Heritage village: The doomed domes of Kotla, resister of Mughal emperors
A growing city threatens to swallow this ancient mystery.
PESHAWAR:
Little is known about the two 16th Century domed tombs that stand in the heritage village of Kotla Mohsin Khan, inside the walled city of the past and one of Peshawar’s historic jewels. But this much is for certain: if the monuments are not preserved, they will disappear like their history.
“It is an important group of buildings but definite information about Kotla Mohsin Khan is missing,” writes Ahmad Hasan Dani in his book Peshawar: Historic City of the Frontier (Khyber Mail Press, 1969). What we do know has come by way of poetry: Ma’azullah Khan, the classical Pashto poet, said that Kotla was constructed by Muhibullah Khan with a grant from Mughal emperor Shah Jehan.
Kotla is believed to have been the centre of the Roshaniya (enlightened) populist nonsectarian movement that arose among Afghan tribes in the mid-sixteenth century. Roshaniya was founded by Bayazid Ansari or Pir Rokhan (or Roshan), who challenged inequality and social injustice practiced by the ruling powers. “The Roshaniya promulgated egalitarian codes and tenets within Islam,” writes Yury V. Bosin in the International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Some people think that one of the tombs contains the grave of Pir Rokhan’s grandson Abdul Qadir Khan.
Bayazid Ansari or Pir Rokhan had rallied the Pashtun against Mughal Emperor Akbar and Kotla is believed to be the area where the centuries-long rule of the Mughals ended when the keys to the city were handed over to the king of Afghanistan, Nadir Shah, by the Mughal government here in 1741. It is considered a place where Khushal Khan Khattak passed sometime after being released from the Mughals with the help of Arbab Mustajab Khan, one of their representatives.
Kotla’s embellished arched gateway is still standing and leads to a heavily populated area. Even the tombs have become surrounded by construction that has arisen along with the density of the population.
No one really goes to the tombs to clean them or visit and they are infested with bats and carry a terrible smell. “The governments in the past have come here to repair the main gate, however, within a few days they run away and leave the work incomplete,” said Arbab Zahoor, who lives in Kotla Mohsin Khan and claims to be a successor of the elders who constructed the Kotla. According to him a guard was once officially posted here but has been long gone. Zahoor felt confident that if the government stepped forward the people would be more than happy to help repair and rehabilitate the tombs.
For some reason, the people who claim to have descended from the people who built the tombs are unwilling to disclose their identities or step forward to press for reclamation of this heritage site.
They point out that one of the minarets on the main gate has gone missing.
And if nothing else is done soon, the entire edifice could one day be swallowed up by the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2014.
Little is known about the two 16th Century domed tombs that stand in the heritage village of Kotla Mohsin Khan, inside the walled city of the past and one of Peshawar’s historic jewels. But this much is for certain: if the monuments are not preserved, they will disappear like their history.
“It is an important group of buildings but definite information about Kotla Mohsin Khan is missing,” writes Ahmad Hasan Dani in his book Peshawar: Historic City of the Frontier (Khyber Mail Press, 1969). What we do know has come by way of poetry: Ma’azullah Khan, the classical Pashto poet, said that Kotla was constructed by Muhibullah Khan with a grant from Mughal emperor Shah Jehan.
Kotla is believed to have been the centre of the Roshaniya (enlightened) populist nonsectarian movement that arose among Afghan tribes in the mid-sixteenth century. Roshaniya was founded by Bayazid Ansari or Pir Rokhan (or Roshan), who challenged inequality and social injustice practiced by the ruling powers. “The Roshaniya promulgated egalitarian codes and tenets within Islam,” writes Yury V. Bosin in the International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. Some people think that one of the tombs contains the grave of Pir Rokhan’s grandson Abdul Qadir Khan.
Bayazid Ansari or Pir Rokhan had rallied the Pashtun against Mughal Emperor Akbar and Kotla is believed to be the area where the centuries-long rule of the Mughals ended when the keys to the city were handed over to the king of Afghanistan, Nadir Shah, by the Mughal government here in 1741. It is considered a place where Khushal Khan Khattak passed sometime after being released from the Mughals with the help of Arbab Mustajab Khan, one of their representatives.
Kotla’s embellished arched gateway is still standing and leads to a heavily populated area. Even the tombs have become surrounded by construction that has arisen along with the density of the population.
No one really goes to the tombs to clean them or visit and they are infested with bats and carry a terrible smell. “The governments in the past have come here to repair the main gate, however, within a few days they run away and leave the work incomplete,” said Arbab Zahoor, who lives in Kotla Mohsin Khan and claims to be a successor of the elders who constructed the Kotla. According to him a guard was once officially posted here but has been long gone. Zahoor felt confident that if the government stepped forward the people would be more than happy to help repair and rehabilitate the tombs.
For some reason, the people who claim to have descended from the people who built the tombs are unwilling to disclose their identities or step forward to press for reclamation of this heritage site.
They point out that one of the minarets on the main gate has gone missing.
And if nothing else is done soon, the entire edifice could one day be swallowed up by the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2014.