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(1752-1806), the son of Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Muḥammad Beg, of Turkish descent, was born at Lucknow. His early years were spent in Murs̲h̲idābād at the court of Muẓaffar Ḏj̲ang. With the accession of Āṣaf al-Dawla (1775) he returned to Oudh and was appointed ʿamaldār of Itāwah and other districts. He also served as a revenue official under Colonel Hannay who farmed the country of Sarwār. He was later employed by Nathaniel Middleton, the English Resident, and was connected with Richard Johnson in the management of the confiscated d̲j̲āgīrs of the Begams of Oudh. He re…

, the name of a tribe on the north-west frontier of Pakistan. They inhabit the hilly country around Tārtāra and Kambela to the north of the K̲h̲yber Pass, in the southern part of the Mohmand [ q.v.] territory. Their territories are bounded on the north by the Kābul river; on the west by the S̲h̲ilmānī country; on the south by the settlements of the Kuki K̲h̲ēl Afrīdīs; and on the east by the Pes̲h̲āwar district. The tribe is divided into three clans: the Aḥmad K̲h̲ēl, Ismāʿīl, and the Dawlat K̲h̲ēl. Like the Ṣāfīs and the S̲h̲ilmā…

, a Hindi word, ultimately from a Sanskrit root “to compute, reckon up”, a term in Indo-Muslim administrative usage denoting an aggregate of villages, a subdivision of a district or sarkār [see mug̲h̲als. 3. Administrative and social organisation]. In later Anglo-Indian usage, the term was often rendered as pergunnah , see Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson , a glossary of Anglo-Indian colloquial words and phrases, 698-9. The first reference to this term in the chronicles of the Sultanate of Dihlī appears to be in the Taʾrīk̲h̲-i Fīrūz S̲h̲āhī of S̲h̲ams-i Sirād̲j̲ ʿAfīf ( Bibliotheca Ind…

or Mārwāŕ was the largest of the former Indian States in the Rajputana Agency with an area of 36,120 sq.m. and a population of 2,555,904 (1941 Census). There appears to be no evidence to support the Rād̲j̲pūt legend that the state of D̲j̲ōdhpur was founded by the Rād̲j̲pūts of Kanawd̲j̲ after their defeat by Muḥammad of G̲h̲ūr in 590/1194. Siyāhd̲j̲ī, the founder of the Rāthōr dynasty of D̲j̲ōdhpur, was probably descended from Rāthōr rād̲j̲ās whose inscriptions are found in …

, the fourth son of S̲h̲īr ʿAlī, Amīr of Afg̲h̲ānistān, and brother of Yaʿḳūb Ḵh̲ān. Like all rulers of Afg̲h̲ānistān, S̲h̲īr ʿAlī had trouble with his sons. When, in 1873, he nominated his favourite son ʿAbd Allāh Ḏj̲ān as his heir-apparent, Ayyūb Ḵh̲ān fled to Persia. In 1879, when Yaʿḳūb Ḵh̲ān succeeded S̲h̲īr ʿAlī as amïr, Ayyūb Ḵh̲ān returned to Afg̲h̲ānistān and was appointed governor of Harāt. Towards the end of the Second Afg̲h̲ān War (1878-80) Lord Lytton’s government selected a Sadōzai prince, named S̲h̲īr ʿAlī, as the wālī of Ḳandahār. From this pos…

, the name of a Pat́hān tribe on the north-west frontier of Pakistan, in British Indian times the fiercest opponents there of British rule. The Mahsūds inhabit the heart of Wazīristān around Kāniguram and are s̲h̲ut off from Pakistan territory by the Bhittanni country. On all other sides they are flanked by Darwīs̲h̲ K̲h̲ēl Wazīrīs. It is now generally accepted that they left their original home in the Birmal hills of modern Afg̲h̲ānistān sometime towards the close of the 8th/14th century and gr…

(“above the g̲h̲āts or passes”), a name given to several elevated tracts in central and southern India. It was usually applied to the highlands above the passes through the Western G̲h̲āts. On the east side of the Indian peninsula it was the term used to distinguish the Carnatic plateau from the Carnatic Pāʿīng̲h̲āt or lowlands. In Berār it was the name of the upland country above the Ad̲j̲anta pass, the most northerly part of the table-land of the Deccan. It was also applied…

, the name of a Pat́hān or Afg̲h̲ān tribe on the North-West Frontier of what was formerly British India, now forming the boundary between Pakistan and Afg̲h̲anistān. The Mohmands in fact straddle the frontier, and their members, estimated at ca. 400,000, are divided between the two countries. The Mohmand territories extend from northwest of the Pes̲h̲āwar district, with Mālākand and the Yūsufzay territories on the east, up to and beyond the Afg̲h̲an frontier on the west, and northwards towards the princely state of Dīr [ q.v.]. The Mohmand Agency, created by Pakistan (see below)…