamic Culture |volume=23 |page=303 |publisher=Islamic Culture Board}} Ibn Hawqal who visited Multan in 367 AH also mentions that the rulers were the descendant of Sama bin Loi bin Ghalib.{{Cite book|title = Indo-Arab Relations: An English Rendering of Arab O' Hind Ke Ta'llugat|author=Syed Sulaiman Nadvi|publisher=Institute of Indo-Middle East Cultural Studies|year=1964|pages=167–168}} According to Samuel Miklos Stern, the Lodi dynasty itself might have been fabricated as its mention only starts appearing with later historians like Firishta.

During the reign of Sheikh Hamid, the Ghaznavid Amir Sabuktagin invaded Multan in 381/991 during his era, but later made a truce with Hamid Lodi, as Isma'ili Multan served as a buffer-state between the rising Turkish power of Ghazna and the old Hindu rulers-the Imperial Pratiharas of Kanauj.

{{South Asia in 1000|right|{{center|The Multan Emirate and main South Asian polities in 1000, on the eve of the Ghaznavid invasions of the subcontinent.{{cite book |last1=Chandra |first1=Satish |title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526) - Part One |date=2004 |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |isbn=978-81-241-1064-5 |pages=19–20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5eFzeyjBTQC&pg=PA19 |language=en|author-link=Satish Chandra (historian)}}{{cite book |last1=Schwartzberg |first1=Joseph E. |title=A Historical atlas of South Asia |date=1978 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |pages=32, 146|isbn=0226742210 |url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/reference/schwartzberg/pager.html?object=069}}}}|{{Annotation|67|55|41px}}}}

Abul Fateh Daud was the grandson and successor of Hamid Lodi.Jonah Blank. Mullahs on the mainframe: Islam and modernity among the Daudi Bohras. University of Chicago Press, 2001, Page 37 During his reign, Multan was attacked by the Ghaznavids, destabilizing the Ismaili state. Mahmud of Ghazna invaded Multan in 1005, conducting a series of campaigns during which some Ismailis were massacred while most later converted to Sunni Hanafi fiqh.Virani, Shafique N. The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, A Search for Salvation (New York: Oxford University Press), p. 100. The city was surrendered, and Abdul Fateh Daud was permitted to retain control over the city with the condition that he adhere to the Sunni interpretation of Islam.{{cite book|last1=Mehta|first1=Jaswant Lal|title=Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India, Volume 1|date=1980|publisher=Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd|isbn=9788120706170}} Mahmud appointed a Hindu-convert, Nawasa Khan, to rule the region in Mahmud's absentia. After being granted power, Niwasa Khan renounced Islam, and attempted to secure control of the region in collusion with Abdul Fateh Daud. Mahmud of Ghazni then led another expedition to Multan in 1007 C.E. against Niwasa Khan, who was then captured and forced to relinquish his personal fortune to Ghazni.

Fateh Daud was then deposed by Mahmud of Ghazni,Manzoor Ahmad Hanifi. A short history of Muslim rule in Indo-Pakistan. Ideal Library, 1964 page 21 in the course of his conquest of Multan.Farhad Daftary. Ismailis in Medieval Muslim Societies. Institute of Ismaili Studies, I B Taurius and Company. Page 68 He fled to a fort where he immured himself and was finally pardoned by Mahmud of Ghazni on the promise of payment of ransom.Samina Rahman. Pre Mughal India. Page 61 Abul Fatah Daud offered a yearly tribute of 200,000 golden dirhams and conversion from Shia Ismaili fiqh to Sunni Hanafi fiqh. The terms were accepted, and Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi also exacted two million dirhams from the population of Multan by force. After death of Fateh Daud, the Emirate was abolished and annexed into Ghaznavid Empire.Mahar Abdul Haq Sumra. Historical study of Sumra dynasty of Sindh and Punjab from 11th through mid 14th century.Beacon Books

File:Tomb of Shah Yousuf Gardezi Multan.jpg in Multan was built around same era]]

The economy of Multan at that time period seems to be rather vibrant. The 10th century Arab historian Al-Masudi noted Multan as the city where Central Asian caravans from Islamic Khorasan would assemble. The 10th century Persian geographer Estakhri noted that the city of Multan along with Sindh's Mansura were the only two Arab principalities in South Asia.

During reign of Jalam Bin Shayban, Multan continued to be a prosperous city, as witness by famous geographer and traveller Al-Muqadassi in 985;

{{cquote| "The people of Multan are Shi'a...... In Multan the Khutba is read in the name of the Fatimid Caliph of Egypt and the place is administered by his orders. Gifts are regularly sent from here to Egypt".

Multan is smaller than Mansurah in size. but has a large population. Fruits are not found in plenty.. yet they are sold cheaper.... like Siraf, Multan has wooden homes. There is no bad conduct and drunkenness here, and people convicted of these crimes are punished with death or by some heavy sentence. Business is fair and honest. Travellers are looked after well. . Most of the inhabitants are Arabs. They live by a river. The place in abounds vegetation and wealth. Trade flourishes here. Good manners and good living are noticed everywhere. The Government is just. Women of the town are modestly dressed with no make-up and hardly found talking to any one in the streets. The water is healthy and the standard of living high. There is happiness, well-being and culture here, Persian is understood. Profits of business are high. People are healthy, but the town is not clean. Houses are small. The climate is warm and arid. The people are of darkish complexion. In Multan, the coin is minted on the style of the Fatimid Egyptian coin, but the Qanhari coins are commonly used.{{citation |title=Ismaili state in Multan |date=2021 |type=Online}}.{{full citation needed|date=April 2021}}}}

• Sultanate of Multan
• History of Punjab

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{History of Sindh}}

Category:History of Multan

Category:Former emirates

Category:Dynasties of Pakistan

Category:Dynasties of India

Category:Former monarchies in Pakistani history

Category:Medieval Indian monarchies

Category:States and territories established in the 850s

Category:States and territories disestablished in 1010

Category:History of Punjab

Category:History of Sindh

Category:Ismailism in Pakistan