From the Black Mountain to Waziristan: Being an account of the border countries and the more turbulent of the tribes controlled by the north-west frontier province, and of our military relations with them in the pastWylly, H. C. (Harold Carmichael)
History
From the Black Mountain to Waziristan: Being an account of the border countries and the more turbulent of the tribes controlled by the north-west frontier province, and of our military relations with them in the past
Oliver says of the Mohmands that “in physique, though there are among
them fine men, they are as a rule inferior to many of the surrounding
Pathans; and though they have on occasions fought well against us, their
courage is decidedly open to suspicion. They have plenty of pride and
haughtiness, sufficient reputation for cruelty and treachery, and like
other Pathans a good deal to say about their honour; the value of which
may, perhaps, be best judged by the frontier proverb concerning them, to
the effect that ‘you have only to put a rupee in your eye, and you may
look at any Mohmand, man or woman.’ They are on fairly good terms with
their neighbours of Bajaur and Kunar, have usually avoided collisions
with the Afridis, though between them and the Shinwaris a guerilla war
has lasted for centuries; the belt of desert from Lundi Kotal to
Pesh-Bolak bearing witness to the destruction caused by raid and
counter-raid. Private blood-feuds are common, and the tariff for
injuries runs rather low. In many other social and domestic
customs,”—and in dress and language, it might also be added—“they
resemble the Yusafzais; but they have no _hujras_—an institution which
to the Pathan ‘young blood,’ corresponds to the English notion of a
club—the want of which, in a Pathan’s opinion, is to stamp a tribe as
little better than savages. They differ, moreover, conspicuously in
having a more aristocratic tribal constitution, in that they have
hereditary chiefs or Khans,[85] drawn from the old families, who from
ancient times have supplied leaders—the most important being the Khan of
Lalpura in the east, and the Baizai Khan of Goshta in the west.”
The cis-frontier or Kuz Mohmands are divided into five main clans:
1. Kayakzai.
2. Musazai.
3. Dawezai.
4. Matanni.
5. Sirgani.
These are represented by some 500 men in the regular army and levies,
and of these branches of the Mohmand family, who settled in the
south-west corner of the Peshawar Valley when their progenitors finally
ousted the Dilazaks, it may be said that they have been for so long
separated from their cousins of the hills as to have become practically
an altogether separate tribe.
Of the independent, Bar or hill, Mohmands there are four main clans:
1. Tarakzai.
2. Halimzai.
3. Baizai.
4. Khwaezai.
The _Tarakzais_ inhabit the hills north and west of Michni adjoining the
British border—the Burhan Khel and Isa Khel divisions of the clan living
in Pandiali, and the Morcha Khel divisions having settlements on either
bank of the Kabul River round Lalpura and Dakka. A small proportion of
the Tarakzais live in Loi Shilman, and some are also settled in British
territory in the _Doaba_, the triangular piece of country between the
junction of the Kabul and Swat Rivers. The chiefs of the Tarakzais are
the Khans of Lalpura and Pandiali.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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