City of Nawabs and Palaces S03 EP. 02 | BAHAWALPUR

Assalam Alekum and Good Morning Everyone from Bahawalpur. The City of Nawabs Today I am gonna explore Bahawalpur. Haris, my host, will be accompanying me. Right now we are leaving for the old city on Haris' Vespa. You can see his amazing cruiser collection. There is a Volks Wagon here as well. And here's his beloved parrot. We are gonna see the old city and then we'll go to Noor Mahal Palace. Afterwards, we'll visit the Darawar Fort, after seeing the Lal Sohanra National Park. I may spend the night at Uch Sharif. By the time we leave Darawar Fort, it would already be dark. So we'll explore Uch Sharif the next day. Let's get to the old city then, for breakfast and sight seeing. We are here in the old city which is still closed. Perhaps it's still too early in the day. We actually wanted to visit a few places before this market opens. Otherwise it gets really crowded here.

City of Nawabs and

Old city Bahawalpur is a walled city with 7 gates. The place where we had our breakfast used to be called Bikaner Gate. However, now it's known as Fareed Gate. It's old name was Bikaner as it was connected to the Indian city Bikaner. Some of the other gates include Multani gate, Darawari Gate and Shikarpur Gate. By now you must have guessed the reason behind these names. Right now we are here to see Jamia Mosque which is closed as well. We are hoping to find someone who could open it for us to explore. Hopefully by the time we come back from the mosque,

these shops must be open. Jamia Mosque Al-Sadiq is a 200 years old mosque. Its foundations were laid by a Sufi saint. It was later renovated by Nawab Sadiq of Bahawalpur. It has a capacity for 50 to 60 thousand people to offer prayers simultaneously. These days it is opened for the Friday congregation only. There is another mosque at the lower storey where 5 daily prayers are conducted. Its interior is quite simple yet elegant. Since it is closed in normal days, that'

s why we had to get special permission to be here. Let's thank them once again for letting us be here. And get back to the old town. The foundations of Bahawalpur were first laid in 1748 by Nawab Bahawal, who had settled there after migrating from Shikarpur. Uch Shareef was the biggest city of that time. Bahawalpur then went on to grow into a state. It was always a stable state. When Sikhs were rising as a power in Punjab, and the Mughal Empire was on the decline. Many prominent families, Sufis and scholars came and settled here. During that time, the 3rd Nawab Bahawal was worried about a possible Sikh invasion. So he made a deal with the British that Bahawalpur would stay as a free state. And it will continue being ruled by Nawab. And they would in turn help the British against the Sikhs. So it was given the status of a princely state and stayed independent.

During the 1947 division of India, all princely states were given the choice to side with any country they wanted. Nawab Sadiq, the last Nawab, decided to be with Pakistan. In turn, most of the Sikhs and Hindus of the region migrated to India. Likewise, many Muslim refugees from India settled here. The rule of last Abbasi Nawab,

Nawab Sadiq, lasted till 1955. Even after the independence of Pakistan in 1947, he stayed a ruler till 1955. And that's when it ended. We are here to see the central library. So let's get going. The central library of Bahawalpur was built by Nawab Sadiq in 1924. If this is not the most beautiful library of Pakistan, it must be one of the most beautiful libraries of Pakistan. It has a beautiful interior and it's loaded with books. It doesn't even feel like a government property. You can come and sit in this soothing atmosphere. Especially if you are a book lover, this is the place to be. This is a must visit place in Bahawalpur. To spend a few minutes here. In case you don't have much time, you can still spend some time enjoying the interior. I have seen many recently published books here as well. The people here were really nice. Especially because cameras are not allowed here, and they still allow me to do some shooting indoors. For that, I am really thankful to them.