Bangash

Babur attacking Kohat in 1505

In 1505, after plundering Kohat for two days, Babur's Timurid army marched southwest to raid Bangash district. As they reached a valley surrounded by mountains between Kohat and Hangu, the Bangash Pashtuns occupied the hills on both sides, surrounding the army. However, the Timurids successfully pushed the Pashtuns down towards a nearby detached hill, after which the Timurids surrounded them from all sides and got hold of them. About 100 to 200 Pashtuns were taken during the attack.

On the next day, Babur reached Hangu, where the Bangash Pashtuns had fortified a sangar on the top of a hill. The Timurid army immediately captured it and beheaded about 100 to 200 more Pashtuns, setting up another tower of heads. From Hangu, the Timurid army marched to Tall. The soldiers set out to plunder the Bangash Pashtuns of the neighborhood. Afterwards, the Timurids marched from Bangash to Bannu on the Kurram River, where they set up their third pillar of severed heads.[8][9]

In the second half of the 16th century, the Bangash tribe joined the Roshani movement of Pir Roshan, an ethnic Ormur,[10] who migrated with his family and few of his disciples from Waziristan to Tirah. The Roshanis rebelled against the Mughal emperor Akbar, who constantly sent punitive expeditions to crush the movement. After Pir Roshan's death, the movement was led by his youngest son Pir Jalala. In 1587, Akbar sent a strong Mughal force against him to the Bangash region. In 1599, Pir Jalala took Ghazni but it was quickly recovered by the Mughals. Pir Jalala was succeeded by his nephew Ahdad, who set up a base in Charkh, Logar, and attacked Mughal-held Kabul and Jalalabad several times between 1611 and 1615, but was unsuccessful. In 1626, Ahdad died during a Mughal attack in Tirah. In 1630, when Pir Roshan's great-grandson, Abdul Qadir, launched attacks on the Mughal army in Peshawar, thousands of Pashtuns from the Bangash, Afridi, Mohmand, Kheshgi, Yusufzai, and other tribes took part. The Roshanis failed in the attack, but continued their resistance against the Mughals throughout the 17th century.[11]

Khwaja Muhammad Bangash, who belonged to the Bangash tribe, was a famous 17th-century Pashto Sufi poet and mystic associated with the Roshani movement.[12]

The Karrani dynasty was founded in 1564 by Taj Khan Karrani, a Karlani Pashtun hailing from the Kurram valley in Bangash district.[13] It was the last dynasty to rule the Bengal Sultanate. Taj Khan Karrani was formerly an employee of the Sur Pashtun emperor, Sher Shah Suri. His capital was at Gaur (in present-day Malda district, West Bengal, India). He was succeeded by his brother Sulaiman Khan Karrani, who shifted the capital from Gaur to Tandah (also in Malda district) in 1565. In 1568, Sulaiman Khan annexed Orissa to the Karrani sultanate.[14] Sulaiman Khan's authority extended from Cooch Behar to Puri, and from Son River to Brahmaputra River.[15]

On 25 September 1574, the Mughal Empire captured the Karrani capital Tandah. The Battle of Tukaroi fought on 3 March 1575 forced Daud Khan Karrani, the last Karrani ruler, to withdraw to Orissa. The battle led to the Treaty of Katak in which Daud ceded the whole of Bengal and Bihar, retaining only Orissa. Daud Khan, however, later invaded Bengal, declaring independence from Mughal emperor Akbar. The Mughal onslaught against the Karrani sultanate ended with the Battle of Rajmahal on 12 July 1576, during which Daud Khan was captured and later executed by the Mughals. However, the Pashtuns and the local landlords known as Baro Bhuyans led by Isa Khan continued to resist the Mughal invasion. Later in 1612 during the reign of Jahangir, Bengal was finally integrated as a Mughal province.[16]

Muhammad Khan Bangash (1713-1743), the first Nawab of Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Muhammad Khan Bangash, who belonged to the Kaghazai line of Bangash tribe, became the first Nawab of Farrukhabad in 1713 in Uttar Pradesh, India. Being illiterate, he was unable to understand a single word of Persian, Turki or Pashto.[17] He named the city after then Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar. The Bangash Nawabs encouraged merchants and bankers to come and settle in Farrukhabad for the promotion of commercial activities.[18] Very important in this respect was the establishment of the Farrukhabad mint,[19] which apart from being an emblem of sovereignty, stimulated bullion imports and attracted numerous bankers to work in the city. The superior quality of the Farrukhabad currency, both gold and silver, was well known in the eighteenth century as it became the most trustworthy and hardest currency of northern India.[20]

Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747–1772), the founder of the Afghan Durrani Empire, preferred coins made at the Farrukhabad mint.[21] The third Nawab of Farrukhabad, Ahmad Khan Bangash, took part in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 and supported Ahmad Shah Durrani to defeat the Marathas.[22] Ahmad Khan practised the Utara, a peculiarity of Indian Muslim horsemen, which was the act of dismounting and fighting on foot in times of crisis, which the Hindustanis such as the Sadaat-e-Bara considered to be proof of exceptional bravery, something ridiculed by the Persian counterparts.[23][24][25] Because of its reputation as a centre of commerce and finance, Farrukhabad began to attract new Pashtun immigrants from Afghanistan.[26][27] However, Bangash-held Farrukhabad suffered from a steep economic and political decline under the British Company Raj, because the British colonial officers ordered to close the famed Farrukhabad mint and halt the bullion trade in 1824 as part of their policy to centralize the economy of India. The abolition of the mint dealt a heavy blow to the thriving grain trade and precipitated a monetary crisis in the urban and rural areas of the region.[28] The Bangash Nawabs continued to rule Farrukhabad until they were defeated by the British at Kannauj on 23 October 1857 during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[29] Today, many Bangash are settled in Uttar Pradesh, most notably in Farrukhabad.[30]

The Taj Mahal palace at Bhopal, built by Shah Jahan Begum (1868–1901)

The Orakzai tribe is historically closely related to the Bangash; their traditional homeland (Orakzai District) was part of Bangash district. In 1723, Dost Mohammad Khan, who belonged to the Orakzai tribe and was formerly a mercenary in the Mughal army, founded the Bhopal State in the present-day Madhya Pradesh state of central India.[31] After his death in 1728, his descendants, the Nawabs of Bhopal, continued ruling the state. Between 1819 and 1926, the state was ruled by four women – the Nawab Begums – unique in the royalty of those days. The third Nawab Begum of Bhopal, Shah Jahan Begum (1868–1901), built the Taj Mahal palace at Bhopal as her residence.

Hamidullah Khan, the last sovereign Nawab of the dynasty, officially acceded the state to India in 1949.[32]