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82-457: The modern town of Saitula is located next to the old fort of Suget Karaul built by the Chinese administration about 10 km (30 " Chinese miles ") southeast of the original site. A modern People's Liberation Army barracks named Sanshili Yingfang or Sanshili Barracks ( lit.   ' 30 li barracks ' ) is also located here. This name is a more common name used by motorists along

164-594: A federated state of Pakistan. The same year, a powerful advisory council was established on the insistence of the Federal Government of Pakistan , and this continued to hold much power in Chitral until 1966. The Princely States of Dir , Chitral and Swat were finally merged through the promulgation of the Dir, Chitral and Swat Administration Regulation of 1969 under General Yahya Khan . The capital city

246-732: A princely state of Pakistan until 1972. The area of the state now forms the Upper and Lower Chitral Districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan . During the reign of Mehtar Aman ul-Mulk , the dynasty's sway extended from Asmar in the Kunar Valley of Afghanistan to Punial in the Gilgit Valley . The entire region that now forms the Chitral District was a fully independent monarchy until 1885, when

328-594: A case. In South Korea , the ri currently in use is a unit taken from the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) li . It has a value of approximately 392.72 meters, or one tenth of the ri . The Aegukga , the national anthem of South Korea, and the Aegukka , the national anthem of North Korea , both mention 3,000 ri , which roughly corresponds to 1,200 km , the approximate longitudinal span of the Korean peninsula . In North Korea

410-625: A centre in Pakistan. At the time of his death, he was the most senior surviving military officer of the Pakistan Army . His youngest son Sikander ul-Mulk has captained the Chitral Polo Team at Shandur for over two decades. His eldest son Siraj ul-Mulk has served in Pakistan Army and Pakistan International Airlines as a pilot . Masood ul-Mulk grandson of Shuja ul-Mulk, is a Pakistani expert on humanitarian aid. He

492-419: A long war of succession ensued between Aman ul-Mulk's sons after his death. Aman's younger son, Afzal ul-Mulk , proclaimed himself ruler during the absence of his elder brother. He then proceeded to eliminate several of his brothers, potential contenders to his throne. This initiated a war of succession, which lasted three years. Afzal ul-Mulk was killed by his uncle, Sher Afzal , the stormy petrel of Chitral and

574-587: A long-time thorn in his father's side. He held Chitral for under a month, then fled into Afghan territory upon Nizam ul-Mulks return. Nizam, Afzal ul-Mulk's eldest brother and the rightful heir, then succeeded in December of the same year. At about that time, Chitral came under the British sphere of influence following the Durand Line Agreement , which delineated the border between Afghanistan and

656-488: A number of rulers found at archaeological sites, and careful measurements of distances between known points. The Han li was calculated by Dubs to be 415.8 metres and all indications are that this is a precise and reliable determination. Under the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907), the li was approximately 323 meters. In the late Manchu or Qing dynasty , the number of chi was increased from 1,500 per li to 1,800. This had

738-692: A second Islamic wave from Badakshan . His son, Shah Rais, is said to have been ruling in Yasin around 1660, according to Shigar-Nama. The next known ruler of Chitral is described as Shah Mahmud, who is reported recorded in Chinese Manchu annals of 1764 to have conquered Chitral from the Oirat Mongols who replaced the Chagatai rulers in 1678. He ruled from 1713-20. Shah Mahmud can reasonably be identified as Shah Mahmud Rais, son of Shah Nasir, who

820-489: A unit of length 1 ⁄ 1000 of a chi , but it is used much less commonly. This li is used in the People's Republic of China as the equivalent of the centi- prefix in metric units, thus limi ( 厘米 , límǐ) for centimeter. The tonal difference makes it distinguishable to speakers of Chinese, but unless specifically noted otherwise, any reference to li will always refer to the longer traditional unit and not to either

902-550: A value of 2115 feet or 644.6 meters. In addition, the Qing added a longer unit called the tu , which was equal to 150 li (96.7 km). These changes were undone by the Republic of China of Chiang Kai-shek , who adopted the metric system in 1928. The Republic of China (now also known as Taiwan ) continues not to use the li at all but only the kilometer ( Mandarin : 公里 , gōnglǐ , lit. "common li"). Under Mao Zedong ,

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984-674: A vassal of the Sikh Empire , conquered Ladakh in 1834. According to Francis Younghusband , all the area up to Shahidulla was immediately taken under control by the Dogras. This was of no consequence to the Chinese in Turkestan (present day Xinjiang ) as they viewed the northern Kunlun range as their border. In 1846, Gulab Singh came under the suzerainty of the British as the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir . The British were inclined to view

1066-415: A village at Suget Karaul and named it "Saitula". The nomad population of the former Shahidula apparently took up residence in the new village. In May 2010, Saitula was made a township . The township includes one village , which was formerly part of Kangir Kirghiz Township: China National Highway 219 passes through the town of Saitula as well as the historical Shahidullah site. A mountain road runs from

1148-465: Is legendary and documentary evidence that indicates that Indians from Taxila and the Chinese were among the first settlers of Khotan. In the first century BC, Kashmir and Khotan on the two sides of the Karakoram range formed a joint kingdom, which was ruled by either Scythian or Turki (Elighur) chiefs. Towards the end of the first century AD, the kingdom broke up into two parts: Khotan being annexed by

1230-523: Is mostly uninhabited and has very little vegetation, except for the river valleys of Yarkand and Karakash. In these valleys, during the summer months, cultivation was possible. Kanjutis from Hunza used to cultivate in the Yarkand valley (called "Raskam" plots) and the Kirghiz from Turkestan used to cultivate in the area of Shahidullah. Shahidullah is described as a "seasonal township" in the sources, but it

1312-604: Is the son of Khush Ahmed ul-Mulk, the last surviving son of Shuja ul-Mulk. Khush Ahmed ul-Mulk served in the British Indian Army. As of 2014 he was the most senior surviving member of Chitral's royal family. Taimur Khusrow ul-Mulk, grandson of Shuja ul-Mulk, and son of the daughter of the Nawab of Dir , served as a bureaucrat with the Federal Government of Pakistan and served as Accountant General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prior to his retirement in 2016. The rulers of

1394-453: Is then divided into 1,500 chi or "Chinese feet". The character 里 combines the characters for "field" ( 田 , tián ) and "earth" ( 土 , tǔ ), since it was considered to be about the length of a single village. As late as the 1940s, a "li" did not represent a fixed measure but could be longer or shorter depending on the effort required to cover the distance. There is also another li (Traditional: 釐 , Simplified: 厘 , lí ) that indicates

1476-853: The 2024 provincial elections . Mata ul-Mulk, one of the youngers son of Shuja ul-Mulk , served in the first Kashmir war . He is best known for defeating the Sikh forces in Skardu commanding the Chitral Bodyguard , during the Siege of Skardu . Burhanuddin , son of Shuja ul-Mulk, served as commander of the Indian National Army in Burma . He also served as a Senator after the World War II . Colonel Khushwaqt ul-Mulk, one of

1558-660: The British Indian Empire . Nizam ul-Mulk's possessions in Kafiristan and the Kunar Valley were recognised as Afghan territory and ceded to the Amir. Within a year, Nizam was himself murdered by yet another ambitious younger brother, Amir ul-Mulk . The approach of the Chitral Expedition , a strong military force composed of British and Kashmiri troops prompted Amir to eventually surrender, his patron,

1640-566: The Chollima Movement , a campaign aimed at improving labour productivity along the lines of the earlier Soviet Stakhanovite movement , gets its name from the word "chollima" which refers to a thousand- ri horse ( chŏn + ri + ma in North Korean Romanization). Chitral (princely state) Chitral or Chitrāl ( Persian : چترال ) was a princely state in alliance with British India until 1947, then

1722-572: The Edo period , the Tokugawa shogunate defined 1 ri as 36 chō, allowing other variants, and the Japanese government adopted this last definition in 1891. The Japanese ri was, at that time, fixed to the metric system , 216 ⁄ 55 ≈ 3.93 kilometres or about 2.44 miles . Therefore, one must be careful about the correspondence between chō and ri . See Kujūkuri Beach (99- ri beach) for

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1804-661: The Hindu Kush region, visiting various parts of India and meeting a number of fellow rulers, as well making the Hajj to Arabia and meeting Ibn Saud I. He was invited to the Delhi Durbar in January 1903. Shuja ul-Mulk sent his sons abroad to acquire a modern education. The princes travelled to far-off places such as Aligarh and Dehradun accompanied by the sons of notables who were schooled at state expense. He supported

1886-779: The Karakoram Pass into Ladakh. An alternative route to Ladakh from Shahidulla (called the "Chang Chenmo route") went along the Karakash river till reaching the Aksai Chin plains and then to Ladakh via the Chang Chenmo valley . This route was never really popular with the traders, despite the best efforts of the British Raj to promote it. The entire area between the Karakoram range and the Kunlun Mountains

1968-425: The People's Republic of China reinstituted the traditional units as a measure of anti-imperialism and cultural pride before officially adopting the metric system in 1984. A place was made within this for the traditional units, which were restandardized to metric values. A modern li is thus set at exactly half a kilometer (500 meters). However, unlike the jin which is still frequently preferred in daily use over

2050-456: The Punial valley. He accepted a treaty with the Maharaja of Kashmir in 1877. Aman ul-Mulk was such a strong ruler that no serious attempt to challenge his authority was made during his reign. During the course of his rule Aman ul-Mulk met encountered many British officers some of whom have noted him in the following words. His bearing was royal, his courtesy simple and perfect, he had naturally

2132-568: The Trakhane dynasty , which supposedly ruled Gilgit, while lower Chitral was ruled by Kalasha rulers Bulasing and Rajawai. The Kafir period came to an end in 1320 accordingly, when a foreign chief named Shah Nadir Rais, presumably from Turkestan , arrived and founded the Raisa rule, which lasted from 1531 to 1574. Shah Nasir is described as the eighth of nine Rais rulers. They were ousted by Mohtaram Shah Kator, who reigned from 1595 to 1630, ending

2214-464: The Umra Khan fled to Jandul. The British had decided to support the interests of Shuja ul-Mulk , the youngest legitimate son of Aman ul-Mulk , and the only one untainted by the recent spate of murder and intrigue. After installing the young Mehtar, British and Kashmiri forces endured the famous defence against a seven-week siege by Sher Afzal and the Umra Khan of Jandul . Although Shuja ul-Mulk

2296-517: The li ' s. In addition, the number of chi per li was sometimes altered. To add further complexity, under the Qin dynasty, the li was set at 360 "paces" ( 步 , bù ) but the number of chi per bu was subsequently changed from 6 to 5, shortening the li by 1 ⁄ 6 . Thus, the Qin li of about 576 meters became (with other changes) the Han li , which was standardized at 415.8 meters. The basic units of measurement remained stable over

2378-434: The "Kilian range") which has various passes (from the west to east, Yangi, Kilik, Kilian, Sanju, Hindu-tagh and Ilchi passes). The Kilian ( 36°42′17″N 77°56′55″E  /  36.7046°N 77.9485°E  / 36.7046; 77.9485  ( Kilian Pass ) ) and Sanju ( 36°40′13″N 78°14′44″E  /  36.6702°N 78.2456°E  / 36.6702; 78.2456  ( Sanju Pass ) ) passes are

2460-526: The 1990s. He was twice elected as chairman of District Council Chitral , once as District Nazim , and four times as Member National Assembly of Pakistan (MNA). Shahzada Mohiuddin also served as chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas (KANA). The current head of the family, Fateh-ul-Mulk Ali Nasir , was elected to the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during

2542-595: The 7th century, and sought to legitimize the Kator rule by anticipating its beginning. According to the account, the history of Chitral is divided into three main periods: the Kafir period, the Rais period, and the Kator period. It describes the arrival of Islam in Chitral in the 7th century by an Arab army that defeated a local king named Bahman Kohistani. After a gap of five centuries, it describes upper Chitral under Sumalik of

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2624-576: The British during the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, during which four of his sons and the Chitral State Bodyguard served in several actions guarding the border against invasion. Nasir ul-Mulk succeeded his father in 1936. He received a modern education, becoming a noted poet and scholar in his own right. He took a deep interest in military, political and diplomatic affairs, and spent much of his time on improving

2706-572: The British negotiated a subsidiary alliance with its hereditary ruler, the Mehtar, under which Chitral became a princely state , still sovereign but subject to the suzerainty of the British Indian Empire . In 1895 the British agent in Gilgit , Sir George Scott Robertson was besieged in Chitral Fort for 48 days, and was finally relieved by two British Forces , one marching from Gilgit and

2788-543: The British officials began to reject Dogra claims to Shahidulla. In 1877, Yakub Beg died and the Chinese reasserted their authority in Turkestan (renaming it as Xinjiang —"new dominion"). They however stuck to their original posts ( karawals ) on the north side of the Kilian and Sanju passes, and showed no interest in occupying Shahidulla. As late as 1889, the Turdi Kol reported that Chinese officials told him that Shahidulla

2870-603: The Chinese li (里). Although the Chinese unit was unofficially used in Japan since the Zhou dynasty , the countries officially adopted the measurement used by the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The ri of an earlier era in Japan was thus true to Chinese length, corresponding to six chō ( c. 500–600 m), but later evolved to denote the distance that a person carrying a load would aim to cover on mountain roads in one hour. Thus, there had been various ri of 36, 40, and 48 chō. In

2952-555: The Chinese and Kashmir by Kanishka . Some modern scholars believe the Kingdom of Zihe ( Chinese : 子合 ; Wade–Giles : Tzu-ho ) in Chinese historical records was situated at Shahidulla. This is not universally attested. In late 15th century, Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat from the Dughlat tribe founded an independent kingdom for himself from the fragmentation of Moghulistan . The kingdom encompassed Hotan and Kashgar. However, he

3034-477: The Chitral fort. It was hoisted every morning, accompanied by a salute from the State Bodyguard Force , and taken down each evening after another salutation. The forts of Chitral were both fortified residence and the seat of power in the area. The Mehtars' fort in Chitral has a commanding position on the Chitral river. It remains the seat of the current ceremonial Mehtar. To the west of

3116-598: The Dogras at an uncertain date. George Hayward later described it as 'a stone fort and several ruined huts'. Around 1864, when the Chinese authority in Turkestan was overthrown by the Kokand chieftain Yakub Beg , the Dogra governor of Ladakh stationed a garrison of troops at the fort. Described as a chauki (police post), it had a contingent of 25 men including customs officials. The post was abandoned in 1866, apparently due to

3198-478: The G219 highway. The Uyghur name Shahidulla simply means "witness of Allah" or "martyr of Allah" depending on the interpretation of the heteronym " shahid ". During the 1800s, the place was a sepulcher or shrine for a person known as Shahidulla Khoja, or Shahid Ullah Khajeh. He was said to be a Khoja from Yarkand who was killed by "his Khitay pursuers" during the 1700s Qing conquest of Xinjiang . His real name

3280-609: The Great of the Xia dynasty six hundred years later. Although the value varied from state to state during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States periods, historians give a general value to the li of 405 meters prior to the Qin dynasty imposition of its standard in the 3rd century BC. The basic Chinese traditional unit of distance was the chi . As its value changed over time, so did

3362-592: The Karakash Valley. Younghusband reported that the Chinese were asserting authority all the way to the Karakoram range, and the site was said to be the closest place to the range where grass and fuel were available. By the early 20th century, the Shahidullah region was under Chinese control and considered part of Xinjiang Province, and has remained so ever since. Xaidulla is well to the north of any territories claimed by either India or Pakistan, while

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3444-532: The Karakoram range as the natural boundary of the Indian subcontinent and they viewed the Maharaja's claim to Shahidulla with trepidation. This left the tract between the Karakoram and Kunlun ranges as a no-man's land. Since regular trade caravans passed through the area, which were open to robber raids, securing it became important to the new Dogra regime in Kashmir. A fort at Shahidulla was apparently constructed by

3526-433: The Kator rule back to the early 17th century, even though the first confirmed Kator ruler, Mohtaram Shah I, likely ruled in the early 18th century. Dynastic wars also continued to occur between close relatives of the Kator family to gain the throne. Aman ul-Mulk , Shah Afzal's younger son, succeeded his brother in 1857. After a brief dispute with Kashmir , in which he laid siege to the garrison at Gilgit and briefly held

3608-606: The Mehtar's influence, he, like so many other princes in neighbouring India, was invited to represent his country abroad. He served in various diplomatic posts in Pakistan's Foreign Office and prematurely retired from the service as Consul-General in Hong Kong in 1989. He died in 2011, and was succeeded (albeit largely symbolically) by his son Fateh ul-Mulk Ali Nasir . At the time of the Partition of India on 15 August 1947,

3690-594: The Oirat Mongol invasion of Chitral mentioned by Biddulph . Shah Mahmud's counterattack, dated 1630 by the Nai Tarikh-i-Chitral , should be set around the 18th century instead. The investigation by Wolfgang Holzwarth indicates that Kator rule may not have been established in Chitral until the mid-18th century, as documented in the Manchu annals. Holzwarth also suggests that the first seven rulers of

3772-409: The Qin and Han periods. A bronze imperial standard measure, dated AD 9, had been preserved at the Imperial Palace in Beijing and came to light in 1924. This has allowed very accurate conversions to modern measurements, which has provided a new and extremely useful additional tool in the identification of place names and routes. These measurements have been confirmed in many ways including the discovery of

3854-411: The Rais period may be a recent invention, as there is no mention of them in any known source or oral tradition. The last three rulers are likely historical, and conflicts between the Kator and Khushwaqte branches of the same dynasty are described in more detail in the NTCH after the defeat of the Rais. Despite this, the chronology of events in the NTCH remains unreliable, and there is an effort to stretch

3936-415: The Sanju and Kilian passes are further to the north of Xaidulla. A Sinkiang–Tibet road (or "Aksai Chin road", now part of G219 ) was laid by China in the 1950s, which runs from Yecheng in the Tarim Basin , south through Xaidulla, and across the Aksai Chin region, controlled by China but claimed by India, into northwestern Tibet . Sometime after the construction of the road, Chinese administration built

4018-401: The Shahidulla fort during the summer months of 1890, but withdrew them during winter. Further in 1892, they knocked down the Shahidulla fort and built a new fort at Suget Karaul ( 36°20′48″N 78°01′32″E  /  36.3467°N 78.02564°E  / 36.3467; 78.02564  ( Suget Karaul ) ), about 10 km. southeast of Shahidulla, where the road from Suget Pass enters

4100-429: The administration. Dying without a surviving male heir in 1943, his successor was his immediate younger brother, Muzaffar ul-Mulk . Also a man with a military disposition, his reign witnessed the tumultuous events surrounding the Partition of 1947 . His prompt action in sending in his own Bodyguards to Gilgit was instrumental in securing the territory for Pakistan. The unexpected early death of Muzaffar ul-Mulk saw

4182-409: The age of four. In his name, a Council of Regency reigned for the next twelve years, during which Pakistani authority gradually increased over the state. Although installed as a constitutional ruler when he came of age in 1966, Saif ul-Mulk did not enjoy his new status very long. Chitral was absorbed and fully integrated into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan by Yahya Khan in 1969. In order to reduce

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4264-416: The courtly Spanish grace of a great heredity noble Chitral, in fact, had its parliament and democratic constitution. For just as the British House of Commons is an assembly, so in Chitral, the Mehtar, seated on a platform and hedged about with a certain dignity, dispensed justice or law in sight of some hundreds of his subjects, who heard the arguments, watched the process of debate, and by their attitude in

4346-454: The difficulty of maintaining it at a great distance. In 1868, Robert Shaw and Hayward found it occupied by Kokandi troops. In the interim, in 1865, the British surveyor W. H. Johnson , tasked with surveying the Ladakhi territory "up to Chinese frontiers", received an invitation for a visit from the Khan of Khotan named Haji Habibullah. Johnson spent a few weeks in Khotan and returned via Sanju Pass and Shahidulla. The border of Ladakh he drew

4428-439: The event of unfavourable weather or death of ponies, traders would march to a safe place leaving behind their goods which were fetched after the climate became favourable or substitute transport became available. The absence of turmoil was not a given. In fact, the traders applied pressure on the rulers to avoid conflict. The Ladakhi rulers especially heeded such warnings, dependent as they were on trade for their prosperity. There

4510-417: The foot of the Kunlun range. After making another bend near Shahidulla, it flows northeast again, cutting through the Kunlun Mountains towards Khotan . The traditional site of Shahidulla is located northwest of the modern town, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) downstream. Caravaners talk about a "southern branch" of the Kunlun range at the foot of which the Karakash flows, and a "northern branch" (also called

4592-481: The fort is the Shahi Masjid , built by Shuja ul-Mulk in 1922. Its pinkish walls and white domes make it one of north Pakistan's most distinctive mosques . The tomb of Mehtar Shuja ul-Mulk is located in a corner of the mosque. The summer residence of the ex-ruler of Chitral is on the hill top above the town at Birmoghlasht. The descendants of the Katur dynasty are still widely respected and honoured in Chitral today. The last ruling Mehtar Muhammad Saif-ul-Mulk Nasir

4674-452: The historical site to the town of Sanju in the Tarim basin via the Sanju Pass . Li (unit) Li ( Chinese : 里 , lǐ , or 市里 , shìlǐ ), also known as the Chinese mile , is a traditional Chinese unit of distance . The li has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half- kilometer (500 meters or 1,640 feet or 0.311 miles ). This

4756-455: The kilogram, the li is almost never used. Nonetheless, its appearance in many phrases and sayings means that "kilometer" must always be specified by saying gōnglǐ in full. As one might expect for the equivalent of "mile", li appears in many Chinese sayings, locations, and proverbs as an indicator of great distances or the exotic: The present day Korean ri (리, 里) and Japanese ri (里) are units of measurements that can be traced back to

4838-459: The main decided the issue. Such 'durbars' were held on most days of the week in Chitral, very often twice in the day, in the morning and again at night. Justice compels me to add that the speeches in the Mahraka were less long and the general demeanour more decorous than in some western assemblies. For forty years his was the chief personality on the frontier. After a relatively long reign, he died peacefully in 1892. Without any law of succession,

4920-425: The main source on the subject. The Nai Tarikh-i-Chitral , written by Ghulam Murtaza, son of the historian at the court of Aman-ul-Mulk , the ruler of Chitral during the British period , has come to be seen as the official historiography of Chitral, and is largely accepted by international scholarship. However, it has been criticized on weak chronologigal ground, as it traces back the advent of Islam in Chitral around

5002-431: The matter with the Chinese government. Simultaneously, Younghusband was sent on a second mission to Yarkand to "induce" the Chinese officials to expand and fill out the no man's land. The means he used to induce them are not precisely known, but by the end of his mission, the Chinese officials showed a firm commitment to occupy Shahidulla, and even all the area up to the Karakoram Pass. It appears that they stationed troops at

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5084-549: The most often mentioned, which lead to Kashgar . To the south of Shahidulla, the trade route passed through the site of Suget Karaul (the modern 'Saitula' town), ascended the valley of a stream to the Suget Pass ( 36°09′33″N 78°00′32″E  /  36.15917°N 78.00889°E  / 36.15917; 78.00889  ( Suget Pass ) ) and, after crossing a junction point of Ak-tagh ( 35°58′26″N 78°01′41″E  /  35.974°N 78.028°E  / 35.974; 78.028  ( Ak-tagh ) ), went over

5166-417: The other from Nowshera . After 1895, the British hold became stronger, but the internal administration remained in the hand of the Mehtar. In 1947 India was partitioned and Chitral opted to accede to Pakistan . After accession, it finally became an administrative district of Pakistan in 1972. Since the early 19th century, local chroniclers have been documenting the history of Chitral and are considered

5248-409: The rule due to a Rais backlash that brought Shah Mahmud Rais, the son of Shah Nasir, to the throne. The defeat of Shah Mahmud by Mohtaram’s son Sangin Ali II in 1660 marks the final establishment of the Kator dynasty, which lasted until modern times. Wolfgang Holzwarth conducted a recent investigation that challenges the account's reconstruction of the Rais period, claiming that it fails to acknowledge

5330-450: The ruling prince was a mark of prestige among the Mehtar's subjects. Tribes in Upper Swat , Dir , Kohistan and Kafiristan (present day Nuristan ), paid tribute to the Mehtar of Chitral. The Mehtar was the source of all power in the land, the final authority on civil, military and judicial matters. To function effectively, he built an elaborate administrative machinery. From Chitral, the Mehtar maintained control over distant parts of

5412-444: The shorter unit or the kilometer. This traditional unit, in terms of historical usage and distance proportion, can be considered the East Asian counterpart to the Western league unit . However, in English league commonly means "3 miles." Like most traditional Chinese measurements , the li was reputed to have been established by the Yellow Emperor at the founding of Chinese civilization around 2600 BC and standardized by Yu

5494-415: The spread of Islam in Chitral and Gilgit. According to Holzwarth, the Chagatai Khanate brought Islam to the region in the early 16th century, establishing subcenters in Mastuj and Yasin . He cites the successful military expeditions led by Mirza Haidar from Yarkand into the Hindu Kush between 1520 and 1550 as evidence. The first independent Muslim ruler in Chitral was likely Shah Babur, who came in

5576-433: The state by appointing trusted officials. From the Chitral fort, which housed the extended royal family, the Mehtar presided over an elaborate administrative hierarchy. The state flag of Chitral was triangular in shape and pale green in colour. The wider side of the pennant depicted a mountain, most likely the Terich Mir peak. In the later Katoor period, this flag served as a symbol of the Mehtar's presence and flew above

5658-485: The succession pass to his relatively inexperienced eldest son, Saif-ur-Rahman, in 1948. Due to certain tensions he was exiled from Chitral by the Government of Pakistan for six years. They appointed a board of administration composed of officials from Chitral and the rest of Pakistan to govern the state in his absence. He died in a plane crash on the Lowari while returning to resume charge of Chitral in 1954. Saif ul-Mulk Nasir (1950–2011) nominally succeeded his father at

5740-412: The then-Mehtar of Chitral, Muzaffar ul-Mulk (1901–1949), stated his intention to accede to Pakistan. However, he did not execute an Instrument of Accession until 6 November 1947. This was contentedly accepted by the Government of Pakistan without delay. In 1954 a Supplementary Instrument of Accession was signed and the Chitral Interim Constitution Act was passed whereby the State of Chitral become

5822-440: The younger sons of Shuja ul-Mulk , served as the Commandant of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ) Rifles . He was educated at the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (now the Rashtriya Indian Military College ) at Dehradun, India . Following his father's death in 1936 he became the governor of Upper Chitral. He was a philanthropist and helped the Brooke Hospital for Animals , the British-based equine charity, to set up

5904-511: Was Mastuj . The official language of the state was Persian, used in official correspondence and literature. However, Chitrali was the de facto language. The ruler's title was Mitar which is pronounced as Mehtar by outsiders. Aman ul-Mulk adopted the Persian style Shahzada for his sons, and the style prevailed from then on. The word Khonza (meaning princess in the Khowar language )

5986-456: Was "British territory". In 1889, Francis Younghusband , who was tasked with finding measures to counteract a potential Russian aggression in the area, proposed that the Chinese be encouraged to occupy all the no man's land between the British and Russian territories and serve as a buffer zone. This was agreed by the British administration, and the British envoy in Peking was instructed to discuss

6068-543: Was along the northern Kunlun range (on which the Kilian and Sanju passes lay), and included the Karakash valley within Ladakh. By 1873, Douglas Forsyth was dispatched by the British on a diplomatic mission to Yakub Beg. The Forsyth Mission recognised Shahidullah as part of the "Khan's dominion", and placed the boundary between British Empire and Turkestan at Ak-tagh, south of the Suget Pass. (See Map 1) From this point on,

6150-649: Was called Turdi Kul. The British regarded the Kirghiz as Chinese subjects and believed that they "always" paid taxes to Yarkand. Yet there is evidence that this may not have occurred till 1881, and the Chinese considered them to be living beyond their boundaries. The Kirghiz faced periodic raids from the Kanjutis of Hunza , who controlled the Yarkand River valley (called "Raskam") and had protection from China. They also carried off people and sold them into slavery. The Dogra ruler of Jammu , Raja Gulab Singh , then

6232-809: Was deposed in the 1510s by Sultan Said Khan who founded the Yarkand Khanate . While attempting to flee to Ladakh, Abu Bakr was intercepted and killed. His tomb is located about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of modern-day town of Xaidulla. In the nineteenth century, Shahidulla became the centre of a multi-pronged game between Kashmir , the British Empire in India , China, Kashgaria and the Russian Empire . About 120 Kirghiz nomad families lived in Shahidulla in forty tents. Their head-man

6314-465: Was educated at Aitchison College . He had received Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal (1953) and Pakistan Republic Medal (1956). The family continues to be one of the strongest political forces in the district, although it has not consistently aligned itself with any particular party in the district. Shahzada Mohiuddin , grandson of Shuja ul-Mulk, served as the Minister of State for Tourism in

6396-401: Was forced to flee to Badakhshan by Mohtaram Shah I, the first Kator ruler of Chitral, but eventually regained his throne with the help of a large army from Kashgar and Yarkand. In the decisive battle fought at Danin , Shah Khushwaqt, brother of Shah Mohtaram, was killed, and the other Kator princes fled from Chitral. The battle of Danin is likely the same event reported in the Manchu annals and

6478-482: Was little more than a campground in the 19th century. Kulbhushan Warikoo states that, of the two trade routes between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, one in the west through Chitral and the Pamirs , and the other in the east through Shahidulla and Ladakh, the eastern route was more favoured by the traders as it was relatively safe from robberies and political turmoil: Such was the safety of this route that in

6560-649: Was lost. At the time local Kirghiz nomads venerated the shrine and Muslim travellers would pray for blessing on their journey. Shahidulla is situated between the Kunlun Mountains and the Karakoram range, "close to the southern foot of the former". It is at the western bend of the Karakash River , which originates in the Aksai Chin plains, flows northeast and makes a sharp bend to the west at

6642-497: Was now firmly established as ruler, the Dogras annexed Yasin, Kush, Ghizr and Ishkoman . Dogra suzerainty over Chitral ended in 1911, and Chitral became a Salute state in direct relations with the British. Mastuj , also removed from the Mehtar's jurisdiction in 1895, was restored to him within two years. Shuja reigned for forty-one years, during which Chitral enjoyed an unprecedented period of internal peace. He journeyed outside of

6724-619: Was reserved for female members of the Mehtar’s family. The Mehtar was an influential player in the power politics of the region as he acted as an intermediary between the rulers of Badakhshan , the Yousafzai pashtuns , the Maharaja of Kashmir and later the Amir of Afghanistan . The Mehtar was the center of all political, economic and social activity in the state. Intimacy with or loyalty to

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