Khalid Walid Shrine, Kabirwala: Pakistan's Earliest Sultanate Tomb

The Khalid Walid shrine near Kabirwala, in Khanewal district, is a fortress-like brick tomb from the late 12th century, built by a governor of Multan under Muhammad of Ghor. It may be the earliest surviving Muslim funerary monument in South Asia, and its sloping walls and corner towers look ahead to the great tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam in Multan. It stands in open country west of Kabirwala, so you need your own car or a hired one, and the drive from Multan or Khanewal makes a half-day trip.

This guide covers who is buried here, why the building matters, what to look for, and how to find it, since it is not well signposted.

Who was Khalid Walid?

The saint buried here is a 12th-century warrior-saint usually called Khalid Walid, though some sources give the name as Khaliq Walid or Khalid Waleed. He is not Khalid ibn al-Walid, the 7th-century Arab commander, and the shared name causes a lot of confusion online. Local tradition says he came to the region with the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni. Little else is known about him for certain.

Who built the tomb, and when?

An inscription on the building says it was built by Ali bin Karmakh, who governed Multan for Muhammad of Ghor; one heritage source gives his governorship as 1175 to 1186. Scholars date the tomb to the last quarter of the 12th century or the first decades of the 13th, which puts it at the very start of Muslim rule from Delhi. The federal Department of Archaeology's site listing gives a much earlier date range, but the inscription and the published scholarship point to the Ghorid period.

The building was identified and brought to wider attention by the archaeologists Dr Ahmad Nabi Khan and Kamil Khan. It is described as the first stage in the development of the tomb in southern Punjab, the line that leads to the Multan tombs of the following century.

What does the shrine look like?

From a distance it looks more like a small fort than a tomb. It sits on a low mound and takes the form of a fortified rectangle about 70 by 90 feet, with round, tapering bastions at the corners and crenellations along the top. The outer walls are plain brick and slope inwards, a feature that may come from the Seljuk architecture of Central Asia. A low, sloping dome rises over the centre. The bricks are large and specially sized, about 33 by 20 by 5 centimetres.

Inside is a square tomb chamber, about 24 feet a side, surrounded by vaulted galleries, with rectangular chambers on the east and west sides. Wooden bands set into the brickwork and panels of cut and glazed brick break up the walls.

The mihrab

The building's greatest treasure is the mihrab on the outer wall of the western gallery, made of cut and moulded brick and carved with Qur'anic verses in Kufic script. It is topped by a hood like a canopy, worked in cut-brick patterns. Panels of floriated calligraphy and square pilasters surround it. It is the detail most worth the drive, so give it time.

How does it connect to Shah Rukn-e-Alam?

The sloping walls, the round corner towers and the low dome are all features that Multan's builders developed over the next century and a half. The tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam, built in the 14th century, takes the same battered walls and tapering corner turrets to a far grander scale. If you have seen Rukn-e-Alam first, you will recognise its ancestry here.

What condition is it in?

Photographs published after renovation work show that the shrine has been repaired in recent years, and parts of the brickwork look newer than others. Some original decorative elements are recorded as missing. We could not find a dated, official account of the conservation work, so judge the condition on the day.

There is no ticket office, and we found no published opening hours or confirmation of facilities such as toilets or a tea stall. It is visited by local people as a shrine, so dress and behave as you would at any darbar.

How do you get to the Khalid Walid shrine?

Kabirwala is on the Multan to Jhang road, about 10 km north of Khanewal and around 40 km from Multan. The shrine is in the countryside west of Kabirwala; the most commonly cited figure is about 24 km by road. Village names in the sources differ, so the most reliable way to find it is to drop a pin at the coordinates in the table above and follow a map app, then ask locally for the darbar of Khalid Walid.

From Multan, plan on a half-day trip: the drive out, an hour at the shrine, and the drive back. Leave early between May and September, carry water, and avoid driving the rural roads after dark if you don't know them. Our Multan day trips guide has other excursions from the city, and Khanewal district's ancient mound at Tulamba is another stop for keen archaeology visitors.

Is it worth the drive?

For anyone interested in architecture or early Islamic history in South Asia, yes. It is a rare chance to stand in a building from the very beginning of Muslim rule in the region, and the brick mihrab is outstanding. You will probably have it nearly to yourself.

For a family looking for a general day out, probably not. There is little else at the site, the drive is through farmland, and the city shrines in Multan are easier to see and more striking at first sight. Start with our guide to places to visit in Multan and the experiences page, and come here if early tombs are what you are after.

Frequently asked questions