India Old City

Dwarka, India - 12,000 Year Old City

Dwarka Dvarka, Dwaraka, or Dvaraka, is a city in Gujarat state in India). Dwarka also known as Dwarawati in Sanskrit literature is rated as one of the seven most ancient cities in the country. The legendary city of Dvaraka was the dwelling place of Lord Krishna. It is believed that due to damage and destruction by the sea, Dvaraka has submerged six times and modern day Dwarka is the 7th such city to be built in the area. According to Hindu legend the god Krishna built a city which was ultimately destroyed by rising sea levels. Now archaeologists and Indian Navy divers are investigating underwater ruins at Dwarka on India's western coast, said to be Krishna's city. The new efforts, it is hoped, will settle the debate currently raging over the age and authenticity of the site near the Samudranaraya temple. Divers have collected blocks and samples which will now be dated. Traditional Hindu scholars referencing ancient Hindu scriptures believe the location to be very ancient, originally built many thousands of years ago. Such notions are, of course, vehemently rejected by establishment scientists though they are willing to concede that there is evidence indicating an age of as much as 3500 years.

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Ancient history

Ancient history i

s the study of the written past  from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years with Cuneiform script  the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC This is the beginning of history, as opposed to prehistory, according to the definition used by most historians. The term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC  First Olympiad. This roughly coincides with the traditional of the founding of Rome in 753 BC  the beginning of the history of ancient Rome, and the beginning of the Archaic period in Ancient Greece. Although the ending of ancient history is disputed, some Western scholars use the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD  the closure of the Platonic Academy in 529 AD the death of the emperor Justinian  the coming of Islam or the rise of Charlemagne as the end of ancient and Classical European history. In India, the period includes the early period of the Middle Kingdoms and, in China  the time up to the Qin Dynasty is included.

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Soomro period-Sindhis

Soomro period

When Sindh was under the Umayyad Caliphate, the Habbari dynasty was in control. The Umayyads appointed Aziz al Habbari as the governor of Sindh. Habbaris ruled Sindh until Mahmud Ghaznavi defeated the Habbaris in 1024. Mahmud Ghaznavi viewed the Abbasids to be the Caliphs thus he removed the remaining influence of the Umayyad Caliphate in the region and Sindh fell to Abbasid control following the defeat of the Habbaris. The Abbasid Caliphate then made Al Khafif from Samarra, the term 'Soomera' means 'of Samarra' in Sindhi. The new governor of Sindh was to a created a better, stronger and stable government. Once he became the governor he allotted several key positions to his family and friends, thus Al-Khafif or Sardar Khafif Soomro formed the Soomra Dynasty in Sindh and became its first king. Until the Siege of Baghdad 1258 the soomra dynasty was the Abbasid Caliphate's functionary in Sindh but after that it became independent. Since then some soomra's intermarried with local women and adopted some local customs as well. They were the first Muslims to translate the Quran into the Sindhi language

Sindhis

When the Soomra Dynasty lost ties with the Abbasid Caliphate after the Siege of Baghdad 1258 and the Soomro kings Soomar, Bhoongar and Dodo-1, established their rule from the shores of the Arabian Sea to Multan, Bahawalpur  Sadiqabad and Uch in the north and in the east to Rajistan and in the west to Balochistan. The Soomros were one of the first Muslims in Sindh. They created a chivalrous culture in Sindh which eventually facilitated their rule centered at Mansura. Puran was later abandoned due to changes in the course of the Puran River; they ruled for the next 95 years until 1351 AD. During this period, Kutch was ruled by the Samma Dynasty, who enjoyed good relations with the Soomras in Sindh. Since the Soomro Dynasty lost its support from the Abbasid Caliphate. The Sultans of Delhi wanted a piece of Sindh. The Soomro's Successfully defended their Kingdom for about 100 years but their Dynasties Soon fell to the Might of the massive armies Sultans of Delhi such as the Tughluks and the Khiljis,

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Arrival of Islam

A manuscript written during the Abbasid Era.In 711 AD, Muhammad bin Qasim led an Umayyad force of 20,000 cavalry and 5 catapults. Muhammad bin Qasim defeated the Raja Dahir, and captured the cities of Alor, Multan and Debal. Sindh became the easternmost province of the Umayyad Caliphate and was referred to as "Al-Sindh" on Arab maps, with lands further east known as "Hind". Muhammad bin Qasim built the city of Mansura as his capital; the city then produced famous historical figures such as Abu Mashar Sindhi, Abu Ata al-Sindhi, Abu Raja Sindhi and Sind ibn Ali. At the port city of Debal most of the Bawarij embraced Islam and became known as Sindhi Sailors; they became famous due to their skills in navigation, geography and languages. After Bin Qasim left the Umayyads ruled Sindh through the Habbari dynasty.
By the year 750 AD, Debal was second only to Basra; Sindhi sailors from the port city of Debal voyaged to Basra, Bushehr, Musqat, Aden, Kilwa, Zanzibar, Sofala, Malabar, Sri Lanka and Java where Sindhi merchants were known as the Santri. During the power struggle between the Umayyads and the Abbasids. The Habbari Dynasty became semi independent and was eliminated and Mansura was invaded by Mahmud Ghaznavi. Sindh then became an eastern most province of the Abbasid Caliphate ruled by the Soomro Dynasty until the Siege of Baghdad (1258).It should be noted that Mansura was the first capital of the Soomra Dynasty and the last of the "Habbari dynasty". Muslim geographers, historians and travelers such as al-Masudi, Ibn Hawqal, Istakhri, Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi, al-Tabari, Baladhuri, Nizami, al-Biruni, Saadi Shirazi, Ibn Battutah and Katip Çelebi wrote about or visited the region, sometimes using the name "Sindh" for the entire area from the Arabian Sea to the Hindu Kush.

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The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages adjectival forms medieval, mediaeval and mediæval is the period of European history encompassing the 5th to the 15th centuries, normally marked from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire (the end of Classical Antiquity) until the beginning of the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery the periods which ushered in the Modern Era. The mediaeval period thus is the mid-time of the traditional division of Western history into Classical, Medieval, and Modern periods; moreover the Middle Ages usually is divided into the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages.In the Early Middle Ages depopulation, deurbanization and barbarian invasions begun in Late Antiquity continued apace. The barbarian invaders formed new kingdoms in the remains of the Western Roman Empire.In the 7th century North Africa and the Middle East, once part of the Eastern Roman Empire, became an Islamic Empire after conquest by Muhammad,s successors. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with Antiquity was not complete. The Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire survived and remained a major power. Additionally most of the new kingdoms incorporated many of the extant Roman institutions, while monasteries were founded as Christianity expanded in western Europe. In the 7th and 8th centuries the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty established an empire covering much of western Europe; the Carolingian Empire endured until the 9th century, when it succumbed to the pressures of invasion the Vikings from the north the Magyars from the east and the Saracens from the south. During the High Middle Ages which began after AD 1000 the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and crop yields to increase. Manorialism the organization of peasants into villages that owed rent and labor services to the nobles and feudalism the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords, in return for the right to rent from lands and manors - were two of the ways society was organized in the High Middle Ages. Kingdoms became more centralized after the breakup of the Carolingian Empire. The Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts, by western European Christians, to regain control of the Middle Eastern Holy Land from the Muslims and succeeded long enough to establish Christian states in the Near East. Intellectual life was marked by scholasticism and the founding of universities; and the building of Gothic cathedrals which was one of the outstanding artistic achievements of the High Middle Ages. The Late Middle Ages were marked by difficulties and calamities such as famine, plague, and war, which much diminished the population of western Europe in the four years from 1347 through 1350, the Black Death killed approximately a third of the European population. Controversy, heresy, and schism within the Church paralleled the warfare between states, the civil war, and peasant revolts occurring in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society concluding the Late Middle Age and beginning the Early Modern period.

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