Khatak

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Khatak (खटक)[1] [2] Khattak (खट्टक) is a Jat clan[3] found in Afghanistan. [4] The great Barak clan is of the Khatak tribe.[5]

Origin

History

H. W. Bellew[6] writes that Seventh satrapy of Darius consisted of Sattagydai, or "Sattag kindred," are now represented by the Khattak, Shattak, Sattak, and Shitak or Sitak tribes of the Indus border .

H. W. Bellew[7] The Khattak tribe inhabits the barren, rocky, and parched country on each bank of the Indus for upwards of a hundred miles along its course, from a little above the confluence of the Kabul river at Attock to near the junction of the Kuram stream below Kalabagh. The width of this Khattak tract varies much, being only a few miles above Attock, and widest — fifty to sixty miles — about Makhad and Kalabagh. The Khattak are reckoned at thirty thousand families, nearly half of which number dwell on the east bank of the Indus. They are a very fine, tall, and well-developed race of Indians, with generally fairer complexions than their neighbouring tribesmen. Their country is exceedingly poor — except in salt, of which it contains whole mountains, and many mines in full work — desolate and rugged, with but little cultivable soil. I have in a previous passage identified the Khattak with the Sattagydai of Herodotus, and may here add that they are the same people as the Shitak of Banu originally, the difference in name being merely the result of local dialectic pronunciation, the soft sound prevailing in the south, and the harsh in the north. The original seat of the Khattak was in the Shamal and Barmal districts, on the east slopes of the Suleman range, now occupied by the Vaziri. In this country they were called Sattak, Shattak, Sitak, or Shitak ; but as they passed north-wards, on expulsion by the Vaziri from their ancient seats, they were called Khattak by their neighbours there, according to the pronunciation of that part of the country ; and after awhile themselves adopted this pronunciation of their name, though in their common Pukhto they still retain the soft pronunciation of the southern and western dialects of that tongue. In fact, the Khattak is the only tribe in the Kohat and Peshawar districts which speaks the soft dialect of Pukhto, all the other tribes north of Kohat and the Kuram speaking different dialects of the northern hard Pukhto.

These Khattak, it appears, were expelled from their lands in the region above indicated by the Vaziri, early in the thirteenth century, during the period of the Kara Khitai rule in the provinces of Kirman and Suran, which together formed the principality founded by the Barak Hajib previously mentioned. At first, it seems, they took refuge in the, at that time, uninhabited Kafir Koh range forming the southern border of the modem Miranzai district, and thence gradually spread eastwards by the Tiri district and Bahadur-Khel salt-mines to the Indus, and across that river

[Page-108]: to the rough country about Makhad and Mianwali through which the Sohan river passes to its confluence with the Indus. At present we are concerned only with that portion of the Khattak found in the country previously defined as that in which the ancient Aparytai of Herodotus were the dominant nation responsible for the tribute due to Darius Hystaspes. Here they are in two great settlements or divisions, namely, the Khattak of Akora in the eastern portion of the Peshawar district, and its Charhat range of hills, where they are in contact with the Afridi and Orakzi ; and the Khattak of Tiri in the southern part of Kohat district, where they have the Bangash of Miranzai on their north border, and at Thal Biland on the Kuram river come in contact with the Vaziri. These Khattak have also a considerable colony in the Yusufzai country, at Jamalgarhi and Katlang near the Lundkhor valley.

The Khattak are probably the same people as the Satakh or Stakhi mercantile Rajput, and are in two great divisions — Torman and Bolac.

Akora Fort

Shabqadar Fort was built by S. Lehna Singh Sandhanwalia. Tota Ram was the Chief Architect under whose supervision it was constructed. It was called Shankargarh after the name of latter's son who was born during its construction. S. Lehna Singh Sandhanwalia also built the Akora Fort of Khattaks. Akora was the chief village of the northern Khataks, 25 kms from Naushahra and 18 km from Attock and one km from the right bank of the Kabul River. [8]

Notable persons

See also

Reference

  1. ↑ Jat History Dalip Singh Ahlawat/Parishisht-I, s.n. ख-25
  2. ↑ Dr Ompal Singh Tugania: Jat Samuday ke Pramukh Adhar Bindu, p.33,sn-430.
  3. ↑ Dr Pema Ram:‎Rajasthan Ke Jaton Ka Itihas, p.298
  4. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan By H. W. Bellew, p.28,112
  5. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan By H. W. Bellew, p.62,88
  6. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan By H. W. Bellew, p.63
  7. ↑ An Inquiry Into the Ethnography of Afghanistan By H. W. Bellew, p.107-108
  8. ↑ History of the Sikhs, Vol. 5, by Dr. Hari Ram Gupta.

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