1818
Siege of Multan
The setting
Multan, southern Punjab, in modern Pakistan
A brick fortress of long standing on the Chenab plain, invested through the hot season.
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideDurrani governorate of Multan
Recorded resultdefeated; Muzaffar Khan and several of his sons killed in the final assault
Sikh victory. Multan stormed on 2 June 1818 after a siege of roughly three months.
How the atlas explains it
Multan had held out against Sikh attempts repeatedly for a generation. What changed was not resolve but ordnance: a siege train heavy enough to breach the walls, and the organisation to keep it supplied through a hot-season investment. The fortress fell to logistics as much as to the assault.
What followed
The end of Afghan authority in southern Punjab and the first demonstration that the Sikh state could reduce a first-class fortress. ⚠ Note for the record what happens to this same city thirty years later: the revolt at Multan in 1848 begins the war that destroys the empire that took it here.