Driving along the Makran coastal highway, a 653 km national highway connecting Sindh’s Karachi to Balochistan’s Gwadar, one is mesmerised by the jagged cliffs, the soft dunes and the turquoise water which is framed effortlessly by these endless peaks.

It might be one of the most scenic coastal drives in the world, but it’s also “one of the most barren regions lying between South and West Asia.”

To some, driving through Balochistan might even feel as if they’re locked in the heart of a desert. This makes it almost impossible to imagine a time when Makran was a juncture of economic activity, bustling with traders and artisans.

Huzaifa Nizam, founder of a history website, Industales.com, has constructed a Twitter thread in which he broke down the history of the land of Makran.

Citing Arab Muslim writers and geographers, Surat al Ard Ibn Hawqal, Kitab al Masalik wal Mamalik Al Istakhri, and Ahsan al Taqasim Al Muqaddasi from VF Piacentini’s book ‘Traces of Early Muslim Presence in Makran,’ Nizam pens down how an economical and cultural crossroad ceased to exist in the modern world.

Muslim historians define Makran as a region “with densely populated cities surrounded by orchards, gardens, cultivated fields and large harbours,” tweeted Nizam.

These cities, however, served as centres of all kinds of activities of urban life. Land and sea trade with Central, West and South Asia, all the way to China used to take place here.

People from every part of the world were found in the region. “From Basrah, Fars, Khorasan, Kirman, Sijistan, Balkh, Samarqand and every district of Sind and Hind with all trade items of these areas easily available in Makran,” added Nizam.

The native product of the land were dates of the finest quality.

Some of its major cities included Kech, Panjgur, Puhlpara, Ispak, Bela and Tiz.

“Similarly areas of Basrah which received this great amount of Makran trade eventually housed such a large amount of South Asians, that parts of it such as Al-Ubulla were called the ‘Land of Hind’ and more so ‘Marsan Al Hind wa Sind’,” wrote Nizam.

Basrah is an Iraqi city located on the river Shatt al-Arab.

What led to the collapse of the cosmopolitan life of Makran was the two centuries of consecutive disorder caused by the devastating nomadic raids at the hands of Seljuks, Mongols and other such groups.

It was after the 11th century that urban life in the Makran region ceased to exist.