History of Peshawar

ghal domains by the 16th century. The founder of the Mughul dynasty that would conquer South Asia, Babur, who hailed from the area that is currently Uzbekistan, arrived in Peshawar and founded a city called Bagram, where he rebuilt a fort in 1530 AD. His grandson, Akbar, formally named the city Peshawa, meaning "The Place at the Frontier" in Persian, and expanded the bazaars and fortifications. The Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis flocked from the rest of the Muslim world to the Islamic Sultanate in South Asia, with many settling in the Peshawar region. Thus, the Mughals turned Peshawar into a "City of Flowers", by planting trees and laying out gardens similar to those found to the west of Iran.

Khushal Khan Khattak, the Pashtun/Afghan warrior poet, was born near Peshawar, and his life was intimately tied to the city. As an advocate for Afghan independence, he was an implacable foe of the Mughal rulers, especially Aurangzeb. After the decline of the Mughal Empire, the city came under Persian control by the 18th century, during the reign of Nadir Shah.

In 1747, following a loya jirga, Peshawar would join the Afghan Durrani Empire of Ahmad Shah Durrani. In 1776, Ahmad Shah's son, Timur Shah Durrani, chose Peshawar as his winter capital and the Bala Hisar Fort in Peshawar was used as the residence of Afghan kings. Pashtuns from Peshawar participated in the incursions of South Asia during the Durrani Empire. Peshawar remained the winter capital until the Sikhs rose to power in the early nineteenth century.

Peshawar was briefly captured by the Maratha Empire of India, which conquered the city in the Battle of Peshawar on 8 May 1758. A large force of Durrani Afghans then re-conquered Peshawar in 1759.

n 1812, Peshawar was controlled by Afghanistan, but was contested by the Sikh Empire of