From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

On the death of Husen, his son, Malik Sulemán, succeeded to the chiefship of the Kayáni family, but his authority was of a doubtful nature, and limited to the north-eastern portion only of the district. On the partition of the empire following on Nadír’s death in 1747, Sistan was incorporated in the Durrani monarchy founded by Sháh Ahmad, and Malik Sulemán was recognised as its hereditary chief, and his position strengthened by a matrimonial alliance with the new king, the Afghan sovereign taking his daughter to wife.

The alliance does not appear to have brought any material advantage to the position or authority of the Kayáni family, and in the intestine struggles constantly waged between them and the new settlers they gradually succumbed to their superior force. Sulemán was succeeded by his son, Malik Bahrám, at Jalálabad. He was so pressed by the Sárbandi and Shahrki, that he called in the aid of ’Alam Khán, Nahroe Baloch, whom with his following he settled at Kimak, Burj ’Alam, &c., as a check upon the encroachments of his enemies. This measure appears to have given offence to Sháh Tymúr, the son and successor of Sháh Ahmad; for on his accession to the throne of Afghanistan in 1773, he deposed the Kayáni, Malik Bahrám, and in his place appointed the Shahrki chief, Mír Bey, governor of Sistan. This chief was killed four years later in one of the many faction fights that seemingly form a part of ordinary life in Sistan, and Bahrám was then restored to the chiefship and government of Sistan, in subordination to the Afghan governor of the adjoining district of Lásh or Hokát.

This arrangement did not work well, and the Shahrki soon rose in revolt against Bahrám’s authority, and Tymúr in consequence sent a force of Afghans under Barkhurdár Khán, Achakzai, to reduce them, a task he performed very effectually, as has been before mentioned, by the victories of Kandúrak and Mykhána. After this, weakened as they already were by the encroachments of their enemies, the Kayáni influence rapidly declined, and was at length reduced to a nullity by the family dissensions that led to the estrangement of Bahrám from his son and successor, Jaláluddín. Malik Jaláluddín was the last of the Kayáni family who exercised any authority in Sistan. He appears to have been a very dissolute character, and was in 1838 expelled the country by the Sárbandi chief Muhammad Razá. Kamrán, the Herat prince, reinstated him in the following year, but he was again driven out, and for a while found an asylum with the chief of Ghazn. Hence he returned some years later to Sistan in beggared circumstances, and died in obscurity, leaving a son named Nasír Khán, and his son Azím Khán is now in the service of the Persian governor of the country. Malik Jaláluddín had a brother named Hamza Khán. He left three sons—namely, Abbas now residing in Jalálabad, Gulzár in Bahrámabad, and Malik Khán in some other village. These are the representatives of the ancient Kayáni family, and, viewing their present condition, one may truly exclaim, “How the great have fallen!” Their immediate relations hardly number twenty families, and the whole tribe does not exceed a hundred families, who are scattered about the district, mostly in very poor circumstances.

The rest of the Sistan tribe were formerly the serfs or subjects of the Kayáni, and they now hold the same position under the other dominant tribes of the country. They are styled generally dihcán, or peasant, and comprise representatives of various tribes, such as Tátárs, Mughals, Turks, Uzbaks, Kurds, Tajiks, converted Gabars, and Persians. They are principally employed in agriculture, cattle-herding, fishing and fowling, and the various handicrafts, and are a very poor and simple people. They are said to be deficient in courage and energy, and in respect to their military qualities, are held in little estimation by the other tribes amongst whom they are distributed as vassals. Those of them we saw in our progress through the country appeared an inferior race physically, and had sallow unhealthy complexions.

The Sárbandi and Shahrki are described as divisions of the Nahnai tribe, and their settlement in Sistan dates only from the time of Nadír Sháh, by whose orders they were transported hither from Burujurd near Hamadán. The Sárbandi are reckoned at ten thousand families in Sistan, and the Shahrki at an equal number, scattered over Sistan, Ghazn, Kirmán, and Lár.

The Sárbandi were at first settled at Sihkoha, Warmál, Chiling, and other villages on the south of the hámún, under their chief Mír Cambar. He was succeeded by his son Mír Kóchak, and he by his son Muhammad Razá, in whose time the tribe doubled their possessions by encroachments upon the lands of the Kayáni. Mír Khán succeeded his father, Muhammad Razá, and was in turn succeeded by his eldest son, of the same name, about the year 1836. This Muhammad Razá drove Malik Jaláluddín, Kayáni, out of Sistan, and becoming independent at Sihkoha, was recognised as the most influential of the local chiefs in the country.

These were Ali Khán of Chakansúr, son of Khán Jahán Khán, Sanjarání Baloch, a dependant of Kandahar, Háshim Khán, Shahrki, at Dashtak, and Dost Muhammad Khán, Nahroe Baloch, at Burj ’Alam, both dependants of Herat.

In the beginning of 1844, after the evacuation of Afghanistan by the British, Kuhndil Khán, the chief of Kandahar, returned to his principality from his retreat at Tehran, and on his way through Sistan received the submission of the Sárbandi, Shahrki, and Nahroe chiefs above mentioned. In the following year he annexed the Garmsel as far as Rúdbár to Kandahar, and was in treaty with Muhammad Razá for a more perfect establishment of relations. The negotiations were prolonged for a couple of years, and then fell through owing to the death of that chief in 1848.

Kuhndil was at this time diverted from his projects against Sistan by the menacing attitude of Yár Muhammad at Herat, and in the meantime Muhammad Razá was succeeded at Sihkoha by his son Lutf Ali as a dependent of Yár Muhammad, who supported him with a contingent of Herat troops and Afghan officers posted at Sihkoha, Dashtak, Burj ’Alam, Kimak, and other places.

The deceased chief’s brother Ali Khán, who was in the service of Kuhndil at Kandahar, in the following year set out for Sistan to oust his nephew, and furnished by Kuhndil with an army of six thousand men under the command of his brother Muhrdil for the purpose. The army was joined by the Nahroe and Sanjarání Baloch chiefs with their respective contingents at the Rúdbár frontier; Sihkoha was captured, Lutf Ali seized and deprived of sight, and his uncle, Ali Khán, established in the government of Sistan on the part of Kuhndil Khán, who then deputed his son Sultán Ali to the Persian court to secure the Sháh’s approval and support.