, the city of Purushapura (which became Peshawar), was established near the
Gandharan capital city of
Pushkalavati Ancient history Foundation Peshawar was established as the city of
Puruṣapura, on the Gandhara Plains in the broad
Valley of Peshawar, after the 100 CE. It may have been named after a Hindu raja, who ruled the city, who was known as Purush. near the ancient Gandharan capital city of Pushkalavati, near present-day
Charsadda.
Greek invasion In the winter of 327–26 BCE,
Alexander the Great subdued the Valley of Peshawar during his
invasion of the Indus Valley, as well as the nearby
Swat and
Buner valleys. Following Alexander's conquest, the Valley of Peshawar came under the suzerainty of
Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the
Seleucid Empire. A locally made vase fragment that was found in Peshawar depicts a scene from
Sophocles' play
Antigone.
Mauryan empire monastery was established in 46 CE, and was once a major centre of Buddhist learning. Following the
Seleucid–Mauryan war, the region was ceded to the
Mauryan Empire in 303 BCE. As Mauryan power declined, the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom based in modern Afghanistan declared its independence from the Seleucid Empire, and quickly seized the region around 190 BCE. It was made the empire's winter capital. was seen as the secondary capital of the empire, Ancient Peshawar's population was estimated to be 120,000, which would make it the seventh-most populous city in the world at the time. After his death, the magnificent
Kanishka stupa was built in Peshawar to house Buddhist relics. The golden age of Kushan empire in Peshawar ended in 232 CE with the death of the last great Kushan king,
Vasudeva I. Around 260 CE, the armies of the
Sasanid Emperor
Shapur I launched an attack against Peshawar, and severely damaged Buddhist monuments and monasteries throughout the Valley of Peshawar. as the Sasanids blocked lucrative trade routes westward out of the city.
White Huns The
White Huns devastated ancient Peshawar in the 460s CE, and ravaged the entire region of Gandhara, destroying its numerous monasteries. The Kanishka stupa was rebuilt during the White Hun era with the construction of a tall wooden superstructure, built atop a stone base, The Chinese monk and traveler
Xuanzang visited ancient Peshawar around 630 CE, after
Kapisa victory, and expressed lament that the city and its great Buddhist monuments had decayed to ruin—although some monks studying
Theravada Buddhism continued to study at the monastery's ruins. Xuanzang estimated that only about 1,000 families continued in a small quarter among the ruins of the former grand capital. and established rule of the
Ghaznavid Empire in the Peshawar region. During the Ghaznavid era, Peshawar served as an important stop between the Afghan plateau, and the Ghaznavid garrison city of
Lahore. and are believed to have settled regions up to the
Indus River by the 11th century. The Arab historian and geographer
al-Masudi noted that by the mid tenth century, the city had become known as
Parashāwar.
Delhi sultanate In 1179–80,
Muhammad Ghori captured Peshawar, though the city was then destroyed in the early 1200s at the hands of the
Mongols. The Ghoryakhel and Khashi
Khel tribe pushed the Dilazak Pashtun tribes east of the Indus River following a battle in 1515 near the city of
Mardan. During Babur's rule, the city was known as
Begram, and he rebuilt the city's fort. Babur used the city as a base for expeditions to other nearby towns. Peshawar remained an important centre on trade routes between India and Central Asia during
Mughal period. The Peshawar region was a cosmopolitan region in which goods, peoples, and ideas would pass along trade routes. Under the reign of Babur's son,
Humayun, direct Mughal rule over the city was briefly challenged with the rise of the Pashtun king,
Sher Shah Suri, who began construction of the famous
Grand Trunk Road in the 16th century. Mughal rule in the area was tenuous, as Mughal suzerainty was only firmly exercised in the Peshawar valley, while the neighbouring valley of Swat was under Mughal rule only during the reign of
Akbar. Peshawar was an important trading centre on the Grand Trunk Road. founder of the egalitarian
Roshani movement, who assembled Pashtun armies in an attempted rebellion against the Mughals. The Roshani followers laid siege to the city until 1587. which no longer exist. Emperor
Aurangzeb's governor of Kabul, Mohabbat Khan used Peshawar as his winter capital during the 17th century, and bestowed the city with its famous
Mohabbat Khan Mosque in 1630. Mughal armies led by Emperor Aurangzeb himself regained control of the entire area in 1674. On 18 November 1738, Peshawar was captured from the Mughal governor Nawab Nasir Khan by the
Afsharid armies during the
Persian invasion of the Mughal Empire under
Nader Shah.
Durrani Empire fort was once the royal residence of the Durrani Afghan kings. In 1747, Peshawar was taken by
Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Afghan
Durrani Empire. The city was captured in spring of 1758 by the
Maratha Confederacy in alliance with the
Sikhs. Before that, the fort of Peshawar was being guarded by Durrani troops under
Timur Shah Durrani and Jahan Khan. When
Raghunathrao,
Malhar Rao Holkar and Sikh alliance of
Charat Singh and
Jassa Singh Ahluwalia left Peshawar,
Tukoji Rao Holkar was appointed as the representative in this area ofgain the sub-continent. In the following year Ahmad Shah agin occupied the city. Under the reign of his son
Timur Shah, the Mughal practice of using Kabul as a summer capital and Peshawar as a winter capital was reintroduced, with the practice maintained until the
Sikh invasion. Peshawar's
Bala Hissar Fort served as the residence of Afghan kings during their winter stay in Peshawar, and it was noted to be the main centre of trade between
Bukhara and India by British explorer
William Moorcroft during the late 1700s. Peshawar was at the centre of a productive agricultural region that provided much of north India's dried fruit. Following the Sikh victory against
Azim Khan at the Nowshera in March 1823, Ranjit Singh captured Peshawar again and reinstated Yar Mohammed as the governor. The Sikh Empire formally
annexed Peshawar in 1834 following advances from the armies of
Hari Singh Nalwa Sikh settlers from Punjab were settled in the city during Sikh rule. The city's only remaining
Gurdwaras were built by
Hari Singh Nalwa to accommodate the newly settled Sikhs. The Sikhs also rebuilt the Bala Hissar fort during their occupation of the city.
British Raj was built in an
Indo-Saracenic Revival style. merchants in a Central Asian architectural style, the
Sethi Mohallah features several homes dating from the British era. Following the defeat of the Sikhs in the
First Anglo-Sikh War in 1845–46 and the
Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, some of their territories were captured by the British
East India Company. The British re-established stability in the wake of ruinous Sikh rule. The British laid out the vast
Peshawar Cantonment to the west of the city in 1868, and made the city its frontier headquarters. Additionally, several projects were initiated in Peshawar, including linkage of the city by railway to the rest of British India and renovation of the Mohabbat Khan mosque that had been desecrated by the Sikhs. the
North-West Frontier Province was separated from Punjab Province in 1901, after which Peshawar became capital of the new province. A month prior, in February 1910, prominent community religious leaders met with officials and agreed that Holi would be solely celebrated in predominantly Hindu neighbourhoods of the city, notably in Andar Shehr and Karim Pura. On 21 March 1910, however, rumors of
musicians from
Amritsar and a dancing boy from
Haripur being brought into the city for Holi celebrations, led to a group of individuals who were marking Barawafat into forming a mob with the intention of stopping the
procession. Despite Muslim and Hindu
community leaders calling for calm, both parties ultimately clashed at the Asamai Gate, when the Holi procession was
en route to
Dargah Pir Ratan Nath Jee, with a Hindu procession member stabbing a Muslim individual in the mob.
Riots ensued for the following three days, involved individuals from outlying
tribal regions who had entered the city, with a mob at Bara Bazar allegedly chanting "
Maro Hindu Ko" (Kill the Hindus). Estimates detail the riots resulted in a total of 451 damaged shops and homes, primarily belonging to members of the Hindu community, while at least 4 Muslims and 6 Hindus were killed, alongside hundreds of injuries. Peshawar was also home to a non-violent resistance movement led by
Ghaffar Khan, a disciple of
Mahatma Gandhi. In April 1930, Khan, leading a large group of his followers, protested in Qissa Khwani Bazaar against discriminatory laws that had been enacted by the colonial government; hundreds were killed when a detachment of the
British Indian Army opened fire on the demonstrators.
Modern era In 1947, Peshawar became part of the newly created state of Pakistan, and emerged as a cultural centre in the country's northwest. The
partition of India saw the departure of many Hindko-speaking Hindus and Sikhs who held key positions in the economy of Peshawar, weakening the historical presence of Hindko language in the city. The
University of Peshawar was established in the city in 1950, and augmented by the amalgamation of nearby British-era institutions into the university. Until the mid-1950s, Peshawar was enclosed within a city wall and sixteen gates. In the 1960s, Peshawar was a base for a
CIA operation to spy on the
Soviet Union, with the
1960 U-2 incident resulting in an aircraft shot down by the Soviets that flew from Peshawar. From the 1960s until the late 1970s, Peshawar was a major stop on the famous
Hippie trail. During the
Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s, Peshawar served as a political centre for the
CIA and the
Inter-Services Intelligence-trained
mujahideen groups based in the camps of
Afghan refugees. It also served as the primary destination for large numbers of Afghan refugees. By 1980, 100,000 refugees a month were entering the province, with 25% of all refugees living in Peshawar district in 1981. Like much of northwest Pakistan, Peshawar has been severely affected by violence from the attacks by the terrorist group,
Tehrik-i-Taliban. Local poets'
shrines have been targeted by the
Pakistani Taliban, a
suicide bomb attack targeted the historic
All Saints Church in 2013, and most notably the
2014 Peshawar school massacre in which Taliban militants killed 132 school children. Peshawar suffered 111 acts of
terror in 2010, == Geography ==