Mullagori tribe

Mullagori tribesmen, 1890 (c). From "The tribes on our frontier" series of photos by Bourne & Shepherd. Source

Mullagori is a small Pashtun tribe which are found in the Mullagori tehsil of the Khyber district .

The author of Hayat-i-Afghani writes:

"The Mullagori clan, with its four sub-divisions of Pahar-Khel, Tar-Khel, Ahmad-Khel and Daulat-Khel, is held by some not to be of Afghan stock at all. Its ancestor, say these, was a stranger who attached himself to the Mohmand and partook their fortunes. Others relate that this ancestor was a Mohmand of the name of Mullah, who having once taken part with some of his fellows in a robbing enterprise, was afterwards observed by his companions to be standing apart with fixed look as if in mediation ; upon which one of them remarked in Pashto "Mullagori" i.e "Mullah is looking or staring" and the phrase clung to him and finally gave the name to his descendants. Whatever may be thought of this story, certain it is that the Mulla-gori live in the midst and in close community of interest with the hill Mohmand. The clan, numbering about 500 men, is chiefly settled in the Tahtara, where it apportions its time and energies between the conflicting claims of pillage and agriculture. The following are maliks : of the Pahar-Khel, Shengi Khan and Dad Gul ; of the Tar-Khel, Khadri and Khairu Khan ; of the Ahmad-Khel, Mir Alim, son of Sikandar ; of the Daulat Khel, Asmatullah." [English translation by Henry Priestley, p-139]

William Merk, who prepared a report on Mohmands, had a theory that Mullagoris could be remnants of Dilazak Pashtuns. He writes that Mullagoris have tradition that their ancestors founded a great kingdom, the capital of which was somewhere near Pesh Bolak in Ningarhar (which was formerly inhabitated by Dilazaks). ["The Mohmands" by W.R.H.Merk, p-85]

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