The Afridies
The Afridi, whose claim to unblemished pathan lineage has been questioned by
several writers, has, ironically, come to represent the archetype of the Pathan.
To him can be applied a whle catalogue of contradictory adjectives: brave,
cautious, honorable, treacherous, cruel, gallant, superstitious, courteous,
suspicious, and proud.
The
tribe numbers about 250,000. It is divided into eight clearly distinct clans:
Adam Khel, Aka Khel, Kamar Khel, Kambar Khel, Kuki Khel, Malikdin Khel, Zakka
Khel, and Sipah. These occupy abut 1,000 square miles of hilly coutry south and
west of Peshawar. Through this area runs the Khyber Pass. To the south of the
Pass is the Tirah, the Afridi homeland. Entrance to the Tirah is through the
Khajuri Plain, and the Chora Valley. On the southwest, several small passes lead
down into the Kurram Valley. To the north the Khyber is accessible from the
Tirah thrugh many narrow gorges in the mountains.
All of the Afridi clans have their
own areas in the Tirah, and most of them extend down into the Khyber over which
they have always exercised the right of toll. The Malikdin Khel live in the
center of the Tirah and hold Bagh, the traditional meeting place of Afridi
jirgas or assemblies. The Aka Khel are scattered in the hills south of Jamrud.
All of this area is included in the Khyber Agency. The Adam Khel live in the
hills between Peshawar and Kohat. Their preserve is the Kohat Pass. In which
several of the most important Afridi gun factories are located. This area is set
In the sixteenth century, the Afridies collected Rs. 12,5000 a year from the
Mogul Empire, in addition to individual levies on each traveler. By 1865, their
receipts had dropped to Rs. 22,900 from the Amir of Afghanistan, ;lus an
individual levy of Rs. 5
per laden camel (Rs. 3 if the load was food), Rs. 3 per horseman, and Rs.
11/2 per unladen camel or pediestrian. Reliable figures on
more recent subsidies paid by British India and Pakistan are not available, but
there is little doubt they far exceed the Mogul figure.
The People
Aside in a separate strip of unadministered territory attached to Kohat
District. Except for the Adam Khel, i.e Afridi clans are migratory, moving down
out of the lofty Tirah to the lower hills and the Khajuri Plain in the winter.
Although the entire tribe proved itself capable of concerted action
against both the Moguls and the British, the Afridies are given to bitter
interclan feuds, leaving them little time for major quarrels with neighboring
tribes. Most noted of the feuds are those between the Adam Khel and the Aka Khel
and between the Kuki Khel and the Zakka Khel. The last-named clan, incidentally,
is considered something of an archetype of the Afridies. It is reputed to be so
untrustworthy that the other clans accompanied by the giving of hostages. The
bickering is enhanced by the considerable influence exercised among the Afridies
by the mullahs and the adherence of the various clans to the Samil and Gar
factions.
The Afridies are light-skinned, pleasant-looking men, somewhat slighter in
stature than the Yusufzai. A Hebraic cast of features and a partialityh for full
beards, added to the grace with which most of the older men wear their flowing
garments, convey an impression of an assembly of Old Testament prophets.
The Afridies, especially the Adam Khel, Kambar Khel, and Malikdin Khel,
joined the British Indian army in grater numbers than most other tribes.
The famous Khyber Rifles, whose headquarters are at Landi Kotal in the Khyber,
have-except for periods when the British banned the Afridies from service
because of revolt or intrigue-been very much an Afridi organization. In recent
years, the Afridies have built up a profitable trucking business between various
points within the Frontier and from Peshawar to Afghanistan. Much as the Sikhs
in India, they also serve as the motor mechanics of northwestern Pakistan, and
are capable of prolonging the life of the most decrepit vehicle almost
indefinitely.
Despite the Afridies, willingness to
participate in a juhad at the wave of a green flag, their religious laxity has
been the subject of much concern to their fellow Pathans. In the seventeenth
century, Khushal Khan Khattak, the great Pushto poet and lifelong ally of the
Afridies, lamented:
The call of the muezzin is not to be heard in Tirah, Unless it is the crowing of
the cock at the dawn of day.
The Roshani heretics of the sixteenth century found a refuge in the Tirah after
having been driven out by other more orthodox tribes, and reportedly Pir Roshan,
the founder of the sect, is still venerated there today.
Perhaps the Afridies best answer to
charges of irreligion, however , is a story they tell of themselves. One day
long ago, a saintly pir, or holy man, came among the tribe. They paid homage to
him and asked for his prayers. He denounced their lack of virtue and reviled
them with the fact that in all their country they did not have a single shrine
or tomb of a saint of their own whose intercession they might solicit. Impressed
by the argument, the Afridies killed the pir on the spit and created an
impressive shrine over him at which they conducted their devotions there after.
Pukhtunwali
Khushal Khan
boasts in one of his poems:
I despise the man who does not guide his life by honor,
The very word honor drives me mad.
What madman cares whether he gains or loses a fortune!
The demands of honor are set forth in Pukhtunwali, sometimes called
Nang-I-Pukhtun, which may be translated as “The Pukhtun Code” or “The way of the
Pathan”. Throughout the Pushtu-speaking area, it is virtually impossible to find
even a child----male or female--- who is not keenly aware of the main elements
of Pukhtunwali. It goes back as far as Pathan history goes, and, according to
tradition, a good deal beyond. Leng
thy volumes of commentary have been written on it in the vernacular, and
some of the finer points are subject to endless arguments among the authorities.
For the most part, however, the broad philosophic concepts on which most systems
of law are based are beyond the Pathan’s horizon, and the ordinary regulatory
lawas with their myriad “do’s and don’t’s” are beneath his contempt. Therefore
he guides his life on the basis of a few simple principles.
Melmastia
The second greates demand of Pukhtunwali is melmastia, hospitality and
protection to every guest. It is exercised by the triblesmen to a degree
frequently embarrassing to the guest----whether he be foreigner who knows he
will never be in a position to return it, or fellow-tribesman who may fear that
he will not be in a position to return it adequately when the occasion demands.
Melmastia enjoins the obligation of protection as it does that of
nourishment—although both obligations cease the moment the guest has passed
beyond the doorstep of the host or the limits of his territorial responsibility.
On occasion, protection may be extended into a wider sphere by proclaiming the
visitor the guest of a particular chieftain or clan as long as he remains within
the Pathan community. This is tradintionally symbolized by the giveng of a
possession of the sponsoring chieftain, perhaps a dagger or a garment, which the
guest wears as a symbol of the protection he is under. A formal escort or
guarantee of safe conduct to a stranger, emissary, or even enemy, is called
badragga. Violence or hurt of any kind is almost never offered to a bonafide
guest, regardless of how poor or distasteful he may be--- both because of the
high regard in which the obligation of melmastia is held and because of the
obligation to take badal which would automatically be placed upon the host.
Anyone who can gain access to the presence, most especially the house, of Pathan
can claim asylum from the host regardless of the previous relationship between
them. Incideents have occurred where innocent men died defending strangers or
even their own personal enemies who demanded refuge while being pursued by
hostile forces.
The Hujra
The hujra, or community center, represents a gentler and more sociable
side of the Pathan character. It exists in practically every village in both the
settled area and in tribal territory, and is considered a mark of civilization
and prestige. Many of the other tribes look askance at certain sections of the
Bar Mohmands in whose villages hujras are rarely found. Traditionally used as a
male social center where the unmarried young men of the tribe sleep, the hujra
also houses visitors and serves as a focus for community action and opinion.
Meals and tea are served to all. A village may have several hujras which compete
with each other in hospitality Civil affairs of all kinds are conducted in the
hujra and gossip and information exchanged. Since, as Elphinstone noted 150
years ago, Their the Pathans ordinary employment, when seated, is conversation,
the hujra is usually well-filled. Many hujras, even in remote villages, now
possess a battery operated radio; consequently, such alien subject as the United
Nations and the “cold war” have entered the conversation of the tribesmen.
Tashkent Radio competes with Radio Kabul and Radio Pakistan in Pushtu-language
broadcasts, and BBC and the recorded murders (probably far less than half of
those which actually occurred). Of these, 149 were officially ascribed to
relations between the sexes, 96 to plunder, 36 to land disputes, and 58 to blood
feuds. The last undoubtedly involved all three of the former.
