Vedic mythology refers to an ancient settlement called Pushkalavati in the area, after Pushkal, perhaps in the present-day Charsadda district adjacent to Peshawar. In recorded history, the earliest major city established in the general area of Peshawar was called Puruṣapura (Sanskrit for City of Men), from which the current name "Peshawar" is likely derived. The area that Peshawar occupies was then seized by the Greco-Bactrian king, Eucratides (170 – 159 BC), and was controlled by a series of Greco-Bactrian, and later, Indo-Greek
kings, who ruled an empire that geographically spanned from the area of
present-day Afghanistan to North India. Later, the city was ruled by
several Parthian and Indo-Parthian kings, another group of Iranian peoples germane to the region, the most famous of whom, Gondophares,
ruled the city and its environs, starting in circa 46 AD; the period of
rule by Gondophares was briefly followed by two or three of his
descendants, before they were displaced by the first of the "Great
Kushans", Kujula Kadphises, around the middle of the 1st century AD.
According to the historian, Tertius Chandler, Peshawar consisted of a
population of 120,000 in the year 100 AD, making it a major city and
the seventh-most populous city in the world at the time.
Gandharan Peshawar (c. 127–1001)
The city was then conquered by the Kushans, a Central Asian tribe of Tocharian origin. The Kushan King Kanishka, who ruled from 127 AD, moved the capital from Pushkalavati (present-day Charsadda district, in the Peshawar Valley) to Gandhara (Peshawar city) in the 2nd century AD.[11] Buddhist missionaries arrived at Vedic, and animist Peshawar, seeking counsel with the Kushan rulers. Their teachings were embraced by the Kushans, who converted to Buddhism,
assigning the religion with great status in the city. Following this
move by the Kushans, Peshawar became a center of Buddhist learning.
The giant Kanishka stupa
at Peshawar, which may have been the tallest building in the world at
the time, was built by King Kanishka to house Buddhist relics just
outside the present-day Ganj Gate of the old city of Peshawar. The
Kanishka stupa was said to be an imposing structure, as one traveled
down from the Hindu Kush mountains onto the Gandharan plains. The earliest account of the famous building was documented by Faxian, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, who was also a monk, who visited the structure in 400 AD and described it as being over 40 chang in height (approximately 120 metres (390 ft)) and adorned "with all precious substances". Faxian continued: "Of all the stûpas and temples seen by the travelers, none can compare with this for beauty of form and strength. The stupa was eventually destroyed by lightning, but was repaired several times; it was still in existence at the time of Xuanzang's visit in 634 AD. A jeweled casket containing relics of the Gautama Buddha,
and an inscription identifying Kanishka as the donor, existed at the
ruined base of this giant stupa — the casket was excavated, by a team
supervised by Dr D.B. Spooner in 1909, from a chamber under the very
centre of the stupa's base.
Muslim conquest
The Buddhist and Zoroastrian Pashtuns began converting to Islam following the early annexation by the Arab Empire from Khurasan (in what is Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and northeastern Iran).[13] In 1001, Peshawar was made part of the Muslim world with the conquest of Peshawar by the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud of Ghazni. The Ghaznavids further expanded their empire from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into the Punjab region.| “ | Sebuktagin's death occurred in 997 AD and he was succeeded as governor of Khorasan by his son, Mahmud; Mahmud subsequently ceased dependence upon the Samani princes and assumed the title of Sultan in 999 AD.[citation needed] | ” |
During the early reign of this celebrated invader, major battles
again occurred on the plains of Peshawar, and Mahmud was opposed by the Hindu Shahi King Jayapala;
it was a constant endeavour of King Jayapala to recover the country
that had been wrested from him by Sebuktagin. The King was aided by some
Pashtuns (also known as Afghans), whose allegiance to the [Muslim
governor of Peshawar did not continue in the long-term.
The Jayapala-initiated battle occurred during the month of November and the king, himself, was taken prisoner — upon his release, Jayapala resigned the crown to his son, Anandpal.
On this occasion, Mahmud punished the Pathans, who had sided with the
enemy, and, as they had converted entirely to Islam, the Pathans
remained loyal to their new allegiance.[14]
Pashtun and Mughal rule (1451–1818)
Peshawar was a northwestern regional center of the Pashtun Lodi Empire which was founded by Bahlul Lodi in 1451 and centered at Delhi. Peshawar was also incorporated into the Mughal domains by the mid of 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.
The Pashtun emperor Sher Shah Suri, who founded the Sur Empire
centered at Delhi, turned Peshawar's renaissance into a boom when he
ran his Delhi-to-Kabul Shahi Road as a northwestern extension of the Grand Trunk Road through the Khyber Pass and Peshawar in the 16th century. Later Babur's grandson, Akbar the Great, recorded the name of the city as Peshawa, meaning "The Place at the Frontier" or "Near Water"[citation needed] 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. Khushal 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.
Durrani Peshawar (1747–1818)
As Mughal power declined in 1747, following a loya jirga, Peshawar would join the Pashtun Durrani Empire of Ahmad Shah Durrani.[15] Peshawar was attacked and briefly held by the Maratha Empire of western India, which conquered Peshawar on 8 May 1758. A large force of Pashtuns under Ahmad Shah Durrani then re-conquered Peshawar in early 1759.[16] Peshawar remained under Afghan rule till the conquest by the Sikhs in 1818.
In 1776, Ahmad Shah's son, Timur Shah Durrani, chose Peshawar as his winter capital and the Bala Hissar 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 of the Punjab region rose to power in the early nineteenth century.
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