Thatta

Thatta is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh. Thatta was the medieval capital of Sindh, and served as the seat of power for three successive dynasties. Its construction was ordered by Jam Nizamuddin II in 1495. Thatta's historic significance has yielded several monuments in and around the city. Thatta's Makli Necropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is site of one of the world's largest cemeteries and has numerous monumental tombs built between the 14th and 18th centuries designed in a syncretic funerary style characteristic of lower Sindh. The city's 17th century Shah Jahan Mosque is richly embellished with decorative tiles, and is considered to have the most elaborate display of tile work in the South Asia.

Etymology

Thatta refers to riverside settlements. Villagers in the rural areas of lower Sindh often refer to the city as Thatta Nagar, or simply Nagar. The name of Thatta, one of the oldest towns, was derived from the Persian term Tah-Tah which literally means "layer over layer", signifying a settlement that has gone through various civilizations. Ḳāni, an 18th-century scholar, gave two theories regarding the etymology of Thatta. The first theory suggests that Thatta is a distortion of ‘Teh Teh’ which refers to the migration of people from northern cities to Thatta. The second theory suggests that the name originates from thatt, the Sindhi term for a place of gathering. though the site of Patala has been subject to much debate. Before it, Hindus called it Sarnee Nagar, but in 332 BC, Greeks first time called it Pattala or Patala then it became Nagar Tatta in Mughal Period. Muhammad bin Qasim captured the region in 711 CE after the defeating the Raja Dahir in a battle north of Thatta. Thatta is reported by some historians to have been the ancient seaport of Debal that was mentioned by the Arab conquerors, though others place the seaport at the site of modern Karachi. The Sumra dynasty began to decline in power by the 13th century, though Thatta and the Indus Delta remained their last bastions of power until the mid 14th century.

In 1351, the Samma Dynasty, of Rajput descent from Sehwan, seized the city and made it their capital as well. It was during this time that the Makli Necropolis rose to prominence as a funerary site. Muhammad bin Tughluq died in 1351 during a campaign to capture Thatta.

Portuguese

In 1520, the Samma ruler Jam Feroz was defeated by Shah Beg of the Arghun-Tarkhun dynasty, which in turn had been displaced from Afghanistan by the expanding Timurid Empire in Central Asia. The Tarkhuns fell into disarray in the mid-1500s, prompting Muhammad Isa Tarkhun (Mirza Isa Khan I) to seek aid from the Portuguese in 1555. 700 Portuguese soldiers arrived in 28 ships to determine, at the time of their arrival, that Isa Tarkhun had already emerged victorious from the conflict. After the Tarkhuns refused to pay the Portuguese soldiers, the Portuguese plundered the town, robbing its enormous gold treasury, and killing many inhabitants. Despite the 1557 Sack of Thatta, the 16th century Portuguese historian Diogo do Couto described Thatta as one of the richest cities of the Orient.

Nevertheless, some Portuguese presence was early in the 16th century with the conquest of Hormuz by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1507, which started the relationship with Sindi. Later in the first decade of the 16th century, traders created a factory (), and at the end of the 16th century a religious Order (Carmelitas Descalços) Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites a convent.

Mughal

thumb|Thatta's [[Shah Jahan Mosque, Thatta|Shah Jahan Mosque features extensive tile work that displays Timurid influences introduced from Central Asia.]]

The city was destroyed by Mirza Jani Beg in the 16th century. Beginning in 1592 during the reign of Emperor Akbar, Thatta was governed by the Mughal Empire based in Agra, which lead to a decline in the city's prosperity as some trade was shifted towards other Mughal ports. The city was almost destroyed by a devastating storm in 1637. As a token of gratitude for the hospitality he had received in the city while still a prince, Shah Jahan bestowed the Shah Jahan Mosque to the city in 1647 as part of the city's rebuilding efforts, although it was not completed until 1659 under the reign of his son Aurangzeb. This competed with the English one, which was established in 1635 and closed in 1662. Thatta in the 1650s was noted to have 2,000 looms that produced cloth that was exported abroad to Asia and Portugal. Thatta was also home to a thriving silk weaving industry, as well as leather products that were exported throughout South Asia. Thatta continued to decline in the mid 18th century in importance as a trading centre throughout the 18th century, as much of the city's trading classes shifted to Nerunkot in northern Sindh, or to Gujarat.

Talpur

In 1739, however, following the Battle of Karnal, the Mughal province of Sindh was fully ceded to Nadir Shah of the Persian Empire, after which Thatta fell into neglect, as the Indus river also began to silt up. The city then came under the rule of the Talpur dynasty, who divided the Sind into three units: Khairpur, Haiderabad, Mirpurkhas and seized Thatta from the Kalhoras. A second British comptoir was established during the Kalhora period in 1758, which operated until 1775. In the early 19th century Thatta had declined to a population of about 20,000, from a high of 200,000 a century before.

British

Talpur rule ended in 1843 on the battlefield of Miani when General Charles James Napier captured the Sindh for the British Empire, and moved the capital of the Sindh from Hyderabad to Karachi. In 1847, Thatta was administered as part of the Bombay Presidency. In 1920, the estimated population of the city was 10,800.

Modern

thumb|Wind power projects are present near Thatta due to high windspeeds.

After the independence of Pakistan most of the city's Hindu population, like much of Sindh, migrated to India, although Thatta did not experience the widespread rioting that occurred in Punjab and Bengal. In all, less than 500 Hindu were killed in

all of Sindh between 1947 and 1948 as Sindhi Muslims largely resisted calls to turn against their Hindu neighbours. Hindus did not flee Thatta en masse until riots erupted in Karachi on 6 January 1948, which sowed fear in Sindh's Hindus.

Hindu temples

Thatta is believed to be the birthplace of Ishta dev of Sindhi Hindus Jhulelal.

Sri Chand Darbar
Hanuman Mandir at Cinema road
Jhule Lal Mandir Behrani at Goth
Jhule Lal Mandir at Main Shahi Bazar
Jhule Lal Mandir in a house at Sonara Bazar
Mata Singh Bhawani Mandir at Makli
Nath Marhi Mandir
Seetla Mata Mandir in a house at Sonara Bazar
Shiv Mandir at Maheshwari Mohala

Climate

Thatta has a hot semi-arid climate.

The average annual rainfall is , The average annual temperature in Thatta is .

Last 10 years monsoon rains in Thatta were recorded as:

2009: 300+mm
2010: 300+mm
2011: 245mm
2012: 206mm
2013: 140mm
2014: 27mm
2015: 199.6mm
2016: 132mm
2017: 227mm
2018: 15mm

Sports

An association football club, Jeay Laal, was established in 2020.

Notable people

Hashim Thattvi (1692–1761), Islamic scholar, the first to translate the Quran into Sindhi
Mir Ahmed Nasrallah Thattvi (–1588), Islamic scholar at the court of Mughal emperor Akbar
Mir Ali Sher Qaune Thattvi (1728–1788), Islamic historian and writer
Tahir Muhammad Thattvi, Mughal-era poet and historian