As one goes through various writings on the history of Lahore, one name keeps popping up as a source, and that is the Hadood al Alam or Boundaries of the World, which is a 10th century geography book written in Persian by an unknown scholar from Guzgan in north Afghanistan.

Researchers seem to suggest that it could be Saya bin Farighun, but other names also appear. The Farighunid dynasty ruled Guzgan in the late 9th century, who in the early 11th century was defeated by Mahmud of the Ghazni Dynasty.

We know that Hadood al Alam had been known almost 200 years before Mahmud. As so many scholars had pointed out to this classic regarding a description of ancient Lahore, it made sense to study the original manuscript. It was interesting to note the Farighunid descended from the Iranian ruler Afridun-Faridun. The Afridis of Pakistani Waziristan claim direct descent from this ruler. Maybe, our own Shahid Afridi has a royal link somewhere. So, after managing to read the original English translation of the Hadood al Alam by the Russian scholar Vladmir Minorsky, it was amazing just how much this ‘unknown’ researcher knew about the world.

My own study of continental shifts seems to fit amazingly into what this over 1,200-year-old book speaks about. Just for the record the English version was printed in Urdu Bazaar Lahore in 1938. Before one moves on to mention of Lahore, and even Multan, two things need mentioning. Firstly, that the Hadood al Alam is primarily a geography book which describes the then ‘Islamic’ world, and that Lahore was then not Islamic in any sense. It has maps of mountains and rivers and landscape of lands from Turkey to the edges of Afghanistan. Secondly, and very wisely so, it details the goods traded from this area to other parts of the world. It mentions ports, products, languages, mountains and plains and a detailed host of products.

One just cannot still manage such detail in current times. So, the human aspect emerges amazingly accurately. The very name Lahore has been written as ‘Lahor’ with a mention of an earlier name ‘Lahurpura’. The city has been mentioned as ‘an ancient city with a busy river port’. It goes on to describe the terrain and then states that it was lucky to avoid the massacres of the first Arab invader Muhammad bin Qasim.

The Hadood’s description of Lahore, verbatim, is as follows: “Lahor the town has numerous districts, and its ruler reports to the Mir of Multan. The city has huge markets and a lot of idol temples. The entire city inhabitants are idolators and there is not a single Muslim. In this city there are a lot of ‘jalghuza’ trees (pinus gerardinna), as well as a lot of almond and coconut trees.” This is the description of Lahore as given in this classic.

However, in another section to dwells of the products that are traded and shipped by river boats from the ‘legendary port of Khawaja Khizr’ the patron saint of seafarers. This port is today known as Sheranwala Gate, for today neither the port, or the river remains outside the walled city, nor is the ancient name used. This is sad for in the Quran in ‘Surah Kahf’ we see Khawaja Khizr guiding the Prophet Moses. But among the hundreds of products mentioned the ones that flowed most from the port of Lahore to faraway places were almonds, coconuts, indigo, textiles, wines and, most interestingly, bows and arrows.

Let us analyse these products. We know that the famous Badami Bagh area to the north of the walled city was once a few centuries ago, the largest almond garden in the western part of the sub-continent. The first rulers to cut down these rare precious trees were the British who wanted to set up a ‘Parade Ground’. Then comes Lord Minto and who named it after himself when the East India Company handed over India to the British Government in London. After Pakistan was created it was renamed [Greater] Iqbal Park. So, the impressive almond gardens of Lahore were lost forever. The coconuts of Lahore were trees planted along the ancient GT Road, and when the Shalimar Gardens was made it planted coconut trees all around and along the nearby fields. Those do partly remain but not enough to describe as a sound business proposition. Then comes indigo, which was in its days a very important natural dye that was processed and exported from ancient times to faraway countries.

Inside Lahori Bazaar a ‘Neel Gali’ still exists which has many indigo, as well as chemical indigo, shops. In these columns we have dwelt on this product in detail. The most interesting item is wine exports. They were made from raisin. They come, still, in dark and pale-yellow colours. The main manufacturing plant was in today’s Landa Bazaar.

The British rulers of India in Ranjit Singh days loved this wine and termed it in their documents as ‘horse kick wine’. The bows and arrows exported from Lahore from ancient times have ceased to exist, for humans have developed much more lethal weapons. But they were manufactured initially in the northern markets, and after Akbar’s days – which is not relevant to this piece - in Mochi Gate.

The Hadood-al-Alam mentions in some detail how Muhammad bin Qasim, the Arab invader, ransacked Multan and stole from the main temple of Multan 13,200 maunds of pure gold. In today’s terms this comes to US$1.6 trillion. Suddenly because of this information the entire world saw the sub-continent as the richest in the world and easy to plunder. After this massive robbery Qasim also imposed a one-third tax on all offering to Hindu temples. If we read Al-Baladhuri’s book Futah-al-Buldan, we see Muhammad bin Qasim as hanging cow flesh around the neck of the main idol. It is better not to recall other things this ‘pious’ invader did. So, the history of Lahore has a special place in this famous Hadood-al-Alam. Mind you the city was important 1,200 years ago and was also very important 2,350 years ago when Alexander avoided it fearing a massacre. Our history books do not mention this, as well as ignores when the battle of Mahabharata took place on the banks of the River Ravi almost 3,500 years ago. Our school books ignore 700 years of Buddhist rule, not do they mention 1,000 years of Hinduism and Jainism. The river meanders and keeps flowing on. The walled city still exists, even though its walls have been stolen. Such is the flow of time.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2024