Mastung District
Mastung District ( bal, مستونگ; ur, ) is a district located in the northwest of Balochistan province, Pakistan. Prior to its creation as a separate district in 1991, Mastung was part of Kalat District.
Administration
The district cons ...
, is a town in the
Balochistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
province of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. It is located at 29°48'0N 66°50'60E and has an altitude of 1701 metres (5583 feet). The town is also the administrative centre of Mastung
Tehsil
A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...
, an administrative subdivision of the district – the town itself is administratively subdivided into two Union Councils.
Mastung is located in Sarawan which is a division of the princely state of Kalat, the Chief Of Sarawan himself is from Mastung.
There are numerous Baloch as well as Pashtun tribes populated in Mastung, the tribes include Bangulzai, Shahwani, Pirkani, Sarpara, Raisani (Tareen) and Muhammad Shahi, which are the most common tribes and are politically active and leading in the area other tribes include
Dehwar
The Dehwar are an ethnic group of the Balochistan region of Pakistan and Iran. They have traditionally been settled agriculturalists (in contrast to the nomadic Baloch). They speak Dehwari a variety of Persian close to Dari
Dari (, , ), al ...
Tareen
The Tareen (or Tarin) ( ps, ترین) is a Pashtun tribe inhabiting southern Afghanistan, and western region of Pakistan.Caroe O. ''The Pathans 550 B.C.- A.D. 1957'' Oxford University Press . Page 521.Muhammad Hyat Khan, "Hayat i Afghan" (Orig. i ...
, Ali Zai and several more.
History
Mastung was known to the 10th-century geographers al-Muqaddasi and
Istakhri
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri () (also ''Estakhri'', fa, استخری, i.e. from the Iranian city of Istakhr, b. - d. 346 AH/AD 957) was a 10th-century travel-author and geographer who wrote valuable accounts in Arab ...
, who both listed it among the towns in the province of ''Bālis'', also called ''Bālish'' or ''Wālishtān'', whose capital was
Sibi
Sibi ( Sindhi: سيوي ur, ) is a city situated in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The city is the headquarters of the district and tehsil of the same name.
Etymology
The origin of the town's name is attributed to Rani Sewi, a Hindu la ...
Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
in the late 1500s, lists Mastung as one of the 24 mahals included in the Sarkar of
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...
. At that time, Mastung was defended by a
mud brick
A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also been f ...
fort and produced a yearly revenue of 10 '' tumans'' and 8,000
dinar
The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread.
The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin of ...
s in cash alongside 470 ''kharwars'' of grain. Its population was a mixture of
Afghans
Afghans ( ps, افغانان, translit=afghanan; Persian/ prs, افغان ها, translit=afghānhā; Persian: افغانستانی, romanized: ''Afghanistani'') or Afghan people are nationals or citizens of Afghanistan, or people with ancestry f ...
and
Balochs
The Baloch or Baluch ( bal, بلۏچ, Balòc) are an Iranian people who live mainly in the Balochistan region, located at the southeasternmost edge of the Iranian plateau, encompassing the countries of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There ar ...
Like other Balochistan major urban centers such as Quetta, Sibi, Mach, and Khuzdar, it is a multi-ethnic city where several languages are spoken including Brahui,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
(Dehwari dialects),
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages ...
Hindki
Hindki ( ps, هندکي) is a term originally used by Pashtuns to denote people or communities of Indian origin that they have been in contact with. More specifically this may include:
*Indians in Afghanistan#History, historical Indian communities ...
Mastung Valley
Mastung Valley ( ur, ) is located in Mastung District, Balochistan, Pakistan. It is popular tourist destination in Pakistan.
See also
* Mastung, Pakistan
Mastung ( Balochi and Urdu: ), the capital of Mastung District, is a town in the Balo ...
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency (also spelt Balochistan Agency) was one of agencies of British Raj during the colonial era. It was located in the present-day Pakistani Balochistan province.Administration report of the Balochistan Agency for 1888–89:
s ...