Ancient era Sindh and surrounding areas contain the ruins of the
Indus Valley Civilization. There are remnants of ancient cities and structures, with a notable example in Sindh being that of
Mohenjo Daro. Built around 2500 BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus civilization, with features such as standardized bricks, street grids, and covered sewerage systems. It was one of the world's earliest major
cities, contemporaneous with the civilizations of
ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia,
Minoan Crete, and
Caral-Supe. Mohenjo-daro was abandoned in the 19th century BCE as the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the site was not rediscovered until the 1920s. Significant excavation has since been conducted at the site of the city, which was designated a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 1980. The site is currently threatened by erosion and improper restoration. A gradual
drying of the region during the 3rd millennium BC may have been the initial stimulus for its urbanisation. Eventually it also reduced the water supply enough to cause the civilisation's demise and to disperse its population to the east. During the
Bronze Age, the territory of Sindh was known as
Sindhu-Sauvīra, covering the lower
Indus Valley, with its southern border being the
Indian Ocean and its northern border being the
Pañjāb around
Multān. The capital of Sindhu-Sauvīra was named Roruka and Vītabhaya or Vītībhaya, and corresponds to the medieval
Arohṛ and the modern-day
Rohṛī. The
Achaemenids conquered the region and established the satrapy of
Hindush. The territory may have corresponded to the area covering the lower and central Indus basin (present day Sindh and the southern Punjab regions of Pakistan). Alternatively, some authors consider that
Hindush may have been located in the Punjab. These areas remained under Persian control until the
invasion by Alexander. Alexander conquered parts of Sindh after Punjab for few years and appointed his general
Peithon as governor. He constructed a harbour at the city of
Patala in Sindh.
Chandragupta Maurya fought Alexander's successor in the east,
Seleucus I Nicator, when the latter invaded. In a peace treaty, Seleucus ceded all territories west of the Indus River and offered a marriage, including a portion of
Bactria, while Chandragupta granted Seleucus 500 elephants. Following a century of Mauryan rule which ended by 180 BC, the region came under the
Indo-Greeks, followed by the
Indo Scythians, who ruled with their capital at
Minnagara. Later on,
Sasanian rulers from the reign of
Shapur I claimed control of the Sindh area in their inscriptions, known as
Hind. The local
Rai dynasty emerged in Sindh and reigned for a period of 144 years, concurrent with the
Huna invasions of North India.
Aror was noted to be the capital. The
Chach dynasty succeeded the Rai dynasty. Most of the information about its existence comes from the
Chach Nama, a historical account of the Chach-Brahmin dynasty. After the empire's fall in 712, though the empire had ended, its dynasty's members administered parts of Sindh under the Umayyad Caliphate's
Caliphal province of Sind.
Medieval era After the death of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad, the Arab expansion towards the east reached the Sindh region beyond
Persia. The connection between the Sindh and
Islam was established by the initial Muslim invasions during the
Rashidun Caliphate. The first clash with the Rai kings of Sindh took place in 636 (15 AH) under Caliph
Umar ibn al-Khattab with the governor of Bahrain,
Uthman ibn Abu-al-Aas, dispatching naval expeditions against
Thane,
Bharuch and
Debal.
Al-Baladhuri states they were victorious at Debal but does not mention the results of other two raids. However, the
Chach Nama states that the raiders of Debal were defeated and its governor killed the leader of the raids. These raids were thought to be triggered by a later pirate attack on Umayyad ships. Al-Baladhuri adds that this stopped any more incursions until the reign of
Uthman. Al-Hakim ibn Jabalah al-Abdi, who attacked
Makran in the year 649, was an early partisan of
Ali ibn Abu Talib. During the caliphate of Ali, many
Jats of Sindh (known in Arabic sources as
Zuṭṭ) had come under the influence of
Shi'ism with some even participating in the
Battle of Camel and died fighting for Ali. In 712,
Mohammed Bin Qasim defeated the Chach dynasty and annexed it to the Umayyad Caliphate. This marked the beginning of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. The
Habbari dynasty ruled much of Greater Sindh, as a semi-independent
emirate from 854 to 1024. Beginning with the rule of 'Umar bin Abdul Aziz al-Habbari in 854, the region became semi-independent from the
Abbasid Caliphate in 861, while continuing to nominally pledge allegiance to the Abbasid Caliph in
Baghdad. The Habbaris ruled Sindh until they were defeated by
Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi in 1026, who then went on to destroy the old Habbari capital of Mansura, and annex the region to the
Ghaznavid Empire, thereby ending Arab rule of Sindh. The
Soomra dynasty was a local Sindhi Muslim dynasty that ruled between early 11th century and the 14th century. Later chroniclers like
Ali ibn al-Athir (c. late 12th c.) and
Ibn Khaldun (c. late 14th c.) attributed the fall of Habbarids to Mahmud of Ghazni, lending credence to the argument of Hafif being the last Habbarid. The Soomras appear to have established themselves as a regional power in this power vacuum. The
Ghurids and Ghaznavids continued to rule parts of Sindh, across the eleventh and early twelfth century, alongside Soomras. The
Sammas overthrew the Soomras soon after 1335 and established the Sindh Sultanate. The last Soomra ruler took shelter with the governor of
Gujarat, under the protection of
Muhammad bin Tughluq, the sultan of Delhi. Mohammad bin Tughlaq made an expedition against Sindh in 1351 and died at Sondha, possibly in an attempt to restore the Soomras. With this, the Sammas became independent. The next sultan,
Firuz Shah Tughlaq attacked Sindh in 1365 and 1367, unsuccessfully, but with reinforcements from Delhi he later obtained Banbhiniyo's surrender. For a period the Sammas were therefore subject to Delhi again. Later, as the Sultanate of Delhi collapsed they became fully independent. Jam Unar was the founder of Samma dynasty mentioned by
Ibn Battuta. The Sammas have left a mark on Sindh with magnificent structures in Thatta. They were later overthrown by the Turko-Mongol
Arghuns in the late 15th century.
Modern era In the late 16th century, Sindh was brought into the
Mughal Empire by
Akbar, himself born in the
Sodha kingdom in
Umerkot in Sindh. In 1591–1593, Akbar sent an army to conquer lower Sindh from the
Tarkhan dynasty after defeating the last Tarkhan ruler, Mirza Jani Beg; Jani Beg and his son
Mirza Ghazi Beg. Mughal rule from their provincial capital of Thatta was to last in lower Sindh until the early 18th century, while upper Sindh was ruled by the indigenous
Kalhora dynasty holding power, consolidating their rule from their capital of
Khudabad, before shifting to
Hyderabad from 1768 onwards. The
Talpurs succeeded the Kalhoras and four branches of the dynasty were established. One ruled lower Sindh from the city of
Hyderabad, another ruled over upper Sindh from the city of
Khairpur, a third ruled around the eastern city of
Mirpur Khas, and a fourth was based in
Tando Muhammad Khan. They were ethnically
Baloch, and for most of their rule, they were subordinate to the
Durrani Empire and were forced to pay tribute to them. They ruled from 1783, until 1843, when they were in turn defeated by the
British at the
Battle of Miani and
Battle of Dubbo. The northern Khairpur branch of the Talpur dynasty, however, continued to maintain a degree of sovereignty during British rule as the
princely state of Khairpur, The British had two objectives in their rule of Sindh: the consolidation of British rule and the use of Sindh as a market for British products and a source of revenue and raw materials. With the appropriate infrastructure in place, the British hoped to utilise Sindh for its economic potential. The British incorporated Sindh, some years later after annexing it, into the
Bombay Presidency. Distance from the provincial capital, Bombay, led to grievances that Sindh was neglected in contrast to other parts of the Presidency. The merger of Sindh into Punjab province was considered from time to time but was turned down because of British disagreement and Sindhi opposition, both from Muslims and Hindus, to being annexed to Punjab. A number of Sindhi
pirs, descendants of Sufi saints who had proselytised in Sindh, joined the Khilafat Movement, which propagated the protection of the Ottoman Caliphate, and those pirs who did not join the movement found a decline in their following. The pirs generated huge support for the Khilafat cause in Sindh. Sindh came to be at the forefront of the Khilafat Movement. Although Sindh was less
sectarian than other parts of India, the province's Muslim elite and emerging Muslim middle class demanded separation of Sindh from Bombay Presidency as a safeguard for their own interests. In this campaign, local Sindhi Muslims identified 'Hindu' with Bombay instead of Sindh. Sindhi Hindus were seen as representing the interests of Bombay instead of the majority of Sindhi Muslims. Sindhi Hindus, for the most part, opposed the separation of Sindh from Bombay. both the Muslim landed elite,
waderas, and the Hindu commercial elements,
banias, collaborated in oppressing the predominantly Muslim peasantry of Sindh who were economically exploited. Sindhi Muslims eventually demanded the separation of Sindh from the Bombay Presidency, a move opposed by Sindhi Hindus. In Sindh's first provincial election after its separation from Bombay in 1936, economic interests were an essential factor of politics informed by religious and cultural issues. Due to British policies, much land in Sindh was transferred from Muslim to Hindu hands over the decades. Religious tensions rose in Sindh over the Sukkur Manzilgah issue where Muslims and Hindus disputed over an abandoned mosque in proximity to an area sacred to Hindus. The Sindh Muslim League exploited the issue and agitated for the return of the mosque to Muslims. Consequentially, a thousand members of the Muslim League were imprisoned. Eventually, due to panic the government restored the mosque to Muslims. Although the prominent Sindhi Muslim nationalist
G. M. Syed left the All India Muslim League in the mid-1940s and his relationship with Jinnah never improved, the overwhelming majority of Sindhi Muslims supported the creation of Pakistan, seeing in it their deliverance. The Muslim League's rise to becoming the party with the strongest support in Sindh was in large part linked to its winning over of the religious pir families. Although the Muslim League had previously fared poorly in the 1937 elections in Sindh, when local Sindhi Muslim parties won more seats, the Muslim League's cultivation of support from local pirs in 1946 helped it gain a foothold in the province, it didn't take long for the overwhelming majority of Sindhi Muslims to campaign for the creation of Pakistan.
Partition (1947) In 1947, violence did not constitute a major part of the Sindhi partition experience, unlike in Punjab. There were very few incidents of violence on Sindh, in part due to the Sufi-influenced culture of religious tolerance and in part that Sindh was not divided and was instead made part of Pakistan in its entirety. Sindhi Hindus who left generally did so out of a fear of persecution, rather than persecution itself, because of the arrival of Muslim refugees from India. Sindhi Hindus differentiated between the local Sindhi Muslims and the migrant Muslims from India. A large number of Sindhi Hindus travelled to India by sea, to the ports of Bombay, Porbandar, Veraval and Okha. == Demographics ==