A Brief History of Pakistan By JAMES WYNBRANDT

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Introduction

Situated in the northwest corner of the Indian subcontinent, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan occupies a position of historic importance. Its strategic location, its role in the birth of civilization, and its influence as a crossroads of political and religious ideologies have kept it at the forefront of world events. Geographically, present-day Pakistan has long been a gateway between Eurasia and the subcontinent and between East and West. Its culture and history have been enriched by the countless invaders, traders, and settlers who have been a part of the region’s past. Some, like Alexander the Great and his army, merely passed through but left a lasting mark. Others, such as the Arab armies spreading the word of Islam and the British who imposed the ways of the West, became an integral part of the region’s culture and character. Some of humankind’s greatest works of art and architecture, of verse and word, were created here. Today the region again has taken an outsized role on the world stage: It is a linchpin in the global struggle against terrorism, a cauldron in the heated conflict between secular and theocratic rule, a poster nation for the struggle between autocracy and democracy, and a nuclear power whose relations with its neighbor India have made this one of the most unstable regions in the world.