page_title: Khambhat
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Khambhat / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Oriental memoirs&#160;: selected and abridged from a series of familiar letters written during seventeen years residence in India&#160;: including observations on parts of Africa and South America, and a narrative of occurrences in four India voyages&#160;: illustrated by engravings from original drawings
context_page_description: Khambhat, also known as Khambat and Cambay, is a town and the surrounding urban agglomeration in Khambhat Taluka, Anand district in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was once an important trading center, but its harbour gradually silted up, and the maritime trade moved to Surat. Khambat lies on an alluvial plain at the north end of the Gulf of Khambhat, noted for the extreme rise and fall of its tides, which can vary as much as thirty feet in the vicinity of Khambat. Khambat is known for its halvasan, sutarfeni and kites, and for sources of oil and gas.
  Khambat is perhaps the only place in India where the Harappan craft -agate bead making- is found in the living tradition. Surprisingly Khambat has no stone deposits; the craft has survived mainly through acquiring stones from the Rajpipla hills, about 200 km away from the town. In the folklore of Khambat, the beginning of the craft is attributed to Baba Ghor, a 1500 AD saint from Ethiopia who had led a large contingent of Muslims to settle in the town. However, in the archaeological record the origin of the craft can be traced to nearby Lothal, a Harappan outpost that flourished about 4000 years ago.
context_section_description: Cambay was formerly a flourishing city, the seat of an extensive trade, and celebrated for its manufactures of silk, chintz and gold stuffs. The Arab traveler al-Mas'udi visited the city in 915 AD, describing it as a very successful port; it was mentioned in 1293 by Marco Polo, who, calling it Cambaet, noted it as a busy port. He mentions that the city had its own king. Indigo and fine buckram were particular products of the region, but much cotton and leather was exported through Cambay. In the early 1340s, the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta remarked on its impressive architecture and cosmopolitan population. 
  "Cambay is one of the most beautiful cities as regards the artistic architecture of its houses and the construction of its mosques. The reason is that the majority of its inhabitants are foreign merchants, who continually build there beautiful houses and wonderful mosques -- an achievement in which they endeavour to surpass each other."
  An Italian traveler, Marino Sanudo, said that Cambeth was one of India's main two ocean ports. Another Italian, visiting in about 1440, Niccolò de' Conti, mentions that the walls of the city were twelve miles in circumference. The Kothi gateway traditioally believed to be constructed by an English factory is in fact a 14th-century gate, probably dating to the 1330s, of Tughluq era.
  The Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa visited the city, which he calls Cambaia, in the early sixteenth century.
  His description of the city is very full. He states:
  "Entering by Guindarim [Gandhar port, Bharuch], which is within on the river, there is a great and fair city called Cambaia in which dwell both 'mouros' [Muslims] and 'gentios' [Hindus]. Therein are many fair houses, very lofty, with windows and roofed with tiles in our manner, well laid out with streets and fine open places, and great buildings of stone and mortar."(translation of )
  He describes the city as very busy and affluent, with merchants coming frequently by sea from the world around.
  Owing principally to the gradually increasing difficulty of access by water by the silting up of the gulf, its commerce has long since fallen away, and the town became poor and dilapidated. The spring tides rise upwards of 30 ft (10 m) and in a channel usually so shallow that it is a serious danger to shipping. By 1900, the trade was chiefly confined to the export of cotton. The town was celebrated for its manufacture of agate and carnelian ornaments, of reputation, principally in China.
  The houses in many instances are built of stone (a circumstance which indicates the former wealth of the city, as the material had to be brought from a very considerable distance); and remains of a brick wall, three miles (five km) in circumference, which formerly surrounded the town, enclose four large reservoirs of good water and three bazaars. To the southeast there are very extensive ruins of subterranean temples and other buildings half-buried in the sand by which the ancient town was overwhelmed. These temples belong to the Jains and contain two massive statues of their deities: one black, the other white. The principal one, as the inscription intimates, is Pariswanath or Parswanath, carved in the reign of the emperor Akbar; the black one has the date of 1651 inscribed.
  A few members of Shia community settled in Khambhat during 18th century from Iran. Among these the most known was Nawab Mohammed Jaffar Ali Khan Najamesani and his son Nawab Yavar Ali khan Najamesani. Nawab Yavar Ali khan Najamesani ruled 84 villages when he was crowned as a Nawab. Nawab Yavar Ali Khan was titled Sarkar Sahab (Governing Prince), because he was able to maintain peace and unity. The name Cambay to Khambhat was also given by Nawab Yavar Ali Khan during Pre-independence period. Nawab Yavar Ali Khan passed away in July 1996. His family still lives in Khambhat.
caption: Mohman Khan Nawab of Cambay
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