Khokhar

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the village, see Khokhar, Mirpur. For other uses, see All pages with titles containing Khokhar.

Khokhar
Haryanvi, Hindi
Country Pakistan,  India
RegionPunjab, Haryana
EthnicityPunjabi
Family namesyes

Khokhar is a historical

Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.[1] Khokhars predominantly follow Islam, having converted to Islam from Hinduism after coming under the influence of Baba Farid.[1][2][3]

History

See also: Battle of Jhelum (1206)
The murder of Muhammad Ghori by the Khokhars

The word "Khokhar" itself is of Persian origin and means "bloodthirsty". In 1204-1205, the Khokhars revolted under their leader and conquered and plundered Multan, Lahore and blocked the strategic roads between Punjab and Ghazni. According to Tarikh-i-Alfi, traders had to follow a longer route due to the depradations of the Khokhars, under Raisal, who used to plunder and harass the inhabitants in such a way that not a single soul could pass along it.

Shia Muslims.[8] Dr. Habibullah, based on Ibn-i-Asir's statement, is of the opinion that the deed was of a joint Bātini and Khokar affair.[9] According to Agha Mahdi Husain, the Khokhars too might be called Malahida in view of their recent conversion to Islam.[10][11]

During his final campaign, Muhammad also took many of the Khokars as prisoners who were later converted to

Indus were converted to the true faith (Islam)".[12]

Under Delhi Sultanate

In 1240 CE, Razia, daughter of Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, and her husband, Altunia, attempted to recapture the throne from her brother, Muizuddin Bahram Shah. She is reported to have led an army composed mostly of mercenaries from the Khokhars of Punjab.[14] From 1246 to 1247, Balban mounted an expedition as far as the Salt Range to eliminate the Khokhars which he saw as a threat.[15]

Although Lahore was controlled by the government in Delhi in 1251, it remained in ruins for the next twenty years, being attacked multiple times by the Mongols and their Khokhar allies.[16] Around the same time, a Mongol commander named Hulechu occupied Lahore, and forged an alliance with Khokhar chief Gul Khokhar, the erstwhile ally of Muhammad's father.[17]

The Khokhars, who were among the earliest to convert to Islam, were further converted due to the influence of Baba Farid, who gave their daughters in marriage to the families of the head of the shrine. The Jawahar-i-Faridi records out of the twenty-three of such marriages, fourteen were Khokhars, whose names were prefixed with Malik, which implied an association with political power. The names of the tribes associated with the shrine of Pakpattan included twenty clans, the Khokhars, Khankhwanis, Bahlis, Adhkhans, Jhakarvalis, Yakkan, Meharkhan, Siyans, Khawalis, Sankhwalis, Siyals, Baghotis, Bartis, Dudhis, Joeyeas, Naharwanis, Tobis and Dogars.[18]

Ghazi Malik founded the

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.[22] They grew powerful during the period of Firuz Shah, who led an expedition against the Khokhar chief in Sambhal.[23] Nusrat Khokhar, the governor of Lahore, was one of main important nobles in the Delhi Sultanate along with Sarang Khan, Mallu Iqbal and Muqarrab Khan, the latter who were nobles of convert origin.[24] The governor of Nagaur, Rajasthan, appointed by the Tughlaq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate was Jalal Khan Khokhar.[25] Jalal Khan Khokhar married the sister of the wife of Rao Chunda, the ruler of the emergent Marwar kingdom.[26]

There are dispute regarding 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,[27] who travelled to Samarkand and profited from the contacts he made with the Timurid society.[28]

Independent Chieftains

Sirhind.[30]

Colonial era

Punjabi Muslim soldiers, WW1

In reference to the British Raj's recruitment policies in the Punjab Province of colonial India, vis-à-vis the British Indian Army, Tan Tai Yong remarks:

The choice of Muslims was not merely one of physical suitability. As in the case of the Sikhs, recruiting authorities showed a clear bias in favor of the dominant landowning tribes of the region, and recruitment of Punjabi Muslims was limited to those who belonged to tribes of high social standing or reputation - the "blood proud" and once politically dominant aristocracy of the tract. Consequently, socially dominant Muslim tribes such as the Gakkhars, Janjuas and Awans, and a few Rajput tribes, concentrated in the Rawalpindi and Jhelum districts, ... accounted for more than ninety percent of Punjabi Muslim recruits.[31]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^
    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. ISBN 978-1-00-076068-2. Archived
    from the original on 13 March 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ISBN 9788173804601
    – via University of Virginia.
  5. ISBN 9788121903646
    .
  6. 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
  7. 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)
  8. ^ Habib 1981, p. 153–154.
  9. ^ "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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. 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.
  12. ^ a b Wink 1991, p. 238.
  13. ^ Habib 1981, p. 133-134.
  14. ^ Syed (2004), p. 52
  15. ^ Basham & Rizvi (1987), p. 30
  16. ^ Chandra (2004), p. 66
  17. ^ Jackson (2003), p. 268
  18. ISBN 9781000760682
    .
  19. ISBN 9788173804601
    – via University of Virginia.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. 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.
  22. ^ Agha Hussain Hamadani (1992). The Frontier Policy of the Delhi Sultans. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Limited.
  23. ISBN 9788126003655
    .
  24. ISBN 9781107034280
    . Mallu Khan (also known as Iqbal Khan), a former slave
  25. ISBN 978-0-472-03821-3
    .
  26. ISBN 978-1-107-08031-7
    .
  27. ISBN 978-0520325128
    . The career of Khizr Khan, a Punjabi chieftain belonging to the Khokar clan...
  28. OCLC 913785752. Archived
    from the original on 18 November 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  29. ^ Pandey (1970), p. 223
  30. ^ Singh (1972), pp. 220–221
  31. ^ Yong (2005), p. 74

Bibliography

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Khokhar&oldid=1219783811"