The route of Muhammad bin Qasim through Makran (711)

In the previous chapter we saw that under the Umayyads Makran had become a frontier province of the Muslims. Its governors were appointed from Iraq and were often killed there. In 92 AH / 711, the army that changed the history of Sindh passed through this frontier province. In this chapter we follow only that part of the army’s journey which crossed present-day Balochistan: from Shiraz through the valleys of Makran, Panjgur and Lasbela to Debal.

Two books, two voices

There are two basic sources for this journey. Al-Baladhuri’s "Futuh al-Buldan" sums up the conquest of Sindh in a few pages. The second source is the Persian "Chach Nama", which tells the longest story of the conquest. Writing in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Derryl N. MacLean says the Chach Nama is a Persian translation of an anonymous Arabic history. Ali bin Hamid Kufi prepared it after 613 AH / 1216 at the court of Nasir ad-Din Qabacha in northern Sindh. The Arabic original no longer exists. In his book "A Book of Conquest" (Harvard, 2016), the historian Manan Ahmed Asif argues that Ali Kufi wrote the book in Uch in 1226. He says it is neither a translation nor a "book of conquest", but a work of the political thought of its own time. In other words, the Chach Nama was written five hundred years after the events.

Background: the Alafis and Saeed bin Aslam

The previous chapter noted briefly that Hajjaj bin Yusuf made Saeed bin Aslam Kalabi governor of Makran. He was killed by the Alafi brothers, Muhammad and Muawiya bin Harith, who then seized the frontier. According to Baladhuri, Hajjaj next sent Mujaa bin Sir Tamimi to the frontier. Mujaa attacked the tribes around Kandabil. He stayed in Makran for a year and died there. Muhammad bin Harun bin Dhara Namari succeeded him as governor of Makran. So when the campaign of Muhammad bin Qasim was decided, an Arab governor was already in place in Makran.

The army: six thousand Syrians

Baladhuri writes that Hajjaj appointed Muhammad bin Qasim governor of the Sindh frontier. When the order came, he was in Fars, where he had earlier been ordered to go towards Rey. Hajjaj sent "six thousand Syrian soldiers" with him, along with some others. In the Chach Nama the figure appears in a letter. Hajjaj writes to the caliph asking that six thousand men from among the sons of the chiefs of Syria be assigned to Muhammad bin Qasim. The Chach Nama also says that, along with Hajjaj’s letters, six thousand horsemen, six thousand camel riders and three thousand baggage camels reached Shiraz. Both sources agree on the six thousand Syrians. The detail about the camels appears only in the Chach Nama.

From Shiraz to Makran

Both sources say the army assembled at Shiraz. According to Baladhuri, Hajjaj allowed Muhammad bin Qasim to stay at Shiraz until all the men had gathered and preparations were complete. According to the Chach Nama, he stayed there until all the detachments from Iraq and Syria had joined him. After this Baladhuri says only that Muhammad bin Qasim went to Makran and "stayed there for some time". According to Baladhuri, the governor of Makran, Muhammad bin Harun, joined him and went with him. The Chach Nama likewise says that Muhammad bin Qasim set out towards Armail, with Muhammad bin Harun accompanying him.

Qanzabur and Armail: Panjgur and Bela?

According to Baladhuri, Muhammad bin Qasim reached Qanzabur from Makran and took it. He then reached Armail and took that too. The identification of both names has been debated.

Qanzabur, which Arabic sources also write as Fanzabur, Banjbur and in other spellings, is generally identified with Panjgur. In his 1905 book "The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate", Guy Le Strange writes that the capital of Makran was Fanzabur or Banjbur, now called Panjgur. Citing the tenth-century geographer Muqaddasi, he says Banjbur had a mud fort surrounded by a ditch. Elliot and Dowson also identify the place with Panjgur. The same book counts the stages given by Arab geographers. From the port of Tiz to Kiz (Kech) is five stages, and from there to Fanzabur two stages. From Fanzabur to Debal is fourteen stages in all. According to Le Strange, the spelling Kanazbur or Kanajbur is merely a scribe’s error, caused by the dots on the first letter of Fanzabur being doubled.

Armail, which the Chach Nama calls Arman Bela, is generally identified with present-day Bela (Lasbela). Mirza Kalichbeg, the translator of the Chach Nama, gave the same opinion in a note. According to the Imperial Gazetteer of 1908, the old name of Bela was Armail or Armabel, and in the seventh century its ruler was a Buddhist priest. The article "Bela" in the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica says that after the Arabs arrived in Makran, Armil or Armabel emerged as a link in the chain of trading towns between Persia and Sindh. It adds that the ruins of Kanbali "may possibly" be recognised at Khairokot. These identifications rest on circumstantial evidence. The Lasbela Gazetteer of 1907 itself asks whether the ancient town stood on the site of present-day Bela or among the mounds of Khairokot. In Le Strange’s stages, Armabil is six stages from Kiz, Kanbali is two from Armabil, and Debal is four from Kanbali.

The sea route: Debal and "Arus"

This army did not travel by land alone. Baladhuri writes that when Muhammad bin Qasim reached Debal, men, weapons and siege engines were brought to him by ship. He set up the catapult named "Arus", meaning bride, which needed five hundred men to operate. The Chach Nama contains a letter from Hajjaj ordering Muhammad bin Qasim to halt near Debal until the boats arrived. So the heavy equipment came by sea and the army by land.

Writing in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Bosworth says, citing Baladhuri, that Makran was the "springboard" for Muhammad bin Qasim’s invasion of Sindh in 92 AH / 711. The Chach Nama gives the day the army reached the vicinity of Debal as "Friday, 10 Muharram". The English translation prints the year as 73, which is evidently an error for 93 AH. According to standard tables, 10 Muharram 93 AH falls in late October 711. According to the Chach Nama, Hajjaj gave the order to fight on the eighth day. Baladhuri also says that Muhammad bin Harun died near Armail while with Muhammad bin Qasim and was buried at "Kanbal". According to the Chach Nama, he died at the camp at Arman Bela and was buried there. The Lasbela Gazetteer of 1907 also writes that Muhammad bin Qasim passed through Bela and that Muhammad bin Harun is said to have died there.

What this route tells us about Makran

Three points emerge from this journey. First, in 711 Makran was an Arab province with a governor in place, where an army could stay "for some time" before moving on. According to Bosworth, the Persian geographical work "Hudud al-Alam" counts Makran as part of Sindh, with Tiz as its main port and Kech as the governor’s seat. Second, Qanzabur and Armail had to be "taken", which means the inner valleys of the province were outside central control. The Alafi revolt is proof of this. Third, according to Bosworth, medieval geographers describe Makran as a region of low population and few resources. Perhaps for this reason the heavy equipment went by sea. The 1911 Britannica article "Makran" says the Arabs held Makran even before they conquered Sindh and made the Kech valley their trade highway to India.

The rest of the campaign, Debal, the defeat of Raja Dahir and Multan, belongs to the history of Sindh. For Balochistan the real lesson of this story is the route: from Shiraz to Kech, from Kech to Panjgur and Bela, and from Bela to Debal. Arab geographers would walk it again and again in the following centuries.

Next Sunday: Qiqan, Qusdar and Turan through the eyes of Arab geographers, where we look at the map of Balochistan in tenth-century travel accounts.