Umarkot

Umarkot, also called Amarkot, stands at the edge of the Thar Desert in eastern Sindh. Its fort was held by the Sodha Rajput rulers, who governed a frontier between the Indus plain and the desert states of Rajasthan. The town’s history is remembered in Sindhi stories as well as in the chronicles of the Mughal Empire.

In 1542 the Mughal emperor Humayun, driven from his kingdom by Sher Shah Suri, found refuge with Rana Prasad of Umarkot. Humayun’s son Akbar was born there during the family’s exile and would later establish one of the great empires of South Asia. In the eighteenth century Nur Muhammad Kalhora attacked Umarkot and demolished its older fort. The town remained a contested stronghold between Sindh and neighbouring Rajput powers.