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
The Maidan Valley is about ten miles long, rich and fertile and well
cultivated, watered by the Maidan or Kunai River. The Jandol Valley,
whose northern and southern boundaries are the Janbatai Range and the
Rud River, has a total area of some 144 square miles, being about
fourteen miles long, with a breadth ranging from six to ten miles, and
is also rich and well cultivated. The Baraul Valley is divided into an
upper and a lower, the upper including the Janbatai district, and good
crops are raised here, and iron of excellent quality is exported. The
Babukarra Valley is about fifteen miles long, with an average width of
five or six miles; the range of the Hindu Raj divides it from Asmar on
the north, on the east the Takwara spur separates it from Jandol, on the
west is the Mamund or Watelai Valley, while to the south, on the right
bank of the Bajaur River, is the country of the Utman Khel. The
Chaharmung Valley lies between the Mamund country on the north-east and
the Kamangara Valley on the south-west. The Watelai Valley, occupied by
the Mamunds, the most important section of the Tarkanris or Bajauris,
lies between the valleys of Chaharmung and Babukarra; it is about
thirteen miles in length, with a maximum breadth of ten miles, and is
well cultivated, but has no main river of any importance running through
it, and the bed of the valley is much cut up by deep nullahs. The
Mamunds are probably the most warlike of the Tarkanris, and can put
12,000 men in the field, all well armed as frontier tribesmen go.
The position of the Khan of Nawagai requires some explanation. He is the
hereditary chief of a branch of the Salarzai sub-division of the
Mamunds, and also of all the Tarkanris, but his authority has of late
years very greatly diminished, although he is still by no means without
influence, even far beyond the borders of his own Khanate. His actual
territory is an irregular tract of country on the left bank of the Rud
River, together with the district of Surkamar; part of his country was
encroached upon some years ago by the Mohmands, and he has never been
sufficiently powerful to regain permanent possession of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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