Peshawar is the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its largest city. It is the sixth-largest city in Pakistan, and the largest Pashtun-majority city in the country. Situated in the broad Valley of Peshawar east of the historic Khyber Pass, close to the border with Afghanistan, Peshawar’s recorded history dates back to at least 539 BCE, making it the oldest city in Pakistan and one of the oldest cities in South Asia.

In Ancient era, the city was known as Purushpura and served as the capital of the Kushan Empire under the rule of Kanishka and was home to the Kanishka stupa, which was among the tallest buildings in the ancient world. Peshawar was then ruled by the Hephthalites, followed by the Hindu Shahis, before the arrival of Muslim invaders. The city was an important trading centre during the Mughal era, before becoming part of the Pashtun Durrani Empire in 1747, and serving as their winter capital from 1776 until the capture of the city by the Sikh Empire in March 1823, who were followed by the British Indian Empire in 1846.

The modern name of the city “Peshawar” is derived from the Sanskrit word “Purushapura” (Sanskrit: पुरूषपुर Puruṣapura, meaning “City of Men ” or “City of Purusha”). It was named so by Mughal Emperor Akbar from its old name Parashawar, the meaning of which Akbar didn’t understand. The ruler of the city during its founding may have been a Hindu raja (King) named Purush; the word pur means “city” in Sanskrit. Sanskrit, written in the Kharosthi script, was the literary language employed by the Buddhist kingdoms which ruled over the area during its earliest recorded period. The city’s name may also be derived from the Sanskrit name for “City of Flowers,” Poshapura, a name found in an ancient Kharosthi inscription that may refer to Peshawar.

Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang’s 7th century account of a city in Gandhara called the city Po-la-sha-pu-lo (Chinese: 布路沙布邏, bùlùshābùló), and an earlier 5th century account by Fa-Hien records the city’s name as Fou-lou-sha (Chinese: 弗樓沙, fùlóshā), the Chinese equivalent of the Sanskrit name of the city, Purushapura. An ancient inscription from the Shapur era identifies a city in the Gandhara valley by the name pskbvr, which may be a reference to Peshawar.

The Arab historian and geographer Al-Masudi noted that by the mid 10th century, the city was known as Parashawar. The name was noted to be Purshawar and Purushavar by Al-Biruni.

The city began to be known as Peshawar by the era of Emperor Akbar. The current name is said by some to have been based upon the Persian for “frontier town” or, more literally, “forward city,” though transcription errors and linguistic shifts may account for the city’s new name. One theory suggests that the city’s name is derived from the Persian name “Pesh Awardan”, meaning “place of first arrival” or “frontier city,” as Peshawar was the first city in the Indian subcontinent after crossing the Khyber Pass. Akbar’s bibliographer, Abu’l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, lists the city’s name as both Parashāwar, transcribed in Persian as پَرَشَاوَر, and Peshawar (پشاور).