Umarzai

Ibbetson, in Rose's Glossary, describes the Muhammadzai as the tribe that holds Hashtnagar, a strip about 13 miles wide on the left bank of the Swat river from the border to Nowshera. They descend through Muhammad, one of the sons of Zamand, from Kharshabun. Ibbetson names eight sections: Charsadda, Prang, Razzar, Sherpao, Tangi (with the Barazai and Nasratzai), Turangzai, Umarzai and Utmanzai. His list in the Peshawar chapter gives the same eight. The Peshawar gazetteer of 1897-98 lists seven maira (upland) divisions of the Hashtnagar tahsil, Umarzai among them, beside Tangi, Turangzai, Utmanzai, Razzar, Charsadda and Prang.

Raverty quotes an account from the Durrani period that explains the name Hashtnagar, 'the eight towns': Nowshera, Utmanzai, Charsadda, Hisar, Prang, Umarzai, Sherpao and Tangi. On his reading the district was first called Ashnaghar. The same account puts the Muhammadzai at about 20,000 families, with their sardars favourites of Ahmad Shah Durrani. Raverty adds in a note that Utmanzai, Charsadda, Prang and Umarzai are the names of as many divisions of the tribe.^1–3

Based on: Colonial records

The gazetteer says that the shareholders of Tangi, Sherpao, Umarzai and Turangzai were so numerous that their land is divided into a large number of shares (puchas). It names Abdullah Khan of Umarzai among the leading men of the Muhammadzai tract. The large villages of Kheshgi and Nowshera began as outlying hamlets of the Umarzai and Turangzai divisions, and have been counted in Nowshera tahsil since British rule.²

Based on: Colonial records