Monday, 23 May 2016

Yousafzais of Ghoriwala in Bannu


Hasan Khan Yousafzai, the progenitor of the Mughal Khels of Ghoriwala town in Bannu. was an adventurer from Yusufzai country, who settled in Bannu in early18th century. His son Umar Khan removed to Ghoriwal, and by degrees worked himself into position of a chief, his followers being mostly Jat and Awan Hindkis. Fourth in descent from him was Mughal Khan, who has given his name to his small but powerful clan. He was a great man, had six wives and many sons, and greatly extended the limits of his tappa. His grandson Jafar rose to power by first subjecting all his relations to his will, and then the neighboring tappa of Ismail Khel, over which Allahdad, a distant cousin of his, became chief. On the outbreak of the second Anglo-Sikh war, Allahdad and Jafar took opposite sides, the former against the British, the latter for British. Jafar Khan raised two hundred men for British for service in Bannu, and sent his eldest son, Sardad, at the head of twenty-eight sawars to assist at the siege of Multan. For these and other services, Jafar Khan was rewarded the perpetual jagir assignment of one-eighth the revenues of both the Ghoriwala and Ismail Khel tappas, and on is paying a balance of revenue due from the latter was made its malik as well. He also received a grant of land in Nar assessed at Rs. 940 in 1884. He died in 1859, and was seceded by his eldest son Sardad Khan, who drew Rs. 2,523 as his jagir grant and Rs. 1,063 in 1884 as head of the two tappas above named. He was made a police officer zaildar in 1863 and deprived of the office owing to incapacity in December 1871. (Ref: Bannu Gazetteer, 1883, p-138)

In 1883 the Yousafzais of Ghoriwala still had preserved the Yousafzai dialect and the Yousafzai physiognomy. (Bannu Gazetteer, 1883, p-30).


 An image which is falsely attributed to Jafar Khan Yousafzai of Ghoriwala

Someone cropped a figure from a painting in Fraser Album, printed it, gave it a fake caption and falsely claimed that it is placed in "London Museum". He uploaded it on Wikimedia here.




The above figure was actually named Mirza Bahram and he was a horse-merchant from Kabul. The following painting which is part of the collections of James Fraser and William Fraser and was commissioned by the latter in circa 1816-1820.




E.S Fraser (James Fraser and William Fraser's father) transcribed the five figures in the above painting as follow:

1st figure. Khodadad Khan son of Meerza Bahram. 2d. Meerza Bahram, an Afghan born at Caubul (Kabul), a horse merchant. 3d. Seyyeed Khan, a Dooraunee Patan (Durrani Pashtun), a merchant of Candahar. 4th. Nunmoo Lahoree, a trooper, and residing at Delhee. 5th. Moolah Seyed Oollah, a Dooraunee Patan, a horse merchant of Caubul.

The reference given by Sothbeys is:  M. Archer and T. Falk, India Revealed: the Art and Adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, London, 1989, p.113, no.101.

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