The Mohmands are divided into two main branches, the trans-frontier or Bar (hill) Mohmands and the cis-frontier or Kuz (plain) Mohmands, and both belong to the Ghoria Khel branch of the Afghans, who, when driven from their holdings on the head waters of the Tarnak and Arghastan Rivers by the Tarin Afghans, emigrated eastwards, at the commencement of the fifteenth century, by way of Ghazni, Kabul and Ningrahar. The Bar Mohmands separated from those of the Kuz branch at Dakka, the latter going to the Peshawar Valley, while the former made for the original Gandhar and took possession of the hills which they still occupy. Thus separated, the two branches have long since lost touch with each other.

Speaking generally, the country of the trans-frontier Mohmands extends from a little south of the Kabul River, on the line Girdi Kats to Fort Michni on the south, to Bajaur on the north. On the east it is coterminous with the Peshawar district from Gandi, three miles north of Jamrud, to Fort Abazai, and along the right bank of the Swat River about twelve miles above Abazai. On the west it is bounded by the Kabul Tsappar Range and by the Kunar River, which constitute the dividing line between the Mohmands under British and Afghan spheres of influence, for by the Durand Agreement of 1893 the Mohmand country, which from the days of Ahmad Shah had been more or less subject to the Kabul rulers, was divided between the British and the Afghan Governments. The settlements of the cis-frontier Mohmands lie immediately south of Peshawar, and are bounded on the north by the Bara River, on the west and south by the Aka Khel and Adam Khel Afridis, and on the east by the Khattaks, their country being some twenty miles long by twelve miles broad. The greater portion of this is irrigated by the Bara River, is very productive, and its inhabitants for the most part fairly well to do.

In regard to the circumstances attending the partition of the Mohmand country, the author of Afghanistan wrote as follows in the United Service Magazine of April, 1908: “At the period of the Durand Mission the Government of India laid claim to the entire region—Bulund Khel, Mohmandstan, Asmar and Yaghistan, the latter embracing Chitral, Bajaur, Swat, Buner, Dir, Chilas and Waziristan. The Amir put forward a demand for Chageh in Baluchistan and the Asmar Valley, which he had previously occupied, and objected to the British pretensions. In point of fact, the rights of the Government of India had been already established by conquest and by moral superiority, since this zone, the home of border ruffians, had always required the watchful initiative of a strong Government.... Ultimately, after long discussion, the negotiations concluded, when it was revealed that at needless sacrifice the Asmar Valley, commanding the approach to the Pamir-Chitral region and south-eastern Afghanistan, and of great importance to strategic considerations on the Indian frontier, had been surrendered to the Amir, the Birmal tract separated from Waziristan, and an ethnic absurdity perpetrated where the Mohmands’ country had been divided by the watershed of the Kunar and Panjkora Rivers.”

On the 12th June, 1894, Mr. Udny, the Commissioner of Peshawar, who had been nominated as chief of the Mohmand Boundary Delimitation Commission, issued a proclamation to “all Bajauri, Mohmand and other tribes inhabiting the country towards the Indian Empire from the Kabul River to the southern limit of Chitral,” giving what he called “a brief sketch of the boundary.” He stated that “whereas the kingdom of Great Britain has agreed that his Highness the Amir should retain in his possession the country of Asmar on the north of Chanak, situated on the Kunar River, or the River of Kashkar, the boundary demarcation will commence from Chanak in a south-westerly direction up to Kunar, and at a distance of a few English miles from the bank of the Kunar River towards Bajaur. From Kunar the boundary line goes southwards, and, taking a bend, ascends the hills close to Satala Sar, which hills divide the watershed between the Kunar and Panjkora rivers. From Satala Sar the boundary passes over the crest of the hill, on one side of which the waters flowing from the Dag Hills fall into the Panjkora River, whilst the waters on the other side passing through the Satala Valley, fall into the Kabul River. And in the centre of this hill lies the kotal of Satala. The extreme end of the boundary touches the Kabul River, in the vicinity of Palosi. From a review of the above details, you will understand that, in addition to the countries watered by the Kunar River which lie towards the limits of the Indian dominions, his Highness the Amir has agreed not to interfere in all that country, the eastern waters of which fall into the Panjkora River, nor to interfere or stretch his hand in that quarter of the Mohmand country, the waters of which fall into the Kabul River below Palosi.”

When, however, Mr. Udny met in August at Jalalabad the Sipah Salar, Ghulam Haidar, the Amir’s representative, it seemed that the Amir intended to repudiate the Durand Agreement, so far as it concerned the Mohmand and Bajaur country; the proposed partition of Mohmand spheres of influence was rejected, it appearing that the Sipah Salar, on behalf of his master, claimed to exercise jurisdiction over the Mohmands right down to the Peshawar Valley. A solution of the difficulty was, however, found, and Colonel Sir T. Holdich has something to tell us about it in his Indian Borderland, where he writes: “It was impossible to give any effect to the agreement of 1893 without clearly ascertaining whether the geographical conditions of the country admitted of a direct interpretation. For the most part they did not. The boundary of the agreement was partly a geographical impossibility, but for a great part there was no obstruction in the way of carrying out its intention, except a new and varied interpretation which the Amir put upon the text of it.... A boundary was found between Afghanistan and the independent tribes to the east, from the Hindu Kush to a point in the Kunar Valley from whence it diverged to Lundi Kotal; and although at that point it had to be temporarily abandoned, and has remained undemarcated, enough was secured to lead up to a better geographical knowledge of the whole position, on the basis of which it was possible to effect a subsequent agreement which has rendered actual demarcation through the Mohmand country unnecessary,” in spite of the fact that no part of the boundary defined south of the Hindu Kush was the actual boundary of the agreement.

Of the Kunar River and Valley Holdich has a good deal to say, both in The Gates of India and in The Indian Borderland. In the former book he writes that it was in the Kunar Valley that Alexander the Great “found and defeated the chief of the Aspasians. The Kunar River is by far the most important of the northern tributaries of the Kabul. It rises under the Pamirs, and is otherwise known as the Chitral River. The Kunar Valley is amongst the most lovely of the many lovely valleys of Afghanistan. Flanked by the snowy-capped mountains of Kashmund on the west, and the long level water-parting which divides it from Bajaur and the Panjkora drainage on the east, it appears, as one enters it from Jalalabad, to be hemmed in and constricted. The gates of it are indeed somewhat narrow, but it widens out northward, where the ridges of the lofty Kashmund tail off into low altitudes of sweeping foothills a few miles above the entrance, and here offer opportunity for an easy pass across the divide from the west into the valley. This is a link in the oldest and probably the best-trodden route from Kabul to the Punjab, and it has no part with the Khyber. It links together these northern valleys of Laghman, Kundar and Lundai (i.e. the Panjkora and Swat united) by a road north of the Kabul, finally passing southwards into the plains chequered by the river network above Peshawar. The lower Kunar Valley in the early autumn is passing beautiful. Down the tawny plain and backed by purple hills the river winds its way, reflecting the azure sky with pure turquoise colour—the opaque blue of silted water—blinking and winking with tiny sun shafts, and running emerald green at the edges.... The clustering villages are thick in some parts—so thick that they jostle each other continuously.... Higher up the river the valley closes until, long before Chitral is reached, it narrows exceedingly. Here, in the north, the northern winds rage down the funnel with bitter fury and make life burdensome. The villages take to the hill slopes or cluster in patches on the terraces at their feet.”

In The Indian Borderland we are told that “the Kunar River rises in a blue lake called Gaz Kul, or Karumbar, under the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush. This, at least, is one of its sources. Many a mighty glacier standing about the head of the Yarkhun River offers its contributions. The Yarkhun flows past the foot of the Baroghil Pass, over pebble and boulder-covered flats, and through terrific gorges, with here and there the snout of a glacier protruding (or even temporarily blocking the valley) till it reaches Mastuj. From this point you may call it the Chitral River, or Kashkar, for it now flows past Chitral, and through the district known to hill people as Kashkar. It does not become the Kunar till it reaches the neighbourhood of the ancient kingdom of Kunar, which occupies the last fifty miles of its course before it joins the Kabul River.... The Kunar Valley and the Valley of the Bashgul, or Arnawai, together lead up to the Mandal and Dorah passes, either one of which is the gateway to the rich valleys of eastern Badakshan, and opens up a direct line to Jalalabad from the Oxus, which does not touch Kabul at all. These passes are high (14,000 feet to 15,000 feet), difficult, and very much more buried under snow than those further west; but a well-constructed road across them would still be a passable trade route for many months in the year; and would offer a far more direct connection between the Oxus regions and India than any which now exist.”

“Asmar is the most unattractive corner of the Kunar district. A narrow, three-cornered patch of dusty valley, over which the wind comes dancing and sweeping from all sides at once, with the river running deep in a rocky gorge below; steep pine-clad hills to the west, and more reasonable slopes to the east, amongst which there winds up one of the chief routes into Bajaur... such is the general view of Asmar.”

The aspect of the Mohmand hills is exceedingly dreary, and the eye is everywhere met by dry ravines between long rows of rocky hills and crags, scantily clothed with coarse grass, scrub and the dwarf palm. In summer the want of water is greatly felt, and the desert tracts radiate an intolerable heat; this, coupled with the unhealthiness of the river lowlands, probably accounts for the inferior physique of the Mohmands as compared with their Afridi and Shinwari neighbours. The want of water is especially felt in the Gandab district, which with the Shilman and Pandiali are the largest valleys in the Mohmand country, and the entrances to which are covered by the respective forts of Shabkadar, Michni, and Abazai. The villages, or rather fort clusters, are scattered along the valleys wherever a spring, or proximity of water to the surface, encourages cultivation, but in some cases the drinking water has to be brought from great distances, and is either obtained from springs whose supply is uncertain or from small tanks made to retain the rain water. The women are employed in the laborious task of bringing the water from these places for the use of the village.

The crops in the Mohmand hills are almost entirely dependent on the winter and autumn rains, and should these fail there is considerable distress. Even in ordinary times the country cannot support the surplus population, which has for years past been steadily emigrating to the Peshawar district. The products of the Mohmand country are few and rude; a little grain, firewood, grass, charcoal, ropes and mats, honey and cattle from the Baizai hills—these are the chief exports. But through the Mohmand country come India-wards the wood rafts from Chitral, Kunar and Laghman on the Kabul River, and from Dir and Swat; wax, hides, ghi and rice from Kunar; and the iron of Bajaur in lumps and bars. The imports are salt, cloth, paper, soap, tea, indigo, sugar, grain, tobacco, needles, scissors and other manufactures of civilisation, purchased by the Mohmands for themselves and their northern neighbours. The through trade, therefore, is considerable, and it is with transit dues levied on trade, and the profits earned as carriers of goods to and from the trade centres of Peshawar, Jalalabad, Pesh-Bolak, Lalpura and Shabkadar, that the Mohmands supplement the scanty returns of their barren soil. In the hot weather trade is brisk on the Kabul River, upon which wood rafts, or merchandise carried on inflated skins, are floated down to British territory.

There are numerous roads through the Mohmand country, as the hills, though rugged and rocky, are nowhere impassable. The most important perhaps of these are the roads from Peshawar to Dakka, one from Shahgai via Tartara in the Mullagori country and the Shilman Valley, and the other from Fort Michni across the Kabul River by the Shanilo ferry into the Shilman Valley; in old days these were important trade routes. The other roads of importance from British territory are one from Shabkadar to the Gandab Valley, and another from Matta, a few miles north of Shabkadar, over the Inzarai Pass into the Pandiali Valley; this is comparatively easy and is known as the Alikandi route.

Of the Gandab Valley, Lieutenant Enriquez says that “it is certainly a hopeless wilderness. Mile after mile the scenery offers nothing but dreary boulder-strewn mountains. The streams in summer disappear under ground and only rise to the surface at intervals. The purity of the water is not above suspicion.^[84] In the deeper pools there are quantities of little fish which can be caught in a sheet, and which make a very tolerable substitute for white-bait. Smalls eels are also quite common and can be hooked. The hardy pink oleander thrives in the ravines, and lends the only touch of colour to the desolate landscape. In June the climate of the Gandab Valley is detestable. The excessive heat is intensified by radiation. The narrow glen acts as a funnel for the scorching wind, which blows hard for days on end. No tent can stand against the storm, and I have seen half a camp collapse when struck by a sudden blast. Dust and even small pebbles are blown about with great violence.”

Oliver says of the Mohmands that “in physique, though there are among them fine men, they are as a rule inferior to many of the surrounding Pathans; and though they have on occasions fought well against us, their courage is decidedly open to suspicion. They have plenty of pride and haughtiness, sufficient reputation for cruelty and treachery, and like other Pathans a good deal to say about their honour; the value of which may, perhaps, be best judged by the frontier proverb concerning them, to the effect that ‘you have only to put a rupee in your eye, and you may look at any Mohmand, man or woman.’ They are on fairly good terms with their neighbours of Bajaur and Kunar, have usually avoided collisions with the Afridis, though between them and the Shinwaris a guerilla war has lasted for centuries; the belt of desert from Lundi Kotal to Pesh-Bolak bearing witness to the destruction caused by raid and counter-raid. Private blood-feuds are common, and the tariff for injuries runs rather low. In many other social and domestic customs,”—and in dress and language, it might also be added—“they resemble the Yusafzais; but they have no hujras—an institution which to the Pathan ‘young blood,’ corresponds to the English notion of a club—the want of which, in a Pathan’s opinion, is to stamp a tribe as little better than savages. They differ, moreover, conspicuously in having a more aristocratic tribal constitution, in that they have hereditary chiefs or Khans,^[85] drawn from the old families, who from ancient times have supplied leaders—the most important being the Khan of Lalpura in the east, and the Baizai Khan of Goshta in the west.”

The cis-frontier or Kuz Mohmands are divided into five main clans:

1.

Kayakzai.

2.

Musazai.

3.

Dawezai.

4.

Matanni.

5.

Sirgani.

These are represented by some 500 men in the regular army and levies, and of these branches of the Mohmand family, who settled in the south-west corner of the Peshawar Valley when their progenitors finally ousted the Dilazaks, it may be said that they have been for so long separated from their cousins of the hills as to have become practically an altogether separate tribe.

Of the independent, Bar or hill, Mohmands there are four main clans:

1.

Tarakzai.

2.

Halimzai.

3.

Baizai.

4.

Khwaezai.

The Tarakzais inhabit the hills north and west of Michni adjoining the British border—the Burhan Khel and Isa Khel divisions of the clan living in Pandiali, and the Morcha Khel divisions having settlements on either bank of the Kabul River round Lalpura and Dakka. A small proportion of the Tarakzais live in Loi Shilman, and some are also settled in British territory in the Doaba, the triangular piece of country between the junction of the Kabul and Swat Rivers. The chiefs of the Tarakzais are the Khans of Lalpura and Pandiali.

The Halimzais were originally considered to be a branch of the Tarakzais, but they have so grown in numbers and importance as to be now looked upon as a separate clan. They live in the Gandab Valley and in Kamali, and have also a colony in Loi Shilman.

The Baizais are the most powerful clan of the Mohmands, and inhabit the more westerly portion of the tribal country. They are bounded on the north and west by the Kunar River, south by the Kabul River, south-east by the Khwaezais, and east by the Safis and the territory of the Khan of Nawagai. They also extend into Afghanistan. The chief of the Baizai clan is the Khan of Goshta.

The Khwaezai settlements stretch from the west, from the north of the Kabul River near Lalpura, across the Bohai Dag as far as the Kamali limits of the Halimzais to the east.

Of the independent Mohmands very few enlist in the Indian Army, but there are a good many in the regiments of the Amir of Afghanistan and in the contingents of the local Khans. The physique of the tribe is generally good, and a rough estimate of the fighting strength of the Bar Mohmands places it at 19,000 men, of whom the Baizais supply almost half. They have gained for themselves of more recent years a reputation as brave fighters as well as troublesome raiders, but are thoroughly mistrusted and detested by their neighbours, who accuse them of the grossest treachery. The Mohmands, moreover, are very vindictive, frequently exhuming and burning the bodies of enemies, even of their own faith; they often, too, refuse permission to relatives to remove their dead for proper burial after a war. At one time the Mohmand fighting men did not possess many modern rifles, but latterly it is said that they have received several large consignments of arms from the Persian Gulf via Kabul, and have also purchased numbers of rifles from the Adam Khel factories in the Kohat Pass.

To be considered in connection with the independent Mohmands are three affiliated clans living on the northern outskirts of the Mohmand country, and also three vassal clans.

The three first mentioned are the Dawezais, of whom some live permanently in the Upper Ambahar Valley and others leave their families in the winter in Ningrahar, migrating during the summer to the neighbourhood of the Unai Pass and the Upper Helmand River; the Utmanzais, who live in Bar and Kuz Yakhdand; and the Kukkozais, whose settlements are in Ningrahar.

The three vassal clans are the Mullagoris, the Safis, and the Shilmanis.

The Mullagoris are a people of doubtful origin, it being open to conjecture whether they are of Dilazak, Durani or Ghilzai stock. They are not acknowledged as being connected with any of the neighbouring tribes. The bulk of the clan is situated to the north of the Khyber Pass, extending from the Dabbar Pass on the west to the Peshawar district on the east, the Kabul River being their northern boundary. Their neighbours on the west are the Shilmanis, on the north the Tarakzai Mohmands, and on the south the Kuki Khel Afridis, with whom, as well as with other Afridis, they are at feud. They have other settlements at Sapri in the Mohmand Hills, in the Sisobi Glen, on the western slopes of the Pandperi Range, and along the banks of the Kunar River. Those of the clan who are settled about the Khyber go in the summer to Kambela, which lies below Mutlani Sar to the west. The Khyber Mullagoris are very united, have a good reputation for courage, and enlist freely in the Khyber Rifles.

The Safis or Kandaharis are supposed to be descendants of the original Gandhari of the country included between the Indus and Kunar Rivers, and which is bounded on the north by the Koh-i-Mor Range, and on the south by the Kabul River. Of these a great number emigrated in the fifth and sixth centuries to the valley of the Helmand, being driven out by Jat and other Scythic tribes from across the Hindu Kush. “In appearance often florid,” says Oliver, “with light eyes and hair, speaking a language only distantly related to the Pushtu of the Mohmands, whose dialect has much in common with that spoken in Kabul, both they and the Dehgans of the Laghman Valley are either directly descended from, or largely admixed with, the Kafirs, and are comparatively recent converts to Islamism. In Baber’s time they were still called Kafirs; in Nadir’s—Safis, a name which Masson suggests they may have acquired by becoming ‘pure’ in comparison to the adjoining ‘impure’ idolaters.” They are very bigoted and are fanatical, but make good soldiers. The main portion of them live in a wide valley, called Sur Kamar, which divides the Baizai country from that of the Dawezai and Utmanzai Mohmands. It is bounded on the north and east by the Sarlarra Range and Utmanzai country, on the south by the Darwazgai Range, and on the west by the Amrohi Range. They hold their valley by favour of the Mohmands, but are really dependents of the Khan of Nawagai.

The Shilmanis look upon the trans-frontier Mohmands as their parent stock, but their origin is rather doubtful—it has been stated to be Turk or Indian, and the latter seems the more probable. Their ancient home appears to have been in Shilman on the banks of the Kurram River, whence they migrated to the Tartara Mountain north of the Khyber, and to Hastnagar during the fifteenth century. At the end of the same century the Yusafzais drove the Hastnagar section into Swat, since which time they have sought the protection of the Mohmands, who had also taken possession of the country north of the Kabul River, and thus have become affiliated with them. The tract of country occupied by the Shilmanis is to the north of the Loargai plain and between it and the Kabul River, being bounded on the east by the Dabbar Hill, and on the west by the Shilman Gakhe. It is divided into four portions: 1, the Kam Shilman Valley; 2, the Prang Darra Glen; 3, the Loi Shilman Valley; and 4, from Shinpokh to the mouth of the Kam Shilman Glen along the right bank of the Kabul River. The tribes bordering this tract of country are the Mullagoris on the east, the Shinwaris on the south, and the Mohmands on the west and north.

About one-tenth of the Shilmani fighting men take service in the Khyber Rifles.