Sartor Faqir

Sartor Faqir (also known as "Mullah Mastan or Mullah Mastana"[1][2] Lewanai Faqir or Saidullah in Pashto[3] and by the British as "The Great Fakir" or "Mad Faqir",[4] "Mad Faqir of Swat"[5] or the "Mad Mullah",[6]) or Sarthor Faqir "Capless/without Traditional cap" was a Pashtun fakir and religious mendicant whose Pashto name translated to "God-intoxicated" as a reference to his religious convictions and his belief that he was capable of miraculous powers.[3] In response to the British occupation of the North West Frontier Province of modern-day Pakistan, and the division of Pashtun lands by the 1,519 mile long Durand Line,[7] Saidullah declared a jihad against the occupying British Empire and led from 10,000 to 100,000[2][8][9] Pashtun tribesmen in an uprising which began with the siege of Malakand from July 26 to August 2, 1897 against British forces under Brigadier-General William Hope Meiklejohn, and Major-General Sir Bindon Blood.

Early Life

Sartor Fakir was born in the Buner region of Rega to Malik Hameedullah of Yousafzai tribe, then Swat.[10] From his early life, he was a great wrestler and an athlete by nature. When he grew up, he started travelling to various areas in search of religious education and for a period stayed also in Ajmir (India). It is mentioned by some historians that he also traveled to Central Asia and eventually settled in Mazar-i-Sharif city of Afghanistan for a period of ten years and after that returned to his native village in 1895, where he had caused to stir up a Jihad against the British, that led to the Siege of malakand, in which he fought heroically.

Notes

  1. ↑ Spain. 177
  2. 1 2 Eknath Easwaran (1999), Nonviolent Soldier of Islam (see article), p. 49
  3. 1 2 Beattie p. 171
  4. ↑ Hobday p. 13
  5. ↑ Edwards p. 177
  6. ↑ Elliott-Lockhart p. 28
  7. ↑ Lamb p. 93
  8. ↑ Wilkinson-Latham p. 20
  9. ↑ Gore p. 405
  10. ↑ http://www.valleyswat.net/literature/papers/The%20Sartor%20Faqir.pdf

References

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