History of Nowshera

Nowshera was founded by Zain Khan Koka. Emperor Jahangir in his "Tuzuk" while crossing Indus in 1016-H (1607-8 AD) writes that Zain Khan Koka built a fort on the southern side of Kamah (River Kabul) and named it as Noh-shahrah '.

"On the other side of the river Kama (river Kabul) there is a fort which Zain Khan Koka built at the time when he was appointed to subjugate the Yusufzai Afghans, and called Naushahra (New city). About 50,000 rupees were spent upon it. They say that Humayun used to hunt rhinoceros in this region." [The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri: or, Memoirs of Jahangir, Henry Beveridge's translation, p-102 ]

Old Nowshera is situated at a short distance to the east of Nowshera Cantonment with the present-day town of Nowshera to its north on the other side of the Kabul River. ["On a Foreign Approach to Khushhal" by Dost Muhammad Khan Kamil, p-139]

This fort is also mentioned in the reign of Shahjahan. ln the 14th regnal year (1641 A.D.) of the fatter, Daler Khan, the thanedar of Nowshera, was killed along with his kith and kin by the Yusufza'is. Locating the Nowshera fort, the Peshawar District Gazetteer 1897-98 (p. 374) records that "... about one and a half miles along the Peshawar road, close to the village of Nowshera Khurd, is an old masonry fort now in ruins.". This ruinous fort appears to have been levelled to ground and converted into agricultural field. [Quarterly Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society, 2002]

In 1674 Khushhal Khan Khattak staged an attack on the fort at Nowshera and carried it.

Grand Trunk Road near Nowshera, North West Frontier Province , c.1910. Photographed by R.B.Holmes

Y.M.C.A, Nowshera (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), ca.1929.

Boat bridge and Railway bridge,  Nowshera, 1919. Photo by R.B.Holmes

Nowshera, NWFP, Ice Factory, ca.1929

Nowshera Railway Station, c.1930

Nowshera City, 1915.

Native holiday, Nowshera c.1915

Native holiday, Nowshera c.1915

Flooded street, Nowshera, 1929

Nowshera, Ponton Boat Bridge on River Kalbul, Showing the River in Flood, 1929

Mall road Nowshera , c.1940

Nowshera Bridge over flooded river, 1929 

Flooded market street , Nowshera, 1929.

View of Attock fort from Khairabad after the great flood of 1929. Press Photo. Caption: " This photo shows a view of Attock, near Khairabad, after flood waters from the Indus had brought down great quantities of timber. The village folk had a gala day collecting the timber. A sea of water extended from Attock to the distant plains".

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