green white white ~ Pakistal1 ciaworldbook.com SECTION 42 Vol. \I r? VRDV ABJAD AlPHAB£T • b • • ,) ,) ,) ~ ~~~~ t t ~ ~ y • ? a a 101 ~ C J ~ ~ t P b • JQ b~~ • b t t ~....r j J J J g1J • =? ~ ;? ~ sh g zh 2 r r ~JJ c..S o 0 j u U f J$ y t h v IJ n m I 9 k q f Notes U ~ Indicates nasalization •• 0 Arabic feminine ,. f v o 1 2 8 4 "6 "6 7 8 9 10 omniglot.com [II URDU ,;,..9 ..; J)j HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The name Pakistan is said to have two meanings: Pak, meaning pure, and istan, meaning land, as well as being an acronym representing areas of land used in the creation of Pakistan: P = Punjab A = Afghanistan K = Kashmir S = Sind TAN = Baluchistan As a political entity, Pakistan only dates from 1947. Yet, Pakistan shares significant portions of history with many other cultures and people of the Indian sub continent. The north-west comer of the Indian subcontinent, which is now Pakistan, lies betwixt the historical invasion routes through the Khyber, Gumal and Bolan passes from central Asia to the heartland of India. For thousands of years, invaders and adventurers swept down upon the settlements there. Modern-day Pakistan once formed an integral part of the Indus Valley civilization that flourished more than 5,000 years ago. The original inhabitants of Pakistan were Stone Age people in the Potwar Plateau (north-west Punjab). They were followed by the sophisticated Indus Valley (or Harappan) civilization which flourished between the 23rd to 18th centuries BCE. Semi-nomadic peoples then arrived, and by the ninth century BCE, they had spread across northern Pakistan and India. Their Vedic religion was the precursor of Hinduism, and their rigid division of labour a precursor to the Hindu caste system. The next group, the Aryans, were followed by the Persians of the Achaemenid empire, who, by 500 BCE, reached the Indus River. In 327 BeE, Alexander the Great traversed the Hindu Kush to put an end to the defeated Persian empire, and invaded the Punjab in 326 BCE. Some tribes still tell legends of being descended from Alexander and his soldiers. The Silk Route, a lucrative trade route from China, passing through India to the Roman empire, was then established. The Seleucid empire was then held at bay by the Mauryas, who, by 305 BCE, occupied the Indus plain and much of Afghanistan. 12th century, nastaliq script, Urdu (1- E, Indo-Iranian, Indic) Pakistan, N/C India, alphabetic Pg. 1 Bangladesh After the fall of the Mauryas (second century BCE), the Indo-Greek Bactrian kingdom rose to power, but it, too, was overrun (97 BCE) by Scythian nomads, Saka, and then by Parthians (seven CE). The Parthians, of Persian stock, were replaced by the Kushans, who ruled (second century CE) all of what is now Pakistan from the capital at Peshawar. The Kushans, who were at the centre of the silk trade, established the capital of their Gandhara kingdom at Peshawar. By the mid-second century CE, they had reached the height of their power, with an empire that stretched from eastem Iran to the Chinese frontier and south to the Ganges River. The Kushans, who were Buddhist, under King Kanishka, built thousands of monasteries and stupas. Soon, Gandhara became both a place of trade and religious study and a pilgrimage, a Buddhist "holy" land. The Kushan empire had begun to unravel by the fourth century and was subsequently absorbed by the Persian Sassanians, the Gupta dynasty, Hephthalites from Central Asia, and Turkic and Hindu Shahi dynasties. Islam, the dominant religion, was introduced in 711 CEo In 712, the Muslim Arabs appeared and conquered Sind. By 900, they controlled most of north-west India. The Ghaznavid and Ghorid Turks reached Bengal in 1200, and an important Muslim centre was established, although the north-east Indian subcontinent (now Bangladesh) remained, with interruptions, part of a united Mughal empire in India from the early 16th century to 1857. The next strong central power to be introduced was the Moghuls who reigned during the 16th and 17th centuries. A succession of rulers introduced reforms, ending Islam's supremacy as a state religion, encouraging the arts, building houses and, finally, retuming Islam as the state religion. In 1526, the land became part of the Mogul Empire, It was overrun by Persians in the late 1730s; by the Afghans, who held Sind and the Punjab during the latter half of the 18th century, and then, by the Sikhs, who rose to power in the Punjab under Ranjit Singh (1780-1839). By 1857, the British became the dominant force. With Hindus holding most of the economic, social and political advantages, the Muslim minority's dissatisfaction grew, leading to the formation of the nationalist Muslim League in 1906, by Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876-1949). Twenty-four years later, a totally separate Muslim homeland was proposed. A group of England-based Muslim exiles coined the name Pakistan, meaning "Land of the Pure". The league supported Britain in the Second World War while the Hindu nationalist leaders, Nehru and Gandhi, refused. In return for the league's support of Britain, Jinnah expected BritiSh backing for Muslim autonomy. As Hindu and Muslim tensions escalated in the mid-1940s, the British were forced to concede that a separate Muslim state was unavoidable. The new viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten, announced that independence would come by June, 1948. Britain agreed to the formation of Pakistan as a separate dominion within the Commonwealth in August, 1947, a bitter disappointment to India's dream of a unified subcontinent. Mohammed Ali Jinnah became govemor-general. British India was thus divided up into a central, largely Hindu region, retaining the name India, and a Muslim East (Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. Kashmir rrhe State of Jammu and Kashmir), though, wanted no part of India or Pakistan. 12th century, nastaliq script, Urdu (1- E, Indo-Iranian, Indic) Pakistan, N/C India, alphabetic Pg. 2 Bangladesh The partition of Pakistan and India along religious lines resulted in the largest migration in human history, with 17 million people fleeing across the borders in both directions to escape the sectarian violence that accompanied the partition. Tensions between East and West Pakistan existed from the outset. The two regions shared few cultural and social traditions other than religion. The West monopolized the country's political and economic power. President Yahya Khan postponed the opening of the National Assembly to skirt East Pakistan's demand for greater autonomy, provoking civil war. The independent state of Bangladesh, or Bengali nation, was proclaimed on March 26, 1971. Indian troops entered the war in its last weeks, fighting on the side of the new state. Pakistan was defeated on December 16, 1971, and President Yahya Khan stepped down. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over Pakistan and accepted Bangladesh as an independent entity. In 1976, formal relations between India and Pakistan resumed. Both India and Pakistan have laid claim to the Kashmir region, and this territorial dispute led to war in 1949 (a UN-brokered cease-fire gave each country a piece of Kashmir to administer), and again in 1965, 1971 and 1999, yet ultimate control still remains unclear. Pakistan became a republic on March 23, 1956, with Maj. Gen. Iskander Mirza becoming her first president. Pakistan 'finally produced a constitution, and became an Islamic republic. West Pakistan's provinces were amalgamated into a single entity similar to that in East Pakistan. The next two decades saw Pakistan wracked by further war with India over Kashmir, civil war between east and west, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, another war with India, and the execution of one of her most charismatic prime ministers, Z. A. Bhutto. Bhutto's daughter, Benazir, claimed victory in the next election, and became the first elected woman to head a Muslim country. She was toppled soon after, but was voted back into power in 1993. India then conducted five nuclear tests in May, 1998, near Pakistan's borders, which further deteriorated relations between Pakistan and India. Pakistan conducted her own nuclear tests in late May. Fighting with India again broke out in the disputed territory of Kashmir in May, 1999. International condemnation was widespread, and sanctions placed intense strain on the country's economy. Added to this, the TaJiban was a creation of Pakistan's military intelligence, but after September, 2001, Musharraf then made the controversial decision to support the United States, becoming her chief ally in the region, placing Pakistan in a drfficult position, breaking with her neighbour, Afghanistan. In October, 2001, violence again broke out in the Kashmir region with a suicide bombing by a Pakistani militant-based organization, killing 38 in Indian-controlled Kashmir. On December 13, 2001, suicide bombers attacked the Indian parliament; both sides assembled hundreds of thousands of troops along the Indian-Pakistani border, bringing the two nuclear powers once again to the brink of war. Pakistan and India took small steps in June, 2002, to avert nuclear confrontation. 12th century, nastaliq script, Urdu (1- E, Indo-Iranian, Indic) Pakistan, N/C India, alphabetic Pg. 3 Bangladesh WRITING - alphabet, Latin script - alphabet, Perso-Arabic nastaliq script SYSTEM - non-phonetic - phonetic - written from left to right - written from right to left - letters disconnected - letters connected • printedfwritten script - only one script # OF LETTERS 26 48 (35 consonants + 10 vowels + 3 diacritics) VOWELS 6 written, 15-16 spoken - 10 written, 4 blended vowel/consonants - every vowel can be nasalized The diacritics indicate the vowel tone (3 types) and are written aboveJbelow or to the rightJIeft of the consonant symbol.