The Pathan inhabit southern and eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Their language is Pushto (Pashto) and, except for a small minority, they are Sunni Muslims. Pathan dynasties constituted and, until recently, have controlled the tribal kingdom of Afghanistan, and during some periods Pathan or Afghan monarchs established their rule on the Indian plains.
The Pathans are united primarily by a common language, Pashto. Other commonalities include Sunni Islam and a common social code (Pashtunwali) that governs both ethical behaviour and custom. The origins of the Pathans are debated, including among the Pathans themselves. One Pathans tradition asserts that they are descended from Afghana, grandson of King Saul of Israel. Several Pashtun tribes are known to have moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan between the 13th and 16th centuries, and many Pashtun moved to northern Afghanistan after the formation of the modern Afghan state in the late 19th century.
Most Pathans are sedentary farmers, combining cultivation with animal husbandry. Some are migratory herders and caravaners. Many Pashtun serve in the military. Smaller numbers hold political posts.
Kinship is the basis of Pathan society. Each tribe, consisting of kinsmen who trace descent in the male bloodline from a common tribal ancestor, is divided into clans, subclans, and patriarchal families. Tribal genealogies establish rights of succession and inheritance and the right to use tribal lands and to speak in tribal council (jirga). Disputes over property, women, and personal injury often result in blood feuds between families and whole clans; these may be inherited unless settled by the intervention of clan chiefs or by tribal council.
There were estimated to be about 11 million Pashtun in Afghanistan and 25 million in Pakistan in the early 21st century. They comprise about 60 tribes of varying size and importance, each of which occupies a particular territory. In Afghanistan, where the Pashtun are the predominant ethnic group, the main tribes—or, more accurately, federations of tribes—are the Durrani south of Kabul and the Ghilzay east of Kabul.
In Pakistan the Pathan predominate north of Quetta between the Sulaiman Range and the Indus River. In the hill areas the main tribes are, from south to north, the Kakaṛ, Sherani, and Ustarana south of the Gumal River; the Maḥsud, Darwesh Khel, Waziri, and Biṭani between the Gumal River and Thal; the Turi, Bangash, Orakzay, Afridi, and Shinwari from Thal to the Khyber Pass; and the Mahmand, Utmankhel, Tarklani, and Yousufzay north and northeast of the Khyber Pass.
The settled areas include lowland tribes subject to direct administration by the provincial government. The main tribes there are, from south to north, the Banuchi and Khaṭak, from the Kurram River to Nowshera, and the Khalil and Mandaṇ in the Vale of Peshawar. The cities of Kandahar, Jalalabad, and Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan and Peshawar and Quetta in Pakistan are important centres of Pashtun culture.
Location
The Pathan inhabit an area roughly bounded by Kabul in the northeast and Herat in the northwest. It extends as far east as the Indus River and in the south an approximate boundary can be drawn from Sibi through Quetta to Qandahar. Pathan tribes like the Mohmand, Wazirs, Sulemankhel, and Achakzais actually straddle the international border. The topography of the area is primarily mountainous, consisting of a part of the Alpine-Himalayan mountain range in central Afghanistan and the Sulaiman range in Pakistan. To the east Pathan territory extends onto the Indus Plain and in the south onto the Iranian Plateau. The climate of Afghanistan is semiarid with cold winters and dry summers. The eastern Pathan areas are affected by the humidity and rain of the Indian monsoons. In addition Pathan live in and contribute to social life in certain areas of Indian such as Rampur (Rohilla) and cities like Bombay.
Demography
The 1984 population of Pushto speakers was approximately 20 million. This includes 11 million native to Pakistan and 9 million originating in Afghanistan. Because of the civil war that has persisted in Afghanistan since 1979, roughly 2 million Pathans have left for Pakistan as refugees. The Pathan constituted from 50 to 60 percent of the population of prewar Afghanistan. As the largest and most influential ethnic group, the Pathan have dominated the society and politics of that country for the past 200 years. Other Important ethnic minorities in Afghanistan include the Hazaras, Tajiks, and Uzbeks. Since the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the Pathan constitute Pakistan’s second-largest ethnic group. According to Pakistan’s 1981 census 13 percent of the nation’s households are Pushto-speaking. Punjabis make up the majority of Pakistan’s population; other important linguistic groups are Sindhis, Baluchis, and Urdu speakers.
Linguistic Affiliation
Pushto is in the Iranian Branch of the Indo-European Language Family. The two principal dialects, which differ in pronunciation, are Southwestern or Qandahari Pushto and Northeastern or Peshawari Pukhto. Most Pathans in Afghanistan speak Dari, a dialect of Farsi or Persian, as a second language, and it has had a strong influence on Pushto. Both languages are written in the Arabic script, modified to accommodate consonants that do not occur in Arabic.
Pashtun, ethnolinguistic group residing primarily in the region that lies between the Hindu Kush in northeastern Afghanistan and the northern stretch of the Indus River in Pakistan. The Pashtun constitute the largest ethnic group of the population of Afghanistan and bore the exclusive name of Afghan before that name came to denote any native of the present land area of Afghanistan.
History and Cultural Relations
The origin of the Pathan is debated. Linguistic evidence indicates Indo-European ancestry, while some tribal genealogies claim Semitic links. The regions of Afghanistan, eastern Iran, and western India have been some of the most heavily invaded in history and so the Pathan of today are probably a heterogeneous group. Among the invaders who have entered and established empires in the area have been Iranians, Greeks, Hindus, Turks, Mongols, Uzbeks, Sikhs, British, and Russians. The first historical reference to the Pathan (AD. 982) refers to Afghans living in the Sulaiman Mountains. The first significant impact they had outside of that area was as troops in the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni, a Muslim Turk, who led a number of invasions against the Hindu kings in north India around the year 1000. Nearly 300 years later Afghan kings themselves took power in Delhi. The Pathan Khaljis and later Lodhis ruled there until displaced by Babur, the first of the Mogul emperors, in the early sixteenth Century. It is ironic that Pathan kings ruled India before they ruled the mountainous areas to the west that are their Homelands. That feat was not accomplished until 1747 when, from a base in Qandahar, Ahmed Shah Abdali fused together an empire that encompassed parts of Iran and India as well as Afghanistan. Members of his tribe ruled a more truncated Afghanistan until 1973. British involvement in Pathan areas was a consequence of efforts to protect the western borders of their Indian empire and check the southern advance of the Russians. In 1879, following the Second Anglo-Afghan War, the Afghan government conceded control of all the passes into India to the British and in 1893 the Durand Line was established, delineating the spheres of responsibility of the two governments. It is now the international border dividing the Pathan between two nation-states.
Settlements
While some Pathan are nomadic and others urban, the majority dwell in villages of 2 to 400 families. Frequently the Villages cluster around a larger town and are always located with concern for the availability of water and for defense. Settlement patterns reflect lineage politics with dominant lineages holding the choice or strategic lands. Genealogical closeness determines a group’s location relative to them. Nomadic groups are primarily cattle herders who move with the seasons to follow pasture. They follow set routes and have traditional camping sites. Like the villages, camps are structured around the tents of the senior lineages. Houses are generally constructed of mud or sun-dried mud bricks covered with mud plaster. The only valuable parts of the house are the doors and the wood beams that support a flat roof of mats covered with mud and twigs. In small villages households consist of high-walled compounds frequently resembling fortresses, complete with towers on the corners. A clear and strict demarcation is observed between the areas (hujra ) where the public may enter and be entertained and the family’s living space. Women are secluded from the former (according to the Islamic custom of purdah) and animals and grain stores are kept in the latter. In the traditional style nomadic tents are woven from black goat’s hair and supported by posts or arched poles and guy ropes.
Economy
Subsistence and Commercial Activities
Agriculture, Primarily grain farming, and animal husbandry are the most important activities in the Pathan economy. The practice of agriculture is largely limited by the rough terrain and arid climate to river valleys; elsewhere, it depends on the scant rainfall. The most important crop is wheat, followed by barley and maize. Cultivation is done primarily by hand or with animals, though, where possible, mechanization is taking place. Traditional irrigation techniques such as kareezes, a series of wells connected by an underground tunnel, are in many cases being replaced by tube wells. Other important agricultural products are fresh and dried orchard fruits, nuts, vegetables, opium, and hashish. In addition to raising stock, nomads as well as some farmers engage in trade and moneylending. The Presence of the border dividing Pathan territory into two Countries also makes smuggling a lucrative pursuit. Domesticated animals include both fat-tailed and short-tailed sheep, goats, cattle, water buffalo, chickens, camels, donkeys, and horses.
Industrial Arts
Many industrial activities such as carpentry, bricklaying, and shoemaking are done by part-time Pashtun specialists who also farm. However, in many areas non-Pathan occupational groups carry out these activities, as well as others such as weaving, blacksmithing, and goldsmithing. An exception is the manufacture of guns; in certain areas, notably Darra Adam Khel south of Peshawar, Pathans produce guns in small factories.
Trade.
Villages in Pathan areas have until recently been largely self-sufficient. Traditionally trade and even farming were activities looked down upon by Pathans who saw raiding, smuggling, and politics as honorable pursuits. In areas where such attitudes persist, trade is carried out by non-Pathan (frequently Hindu) shopkeepers and peddlers or through barter with nomads. Despite these traditions, in large towns and urban areas Pathans have earned reputations as successful traders and businessmen.
Division of Labor.
The strict observance of purdah results in a marked division of labor between the sexes. Although rural women may participate in the harvesting of crops, they remain primarily inside the compound where they are expected to do the traditional home tasks of rearing children, maintaining the house, cooking, etc. Indeed, purdah is frequently observed to such an extent that women are not allowed to go out in public to do the shopping; thus, the shopping is all done by men. Purdah is less strictly observed by nomadic groups.
Land Tenure
In the arid, low-yield regions the small landholdings are self-cultivated by the malik (petty chief or household elder) and his sons. In areas of greater productivity, where khans (village or tribal chiefs) own larger tracts, tenants do the work. Tenants receive about 20 percent of the product if they only supply labor and higher percentages if they supply implements or draft animals. Until early this Century in the Swat and Mardan valleys the equality of the Pathan clans was underlined by the custom of wesh by which they periodically redistributed land between themselves. This involved physically shifting households and belongings to other parts of the valleys. Excess population from Pathan areas has traditionally left the area to serve as mercenaries in the armies of India, to work as tenants on the lands of others or, more currently, to act as laborers or entrepreneurs in the cities of Pakistan or the Persian Gulf states.
Kinship
Kin Groups and Descent
Segmentary tribal structure and unilineal descent define Pathan kin groups. Genealogical and geographic divisions generally coincide. The most pertinent division within the tribal structure is the clan subsection, that is, the children of one man, generally encompassing four or five generations. It is within this sphere that one marries, makes alliances, and is in conflict. The smallest unit is the kor, or household, and it implies cohabitation with a living grandfather. This is the major economic and social unit; its members may cohabit in a village, a single compound, or a nomadic group. Descent is patrilineal.
Kinship Terminology.
Aspects of the Eskimo system, in which avuncular and cousin terms are uniform, are present, though certain collaterals are distinguished. For example, while all other female cousins carry the same term as do all other male ones, the father’s brother’s daughter (potential or preferred bride) and father’s brother’s son (rival for Inheritance and thus potential enemy) are given distinct terms.
Marriage and Family
Marriage
Although polygamy with up to four wives is permitted under Muslim law, monogamy is prevalent. Marriages are overwhelmingly endogamous within the clan and to a large degree within the subsection. Parallel-cousin marriage with father’s brother’s daughter is preferred among some tribes. Marriages are arranged by the couple’s parents and their plans are generally fulfilled. The union is commonly contracted on the basis of bride-price. Frequently the bride’s parents spend the money received in bride-price as dowry to meet the future domestic needs of the couple. A common practice is exchange marriage between close agnatic kin in which a sister or daughter is given and one simultaneously taken. Residence after marriage is virilocal, the bride coming to live in a single compound with the son, who receives separate quarters within it. The death of the patriarch of a family is frequently the time when such joint or compound families divide themselves into separate compounds. Despite the ease of obtaining a divorce under Muslim law, it is very rare among Pathans. The bride-price and the man’s honor are lost if the woman remarries.
Domestic Unit
The household (kor) is the primary unit of consumption and cooperation and is conceived of as those who share a hearth or as a man and/or his sons. Three main types of domestic unit are found: (1) the nuclear family; (2) the compound family, in which a patriarch and/or his sons and their wives live together and share expenses; and (3) the joint family, in which the nuclear families in a compound, frequently brothers, keep independent budgets.
Inheritance
Land is divided as inheritance only among the males and on the basis of equality. The eldest brother is generally given an extra share to be used for the upkeep of the family guest house (hujra). It is over the inheritance of land that rivalry develops between brothers and, in the next Generation, cousins. Despite Islamic injunctions, neither wives nor daughters inherit property.
Socialization
With the separation of the sexes inherent in Islam, children are raised primarily by their mother and elder sisters. In the segregated atmosphere that prevails there is a great deal of competition for attention and affection, though men tend to be indulgent toward children. Boys are circumcised by their seventh year.
Sociopolitical Organization
The Pathan are divided into a number of different politicoadministrative structures. In Afghanistan the state, itself evolved from the tribal system, has historically exerted only loose control except in the major cities. In Pakistan several different systems prevail that are largely the legacy of British imperial administration. Although most Pathans live in Districts where Pakistan’s civil and criminal laws prevail, some tribes, such as the Mohmand and Wazirs, are within Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), while others, such as those in Malakand in the North-West Frontier Province or those in Zhob Agency in Baluchistan, are within Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA). In FATA and PATA tribal and customary law holds sway.
Social Organization
Despite administrative divisions Pathan maintain a conception of their cultural and ethnic unity. This idea stems from the segmentary tribal structure and the associated notion of descent from a common ancestor. A. S. Ahmed has identified two principles of social Organization among the Pathan, nang (honor) and qalang (taxes or rent). In areas where nang prevails traditional values are practiced, there is little social stratification, and there is no Central political authority. In qalang areas landownership, not lineage membership, gives status and social stratification is prevalent, along with political centralization in the hands of an aristocracy. In both contexts mullahs, Sayyids (descendants of the Prophet Mohammed), and occupation groups play their special roles in Pathan society but stand outside Pathan genealogy.
Political Organization
To varying degrees Pathans are assimilated into the administrative structure of the area in which they live. In the last twenty-five years Afghanistan has officially moved from being a constitutional monarchy to a republic and finally to a democratic republic. Despite these changes (and until the current civil war) the relationship Between the government and the rural population changed Little. Since the government’s presence has usually been for the purpose of extracting taxes or conscripts, the villagers’ attitude toward it has generally been defensive and nonCooperative. To some extent the same was true on the other side of the border where there was ongoing resistance to British rule, though British administration was accepted in some areas and British subsidies in others. Although most Pathans supported the movement for the creation of Pakistan, others wanted to reunite Pathans on both sides of the border in a country to be called “Pakhtunistan.” Since then the Pakhtunistan movement has smoldered in various forms in both countries. An important political role is played by indigenous decision-making councils called jirgas. They are made up of maliks and decide various intra- or intertribal matters on the basis of tribal custom and, to a lesser extent, Islamic law. In Afghanistan the institution extends to the national level where the Loya Jirga, made up of tribal, ethnic, and Religious leaders, meets to decide important issues.
Social Control
Traditionally social control was maintained by a code of behavior and honor called Pakhtunwali. It combines the principles of revenge, hospitality to guests, defense of those who have sought protection in one’s care, the chastity of married women, and restraint toward those considered weak or helpless (Hindus, women, and boys). Pakhtunwali in some cases contradicts and generally takes precedence over Islamic law. It is harsh—the penalty for illicit sexual behavior, for example, is death—and it is enforced by strong social pressure. Violations of law outside of the activities the code encompasses are dealt with by the jirga or the government administration.
Conflict
As noted, the rivalry with father’s brother’s son for property, power, and wives is a constant source of conflict, as is Pakhtunwali itself, since even petty quarrels can escalate to a point where honor is involved. Efforts to encapsulate the Pathan into political systems seen as alien are also a source of conflict. It is frequently at such times of external threat that religious leaders assume political importance since resistance takes the form of a holy struggle or jihad. Conflict resolution is done through the jirga or through the intervention of Religious figures.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs
Islam is an essential and unifying theme in Pathan life, and it also unites the Pathan with an international community of believers. The overwhelming majority of Pathan is Sunni Muslim of the Hanafi legal school. Some groups, notably in the Kurram and Orakzai agencies of Pakistan, practice Shia Islam. A number of supernatural figures reside among the Pathan. Jinn are spirits born of fire that can enter and possess people. Other negative beings include the ghosts of disturbed or cursed souls, witches, and fairies. The souls of pious figures can also return to Earth to play a more positive role.
Religious Practitioners
While Islam has no ordained priesthood, religious leaders are recognized. At the village level this role is played by the mullah, a man who has attained some religious training. Besides tending the mosque and making the call to prayer five times a day, he officiates at the rites of passage that mark the stages of life, birth, circumcision, marriage, and death. Another important figure is the Sayyed who stands outside the tribal structure, since his genealogy extends to the Prophet himself and not to the ancestors of the Pathans. Not bound by the Pashtun code of honor, Sayyeds are saintly figures who can arbitrate between conflicting groups.
Ceremonies
Besides ceremonies at the various rites of passage, the religious calendar includes: three days of celebration at the end of Ramazan, the month of fasting; a day observed by the ritual slaying of sheep in memory of Ibrahim slaying a sheep in place of his son on Allah’s order; and the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.
Arts
Poetry is the art most esteemed by Pathans. Their greatest poet, Khushhal (d. 1689), wrote both love poems and patriotic poems. Embroidered waistcoats and elaborately decorated rifle butts were traditionally the major visual arts.
Medicine
While some medical facilities are being introduced, people customarily go to the mullah or traditional herbalist for cures. A jinn possessing the patient is commonly held to be the cause of disease. Indigenous treatment is in a tradition said to be of Greek origin or in a religious tradition worked out centuries ago. A common cure consists of the wearing of talismans around the neck composed of magic formulas or verses of the Quran sewn up in cloth or leather.
Death and Afterlife
In Islam the body is to be buried ritually pure so that the soul is prepared to enter Heaven on Judgment Day. After death the body is washed and wrapped in a white sheet. A mullah performs the death rites, leading the congregated mourners in a special prayer. The body is buried with the face pointing toward Mecca. Mourning obligations continue after the burial. The deceased’s relatives gather at the grave on the first few Fridays and on the fortieth day after the death, and they observe the first year’s anniversary of the death with a final memorial ceremony.
PASHTUNS (PATHANS)
The Pashtuns (Pathans) are an ethnic group that live in western and southern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan and whose homeland is in the valleys of Hindu Kush. In Pakistan, they have a reputation for being fierce tribesmen, largely thumbing their noses at authorities and following their own customs and codes of honor. Pashtuns consider themselves the true Afghans and the true rulers of Afghanistan. They have dominated Afghanistan for the past 200 years, ruling the government and various kingdoms there. [Source: Akbar S. Ahmed with Paul Titus “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1996]
Pashtuns are also known as Pathans, Afghans, Pushtuns, Pakhtoons, Pukhtun, Pakhtu, Rohilla and Pashtoon. They are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and by some accounts the largest tribal society in the world. There are about 60-70 million of them with around 43 million in Pakistan, 15.5 million in Afghanistan and a million or so more scattered in a dozen or so countries, including India, the U.S., Finland and Germany. Pashtun have contribute to social and cultural life of places in India such as Rampur (Rohilla) and cities like Mumbai (Bombay).
Pashtuns are generally light-skinned and have sharp featured that are considered non-Indian. They are usually called the Pashtuns un Afghanistan and the Pashtuns in Pakistan They have traditionally been a seminomadic people. There are more than 60 Pashtun tribes. Pashtuns are Muslims and speak Pashto (or Pushtu). Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) of Pakistan is closely identified with Pashtuns. The Pashtuns predominate in Balochistan and are also the major group in southern Afghanistan. The West has long been fascinated with the Pashtuns, one of the few peoples able to defeat the advances of British imperialism. Authors as diverse as Rudyard Kipling and contemporary Pakistani anthropologist Akbar S. Ahmed wrote about them. More is written about Pashtun norms, values, and social organization than any other ethnic group in Pakistan.
Their clashes with the British in the 19th century earned the Pashtun a reputation as formidable warriors. Their way of life was disrupted during the Soviet occupation (1979–89), the wars in Afghanistan and the influence of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida. Outsiders have traditionally referred to the Pashtun as Pathan or Afghan. For a long time Afghans and Pashtuns were one in the same. Now the term Afghan refers to the citizens of Afghanistan, regardless of ethnic group.
Pashtun Population
There are about 60-70 million Pashtun with around 43 million in Pakistan, 15.5 million in Afghanistan and a million or so more scattered in a dozen or so countries, including India, the U.S., Finland and Germany. Pashtuns make up 50 percent of the population in Afghanistan. They are believed to have made up a larger percentage at one time but lost many members in the war against the Soviets. They make up about a quarter of the population of Pakistan, mostly in the North-West Frontier province near the Afghanistan border.
In both Afghanistan and Pakistan, many Pashtun have moved to the cities in serach of work. Their exact numbers are not known because no accurate censuses have been taken in the areas where they live. There are also some Pashtuns in area of India such as Rampur (Rohilla) and Mumbai (Bombay).
Akbar S. Ahmed wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “The 1984 population of Pashto speakers was approximately 20 million. This includes 11 million native to Pakistan and 9 million originating in Afghanistan. Because of the civil war that has persisted in Afghanistan since 1979, roughly 2 million Pashtuns have left for Pakistan as refugees. The Pashtun constituted from 50 to 60 percent of the population of prewar Afghanistan. As the largest and most influential ethnic group, the Pashtun have dominated the society and politics of that country for the past 200 years. Other Important ethnic minorities in Afghanistan include the Hazaras, Tajiks, and Uzbeks. Since the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, the Pashtun constitute Pakistan’s second-largest ethnic group. According to Pakistan’s 1981 census 13 percent of the nation’s households are Pashto-speaking. Punjabis make up the majority of Pakistan’s population; other important linguistic groups are Sindhis, Baloch, and Urdu speakers.
[Source: Akbar S. Ahmed with Paul Titus “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1996 |~|]
Homeland and Territory of the Pashtuns
The area occupied by the Pashtuns, sometimes called Pashtunland, stretches roughly from Kabul in the west to Herat in the north in Afghanistan and to the Indus River in the east and Quetta in the south in Pakistan. This area is mostly mountainous and is known for its hot summers, cold winters and lack of rain. The eastern Pashtun areas are affected by the humidity and rain of the Indian monsoons.
[Source: Akbar S. Ahmed with Paul Titus “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1996]
The southern border of the Pashtun area extends can be drawn from Sibi in Balochistan in Pakistan through Quetta to Qandahar in Afghanistan. Pashtun tribes like the Mohmand, Wazirs, Sulemankhel, and Achakzais occupy the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The mountainous area the Pashtun live in incorporates part of the Alpine-Himalayan mountain range in central Afghanistan and the Sulaiman range in Pakistan. To the south it reaches onto the Iranian Plateau.
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”:“Pashtun have lived for centuries in the corridors between Khurasan and the Indian subcontinent, at the crossroads of several historically great civilizations. Their mountain homes have been overcome by conquering armies repeatedly, and have been subjected to the rule of great empires including the empire of Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire. However, the Pashtun’s story has never been put in perspective. There is no true written history of the Pashtun in their own land. Pashtun traditions assert that they are descended from Afghana, grandson of King Saul of Israel, although most scholars believe it more likely that they arose from an intermingling of ancient Aryans from the north or west with subsequent invaders.”
[Source: revised by M. Kerr, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”, Cengage Learning, 2009 *]
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) is closely identified with Pashtuns. It is a swath of land that runs along the northern border with Afghanistan extending from the Indus River to the Hindu Kush. About the size of Virginia, it has been a corridor through which the great conquering civilizations of the world have traveled for 35 centuries. The armies of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the Taj-Mahal building Moguls have all marched through and each were harassed by the Pathans, a fierce, often war-like tribal people that the British called the “best guerilla fighters in Asia.”
The Northwest Frontier Province was created in 1901. It is the home of the relatively peaceful Chitral and Swat valley but it mainly known for a 32- to 130-kilometer (20- to 80-mile) -wide slice of land that stretches for 580 kilometers (350 miles) along the Afghanistan border — the Pathan homeland. Several million Pathans live here as well as an untold number of Afghan refugees. In the “settled” regions there are about nine million people which include Pathans and members of other ethnic groups.
The Northwest Frontier Province is comprised mostly of barren or semi-barren brown mountains and jagged escapements and badland canyons. The local name of the color of the landscape gave us the English word Khaki. British soldiers who wore green uniforms were easy for tribal snipers to pick off; they switched to khaki uniforms so they blended in better. The high elevations often receive quite a lot of snow. They valleys nourished by snowmelt from these mountains can be quite green and picturesque, The climate is harsh: characterized by bitterly cold winters and hot, dry summers.
In the past some travel was possible in Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, Bannu, Peshawar, Hazara, Dir, Swat and Chitral while Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber (not including the Khyber pass), Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan were considered off limits.
Tribal Areas of Pakistan
Tribal Areas covers a 560-x-40 kilometer (350-x-25 mile) area of rugged mountain territory along the border of Afghanistan. Sometimes it is considered part of the North-West Frontier Province. Other times it is regarded as a separate area. It occupies a quarter of the North West Frontier Province and is controlled by 24 Pashtun tribes and their sub clans in seven Pathan “agencies” that were created in the British era. It also sometimes includes parts of Balochistan and the Northern territories. It is the part of Pakistan where Al-Qaida is believed to be hiding out and Osama bin Laden spent some time.
The Pashtun areas are called the “ilaq ghiar” (“land beyond Pakistanis laws”). The area is run by a tribal council lead by its leaders and is almost completely beyond the jurisdiction of Pakistani law. The Pakistani constitution does not apply here. Justice is defined by strict tribal customs and conservative interpretations of Islamic law. The freedoms given the tribal areas dates back to British times. The British colonial rulers had little success in their efforts to control the region and gave the tribes autonomy in return for peace.
Critics say the tribal regions are nothing but a haven for outlaws, smugglers and bandits. Defenders claim the inhabitants are tribal people who follow their own laws and make a living the best way they can. The porous border has traditionally been at the center of major smuggling operations and organizations that move drugs and weapon, Most of the profits end up in the hands of tribal leaders and corrupt leaders. Little of it trickles down to the millions of inhabitants, many of whom are poor and illiterate.
Most men have beards and wear turbans or some other kind of headgear. The few women that are outside are cloaked in burqas. The buildings are made of mud brick. The towns smell of dunf , grilled meat, diesel fuel and hashish. The air is often polluted with sticky, black haze from burnt tires used to fire brick kilns.
Pathan Agencies in Tribal Areas of Pakistan
The seven Pathan “agencies” are (from north to south) Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan. They are part of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). Other Pathan groups such as the Malakand live within the Provincially Administered Tribal Area (PATA) of the North-West Frontier Province.
Each agency is supposed to be administered by an agent appointed by the Pakistani government. In reality, each agent acts as an intermediary between the tribes and the provincial governor and its main duty is to make sure that blood feuds do not spill into territory controlled by the government. North and South Waziristan have been characterized as an Al-Qaida refuge.
Foreigners are not allowed to enter the Tribal Areas for safety reasons. Those who enter need permission from the local governor or tribal leaders and have to be accompanied by a dozen or so gunmen from local militias. Even with an armed escort visitors have been kidnaped for ransom or accused of being spies. No traveling is done after dark. Permits to enter the North-West Frontier Province are given Peshawar and usually denied to those who seek them. If you try to enter the region without a permit the police may arrest you.
The agencies are separate from Pakistan proper by what look like customs post with armed guards and chains across the roads. The region is monitored by the legendary Frontier Corps. Their job is to quell feuding but are unable to take action unless crimes are committed on a major roadway. The rest of the agencies are a sort of no man’s land.
Pashtun Legends and the Lost Tribes of Israel
The origin of the Pashtuns has been tied to the ancient Greeks, Aryans, Persians, Arabs and Jews. According to one Pashtun legend they are descendants of a hundred Chinese women — said to be the most beautiful women in the land — impregnated by a giant. The women met the giant while on their way to Persia to be part of an emperor’s harem. By the time the women reached the harem they were no longer suitable and the emperor kicked them out of his kingdom into Afghanistan where the first Pashtuns were born.
Other Pashtuns believe they descended from a common ancestor named Qais who met the prophet Mohammed in Medina. The Prophet gave Qais the name “P’thin” (Arabic for keel of a ship). Upon returning to the Hindu Kush area he gave birth to many children. One son was named Afghana. He went to Afghanistan to seek his fortune. Afghana had four sons. When they grew up they too left to seek their fortune: the first went to Dir, Swat and Hazara; the second went to Lahore and India; the third headed to Multa; and the fourth went to Quetta.
Others claim the Pashtuns descended Aryans or Jews. According to one legend they descended from Jews belonging to the Lost Tribes of Israel, who disappeared from Babylon captivity in the 6th century B.C. Some Pashtun legends trace the origin of the Pashtun people back to Afghana, a supposed grandson of Israel’s King Saul and a commander of King Solomon’s army not mentioned in Jewish scriptures or the Bible. Under Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century B.C. some of the banished Israeli tribes headed east, settling near Esfahan in Iran, in a city called Yahudia, and later moved to the Afghan region of Hazarajat.
Links with Afghans and the Lost Tribes of Israel first appeared in 1612 in a book in Delhi written by enemies of the Afghans. Historians have said the legend is “great fun” but has no merit or basis in history and is full of inconsistencies. The linguistic evidence of Pashtun origins points to Indo-European ancestry, perhaps Aryans. The Pashtun are likely a heterogenous group with contributions of invaders who have passed through their territory: Persians, Greeks, Hindus, Turks, Mongols, Uzbeks, Sikhs, British and Russians.
Pashtun Tribes
Pashtuns are divided into a number of tribes whose names are almost as famous as the Pashtuns themselves: Wazirs, Mahsud, Khattak, Bangash, Afridi, Mohmand, Sulemankel, Achakzais Yusufzai, Safis, and Shinwaris. Each tribe gets its name from a common ancestor and they in turn claim a link to one the four sons of Afghana.
The Pashtun tribes can be quite different from one another. The Yusufzai from Swat, for example, wear their hair very short, while the Bangash men wear their hair in a shoulder-length bob and bangs. Mahsud men don waist-length “ringlets.”
Immortalized in a Rudyard Kipling poem called “Arithmetic on the Frontier,” the Afridis reportedly were such excellent marksmen they were able to shoot down British biplanes with rifles. There is a legend about one Afridi leader whose heart was taken to the British museum in a silk casket. The heart it was said weighed ten pounds. Some say the Afridi descended from soldiers of Alexander the Great’s army.
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”: “The Pashtun are divided into about 60 tribes of varying size and importance, each of which occupies a particular territory. In Afghanistan, where Pashtun are the predominant ethnic group, the main tribes are the Durrani or Abdali south of Kabul and the Ghilzay east of Kabul.” [Source: revised by M. Kerr, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life”, Cengage Learning, 2009 *]
In the hill areas of Pakistan, “the main tribes are, from south to north: the Kakar, Sherani, and Ustarana south of the Gumal River; the Mahsud, Darwsh Khel, Waziri, and Batani, between the Gomal River and Thal; the Turi, Bangash, Orakzay, Afridi, and Shinwari from Thal to the Khyber Pass; and the Mahmand, Uthman Khel, Tarklani, and Yousufzay north and northeast of the Khyber. The settled areas include lowland tribes subject to direct administration by the provincial government. The main tribes there are, from south to north: the Banuchi and Khattak from the Kurram River to Nowshera; and the Khalil and Mandan in the vale of Peshawar. *\
“It is perhaps the power and leadership of individuals that divides the Pashtun not only into tribes but also into numerous sub-tribes, each isolated within its own boundaries. Interference in each other’s affairs has caused conflicts among the different sub-tribes throughout history. Yet any external interference — Russian, British, American, etc. — has resulted in immediate unity of Pashtun tribes.” *\
Pashtun History
The Pashtuns have resisted attempts by the Mughals, Afghans, Sikhs, and British to pacify them. The Russians were defeated by the Pashtuns in the Afghanistan war. Almost everyone who came in contact with them, beginning with Alexander the Great, has commented on how fierce they were and what good fighters they were. In the fifth century B.C. Herodotus called them “the most warlike of all.” Alexander fought four battles against them in the Swat Valley and suffered high casualty rates. The army of the Mughal Emperor Akbar was decimated at Karakar Pass. [Source: Akbar S. Ahmed with Paul Titus “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1996]
The Pashtuns (Afghans) have periodically expanded out of their traditional homelands and have advanced as far as Delhi. The first historical reference to the Pashtuns (A.D. 982) referred to Afghans living on the Sulaiman Mountains. The Ghazanis, a group of Afghans and Turks, invaded and occupied much of northern India around the year 1000. In the 14th century Afghan kings took control of Delhi. Pashtun Khaljis and later Lodhis ruled there until they were displaced by the Mughals, another group with links to Afghanistan.
Ironically the Pashtuns were able to control India before they controlled their own homeland. That feat was not achieved until 1747 when Ahmed Shah Abdali emerged from Kandahar and patched together an empire that embraced parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Iran. Members of his tribe ruled Afghanistan until 1973.
Anglo-Afghan Wars
Afghanistan served as a buffer zone between British interests in South Asia and Soviet interests in Central Asia. Both the Russians and British also worried about the affect of the unruly tribesmen in Afghanistan on their respective empires. In the end, Afghanistan was allowed to become independent largely because it didn’t seem like it was worth the trouble of conquering.
Dost Mohammad ruled Afghanistan at the beginning of the Great Game period in the 19th century, when Britain and Russia maneuvered against each to gain control of Central Asia. During this period, Afghan rulers were able to maintain virtual independence, although some compromises were necessary. In 1838 , the British defeated the Sikhs and took the Punjab Valley and Peshawar Valley in what is now Pakistan. From there they began making moves into the Hindu Kush and the Pamirs in part to subvert Russian influence in the area. The British wanted to make Afghanistan a buffer state to protect British India from Russian expansion. Afghan wars of 1839-1842, 1878-1880 and 1919 were fomented by British fears of Russian expansion.
The British were convinced the Emir Dost Mohammed Khan of Afghanistan was conspiring with Imperial Russia and launched the war First Anglo-Afghan War to replace him with the compliant Shuja Shah Durrani. This move had Sikh support, in return for the formal cession of Peshawar to the Sikhs by Shuja Shah. Initially successful, the British invasion took a disastrous turn with the Massacre of Elphinstone’s Army, which lowered the prestige of the British, and the Bengal Army of the British East India Company in particular. The British finally withdrew from Afghanistan, and from Peshawar which they held as an advance base, in 1842.
In the First Anglo-Afghan War the British deposed Dost Mohammad, but they abandoned their Afghan garrisons. In the following decades, Russian forces approached the northern border of Afghanistan. In 1878 the British invaded and held most of Afghanistan in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. In 1880 Abdur Rahman, a Durrani, began a 21-year reign that saw the balancing of British and Russian interests, the consolidation of the Afghan tribes, and the reorganization of civil administration into what is considered the modern Afghan state. During this period, the British secured the Durand Line (1893), dividing Afghanistan from British colonial territory to the southeast and sowing the seeds of future tensions over the division of the Pashtun tribes. Abdur Rahman’s son Habibullah (ruled 1901–19) continued his father’s administrative reforms and maintained Afghanistan’s neutrality in World War I.
[Source: Library of Congress, August 2008]
Pashtuns and the British
The British and Pashtuns fought bitterly in the North-West Frontier. In the late 19th century British carved off the North-West Frontier Province from the Punjab and left it ungoverned, This condition was adopted when Pakistan was created and remains true today.
The first British contact with the Frontier region of the Pashtuns was in 1809. Following the Sikh wars in 1849, the frontier lands came under British control and the British began taking a serious interest in the area during the Great Game era, when Russia began expanding in Central Asia. But it was a difficult place. The historian Robert Wirsing wrote: “Widespread lawlessness and defiance of British authority was the constant complaint of British officialdom at virtually all times.”
Immortalized in a Rudyard Kipling poem called “Arithmetic on the Frontier,” the Afridis Pashtuns reportedly were such excellent marksmen they were able to shoot down British biplanes with rifles. There is a legend about one Afridi leader whose heart was taken to the British museum in a silk casket. The heart they say weighed ten pounds. Describing a Pashtun tribe that controlled the Khyber Pass, the British explorer Charles Masson wrote in 1827, “The Kibaris, like other rude Afghan tribes, have their maliks, or chiefs, but the authority of these is very limited, and every individual has a voice in public affairs, it is impossible to describe the confusion that exists among them.”
Badsha Khan was a Pashtun leader who promoted Pashtun nationalism. He was an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi and used nonviolent tactics to combat colonial rule. He founded a political movement, known as the Red Shirts. He won a lot of supporters but when the British decided to leave India-Pakistan, a homeland for the Pashtuns was not offered. In a referendum on the choice between a united India or a divided Pakistan and India, only seventy percent of Pashtuns voted. In 1947 the Pashtun voted to join Pakistan but were angry about the border with Afghanistan.
Pashtun fighters fought on the British side in World War I and World War II at places like Gallipoli and Monte Cassino. Pashtuns also formed the majority of fighters who fought against the Soviets in the 1980s and the British in the 19th century. Most Taliban have been Pashtuns.
Pashtuns, the Division Afghanistan and Pakistan and Tribal Areas
The Pashtun homeland is divided into Pakistan and Afghanistan by an artificial boundary drawn by the British in 1893. The border divides Pashtun territory and was is called the Durand line after the British envoy, Sir Mortimer Durand, who drew it. The Pashtuns have never accepted this border. In 1897 they revolted. and 35,000 British troops had to be called into put down the revolt. Over the years the Pashtuns have raised the issue of creating their own state by merging their territories in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The have demanded a plebiscite be called to settle the “Pashtunistan” issue. This issue was raised in Afghanistan in the 1960s.
According to the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”:“After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the new nation annexed the Pashtun border regions, and a Pashtun independence movement, called the Redshirts, was born. In the early 1950s, Afghanistan supported Pashtun ambitions for the creation of an independent Pushtunistan (also called Pakhtunistan or Pakhtoonistan) in the border areas of West Pakistan. Several border clashes and ruptures of diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan ensued. In the early 1970s thousands of armed Pashtuns pressed for increased autonomy within Pakistan, even demanding independence after the secession of Bangladesh (East Pakistan). The Taliban of Afghanistan, and more recently, the so-called Pakistani Taliban are mainly Pashtun-based movements. Many Pakistani Pashtuns no longer live in the regions bordering Afghanistan; there are sizable Pashtun populations in Pakistan’s major cities, especially in Karachi. [Source: Akbar S. Ahmed with Paul Titus “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1996]
To facilitate relations with Pashtuns, the British appointed maliks, or minor chiefs. Agreements in which Pashtuns have acceded to an external authority — whether the British or the Pakistani government — have been tenuous. The British resorted to a “divide and conquer” policy of playing various feuding factions against one another. British hegemony was frequently precarious: in 1937 Pashtuns wiped out an entire British brigade. Throughout the 1930s, there were more troops stationed in Waziristan (homeland of the Wazirs, among the most independent of Pashtun tribes) in the southern part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province) than in the rest of the subcontinent. [Source: Peter Blood, Library of Congress, 1994]
In tribal areas, where the level of wealth is generally limited, perennial feuding acts as a leveler. The killing, pillaging, and destruction keep any one lineage from amassing too much more than any other. In settled areas, the intensity of feuds has declined, although everyone continues to be loyal to the ideals. Government control only erratically contains violence — depending on whether a given government official has any relationship to the disputants. The proliferation of guns — including clones of Uzis, and Kalashnikovs — has exacerbated much of the violence.
Bibliography
Ahmed, Akbar S. (1976). Millennium and Charisma among Pathans: A Critical Essay in Social Anthropology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Ahmed, Akbar S. (1980). Pukhtun Economy and Society: traditional Structure and Economic Development in a Tribal Society. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.