Pathan: Tribes of Peshawar
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. |
Tribes of Peshawar
The Pathans of Peshawar belong, with the exception of the Khatak described above almost wholly to the Afghans proper, descendants of Sarban ; and among them to the line of Karshabun or the representatives of the ancient Gandhari, as distinguished from the true Afghans of Jewish origin who trace their descent from Sharkhabun. I have already told, in section 395, how during the 5th or 6th century a Gandhari colony emigrated to Kandahar, and there were joined and
Dr. Bellew thinks that they and the Orakzai are perhaps both of Seythian origin, and belonged to the group of Turk tribes, among whom he includes all the Karlanri, or, as he calls them, Turklamri, who came in with the invasion of Sabuktagin in the 10th and Taimur in the 16th century of our aera.
Dr. Bellew is of opinion that these names denote respectively the Magian and Buddhist religions of their ancestors. The present division of the tribes is given as follows by Major James : Samil. — Half the Orakzai, half the Bangash, the Mohmand, and the Malikdin Khel, Sepah, Kainr, Zakha Khel, Aka Khel, and Adam Khel clans of Afridi. Garr. — Half the Orakzai, half the Bangash, the Khalrl, and the Kuki Khel and Qambar Khel clans of Afridi. The feud between the two factions is still very strong and bitter, and is supplemented by the sectauan animosity between Shiah and Sunni,
Converted by the Afghan stock of Ghor who blended with them into a single nation. Their original emigration was due to the pressure of Jat and Scythic tribes who crossed the Hindu Kush and descended into the valley of the Kabul river. Among those tribes was probably the Dilazak who are now classed as one of the Kodai Karlanri and who were converted by Mahmud Ghaznavi in the opening of the 11th century. They extended their away over the Rawalpindi and Peshawar districts and the valley of the Kabul as far west as Jalalabad, driving many of the original Hindki or Gandhari inhabitants into the valleys of Swat and Buuer which he in the hills to the north, and ravaging and laying waste the fertile plain country. Amalgamating with the remaining Hindkis they lost the purity of their faith, and were described as infidels by the Afghans who subsequently drove them out.
The Kandahar colony of Gandhari was divided into two principal sections, the Khakhai and Ghoria Khel, besides whom it included the descend ants of Zamand and Kansi. I give below the principal tribes which trace their descent from Kharshabun for convenience of reference : —
About the middle of the 13th century they were settled about the head waters of the Tarnak and Arghasan rivers, while the Tarin Afghans held, as they still hold, the lower valleys of those streams. As they increased in numbers the weaker yielded to pressure, and the Khakhai Khel, accompanied by their first cousins the Muharamadzai descendants of Zamand, and by their Karlanri neighbours the Utman Khel of the Gomal valley,left their homes and migrated to Kabul. Thence they were expelled during the latter half of the 15th century by Ulugh Beg, a lineal descendant of Taimur and Babar's uncle, and passed eastwards into Ningrahar on the northern slopes of the Safed Koh, and into the Jalalabad valley. Here the Gugiani settled in eastern and the Muhammadzai in western Ningrahar, the Tarklanri occupied
- Dr. Bellew seems doubtful whether the Dilazak were of .Jat or of Edjput extraction. He
says the name is of Buddhist origin,
- Another story makes the Utman Khel descendants of one Utman, a follower of Mahmud Ghaznavi, who settled circa 1,000 A. D. in the country which they now hold. Lughman,, while the Yusufzai (I use the word throughout in its widest sense to include both the Mandanr and the Yusufzai proper) and utman Khel moved still further east through the Khaibar pass to Peshawar. Here they settled peacefully for a while ; but presently quarrelled with the Dilazak and expelled them from the Doaba or plain country in the angle between the Swat and Kabul rivers, into which they moved. They then crossed the Swat river into Hashtnaghar and attacked the Eastern Shilmani, a tribe probably of Indian origin, who had only lately left their homes in Shilman on the Kurrara river for the Klmibar mountaius and Hashtnaghar. These they dispossessed of Hashtnaghar and drove them northwards across the mountains into Swat, thus acquiring all the plain country north of the Kabul river and west of Hoti Mardan.
Meanwhile the Ghoria Khel whom they had left behind in the
Kandahjir country had been following in their track ; and early in the 16th century they reached the western mouth of the Khaibar pass. Here they seem to have divided, a part of the Mohmand now known as the Bar Mohmand crossing the Kabul river at Dakka, while the remainder went on through the pass to the plain of Peshawar lately vacated by the Yusuf zai, where they defeated the Dilazak in a battle close to Peshawar, drove them across the Kabul river into what are now called the Yusuf zai plains, and occupied all the flat country south of the Kabul river and west of Jalozai. This they still hold, the Daudzai holding the right bank of the Kabul river, and the Khalil the left bank of the Bara river and the border strip between the two streams facing the Khaibar pass, while the Mohmand took the country south of the Bara and along the right bank of the Kabul as far as Naushahra, though they have since lost the south-eastern portion of it to the Khatak. Meanwhile the Bar Mohmand made themselves masters of the hill country lying north of the Kabul river as far up as Lalpura and west of the Doaba, ancl possessed them selves of their ancestral capital Gandhilra, driving out into Kafiristan the in habitants, Who were probably their ancient kinsmen, the descendants of such Gandhari as had not aecompanied them when, two centuries earher, they had migrated to Kandahar. They then crossed the Kabul river, and possessed themselves of the country between its right bank and the crest of the Afridi hills to the north of the Khaibar pass.
While these events were occurring, the Gugiani, Tarklanri,' and Muham madzai, who had been left behind in Ningrahiar, moved eastwards, whether driven before them by the advancing Ghoria Khel, or called in as alhes against the Dilazak by the Yusuf zai. At any rate they joined their friends in Doaba and Hashtnaghar, and attacking the Dilazak, drove them out of Yusufzai and across the Indus. They then divided their old and new possessions among the alhes, the Gugiani receiving Doaba, the Muhammadzai Hashtnaghar, while the Yusufzai, Utman Khel, and Tarklanri took the great Yusufzai plain.During the next twenty years these three tribes made themselves masters of all the hill country along the Yusufzai, Hashtnaghar, and Bar Mohmand border, from the Indus to the range separating the Kunar and Bajaur valleys, the inhabitants of which, again the ancient Gandhjiri who had abeady suffered at the hands of the Bar Mohmand, they drove east and west across the Indus into Hazara and across the Kurram into Kafiristan. This country also they divided, the Tarklanri taking Bajaur, and the Utman Khel the valley of the Swat river up
A section of the Tarklan,'! remained in Lughman, where they still dwell. to Arang Barang and its junction with the Panjkora, while the Yusufzai held all the hills to the east as far as the Indus and bordering upon their plain country, including lower Swat, Buner, and Chamlah. Some time later the Khatak obtained from Akbar, as has already been related in section 406, a grant of the plains in the south-east of the Peshawar district. Thus the Khakhai and their alhes held all the country north of the Kabul river from the Indus to Kunar, including the hills north of the Peshawar border, but ex cluding those lying west of Doaba which were occupied by the Bar Mohmand ; while all the pfain country south of the Kabul was held, in the east by the Khatak, and in the west by the Ghoria Khel. These last attempted to cross the river into Yusufzai, but were signally defeated by the Yusufzai, and have never extended their dominions. How the Khatak pushed across into the Yusufzai plain has already been told (section 406) .
The Dilazak, thus expell ed fi-om their territory, made incessant efforts to recover it ; until finally, as the cause of tumult and disorder, they were deported en masse by the Emperor Jahangir and scattered over the Indian peninsula. When the Yusufzai settled in their possessions they divided the hill and plain country equally between their tAVO great sections, the Mandanr and the Yusufzai proper. But feuds sprang up amongst them which were fomented by the Mughal rulers ; and early in the 17th century the Yusufzai expelled the Mandanr from Swat and Buner, while the Mandanr in their turn expelled the Yusufzai from the greater part of the Yusufzai plain. Thus the Yusufzai now hold Swat, Buner, and the Lundkhwar and Ranizai valleys in the north-west of Yusufzai ; while the Mandanr hold Chamlah and the remainder of the plain country.
The Pathan tribes of Peshawar continued
The plain Mohmand .— I now proceed to describe the tribes in detail. Passing from Kohat into Peshawar throngh the country of the Khatak, who have already been described in section 407, and turning west, we first come to the lower or Plain Mohmand, who occupy the south-west corner of the district, south of the Bara stream. They are divided into five main sections, the Mayarzai, Musazai, Dawezai, Matanni and Sarganni. Their headmen, in common with those of all the Ghoria Khel, are called Arhdb, a title meaning master, and conferred by the Mughal Emperors. They are good and industrious culti vators, and peacefully disposed except on tfie Afridi border. Theu' relation with the Bar Mohmand, from whom they are now quite separate, differing from them in both manners and customs, is des cribed in section 409.
The Khalil occupy the left bank of the Bara, and the country along the front of the Khaibar pass. They have four main clans, Matuzai, Barozai, Ishaqzai, and Tilarzai, of which the Barozai is the most powerful. They are not good cultivators. There are some of the tribe still to be found in Kandahar.
The Daudzai occupy the left bank of the Kabul river as far down as the junction of the Bara. The Mohmand and Daudzai are descended from a common ancestor Daulatyar, son of Ghorai the progenitor of the Ghoria Khel. Daud had three sons, Mandkai, Maunir, and Yusuf, from whom are descended the main sections of the tribe. Mandkai had three sons, Huseu, Nekai, and Balo, of whom only the first is represented in Peshawar. Nekai fled into Hindustan, while Bale's few descendants live in parts of Tirah.
The Gugiani hold the Doaba or plain country in the angle between the Kabul and Swat rivers. They are descended from Mak, the son of Khakhai, by a hamsdyah shepherd who main-ied Mak's daughter Gugi, whence the name. They are divided into two great sections, Hotak and Zirak. Macgrcgor says that other Pathans do not recognise them as of pure Pathan blood.
The Muhamraadzai - bold Hashtnaghar, a strip of territory some 13 miles broad running down the left bank of the Swat river from our border to Naushahra. They are descended from Muham mad, one of the sons of Zamand ; and with them are settled a few descendants of his brothers, from cue of whom, Kheshgi, one of their prinicipal villages is named. Their clans are Prang, Charsadda, Bazar, Utmanzai, Turangzai, Umarzai, Sherpao, and Tangi with its two septs Barazai and Nasratzai.
The Baizai. — The Yusufzai proper are divided into the Badi Khel (now extinct), Isazai, Hiaszai, Malizai, and Akozai. The Akozai are further divided into three clans, the Ranizai ^ who hold the
1 Arbab is the plural of the Aralnc Rah or Lord ; a term often apphed to the Deity. - The tribe is often called Molimaudzai or Mamauzai, and their ancestor, Mohmand or Maman. ' The Haiydt-i- Afghani calls the Ranizai a sept of the Baizai. This seems improbable, as they descend from different wifws of Ako. western portion of the hills between Yusufzai and Swat, the Khwajazai who occupy the country between the Swat and Panjkora rivers, and the Baizai. The last originally hold the Lundkhwar valley in the centre of the northernmost portion of the Peshawar district, and all the eastern hill country between that and the Swat river. The hills they still hold ; but the Khatak have, as already recounted in section 406, obtained all the western portion of the valley, while the Utman Khel Karlanri, whoni the Baizai called in as alhes in a fend with their neighbours and kinsmen the Ranizai, have obtained its north-east corner, and the Baizai now hold only a small tract to the south of these last. They are divided into six septs, Abba Khel, Aziz Khel.'Babozai, Matorczai, Musa Khel, and Zangi Khel. The last hes south of the Hum range which divides Swat from Buner. The other five originally held the Baizai valley and the hills to the north ; but since the irruption of the Khatak and Utman Khel, only the first three hold land in our territory.
The Mandanr hold the remainder of the Peshawar district. They are divided into main clans as follows : —
The Saddozai are by origin a branch of the Utmanzai by a second wife of Utmau, but they are
practically separated from them. The Usmanzai occupy all the northern and western portion of
the Mandanr tract, the Kamalzai lying to the west immediately south of the Lundkhwar valley and
stretching as far down as the border of the Bulaq Khatak, while the Amazai he to the east and
south-east of the same valley. Of the septs, the Kishranzai, who hold Hoti and Mardan, and the
Daulatzai he to the north, and the Mishranzai and the Ismailzai to the south of the respective tracts.
South of the Amazai and between them and the Khatak territory come the Razar ; while the Utmanzai and Saddozai hold the extreme east of the district on the right bank of the Indus, the Saddozai lying to the west and the Utmanzai to the east. These latter also hold a small area in the south of the independent Gadun valley, and early in the I8th century were called across the Indus by the Gujars of Hazara as alhes against the Tarin Afghans, and appropriated the Gandgarli tract from Torbela to the southcrn border of Hazara. In this tract all three of their main septs are represented, the Tarkheli section of the Ah'zai holding the southern half of the tract, and stretching across the border into Attak. The Khudu Khel, a Saddozai sept, occupy the valleys between Chamlah and the Gadun country. The valley of Chamlah on the Peshawar border and north of the Gadun country is occupied by a mixture of Mandanr clans, in which the Amazai, whose Ismailzai sept hold the Mahaban country, largely preponderate. The Mandanr, living almost wholly within our- territory and long subject to the rulers of Peshawar, are perhaps more civilised and less im patient of control than any other Pathan tribe.
