Since ancient times, the rugged hills of the North West Frontier and the fertile plains of the Punjab have been fought over by invaders, adventurers, and local potentates alike; as Churchill wrote, ‘every rock, every hill has its story’. This book brings to light eighteen different historic battlefields that lie in modern Pakistan, ranging from ancient times to the late Nineteenth Century. These battles have left an indelible mark on the culture and history of the people of the region, and in many cases, on the landscape itself. They include some of the greatest military commanders of all time, such as Alexander the Great, Genghiz Khan, Mahmud Ghaznavi, Ranjit Singh, Sir Charles Napier and Lord Gough, as well as a host of less well known but no less colourful characters. Although some of the historic battlefields of Pakistan were of global strategic significance, and all helped to shape the history of the subcontinent, most are now almost forgotten and lie largely unvisited in the midst of some of Pakistan’s most beautiful natural scenery. This is the first time that a comprehensive description of these battles has been brought together in a single volume, and for several of the battles, the first time that they have been studied in detail at all. Drawing on his own military experience, the author has pulled together first-hand information from official reports, private memoirs and local folk traditions to paint a lively description of each battle, with detailed maps, helpful advice on what to look out for and how to get there. The books is aimed at the interested general reader, though it will also be of interest to serious military historians, and should help to stimulate a revival of interest in a hitherto neglected aspect of Pakistan’s history.
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