Kot Sabzal (, sometimes referred to as Sabzal Kot) is a small town in the

Rahim Yar Khan District Rahim Yar Khan District (Urdu: ضلع رحیم یار خان, Punjabi: ضلع ریم یار خان) is a Districts of Pakistan#Punjab, district in the province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan. Its headquarters is the city of Rahim Yar Kha ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, located near the provincial border of

and

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

. Accessible via the N-5 National Highway, this town is overshadowed by the presence of nearby larger towns like

Ghotki Ghotki (; ) is a city in northern Sindh, Pakistan, and the headquarter of Ghotki District. Its population as of 2023 is . Ghotki is famous for its date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant spec ...

Jacobabad Jacobabad, also known as Khanger, is a city in Sindh, Pakistan, serving as both the capital city of Jacobabad District and the administrative centre of Jacobabad Taluka, an administrative subdivision of the district. The city itself is subd ...

and

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (Urdu: ; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 13th largest city of Pakistan and List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, 8th most populous city of Punjab. Bahawalpur is the capital of Bahawalpur Division. Founded in ...

in the vicinity.

History

Kot Sabzal was once ruled by the

Pargana Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah, equivalent to Mohallah as a subunit of Subah (Suba), was a type of former administrative division in the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British Colonial empire ...

, who administered the city under the princely state of

until it was lost to the

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

s of Sindh in 1807. After the British annexed much of the province of Sindh, they restored Kot Sabzal to the Amir of Bahawalpur in 1847 to secure an alliance in the Battle of Multan. After the successful siege and annexation of

Multan Multan is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, fifth-most populous city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Located along the eastern bank of the Chenab River, it is the List of cities in Pakistan by populatio ...

, a dispute remained over which province would govern Kot Sabzal. In the early 1830s, Kot Sabzal stood larger and stronger than either

or Khairpur. Kot Sabzal was surrounded by a thin wall, which was levelled in some areas. Four main

bazaar A bazaar or souk is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central Asia, North Africa and South Asia. They are traditionally located in vaulted or covered streets th ...

s faced each other in the center of the town. The architecture showed a transition from the mud house to brick houses. As the historian Mohan Lal described in his travelogues, the city had gates that had fallen into disrepair. One wall had a gun pointed towards the Bahawalpur country.

Economy

The town's main source of income is agriculture, with cotton, wheat, and sugar being the most important crops.

Culture

The most common languages are Sindhi, Saraiki, Punjabi and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. The

Rais (), plural , is an Arabic title meaning 'chief' or 'leader'. It comes from the word for head, . The corresponding word for leadership or chieftaincy is . It is often translated as 'president' in Arabic, and as 'boss' in Persian. Swahili speak ...

of Kot Sabzal ordered the construction of many buildings like Bhong Mosque.

References

{{Neighbourhoods of Bahawalpur Populated places in Bahawalpur District Internal borders of Pakistan