Mamund

The Mamund descend, in the Khulasat al-Ansab as quoted in Dorn's notes, from Mahmud, known as Momund, whom it makes one of the two original divisions of the Tarkalani, the other being the Sih Saddeh. It lists four khels of the Momund: Sadin, Amedek, Or and Gugha. It places both divisions in Bajaur, between Gond, Kashkar and the Doaba. The Tarkalani, in the Makhzan-i Afghani, are the first-named of Sheikha's (Khakhay's) four sons, so the Mamund belong to the Khakhay line. The name is not the same as Mohmand: the Mohmand descend from Mahmand, a son of Daulatyar (Makhzan) or of Ghori (Khulasat), in the Ghoria Khel line.

Bellew, writing in 1891, argued that the Tarkalani are not Afghan by descent but a mixture of Turk clans who took Pashto and Pashtunwali. The official Frontier and Overseas Expeditions from India (1907) records the Tarkalani claim of common descent with the Yusufzai and Utman Khel from Kais, and says they are supposed to have entered Bajaur from Laghman in the latter half of the 15th century. Other writers give later dates. Rose says the Tarkanri overran Bajaur about the end of the 16th century. Raverty says they were still in Laghman in 1519 and came to settle in Bajaur some time after the battle of Shaikh Tapur, about 1550.^1–5,8

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The Mamund valley, called Watelai after its main stream, lies between the two Salarzai valleys of Chaharmung and Babukarra. The 1907 Frontier and Overseas Expeditions describes it as about thirteen miles long and at most ten broad, open and well cultivated though cut by deep dry ravines, with wheat, barley and bhusa, and small autumn crops of maize and jowar. East of the Watelai stream it is called Wur Mamund and west of it the Kakazai Mamund country. The main villages stand at the head of the valley under the hills, where springs give water. The Mamund also own land in Shortan and Marawara in the Kunar valley across the border; the Khan of Nawagai claims the valley from the village of Tanai southward.

The 1910 Dictionary of the Pathan Tribes names Inayat Kila, in the valley, as the home of the Mamund chief Muhammad Amin Khan, and lists the clan's two parts: the Wara (Wur) and the Kakazai, the latter with 3,000 fighting men. The Mamund themselves muster 12,000 fighting men in both books, which the 1907 account counts as all armed with firearms.^4,6

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The Mamund are known to the English-language record for their resistance in September and October 1897. On 12 September, when the 3rd Brigade of the Malakand Field Force reached the southern end of the Watelai valley, Mamund and Salarzai maliks came to the camp. They were told that peace required fifty rifles from the Mamund and forty from the Salarzai. On the night of 14 September about 400 Mamund marksmen under Muhammad Amin of Inayat Kila, with a few Salarzai and Utman Khel, attacked the 2nd Brigade's camp near Markhanai for most of the night. Two British officers and two sepoys were killed, and ninety-eight horses and transport animals were killed or wounded. The enemy lost twelve killed.

Brigadier-General Jeffreys took the 2nd Brigade up the Watelai valley on 16 September to punish them. The brigade lost six officers killed and 24 wounded, 55 other ranks killed and 194 wounded between 14 September and 11 October, against an estimated 300 Mamund and allies killed and 250 wounded. Winston Churchill, who was with the force, wrote that the troops did not know how many the Mamund were or that they were as well armed as the troops. Sir Bindon Blood's report, quoted in the official history, attributes the difficulty to the broken ground and to the fact that part of the Mamund land lay in Afghan territory, where property could be moved out of reach.

On 11 October 1897 the Mamund jirga came to Nawa Kila and, in the official account, said that they had fought only to prevent the annexation of their country. Sir Bindon Blood gave a written assurance that Government did not mean to annex it so long as the tribe behaved, and the jirga agreed to expel adherents of Umra Khan from their valley. The official history says that the Mamund won a deserved reputation for bravery and good fighting qualities, and rates the Tarkalani, and above all the Mamund, a higher reputation as fighters than the Akozai-Yusufzai.^4,7

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