1 64 PANJAB CASTES.
2 •£ Saiyad and Indian converts who were called Shekh spread through the
3 country, and settled aniono;, married with; and converted the Pathans. The
4 descendants of these holy men still preserve distinct tribal identity, and as a
5 rule claim Saiyad origin.
6 The Gilzai are a race probably of Turkish origin, their name being
7 another form of Khilchi, the Turkish word for " swordsman," who early settled,
8 perhaps as mercenaries rather than as a corporate tribe, in the Siah-band range
9 of the Ghor mountains where they received a large admixture of Persian blood.
10 The official spelling of the name is still Ghaleji at Kabul and Kandahar.
11 They first rose into notice in the time of Mahmiid Ghnznavi, whom
12 they accompanied in his invasions of India. Not long afterwards they
13 conquered the tract between Jalalabad and Kelat-i-Ghilzai, and spread east and l^- ■
14 west over the country they now hold. In the beginning of the 18th century
15 thev revolted against their Persian rulers, established themselves under Mir
16 Wais as independent rulers at Kandahar, and overran Persia. But a quarter
17 of a century later they were reduced by Nadir Shah, and their rule disappeared,
18 to be succeeded not long after by that of the Dui-rani.
19 With the remaining races of the Tajik and Ilazara which form part of
20 the Pathan nation in its widest sense, we have little concern in the Panjab. The
21 former are the remnants of the old Persian inhabitants of Afghanistan, and the
22 word is now loosely used to express all Pathans ^vho speak Persian and are neither
23 true Afghans, Saiyads, nor Hazaras. They are scattered through Afghanistan,
24 Persia, and Tiirkistan, in which last they hold some hill fastnesses in inde-
25 pendent sovereignty. The Hazaras are Tartar by origin, and are supposed to
26 have accompanied Chengiz Khan in his invasion. They occupy all the moun-
27 tain countrv formed by the western extensions of the Hindu Kush between
28 Ghazni, Balkh, Hirat, and Kandahar. I have included in my account of the
29 Pathans a few allied races, who though not usually acknowledged as Pathans,
30 have by long association become closely assiinilated with them in manners,
31 customs, and character. They chiefly occupy Haz^ra, and are called Dilazak,
32 Swati, Jodiin, Tanaoli, and Shilmdni.
33 397. Tribal affinities and statistics. — The Pathan genealogies, which were
34 probably concocted not more than 400 years ago, teem with obvious absurdities.
35 But they are based upon the existing affinities of the people whom they trace
36 back to Kais ; and they will therefore afford a useful basis for a discussion of
37 the tribes with which we iii the Panjab are concerned. I give in i\.bstract
38 No. 69 on pages 20 i and 205* a table showing the traditional grouping of the *?.
39 divisions of the Pathan nation. This grouping con-esponds fairly well with C6-7
40 their present distribution by locality, and I shall therefore take the tribes in
41 order as thev lie along our border, jjeginning from the south where they
42 march with the Biloches. Unfortunately the figured details for the various
43 tribes which I give in Abstract No. 70, on page 206t are in many ways t ?•
44 unsatisfactory. I have already explained that the Deputy Commissioners
45 of the frontier districts were asked to prepare lists of the tribes for which
46 figures should he separately tabulated for each district, and it is now apparent
47 that these lists were drawn up far more with regai'd to the political needs of
48 each district than with reference to any ethnic or tribal system of classification.
49 The figures given, however, will probably satisfy all administrative require-
50 ments : though they are so full of double or incomplete classification that they
51 are of little use to me in the description of the tribes, and I have hardly
52 alluded to them in the following pages. I have, however, grouped the figures