Sehwan City, The Historical Place

 

The historic city Sehwan located on west bank of Indus River and east of Manchar Lake is Taluka of District Jamshoro. The city is famous for shrine of most important Sufi Usman Marvandi @ Lal Shahbaz Qalandar who lived there in the 13th century.

The city amongst important spiritual centers, alongwith other shrines such as Shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi, the lustrous tombs of the Suhrawardi Sufis in Multan, Data Darbar Complex in Lahore and Bari Imam in Noorpur Shehan near Islamabad.

Sehwan is amongst most ancient place in Sindh. Some historians say that this town is established during the period of Prophet Shees (son of Adam). Therefore, it was named as Sheestan, later Sewistan and then renamed to Sehwan. Author Syed Muhibullah has written in "A brief history of Sind", that Sehwan was name of the great grandson of Ham (son of Noh AS). However, there are various other views about nomenclature of Sehwan. William Dalrymple states that the name of this city is derived from Shivistan after Lord Shiva.

This place saw amalgamation of Hinduism and Islam. Historian Molai Sheedai has written in his book "Tarikh-e-Tamadan e Sind" that Sehwan was established the Sewi Aryas and hence was called Sewistan. Another view is that its original name was Sindomana, which is well known in Greek literature. Sindhu-mán is Sanskrit word that means "the possessor (the owner, or Raja) of Sindh, with which Sindhu-vàn is synonymous, the letter might have been softened in common language to the modern Seh-wan. Sindomana was capital of King Sambos, which was defeated by Alexander during 326 BC.

Sehwan was conquered by Muhammad bin Qasim during 711 from son of King Dahir, and three centuries later by Mahmud of Ghazni during 1026. The city was held under governance of Soomrahs, Summas, Arghuns and Tarkhans. The town was capital of Thatta Kingdom, when Mughal Emperor Humayun attempted to capture it on his way to Umarkot during 1542, but it finally fell to his son Akbar during 1590s. After the Mughals, the city remained under control of Kalhoras and Talpurs.

Hundreds of thousands zaireen visit shrine of Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in a year. Shrine of Sufi Saint Murshid Nadir Ali Shah, a well known spiritual descendant of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar is also located in Sehwan, where large numbers of peoples are served free meals round the clock. Another famous place I,e Manchar Lake, the largest freshwater lake of Asia is also located at a short distance from Sehwan city.

On 16th of February 2017, a suicide bomber exploded him at Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, which resulted into assassination of at least 83 people and almost 250 people got injured. The attack occurred during a praying session. The incident was later claimed by terrorist organization ISIS stating that their 'martyr' had exploded himself being a popular place due to Shia gathering at the shrine.

Sehwan city is near to Indus River and Manchar Lake therefore, there is always threat for floods in monsoon seasons. Indus National Highway (N-55) Railway line (connecting with Kotri and Dadu city) also cross near Sehwan city.

Previously Sehwan Taluka was under District Dadu, however it was merged with District Jamshoro on its establishment during 2004. As per census of 2017, population of Taluka Sehwan is 269,291 having 61.3% living in urban areas.