Wazir (Pashtun tribe)

The Wazirs or Waziris (Pashto: وزير‎) are a Karlani Pashtun tribe found in Pakistan and on its border with Afghanistan. The tribe comprises two geographically separate subgroups and are found in the Waziristan region that takes its name from them. The Utmanzai are settled in the North Waziristan Agency and the Ahmadzai are in the South Waziristan Agency.^[1][2][3] Those subgroups are in turn divided further, for example into Utmanzai tribes such as the Bakka Khel and Jani Khel.^[4]

The common ancestor of the Ahmadzai and Utmanzai is believed by them to be the eponymous Wazir, who is also ancestor to the Mehsud tribe that has since taken a distinct and divergent path. Through Wazir, the tribes trace their origins to Karlani and thence to the founder of the Pashtun lineage, Qais Abdur Rashid.^[5] Some western ethnologists consider them of being mix of Scythian or Tatar ethnicity.^[1]

Although the Utmanzai and Mehsud tribes have a traditional rivalry and live in geographically distinct regions,^[6] the Ahamdzai and Mehsud communities co-exist peacefully and many head men are connected by marriage.^[1]

References

1. "Tribe: Ahmadzai Wazir" (PDF). Naval Postgraduate School.
2. Hasnat, Syed Farooq (2011). Pakistan. ABC-CLIO. p. 164. ISBN 9780313346972.
3. Gul, Imtiaz (2010). The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier. Penguin UK. p. 44. ISBN 9780141962986.
4. Scott, Ian (1999). Judd, Denis, ed. A British Tale of Indian and Foreign Service: The Memoirs of Sir Ian Scott. The Radcliffe Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781860643804.
5. Ahmed, Akbar (2013). The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 9780815723790.
6. "Tribe: Utmanzai Wazir aka Utmanzai" (PDF). Naval Postgraduate School.

Further reading

• Arjomand, Said Amir, ed. (1984). From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780873958707.