Gazetteer Of The Peshawar District 1883-84

· 1883 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

1Poshawar District. |

2CHAP. II.—HISTORY. 39

3“ occasionallye visited for the sake of pasture by the shepherd tribes Ohapter JI.

4“accustomed to roam about the neighbouring countries. By these it seo

5“was gradually repeopled and cultivated in scattered spots, till in time

6“other tribes of cultivators came in, and settled all over the plain,

7“much as they are at the present day. The country, however, has

8“never properly recovered its former condition of prosperity. Now

9“ wretchod mud hovels stand on the ruins of former towns and cities,

10“the buildings of which are stillin many parts traceable by the

11“remains of their massive stone walls. . . . Mahmid’s destruc-

12“tive hosts were not conquerors and settlers, but p&ssing robbers and

13“plunderers. So were his successors Jhengiz Khén and Taimur

14“ Lang with their swarms of destroying savages, who in the 13th and

15“14th centuries swept through this region on their way to India

16“and effectually prevented any attempt at colonizing or resettling tho

17“country.”* Thus even to the 16th century, the Peshawar plain lay

18an almost total waste, covered with a thick jungle, in which Babar

19records the pleasure taken by his followers in hunting the rhino-

20ceros.

21The first settlement in the plains of any tribe of undoubted ,Pathén Settlements

22Afghan origin probably took place, as will be hereafter related, in the ' ‘he plait the Da-

2315th century. Long before this, however, members of the Dalazak

24tribe, to whom some authorities (including Major James) attribute

25Pathan descent,f had settled in the plain. Their advent, which

26seems to have followed at no great interval after the era of Mahmud,

27“was marked,” says Major James,“by no outragos or slaughter.

28“ The villages they found were few, the country poorly cultivated, and

29“the people a quiet race, chiefly pastoral, and still unconverted.”

30These the Dalazaks reduced toa kind of servitude, contracting

31marriages at the same time with some of the chief families. The

32original inhabitants in a short time had become so incorporated

33with the more numerous and superior settlers as to be lost sight of.

34The Dalazéks, on the other hand, by intermarriages and the new

35customs which they adopted from their neighbours, lost their nation-

36al characteristics, so that, in speaking of them at the present day,

37the Afghans completely ignore their claim to Pathan descent and

38style them kéfirs. In the 11th century these Dalazaks had pos-

39session of all the plain of Peshdwar,} amd extended even to Chach

40Hazara,§ and the Jhelam. They continued quiet and orderly, their

41position in the plain rendering them accessible to punishment; and

42aida small tribute to the local governors appointed from Ghazni.

43he hills to the north formed part of the Swat kingdom, which

44since the withdrawal of the Hindus from the Indus, had remained

45independent under a chief of its own with the title of Sultan.

46In the same century the Pathdns of Ghor, who had remained Destruction of Ghaz-

47dependent on Ghazni, reasserted their rights, and after various fortunes soneglen nat Pb-

48succeeded in casting off the yoke, and in the person of Muhammad “"

49the brother of the first Ghorian usurper (Souri), destroyed the

50Ghaznavite power. He did all in his power to induce the Afghans

51History.

52State of the country.

53* Bellew, pp. 59-60

54¢ The Afghans reject the relationehip and assign them an Indian origin,

55{2 ¢. The plain south of the Kabul river.

56§ As to this term, see Gazetteer of Hazara,