Conquest of Multan

Who: The Khalsa army sent by Ranjit Singh, with Prince Kharak Singh as nominal commander and Misr Diwan Chand commanding in the field; Hari Singh Nalwa was among the commanders, and the Akali (Nihang) jathas fought in the assault. Against them stood Nawab Muzaffar Khan Sadozai, the ruler of Multan, and his garrison.

What: Multan had beaten off Sikh expeditions before; Akali Phula Singh led a storming party in the sixth attack, in 1816. In 1818 Ranjit Singh sent a far larger army. According to Wikipedia's account, the siege ran from early 1818 to June: the city fell first and the defenders withdrew into the fort, where batteries, mines and countermines were used. The great gun Zamzama was brought to Multan in April 1818; the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says its shells were ineffective against the walls, while Wikipedia says it opened two breaches near the Khizri Gate, so the accounts differ. Muzaffar Khan was offered jagirs but chose to resist. In the final assault Sadhu Singh Akali led Nihang troops through a breach, and the Encyclopaedia records that the Akalis took the fort in the final assault of 1818. Muzaffar Khan was killed in the breach together with several of his sons. Historians date the fall to 2 June (Bikrama Jit Hasrat, Ganda Singh) or 20 June 1818 (Hari Ram Gupta).

Where: Multan, the fortified city of the south-west Punjab, now in Pakistan.

Why it mattered: The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Ranjit Singh's major conquests began with the occupation of Multan in 1818, and the province of Multan came to include the dependencies along the east bank of the Indus. A mint was opened there the same year. The cost was heavy: Wikipedia reports that the city and fort were plundered and that thousands died on both sides. Multan returned to the story thirty years later, when the revolt there in April 1848 began the Second Anglo-Sikh War.