Monday, 21 February 2022

Nawab Foujdar Muhammad Khan (an Afghan of Bhopal), 1861




Nawab Foujdar Muhammad Khan (an Afghan of Bhopal), 1861.

Source: "People of India" by Watson and Kaye. The British author of the above-mentioned book writes:

 "These Afghans are a fine-looking tall race of men; they have remarkably handsome features, piercing dark eyes, aquiline noses, and a proud independent bearing. They are a very haughty, cruel, and vindictive race, and treacherous. The Bhopal Afghans have not in any degree lost the appearance or the character of their parent race, though the latter may have become somewhat softened by intercourse with Hindoos and English, but they are very bigoted Mussulmans. The Pathans of Bhopal are not distinguished by activity in manly sports or exercises; they are grown indolent and sensual, and their time is passed in eating, smoking, and sleeping. Owing to the dissipated lives they lead they are not very long lived, but moulvees, and others who lead temperate lives, attain a good old age. There are very few others beside the military classes of Mussulmans at Bhopal, and the religious rites and belief of none of them differ from other Mussulmans of India. But they permit a very limited jurisdiction on the part of the state over their families, which are managed, after the Afghan custom, by themselves. As a rule, with the exception of the higher classes, they are generally illiterate."

Saturday, 19 February 2022

Pashtun fruit seller in Sindh, 1861

 


Pashtun fruit seller in Sindh, 1861. 

Source: "People of India", Vol.6, published in 1872. 

The British author of the above-mentioned book writes: "The photograph represents an Afghan fruit dealer, who has accompanied a caravan to Sind. His costume and appearance are unmistakable. He has melons, pears, apples, and grapes for sale, and the fruit is carefully packed with cotton in round boxes. Afghanistan fruit is sent to native courts in India, where, especially the grapes, it is highly prized; but none of it has the juiciness or flavour of English fruits of the same description. In the hot, dry climate of Sind, however, it is peculiarly welcome and refreshing, and much is consumed by the higher classes."





A Pashtun Bank chowkidaar, Karachi

A Pashtun Bank chowkidaar, Karachi, undated. Postcard photo.


His moustache and scar looks fake. It could be a scene from some old Pakistani movie.

Wednesday, 16 February 2022

Photos of Mahsud Pashtuns, 1948

 



Mahsud men. From "London Illustrated News", January 3, 1948.

Captions:

1- "A typical Mahsud : his tribe occupy the greater part of the Southern mountains of Waziristan".

2- "Member of the fiercest and most turbulent tribes of the North West Frontier : A Mahsud".

3- "A Mahsud of Waziristan: Frontier tribes have been in constant conflict with the British". 

Sunday, 13 February 2022

Tomb of Mir Wais Hotak, 1959

Maueoueoum of Mir Wais Hotak, Kandahar, 1959. Photos by Josephine Powell. 

Unlike the mausoleum of Ahmad Shah Durrani, the mausoleum of Mir Wais Hotak is relatively a recent construction, built during the reign of King Nadir Shah (r.1929-1933).


Source

Source

Source



Plates from "Gun-running and the Indian north-west frontier" by Keppel Arnold

 

Afridi tribesmen, 1910.

Mahsud Maliks, 1910.


Turi tribesmen, 1910.


Orakzai tribesmen, 1910.




Friday, 11 February 2022

Khan Habibullah Khan Marwat

 

Khan Habibullah Khan Marwat (1901 - 1978, left), the Pakistani Minister of the Interior, visits Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1964, right) at his home in New Delhi, India, April 1964.