ai Kolachi’s tale lives on in lore, breathing with the calm of the unruffled sea and the vigour of its ebullient waves – much like the way she expressed joy at the return of a family member, thought lost to a cyclone when all hope had been abandoned. When hope fades, many turn to Mai Kolachi, grasping her guiding hand as she leads them through despair.

Mai Kolachi is often imagined proudly walking alone along the shoreline, as though she is the last and only queen of an unconquered kingdom. Today, a city is believed to bear her name albeit in a corrupted form – Karachi, the city by the sea.

Legend says Mai Kolachi, a courageous woman, lost her husband or son to the sea. Convinced that he was drowned, no fishermen dared venture into the surging, treacherous waters to look for him. But Mai Kolachi refused to give up. After days of battling the angry waters, she returned triumphant, bringing back the man.

The fishermen bore witness to her extraordinary courage, and in recognition of her resolve, the village where she lived was named after Mai Kolachi. Her story endures as a testament to her bravery and determination.

The deep and enduring connection established by this tale extends beyond the sea’s place in the etymology and history of Karachi. It offers a lens through which to understand coastal societies, their culture and the celebration of the sea, all of which continue to shape the imagination of Karachi as a “woman city.” The idea resonates with titles such as malika (queen), a designation proposed in one of the earliest Urdu histories of Karachi written at the end of the colonial period.

The 18th-Century poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, in Sur Saamondi, one of his thirty surs, describes a coastal space rich with references to voyages and the sea. These oceanic connections, developed over centuries, find an echo in historic texts. Accounts of Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca from Karachi, journeys to Hindu religious sites and other inward pilgrimages highlight the region’s deep relationship with the sea.

Today, seas and oceans are studied through ecological and environmental lenses, with concerns about diminishing mangroves and rising sea levels posing significant threats to human life. Simultaneously, the water bodies are framed as sites of connection – spaces that forge links between countries and regions. In the social sciences, emerging research explores how marine interactions shaped the world through trade, migration, travel and pilgrimage.

Karachi’s port, built during the latter half of the 19th Century, was geographically positioned at the western edge of British India. It became one of the busiest sea routes following the opening of the Suez Canal. However, the coastline has a much older history as a trading and travel route, dating back to the times of the Mesopotamian civilisation. Historical accounts, such as those of Alexander’s army, and the influence of maritime powers like the Ottomans and Portuguese, underscore the region’s significance in Islamicate paths that connected the Indian subcontinent to the wider world.

In modern history, the ways in which the Ottomans and Portuguese controlled the Indian Ocean and their connections to Karachi remain underexplored chapters. It is time to reflect on how the sae shaped Karachi – not just its transformation from a village into a major city, but also how it has remained a constant presence in its history. The ocean continues to shape imaginations and is celebrated as a vital part of Karachi’s identity today.

It is time to reflect on how the sea shaped Karachi – not just its transformation from a village into a major city, and how it has remained a constant presence in its history.

In November 1947, Mahmooda Rizvia produced one of the earliest works on Karachi’s history, titled Malka-i-Mashriq. This was the first book on the history of Karachi written in Urdu. The title, meaning Queen of the East, was borrowed from a British officer’s description of the city. In the book, Rizvia writes: “A faded sketch of the history of Karachi is in front of you (readers). To carry this work further and to amend it is the job of authors and historians, regardless of whether they do it today or in the future.”

Rizvia’s work highlights the gaps and limitations in historical writing. Beyond her contribution to the documentation of Karachi’s past, she was actively engaged in Urdu literary circles during the colonial period. Among her notable works is her travelogue, which significantly enriched Urdu travel writing, particularly in how the sea was imagined and introduced in literary production.

Her account of a visit to Iraq was inspired by her readers, who urged her to write this public history. Reading this text sheds light on seafaring and pilgrimage via the Arabian Sea from Karachi to Arabia, particularly to Muslim holy sites during the colonial period. It reflects how such voyages shaped the subjectivities of the masses.

Another key work by Rizvia, Duniya-i-Shehrzad, was first published in August 1945. It further showcased her literary prowess and contribution to Urdu literature.

In History of Iraq, the first chapter of her travelogue documenting a three-month journey across the Arabian Sea from Karachi to Iraq in 1944, Rizvia begins by describing the beauty and serenity of the Arabian Sea, writing: “Sometimes tranquil and sometimes inclined to be boisterous – those waves of the Arabian Sea are always gambolling, whispering and playing like mischievous children with the shore of Karachi clearly visible from the window of my room. I am addicted to enjoying these delightful moments all day. Even so to this day, I have not been able to comprehend these sea waves’ secrets of their fury and restlessness, agitation and perplexity.” Later, she draws a connection between the Arabian Sea and the rivers of Iraq. Reflecting on this oceanic imagination, Rizvia writes: “These frenzied waves are born out of the Tigris and the Euphrates, pass through the Shatt al-Arab and reach the Persian Gulf. From there, these wandering waves move to the shore of Karachi where they ultimately ease to exist. From the very first day, the sea has been the venue of my imaginations and invited me to learn life’s lessons.”

Mostly written in Urdu and Persian, accounts like Rizvia’s Duniya-i-Shehrzad that document the journeys of travellers and pilgrims – many from the Indian Muslim nobility – offer valuable insights into seafaring communities in the Gulf, their subjectivities and the processes of reconstructing identities and engaging with modernism. As Professor Nishat Zaidi argues, “During the Nineteenth Century, travel across the Indian Ocean was, for Islamic modernists, a crucial part of the project of constructing a trans-national Islamic identity. In this context, ships travelling across the British Empire became fraught sites leading to emancipation and social change. Movement through the oceanic space made these Muslim travellers ontologically experience their religious identity in terms of food and clothing.”

Many coastal communities trace their origins to ancestors who migrated via sea routes, though the tales of their survival and voyages are seldom recorded. Among them, many Parsis recount the arduous journeys they undertook and the lives lost during their emigration to Karachi. The sea and sailing stand out as central symbols of Zoroastrian migration to India following the Muslim conquest of Iran.

From Parsi popular imagination to their expertise in the shipping industry, many Parsis gained renown as skilled shipbuilders along the coast of Gujarat. These maritime symbols resurfaced in the 19th Century during the Steam Age, a period that revolutionised travel and facilitated Parsi pilgrimages to Iran. Today, some Parsis incorporate these motifs as corporate symbols for their businesses.

The sea, boats and sailing hold deep significance for the Parsi community. A recently popularised Gujarati folk song, Gotilo, recounts the voyage and adventures of a sailor navigating the shores of Gujarat. The song vividly brings to life the expansive oceanic space, stretching all the way to Karachi.

In the coastal space where the Arabian Sea meets the city, Karachi asserts its identity as a “city by the sea.” The peripheral communities, such as fisherfolk living on the islands of the Arabian Sea, are often marginalised, alienated, exoticised, and, in some cases, fetishised by the urban centre. The imagery of Karachi’s coastline reflects a sea that symbolises the city’s diversity – a source of pride and fascination.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, a new trend emerged in the city’s self-fashioning. Musical shows and pop music gatherings along the seaside, as well as music videos from Pakistan’s burgeoning pop music industry, highlighted the sea as Karachi’s defining feature. This connection to the sea became central to the city’s cultural identity.

Karachi’s past remains a source of nostalgia and longing for revival – a past often depicted through vintage photographs that portray the city in its former glory. Commonly referred to as the “Paris of the East,” Karachi is frequently compared to other iconic port cities like Bombay and Beirut.

Amitav Ghosh, in many of his novels, constructs worlds shaped by oceans, offering a valuable resource for historians to re-imagine and write about maritime histories. Yet, the ocean remains conspicuously absent from the historical imagination of Karachi. How can the ocean become a subject for probing storytellers? How can we write about a city and envision its past through the lens of the ocean – one that connects the many communities who built it, made it their home and are integral to its history?

Karachi’s past, marked by epochs of violence, and its fractured present demand a reimagining that incorporates the voices of its coastal inhabitants and those who experience the sea. To understand and narrate the city’s history, we need to explore perspectives rooted in its maritime identity. Karachi itself seems to call for a fresh interpretation of its past.

As Mahmooda Rizvia noted in one of the earliest histories of Karachi, it is a task for writers and historians. Today, Rizvia’s appeal resonates more than ever, inviting new voices to delve into Karachi’s complex history and re-imagine the city through its relationship with the ocean.

The excerpts of Mahmooda Rizvia’s Urdu travelogue, Duniya-i-Shehrzad are translated by Ammad Ali.

The writer is a historian, travel writer and translator. He researches on intellectual history, Persianate world connections and early Indian cinema