Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Multan and the Alexander of Macedonia

alexander

Multan surfaces in the history from the Hindu "Rig Veda", which is claimed to have been written in Multan, its architects devised the perfect arch in buildings and wrote the first book on architecture. Then comes the Alexander of Macedonia, who in his last adventure to conquer India, came with his marching armies to Multan somewhere in 326 BC. And attempted to capture the capital of the Mallians, modern Multan, and it was here that he was wounded with an arrow on the protective wall of the old city fort, still known as the "Khooni Burj (the bloody bastion)". For the first time his sacred shield, which he had taken from the temple of Illion, Athena, and which he used always to be carried before him in all his battles, rolled in dust while he fell unconscious on the ground with blood gushing out from his wounds. 

But that was the scene which inspired the Macedonians and seeing their king in that state they launched a lightening attack and captured the citadel without any further harm to Alexander. He owed his survival to Abreas - who was killed - and Peucestas, and a bodyguard named Leonnatus, who protected the king with the sacred shield of Troy. The wound was very serious. For the rest of his life, the son of Zeus Ammon was to suffer pain, because the arrow had penetrated his lung and later died at Babylon and could not even rejoice his great victories back in Macedonia.

Tags: Places

For detailed history of Multan, visit Pakistanpaedia

1 comments:

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