Mohmand

The Makhzan-i Afghani makes Mohmand (Mahmand) a son of Daulatyar, son of Ghura, the ancestor of the Ghoria Khel, and gives him eleven sons, among them Yakub, Kala, Hassan, Omar, Mando, Kuki and Musa; his brother was the ancestor of the Daudzai. The Khulasat al-Ansab leaves out Daulatyar and makes Mohmand a son of Ghori, with twelve sons whose names survive in sections such as the Mahyarzai (Mayazai), Kukuzai and Musazai. Ibbetson notes that the tribe is often called Mohmandzai or Mamanzai, and Bellew divides it into two halves, the Darani and the Khatuni.

The Mohmand are distinct from the Mamund of Bajaur, a Tarkalani clan that the Khulasat also calls "Momund". Ibbetson gives the main sections of the hill Mohmand as the Baizai, Khwaezai, Dawezai, Utmanzai, Kukozai and Tarakzai, and those of the Plain Mohmand near Peshawar as the Mayazai, Musazai, Dawezai, Matanni and Sarganni.^1,2,4,3

In Ibbetson's account the Ghoria Khel followed the Khakhay out of the Kandahar country and reached the western mouth of the Khyber early in the sixteenth century. There they divided. One part, the Bar (upper) Mohmand, crossed the Kabul river at Dakka and took the hills north of the river up to Lalpura and west of the Doaba. The rest went through the pass, beat the Dilazak near Peshawar, and settled south of the Bara and along the Kabul river towards Nowshera. These became the Plain Mohmand, whose headmen hold the Mughal title arbab.

Caroe traces the hill Mohmand down the Kabul river from Lalpura and by the Goshta route into Gandab, and names Lalpura, Kama and Goshta as their chief places. After about 1535 they were taking tolls in Gandab and on the rafts floated down from Lalpura. The Imperial Gazetteer first meets the Ghoria Khel, Mohmand among them, as supporters of Mirza Kamran against Humayun.^4,7,6

In 1586 the Mohmand and others rose under Jalala, the Roshaniyya leader, and besieged Peshawar. The Khans of Lalpura owed allegiance in turn to Akbar, Shah Jahan, Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Durrani. About 1782 Arsala Khan of Lalpura rebelled against Timur Shah; he surrendered on a safe-conduct, was handed to enemies within his own tribe and was killed at Peshawar in 1791. Caroe treats the broken safe-conduct as a lasting mark against Timur among Pathans, and notes that Raverty's story of Arsala being crushed by an elephant is not what the Mohmand tell.

Elphinstone (1815) found the Khan of the upper Mohmand answerable for travellers on the Karappa pass and bound to send 300 to 500 horse to the king, while the maliks settled disputes in jirgas. Two khels then lived in black tents and took their flocks each spring to the upper Helmand. The larger villages, Lalpura, Kama and Goshta, were walled or terraced settlements of chiefs, their retainers and Hindki families.^6,7,5

Saadat Khan, Khan of Lalpura for forty years and a vassal of the Barakzai amirs, was arrested by the Amir in 1864 and died a prisoner in Kabul. The British appointed Akbar Khan in 1880; he resigned in 1896 and moved to Kabul, and that year the Utmanzai, Dawezai, Halimzai, Tarakzai and Pindiali Mohmand came under British control with allowances. In August 1897, after the preaching of Najm-ud-din, the Adda Mulla, about 5,000 armed men from every section except the Tarakzai plundered Shankargarh and attacked the post at Shabkadar on 7 August. They were beaten on 9 August, and brigades under Sir Bindon Blood and Sir Edmond Elles then marched through the Mohmand country.

The Durand agreement of 1893 drew a line through Mohmand country that was never marked on the ground. It left the Kama and Goshta Mohmand in Afghanistan and put Baizai and Khwaezai clans, who had no dealings with Peshawar, on the British side. A revised line offered to the Amir a few years later was never taken up, and Caroe says the uncertainty lasted to 1947.^6,7

The Plain Mohmand of the Peshawar district had long separated from the hill tribe; Ibbetson says the two differed in manners and customs. After 1947 Pakistan set up a Mohmand Agency for the hill country, while Lalpura, Kama and Goshta lie in Afghanistan. The Pashto Sufi poet Abdur Rahman, known as Rahman Baba, was a Mohmand of Hazarkhani village near Peshawar and a contemporary of Afzal Khan, grandson of Khushal Khan Khattak.^4,7