Multan: the city of saints and blue tiles

A short history

The region was part of the Achaemenid empire by the sixth century BCE. Alexander besieged the citadel in 326 BCE during the Mallian campaign and took an arrow through the lung doing it — one of the worst injuries of his career, and it happened here.

The Multan Sun Temple made the city rich for centuries; under early Muslim rulers it is recorded as producing up to 30 per cent of the state's revenue. Qarmatian Ismailis destroyed it in the late tenth century. Muhammad ibn Qasim had taken the city in 712 CE after a two-month siege.

The epithet comes from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when Multan drew Sufi mystics in numbers. Bahauddin Zakariya and Shah Rukn-e-Alam are the two names to know; the tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam is considered the earliest Tughluq-era monument anywhere.

The fort did not survive the British. The siege of 1848-49 destroyed most of it and took a good deal of the old city with it.

Places worth your time

Shrine of Shah Rukn-e-Alam

The one to see first. An enormous octagonal brick tomb on the old fort mound, visible from most of the city, and the earliest Tughluq monument standing.

Shrine of Bahauddin Zakariya

Thirteenth century, on the same mound, and still very much a working place of pilgrimage rather than a monument.

Shrine of Shams Sabzwari

Smaller, and the tilework here is the brightest in the city.

The old bazaars

For blue-enamelled pottery and tilework, which Multan has been making for centuries and still does.

Multan Fort mound

Little of the fort survives, but the mound gives you the layout of the old city and the best light on the shrines.

Before you go

November to February. Anything from April onward is severe — Multan hit 50°C in May 2010. About five hours from Lahore by motorway, and there are flights.