| Lake Saiful Muluk | |
|---|---|
 The lake is notable for its picturesque setting in the mountains of northern Pakistan | |
  Lake Saiful Muluk  Lake Saiful Muluk | |
| Location | Saiful Muluk National Park,Kaghan Valley,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan |
| Coordinates | 34°52′37″N73°41′40″E / 34.876957°N 73.694485°E /34.876957; 73.694485 |
| Lake type | Alpine,glacial lake |
| Primary inflows | Glacial water |
| Primary outflows | Stream (a tributary ofKunhar River) |
| Basin countries | Pakistan |
| Surface area | 2.75 km2 (1.06 sq mi) |
| Max. depth | 113 ft (34 m) |
| Surface elevation | 3,224 metres (10,577 ft)[1] |
| Settlements | Naran |
Saiful Muluk (Urdu:جھیل سیف الملوک) is a mountainous lake innorthern Pakistan, located at the northern end of theKaghan Valley, near the town ofNaran in theSaiful Muluk National Park. At an elevation of 3,224 m (10,578 feet) above sea level, the lake is located above thetree line, and is one of the highest lakes inPakistan.
Saiful Muluk is located in theMansehra District ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) north ofNaran,[2][3] in the northern part of theKaghan Valley.Malika Parbat, the highest peak in the valley is near the lake.[4]
The lake is accessible from the nearby town ofNaran during the summer season but access during winter is limited, as heavy snowfall and landslides threaten to cutoff the lake from other regions.[citation needed]
Saiful Muluk was formed byglacial moraines that blocked the water of the stream passing through the valley.[5] TheKaghan Valley was formed in the greater Pleistocene Period dating back almost 300,000 years when the area was covered with ice. Rising temperatures and receding glaciers left a large depression where glaciers once stood. Melting water collected into the lake.[citation needed]
The lake has rich eco-diversity and holds many species of blue-green algae. Largebrown trout are found in the lake, up to about seven kilograms.[6] About 26 species ofvascular plant exist in the area, withAsteraceae the most commonly found species. Other species commonly found in the region are:Ranunculaceae,Compositae,Cruciferae,Gramineae,Apiaceae,Leguminosae,Scrophulariaceae andPolygonaceae.[citation needed]
The Lake Saiful Muluk is named after a legendary prince from the tale titledSaiful Muluk, later on put into poem form by theSufi poetMian Muhammad Bakhsh.[7] It tells the story of the Egyptian Prince Saiful Malook who fell in love with a fairy princess named Princess Badi ul-Jamal at the lake.[8][1]
TheStory of Prince Saiful Maluk (Arabic:قِصَّة سَيْف الْمُلُوْك وَبَدِيْع الْجَمَال,romanized: Qiṣat Saif al-Mulūk wa Badīʿ al-Jamāl) is an Arabic fable, a story of love between a prince and a fairy. It is considered a later addition to theOne Thousand and One Nights collection ofArabicfables,[9] and manuscripts of the story are dated to the 17th century.[10] In South Asia, the story was put intoPunjabi verse by 19th-century poet and mysticMian Muhammad Bakhsh. It has also been retold in numerous languages such asBalochi,Bengali,[11]English,Urdu andPunjabi.[12][13][14][15][16] Similarly, according to Turkish scholarship, the narrative is "widely known" in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Tatarstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan,Taranchi, and Bashkortostan.[17]
According to the folklore, Saiful Maluk (whose name means 'Sword of the Kings')[18] was a prince ofEgypt. He had significant wealth which he had inherited from his forefathers. The treasure bore two seals: one depicting Saiful Maluk and the other depicting Badi-ul-Jamala[1] (also rendered as Bediülcemal). One night, Prince Saiful Maluk saw in a dream a lake and a fairy. He got up and went to tell his dream to his father, asking him about the place and the fairy. His father told him that he can't meet the fairy as she isn't human, unlike him. However, the longer the prince recollected his dream, the more he was overwhelmed with love for the fairy.[19][20][21][22]
Hover the mouse click or tap on the following images to see their captions.
_Abdul_Majid.jpg)
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Finally there are in theBook of a Thousand and One Nights a number of formerly independent epic cycles, many of which are of Iranian derivation. ... Other stories which used to be independent are the one about ...Saifu'l-mulūk, ...
This story [of Saifulmuluk-badiujjamal] was derived from theArabian Nights. It was first introduced into Bengali by Donadgaji in the middle of the 16th century and many poets other than Alaol made use of it.
