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Dir was a small princely state in what is today Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It takes his name from the main municipality of the zone (the village of Dir), seat of the ruler palace. The princely state was estabilished by Akhund Baba, the leader of a Pakhtun clan, and ruled afterwards by his descendants. It ceased to exist in 1969, when it was incorporated into Pakistan. The area once occupied by the state, 5282 km2 wide, now forms two districts of Pakistan – Upper Dir and Lower Dir.

Geography
Most of the state layed in the valley of the Panjkora river, which originates in the Hindu Kush mountains and joins the Swat River near Chakdara. Apart from small areas in the south-west, Dir is a rugged, mountainous zone with peaks rising to 5000 m in the north-east and to 3000 m along the watersheds, with Swat to the east and Afghanistan and Chitral to the west and north.

The first rulers
The territories surrounding Dir were populated by their current ethnic majority, the Pakhtuns, beginning from the end of the 14th century. The Pakhtun were divided in several clans (khels), often battling one against the other. The three great clans which conquered the zone were the Yusafzai, Tarkanrai and the Utman Khel. The Dir territory was populated in the 16th century by the Malizai tribe of the Yusufzai khel, who took control of the zone assimilating or chasing away the previous inhabitants. , and within this tribe the most prominent fractions became the Painda and Sultan khels.

By the 18th century a section of the Painda khel, coming from the Kohan village in the valley of Nihag (a Panjkora tributary), seized the trade routes with Chitral and Afghanistan. A member of this family, Mulla Ilyas, lived in the 17th century, was recognized as spiritual leader because of his religious merits, who procured him the title of Akhund ("scholar" in persian) Baba. Thanks to his charisma, Akhund acquired a prominent position in the Malizai tribe and founded the Dir village. His successors managed to preserve and expand the leadership, giving birth to an embryonal autonomous political entity which would eventually become the princely state. The clan of Mulla Illas Khan would took the name of Akhund khel from the name of its progenitor, and a dinasty stemming from him was recognized as Khans (rulers) of Dir. However, till the end of the 19th century, the dominion of the family was limited to the upper Dir. By the 18th century a section of the Painda khel, coming from the Kohan village in the valley of Nihag (a Panjkora tributary), seized the trade routes with Chitral and Afghanistan. A member of this family, Mulla Ilyas, lived in the 17th century, was recognized as spiritual leader because of his religious merits, who procured him the title of Akhund ("scholar" in persian) Baba. Thanks to his charisma, Akhund acquired a prominent position in the Malizai tribe and founded the Dir village. His successors managed to preserve and expand the leadership, giving birth to an embryonal autonomous political entity which would eventually become the princely state. The clan of Mulla Illas Khan would took the name of Akhund khel from the name of its progenitor, and a dinasty stemming from him was recognized as Khans (rulers) of Dir. However, till the end of the 19th century, the dominion of the family was limited to the upper Dir.

In 1881 the ruler of Dir, Muhammad Sharif Khan, was chased away by Khan Umra khan of Jandool, who conquered Dir, Swat and the Malakand area. In 1895, however, while the forces of Umara Khan were besieging a British force near Malakand, Muhammad Sharif Khan decided to make his soldiers join the British relief force coming in aid, the Chitral Expedition. During that expedition Sharif Khan made an agreement with the British Government to keep the road to Chitral open in return for a subsidy. The British eventually won the war and exiled Umara Khan. As a reward for his help, Sharif Khan was given the whole Dir and also the lower Swat (the latter territory would be lost in 1917 to the Wali of Swat). Moreover, some years later he received the title of Nawab.

The Nawabs
The Nawab title was inherited by Sharif's oldest son, Awrangzeb Badshah Khan, who ruled between 1904 and 1925. In 1906 his younger brother, Miangul Jan, tried in vain to conquer the power with the assistance of the Khan of Marwa, Saiyid Ahmad Khan, a former ally of Mohammad Sharif. A second attempt in 1913 was crowned by success, but for a very short time, as in 1914 Awrangzeb regained the rule over Dir. Also the other son of Mohammad Sharif, Mohammad Isa Khan, attempted around 1915 to seize the Dir throne by allying with the Khan of Barwa, but Awrangzeb managed to conserve the rule.

At Awrangzeb's death, in 1925, the title passed to his eldest son, Mohammad Shah Jahan Khan, who was supported by the British Government against the small rival faction that favored his brother Alamzeb Khan. Alamzeb was exiled in 1928 because of his attempts to take the power. Jahan Khan was loyal to the British, who nominated him KBE in 1933. In 1947, Jahan Khan sent his troops to support Pakistan during the First Kashmir War, and in 1948 united his princely state with the new Dominion of Pakistan. He also nominated his sons (Muhammad Shah Khan Khusro, Shahabuddin Khan and Mohammad Shah) governors of different provinces.

The politics of Nawabs are described as reactionary and harsh. Italian anthropologist Fosco Maraini, who visited the state in 1959 during an expedition towards Hindu-Kush, reports the opinion of the people as the Nawab Jahan Khan (who was about 85 years old at that time) being a tyrannic leader, negating his subjects any freedom of speech and instruction, governing the land with a number of henchmen and seizing for his harem any girl or woman he wanted to have. Maraini also noticed the lack of schools, sewers and paved roads, and the presence of just a rudimentary, newly-built hospital. The Nawab was negatively compared to the Wali of Swat, whose liberal politics allowed his state to enter into the modern era.

As a consequence of the oppressive political climate, uprisals began eventually to explode. A repressed revolt in 1959 is reported in Maraini's account. Another insurrection in 1960 led to the death of 200 soldiers and put the Nawab in bad light in the press' view. General Yahya decided to exile Jahan Khan, who would die in 1968. His title passed (in October 1961) to the eldest son, Mohammad Shah Khosru Khan, educated in India and Major General of Pakistan Army. However, the effective rule of Dir was taken by the Political Agent. A few years later, on 28 July 1969, the Dir state was incorporated into Pakistan, ceasing its existance. The royal status of the Nawabs was abolished in 1972, at the same time as most other princes of Pakistan.

Timeline
The information of the following table are taken from www.worldstatesmen.org and Who's Who in the Dir, Swat and Chitral Agency. The ruling dates of the first rulers are not reported, as inconsistent between the sources: according to www.worldstatesmen.org, Akhund Baba's tenure began in 1826. However, Encyclopaedia Britannica and accounts by local people date him back to the 17th century.

Demographics
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, the population of the state in 1911 amounted to about 100,000 people.

At the 1947 Partition of India, there was a Muslim majority in Dir with small minorities of Hindus and Sikhs, many of whom left for India during partition.

Flag
The state flag contained several Islamic symbols and three sentences (not shown in the present image): the top writing is the basmala: "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful", the center one is the shahada in urdu language: "There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God". The bottom phrase reads "with the help of God, victory is near" in Arabic language. The flag also existed in a red variant with the same drawings.