The tract of country inhabited by this tribe is some sixty miles long by about twenty broad. It is bounded on the north by the Shinwaris and Afridis, on the east by the Bangash and Afridis, on the south by the Bangash and the Zaimukhts, and on the west by the Kharmana River and by the country of the Chamkannis. The Orakzais also possess some settlements in British territory in the Kohat district. The Orakzai country proper is generally termed Orakzai Tirah, and it contains four principal valleys—the Khanki, the Mastura, the Kharmana and the Bara; but Holdich lays due stress upon the peculiarities of its position, when he says that “the Orakzai geographical position differs from that of the Afridis in some essential particulars.... It is through their country that the way to the heart of the Afridi mountains lies. They keep the front door to Maidan (which is near the Dargai Pass across the Samana), whilst the back door is open to Afghanistan, but they possess no back door themselves, so that once their valleys (Khanki and Mastura) are held, they are in the power of the enemy and they must submit.” Origin of the Tribe
347The origin of the tribe is rather obscure, and local traditions vary greatly. One version is that three brothers—Pridi, Wazir, and Warak—came from Afghanistan to the Orakzai Hills, where they quarrelled over some trifle—as their descendants have continued to do down to present times—and Pridi then went north, Wazir to the south, while Warak remained where he was. Another tradition is that they are descended from a Persian prince who was exiled (“Wrukzai” in Pushtu) and who settled in the Kohat district, marrying a daughter of the King of Kohat. Others, again, say that the original home of the Orakzais was on the slopes of the Suleiman Mountains; that they and the Bangash settled in the Zaimukht country during the invasions of Sabuktagin and Timur, and were driven thence into the Kurram, and from there, again, into the Miranzai Valley. The occupation of the Kurram by the Turis, and their gradual encroachment into the lower part of that valley, then held by the Bangash, forced these in their turn to press the Orakzais. The struggle came to an end with a great battle at Muhammadzai, near Kohat, towards the end of the sixteenth century. The story goes that after three days’ fighting the victory remained with the Bangash, the actual issue being materially assisted by the intervention of a supernatural figure garbed in spotless white raiment, which appeared between the contending forces, crying out—“the plains for the Bangash and the hills for the Orakzai.”
The Orakzais thereupon retired to their present 348holdings, while the Bangash have ever since occupied the Miranzai Valley. Historically, however, it is more than probable that the Orakzais are of an ancient Indian stock, and that in process of time successive emigrations from the west have brought to them an infusion of Turkish blood.
These tribesmen are wiry-looking mountaineers, but they are not such fine men physically, their reputation for courage does not stand so high, nor are they as formidable as their northern neighbours, the Afridis, while they are prone to be influenced by fanaticism to a far greater extent. Their mountains are barren, and they themselves are often ragged, poverty-stricken and underfed in appearance, distinguishable from their neighbours—and, incidentally, wholly indistinguishable when skirmishing on their hillsides—by reason of the peculiar pearl-grey tint of their dress, dyed from an earth found in the Tirah hills. Their chief source of wealth lies in their flocks and herds, and they do a considerable trade with Peshawar, especially in the mazarai, or dwarf palm, which is cut during August and September, and which has a certain commercial value for the manufacture of ropes, grass sandals, bed-strings, nets, matting, baskets and grain-bins. Many of the Orakzais are weavers by trade.
Of their moral character the usual contradictory evidence is forthcoming. It was against the Orakzais that Macgregor brought the indictment already quoted, that “there is no doubt that, like other Pathans, they would not shrink from any falsehood, however 349atrocious, to gain an end. Money would buy their services for the foulest deed; cruelty of the most revolting kind would mark their actions to a wounded or helpless foe, as much as cowardice would stamp them against determined resistance.” And Oliver, after saying that, if not better, they are probably not much worse than their neighbours in the Pathan qualities of deceit, avarice and cruelty, reminds us that “it must not be forgotten that they have been embittered by centuries of bitter religious feuds and the influence of fanatical teachers; they have never had a government of any decent sort, its place being supplied by superstition; and they do not understand our theory of tolerance or non-interference.” On the other hand, it is said that as soldiers they are, in general, quiet, well-behaved and intelligent, responding easily to discipline. At home they are given, even more than other Pathans, to internecine feuds, due to the fact that part of the tribe are Samil and Sunnis, and part Gar and Shiahs. Their fighting men number, all told, some 24,000, all tolerably well armed.
Their Moral Character
Of two out of their four main valleys the following descriptions are given by Holdich: “The Khanki Valley offers no special attractions in the matter of scenery. The flanking mountains are rugged and rough, and unbroken by the craggy peaks and fantastic outlines which generally give a weird sort of charm to frontier hills. The long slopes of the mountain spurs gradually shape themselves downwards into terraced flats, bounded by steep-sided 350ravines, along which meander a few insignificant streams, and the whole scene, under the waning sun of late October, is a dreary expanse of misty dust colour, unrelieved by the brilliant patchwork which enlivens the landscape elsewhere. On a terraced slope between the Khanki and the Kandi Mishti ravines, under the Pass of Sampagha, stands a mud-built village with an enclosure of trees, called Ghandaki; and it is through this village that the road to Sampagha runs after crossing the Kandi Mishti declivities, ere it winds its devious course up a long spur to the pass.... Beyond the Sampagha lay the elevated Valley of Mastura (some 1500 feet higher than the Khanki, itself 4300 feet above sea-level), and 700 feet below, the pass. The difference in elevation was at once apparent in the general appearance of the landscape. Six thousand feet of altitude lifts Mastura above the dust-begrimed and heat-riddled atmosphere of Khanki or Miranzai, and gives it all the clear, soft beauty of an Alpine climate. Mastura is one of the prettiest valleys of the frontier. In spite of the lateness of the season, apricot and mulberry trees had not yet parted with scarlet and yellow of the waning year. Each little hamlet clinging to the grey cliffs, or perched on the flat spaces of the bordering plateau below, was set in its own surrounding of autumn’s gold-tinted jewellery; and in the blue haze born of the first breath of clear October frost, the crowded villages and the graceful watch-towers keeping ward over them were mistily visible across the breadth of the valleys, tier above 351tier, on the far slopes of the mountains, till lost in the vagueness of the shadows of the hills.”
Kharmana and Bara Valleys
The Kharmana Valley has been described as dotted with hamlets and towers, well-wooded and cultivated, and abundantly watered. It is entered from the south by the Kharmana defile, some seven miles in length, the hills on either side being very steep and covered with scrub jungle; and from the east over the Durbi Khel Kotal, a rough and difficult pass, and by way of the Lozaka defile, a narrow ravine with precipitous hills on either side.
Of such part of the Bara Valley as is occupied by the Orakzai, it may be said to be that portion between the right bank of the Bara River and the Mastura—formerly known as the Orakzai Bara—and enclosed between Bar And Khel, where the Mastura makes a sharp bend to the south, and Mamanai, where it joins the Bara on its entry into the Kajurai plain. From this part of the Bara Valley the upper reaches of the Mastura are arrived at by a very narrow, rocky gorge to Sapri and Kwaja Khidda, thence over the Sapri Pass—an ascent of some 2000 feet—and thence by the stream bed or over the Sangra Pass to Mishti Bazar and the upper Mastura.
The Orakzais are now usually considered to be divided into six clans, since, of the original seven, one is practically extinct; these six clans are again sub-divided into many divisions; the six clans are as under:
1.
Ismailzai.
2.
Lashkarzai.
3.
Massuzai.
4.
Daulatzai.
5.
Muhammad Khel.
6.
Sturi Khel or Alizai.
352In addition, however, to the Orakzai clans, there are four hamsaya clans:
1.
Ali Khel.
2.
Malla Khel.
3.
Mishtis.
4.
Sheikhans.
The Ismailzai are divided into six divisions; all of them are Sunnis by faith, and the majority are Samil in politics. The clan is very disunited, but can turn out some 1800 fighting men, chiefly from two of the divisions, which are rather increasing in power and numbers at the expense of the remaining four. One of these divisions, the Rabia Khel, is remarkable for the fair hair, fair complexions and blue eyes of those belonging to it. The Ismailzai, residing as they do rather nearer to our territory than the rest of the Orakzais, have hitherto given us considerably more than their share of tribal trouble.
Commencing from the east, the settlements of the Ismailzai extend along the right bank of the Khanki River to near Shahu Khel, and include the northern slopes of the Samana Range. This tract belongs to the Rabia Khel and Akhel divisions, and they also own a small strip of ground on the left bank of the river, while both have also settlements in the British portion of the Miranzai Valley. Another division, the Mamazai, live in the Daradar Glen, which drains into the Khanki on the left bank, and here is the village of Arkhi, of more than local reputation for the manufacture of rifles. The remaining three divisions of this clan are scattered about in small settlements on the left bank of the Khanki River, the Khadizais at Sadarai and Tutgarhi, the Sadakhel at Ghandaki, 353at the foot of the Sampagha Pass leading to the Mastura Valley, and the Isa Khel in hamlets on either side of the pass itself. The Isa Khel are considered inviolable and are hamsayas of the Rabia Khel, Ali Khel and Mishtis—the two last themselves hamsaya clans—while the curse of an Isa Khel is said to possess particular potency, and is in consequence dreaded by the neighbouring tribesmen.
The Lashkarzai
The Lashkarzai consist of two divisions only, Alisherzais and Mamuzais, the former Gar and the latter Samil, both being of the Sunni sect, and each being at feud with the other. The clan can muster some 5800 fighting men, of which number the Alisherzais contribute the larger half—all are fairly well armed. The country of the Alisherzai is divided—like the seats at a Spanish bull-fight—into the “sunny” and the “shady”—the former title applying to the country lying on the southern slopes of the Tor Ghar, towards the Kurram Valley, and the latter to that on the northern slopes at the head of the Khanki Valley. The Alisherzais have a great reputation for bravery, and it is said that at one time in their military history they employed mounted men in battle; but if this was ever the case their taste for cavalry service would appear to have weakened, since barely a dozen Orakzais all told are at the present moment to be found serving in our regular regiments of the Indian cavalry. In this division the Khan-ship is hereditary, being vested in a family living at Tatang; in the year 1897 the then holder of the office was greatly implicated in the risings on the Samana. 354The Mamuzais live at the head of the Khanki Valley, to the north of the Minjan Darra, in a tract called Sama, Khanki Bazar, a rich trading centre, being the tribal headquarters. There is, perhaps, no other clan between the Kabul and the Kurram Rivers, so much under the influence of their mullahs and so fanatical as are these people; they also rather take the ............