Sartor Faqir
Sartor Faqir (also known as "Mullah Mastan or Mullah Mastana"[1][2] Lewanai Faqir or Saidullah in Pashto[3] and by the British as "The Great Fakir" or "Mad Faqir",[4] "Mad Faqir of Swat"[5] or the "Mad Mullah",[6]) or Sarthor Faqir "Capless/without Traditional cap" was a Pashtun fakir and religious mendicant whose Pashto name translated to "God-intoxicated" as a reference to his religious convictions and his belief that he was capable of miraculous powers.[3] In response to the British occupation of the North West Frontier Province of modern-day Pakistan, and the division of Pashtun lands by the 1,519 mile long Durand Line,[7] Saidullah declared a jihad against the occupying British Empire and led from 10,000 to 100,000[2][8][9] Pashtun tribesmen in an uprising which began with the siege of Malakand from July 26 to August 2, 1897 against British forces under Brigadier-General William Hope Meiklejohn, and Major-General Sir Bindon Blood.
Early Life
Sartor Fakir was born in the Buner region of Rega to Malik Hameedullah of Yousafzai tribe, then Swat.[10] From his early life, he was a great wrestler and an athlete by nature. When he grew up, he started travelling to various areas in search of religious education and for a period stayed also in Ajmir (India). It is mentioned by some historians that he also traveled to Central Asia and eventually settled in Mazar-i-Sharif city of Afghanistan for a period of ten years and after that returned to his native village in 1895, where he had caused to stir up a Jihad against the British, that led to the Siege of malakand, in which he fought heroically.
Notes
References
- http://www.valleyswat.net/literature/papers/The%20Sartor%20Faqir.pdf
- Beattie, Hugh Imperial Frontier: Tribe and State in Waziristan, 2002 ISBN 0-7007-1309-3
- Easwaran, Eknath Nonviolent Soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, a Man to Match His Mountains (see article), 1999 ISBN 1-888314-00-1
- Elliott-Lockhart, Percy C. and Dunmore, Edward M. Earl of Alexander A Frontier Campaign: A Narrative of the Operations of the Malakand and Buner Field Forces, 1897-1898, 1898
- Edwards, David B. Heroes of the age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier ISBN 0-520-20064-0
- Gore, Surgeon General at Nowshera, for The Dublin Journal of Medical Science, 1898
- Hobday, Edmund A. P. Sketches on Service During the Indian Frontier Campaigns of 1897, 1898
- Spain, James William The Pathan Borderland, 1963 ASIN B0000CR0HH
- Wilkinson-Latham, Robert North-west Frontier 1837-1947, 1977 ISBN 0-85045-275-9