Brief History of the Wah Khans by Abid Saeed Khan!!! [A Brief History Of Wah Khans Written By My Favorite and Sweet Abi Ada-----> Abid Saeed Khan. Thanks Ada Ji for ur efforts and concern. You have done a great job...MaShaAllah] Brief History of the Wah Khans by Abid Saeed Khan on Friday, May 25, 2012 at 1:18pm · The commonly accepted origin of the Khattars is that they are descendents of Qutb Shah who was a General in Mahmud of Ghaznavi’s army when he was raiding India around 1000 A.D. The Awans, also his descendents, still use the name Qutb Shahi and call themselves as Qutb Shahi Awans. Another of his son was named Khattar Khan, he settled down in the area of Bagh Nilab, on the banks of the river Indus downstream of the Attock Bridge. Bagh Nilab is thus considered to be the birth place of the Khattars from where they spread out. There is many a myth and stories between then and authentic history that can be dated to mid 16th century. One of the descendents of Khattar Khan was named Feroz Khan, he settled in the area of what would now be part of Fateh Jang and Attock Tehsils, we are his progeny and our subcaste is mentioned as Ferozal. The origin of the Wah Khattars goes back to one Said Ahmad Khan who left his homeland and ended up in the court of the Mughal King of the time. He had a daughter known as Gul Bano of renowned beauty, the Kotwal (police head Honcho) of the Mughal King, heard of Gul Bano’s beauty and wanted to marry her but her father was not willing. To pressurize Said Ahmad Khan, the Kotwal put Khan’s son Ghazan Khan in prison. Realizing the gravity of the enemity with the Kotwal, Said Khan took his and his son’s family and escaped back to his original lands leaving Ghazan Khan behind who met his death while still in prison. Going back in time keeping 30 years as generation switchover time line, the Mughal King of the time was most likely to be Akbar who ruled from 1555 to 1607 AD. Said Ahmad Khan came back and set up a village called Ahmadabad, present location unknown. Ghazan Khan’s son Jalal Khan was living with him, who picked up a quarrel with the rest of the family and moved out , setting up his own abode in the jungle, calling it “Jalalsar”. Keeping in mind the modes of transport of that time, it is not likely that Jalalsar would be too far from Ahmadabad in present day distances. The location of Jalalsar village is not the present location of the Wah village but it was located closer to the Mughal gardens, exact location also unknown. The Mughal King while in residence at the gardens got disturbed by the early morning cocks crowing and sounds made by other animals, and ordered the villagers to move from that area,. who then settled at the present location. However the graveyard of the family continues to be in the original place, as the old graves still exist. The change of name from Jalalsar is attributed to Mughal king Jehangir who on dipping his hand in the Wah springs uttered “Wah Wah,” an exclamation of pleasure. The tree of the present Wah Khans ends up to Shah Wali Khan, who is three generations down the line from Jalal Khan and was the father of Karam Khan, Fateh Khan and Qaim Khan,. Qaim Khan was killed by a staff blow to his head by a servant of Karam Khan during a scuffle between the servants of Karam and Fateh Khan that Qaim Khan was trying to break up. The murder of the youngest brother was assumed by Fateh Khan to have been committed at the behest of Karam Khan and he pledged to avenge that, which he eventually did. At the death of Qaim Khan, Fateh Khan took a pledge that he would always eat with his left hand in memory of his brother Qaim Khan and if he ever ate with his right hand he would take revenge from his elder brother. This carried on for sometime, the Khans in those days used to spend the summer afternoons around the springs in the Mughal Gardens. The servants used to serve them lunch there, one afternoon Fateh Khan woke up from his afternoon siesta when his servant brought him lunch and impulsively started to eat with his right hand. The servant who had brought him lunch immediately reminded him of his pledge. Fateh Khan sent his servant, to find out the whereabouts of Karam Khan, who located him taking a bath in Dataan, the bathing place under the main mosque. Fateh Khan rushed there and struck Karam Khan with his sword despite the passionate please by the children of Karam Khan who were present with the father, begging their uncle not to kill their father. The time when the three brothers were working on vanquishing each is around 1848. I assumed this date from the fact that Nicholson came into the area around 1845 at the time of the first Sikh war. Nicholson one time during this period was sorrounded by the Sikhs at the Margalla pass and requested for help from Karam Khan. The Khan sent his horse men and rescued Nicholson who then became his close personal friend. Also in Charles Allen,s book Soldier sahibs he writes that Nicholson came to Wah and got to know that his friend Karam Khan had been murdered, he met the children of Karam Khan and Charles Allen writes that Hayat Khan son of Karam Khan told Nicholson that all brothers feared for their lives and if Nicholson could get rid of his uncle Fateh Khan and his children, all would be back to normal. The age of Hayat Khan mentioned worked out to be 12/13 years at the time. The year of Birth of Hyat Khan if taken as 1936, the event falls around 1848. What I have written is not exact reproduction from Allens book but from my memory. Nicholson put the kids under the charge of Maj. Abbot (founder of Abottabad) for protection who was at the time based in Haripur looking after the British interests in Hazara. He hid them away in the Gungaree hills behind Haripur. Maj. Abbots time in those parts also corresponds to the forementioned time line. The protection was I assume not only from Fateh Khan but from perhaps the Sikhs too who were deadly enemies of Karam Khan, they had also burned his home down one time. The brothers Fateh Khan and Karam Khan had strong political differences with Fateh Khan siding with the Sikhs and Karam Khan opposed to them. Fateh Khan was also killed, as a vengeance, by a close friend(also named Fateh Khan) of Karam Khan and a cousin of theirs from “Darek”. As the story goes, he had nominated one of his “Mussallees” as the executioner and had told him that when he would ask him to sing the “Jugnee”, the Mussallee should attack. This “Darek” Khan enticed the Fateh Khan of Wah to accompany him to Hasan Abdal. By the time they reached in the area of “Daulian”, some where opposite of the Wah Presentation Convent, the Darek Khan had totally put Fateh Khan off guard, and he asked his servant to “sing the Jugnee”. The servant struck the blow. The horse of Fateh Khan panicked and galloped off recrossing the “Dhamra” stream, dragging the body that had got stuck in the saddle. After a while the riderless horse with the bloodstained saddle reached it’s stables. The body of Fateh Khan was located close to the Ziarat on “Morian” on the track to Qandharipur, where it must have fallen off from the horse. The three brothers were eventually, all done in by and due to each other. It may be mentioned here that this episode may have been instigated by Nicholson because when he came to Wah and came to know that his friend had been murdered, he did utter some words like is there no one amongst the Khattars who would avenge his friend’s death on the same lines as in “Becket” when King Henry questions his Lords on the lines “is there no man in England that shall rid me of this meddlesome priest”referring to Thomas Becket. Karam Khan had four sons with issues (Bahadur Khan, Hyat Khan, Gulab Khan and Ghulam Khan), from whom we descend and are known as ‘Waday” Khans because of being progeny of the elder or ‘wada” brother. Fateh Khan had three sons (Muhammad Khan, Ahmad Khan and Madad Khan) with issues from whom the ‘Nikkay khan” descend being progenies of the “Nika” or younger brother. Bahadur Khan, the eldest son of Karam Khan, took over the Nambardari of Wah, he was religious and conservative to the extent that he would not even have his picture taken. His younger brother Muhammad Hyat Khan who had a pushing and aggressive nature requested Bahadur Khan to let him be the Numberdar and run the affairs of the family and the village, the elder brother obliged. Both Bahadur Khan and Hyat Khan accompanied Nicholson with the field force in 1857 for the relief of Delhi where Nicholson was fatally wounded while storming the Kashmir gate at the Delhi fort. Hyat Khan was also acting as the Native orderly (Native staff officer) to Brig.Gen.Nicholson and during the period between Nicholson getting wounded and his death, he was served with extreme loyalty and devotion by Hyat Khan to the extent of donating his blood too but to no avail. There is also a ballad written by an English man that I read some where long ago about the service by Hyat Khan Khattar towards Nicholson during his sickness, Bahadur Khan due to his very nature, stayed in the background even then. Both the brothers were awarded ‘Khilats”(pensions) with Hyat Khan getting twice the amount as compared to Bahadur Khan. The elder brother was also inducted into the Police service and finally retired as Inspector of Police Rawalpindi district, I think this was senior most native police position, he passed away in 1879 leaving behind one minor son Muhammad Saeed Khan, aged 5 at the time, who also eventually joined the Police service. Muhammad Hyat Khan joined the revenue service as a Tehsildar and went on to become a magistrate and finally a sub Judge. He also accompanied the British Expeditionary force to Kabul in the second Afghan war, he passed away in 1901, leaving behind a number of children including Aslam Hyat Khan, Liaqat Hyat Khan who served as the Prime Minister of the Patiala state, Sikander Hyat Khan who was a renowned political force of his time and Barkat Hyat Khan. One of the off springs of third brother Ghulam Khan named Sultan Khan, joined the service of the Maharajah of Kashmir and achieved the position of “Vizir-e-Vizarat” or Prime Minister of that state. The children of the fourth brother Gulab Khan achieved distinction in the administrative services and also were involved in politics to some extent. Fateh Khan’s son Muhammad Khan and Hyat Khan kept up a running feud going amongst them, this antagonism continued till one of them was on the death bed and both the cousins got together to call it quits to make sure that the ill will did not carry on into the next generation. Muhamammad Khan’s eldest son Inayat Ali Khan was one of the first locals to be given the Viceroy’s commission, there were no local commissioned officers at the time, the highest so called native rank was the VCO or Viceroy commissioned officer. Another maternal Grandson of Muhammad Khan and great grandson of Fateh Khan is Gen.Waheed Kakar who was the Pakistan army chief in the recent past. The Khans of Wah had the ownership of 5 villages i.e Wah, Qandharipur, Dallu, Gatia and Bhabra consolidated in the names of the children of Karam Khan and Fateh Khan that continues to this day. The Mughal Gardens were joint or common property of the whole family till 1865 when Muhammad Hyat Khan got it allotted to his name (I am not aware of the circumstances/conditions of this allotment whether it was during the land consolidation carried in the Punjab, or as a “jageer”). The Gardens at Wah were first established by Raja Man Singh in Akbar’s time when he was fighting the Pathans in the Attock area and across the Indus river, their present design was laid out during Shah Jehan’s time. They were a battle ground during Ahmad Shah Abdalis raid on India in late 18th century and also during the Anglo Sikh wars. The ruined condition of the buildings is mainly due to artillery fire during these wars, the “Mahals” presently in use are the “Feel Khana” or the Elephant stables of the Mughals entourage. The main living area was below the waterfall in the main gardens. About the impact of the British on the family and relating to Nicholson, it was Nicholson who owed a debt of gratitude to Karam Khan for saving his life at the Margalla pass and not the other way around. He in turn paid of the debt by looking after the safety of the children of Karam Khan after he was killed. During this period, it is very likely that a personal bond of friendship developed between Nicholson and Karam Khan and his offspring. The Punjab was still under the Sikh rule and the British were at the time probing into thse areas. Nicholson was just past his mid twenties at the time, a young man at an age where one is prone to personal bonding and friendship for favours done. This personal relationship may have been the cause of the two elder sons of Karam Khan accompanying Nicholson’s field force and then Hyat Khan, who at the time would have been about 22 years of age, trying to save his mentor’s life and Bahadur Khan a few years older. Nicholson died in Sept.1858, the chapter closes there. How the family progressed has nothing to do with Nicholson, the progress would be like for any people in service of any government in power depending on their conduct and versatility, that would be applicable today even. Between the time of Jalal Khan and end of the last century it is almost 400 years. The Khans have held on to their patch of land as a family despite being located at a very strategic place which all comers and goers would have to pass and subdue as this is the first place between the Indus river and Hasan Abdal that would be having concealment , water, food and fodder, the area North West of Hasan Abdal right up to the Indus river was all desert and open country. It is about curtain time for the family, most of the houses owned by the family are in ruins, others still standing are not lived in, a few retain the original abodes but for how long, perhaps a sprinkling of them for one more generation. I may have gone wrong at places and would welcome being put right by anyone having more authentiic information, please feel free to contact me on: abikhan@hotmail or 0300 8540217.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:12:28 +0000