Ayasho

The Ayasho were the royal house of the Hunza valley, known in Burushaski as Ayeshé, meaning heavenly or heaven-born, a name that reflects the Burusho tradition that their rulers' authority came from the sky.

Burushaski-speaking and later Nizari Ismaili in faith, they took the title Thum, later Mir, and traced their line to the legendary Persian prince Azar Jamshid; tradition holds that Shah Khan, called Ayasho I, founded the house in 874 after the earlier Girkis dynasty.

Hunza remained an independent mountain principality for more than nine centuries under the Ayasho, its seat at Baltit above the valley capital. In the sixteenth century Ayasho II married Shah Khatun, a princess of Skardu, and artisans sent by her father rebuilt Baltit Fort in Tibetan-influenced form.