Early Uch Sharif may have been founded in 325 BCE by
Alexander the Great as the city of
Alexandria on the Indus (Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ ἐν Ἰνδῷ), according to British officer and archaeologist
Alexander Cunningham. and was located at the confluence of the
Acesines river with the
Indus. and the confluence of the two rivers has shifted approximately 40 km (25 miles) southwest.
Medieval In 712 CE,
Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Uch. Few details exist of the city in the centuries prior to his invasion. Uch was probably the town recorded as
Bhatia that was conquered in 1006 by
Mahmud of Ghazni. and today the town and surrounding region are littered with numerous tombs of prominent
pīrs, The region around Uch and
Multan remained centre of Hindu
Vaishnavite and
Surya pilgrimage throughout the medieval era.
Muhammad of Ghor conquered Uch and nearby Sultan in 1176 while it was still under the influence of the Ismaili
Qarmatians. The town was likely captured from the
Soomras based in Sindh. Sindh's various dynasties had for centuries attempted to keep Uch and Multan under their sway.
Mamluk era Soomra power was eroded by the advance of Nasir ad-Din Qabacha of what would later become the
Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. Qabacha was declared Governor of Uch in 1204, he also controlled Multan and Sindh regions. Under his rule, Uch became the principal city of Upper Sindh. Following the collapse of Qabacha's sultanate at the hands of Mongols and Khwarazmians, and the degradation of Lahore from years of conflict there, Muslim power in north India shifted away from Punjab and towards the safer environs of Delhi. Following the 1305 invasion, Uch came under the governorship of Ghazi Malik the governor of Multan and Depalpur, who would later seize Delhi and come to be known as
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the
Tughlaq dynasty of the
Delhi Sultanate. allowing
Khizr Khan to regain control of the area, before joining with the forces of the elder Tamerlane to sack Delhi and establish the
Sayyid dynasty in 1414.
Langah sultanate Uch Sharif then came under the control of the
Langah Sultanate in the early 15th century, founded in nearby
Multan by Budhan Khan, who assumed the title Mahmud Shah. Following the death of Shah Husayn, Uch's Samma rulers quickly allied themselves with
Baloch chieftain
Mir Chakar Rind.
Mughal Guru Nanak, the founder of
Sikhism, is believed to have visited Uch Sharif in the early 1500s, and left behind 5 relics, after meeting with the descendants of Jalaludin Bukhari. In 1525 Uch was invaded by rulers of the
Arghun dynasty of northern Sindh, before falling to the forces of
Pashtun king
Sher Shah Suri in 1540.
Mughal Emperor
Humayun entered Uch in late 1540, but was not welcomed by the city's inhabitants, and was defeated by the forces of Sher Shah Suri. The city reverted to Arghun rule following the expulsion of Humayun, and the fall of Sher Shah Suri's short-lived empire. It was assessed at 1,910,140
dams in revenue and supplied a force of 100 cavalry and 400 infantry. In 1751, Uch was attacked by Sardar Jahan Khan, general in the army of
Ahmad Shah Durrani.
Under the State of Bahawalpur Uch Sharif came under the control of the
Bahawalpur princely state, which declared independence in 1748 following the collapse of the Durrani empire. Bahawalpur had become a
vassal of the Sikh Empire under Maharaja
Ranjit Singh, before becoming a dependency of the British Empire defined under an 1833 treaty. By 1836, the ruling Abbasi family stopped paying tribute to the Sikhs, and declared independence. Bahawalpur's ruling Abbasi family aligned themselves with the British during the
First and
Second Anglo-Sikh Wars, thereby guaranteeing its survival as a princely state. Flooding in the early 19th century caused serious damage to many of the city's tombs, including structural problems and the deterioration of
masonry and finishes. As part of Bahawalpur state, Uch Sharif was acceded to the new Pakistani state, but remained part of the autonomous Bahawalpur state until 1955 when it was fully amalgamated into Pakistan. Uch remains a relatively small city, but is an important tourist and pilgrimage destination on account of its numerous tombs and shrines. == Demographics ==