History of the Mashwani tribe of Pashtuns
Mashwani is a Pashtun tribe who, according to tradition, are said to be patrilineally descended from a Sayyid, Muhammad-i-Gisu Daraz, and matrilineally from a Pashtun woman of the Kakar tribe. Other related Pashtun tribes that claim descent from the other Pashtun wives of Sayyid Muhammad-i-Gisu Daraz, and are thus connected to the Mashwanis, include the Storyani, Gandapur, Honi, and Wardak.
The claim of descent from Sayyid Muhammad-i-Gisu Daraz (1321–1422) is obviously untrue. The Mashwani and other aforementioned tribes were already sizeable during the reign of Sikandar Lodi. Members of these tribes were aware of the weakness of the tradition regarding their descent from Sayyid Gisu Daraz and insisted, in the courts of Sikandar Lodi and Sher Shah, that they be identified as Afghans rather than Sayyids. This is reported in the Makhzan-i-Afghani.
The nine sons of Mashwani, according to Makhzan-i-Afghani, were: Tukuz, Lodin, Matakati, Suleiman, Roghani, Kazbuli, Ghareb, Kharbari, and Diaz.
The author of Khulasat-ul-Ansab (1769 AD) has the following to say about the Mashwani Afghans:
“Mashwani was born of the Kakar lady, and is a nephew of Kakar: his descendants, named Mashwanis, reside in Masharahrud, between Shorawak and Baluchistan. Lodin belongs also to the Mashwanis; and the Mandozais reckon themselves, likewise, to be sprung from Mashwani; but some assert, that they are not descended from Mashwani, but from an adopted son of his.” [B.Dorn's translation]
The earliest notable Mashwani in history is Shaikh Isa Mashwani. He is the earliest known Pashto poet. He was a contemporary of the Pashtun monarch Sher Shah Sur (r. 1540–45), and he or his ancestors had settled in India. The author of Makhzan-i-Afghani (1613 AD) mentions Shaikh Isa among the Afghan saints and attributes to him the authorship of a Risalah (treatise) on the unity of the Divine Being, written in Pashto, Persian, and Hindavi. A few specimens of his verses in these languages are reproduced there.
In the late 15th century, the Mashwanis migrated to the Peshawar Valley as retainers of the Yousafzais and Mandanrs. In the 18th century, when the Utmanzai Mandanrs crossed the Indus River and settled in the present-day Haripur District, the Mashwanis accompanied them and established themselves at Srikot. In the 1820s, when the Said-Khani branch of the Utmanzai fought the Sikhs, they summoned their Mashwani retainers for support, and together inflicted several defeats on the Sikhs.
Hubert Digby Watson, author of the Hazara Gazetteer (1907), praises the Mashwanis of Sirikot:
“Other Syeds do not admit the Mashwanis' Syed origin and do not intermarry with them. They are a sturdy lot—industrious, well-behaved, and more honest and truthful than most... ‘One of the bravest races in the world,’ he enthusiastically calls them... Of all the tribes in Hazara, their history and character appeal most to the Englishman.” (Gazetteer of the Hazara District, 1907, p. 28)
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