Pathan: Tribes of Kohat
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 Kohat
The Pathans of Kobat belong almost entirely to two great tribes, the Khatak of the the Kakai section of the Karlanri, and the Bangash, a Qureshi tribe of Arab descent. The original home of the Khatak, in common with the other sections of the Karbinri, was the west face of the northern Sulemuns, where they held the valley of Shawal now occupied by the Waziri.- Towards the close of the 13th century'they, with the Mangal and Hanni, two tribes of the Kodai section of the Karlanri, moved eastwards, the two last descending into the Bannu district and setthng along the Kurrara and Gambila, while the Khatak held the hills to the west of our border.
A century later the Bannuchi drove, as already related in section 403, the Mangal and Hanni out of Bannu; and not long after this the Khatak, quarrelling with the Bannuehi, moved to the north and east and occupied the hilly country, then uninhabited, which stretches across the centre of the Kohat district to the Indus, leaving behind them the Chamkanni, a tribe (perhaps of Persian origin) who had taken refuge with them, and the bulk of whom now occupy the north-east corner of the Kurram valley, while another section still lives in a state of barbarism about Kaniguram as the subjects of the Waziri. At this time the Orakzai, another tribe of the Kodai Karlanri, held all the valley of Kohat in the north and north-east of the district frora Resi on the Indus to Kohat ; while the Bangash, already alluded to, lived in the country about Gardez in Zurmat. But in the latter part of the 14th century the Bangash, increasing in number and being pressed upon by the Ghilzai, emigrated east wards en masse and settled in Kurram.
Being presently driven out by the Turi and Jaji, tribes of doubtful origin who claim descent from Khugiani, son of Kakai, but who are perhaps of Awan stock^ though now Pathans for all practical purposes, and who still occupy the valley, they joined with the Khatak who had quarrelled with the Orakzai, and drove the latter out of Kohat. The struggle was prolonged for nearly a century ; but by the close of the 15th century the Orakzai had been driven into the lower of the ranges which form the eastern extremity of the Safed Koh and he along the north western border of the Kohat District. The Khatak and Bangash then possessed themselves of all the northern and central portions of Kohat and divided the country between them, the former taking all the southern and central portions, while the latter took the northern and north-western tract consisting of the Kohat and Miranzai valleys up to the base of the Orakzai or Samana range ; and the hills between Gada Khel and Lachi were then fixed and still remain as the boundary between the two tribes. In the time of Akbar, Malik Akor was the leader of the Khatak, and he was granted an extensive tract of land south of the Kabul river between Khairabad and Naushahra on condition of his
- Unfortunately the Settlement Officer of Kohat went on furlough without reporting his
settlement. Consequently I have far less full information regarding this than regarding any other frontier district. I have, however, done my hcst to supply the defect from other sources.
Dr. Bellew says that the Khatak held an the plain couutry of the Indus as far south as Derail Ismail Khan till driven out hy the Waziri, who being in their turn driven northwards by the pressure of Biloch tribes moving up the Indus valley, passed onwards into the hills then held by the Bannuchi. He gives no authority for this account, which does not agree with the traditions of the Khatak themselves as related in the Kalid-i- Afghani.
3 The Kalid-i Afghani places the migration in the middle of the 12th century, and the Canuuchi migration at about 1300 A.D.
•) The Turi were originally Tiamsdyahs of the Bangash, but rose in rebellion against their masters.
5 Mr. Merk, however, tells me that the Khugiani claim Durrd.ni origin; and that the claim is admitted by the Durranij and supported by their genealogies.
guarding the high road between Attak and Peshawar. This brought him into contact with the Mandanr of Yusufzai who held the country opposite on the left bank of the Kabul river. Their quarrels were continual ; and at length in the time of Shah Jahun the Khatak crossed the river, possessed themselves of the strip of land along its north bank from the junction of the Swat river to the Indus and for a short distance along the right bank of the Indus, and also pushed across the plain and acquired a position about Jamalgarhi to the north of Mardan, in the very heart of the Mandanr country, whieh commands the approaches to Swat on the one hand and Buner on the other. They have also encroached on the Mohmand and Khalil who he to the west of their Peshawar temtory. Meanwhile they had gradually spread southwards to the trans-Indus Salt-range and the Bannu border, and across the Salt-range to the Indus at Kalabagh ; and they now hold a broad strip running along its right bank from a little above the junction of the Kabul river to Kalabagh, all Kohat save the portion occupied by the Bangash in the north and north-west of the district, and the western half of the Lundkhwar valley in the north of Yusufzai. They crossed the Indus and are said to have at one time conquered the Awan country as far east as the Jahlam. But about the middle of the 1 7th century they relinquished the greater part of this tract ; and now only hold Makhad in the Rawalpindi district, and the left bank of the river as far south as Mari in Bannu. There are other Khatak holdings scattered about the cis-Indus plains ; but their owners have no connection with the tribe.
About the middle of the 18th century two parties grew up in the tribe. They temporarily combined to accompany and assist Ahmad Shah Durrani in his invasion of Hindustun ; but after his departure the division became permanent, the eastern or Akora faction holding the north-eastern portion of Kohat and all the Khatak country of Peshawar, with their capital at Akora. on the Kabul river, while the western or Teri division hold all the remainder of Kehat, including the south-eastern corner occupied by the Saghri clan, and the adjoining territory of the Bangi Khel Khatak of Bannu. The western section have their capital at Teri, south-west of Kohat, and in the centre of the hills they first occupied.
Thus with the exception of a few Awan villages in the Bangash country,
and a Saiyad village here and there, the whole of Kohat is held by Patbjins,
and with the exception of a narrow strip of land stretching along the northern
border of the Teri Khatak from Togh to Dhoda which is held by the Niazi
(see section 400), the whole is in the hands of the Bangash and Khatak. The
Nawab of Khatak holds the Teri tract in jagir, p0ssessing exclusive revenue
jurisdiction, and large criminal and police powers.
