Karrani Sultans of Bengal: Which Part of Pakhtunkhwa or Afghanistan Did They Come From?

From 1564 to 1576, Bengal was ruled by a family of Pashtuns known as the Karranis. The term Karrani is actually a misspelling of Karlani (کرلاڼي). Since Farsi lacks the letter ڼ, Karlani was written either as Karrani or Kararani in 16th- and 17th-century Persian sources. Today, the Karlanis no longer function as a single tribe; instead, their various branches form some of the most prominent Pashtun tribes.

The founder of the dynasty was Taj Khan Karrani, one of the chief officers of Sher Shah Suri and Islam Shah Suri. After the fall of the Sur dynasty in 1555, Taj Khan and his brothers ruled South Bihar independently. In 1564, Taj Khan supplanted the Surs in Bengal and established Karrani rule there. His brother, Sulaiman Karrani, succeeded him and greatly expanded the kingdom’s frontiers. However, he acted cautiously with the Mughal rivals, refraining from proclaiming himself Shah or issuing coins in his own name. His son, who did mint coins in his own name, soon became embroiled in conflict with the Mughals. He was eventually defeated and killed, bringing the dynasty to an end. Daud Shah Karrani, the last ruler of the line, was also the final Pashtun ruler in India to style himself as Sultan.

Unfortunately, the precise Karlani sub-tribe to which Taj Khan, Sulaiman Khan, and Daud Shah belonged is unknown. The Karlani tribes include the Wazirs, Mahsuds, Dawars, Bannuchis, Khattaks, Afridis, Orakzais, Bangash, Dalazaks, Turis, Khugianis, Zazais, Zadrans, Tanis, Mangals, Wardaks, Utman Khels, and several others.

In the 15th and early 16th centuries, the most widespread Karlani tribe in present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—and the one settled nearest to India—was the Dalazak (or Dilazak) tribe. It is therefore highly likely that the Karrani rulers of India came from this tribe. Tribes located closer to India generally showed a stronger tendency to migrate there than those settled farther away.

Now, if you look at the Wikipedia article on the Karrani dynasty, you’ll notice someone has edited it to claim that the Karrani Sultans came from the “Bangash district” and belonged to the Bangash tribe of the Kurram Valley. The source cited is History of Bengal Mughal Period (1526–1765 A.D.) by Atul Roy Chandra (p. 12). Now I will demonstrate why Wikipedia articles should not be blindly trusted for nuanced historical information.

When I checked the above-mentioned source, it was citing another secondary source — History of Bengal Vol. II, published by Dacca University (Vol. II, p. 181).

Upon checking History of Bengal by Dacca University, I discovered that it had been misquoted by Atul Roy Chandra. The text does not state anywhere that the Karrani rulers of India belonged to the Bangash tribe. Rather, it provides general information about the Karranis and mentions the region of Bangash (not to be confused with the tribe of that name) as the homeland of the Karlanis in general.

At the same time, the Dacca University volume also misquotes a British source: Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab by H. A. Rose. Nowhere does Rose claim that the Bangash region was the exclusive homeland of all Karlanis. Instead, he simply notes: “The Karlanris, generally, were disciples of Pir-i-Roshan, and those of Bangash (the modern Kurram) were peculiarly devoted Roshanias.”

Khafi Khan, the author of Muntakhab al-Lubab, appears to have had knowledge about the precise Karlani section to which Taj Khan and his successors belonged. Unfortunately, he did not disclose it explicitly, but what he did record provides a clue: he stated that Daud Shah Karrani was both an Afghan (Pashtun) and a Sayyid. Some Karlanri tribes do indeed assert Sayyid origin, such as the Wardak, Honi, and Dilazak. As I stated earlier, it is most likely that the Karranis belonged to the Dilazak tribe among the Karlanis.

Depiction of Daud Shah Karrani by 16th-century Mughal paintings.

Approximate extent of the Karrani sultanate: Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa were part of the sultanate.