The clansmen occupying the British border from the Black Mountain to the Utman Khel territory belong, with the exception of the Gaduns, to the important tribe of Yusafzai Pathans, of which the Hassanzais, Akazais and Chagarzais, already described, are also branches. Arrival in Peshawar Valley
The Yusafzais inhabit the division of that name in the Peshawar district, as well as independent territory beyond the border. They are the descendants of the original Gandhari, who in ancient days occupied the Peshawar Valley, emigrating thence to the Helmand in the fifth century, and becoming fused with the Afghans of Ghor. In the fifteenth century, owing to pressure, the Yusafzais migrated with other tribes northwards to Kabul, and from thence in the sixteenth century into the Peshawar Valley, where they acquired the plain country north of the Kabul River and west of Mardan. Meanwhile, the Mohmands of the Ghoria Khel had followed the Yusafzais, and they in turn defeated the Dilazaks—whom the Yusafzais had already dispossessed of their lands—and forced them into the present Yusafzai plain, in the north-east corner of the Peshawar Valley. The Yusafzais 55then, with the help of other tribes, drove the Dilazaks across the Indus into Hazara. The Yusafzais, with the Utman Khel and Tarkanris, now settled themselves in the Yusafzai plain, and during the next few years these three tribes made themselves masters of all the hill country along that border, from the Indus to the range separating the Bajaur and Kunar Valleys. In a later division of the country the Tarkanris took Bajaur; the Utman Khel the Swat Valley up to the junction of that river with the Panjkhora; while the Yusafzais occupied all the hills to the east as far as the Indus, including Lower Swat, Buner, Chamla and the Peshawar Valley east of Hastnagar and north of the Kabul River. At the present time the Yusafzais inhabit the north-east of the Peshawar district, or the Yusafzai plain, Swat, Buner, Panjkhora, and several strips of independent territory north and east of the Peshawar Valley. They have also considerable settlements to the east of the Indus as we have seen.
At the time of the final division of the country with the Tarkanris and the Utman Khels, the Yusafzais were divided into two great branches, the Mandanr and the Yusafzais, the whole race tracing its origin to Mandai, who had two sons, Yusaf and Umar. From Yusaf sprang the Yusafzais, and from a son of Umar called Mandan, the Mandanr took their name. On the occupation of this tract of country, an equal division of both plain and hill country was made between the Mandanr and the Yusafzais, but quarrels arising, the Yusafzais gradually became owners of the hill country, while the Mandanr were driven 56into the plains; it is thus actually the Mandanr who now occupy the so-called Yusafzai plain in the north-east of the Peshawar Valley, and who are generally known as Yusafzais, while the real Yusafzais, who dwell in the hill country, are usually called after the name of the territory they severally inhabit.
The Yusafzai is an agriculturist, generally a fine, well-limbed man, of good physique and appearance, with a great deal of race-pride, well-dressed and cheery, while his hospitality is proverbial. They have an established and recognised gentry, and all blue-blooded Yusafzais have a hereditary share in the land, their names appearing in the book of hereditary land-owners kept by the village patwari. The Yusafzai plain is very flat, and the soil, where properly irrigated, is very fertile, but the chief interest of this district lies in the numerous ruins of ancient Buddhist and Hindu cities, temples and inscriptions, scattered broadcast about the plain and the adjoining hills.
The Yusafzais may conveniently be divided into Cis- and Trans-frontier Yusafzais: under the former category come the
(1)
Mandanr,
(2)
Sam Baizais,
while the following are the clans of trans-frontier Yusafzais:
(1)
Akozais,
(2)
Amazais,
(3)
Bunerwals,
(4)
Chagarzais,
(5)
Chamlawals,
(6)
Isazais,
(7)
Khudu Khel,
(8)
Nasozais,
(9)
Utmanzais.
Geographical Position
57First in order of the independent tribes on the British border between the Black Mountain and the Utman Khel territory, come the Mada Khel division of the Isazais and the Amazais, adjoining the lands of our feudatory the Nawab of Amb; to the south of the Amazais lie the Utmanzais, to their west the Gaduns, and beyond them the Khudu Khel. To the north of the Khudu Khel territory is the Chamla Valley, inhabited by members of different clans, and separated from Buner by the Guru range of mountains. Next come the Nurizai and Salarzai divisions of Buner, which march with our border. Between Buner and the Utman Khel limits is the district of Swat peopled by the Akozais, with the portion adjoining British territory inhabited by the Baizai and Ranizai tribesmen of Swat.
Something can here fittingly be mentioned with regard to the position of the Nawab of Amb on this border. His territory may be roughly described as a square block in the north-west corner of the Hazara district, separated on the west from the independent Pathan country by the Indus, and having the Black Mountain and Agror to the north. The Tanawal chief has also two or three villages beyond the Indus, and the largest of these is Amb. The Nawab holds his cis-Indus territory as a perpetual jaghir from the British Government, while his trans-Indus villages are independent. The existence of this little principality is, from its situation, in many ways convenient.
Cis-border Yusafzais. Mandanr.—These occupy the greater portion of the Yusafzai plain in the 58north-eastern part of the Peshawar Valley, bounded on the south by the Khattaks and the Kabul River, on the west by Hastnagar and the Muhammadzais, and on the east and north by the Indus River, and by the Gaduns and the independent Yusafzai tribes. The district is divided into two sub-divisions (tehsils), Swabi and Mardan. The Mandanr are divided into three divisions—the Usmanzai, Utmanzai and Razar—of which the first named has its holdings in the Mardan and the two latter in the Swabi tehsil. The family in each of the three divisions, in which the Khan-ship is hereditary, is known as the Khan Khel, and these families have a higher social standing than the others.
A number of other Pathans live among the Mandanr, as do also many persons of Indian race, some of them immigrants from the Punjab and Kashmir, and some descendants of the original inhabitants of the country. All these, however, speak Pushtu and greatly resemble Pathans in appearance.
Sam Baizai.—These are a portion of the Baizai division of the Akozai Yusafzais, who formerly occupied the whole of the northern portion of the Yusafzai plain to the foot of the hills below the Morah Pass. During the sixteenth century they called in the Khattaks and Utman Khels to assist them against the inroads of the Ranizais, and in return gave their allies land in their country as tenants. In course of time the new comers have practically ousted the Baizais, who now possess but few villages of their own. In regard to numbers they are an insignificant division.
59Trans-border Yusafzais. Akozais.—These, which form the largest clan of trans-frontier Yusafzais, inhabit the whole of Swat proper, and will be found described in greater detail in Chapter V.
Amazais
Amazais.—This people forms one of the two sub-divisions of the Usmanzai division of Mandanr Yusafzais, and is sub-divided into the Daulatzais and Ismailzais. The Amazai country is situated between that of the Chamlawals and Hassanzais on the north and west, the Mada Khel and Tinaolis on the east, and the Utmanzais, Gaduns, and Khudu Khel on the south. Within British territory the Daulatzai occupy the Sudum Valley, while the Ismailzai inhabit a strip of country in the Yusafzai sub-division of the Peshawar district, south of the Karamar range and east of the road from Mardan. The trans-frontier Amazais are divided into the Saiyid Khel and Mobarak Khel, two sub-divisions which are constantly at feud with one another. The Amazai country is divided into two by a northern spur from the Mahaban Mountain; the villages lying to the east of this spur, and between it and the Indus, belong to the Saiyid Khel, and those to the west to both sub-divisions. The country is narrow, rough, well watered and wooded. The strength of the trans-frontier Amazais in fighting men is about 1500, and they have a high reputation for courage, but while a number of the cis-frontier men are enlisted, few come in for service from across the border.
The only occasion upon which we have come into direct conflict with the Amazais was in the Ambela campaign of 1863.
60Bunerwals.—This clan inhabits the Buner Valley—an irregular oval—which is bounded on the north-west by Swat, on the north-east by the Puran Valley, on the south-east by the Mada Khel and Amazai territory, on the south by the Chamla Valley, and on the south-west by Yusafzai. It is a small mountain valley, and the Morah Hills and Ilam Range divide it from Swat, the Sinawar Range from Yusafzai, the Guru Mountain from the Chamla Valley, and the Duma Range from the Puran Valley. The Buner Valley is drained by the Barandu, a perennial stream which joins the Indus above Mahabara; the valley is about thirty miles in length. The term Bunerwals includes the Iliaszai division, occupying the north-western portion of the country, and the Malizais, who inhabit the south-eastern portion: these two divisions are divided into seven sub-divisions. The hereditary chiefs of the tribe are the Khans of Dagar and Bagra, but their influence is nominal, and the different clans are entirely democratic. Moreover, the Khan of Dagar does not belong to any of the Buner clans, but his family is recognised as the leading or Khan Khel family. The clan is neither so well armed nor so adept at hill fighting as other trans-frontier tribes, but can turn out some 6800 fighting men. The few who enlist with us—according to Enriquez just over 200—are well spoken of. Their land is very fertile, and the Bunerwals are purely agriculturists, the men of good physique, dark and swarthy, and distinguishable by the dark blue clothes and pugarees which they wear.
Bunerwals
61Although the Bunerwals have never been specially friendly with us, they have proved themselves on the whole most satisfactory neighbours. Though poor, they are not given to thieving; they discourage raiding into our territory; and though they will give an asylum to outlaws from our side of the border, they will not join with them in the commission of outrages. Oliver says of them that “there are in many ways few finer specimens of Pathans than the Bunerwals. Simple and temperate, they are content with the plain wholesome food, the produce of their own cattle and lands; courteous and hospitable to all who claim shelter, treachery to a stranger seeking refuge among them being considered the deepest reproach that could fall upon the clansmen, and such a case is almost unknown. Upright in their dealings, with enemies as well as with strangers, they have always been adverse to us, and though probably not anxious to begin the war, they were among our most determined enemies during the Ambela campaign.... Patriotic they certainly are, and in their way, which is a pastoral and agricultural one, industrious, though they hold all trade in the very lowest estimation; anything that savours of the shop or of trading is anathema to a Bunerwal. Therefore they are poor, but, for poor Pathans, have an exceptional regard for the law of meum and tuum. Their word, once given through the council of the tribe, may, according to Warburton, be depended on with almost certainty. Lastly, they are ‘distinguished for their ignorance,’ and ignorance being the ‘mother of devotion,’ they 62are deeply religious; greatly under the influence of the most bigoted of mullahs, saiyids, and pirs, and the many varieties of the priestly class, which is probably the most powerful and prosperous section of the community; while if there is any section whose heritage ought to be one of woe it is this, for it is from the priests most of the offences come throughout the whole of Yusafzai.”
The winter climate in Buner is said to be very severe, snow falling thickly on the hills and lying in the valleys, while malaria makes the country unhealthy during the hot season.
Of the seven divisions into which the clan is divided, it will probably be sufficient briefly to notice the two which are nearest to British territory; these are the Salarzais and the Nurizais. The former are a powerful community, and could bring nearly 2000 men into the field; they have more intercourse with our subjects than any other section of the Bunerwals. The Nurizais are also a strong division, and of the two sub-divisions they contain, one is as favourably disposed towards the British as the other is inimical and troublesome. The Nurizais adjoin British territory to the south-east of the Salarzais, and are separated from the Chamla Valley by the Guru Range.
From Swat three passes lead into Buner, the Kalel, the Jowarai and the Karakar, and of these the last only is practicable for mule transport. On the east, the Indus being crossed at Mahabara, it is possible to enter Buner by the Barandu defile. From our territory two passes, both practicable for pack animals, 63lead into Buner—the Malandri Pass and the Ambela.
Chagarzais and Chamlawals
Chagarzais.—These have already been dealt with in Chapter II. under the Black Mountain tribes. They are divided into three divisions, and one only is located in Buner, living on the western slopes of the Duma Mountains. This division can turn out about one thousand fighting men.
Chamlawals.—These are the inhabitants of the small valley of Chamla, which lies to the south-east of Buner, and they are Mandanr Yusafzais. When the Yusaf and Mandan clans, after they had subjugated the country, began fighting among themselves, the Mandanr located their families in the Chamla Valley, and retained it at the conclusion of the struggle. The valley runs east and west, and is about seventeen miles long by two and a half broad. It is bounded on the north by Buner, south by the Khudu Khel country, east by the Amazai, and west by the British district of Rustam, in Yusafzai. The Chamlawals number about 1400 fighting men, but do not enjoy as such a very high reputation. They are divided into three divisions. The valley can be approached from the north from Buner by several passes, of which the easiest is said to be the Buner Pass, leading from Barkilai to Ambela; it leads through the Guru range, and is believed to be practicable for camels. From British territory it is entered by the Ambela, Sherdara and Narinji passes, and it is also approachable from the east and through the Khudu Khel country. Any trouble which the 64Chamlawals may have given us in the past has usually been the result of tribal pressure.
Mada Khels.—This is a division of Isazai Yusafzais, of which the other two, the Akazais and Hassanzais, have already been described among the dwellers on the Black Mountain. The Mada Khel country is on the northern slopes of the Mahaban Mountain down to the right bank of the Indus, and is bounded on the north by the Hassanzais, on the east by the Indus, and on the south and west by the Tinaolis and Amazais. Settled in the country are a number of Dilazaks—the former occupiers of the Yusafzai country and now settled in Hazara—and Gujars, the descendants of the original Hindu population of the country. The Mada Khel have three sub-divisions, and are considered more enlightened than the other Isazai tribesmen. They can muster some 1500 men, very badly armed, and their young bloods do not readily enlist in the native army. Most of the villages are on the Mahaban Mountain, only two being on the banks of the Indus. The easiest approaches to Mada Khel territory pass through the Hassanzai country.
Khudu Khels.—These are a sub-division of the Saddozai division of the Utmanzai clan of the Mandanr Yusafzais. Their territory is bounded on the north by Chamla, on the west by Yusafzai, on the south by Utmanama, and on the east by the territory of the Gaduns and Amazai. Their country is about twenty-two miles long and about fifteen wide. The Khudu Khel contains two sections, is very much divided among its members, and could probably, if united, 65furnish some 1600 fighting men, of no particular value. Their country is very open to attack from British territory and to blockade, and for this reason the Khudu Khels have not given us any real trouble since 1847 and 1849, when a British force marched into their country and surprised their villages.
The Khudu Khel have settlements also in British territory in the Mardan district.
Nasozais and Utmanzais
Nasozais.—This sub-division of the Iliaszai Yusafzais, though not included among the Bunerwals proper, is practically identical with them. It is located north-east of Buner in the Puran Valley on the eastern slopes of the Lilban Mountains, and is divided into two sections. The Nasozais can muster some 800 fighting men.
Utmanzais.—These are a clan of Mandanr Yusafzais. They inhabit both banks of the Indus, those on the right bank being independent and occupying a narrow strip of land between the river and the Gadun country, bounded on the north by the Tinaolis and on the south by the British. The Utmanzais on the left bank inhabit the Torbela-Khalsa tracts in British territory in the Hazara district. They contain four divisions and do not number more than 400 fighting men of good quality. About two-thirds of the original Utmanzai territory is now occupied by the Gaduns, who in old days were invited to cross the Indus as mercenaries, and were given in requital the lands they now hold on the western and southern slopes of the Mahaban Mountain.
66This clan is more or less dependent upon us, and their territory can be reached by several routes.
Gaduns and Hindustanis
Gaduns.—The origin of the tribe of Gaduns or Jaduns is not very clear, but they certainly have no connection with the Yusafzais among whom they dwell. They claim descent from the family of Ghurghusht, but are more probably of Rajput origin. Many of the descendants of Jadu, the founder of a Rajput dynasty, emigrated from Gujrat, some eleven hundred years before Christ, to the hills of Kabul and Kandahar. When they moved to the Mahaban range, the southern slopes of which some of them now occupy, is uncertain, but in the sixteenth century a portion of the tribe crossed the Indus into Hazara, where, about Sultanpur, Mansehra and Abbottabad, their descendants are still to be found. These have, however, lost all connection with their trans-frontier tribesmen, have even forgotten Pushtu, and are to all intents and purposes Punjabis.
“From opposite Torbela on the Indus, and from the boundary of our border on the right bank,” says Oliver, “the Gadun country extends right up to the crest of the Mahaban Mountain, or rather that cluster of peaks and ranges which, rising 7000 feet from the Indus, extend back as a great spur of the Morah or Ilum. A thoroughly classic ground; ‘the Great Forest’ of the early Aryans; the ‘Sinai’ of Sanskrit, where Arjuna wrestled with God, and, like the Jewish Jacob, though defeated, still won his irresistible weapon, ground that, if not identical with Alexander’s Aornos, is probably not very distant, that was famous 67for its numerous monasteries (Mahawana) when Hwen Tsang visited it in 630 A.D., and is studded with ruins to this day.”
The tribe has three clans—the Salar, Mansur and Hassazai—of which the last is unrepresented among the trans-frontier Gaduns, while the other two are continually at feud. The trans-frontier clans contain about 2000 fighting men; they do not enlist freely nor are they much in request, being considered to be of smaller fighting value than other Pathans. The trans-Indus Gaduns are bounded on the east by the Utmanzais, on the north by the Amazais, on the west by the Khudu Khels, and on the south by British territory. The tribesmen are all cultivators or cattle-owners. They can be coerced by blockade or by means of an expedition, and their country could be overrun without other tribes being molested or too closely approached.
The Hindustani Fanatics.[24]—Something has already been mentioned about the colonies of religious adventurers which are found among the hills and valleys of this part of the border; and a more detailed description must now be given of the particular colony or colonies of Hindustani fanatics, who have been responsible for, and have taken so prominent a part in, most of the operations in which British troops have here been engaged.
It was in the year 1823 that one Saiyid Ahmad Shah, of Bareilly, a religious adventurer, made his 68appearance on the Yusafzai frontier. He had been at one time a friend of the notorious Amir Khan Pindari—himself a Pathan born in Buner, who had fled before James Skinner and his “Yellow Boys” from Bhurtpore to the Himalayas. Saiyid Ahmad studied Arabic at Delhi, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca via Calcutta, and it was at this time that his doctrines gave him an influence over Bengali Muhammadans, which led them thenceforth to supply with recruits the colony which he founded. His doctrines at that time, whatever they may have become thereafter, were those of the Wahabi sect, and inculcated the original tenets of Islam, repudiating commentaries on the Koran and the adoration of relics. In 1823 then he appeared upon the Yusafzai border of the Peshawar district with some forty Hindustani followers, having arrived there by way of Kandahar and Kabul.
At this time the Pathans of the frontier were generally depressed by the crushing defeat which they and the Peshawar Sirdars had sustained at the hands of Ranjit Singh at the battle of Nowshera, so that when the Saiyid began to preach a jehad many people flocked to his standard, the number of his Hindustani followers grew to 900, and the Peshawar Sirdars also joined him. In the spring of 1827 Saiyid Ahmad proceeded to Nowshera with the intention of laying siege to Attock, but Ranjit Singh was ready for him. The great Sikh general, Hari Singh, with one army, awaited him on the Indus, while Budh Singh, crossing the river with another, marched to and entrenched himself at Saidu. Here Saiyid 69Ahmad surrounded his force, and in time reduced it to great straits, until Budh Singh, resolving to fight, warned the Peshawar Sirdars of the approach of another Sikh army under Ranjit Singh, and then joined battle. The Sirdars fled, and the Musalmans were routed with great slaughter. Saiyid Ahmad escaped with a handful of followers via Lundkhwar to Swat and thence to Buner, where the Saiyid was able to persuade the Pathans that treachery alone had been responsible for his defeat, and he was soon again joined by thousands. He then went to Panjtar, where he was cordially received by Fateh Khan, the chief of the Khudu Khels, and his position thereby greatly strengthened. Eventually he succeeded in getting the whole of Yusafzai and Peshawar under his control; he subdued the chiefs of Hund and Hoti; levied tithes; defeated a Barakzai force which had marched against him; took possession of Amb; and finally, in 1829, he occupied Peshawar.
Gaduns and Hindustanis
He had now come to the end of his tether; his exactions had made him unpopular with his Pathan following, and there was a general revolt against his authority. The Sikhs organised expeditions against him and his men, which, as Oliver says, “were exterminative rather than punitive. The villagers turned out and hunted back the fugitives into the mountains, destroying them like wild beasts. The history of the time is a record of the bitterest hatred. The traditions tell of massacre without mercy. Hunter quotes one instance in which the very land tenure was a tenure by blood, certain village lands being 70held by the Hindu borderer on payment to the Sikh grantees of an annual hundred heads of the Hassan Khel. The decline of Saiyid Ahmad’s fame as an apostle came after his ill-advised effort to reform the Pathan marriage customs, which was really an attempt to provide wives for his own Hindustanis. Something like the Sicilian Vespers was repeated, the fiery cross was passed round the hills as the signal for the massacre of his agents, and in one hour—the hour of evening prayer—they were murdered by the tribesmen almost to a man.”
With the men who were left, Saiyid Ahmad crossed the Indus and proceeded to Balakot, where the believers again rallied to him, and he gave battle once more to a Sikh army under Sher Singh. He was, however, signally defeated, he himself being slain, and, out of the 1600 Hindustanis who had taken the field with him, only 300 escaping to Sitana. This was a refuge for outlaws and for offenders of all kinds from Yusafzai and Hazara, and belonged to one Saiyid Akbar, who had been Ahmad’s counsellor and treasurer. Here the Hindustanis established a colony and built a fort which they called Mandi.