Samma dynasty

The Samma dynasty was a Muslim Sindhi dynasty that ruled Sindh from the mid-fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. It was founded by Unar bin Babinah, who defeated the last Soomra emir and declared independence from the Delhi Sultanate around 1351. The Sammas took the title jam, equivalent to sultan, and made their capital at Samanagar, the site of modern Thatta. Their realm controlled the lower Indus, the port of Lahari Bandar and the trade routes linking Sindh with Gujarat, Multan and the Indian Ocean. The dynasty prospered through commerce and agriculture and left its mark on Sindhi architecture, above all the vast Makli Necropolis near Thatta, where its rulers and nobles were buried. Samma power declined amid disputes among the jams and pressure from neighbouring states, and in the early sixteenth century the Arghun dynasty conquered Sindh, ending Samma rule around 1520. Samma jams also patronised the Suhrawardi Sufi order, whose shrines at Uch and Multan linked Sindh to wider Islamic networks.