Clockwise from top:
Natural sphinx like rock formation near Makran Coastal Highway,Hanna Lake,
Mud volcano in
Hingol National Park, Urak Valley, Gawadar city, Quetta city
Balochistan (Urdu:
بلوچِستان), (Balochi, Pashto:بلوچِستان), is one of the four provinces of Pakistan.
It is the largest province by area, constituting approximately 44% of
Pakistan's total land mass, and the smallest in terms of population.
Balochistan is bordered by Afghanistan to the north and north-west, Iran to the south-west, the Arabian Sea to the south, Punjab and Sindh to the east, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas to the north-east. Quetta is the capital and largest city of Balochistan.
The main ethnic groups in the province are Baloch, Pashtuns and Brahuis, and there are relatively smaller communities of Iranians, Hazaras, Kurds, Sindhis and other settlers, including Punjabis, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Sikhs and Hindus. The name Balochistan means the "
land of the Baloch" in many regional languages.
History
Balochistan occupies the eastern portion of the Iranian Plateau, the site of the earliest known farming settlements in the pre-Indus Valley Civilization era, the earliest of which was Mehrgarh dated at 7000 BC. Balochistan was one of the first places Zoroaster travelled to from Bactria
in search of converts to his religion. Some of the first proselytes of
his religion lived here before Zoroastrianism spread into western
portions of the Iranian plateau.Makran and other parts of Balochistan used to be parts of Maurya, Kushan, Guptas, partly of empire of Harsha Vardhana and other dynasties of northern India before advent of Turk-Afghans.
Like other middle eastern ethnic groups, the Baloch claim Arabian extraction and assert that they are descended from Amir Hamza, a paternal uncle of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and from a fairy (Pari). They consistently place their first settlement in Aleppo, where they remained until they sided with the sons of Ali, took part in the Battle of Karbala and were expelled by Yazid, the second Umayyad Caliph, in 680 A.D. They went to Kerman, and eventually to Sistan where they were hospitably received by Shams-ud-Din, ruler of that country. According to Mansel Longworth Dames
there was a Shams-ud-Din, an independent Malik of Sistan, who died in
1164 A.D. (559 A.H.), almost 500 years after the Baloch migration from
Aleppo.
Shams-ud-Din claimed descent from the Saffarids of Persia
. His successor, Badr-ud-Din, appears to be unknown to history,
demanded a bride from each of the 44 bolaks or clans of the Baloch. But
the Baloch race had never yet been tribute in this form to any ruler,
and they sent 44 boys dressed in girls' clothes and fled before the
deception could be discovered. Badr-ud-Din sent the boys back but
pursued the Baloch, who had fled south-eastwards into Kech-Makran where
they defeated him. During this period Mir Jalal Khan,
son of Jiand, was the ruler of the Baloch. He left four sons, Rind,
Lashar, Hot, and Korai, and a daughter Jato, who married his nephew
Murad. These five are the eponymous founders of the five great divisions
of the tribe, the Rinds, Lasharis, Hooths, Korais, and Jatois.
However, another theory says that the Baloch have Iranian origins, all of whom populate portions of the Iranian plateau. They are considered to be an Iranic group that has absorbed some Dravidian genes and cultural traits, primarily from Brahui people.The northern point of Balochistan known in Pashto as Dzaranga was known as Drangiana to the Greeks and came to be known to the Persians as Saka. The Persian epic of Shahnama does record the Baloch in the Qazvin-Zanjan region of old Iran in the 6th century AD, when they were engaged in battle by the Persian king Chosroes I Anoshirvan, The Shahnama also records its heroes, Rustom and Sohrab, as being Saka
and not Persians, making Sistan or the old Sakistan their origin. With
time, Baloch tribes linguistically absorbed all the local people in Makran, southern Sistan and the Brahui country, becoming a sizeable group to rival in size the other Iranic group in the region .
In the 7th century, the region was divided into two parts; the south was part of the Kermn Province of the Persian Empire and the north became part of the Persian province Sistan. In early 644, the Islamic Caliph Umar sent Suhail ibn Adi from Busra to conquer the Kerman region of Iran. He was then made governor of that region. From Kerman, he conquered the western Balochistan region, near the Persian frontiers.In the same year, south-western Balochistan was conquered during the campaign in Sistan. In 652 during the reign of Caliph Uthman,
Balochistan was reconquered during the counter-revolt in Kerman under
the command of Majasha Ibn Masood. This was the first time western
Balochistan was directly controlled by the Caliphate and paid taxes on agriculture.Western Balochistan was included in the dominion of Kerman. In 654,
Abdulrehman ibn Samrah, governor of Sistan, sent an Islamic army to
crush a revolt in Zaranj, which is now in southern Afghanistan. After conquering Zaranj, a column of the army pushed north, conquering Kabul and Ghazni, in the Hindu Kush mountain range, while another column moved through Quetta District in north-western Balochistan and conquered the area up to the ancient cities of Dawar and Qandabil (Bolan).By 654, the whole of what is now Balochistan was controlled by the Rashidun Caliphate, except for the well-defended mountain town of QaiQan which is now Kalat. However, this town was later conquered during the reign of Caliph Ali.Abdulrehman ibn Samrah made Zaranj his provincial capital and remained
governor of these conquered areas from 654 to 656, until Uthman was
murdered.
During the Caliphate of Ali, a region of Balochistan, Makran again
revolted. Due to civil war in the Rashidun Caliphate, Ali was unable to
deal with these areas until 660, when he sent a large force, under the
command of Haris ibn Marah Abdi, towards Makran and Sind. Haris ibn
Marah Abdi arrived in Makran and conquered it by force, and then moved
northward to north-eastern Balochistan and reconquered
Qandabil (Bolan). Finally, he moved south and conquered Kalat after a fierce battle.
In 663, during the reign of Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I,
Muslims lost control of north-eastern Balochistan and Kalat when Haris
ibn Marah and large part of his army died in battle against a revolt in
Kalat.
Muslim forces later regained control of the area during the Umayyad reign. It also remained a part of the Abbasid Caliphate.
In the 15th century, Mir Chakar Khan Rind became the first king of Balochistan, after which the region was dominated by the Timurids, who controlled Persia and Afghanistan. The Mughal Empire also controlled some parts of the area. When Nadir Shah won the allegiance of the rulers of Balochistan, he ceded Kalhora, one of the Sindh territories of Sibi-Kachi to the Khan of Kalat.
Ahmad Shah Durrani,
successor of Nadir Shah and founder of the Afghan Empire, also won the
allegiance of that area's rulers. Most of the area would eventually
revert to local Baloch control.
