Search

, the Islamic Republic of Pākistān or Islām-i D̲j̲umhūriyya-yi Pākistān is bounded by Iran, Afg̲h̲ānistān, the former Soviet Union, China, India and the Arabian Sea. It covers an area of 706,495 km2 and has a population of 114,071,000 (1990 estimate which includes the population of the disputed state of D̲j̲ammū and Kas̲h̲mir as well as Afg̲h̲ān refugees). The country is divided into four distinct physical regions. In the north, sections of the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges reach an average of more than 6,100 m/20,000 ft. an…

(a.), literally, “one who migrates”, has been applied to various groups in the course of Islamic history. 1. In earliest Islam. See for this hid̲j̲ra and muhād̲j̲irūn . 2. In Turkey and the Ottoman lands. The function of the Turkish heartlands of Anatolia and Thrace as the refuge of Islam, Islām-penāh , became significant as Ottoman power declined and the Muslim populations of outlying territories became exposed to the imposition of unfavourable Christian administrations, notably through Russian expansion and national movements in the Balkans. The term muhād̲j̲ir / muhacir …

, the older Indian Sindhu , the name for the region around the lower course of the Indus river (from which the region takes its name, see mihrān ), i.e. that part of the Indus valley south of approximately lat. 28° 30’ N., and the delta area, now coming within the modern state of Pākistān. There are alluvial soils in the delta and in the lands along the river, liable to inundation when the river ¶ rises in spring from the melting snows of the northern Indian mountains and rendered fertile by a network of irrigation canals and channels for flood control. To the west of …