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Bhimber

بھمبر
Bhimber بھمبر
	Bhimber City
	Bhimber Bhimber
	Coordinates: 32°58′29″N 74°04′23″E / 32.97472°N 74.07306°E
Administering country	Pakistan
Dependent Territory	Azad Kashmir
District	Bhimber
Government
• Chairman Municipal Corporation	Ch. Altaf Ibrahim
• Deputy Commissioner	Arshad Mehmood Jarral
Population (2017)
• Total	27,636
Time zone	UTC+5 (PST)
Postal code	10040
Dialling code	0092-05828
Website	Official Website

Bhimber (Urdu: بھمبر) is a town and the headquarters of the eponymous district in Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir. The town and district are between the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir and Pakistan proper, about 47 km (29 mi) by road southeast of Mirpur.

History

Bhimber was the capital of the Chibhal dynasty, which lasted from 1400 to 1856.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Bhimbar was listed in the Ain-i Akbari (c. 1595) as a mahal under Lahore Subah, counted as part of the Jech Doab. It was listed with an assessed revenue of 1,200,000 dams and was not listed as supplying any troops to the Mughal army.^[5]^: 322

Bhimber lies on the route that was followed by the Mughal Emperors for their frequent visits to the Kashmir Valley. It is also known as "Baab-e-Kashmir" (Door to Kashmir) because of its importance and geographical location, which was ideal for the Mughal Emperors to use to enter Kashmir. Therefore, the Mughals used Bhimber as a staging point for their journey to Srinagar. The Mughal Emperor Jahangir mentions Bhimber in his book Tuzk-e-Jahangiri.^[6]

Bhimber is also mentioned on page 19 of the famous Atlas Maior, published in 1665 by Joan Blue, a Dutch cartographer.

"Bimbar"

Modern history

In the 19th century, Chibhal came under the Maharaja Gulab Singh. Around 1822, along with Poonch, it was granted as a jagir (feudal land grant) to Raja Dhian Singh of the Dogra dynasty, Gulab Singh's brother. After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh court fell into disunity, and Dhian Singh was murdered in court intrigue. Subsequently, the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed under the suzerainty of the British Empire, and these territories were transferred to Jammu and Kashmir. The jagir given to Dhian Singh was respected, however, and Dhian Singh's sons Moti Singh and Jawahir Singh were retained as their Rajas.^[7]^[8]^[9]

In 1852, the brothers Jawahir and Moti Singh quarrelled, and the Punjab Board of Revenue awarded a settlement. Moti Singh was awarded the Poonch district, and Jawahir Singh was awarded Bhimber, Mirpur and Kotli.^[10]^[11] In 1859, Jawahir Singh was accused of 'treacherous conspiracy' by Maharaja Ranbir Singh (r. 1857–1885), who succeeded Gulab Singh. The British agreed with the assessment and forced Jawahir Singh to exile in Ambala. Ranbir Singh paid Jawahir Singh an annual stipend of Rs. 100,000 until his death, and appropriated his territory afterwards because Jawahir Singh had no heirs.^[12]

The appropriated territory was organised as the Bhimber district (wazarat) in 1860. In the decade preceding 1911, the district headquarters was shifted to Mirpur and it came to be called the Mirpur district.^[13]^[14] Bhimber remained a tehsil headquarters until 1947. It had a Hindu majority population, mostly consisting of Mahajans.^[15]

Geography and climate

Bhimber is a valley. Its hot, subhumid climate and other geographical conditions closely resemble those of Gujrat, the adjoining district in Punjab.

The climate in Bhimber is classified as warm and temperate. Summers have a good deal of rainfall; winters have much less. This location is classified as Cwa by Köppen. The average annual temperature is 23.6 °C (74.5 °F) with a yearly average rainfall of 974 mm (38.3 in). July and August are the wettest months. Temperatures are highest in June.^[16]

v t e Climate data for Bhimber, elevation: 325 m (1,066 ft)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F)	18.7 (65.7)	21.6 (70.9)	26.9 (80.4)	33.1 (91.6)	38.5 (101.3)	40.6 (105.1)	36.2 (97.2)	34.3 (93.7)	34.9 (94.8)	32.7 (90.9)	26.7 (80.1)	21 (70)	30.4 (86.8)
Daily mean °C (°F)	12.2 (54.0)	14.9 (58.8)	20 (68)	25.6 (78.1)	30.7 (87.3)	33.5 (92.3)	31.2 (88.2)	29.8 (85.6)	29.1 (84.4)	24.9 (76.8)	18.3 (64.9)	13.4 (56.1)	23.6 (74.5)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F)	5.7 (42.3)	8.2 (46.8)	13.1 (55.6)	18.2 (64.8)	23 (73)	26.5 (79.7)	26.3 (79.3)	25.4 (77.7)	23.3 (73.9)	17.1 (62.8)	10 (50)	5.9 (42.6)	16.9 (62.4)
Average rainfall mm (inches)	54 (2.1)	56 (2.2)	57 (2.2)	30 (1.2)	26 (1.0)	52 (2.0)	258 (10.2)	272 (10.7)	112 (4.4)	21 (0.8)	12 (0.5)	24 (0.9)	974 (38.2)
Source: Climate-Data.org^[16]

Notable people

Manzoor Mirza — economist
Ghulam Rasul Raja — Pakistan Army officer
Raja Muhammad Zulqarnain Khan — politician, ex-President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Chaudhry Anwarul Haq — 15th Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir

References

^ "Statistical Year Book 2019" (PDF). Statistics Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
^ Gulabnama of Diwan Kirpa Ram: A History of Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu & Kashmir, page 41
^ History of the Punjab Hill States by Hutchison and Vogel, reprinted edition, 2 volumes in 1 Chapter XXIV. 1933 AD
^ The Ancient Geography of India by Alexander Cunningham page 134 1871
^ Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak (1891). The Ain-i-Akbari. Translated by Jarrett, Henry Sullivan. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
^ Government of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Website. "Jahangir discussed Bhimber in his book Tuzk-e-Jahangiri". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
^ Panikkar, Gulab Singh 1930, pp. 121–123.
^ Brahma Singh, History of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles 2010.
^ Satinder Singh, Raja Gulab Singh's Role 1971, pp. 52–53.
^ Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History 2013, p. 232.
^ Panikkar, Gulab Singh 1930, p. 123.
^ Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History 2013, p. 233.
^ "A peep into Bhimber". dailyexcelsior.com. 6 November 2016. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
^ India Census Commissioner (1912), Census of India, 1911, Superintendent of government printing, India, archived from the original on 4 September 2021, retrieved 23 November 2018
^ Saraf, Kashmiris Fight for Freedom, Volume 2 2015, p. 238.
^ ^a ^b "Climate Bhimber". en.climate-data.org. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.