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.
Baizai and Khwaezai