Place · archaeological city · Pakistan
Aror / Brahmanabad
The pair of historic urban sites of Aror (ancient capital of Sindh under Brahman dynasty 632-712 CE) and Brahmanabad (ancient Sassanid-period city, destroyed by 1226 earthquake) in Sindh province, Pakistan — key documents of pre-Islamic Sindhi urban civilisation. Aror (modern Rohri near Sukkur) was the capital of Raja Dahir, defeated by Muhammad bin Qasim's Arab army in 711-712 CE at the Battle of Aror, which opened the Islamic conquest of Sindh. Brahmanabad (modern Mansura, 55 km east of Hyderabad Sindh) was the Umayyad-Abbasid capital of Islamic Sindh from the 8th century until the 1226 earthquake destroyed it. The archaeological survey of Brahmanabad by Henry Cousens (1898-1903) and recent Pakistani excavations have documented its grid plan and brick architecture — widening the Indus corridor beyond the Mughal and Harappan narratives.
- Function
- Archaeology & heritage
- Tradition
- Sindh archaeology and historical geography
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.670, 68.900
Connections (1)
- Route adjacencyBarbarikon / Banbhore
Aror, Brahmanabad and the Indus-mouth port at Banbhore are the three points of the Sindh corridor, on a river that has since moved away from all of them. Sea cargo landed at the delta and went upriver to these towns and on to Multan and the Punjab; the Arab conquest of 711 followed the same line in reverse, from the coast inland.
On these journeys
- Overland corridors
- The north-west — Gandhara, the Indus and the Hindu Kush
- Sindh — the Indus and its saints
Sources
Wikipedia, “Aror”. K.N. Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean; the Cairo Geniza India Book (Goitein and Friedman).
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