Multan has not produced a great deal of literature in English, but a few books help make sense of the place — the Indus geography that gave it its strategic importance, the regional Saraiki language and poetry tradition, and the long shadow of the great Suhrawardiyya saints whose shrines dominate the city.
Empires of the Indus — Alice Albinia's 2008 travelogue follows the Indus river from the Arabian Sea up to its source in Tibet, and she spends a long chapter in Multan — the city that sits between the Chenab and the Indus and that has been a strategic prize for every empire that has tried to control either river. The Multan section weaves together the visit to the Shah Rukn-e-Alam shrine, the legacy of Muhammad bin Qasim's 712 AD conquest and the modern texture of bazaars and Sufi music.
It is the best contemporary English introduction to the city's place in South Asian history, and a model of travel writing that takes both the past and the present seriously.
Bahaa-uddin Zakariya Multani: His Life and Times — A scholarly but accessible biography of the saint whose shrine dominates the fort mound of Multan and who gave the city its character as a Sufi centre. The book traces Bahauddin Zakariya's training in Baghdad under Shihab-ud-Din Suhrawardi, his decision to settle in Multan in the 1220s, his complicated relationship with the early Delhi sultans, and the institutional Suhrawardiyya tradition that he founded and that survives in the shrine to this day.
It is the most comprehensive English-language account of the man and a useful companion to a serious visit to the shrines.
A Critical History of Saraiki Literature — Saraiki is the regional language of southern Punjab and the everyday speech of Multan — distinct from Punjabi proper, with its own poetry tradition built on the mystical kafi form perfected by Khwaja Ghulam Farid in the nineteenth century. Christopher Shackle's slim academic study is the best introduction in English, with translations of the major poets and a clear sketch of the cultural geography around Multan, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.
It will not appeal to everyone, but for anyone who finds themselves listening to the qawwali singers at the Shah Shams or Bahauddin Zakariya shrines and wondering what language the audience is responding to, this is the answer.