Chitral, or Chitrāl, is the name of a town (35° 53' N; 71° 48' E), valley, river, district, and former princely state in the Malakand Division of the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan.

Chitral town, capital of the district, is situated on the west bank of the Chitral (or Kunar) River. The town is at the foot of the Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush, 7,708 m or 25,289 ft high. It has a population of about 20,000, while the District (of 14,833 sq km or 5,727 sq mi), had a population of about 222,000 in 1988. The altitude of the valley is about 1,100 m or 3,700 ft.

Chitral has for millennia been an important point on the trade routes from northern Afghanistan (ancient Bactria) and the Tarim Basin to the plains of Gandhara (in northern Pakistan), and the region near Jalalabad, in eastern Afghanistan.

It was under the control of the Kushans by the 2nd century CE. The people converted to Islam in the 11th century, and are members of the Ismaili sect headed by the Aga Khan. They were ruled by a family claiming descent from the Moghul emperor Babur from the 17th century until the British gained control of the region in 1889 and set up a garrison further north at Mastuj, from where they maintained control until the whole region became part of the new state of Pakistan in 1947.

The easiest route during summer (it was closed by snow in the winter), and the only one which also allowed the use of pack animals, went over the Baroghil Pass (3,798 m or 12,460 ft) to Mastuj and, from there, either east towards Gilgit, or southwest down the Chitral/Kunar Valley towards Jalalabad; a route which is open all year. This route was not only the easiest, but the most direct one to Kabul and all points south and west.

There is also a more difficult route over the dangerous Lowari Pass (3,200 m or 10,499 ft), 365 km (227 mi) south to the region of Peshawar. It is now jeepable, but used mainly because the easier route to Jalalabad is blocked by the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is also a 405 km (252 mi) route to Gilgit over the 3,719 m (12,201 ft) Shandur Pass.

The main tribe, the Kōs, speak Kowār (or Chitrali), a Dardic language which is also spoken in parts of Yasin, Gilgit and Swat.

References

• Leitner, G. W. 1893. Dardistan in 1866, 1886 and 1893: Being An Account of the History, Religions, Customs, Legends, Fables and Songs of Gilgit, Chilas, Kandia (Gabrial) Yasin, Chitral, Hunza, Nagyr and other parts of the Hindukush, as also a supplement to the second edition of The Hunza and Nagyr Handbook. And An Epitome of Part III of the author’s “The Languages and Races of Dardistan. First Reprint 1978. Manjusri Publishing House, New Delhi.
• Stein, Aurel M. 1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford. [1]
• Toynbee, Arnold J. 1961. Between Oxus and Jumna. Oxford University Press, London.

External links

• http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/chitral.htm