Cold, malnutrition and disease have resulted in…

The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore epitomizes the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era.

Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal Emperor, who has assumed the title 'Alamgir', meaning 'Conqueror of the World,’ had in 1671 ordered its construction.

Completed in April 1673, the huge mosque closely resembles that of the slightly smaller Jama Mosque in Delhi, which had been built in 1648 by Aurangzeb's father and predecessor, Shah Jahan.

The design of the mosque—bold, vast and majestic in its expression—is inspired by Islamic, Persian, Central Asian and Indian influences.

Capable of accommodating ten thousand worshipers in its main prayer hall and a further one hundred thousand in its courtyard and porticoes, it will remain the largest mosque in the world for a period of three hundred and thirteen years years, until overtaken in size in 1986 by the completion of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

Today, it remains the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca, the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

The Badshahi Mosque is today Lahore's most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction.

...advancing into the Punjab and capturing Lahore.

Nadir advances to the river Indus before the end of year as the Mughals muster their army against him.

Afghanistan, being a poor and backward country, cannot provide subsistence to its population or provide a financial support for running the government.

The primary objective of Ahmad Shah Durrani's invasion of India is to plunder the subcontinent's wealth of gold and precious gems, and to enslave men, women, and children to sell in the markets of Central Asia.

A secondary objective is to establish political hegemony in India, as he is familiar with the weakness of the  Mughal administration in Delhi.

Crossed the Khyber Pass in December 1747 with forty thousand men, he begins by occupying Peshawar, the first military post in Indian beyond Afghanistan.

Durrani next reaches Shahdara Bagh, a suburb of Lahore, on January 11, 1748, and defeats Shahnawaz Khan and Adina the following day.

His forces sack and absorb Lahore.

Flushed with victory, Durrani commands his troops to march Delhi.

The decline of the Mughal Empire has allowed the rise of the Sikhs in Punjab as a military force.

The Afghans hold Sindh and Punjab during the latter half of the 18th century.

In 1799, a young and crafty Sikh, Ranjit Singh, is granted governorship of Lahore.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, most of present Pakistan is under independent rulers.

The Mughal Empire had fallen apart after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, and had declined in its ability to tax or govern most of the Indian subcontinent.

In the northwestern region, particularly the Punjab, the creation of the Khalsa community of Sikh warriors by Guru Gobind Singh had accelerated the decay and fragmentation of the Mughal power in the region.

Raiding Afghans have attacked the Indus river valleys but met resistance from both organized armies of the Khalsa Sikhs as well as irregular Khalsa militias based in villages.

The Sikhs had appointed their own zamindars, replacing the previous Muslim revenue collectors, which provide resources to feed and strengthen the warriors aligned with Sikh interests.

Meanwhile, colonial traders and the East India Company had begun operations in India on its eastern and western coasts.

By the second half of the eighteenth century, the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent (now Pakistan and parts of north India) are a collection of fourteen small warring regions.

Of the fourteen, twelve are Sikh-controlled misls (confederacies), one named Kasur (near Lahore) is Muslim controlled, and one in the southeast is led by an Englishman named George Thomas.

This region constitutes the fertile and productive valleys of the five rivers—Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Bias and Sutlej.

The Sikh misls were all under the control of the Khalsa fraternity of Sikh warriors, but they are not united and constantly war with each other over revenue collection, disagreements, and local priorities; however, in the event of external invasion such as from the Muslim armies of Ahmed Shah Abdali from Afghanistan, they usually unite.

Towards the end of eighteenth century, the five most powerful misls are those of the Sukkarchakkia, Kanhayas, Nakkais, Ahluwalias and Bhangi Sikhs.

Ranjit Singh belongsto the first, and through marriage has a reliable alliance with Kanhayas and Nakkais.

Among the smaller misls, some, such as the Phulkias misl, switch loyalties in the late eighteenth century and support the Afghan army invasion against their Khalsa brethren.

The Kasur region, ruled by a Pathan-Muslim, always supports the Afghan invasion forces and joins them in plundering Sikh misls during the war.

Ranjit Singh's fame grows in 1797, at age seventeen, when the Afghan Muslim ruler Shah Zaman, of the Ahmad Shah Abdali dynasty, attempts to annex Panjab region into his control through his general Shahanchi Khan and twelve thousand soldiers.

The battle is fought in the territory that falls in Ranjit Singh controlled misl, whose regional knowledge and warrior expertise help resist the invading army.

This victory gains him recognition.

The Afghan ruler sends in another army, which Ranjit Singh does not resist, in 1798.

He lets them enter Lahore, then encircles them with his army, blocks off all food and supplies, and burns all crops and food sources that could support the Afghan army.

Much of the Afghan army retreats back to Afghanistan.

Raja Ranjit Singh's army of twenty-five thousand Khalsa, supported by another twenty-five thousand Khalsa led by his mother-in-law Rani Sada Kaur of Kanhaiya misl, in a joint operation in July 1799, attack the region controlled by Bhangi Sikhs centered around Lahore.

The rulers escape, marking Lahore as the first major conquest of Ranjit Singh, a key step in establishing the Sikh Empire, and his becoming Maharaja of the Punjab.

The Sufi Muslim and Hindu population of Lahore welcome the rule of Ranjit Singh.

Ranjit Singh is invested by Sahib Singh Bedi—a direct descendant of Guru Nanak, as the "Maharaja of Punjab" by applying a saffron mark on his forehead in a formal ceremony on April 12, 1801—the new year in the Hindu calendar.

He calls his rule "Sarkar Khalsa", and his court as "Darbar Khalsa".

The kingdom of Lahore is at its most powerful and expansive during the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who extends Sikh control beyond Peshawar, adding Kashmir to his dominions in 1819.