Over the ages Lahore has been ransacked, looted and the local population massacred several times. Be it from the Turko-Afghan invader-looter Mahmud of Ghazni in 1001 AD or the East India Company after the events of 1857, every invader has been ruthless.

Invaders are primarily exploiters and looters. They come solely for the wealth of the people and take it back to their homeland. A lot of people have written in asking just who was the most ruthless and the biggest thief. Starting from November 1001 when Mahmud defeated the Hindu Shahi ruler of Lahore Raja Jayapala at Peshawar, he kept returning, looting and returning with immense wealth. In 1021, he defeated Jayapala’s off-springs at Lahore and a massive massacre followed. The city was virtually erased to the ground.

With the immense wealth, especially gold and slaves, he converted Ghazni into an important city, while Lahore was rebuilt by his military commanders, including his Georgian slave Ayaz, with whom he had a passionate romantic relationship.

But then every invader looted and took away the immense wealth of the sub-continent. The question before us is who was the most ruthless and biggest robber? My view is that no invader was crueler and more ruthless than the Turko-Mongol conqueror Amir Taimur, known better as Tamerlane, the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty of Mesopotamia, Iran and Afghanistan. Born in April 1336 in Uzbekistan and ultimately buried there in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, he was not directly related to Genghis Khan, though his mother was.

In those days, the Tughlaq Dynasty of India was collapsing, and each ruler was more incompetent than the last. This gave rise to local rulers to become ‘de facto’ sovereigns of their territories. The leading such ruler was Jasrat Ghakkar of Potohar Plateau. This was a territory that had never been subjugated, primarily because of the semi-mountainous terrain.

Jasrat Ghakkar, like other Ghakkars, had this ambition to conquer Lahore and become the ruler of the capital of the Punjab. As the Lahore governor Sarang Khan of the Tughlaq rulers started to lose control, Jasrat Ghakkar and his army took over Lahore. But parallel to this we have Tamerlane leaving Kabul with a huge horse-ridden army heading towards the Punjab at great speed.

In September 1398, Tamerlane crossed the Indus at Kalabagh, and as news of his terror spread all the local rulers surrendered, and their armies joined the Timurid armies. He sent a small force of horsemen to take on the Ghakkars at Shahpur, where he not only defeated them but killed almost everyone. Even those who fled were chased and slaughtered.

Between Shahpur and Lahore the invader was informed that the peasants of the Punjab were harassing his army. He set off to eliminate anyone who came his way. In the process he looted an immense amount of wealth and added another 30,000 horses to his already swelling army.

As the Timurid force approached Lahore, Sheikha Ghakkar. the governor of Lahore, immediately surrendered and his army joined the invading army of Tamerlane and offered the invading army food and every assistance possible. Amir Timur had heard of the sly nature of the Ghakkars but went along as it suited him.

We see that the Ghakkars went out of their way to please the invader, and ‘Tarikh-e-Faruishta’ (Briggs Vol 1, pg 488) tells us that the more the Ghakkars praised Timur and his commanders, the more this crafty invader became suspicious of the man from the Potohar Plateau. So, the invaders moved towards Delhi and other parts of India.

As time passed, reports reached Tamerlane that the Ghakkars were refusing to pay their dues and were rude to his appointed commanders. It was at this moment that he sent his sons Prince Pir Muhammad Jahangir, and Prince Rustam, as well as Amir Jehan and Amir Sulaiman, to take over Lahore and bring him Jasrat Ghakkar.

The Timurid army moved swiftly, and the horsemen of Pir Jahangir were the first to enter the city. They arrested Sheikha Ghakkar and his son Jasrat, put them in chains. Both father and son were tortured and then beheaded. The Timurid forces were then ordered to eliminate every person in Lahore.

We learn from ‘Malfuzat-e-Taimuri’ that the forces first emptied houses and executed every inhabitant, including women, children and elderly. ‘Anyone argued he would be skinned alive’. The walls of the city were demolished, and houses burnt down as was everything in it. In essence and reality, Lahore was destroyed like never before, or since.

As the Timurid forces left what they were leaving behind was a mound of ashes. For many years the ancient city of Lahore remained empty, and the saying goes that “all that remained were owls”. This description of Lahore after the Timurid massacre still lives in the vocabulary of the old city elders. Such was the terror left behind by Tamerlane.

There are many stories left behind about that massacre. One is that of Pir Zaki, after whom Zaki Gate was named, which is now known as Yakki Gate, because of the cart depot outside the gateway. He fought against the Mongols and his head was cut off. Yet his body, allegedly so the story goes, kept fighting, only to fall lifeless. His grave still exists inside the Yakki Gate area.

The devastated sub-continent next saw the rise of the Sayyid Dynasty, who in 1441 rebuilt Lahore and its fort. The second ruler Mubarak Shah rebuilt the walls of the Lahore Fort, as well as the ancient city. Those were thick mud walls, while portions were with brickwork. Much later seeing that it was not strong enough, the Mughal emperor Akbar rebuilt and expanded both the fort and the old city. The city was expanded on the western and eastern side, while the fort was expanded too.

So, we have before us a city that foreigners have over time conquered and looted, enriching their own homelands. It has been repaired and rebuilt time and again. The British put in a water supply system and proper drains and bricked lanes, which with time have considerably decayed. Maybe, it will finally be rebuilt and repaired to its original beautiful shape. At least that is what the WCLA was set up for, and a few small steps have already been taken.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2023