Sind
Sindh is a province of Pakistan, located in the southeastern region of the country. It is the third-largest Pakistani province by land area and second-largest by population. It is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the south and borders the provinces of Balochistan to the west and Punjab to the north; in addition to sharing an international border with the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan to the east. Karachi, located along the southern coast, is the capital and largest city. Sindh's landscape consisting mostly of alluvial plains flanking the Indus River, the Thar Desert in the eastern portion of the province along the international border with India, and the Kirthar Mountains in the western portion of the province.
The first settled life in South Asia emerged around Sindh and Punjab 9,000 years ago along the Indus river basin, which gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation. The Aryans migrated from Central Asia after 2000 BCE as the Indus Valley Civilisation gradually declined. Around 1000 BCE, the Indo-Aryan kingdom of Sindhu-Sauvīra emerged in Sindh which lasted until 518 BCE when the Achaemenids captured the region, followed by the Macedons, the Mauryans, the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Scythians, the Guptas, and finally the Sasanians in the 3rd century CE. Sindh emerged as an independent kingdom under the Rai dynasty in the 5th century, which was succeeded by the Chach dynasty in the 7th century. The Muslims conquered Sindh in 712 CE under the Umayyad Caliphate — beginning centuries-long Muslim rule — and established it as a caliphal province.
The Habbari Emirate emerged in the 9th century which nominally pledged allegiance to the Abbasid Caliphate. Between the 11th and the 16th centuries, the Soomra, Samma, and Arghun dynasties ruled Sindh respectively — mostly under the vassalage of the Delhi Sultanate. The Mughal Empire captured Sindh in the late 16th century, and directly ruled it until 1701, when the Kalhora dynasty became the local rulers under Mughal suzerainty, and later Afsharid and Durrani suzerainty. The rule of the Talpur dynasty began in 1783 and lasted until 1846 when the East India Company captured Sindh, with the dynasty continuing its rule in Khairpur under British suzerainty. Initially a division in the Bombay Presidency, Sindh emerged as a separate province in 1936 under the Muslim League's demands raised by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Following the passing of the Lahore Resolution in 1940, Sindh became the first province to officially endorse the Pakistan Movement, and became part of the Dominion of Pakistan upon Pakistani independence in 1947. It was amalgamated into West Pakistan in 1955 until being restored with the inclusion of its historic territories (Khairpur and Karachi) in 1970.
The economy of Sindh is the second-largest in Pakistan; its provincial capital Karachi is the most-populous city in the country as well as its main financial hub. Sindh is home to a large portion of Pakistan's industrial sector and contains two of the country's busiest commercial seaports: Port Qasim and the Port of Karachi. The remainder of Sindh consists of an agriculture-based economy and produces fruits, consumer items and vegetables for other parts of the country.
Sindh is sometimes referred to as the Bab-ul Islam (transl. 'Gateway of Islam'), as it was one of the first regions of the Indian subcontinent to fall under Islamic rule. The province is well known for its distinct culture, which is strongly influenced by Sufism, an important marker of Sindhi identity for both Hindus and Muslims. Sindh is prominent for its history during the Bronze Age under the Indus Valley civilization, and is home to two UNESCO-designated World Heritage Sites: the Makli Necropolis and Mohenjo-daro.
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