~Peshawar~ (34.1 N., 71.35 E.) is 276 miles from Lahore and 190 from Kabul. There is little doubt that the old name was Purushapura, the town of Purusha, though Abu Rihan (Albiruni), a famous Arab geographer, who lived in the early part of the eleventh century, calls it Parshawar, which Akbar corrupted into Peshawar, or the frontier fort. As the capital of King Kanishka it was in the second century of the Christian era a great centre of Buddhism (page 164). Its possession of Buddha's alms bowl and of yet more precious relics of the Master deposited by Kanishka in a great _stupa_ (page 203) made it the first place to be visited by the Chinese pilgrims who came to India between 400 and 630 A.D. Hiuen Tsang tells us the town covered 40 li or 6-3/4 miles. Its position on the road to Kabul made it a place of importance under the Moghal Empire. On its decline Peshawar became part of the dominions of the Durani rulers of Kabul, and finally fell into the hands of Ranjit Singh. His Italian general Avitabile ruled it with an iron rod. In 1901 it became the capital of the new N. W. F. Province. ~The Town~ lies near the Bara stream in a canal-irrigated tract. On the north-west it is commanded by the Bala Hissar, a fort outside the walls. The suburbs with famous fruit gardens are on the south side, and the military and civil stations to the west. The people to be seen in the _bazars_ of Peshawar are more interesting than any of its buildings. The Gor Khatri, part of which is now the _tahsil_, from which a bird's-eye view of the town can be obtained, was successively the site of a Buddhist monastery, a Hindu temple, a rest-house built by Jahangir's Queen, Nur Jahan, and the residence of Avitabile. The most noteworthy Muhammadan building is Muhabbat Khan's mosque. Avitabile used to hang people from its minarets. The Hindu merchants live in the quarter known as Andar Shahr, the scene of destructive fires in 1898 and 1913. Peshawar is now a well-drained town with a good water supply. It is an entrepot of trade with Kabul and Bokhara. From the former come raw silk and fruit, and from the latter gold and silver thread and lace _en route_ to Kashmir. The Kabuli and Bokharan traders carry back silk cloth, cotton piece goods, sugar, tea, salt, and Kashmir shawls.