# Ali Sher Khan Anchan Builds a Baltistan Empire (c. 1595–1633)

URL: https://allhistories.com/pakistan/timeline/1595-ali-sher-khan-anchan-builds-a-baltistan-empire
Location: Skardu, Baltistan
Themes: Gilgit-Baltistan, Maqpon dynasty

Ali Sher Khan Anchan, the Maqpon king of Baltistan, ruled from Skardu from 1595 to 1633, according to Wikipedia, which gives a birth around 1580. He drove Ladakhi forces out of Kartaksha and Purig, occupied Leh after a campaign around 1594, and annexed Astore, Chilas, Gilgit and Brushal. He reached as far as Chitral. A popular saying describes his realm as stretching from Leh to Brushal. He succeeded his father, Ghazi Mir, who ruled from 1565 to 1595 and established diplomatic ties with the Mughals after the 1586 conquest of Kashmir. Mughal historians record a Kashmir-based invasion under Jahangir that Anchan defeated. He married a daughter of the Ladakh ruler as part of a marriage alliance, and his son married a daughter of the Gilgit ruler. Anchan built the Kharpocho Fort in Skardu, a landmark of Baltistan. The chronology of his campaigns is loosely dated, and sources do not resolve the discrepancy between a battle around 1594 and his stated accession in 1595. His reign is remembered in Balti tradition as the high point of the Maqpon dynasty. At this point in the timeline (c. 1595), the Mughal Empire was under Akbar, Mughal emperor (27 January 1556 – 27 October 1605).

## Why it matters
His reign marks the peak of a Himalayan kingdom now within Gilgit-Baltistan, outside direct Mughal control.

Ruler at the Time: [Akbar](https://allhistories.com/pakistan/rulers/akbar)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Ali Sher Khan Anchan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Sher_Khan_Anchan)