Kunjah
Encyclopedia
Kunjah is a village in Pakistan
located in Gujrat District
in the Punjab Province
, the inhabitants are called Kunjahi.
named Kunjpal who is also often credited to be the founder of the town. Islam
was brought to the region by the Umayyad
Caliphate early in the 8th century and soon replaced Hinduism
as the dominant religion. Kunjah grew in prominence in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Starting during the Muslim period, Kunjah was considered a strategically important town. Ibrahim Bin Masood used Kunjah as his main base for his attack of Hindustan
. In the Mughal
period, King Aurangzeb Alamgir
also visited Kunjah, and during his stay in Kunjah he built a mosque that is now named after him.
Kunjah prospered during the time of the Sikh Empire. In that period the town was home to a number of gardens, two royal palaces and a royal bathing pool connected by underground tunnels, and a baradari
that still stands today.there are many kinds of families specially Arians ( both local and muhajirs) wraich, gondal, khokhar, sahi& cheema are the popular families in kunjah. Many people are attach with agriculture and some are in army and the other diportments of Pakistan govt.
According to 1998 Population and Housing Census, population was estimated to be 30,000 but now it is estimated to be 35,000, with about 4500 households. The main religion is Sunni Islam
, with a small Shi'a minority and a few Christians
. There are about 50 mosque
s.Many residents live abroad, mainly in UK,l Italy, Spain and Greece.
, rice
, tobacco
and vegetables. Farms are supplied with irrigation from the Upper Jehlum Canal, and tobacco production is supported by two tobacco factories and a research substation. The main bazaar
is a regional trade centre consisting of 500 shops.There is a biggest Travel Agency held in 2009 also named by Town, Kunjah Travels Intl.It gave the best Travel services at doorstep of Kunjah.It is the proudly production of Rana Aurangzaib & Ch Abdur Rahman.
folklore came from Kunjah but the intellectual Dr. Qureshi Ahmad Hussain Qiladari had other ideas and he contradicted from this myth.
For now Kunjah has a modest type of culture i.e. it is semi-urban type. Both men and women wear shalwar qameez.
. Other festivals are also held but they are losing their touch nowadays due to the busy lives of the modern days and children getting more interested in the TV films and Computer Games rather than the oldies.
City and to other small towns surrounding Kunjah.
A town of the Poets
Kunjah have produced a number of (Shair's or) poets. The major and most of famous among them are:
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
located in Gujrat District
Gujrat District
Gujrat is a district of Punjab Province in Pakistan. It is an ancient district located in between two famous rivers, the Jhelum and Chenab. Because of its proximity with the rivers the land is good for cultivation with rice and sugar cane as main crops...
in the Punjab Province
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
, the inhabitants are called Kunjahi.
History
Various accounts date the founding of Kunjah anywhere from the 4th century BCE during the time of Alexander the Great to the 8th century CE. Kunjah is named after a rajaRaja
Raja is an Indian term for a monarch, or princely ruler of the Kshatriya varna...
named Kunjpal who is also often credited to be the founder of the town. Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
was brought to the region by the Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
Caliphate early in the 8th century and soon replaced Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
as the dominant religion. Kunjah grew in prominence in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Starting during the Muslim period, Kunjah was considered a strategically important town. Ibrahim Bin Masood used Kunjah as his main base for his attack of Hindustan
Hindustan
Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...
. In the Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
period, King Aurangzeb Alamgir
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
also visited Kunjah, and during his stay in Kunjah he built a mosque that is now named after him.
Kunjah prospered during the time of the Sikh Empire. In that period the town was home to a number of gardens, two royal palaces and a royal bathing pool connected by underground tunnels, and a baradari
Baradari
Baradari or Birâdrî means Brotherhood originating from the Persian word "Baradar" or "Birâdar" meaning "Brother". In Pakistan and India it is used to denote a number of social strata among South Asian Muslims...
that still stands today.there are many kinds of families specially Arians ( both local and muhajirs) wraich, gondal, khokhar, sahi& cheema are the popular families in kunjah. Many people are attach with agriculture and some are in army and the other diportments of Pakistan govt.
Demographics
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
, with a small Shi'a minority and a few Christians
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. There are about 50 mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s.Many residents live abroad, mainly in UK,l Italy, Spain and Greece.
Politics and Government
Kunjah lies in the NA 105 Gujrat-II halqa of Punjab for the national assembly elections. Aside from the local government and a regional police station, a police post in the centre of the city the national government is represented by a military signals station and a WAPDA subdivision.Education
The government operates seven schools: two primary schools for boys, two high schools for girls and one for boys, a boys higher secondary school and a girls inter-college. There are about 25 private schools.Economy
Most economic activity revolves around agriculture. The primary crops are wheatWheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
, tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
and vegetables. Farms are supplied with irrigation from the Upper Jehlum Canal, and tobacco production is supported by two tobacco factories and a research substation. The main bazaar
Bazaar
A bazaar , Cypriot Greek: pantopoula) is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area...
is a regional trade centre consisting of 500 shops.There is a biggest Travel Agency held in 2009 also named by Town, Kunjah Travels Intl.It gave the best Travel services at doorstep of Kunjah.It is the proudly production of Rana Aurangzaib & Ch Abdur Rahman.
Culture
People of Kunjah believed that The famous Sohni among the Sohni MahiwalSohni Mahiwal
Sohni Mahiwal and is included in seven popular tragic romances from Sindh and Baluchistan. The other six are Momal Rano, Umar Marvi, LiLa Chanesar, Noori Jam Tamachi, Sassi Punnun and Dhaj, Ror Kumar commonly known as Seven Queens of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai...
folklore came from Kunjah but the intellectual Dr. Qureshi Ahmad Hussain Qiladari had other ideas and he contradicted from this myth.
For now Kunjah has a modest type of culture i.e. it is semi-urban type. Both men and women wear shalwar qameez.
Fairs & Festivals
An annual fair is held in Kunjah on 4 August. It is held at the shrine of a cleric Shah Shujah Bukhari so it is also known to be an ursUrs
Urs is the death anniversary of a Sufi saint in South Asia, usually held at the saint's dargah . South Asian Sufis being mainly Chishtiyya, refer to their saints as lovers and God as beloved...
. Other festivals are also held but they are losing their touch nowadays due to the busy lives of the modern days and children getting more interested in the TV films and Computer Games rather than the oldies.
Sports
Cricket like all the other parts of the country is the game of choice for majority. Along with cricket, indoor games like snooker and billiard are also played. Some other games like chess, badminton and football are also played seasonally.Volleyball is being played in adjacent Villages.Transport
Only road transport is available. There is no railway station. The transport is available only in form of wagons and buses. Along with these the cars are available as taxis. The transport is available for GujratGujrat
Gujrat is a city in Pakistan. It is the capital of Gujrat District and the Gujrat Tehsil subdivision in the Punjab Province. People living in Gujrat refer to themselves as Gujratis, which sometimes leads to confusion with people from the Indian state of Gujarat which adjoins Pakistan...
City and to other small towns surrounding Kunjah.
Notable people from Kunjah
- Major Shabbir Sharif ShaheedShabbir SharifMajor Shabbir Sharif Rana was a Pakistani officer who received both the Sitara-e-Jurat and Nishan-e-Haider for his bravery.-Early life and military career:...
, holder of the Nishan-e-HaiderNishan-e-HaiderNishan-e-Haider or Nishan-e-Hyder is the highest military decoration given by Pakistan . It was established in 1957 after Pakistan became a Republic, however, it was instituted retrospectively from Independence in 1947...
, Pakistan's highest military award for bravery.
- Ahmad Ali Ghouri (Advocate) is a famous lawyer, PhD scholar and lecturer in law at University of the Punjab (Gujranwala Campus).
- Dr. Abdul Rahman Asif is a scientist (Toxicoproteomics & Stress Response Proteomics) at the Department of Clinical Chemistry, Goettingen Proteomics Forum, Georg-August-University, Germany.
A town of the Poets
Kunjah have produced a number of (Shair's or) poets. The major and most of famous among them are:
- Ghaneemat Kunjahi. Muhammad Akram Ghaneemat Kunjahi better known as Ghaneemat Kunjahi writer of Nairang e Ishq; One of the greatest Persian poet history has ever produced. He wrote the famous Persian masnavi in 1685 He was born and buried in Kunjah
- Shareef KunjahiShareef KunjahiShareef Kunjahi ) was a leading writer and poet of Punjabi. He was among the first faculty members of the Department of Punjabi Language at University of Punjab in 1970s and contributed to Punjabi literature as a poet, prose writer, teacher, research scholar, linguist, lexicographer and...
, (1915–2007) was one of the leading writers and poets of Punjabi language. He was among the first faculty members of the Department of Punjabi Language at University of Punjab in 1970s and contributed to Punjabi literature as a poet, prose writer, teacher, research scholar, linguist, lexicographer and translator.
- Yawar Abbas, (1977) A senior journalist of kunjah. chief editor Of Kunjah Times , Principal of Skyway Model School Kunjah , Gen.secratory of Kunjah Press Club. Student of Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad (M.Sc Mass Communication).
- :RANA AURANG ZAIB: (1978) is the vice President of Kunjah Murchents association & Also CEO of Kunjah Travels Intl
Media
Transmission of Radio Awaz FM 105 and cable service is available. Weekly newspaper KUNJAHTIMES is famous in print media.See also
- Punjab
- Gujrat DistrictGujrat DistrictGujrat is a district of Punjab Province in Pakistan. It is an ancient district located in between two famous rivers, the Jhelum and Chenab. Because of its proximity with the rivers the land is good for cultivation with rice and sugar cane as main crops...
- GujratGujratGujrat is a city in Pakistan. It is the capital of Gujrat District and the Gujrat Tehsil subdivision in the Punjab Province. People living in Gujrat refer to themselves as Gujratis, which sometimes leads to confusion with people from the Indian state of Gujarat which adjoins Pakistan...
- History of GujaratHistory of GujaratThe history of Gujarat, began with settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation that have been found in the region. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch, served as ports and trading centers in the Nanda, Maurya, Satavahana and Gupta empires as well as Western Kshatrapas period...
- Kiran Kiran Ghaneemat