Re: Cities of Pakistan And Their Titles
It is true that pre-Islamic history of Lahore is little known, and it is an area of historical research which is vastly ignored. Although the famous 10th century Persian geography book *Hadud ul Alam *written in 990 AD makes a notable mention of Lahore as a town of temples with virtually no Muslim population. But is it under the Mahmud Ghaznavi’s occupation of 1021-23 AD that Lahore starts to gain importance. Mahmud Ghaznavi built a great fort there, completely turned around the local culture, and the City quickly assumed it’s reputation as centre of *ghazis, *as most Ghaznavid troops and volunteers were stationed there. Thus, Lahore became became the second Capital of Ghaznavid Empire.
In many ways, you can say that pre-Islamic Lahore really had no identity of its own, but after the Ghaznavid invasion, Lahore became a significant outpost for invaders from outside and rulers from Delhi. Invaders from Western Frontier used Lahore as a major encampment spot to gather and feed their forces, while Delhi used Lahore as a forward post, a border town to protect the Indian Empire from falling. It’s been said that during the period of Ghaznavid and Ghurid invasions, most capable generals were appointed as governors of Lahore, as survival of Indian Empire depended on ability of Lahore to hold the invaders back (how true it is still today in regards to India? lol).
Even the extremely brief history of invasions mentioned above instantly explains why Lahore was famously known as the ‘grand resort of people of all nations’, and this saying is as true and valid today as it was thousands of years ago.
Lahore was there even in 600 AD, as some traveller mentioned in his book that its a big Brahman city however it was not that important like Peshawar, Swat, Taxila, Sialkot and Multan etc