Dawar (Pashtun tribe)
داوڑ | |
|---|---|
| Languages | |
| Pashto | |
| Religion | |
 Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bannuzais · Khattaks · Wazirs · Mehsuds · Mangals · Zazais · Zadrans · Afridis · and other Karlani Pashtun tribes |
Alizai/Dawar (Pashto: داوړ) is a Karlani Pashtun tribe mostly inhabiting North Waziristan, with some settled in the Bannu District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. The Dawaris inhabit the Tochi Valley and speak the Dawari dialect of Pashto.
Dawar/Alizai is a descendant of a greater Shitak tribe and a cousin tribe of Wazir/Bannuzai and Tani/Taniwal.
History
[edit]The Dawars originally lived in the Shawal area, which lies partly in the present-day North Waziristan tribal agency of Pakistan and partly in the Paktika Province of Afghanistan. The Dawars are descended from the Shitak supertribe of the Pashtuns. Dawars are descend from the Shitaks. In the 14th century, the Wazirs another Pashtun tribe, who were living in Birmal in the west, migrated eastwards to the Shawal area and fell into dispute with the Shitaks (Dawar and Banuchi's) and succeeded to oust the Shitaks northeastwards. Eventually, the Dawari Shitaks settled in the Tochi Valley in the modern-day North Wazisitan. At the beginning of the twentieth century the tribe had some 5,200 fighting men.[1]
Dawari, or usually Alizai along with Waziris and other pashtun tribes upraises caused in southern and south west zone deteriorating of Kabul government and revolutions in the country, in Abdalee (Durrani) Empire they had the most powerful participation in their success and army contribution. Their location along the fertile land meant they were prone to fevers and other ravaging diseases that are bred in the wet sodden lands of the Tochi Valley, lying at the bottom of a deep depression exposed to the burning rays of the sun. The effects of these ailments may be clearly traced in the drawn or bloated features and the shrunken or swollen limbs of nearly every Dawari that has passed middle life.[1] Mostly they have been at war in the past with their neighbouring Wazir tribe, mostly over land and blood feuds.
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Trouble with the British Raj
[edit]In March of 1872, Dawar tribesmen refused to pay a fine to the British and they skirmished with Brigadier-General C.P. Keyes of the British Indian Army at the Tochi Valley.[2]
Location
[edit]Although they are surrounded on all four sides by a Waziri population they bear little resemblance to the Waziris. They are an agricultural people whilst the Waziris are a pastoral race, and they are much richer than their neighbours. They thrive on a rich sedimentary soil copiously irrigated in the midst of a country where cultivable land of any kind is scarce and water in general hardly to be obtained.[1]
Notable Dawars
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dawari". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 873.
- ^ National Army Museum (UK) - The North-West Frontier
