Makran
Makran (Persian مکران, DMG Makran ), the ancient Gedrosia, is a semi-desert region, which - known along the Arabian Sea and extends in modern times rather than (part of ) Balochistan - Pakistan today, half to half belonging to Iran is.
Name
Probably can be derived (also Mukran ) of Mahi Huran ( " fish eaters" ), the name Makran. He would thus be the Persian translation of the title Ichthyophagoi which used the ancient Greeks for the küstenbewohnenden Gedrosoi.
However, is probably also connect to Magan, a country with which the early Mesopotamians traded, or to the Old Persian inscriptions known from Maka satrapy.
Location and geography
Coastal area
The Makran coast begins in the west, the Gulf of Oman, approximately at Dschask in the Iranian province of Hormozgan and extends eastwards to about the Sonmiani Bay (about 25 kilometers north of Karachi). About 750 km of the total of about 1000 km long coastal strip thus belong to the Pakistani Baluchistan Province, the rest of the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
Makran is sparsely inhabited due to its extreme geological and climatic conditions. The predominantly composed of Muslim, Iranian- Baloch population is concentrated in fishing villages and some of the larger coastal cities. The latter are from west to east Konarak and the free trade zone Tschahbahar in Iran and Dschiwani, Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara in Pakistan. Of the natural harbors Tschahbahars, Gwadars and Pasnis are the two former as the main entrances of their countries to the Indian Ocean is of great strategic importance for the whole region. It is competing deepwater ports whose development is sponsored by China and India.
Before Pasni lies with the only major Astola Island Makrans. In the lagoons and bays which mark the entire coast, are partly mangrove forests and nesting sites of several endangered species of turtles. In the Pakistani part is situated on the River Hingol the Hingol National Park. It was founded in 1997 and comprises the largest national park in the country a total area of approximately 6100 km ².
Home
Aside from the most narrow coastal strip Makran is a difficult to access highlands with arid climate and more about 150-220 km in east-west direction extending mountain ranges, of which the three largest of up to 1578 m high, also Talar - e Band called coastal Makran, up to 2286 m high central Makran and up to 2060 m high mountain range Siyahan are. The former is the urban center Turbat separated from the second through the fertile valley Ketch- be second grown from the latter by the Rachschan - Maschkel Valley, in which rice, dates, and grains. The main rivers in addition to the ketch hot Dschagin, Gabrig, Sadetsch, Raptsch, Sarbaz and Nahang. In the Iranian part, directly east of Basch ( a) kard ( Baschgerd ), the Makran Mountains rise to 2093 m and decreases in the Dschaz - Muriyan sink. The Siyahan chain ( in Saravan ) can be regarded as the northern border Makrans; Here closed or close to the historical regions of Turan and Sarhadd (in the south Sistans ), while in the west and in the east Kirman Are lie.
The larger towns of the inland are today, except for Turbat, in the Iranian part Makrans: Mention may be made especially Nikschahr (formerly Go ), Bampur and Iranshahr (formerly Fahradsch ), the capital of Shah Restan same name. The main tribes ( the Baloch ) who inhabit the Makran mountains today, the Gitschki, Buledi, Hot, Bizendscho, Nouschervani, Mirwari, beef, Rais, Landi, Kattawar, Kenagizay, Mullazay, Schirani, Mubaraki, Laschari, Ahurani, Dschadgal are and Sardarzay.
History
At the Makran coast were found ( at the Pasni Shadi - Kaur ) two ancient Harappan settlements in Sutkagen - dor ( at Dschiwani at Dasht - Kaur ) and Sochte - Koh. The show archaeological sites that it has probably given between 2500-1800 BC trade between cities Harappas, Sumer and the Gulf region. Later Makran was conquered by Achämenidenkönig Cyrus II ( 559-530 ). Capital of the Persian satrapy was Pura, which is probably identical with the located forty kilometers west of Iranshahr Bampur. During his admiral Nearchus sailed along the coast, marched Alexander the Great after his disastrous campaign in India 325 BC through the desert Makrans, which was then known as Gedrosia, and lost much of his soldiers; a similar thing happened in 1224 AD and the last Khorezm Shah Jalal ad-Din.
In the Christian era Makran here was to ( Sakastan / Sistan subordinate ) province of the Sassanid Empire, the (see below) and Fahradsch stretched from the Indus estuary from Tiz until after Daibul; From Shah Narseh is narrated that to him when he ascended the throne (293 ) paid homage to the "King Makrans ". The Islamic conquest Makrans to which the country was under the cultural and religious influence of India, took place under Umar ibn al - Khattab (about 644 ) and Muawiya I ( ibn Ziyad expedition Abihis ) of Kirman out, but kept the area a considerable autonomy, which was also in the following centuries hardly a foreign ruler could change anything ( and wanted ). The boundary of the province Umayyadenreiches the region served in 711 as a starting point for Muhammad ibn al - Qasim's foray into neighboring Are.
At the time of Abbasids Makrans main port city Tiz developed ( Ptolemy's Tesa, the ruins are a few miles north of Tschahbahar ) into a booming center in maritime trade between the Persian Gulf and India (which it with the decline of Hormuz ' even more in the 12th century should wear ). The city first officially managed by Kirman from was then inhabited by people of very different origins, which are still acted mainly to non-Muslims. According to al - Muqaddasi Tiz was surrounded by palm groves and possessed in addition to large department stores, a magnificent mosque. In general, the relatively politically insignificant Makran by medieval geographers, however, described as barren and sparsely populated, the main product of the region was sugar cane. Among the cities that are mentioned (but hardly described ) belong next to Tiz: the capital Fannazbur (now Pandschgur ), the seat of power Kidsch (now ketch ), Bampur and Fahradsch (now Iranshahr ), Qasarqand, Dschalk, Dazak, Chwasch (now Gwascht ), Rask and Armabil and Qanbali on the coast.
To the end of the 9th century seems Makran a stronghold of the Kharijites to have been, who sought refuge in the remote province. From the 10th century ruled here, the local dynasty of Ma ʿ dāniden, whose rulers resided in Kidsch and was called Maharajah. After Ma ʿ dāniden under ʿ Iša ibn Ma ʿ first dān vassals of the Saffarids become and had been threatened 970-72 of the among others were moving towards Westmakran and against Tiz Buyids Adud ad-Daula, they were in the second half of the 10th century ( probably shortly after 976 / 77) the Ghaznavids tributary whose Sultan Mahmud could interfere in succession disputes 1025-26. The end of Ma ʿ came dāniden, as Mahmud 's son, Sultan Masud I., 1030 a punitive expedition sent ( under Yusuf ibn Sebüktegin ) to Kidsch, took the city and with Abu 'l- ʿ Askar got a favorite regent Makrans. The Ghaznavids seem to have the region then controlled until the takeover by the Ghurids. Under Qawurd Makran fell in the 11th century to the Kirman Seljuks before it only belonged to the kingdom of Khorezm Shah in the 13th century and was then invaded by the Mongols under Chagatai. A little later, Marco Polo sailed the Makran coast, called by him Kesmacoran ( " Ketch- Makran " ), is considered one of India and not described in terms of trade and agriculture as poor. The ruler of the - at that time increasingly populated by Persian Baluch - country should have still ruled by ketch from.
Having had used according to Ibn Battuta in the early 14th century, a certain Malik Dinar the death of Ilkhan Abu Said ( 1335) in order to gain control of Makran, the area from the 15th century was dominated by the great Mughals. Later it belonged temporarily to the British Empire, was ruled alternately by local Zikri families, the Iranian Qajar and as a sultanate. After the emergence of Pakistan ( 1947), the eastern Makran, which was then still part of the princely state of Kalat, was later repeatedly divided into a district of Balochistan province and into smaller administrative areas. The boundary between the Iranian Makran and the first British, then Pakistan's Balochistan province was established by the Anglo- Persian Boundary Commission, 1870-72.