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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 18, p. 36.

36 MULITN CITY control over Multan until Muhammad of Ghor overthrew there: The city fared but ill throughout these sectarian wars, and is said to have been deserted when the Gardezi Saiyids first migrated there in the twelfth century. From 12o6 to 1528 Multan was nominally subject to the kings of Delhi., though in fact it was almost independent. In 1397 Timfir occupied the city on his way to Delhi, and in 1528 it passed to Babar. Always the route chosen by the earlier invaders, whether going or returning, the province of Multan passed with its capital city from band to hand, with short space to recover from one devastation ere the next came upon it. Under the strong government of the early Mughal emperors, Multan at. last enjoyed zoo years of peace. The trade route from Hindustan to Persia passed through it, and Multan itself became a trading city. The later invaders chose the northern route, and Multan owed its immunity to the desert which had suddenly replaced the fertile lands of Sind. In 1752 the nominal allegiance of Multan was transferred from Delhi to Kabul. In 1.771 the Sikhs appeared before the gates, and the city was constantly threatened from that date until it was stormed by Ranjit Singh in 1818. In 1821 D4wan Sawan Mal became its governor, and a just, if absolute, autocracy replaced the confusion of the Pathan r4&, e. The first Sikh War did not affect Multan ; but the murder of two British officers here by Mulraj, son of Sdwan Mal, led to the second Sikh War, in which it was captured on January g, 1849. The fortifications were dismantled in 1854. In the Mutiny the garrison was quietly disarmed by orders of the Chief Commissioner. In consequence of a riot which broke out in September, 1881, between Hindus and Muhammadans the city was occupied by troops for ten days, and a punitive police post was imposed on the city for a year. Large and irregular suburbs have grown up outside the walls since the annexation in 1849. Within the city proper, one broad bazar, the Chauk, runs frQn1 the Husain Gate for a quarter of a mile into the centre of the city, ending at the Wali Muhammad Gate, from which three broad streets lead to the various gates of the city. The other streets are narrow and tortuous,, often ending in culs-de- sac. The principal buildings include the shrines of the Muham- ' madan saints, Baha-ud-din and Rukn-ul-alam (of the Arab tribe of Kuresh, to which' the Prophet belonged), which stand in the citadel. Close by are the remains of an ancient Hindu temple of the Nara- singh Avatar of Vishnu, called Pahladpuri, partially blown down by the explosion of the powder magazine during the siege of 1848'-9. The great temple of the Sun once occupied the very middle of the citadel, but was destroyed during the reign of the zealous Muham- madan emperor Aurangzeb, who erected a Jama Masjid or cathedral