The Mohmands are divided into two main branches, the trans-frontier or Bar (hill) Mohmands and the cis-frontier or Kuz (plain) Mohmands, and both belong to the Ghoria Khel branch of the Afghans, who, when driven from their holdings on the head waters of the Tarnak and Arghastan Rivers by the Tarin Afghans, emigrated eastwards, at the commencement of the fifteenth century, by way of Ghazni, Kabul and Ningrahar. The Bar Mohmands separated from those of the Kuz branch at Dakka, the latter going to the Peshawar Valley, while the former made for the original Gandhar and took possession of the hills which they still occupy. Thus separated, the two branches have long since lost touch with each other. Speaking generally, the country of the trans-frontier Mohmands extends from a little south of the Kabul River, on the line Girdi Kats to Fort Michni on the south, to Bajaur on the north. On the east it is coterminous with the Peshawar district from Gandi, three miles north of Jamrud, to Fort Abazai, and 212along the right bank of the Swat River about twelve miles above Abazai. On the west it is bounded by the Kabul Tsappar Range and by the Kunar River, which constitute the dividing line between the Mohmands under British and Afghan spheres of influence, for by the Durand Agreement of 1893 the Mohmand country, which from the days of Ahmad Shah had been more or less subject to the Kabul rulers, was divided between the British and the Afghan Governments. The settlements of the cis-frontier Mohmands lie immediately south of Peshawar, and are bounded on the north by the Bara River, on the west and south by the Aka Khel and Adam Khel Afridis, and on the east by the Khattaks, their country being some twenty miles long by twelve miles broad. The greater portion of this is irrigated by the Bara River, is very productive, and its inhabitants for the most part fairly well to do.
In regard to the circumstances attending the partition of the Mohmand country, the author of Afghanistan wrote as follows in the United Service Magazine of April, 1908: “At the period of the Durand Mission the Government of India laid claim to the entire region—Bulund Khel, Mohmandstan, Asmar and Yaghistan, the latter embracing Chitral, Bajaur, Swat, Buner, Dir, Chilas and Waziristan. The Amir put forward a demand for Chageh in Baluchistan and the Asmar Valley, which he had previously occupied, and objected to the British pretensions. In point of fact, the rights of the Government of India had been already established by conquest and by moral 213superiority, since this zone, the home of border ruffians, had always required the watchful initiative of a strong Government.... Ultimately, after long discussion, the negotiations concluded, when it was revealed that at needless sacrifice the Asmar Valley, commanding the approach to the Pamir-Chitral region and south-eastern Afghanistan, and of great importance to strategic considerations on the Indian frontier, had been surrendered to the Amir, the Birmal tract separated from Waziristan, and an ethnic absurdity perpetrated where the Mohmands’ country had been divided by the watershed of the Kunar and Panjkora Rivers.”
The Mohmand Boundary
On the 12th June, 1894, Mr. Udny, the Commissioner of Peshawar, who had been nominated as chief of the Mohmand Boundary Delimitation Commission, issued a proclamation to “all Bajauri, Mohmand and other tribes inhabiting the country towards the Indian Empire from the Kabul River to the southern limit of Chitral,” giving what he called “a brief sketch of the boundary.” He stated that “whereas the kingdom of Great Britain has agreed that his Highness the Amir should retain in his possession the country of Asmar on the north of Chanak, situated on the Kunar River, or the River of Kashkar, the boundary demarcation will commence from Chanak in a south-westerly direction up to Kunar, and at a distance of a few English miles from the bank of the Kunar River towards Bajaur. From Kunar the boundary line goes southwards, and, taking a bend, ascends the hills close to Satala Sar, which 214hills divide the watershed between the Kunar and Panjkora rivers. From Satala Sar the boundary passes over the crest of the hill, on one side of which the waters flowing from the Dag Hills fall into the Panjkora River, whilst the waters on the other side passing through the Satala Valley, fall into the Kabul River. And in the centre of this hill lies the kotal of Satala. The extreme end of the boundary touches the Kabul River, in the vicinity of Palosi. From a review of the above details, you will understand that, in addition to the countries watered by the Kunar River which lie towards the limits of the Indian dominions, his Highness the Amir has agreed not to interfere in all that country, the eastern waters of which fall into the Panjkora River, nor to interfere or stretch his hand in that quarter of the Mohmand country, the waters of which fall into the Kabul River below Palosi.”
When, however, Mr. Udny met in August at Jalalabad the Sipah Salar, Ghulam Haidar, the Amir’s representative, it seemed that the Amir intended to repudiate the Durand Agreement, so far as it concerned the Mohmand and Bajaur country; the proposed partition of Mohmand spheres of influence was rejected, it appearing that the Sipah Salar, on behalf of his master, claimed to exercise jurisdiction over the Mohmands right down to the Peshawar Valley. A solution of the difficulty was, however, found, and Colonel Sir T. Holdich has something to tell us about it in his Indian Borderland, where he writes: “It was impossible to give any effect to the agreement 215of 1893 without clearly ascertaining whether the geographical conditions of the country admitted of a direct interpretation. For the most part they did not. The boundary of the agreement was partly a geographical impossibility, but for a great part there was no obstruction in the way of carrying out its intention, except a new and varied interpretation which the Amir put upon the text of it.... A boundary was found between Afghanistan and the independent tribes to the east, from the Hindu Kush to a point in the Kunar Valley from whence it diverged to Lundi Kotal; and although at that point it had to be temporarily abandoned, and has remained undemarcated, enough was secured to lead up to a better geographical knowledge of the whole position, on the basis of which it was possible to effect a subsequent agreement which has rendered actual demarcation through the Mohmand country unnecessary,” in spite of the fact that no part of the boundary defined south of the Hindu Kush was the actual boundary of the agreement.
The Kunar Valley
Of the Kunar River and Valley Holdich has a good deal to say, both in The Gates of India and in The Indian Borderland. In the former book he writes that it was in the Kunar Valley that Alexander the Great “found and defeated the chief of the Aspasians. The Kunar River is by far the most important of the northern tributaries of the Kabul. It rises under the Pamirs, and is otherwise known as the Chitral River. The Kunar Valley is amongst the most lovely of the many lovely valleys of Afghanistan. Flanked 216by the snowy-capped mountains of Kashmund on the west, and the long level water-parting which divides it from Bajaur and the Panjkora drainage on the east, it appears, as one enters it from Jalalabad, to be hemmed in and constricted. The gates of it are indeed somewhat narrow, but it widens out northward, where the ridges of the lofty Kashmund tail off into low altitudes of sweeping foothills a few miles above the entrance, and here offer opportunity for an easy pass across the divide from the west into the valley. This is a link in the oldest and probably the best-trodden route from Kabul to the Punjab, and it has no part with the Khyber. It links together these northern valleys of Laghman, Kundar and Lundai (i.e. the Panjkora and Swat united) by a road north of the Kabul, finally passing southwards into the plains chequered by the river network above Peshawar. The lower Kunar Valley in the early autumn is passing beautiful. Down the tawny plain and backed by purple hills the river winds its way, reflecting the azure sky with pure turquoise colour—the opaque blue of silted water—blinking and winking with tiny sun shafts, and running emerald green at the edges.... The clustering villages are thick in some parts—so thick that they jostle each other continuously.... Higher up the river the valley closes until, long before Chitral is reached, it narrows exceedingly. Here, in the north, the northern winds rage down the funnel with bitter fury and make life burdensome. The villages take to the hill slopes or cluster in patches on the terraces at their feet.”
217In The Indian Borderland we are told that “the Kunar River rises in a blue lake called Gaz Kul, or Karumbar, under the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush. This, at least, is one of its sources. Many a mighty glacier standing about the head of the Yarkhun River offers its contributions. The Yarkhun flows past the foot of the Baroghil Pass, over pebble and boulder-covered flats, and through terrific gorges, with here and there the snout of a glacier protruding (or even temporarily blocking the valley) till it reaches Mastuj. From this point you may call it the Chitral River, or Kashkar, for it now flows past Chitral, and through the district known to hill people as Kashkar. It does not become the Kunar till it reaches the neighbourhood of the ancient kingdom of Kunar, which occupies the last fifty miles of its course before it joins the Kabul River.... The Kunar Valley and the Valley of the Bashgul, or Arnawai, together lead up to the Mandal and Dorah passes, either one of which is the gateway to the rich valleys of eastern Badakshan, and opens up a direct line to Jalalabad from the Oxus, which does not touch Kabul at all. These passes are high (14,000 feet to 15,000 feet), difficult, and very much more buried under snow than those further west; but a well-constructed road across them would still be a passable trade route for many months in the year; and would offer a far more direct connection between the Oxus regions and India than any which now exist.”
Asmar
“Asmar is the most unattractive corner of the Kunar district. A narrow, three-cornered patch of 218dusty valley, over which the wind comes dancing and sweeping from all sides at once, with the river running deep in a rocky gorge below; steep pine-clad hills to the west, and more reasonable slopes to the east, amongst which there winds up one of the chief routes into Bajaur ... such is the general view of Asmar.”
The aspect of the Mohmand hills is exceedingly dreary, and the eye is everywhere met by dry ravines between long rows of rocky hills and crags, scantily clothed with coarse grass, scrub and the dwarf palm. In summer the want of water is greatly felt, and the desert tracts radiate an intolerable heat; this, coupled with the unhealthiness of the river lowlands, probably accounts for the inferior physique of the Mohmands as compared with their Afridi and Shinwari neighbours. The want of water is especially felt in the Gandab district, which with the Shilman and Pandiali are the largest valleys in the Mohmand country, and the entrances to which are covered by the respective forts of Shabkadar, Michni, and Abazai. The villages, or rather fort clusters, are scattered along the valleys wherever a spring, or proximity of water to the surface, encourages cultivation, but in some cases the drinking water has to be brought from great distances, and is either obtained from springs whose supply is uncertain or from small tanks made to retain the rain water. The women are employed in the laborious task of bringing the water from these places for the use of the village.
The Mohmand Country
The crops in the Mohmand hills are almost entirely dependent on the winter and autumn rains, and should 219these fail there is considerable distress. Even in ordinary times the country cannot support the surplus population, whi............