MOHMANDS.[83]
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 along 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 superiority, 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.”
[Sidenote: 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 hills 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 of 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.
[Sidenote: 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 by 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.”
In _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.”
[Sidenote: Asmar]
“Asmar is the most unattractive corner of the Kunar district. A narrow,
three-cornered patch of dusty 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.
[Sidenote: The Mohmand Country]
The crops in the Mohmand hills are almost entirely dependent on the
winter and autumn rains, and should these fail there is considerable
distress. Even in ordinary times the country cannot support the surplus
population, which has for years past been steadily emigrating to the
Peshawar district. The products of the Mohmand country are few and rude;
a little grain, firewood, grass, charcoal, ropes and mats, honey and
cattle from the Baizai hills—these are the chief exports. But through
the Mohmand country come India-wards the wood rafts from Chitral, Kunar
and Laghman on the Kabul River, and from Dir and Swat; wax, hides, ghi
and rice from Kunar; and the iron of Bajaur in lumps and bars. The
imports are salt, cloth, paper, soap, tea, indigo, sugar, grain,
tobacco, needles, scissors and other manufactures of civilisation,
purchased by the Mohmands for themselves and their northern neighbours.
The through trade, therefore, is considerable, and it is with transit
dues levied on trade, and the profits earned as carriers of goods to and
from the trade centres of Peshawar, Jalalabad, Pesh-Bolak, Lalpura and
Shabkadar, that the Mohmands supplement the scanty returns of their
barren soil. In the hot weather trade is brisk on the Kabul River, upon
which wood rafts, or merchandise carried on inflated skins, are floated
down to British territory.
There are numerous roads through the Mohmand country, as the hills,
though rugged and rocky, are nowhere impassable. The most important
perhaps of these are the roads from Peshawar to Dakka, one from Shahgai
via Tartara in the Mullagori country and the Shilman Valley, and the
other from Fort Michni across the Kabul River by the Shanilo ferry into
the Shilman Valley; in old days these were important trade routes. The
other roads of importance from British territory are one from Shabkadar
to the Gandab Valley, and another from Matta, a few miles north of
Shabkadar, over the Inzarai Pass into the Pandiali Valley; this is
comparatively easy and is known as the Alikandi route.
Of the Gandab Valley, Lieutenant Enriquez says that “it is certainly a
hopeless wilderness. Mile after mile the scenery offers nothing but
dreary boulder-strewn mountains. The streams in summer disappear under
ground and only rise to the surface at intervals. The purity of the
water is not above suspicion.[84] In the deeper pools there are
quantities of little fish which can be caught in a sheet, and which make
a very tolerable substitute for white-bait. Smalls eels are also quite
common and can be hooked. The hardy pink oleander thrives in the
ravines, and lends the only touch of colour to the desolate landscape.
In June the climate of the Gandab Valley is detestable. The excessive
heat is intensified by radiation. The narrow glen acts as a funnel for
the scorching wind, which blows hard for days on end. No tent can stand
against the storm, and I have seen half a camp collapse when struck by a
sudden blast. Dust and even small pebbles are blown about with great
violence.”
[Sidenote: The Mohmand People]
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.
The _Halimzais_ were originally considered to be a branch of the
Tarakzais, but they have so grown in numbers and importance as to be now
looked upon as a separate clan. They live in the Gandab Valley and in
Kamali, and have also a colony in Loi Shilman.
[Sidenote: Baizai and Khwaezai]
The _Baizais_ are the most powerful clan of the Mohmands, and inhabit
the more westerly portion of the tribal country. They are bounded on the
north and west by the Kunar River, south by the Kabul River, south-east
by the Khwaezais, and east by the Safis and the territory of the Khan of
Nawagai. They also extend into Afghanistan. The chief of the Baizai clan
is the Khan of Goshta.
The _Khwaezai_ settlements stretch from the west, from the north of the
Kabul River near Lalpura, across the Bohai Dag as far as the Kamali
limits of the Halimzais to the east.
Of the independent Mohmands very few enlist in the Indian Army, but
there are a good many in the regiments of the Amir of Afghanistan and in
the contingents of the local Khans. The physique of the tribe is
generally good, and a rough estimate of the fighting strength of the Bar
Mohmands places it at 19,000 men, of whom the Baizais supply almost
half. They have gained for themselves of more recent years a reputation
as brave fighters as well as troublesome raiders, but are thoroughly
mistrusted and detested by their neighbours, who accuse them of the
grossest treachery. The Mohmands, moreover, are very vindictive,
frequently exhuming and burning the bodies of enemies, even of their own
faith; they often, too, refuse permission to relatives to remove their
dead for proper burial after a war. At one time the Mohmand fighting men
did not possess many modern rifles, but latterly it is said that they
have received several large consignments of arms from the Persian Gulf
via Kabul, and have also purchased numbers of rifles from the Adam Khel
factories in the Kohat Pass.
To be considered in connection with the independent Mohmands are three
affiliated clans living on the northern outskirts of the Mohmand
country, and also three vassal clans.
The three first mentioned are the _Dawezais_, of whom some live
permanently in the Upper Ambahar Valley and others leave their families
in the winter in Ningrahar, migrating during the summer to the
neighbourhood of the Unai Pass and the Upper Helmand River; the
_Utmanzais_, who live in Bar and Kuz Yakhdand; and the _Kukkozais_,
whose settlements are in Ningrahar.
The three vassal clans are the _Mullagoris_, the _Safis_, and the
_Shilmanis_.
The _Mullagoris_ are a people of doubtful origin, it being open to
conjecture whether they are of Dilazak, Durani or Ghilzai stock. They
are not acknowledged as being connected with any of the neighbouring
tribes. The bulk of the clan is situated to the north of the Khyber
Pass, extending from the Dabbar Pass on the west to the Peshawar
district on the east, the Kabul River being their northern boundary.
Their neighbours on the west are the Shilmanis, on the north the
Tarakzai Mohmands, and on the south the Kuki Khel Afridis, with whom, as
well as with other Afridis, they are at feud. They have other
settlements at Sapri in the Mohmand Hills, in the Sisobi Glen, on the
western slopes of the Pandperi Range, and along the banks of the Kunar
River. Those of the clan who are settled about the Khyber go in the
summer to Kambela, which lies below Mutlani Sar to the west. The Khyber
Mullagoris are very united, have a good reputation for courage, and
enlist freely in the Khyber Rifles.
[Sidenote: Safis or Kandaharis]
The _Safis_ or _Kandaharis_ are supposed to be descendants of the
original Gandhari of the country included between the Indus and Kunar
Rivers, and which is bounded on the north by the Koh-i-Mor Range, and on
the south by the Kabul River. Of these a great number emigrated in the
fifth and sixth centuries to the valley of the Helmand, being driven out
by Jat and other Scythic tribes from across the Hindu Kush. “In
appearance often florid,” says Oliver, “with light eyes and hair,
speaking a language only distantly related to the Pushtu of the
Mohmands, whose dialect has much in common with that spoken in Kabul,
both they and the Dehgans of the Laghman Valley are either directly
descended from, or largely admixed with, the Kafirs, and are
comparatively recent converts to Islamism. In Baber’s time they were
still called Kafirs; in Nadir’s—Safis, a name which Masson suggests they
may have acquired by becoming ‘pure’ in comparison to the adjoining
‘impure’ idolaters.” They are very bigoted and are fanatical, but make
good soldiers. The main portion of them live in a wide valley, called
Sur Kamar, which divides the Baizai country from that of the Dawezai and
Utmanzai Mohmands. It is bounded on the north and east by the Sarlarra
Range and Utmanzai country, on the south by the Darwazgai Range, and on
the west by the Amrohi Range. They hold their valley by favour of the
Mohmands, but are really dependents of the Khan of Nawagai.
The _Shilmanis_ look upon the trans-frontier Mohmands as their parent
stock, but their origin is rather doubtful—it has been stated to be Turk
or Indian, and the latter seems the more probable. Their ancient home
appears to have been in Shilman on the banks of the Kurram River, whence
they migrated to the Tartara Mountain north of the Khyber, and to
Hastnagar during the fifteenth century. At the end of the same century
the Yusafzais drove the Hastnagar section into Swat, since which time
they have sought the protection of the Mohmands, who had also taken
possession of the country north of the Kabul River, and thus have become
affiliated with them. The tract of country occupied by the Shilmanis is
to the north of the Loargai plain and between it and the Kabul River,
being bounded on the east by the Dabbar Hill, and on the west by the
Shilman Gakhe. It is divided into four portions: 1, the Kam Shilman
Valley; 2, the Prang Darra Glen; 3, the Loi Shilman Valley; and 4, from
Shinpokh to the mouth of the Kam Shilman Glen along the right bank of
the Kabul River. The tribes bordering this tract of country are the
Mullagoris on the east, the Shinwaris on the south, and the Mohmands on
the west and north.
About one-tenth of the Shilmani fighting men take service in the Khyber
Rifles.