has also
been an entrepot of trade with other Asiatic countries. It has imported
raw silk from Bokhara, and later from China, and woven it into cloth. It
has dealt in China tea, but that is a decreasing trade, in opium from
Afghanistan, and in _charas_ from Central Asia. There is a considerable
export of foreign piece goods to Kashmir and the N. W. F. Province.

~Multan~ (30.1 N., 71.3 E.), though now the smallest of the four great
towns of the Panjab, is probably the most ancient. It is very doubtful
whether it is the fortress of the Malloi, in storming which Alexander
was wounded. But when Hiuen Tsang visited it in 741 A.D. it was a
well-known place with a famous temple of the Sun God. Muhammad Kasim
conquered it in 712 A.D. (page 166). It was not till the savage
Karmatian heretics seized Multan towards the end of the tenth century
that the temple, which stood in the fort, was destroyed. It was
afterwards rebuilt, but was finally demolished by order of Aurangzeb,
who set up in its place a mosque. Under the Moghals Multan was an
important town, through which the trade with Persia passed. Its later
history has already been noticed (pages 183 and 186).

~The Fort~ contains the celebrated Prahladpuri temple, much damaged during
the siege in 1848, but since rebuilt. Its proximity to the tomb of
Bahawal Hakk, a very holy place in the eyes of the Muhammadans of the
S.W. Panjab and Sindh, has at times been a cause of anxiety to the
authorities. Bahawal Hakk and Baba Farid, the two great saints of the
S.W. Panjab, were contemporaries and friends. They flourished in the
thirteenth century, and it probably would be true to ascribe largely to
their influence the conversion of the south-west Panjab to Islam, which
was so complete and of which we know so little. The tomb of Bahawal Hakk
was much injured during the siege, but afterwards repaired. Outside is a
small monument marking the resting place of the brave old Nawab
Muzaffar Khan. Another conspicuous object is the tomb of Rukn ud din
'Alam, grandson of Bahawal Hakk. An obelisk in the fort commemorates the
deaths of the two British officers who were murdered on the outbreak of
the revolt. A simpler epitaph would have befitted men who died in the
execution of their duty.

~Trade and Manufactures.~--Though heat and dust make the climate of Multan
trying, it is a very healthy place. The population rose steadily from
68,674 in 1881 to 99,243 in 1911. The chief local industries ar