01The temple with the red flag
The Chachnama describes Debal as Dahir’s harbour, with a great temple, a budd, in its midst, crowned by a tall pole and a red flag that, the people believed, protected the town. Arab ships had been seized off Debal by pirates, and the governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, used this as the reason for war; two expeditions failed before Debal, and their commander Budayl was killed. In 711–712 Muhammad bin Qasim arrived with siege engines brought by sea. On instructions from al-Hajjaj his men aimed their great catapult at the temple pole and brought down the flag, and the town fell. The chronicle says the slaughter lasted three days, and a mosque was built and Muslims settled.
02Banbhore
Banbhore, on a creek of the old Indus delta about 65 km east of Karachi, was excavated by F. A. Khan of the Pakistan Department of Archaeology from 1958 to 1965 and by later teams. Inside its stone walls they found three periods: a Scytho-Parthian and Hindu-Buddhist town from about the 1st century BCE, with a Shiva linga among its finds; an early Islamic town; and a medieval one abandoned in the 13th century when the river moved. A mosque in the walled town carries an inscription dated 727 CE, among the earliest in South Asia. Most scholars accept Banbhore as Debal, though no find names the town outright.
The life of this place
- c. 1st century BCEThe walled port at Banbhore is first settled.
- 711–712Muhammad bin Qasim storms Debal after bringing down its temple flag.
- 727Date of the inscription on the Banbhore mosque.
- 1958–65F. A. Khan excavates Banbhore.
