CHAPTER III.
YUSAFZAIS AND GADUNS.[[23]]
The clansmen occupying the British border from the Black Mountain to the Utman Khel territory belong, with the exception of the Gaduns, to the important tribe of Yusafzai Pathans, of which the Hassanzais, Akazais and Chagarzais, already described, are also branches.
Arrival in Peshawar Valley
The Yusafzais inhabit the division of that name in the Peshawar district, as well as independent territory beyond the border. They are the descendants of the original Gandhari, who in ancient days occupied the Peshawar Valley, emigrating thence to the Helmand in the fifth century, and becoming fused with the Afghans of Ghor. In the fifteenth century, owing to pressure, the Yusafzais migrated with other tribes northwards to Kabul, and from thence in the sixteenth century into the Peshawar Valley, where they acquired the plain country north of the Kabul River and west of Mardan. Meanwhile, the Mohmands of the Ghoria Khel had followed the Yusafzais, and they in turn defeated the Dilazaks—whom the Yusafzais had already dispossessed of their lands—and forced them into the present Yusafzai plain, in the north-east corner of the Peshawar Valley. The Yusafzais then, with the help of other tribes, drove the Dilazaks across the Indus into Hazara. The Yusafzais, with the Utman Khel and Tarkanris, now settled themselves in the Yusafzai plain, and during the next few years these three tribes made themselves masters of all the hill country along that border, from the Indus to the range separating the Bajaur and Kunar Valleys. In a later division of the country the Tarkanris took Bajaur; the Utman Khel the Swat Valley up to the junction of that river with the Panjkhora; while the Yusafzais occupied all the hills to the east as far as the Indus, including Lower Swat, Buner, Chamla and the Peshawar Valley east of Hastnagar and north of the Kabul River. At the present time the Yusafzais inhabit the north-east of the Peshawar district, or the Yusafzai plain, Swat, Buner, Panjkhora, and several strips of independent territory north and east of the Peshawar Valley. They have also considerable settlements to the east of the Indus as we have seen.
At the time of the final division of the country with the Tarkanris and the Utman Khels, the Yusafzais were divided into two great branches, the Mandanr and the Yusafzais, the whole race tracing its origin to Mandai, who had two sons, Yusaf and Umar. From Yusaf sprang the Yusafzais, and from a son of Umar called Mandan, the Mandanr took their name. On the occupation of this tract of country, an equal division of both plain and hill country was made between the Mandanr and the Yusafzais, but quarrels arising, the Yusafzais gradually became owners of the hill country, while the Mandanr were driven into the plains; it is thus actually the Mandanr who now occupy the so-called Yusafzai plain in the north-east of the Peshawar Valley, and who are generally known as Yusafzais, while the real Yusafzais, who dwell in the hill country, are usually called after the name of the territory they severally inhabit.
The Yusafzai is an agriculturist, generally a fine, well-limbed man, of good physique and appearance, with a great deal of race-pride, well-dressed and cheery, while his hospitality is proverbial. They have an established and recognised gentry, and all blue-blooded Yusafzais have a hereditary share in the land, their names appearing in the book of hereditary land-owners kept by the village patwari. The Yusafzai plain is very flat, and the soil, where properly irrigated, is very fertile, but the chief interest of this district lies in the numerous ruins of ancient Buddhist and Hindu cities, temples and inscriptions, scattered broadcast about the plain and the adjoining hills.
The Yusafzais may conveniently be divided into Cis- and Trans-frontier Yusafzais: under the former category come the
(1) Mandanr, (2) Sam Baizais,
while the following are the clans of trans-frontier Yusafzais:
(1) Akozais, (2) Amazais, (3) Bunerwals, (4) Chagarzais, (5) Chamlawals, (6) Isazais, (7) Khudu Khel, (8) Nasozais, (9) Utmanzais.