Sindh

Sindh (Sindhī: سنڌ, Urdū: سندھ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhis. Different cultural and ethnic groups also reside in Sindh including urdu speaking people who migrated from India at the time of independence and partition as well as the people migrated from other provinces after independence. Neighbouring regions are Balochistan to the west and north, Punjab in the north, Rajasthan (India) to the east and the Arabian Sea and Gujarat (India) to the south. The main languages are Sindhi and Urdu. Known by various names in the past, the name Sindh comes from the Indo-Aryans whose legends claimed that the Indus River flowed from the mouth of a lion or Sinh-ka-bab. In Sanskrit, the province was dubbed Sindhu meaning "ocean". The Assyrians (as early as the seventh century BCE) knew the region as Sinda, the Persians Abisind, the Greeks Sinthus, the Romans Sindus, the Chinese Sintow, while the Arabs dubbed it Sind. It is mentioned to be a part of Abhirrdesh (Abhira Kingdom) in Srimad Bhagavatam. The origin of the name is from the Sanskrit 'Sindhu' or 'the sea,' because of the size of the Great River on the West. In ancient times, there were two regions in this area ('Sindh' on the west, extending up to the city of Multan and 'Hind' (modern India) on the east). Sindh was the first place where Islam spread in South Asia. As a result, it is often referred to as "Bab-al-Islam" (Gate of Islam).