Khokhar

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Khokhar
کھوکھر
ReligionsPredominantly Islam
(minority Hinduism)
LanguagesPunjabi, Haryanvi
Country Pakistan, India
Region Punjab, Haryana
EthnicityPunjabi

Khokhar (Punjabi: کھوکھر) is a large Punjabi tribe originating from northern Punjab. They are primarily native to Punjab, Pakistan; but are also found in the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.[1]

Khokhars predominantly follow Islam, having converted to Islam from Hinduism from the 13th century CE onwards.[1][2]

History

Medieval history

The original homeland of Khokhars appears to be in Upper Punjab, specifically the areas in and around Salt Range (known in historical sources as Koh-i-Jud), Rawalpindi, Gujrat and Sialkot.[3] For a time they were under influence of Jammu kingdom but in the mid-11th century CE, Khokhars asserted their independence with the help of last Ghaznavid ruler, Khusrau Malik.[3][4]: 63 

In 1204–1205, the Khokhars revolted under their leaders Raisal and Bhikan against Muhammad of Ghor, raided Multan and Lahore and blocked the strategic roads between Punjab and Ghazni in such a way that not a single soul could pass along them.[5] As Qutubuddin Aibak was not able to suppress the rebellion,[6] Muhammad of Ghor himself undertook the campaign against the tribe. He defeated them in his final battle fought on the bank of Jhelum and subsequently ordered a general massacre, as well as took many of them as prisoners who later converted to Islam.[7][8] While returning to Ghazni, he was assassinated at Dhamiak located in the Salt Range in March 1206 by the Isma'ilis whom he had persecuted during his reign.[9][10] Some later accounts attributed the assassination of Muhammad of Ghor to the Hindu Khokhars, however these later accounts are not corroborated by early Persian chroniclers who confirmed that his assassins were from the rival Ismāʿīlīyah sect of Shia Muslims.[11] Dr. Habibullah, based on ibn-i-Asir's statement, is of the opinion that the deed was of a joint Bātini and Khokhar affair.[12] According to Agha Mahdi Husain, the Khokhars too might be called Malahida in view of their recent conversion to Islam.[13][14]

In spite of the crushing defeat, Khokhars managed to regain their independence.[15] By the time Mongols under Genghis Khan first invaded Punjab in 1221 while chasing the retreating armies of Khwarezmian prince Jalal al-Din Mangburni, the rivalry between Khokhar chief Rai Sangin and Qubacha was described as long-standing.[15] Genghis Khan annihilated the Khwarezmians at the Battle of the Indus besides modern Attock. Mongols plundered Punjab plains but returned due to the hot climate of Punjab.[15] Mangburni forged an alliance with the Khokhar tribe and further married the daughter of Rai Sangin, who provided him auxiliaries to capture territories from Qubacha.[15][4]: 76–77 

In 1240, Razia, daughter of Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, and her husband, Altunia, attempted to recapture the throne from her brother, Muizuddin Bahram Shah. She reportedly led an army composed mostly of mercenaries from the Khokhars of Punjab.[16] From 1246 to 1247, Balban mounted an expedition as far as the Salt Range to defeat the Khokhars whom he saw as a threat, and captured a large number of horses bred by Khokhars.[17][4]: 95 

In 1251, a Mongol commander named Hulechu occupied Lahore, and forged an alliance with Khokhar chief Gul Khokhar.[18] Lahore was attacked multiple times by the Mongols and their Khokhar allies.[19]

Islam further spread among the Khokhars due to the influence of shrine of Baba Farid. The medieval Jawahar-i-Faridi records that out of the twenty-three of marriages between custodians of shrine and other tribes, fourteen were with Khokhars, whose names were prefixed with Malik.[4]

Ghazi Malik founded the Tughlaq dynasty in Delhi by a rebellion with the support of the Khokhar tribes who were present as advance-guards of the army under their chief Gul Chand, who was also the first to bestow on him symbols of royalty.[20][4]: 227–232  The Khokhars enjoyed the royal favours for a while.[21] They grew powerful during the period of Firuz Shah, who led an expedition against the Khokhar chief in Sambhal.[22][23] Ayn al-Mulk Mahru, the governor of Multan, noted that an uprising of the Khokhars had made the road unsafe.[24] The Khokhars conquered Lahore in 1342 during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq and again in 1394 led by the chief Shaikha Khokhar, the former governor of Lahore during the reign of Sultan Mahmud Tughlaq.[25] The governor of Nagaur in Rajasthan, appointed by the Tughlaq dynasty was one Jalal Khan Khokhar,[26] who married the sister-in-law of Rao Chunda Rathore, the ruler of the emergent Marwar kingdom.[27]

There are disputed traditions regarding the origin of Khizr Khan, the viceroy of Timur in Delhi and founder of the Sayyid dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. According to some scholars, Khizr Khan was a Khokhar chieftain,[28] who travelled to Samarkand and profited from the contacts he made with the Timurid society.[29]

Jasrat Khokhar (sometimes Jasrath or Dashrath)[30] was the son of Shaikha Khokhar. He became leader of the Khokhars after the death of Shaikha Khokhar. He supported Zayn al-Abidin in the civil war for the throne of the Kashmir Sultanate against Ali Shah and defeated and kill the later. Later, he invaded the Delhi Sultanate several times between 1423 and 1432 after the death of Khizr Khan and succeeded in conquering Talwandi and Jalandhar, although he was hampered by seasonal rains in his attempt to take over Sirhind.[31]

Modern history

Notable people

See also

References

Citations

  1. Singh, Kumar Suresh (2003). People of India: Jammu & Kashmir. Anthropological Survey of India. p. xxiii. ISBN 978-81-7304-118-1. Gujars of this tract are wholly Muslims, and so are the Khokhar who have only a few Hindu families. In early stages the converted Rajputs continued with preconversion practices.
  2. Singha, Atara (1976). Socio-cultural Impact of Islam on India. Panjab University. p. 46. After this period, we do not hear of any Hindu Gakhars or Khokhars, for during the next two or three centuries they had all come to accept Islam.
  3. Charak, Sukh Dev Singh (1985). A Short History of Jammu Raj: From Earliest Times to 1846 A.D. Ajaya Prakashan. pp. 65–66.
  4. Surinder Singh (2019). The Making of Medieval Panjab: Politics, Society and Culture c. 1000–c. 1500. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-00-076068-2.
  5. Proceedings - Punjab History Conference. Vol. 29–30. Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University. 1998. p. 65. ISBN 9788173804601 – via University of Virginia.
  6. Mahajan (2007). History of Medieval India. S. Chand. p. 75. ISBN 9788121903646.
  7. Wink 1991, p. 238.
  8. Habib 1981, p. 133–134.
  9. Chandra, Satish (2007). History of Medieval India:800–1700. Orient Longman. p. 73. ISBN 978-81-250-3226-7. Archived from the original on 10 March 2023. Retrieved 27 September 2022. He resorted to large-scale slaughter of the Khokhars and cowed them down. On his way back to Ghazni, he was killed by a Muslim fanatic belonging to a rival sect
  10. C. E. Bosworth (1968), The Political and Dynastic History of the Iranian World (A.D. 1000–1217), Cambridge University Press, p. 168, ISBN 978-0-521-06936-6, archived from the original on 29 January 2021, retrieved 27 September 2022, The suppression of revolot in the Punjab occupied Mu'izz al-Din's closing months, for on the way back to Ghaza he was assassinated, allegedly by emissaries of the Isma'ils whom he had often persecuted during his life time (602/1206)
  11. Habib 1981, p. 153–154.
  12. "Patna University Journal, Volume 18". Patna University Journal. 18: 98. 1963. ...implying that some of the accomplices were non-Muslims, probably Gakkhar or Khokhar and is, therefore, of opinion that the deed was a joint Qārāmitah (Bātini) Khokar or Gakkhar affair.
  13. Āg̲h̲ā Mahdī Ḥusain (1967). Futūhuʼs Salāt̤īn:Volume 1. p. 181. It is also said that the assassinators were Khokhars, for the Khokhars too might be called Mulahid or Malahida.
  14. Abdul Mabud Khan, Nagendra Kr Singh (2001). Encyclopaedia of the World Muslims:Tribes, Castes and Communities · Volume 2. Global Vision. p. 438. ISBN 9788187746058. malahida and fida'is (i.e., agents of the Alamut Isma'ilis), which is somewhat curious in view of the recent conversion of the Gakkhars to Islam.
  15. Jackson, Peter (1990). "Jalāl al-Dīn, the Mongols, and the Khwarazmian Conquest of the Panjāb and Sind". Iran. 28: 45–54. doi:10.2307/4299834. ISSN 0578-6967.
  16. Syed (2004), p. 52
  17. Basham & Rizvi (1987), p. 30
  18. Jackson (2003), p. 268
  19. Chandra (2004), p. 66
  20. Proceedings - Punjab History Conference. Vol. 13. Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University. 1980. p. 74. ISBN 9788173804601 – via University of Virginia.
  21. Asit Kumar Sen (1963). People and Politics in Early Mediaeval India (1206-1398 A.D.). Indian Book Distributing Company. p. 92 – via the University of Michigan.
  22. Ayyappa Panikkar, K. Ayyappa Paniker (1997). Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections. Sahitya Akademi. p. 72. ISBN 9788126003655.
  23. John F. Richards; David Gilmartin; Munis D. Faruqui; Richard M. Eaton; Sunil Kuma (7 March 2013). Expanding Frontiers in South Asian and World History: Essays in Honour of John F. Richards. Cambridge University Press. p. 247. ISBN 9781107034280. Mallu Khan (also known as Iqbal Khan), a former slave
  24. Irfan Habib, Najaf Haider (2011). Economic History of Medieval India, 1200-1500. Pearson Education India. p. 119. ISBN 9788131727911. exclaimed anxiety about his family and his dependents' journey from Ajodhan (Pakpattan) to Multan, since an uprising of the Khokhars had made the road unsafe.
  25. Agha Hussain Hamadani (1992). The Frontier Policy of the Delhi Sultans. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Limited.
  26. Saran, Richard; Ziegler, Norman P. (19 January 2021). The Mertiyo Rathors of Merto, Rajasthan: Select Translations Bearing on the History of a Rajput Family, 1462–1660, Volumes 1–2. University of Michigan Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-472-03821-3.
  27. Kothiyal, Tanuja (14 March 2016). Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert. Cambridge University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-107-08031-7.
  28. Richard M. Eaton (2019). India in the Persianate Age: 1000–1765. University of California Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0520325128. The career of Khizr Khan, a Punjabi chieftain belonging to the Khokar clan...
  29. Orsini, Francesca (2015). After Timur left : culture and circulation in fifteenth-century North India. Oxford Univ. Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-19-945066-4. OCLC 913785752. Archived from the original on 18 November 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  30. Pandey (1970), p. 223
  31. Singh (1972), pp. 220–221
  32. Hasan, Khalid Shamsul; Singh, Amarjit (2007). Jinnah and Punjab: Shamsul Hasan collection and other documents, 1944-1947. Kanishka Publishers Distributors. p. 343. ISBN 9788173919169. Retrieved 5 January 2015.

Bibliography