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

by H. C. Wylly

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.

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.