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BAJOUR, or BAJAUR

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 226 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAJOUR, or BAJAUR , a small See also:district peopled by See also:Pathan races df Afghan origin, in the See also:North-See also:West Frontier See also:Province of See also:India. It is about 45 M. See also:long by 20. broad, and lies at a high level to the See also:east of the See also:Kunar valley, from which it is separated by a continuous See also:line of rugged. frontier hills, forming a barrier easily passable at one or two points. Across this barrier the old road from See also:Kabul to India ran before the Khyber Pass was adopted as the See also:main route. Bajour is inhabited almost exclusively by See also:Tarkani (Tarkalanri) Pathans, sub-divided into Mamunds, Isazai, and Ismailzai, numbering together with a few Mohmands, Utmauzais, &c., about 1oo,000. To the See also:south of Bajour is the See also:wild See also:mountain district of the Mohmands, a Pathan See also:race. To the east, beyond the Panjkora See also:river, are the hills of See also:Swat, dominated by another Pathan race. To the north is an intervening See also:watershed between Bajour and the small See also:state of See also:Dir; and it is over this watershed and through the valley of Dir that the new road from Malakand and the See also:Punjab runs to See also:Chitral. The drainage of Bajour flows eastwards, starting from the eastern slopes of the dividing See also:ridge which overlooks the Kunar and terminating in the Panjkora river, so that the district lies on a slope tilting gradually downwards from the Kunar ridge to the Panjkora. Nawagai is the See also:chief See also:town of Bajour, and the See also:khan of Nawagai is under See also:British See also:protection for the safe-guarding of the Chitral road. Jandol, one of the See also:northern valleys of Bajour, has ceased to be of See also:political importance since the failure of its chief, Umra Khan, to appropriate to himself Bajour, Dir, and a See also:great See also:part of the Kunar valley. It was the active hostility between the See also:amir of Kabul (who claimed See also:sovereignty of the same districts) and Umra Khan that led, firstly to the demarcation agreement of 1893 which fixed the boundary of See also:Afghanistan in Kunar; and, secondly, to the invasion of Chitral by Umra Khan (who was no party to the boundary See also:settlement) and the See also:siege of the Chitral fort in 1895. An interesting feature in Bajour See also:topography is a mountain See also:spur from the Kunar range, which curving eastwards culminates in the well-known See also:peak of Koh-i-Mor, which is visible from the See also:Peshawar valley.

It was here, at the See also:

foot of the mountain, that See also:Alexander found the See also:ancient See also:city of Nysa and the Nysaean See also:colony, traditionally said to have been founded by See also:Dionysus. The Koh-i-Mor has been identified as the Meros of See also:Arrian's history—the three-peaked mountain from which the See also:god issued. It is also interesting to find that a See also:section of the Kafir community of Kamdesh still claim the same See also:Greek origin as did the Nysaeans; still See also:chant See also:hymns to the god who sprang from Gir Nysa (themountain of Nysa); whilst they maintain that they originally migrated from the Swat See also:country to their See also:present See also:habitat in the See also:lower Bashgol. Long after See also:Buddhism had spread to Chitral, See also:Gilgit, Dir and Swat; whilst Ningrahar was still full of monasteries and temples, and the Peshawar valley was recognized as the seat of Buddhist learning, the Kafirs or Nysaeans held their own in Bajour and in the lower Kunar valley, where Buddhism apparently never prevailed. It is probable that the invader See also:Baber (who has much to say about Bajour) fought them there in the See also:early years of the 16th See also:century, when on his way to found the See also:Mogul See also:dynasty of India centuries after Buddhism has been crushed in northern India by the destroyer Mahmud. The Gazetteers and Reports of the See also:Indian See also:government contain nearly all the See also:modern See also:information available about Bajour. The autobiography of Baber (by See also:Leyden and See also:Erskine) gives interesting details about the country in the 16th century. For the connexion between the Kafirs and the ancient Nysaeans of Swat, see R. G. S. See also:Journal, vol. vii., 1896. (T.

H.

End of Article: BAJOUR, or BAJAUR

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