It was a sunny morning in February 2013 when Mohammad Irfan and his brother, who were sitting in their shop where they sold spectacles, heard a loud explosion.
“A loud blast sounded outside our store,” Irfan says as he recalls the horrific scenes he witnessed. “Windows shattered and the door of the shop burst open with the force of the blast. Outside, 20 people lay dead.”
Irfan has survived four attacks that took place in the same area of the city since 2007. This place is called the Qissa Khwani Bazaar (the storyteller’s market) because legend has it that in an earlier time, this place was frequented by those seeking stories and those ready to tell them.
Professional storytellers, according to historian and publisher Ibrahim Zia, came to the bazaar with caravans of traders from Iran, China, Afghanistan and other parts of central Asia. They would sit in the bazaar as the sun set and narrate tales of their travels and the latest news from distant lands. The locals would memorise these stories and share them with other people in the bazaar until a fresh batch of storytellers arrived.
In 1930, this place was also the site of an important moment in the movement for independence from British rule; here, troops opened fire on a group of protesters of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement, killing more than 20 people and wounding dozens of others.
A painting by Peshawar-based artist Sajid Ali
Chaos of a city in motion
The ravages of time have certainly frequented this bazaar, but there are many other things that are transforming the city around it.
As one drives in through the motorway or via the Grand Trunk Road, the city greets them with colourful rickshaws, decorated buses and scores of private vehicles. Traffic here is stressful as sometimes a minute’s journey can take hours. It is particularly painful during peak hours - for example, when people are returning home from work during weekdays.
If there is any fear, it is certainly not visible on the faces of everyday citizens of this city - perhaps years of violence have normalised it in their imagination. Or, perhaps after several military operations in the region, there is genuinely a greater sense of security.
The Androon Sheher (the Old City) has 16 gates for entry. Once upon a time, the entire population of the city resided between these gates. Now, it has expanded and most residents live outside of the older parts of the city. Peshawar’s regional catchment area extends all the way from Khyber Agency to Nowshera and from Badhber to Kohat Road.
“This rise in population has also reduced a sense of community and fraternity among citizens of the city. In the past, inside the 16 gates, the residents of Peshawar used to recognize each other and participated in each other’s lives. Now, everyone is a stranger,” says Ibrahim Zia, who owns a printing press, and is an author of three books on the city’s history.
Despite housing millions of refugees, both from Afghanistan and internally displaced citizens, the city seems to have no urbanisation plan which could manage the chaos of the city. Hundreds of thousands people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s rural areas migrate to the city for economic and social mobility. The continuous influx of people means the city’s growing population is becoming a burden on it as there is no mechanism that could bring order to the city’s unbridled expansion.
Cultural permutations
Zia says terrorism has affected every aspect of the city, including its culture.
Recalling the days when women and men could visit the cinema, Zia says every Monday silent films were screened in Peshawar. “There was no public transport or many private cars. Only rich people could afford cars and most travelled by foot across the city.”
“Then things began to change and waves of terrorism hit the city. Women were banned from entering the cinema and the number of cinemagoers dropped. The quality of films available to the public also fell and people stopped going simply out of fear.”
Now, most people prefer to visit cities like Islamabad for recreation.
“Peshawar has seen days when people from various nationalities came here for tourism and for business,” Zia says but this changed after 2001. Now, foreign tourists are a rare right.
There is a mix of Shia and Sunni residents in Peshawar. According to Zia, the first imam bargah in the city was constructed in 1864 by Agha Syed Mir Jaffar in Kocha Gul Badashah Ji area in the Androon Shehr. He was spokesperson of the British officer Colonel Henry Montgomery Lawrence in Peshawar when the area was ruled by the British.
Since Persian was the official language of the region, Lawrence brought Jaffar with along himself from Lucknow to translate the language into English for him.
“In those days, there was no trend of Muharram processions in the city and Shia families marked religious occasions in their private quarters. Zia says many people distributed meals among the poor.
“Now, everything has changed. People walk in Muharrram processions amid heightened security while the Androon Shehr is completely sealed.”
This font was created specially for TFT's Authenti(cities) series by Habib University student Zainab Kazmi. It is called 'Fracture' and works with the original font of Didot.
