KARACHI, March 10: Archaeologists and historians threw light on the significance of the archeological remains of Bhanbore at the first international conference on Bhanbhore organised by the provincial government’s culture department at the historical site on Saturday.
Provincial minister for culture Sassui Palijo was the chief guest and speaker of the Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro was the guest of honour of the event.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah presided over the moot.Giving a brief presentation on the occasion renowned French scholar Prof Monique Kervran with the help of some slides showed different excavation
Prof Monique Kervran speaking at the conference. ?White Star
points of Bhanbore, including the area where it’s thought a mosque was located, and highlighted the historicity of the place.
By Peerzada Salman
By showing pictures of ceramics she made the point that Bhanbore had influences of a number of regions, one of which was Islamic ceramics of the ll~12tii century.
Prof Kervran said different historic accounts suggested that Bhanbore was actually the historical city of Debal. It was largely a mercantile population that lived here.
Quoting geographer Al-Muqaddasi she said in 280 Hijri (893AD) a devastating earthquake had destroyed the whole of Debal and in 294 Hijri the mosque was rebuilt. She said Al-Muqaddasi had spoken about the quake in detail.
Bhanbore and Debal were one and the same. She also mentioned Persian scholar
Ibn A1 Majawir who travelled the region by boat in the 13th century. She claimed A1 Majawir had seen the skeletons which were found in Debal, a fact also touched upon by archeologist F.A. Khan.
Dr Rafiq Mughal went down memory lane and talked about the time when he first visited Bhanbore in 1958 and there were not even basic facilities for a visitor.
He felt glad that now things had changed. With respect to Bhanbore he said the pottery found from the site pointed to the early Islamic period. He said the city had a vibrant trade network ? it was a commercial hub.
He said the Banu Umayyah
and Banu Abbas periods (8-12th centuries AD) were included in the network. Bhanbore had all kinds of industries ? glass, metallurgy, cutting, etc ? while certain things were imported from countries like China.
Dr Mughal said that Bhabnore was not an isolated entity. It had connections with regions like the Middle East, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Central Asia. He put emphasis on the pottery discovered from here which linked it to other parts of the Islamic world. He said more than 50 per cent excavation work had been undertaken but there was a lot more to be done. He argued that it was of utmost
