Editing Peshawar (section)

== Etymology ==
[[File:Peshawar Main Street by Panjab Digital Library.jpg|thumb|A vintage photo postcard of the main street, Peshawar. Digitized by [[Panjab Digital Library]].]]
The modern name of the city "Peshawar" is possibly derived from the [reconstructed] Sanskrit word "Purushapura" ({{Langx|sa|पुरूषपुर}} ''Puruṣapura'', meaning "City of Men" or "City of Purusha").<ref name="Hiro2012">{{cite book |last1=Hiro |first1=Dilip |title=Apocalyptic Realm: Jihadists in South Asia |date=2012 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-17378-9 |language=en |quote=Of the sixteen gates of the historic walled city of Peshawar (derivative of Purushapura, meaning "town of men" in Sanskrit), the best known is the Kabuli Gate.}}</ref><ref name="Jones2019">{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Barry |title=Dictionary of World Biography: Sixth edition |date=2019 |publisher=ANU Press |isbn=978-1-76046-287-1 |page=469 |language=en |quote=His empire extended to Afghanistan, parts of Iran and northern India-Pakistan, and his capital Purushpura is the modern Peshawar, where he built an enormous stupa. He sent Buddhist missionaries to China.}}</ref><ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book |title=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland |url=https://archive.org/details/journalroyalasi11irelgoog |access-date=13 December 2012 |year=1834 |publisher=Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. |pages=[https://archive.org/details/journalroyalasi11irelgoog/page/n138 114]–}}</ref> It was named so by [[Akbar|Mughal Emperor Akbar]] from its old name ''Parashawar'', the meaning of which Akbar did not understand.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dept |first=North-West Frontier Province (Pakistan) Information |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rqQ0AQAAIAAJ&q=Pesh+Awardan+Akbar |title=Yearbook |date=1955 |language=en |access-date=7 November 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070345/https://books.google.com/books?id=rqQ0AQAAIAAJ&q=Pesh+Awardan+Akbar |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite book |last=Nadiem |first=Ihsan H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_1tAAAAMAAJ&q=Pesh+Awardan+Akbar |title=Peshawar: Heritage, History, Monuments |date=2007 |publisher=Sang-e-Meel Publications |isbn=978-969-35-1971-6 |language=en |access-date=7 November 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070251/https://books.google.com/books?id=9_1tAAAAMAAJ&q=Pesh+Awardan+Akbar |url-status=live }}</ref> The ruler of the city during its founding may have been a Hindu [[raja]] named Purush; the word ''[[pur (Vedic)|pur]]'' means "city" in Sanskrit.<ref name="Jaffar1952">{{cite book |last1=Jaffar |first1=S. M. |title=An Introduction to Peshawar |date=1952 |publisher=S.M.S. Khan |language=en |quote=The old name Purushapura is said to have been derived from Purush, a Raja whose seat of government it is stated to have been.}}</ref><ref name="GOP1954">{{cite book |title=The North-West Frontier Province Year Book |date=1954 |publisher=[[Government of Pakistan]] |page=47 |language=en |quote=The old name Purushpura is said to have been derived from Purush, after a Raja whose seat of government it is stated to have been.}}</ref><ref name="CottonBurnMeyer1909">{{cite book |last1=Cotton |first1=James Sutherland |last2=Burn |first2=Sir Richard |last3=Meyer |first3=Sir William Stevenson |title=Imperial Gazetteer of India |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UT0KAQAAIAAJ |date=1909 |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UT0KAQAAIAAJ/page/n503 463] |language=en |quote=Purushapura, seat of king Purush, Peshawar probably derived from, xx. 124.}}</ref> Sanskrit, written in the [[Kharosthi]] script, was the literary language (along with [[Gandhari Prakrit]]) employed by the [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] kingdoms which ruled over the area during its earliest recorded period.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rtYskEpemWgC&q=gandhara+sanskrit&pg=PA143 |title=Gandharan Buddhism: Archaeology, Art, and Texts |last1=Behrendt |first1=Kurt |last2=Brancaccio |first2=Pia |date=1 November 2011 |publisher=UBC Press |isbn=978-0-7748-4128-3 |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070249/https://books.google.com/books?id=rtYskEpemWgC&q=gandhara+sanskrit&pg=PA143 |url-status=live }}</ref> The city's name may also be derived from the Sanskrit name for "City of Flowers," ''Poshapura,'' a name found in an ancient Kharosthi inscription that may refer to Peshawar''.''<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R8QGAQAAIAAJ&q=peshawar+poshapura |title=Peshawar: Historic City of the Frontier |last=Dani |first=Ahmad Hasan |date=1969 |publisher=Khyber Mail Press |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070252/https://books.google.com/books?id=R8QGAQAAIAAJ&q=peshawar+poshapura |url-status=live }}</ref>

Chinese Buddhist monk [[Xuanzang]]'s seventh-century account of a city in Gandhara called the city ''Po-la-sha-pu-lo'' ([[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 布路沙布邏, ''bùlùshābùló'')'','' and an earlier fifth-century account by [[Faxian|Fa-Hien]] records the city's name as ''Fou-lou-sha'' ([[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 弗樓沙, ''fùlóshā'')'','' the Chinese equivalent of the Sanskrit name of the city, Purushapura.<ref>{{cite book |title=Bulletin of the Asia Institute, Volume 7 |date=1994 |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |pages=55 |language=en |quote=As the Fu-lou-sha of Fa-hsien is also identifiable as Peshawar, the fifth-century Chinese transcription of Purushapura can clearly be equated with the seventh-century Pu-lu-sha, the equivalent syllables for pu-lo, representing the Sanskrit pura ...}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOj_AwAAQBAJ&q=fu+lou+sha&pg=PA239 |title=A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-Yang |last=Yang |first=Hsüan-chih |date=14 July 2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5754-8 |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070258/https://books.google.com/books?id=lOj_AwAAQBAJ&q=fu+lou+sha&pg=PA239 |url-status=live }}</ref> An ancient inscription from the Shapur era identifies a city in the Gandhara valley by the name ''pskbvr,'' which may be a reference to Peshawar.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9oUAAAAIAAJ&q=peshawar+%E2%80%9Cold+persian%E2%80%9D&pg=PA370 |title=Analecta Orientalia Posthumous Writings and Selected Minor Works |publisher=Brill Archive |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070302/https://books.google.com/books?id=P9oUAAAAIAAJ&q=peshawar+%E2%80%9Cold+persian%E2%80%9D&pg=PA370 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Arab historian and geographer [[al-Masudi]] noted that by the mid-tenth century, the city was known as ''Parashāwar''. The name was noted to be ''Purshawar'' and ''Purushavar'' by [[al-Biruni]].<ref name="asc-centralasia.edu.pk">{{Cite web |url=https://www.asc-centralasia.edu.pk/Issue_69/07_waqar.html |title=Ancient Peshawar:Historical Review of Some of its Socio-Religious and Cultural Aspects |website=asc-centralasia.edu.pk |access-date=19 July 2019 |quote=The famous Muslim historian and geographer al-Masudi (871–957 AD), also known as the 'Herodotus of the Arabs' for he wrote a 30-volume history of the world, spelt Peshawar as Pershadwar. Purshawar or Purushavar: Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni (973–1048 AD), the Arab geographer and historian records two variants for Peshawar; Purshawar and Purushavar. |archive-date=19 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190719134124/https://www.asc-centralasia.edu.pk/Issue_69/07_waqar.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The city began to be known as ''Peshāwar'' by the era of Emperor [[Akbar]].<ref name="bosworth" /> The current name is said by some to have been based upon the [[Persian language|Persian]] word for "frontier town"<ref name="bosworth">{{cite book |last1=Bosworth |first1=Clifford Edmund |title=Historic Cities of the Islamic World |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004153882 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UB4uSVt3ulUC&q=ancient+peshawar |access-date=24 March 2017 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070250/https://books.google.com/books?id=UB4uSVt3ulUC&q=ancient+peshawar |url-status=live }}</ref> or, more literally, "forward city", though transcription errors and linguistic shifts may account for the city's new name. One theory suggests that the city's name is derived from the Persian name "Pesh Awardan", meaning "place of first arrival" or "frontier city", as Peshawar was the first city in the Indian subcontinent after crossing the [[Khyber Pass]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/peshawarhistoric0000dani |url-access=registration |quote=Peshawar has long been known as "the Fountier—town." Standing right at the mout of the world-famous Khyber Pass, it holds the key to the gateway of the subcontinent of Pakistan and India. |title=Peshawar: Historic City of the Frontier |last=Dani |first=Ahmad Hasan |date=1995 |publisher=Sang-e-Meel Publications |isbn=9789693505542 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wkg8AAAAMAAJ&q=pesh+awardan+peshawar |title=Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan |last=Pakistan |first=Research Society of |date=1965 |language=en |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070252/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wkg8AAAAMAAJ&q=pesh+awardan+peshawar |url-status=live }}</ref> Akbar's bibliographer, [[Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak]], lists the city's name as both ''Parashāwar'', transcribed in Persian as {{langx|fa|پَرَشَاوَر|label=none}},<ref>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 2, Issue 1 – Volume 3, Issue 2 |date=1965 |publisher=Research Society of Pakistan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wkg8AAAAMAAJ&q=parashawar |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307070255/https://books.google.com/books?id=Wkg8AAAAMAAJ&q=parashawar |url-status=live }}</ref> and ''Peshāwar'' ({{langx|fa|پشاور|label=none}}).<ref>{{cite journal |title=Journal of Central Asia |journal=Journal of Central Asia |year=1996 |volume=19}}</ref>