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Revision as of 16:58, 16 December 2010 by Potohar1982 (talk | contribs) (Undid revision 402695409 by Qanungoh (talk))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Qanungoh Shaikhs (Template:Lang-fa) are a clan of Muslim Shaikhs in Punjab and other parts of Pakistan. Shaikh meaning elder of a tribe, lord, revered old man, or Islamic scholar. In South Asia, the Qanungoh Shaikhs are a multi-ethnic community who are partly descended from Arabs, Persians, Afghans and Turks. The Muslims of Middle East and Central Asia have historically travelled to South Asia as technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis during the Islamic Sultanates and Mughal Empire and settled permanently.
The Qanun-goh were the employees of court and judicial system in South Asia during the Muslim rule. The word Qanun means law in Arabic, Persian and GOH means Speaker Urdu. These included judges (Qadi or Qazi) who have the title of Sahib or Sahibzada, lawyers (Wakil or Vakil) and court secretaries (Daftar). Qanungoh Shaikhs are descendant of families who held the hereditary office of ‘’Qanungoh’’ during the Muslim Period. The Qanungoh were mostly Muslims from the Middle East and were later admixed with mainly Punjabi Khatri and other tribes which had converted to Islam. For such reasons and also owing to their tenure and the extent of the jurisdiction of their titles and office the Qanungoh have tribal and marital affinities with varied regional groups such as the Kukhran, Muslim Rajputs, Mohyal Brahmins, Awan, and Khattar as well as Rohillas, Rind , Gardezi and also Kakkezai in the Jullunder area. Some people known as Shiekhkhel are also said to have been the Qanungoh in North Waziristan. A small number of Qanungoh Shaikh also live in India and Bangladesh.
Qanungoh Shaikhs belong to all the districts of the Punjab as well as some districts in the Sarhad and Balochistan provinces, although can be found in small numbers in Seistan, Paktika and Khost provinces in Iran and Afghanistan where they are sometimes referred to as Hindki. A minority of Qanungoh Shaikhs adhere to the Shia Islam whilst others hailing from lower Punjab and Baluchistan are Sunni belonging to various Sufi orders. Some Qanungo Shaikhs have also been known to be of the Zikri denomination.
Many well-known political figures and other great academics have arisen from the Qanungo Shaikhs in the past, contemporary examples being Manzoor Qadir who drafted the first constitution of Pakistan, Wasim Sajjad and also Shaikh Aftab who currently works alongside Nawaz Sharif.
Origins
Qanungoh Shaikhs represent the descendants of the Lawspeaker, Clan Lamont (Qanungohs) who are styled Shaikh and often retain their tribal or familial names.
Qanungoh word means Law (Qanun) speaker (Goh) and is descendant from 10th century Lawspeaker (Swedish: lagman, Old Swedish: laghmaþer or laghman, Danish: lagmand, Norwegian: lagmann, Icelandic: lög(sögu)maður, Faroese: løgmaður, in Old Norse origin: Lamont (name) or Lamond) from Scandinavian countries, Lawspeakers Traveled in the Era of Ottoman Empire from Scandinavian and European countries to Turkey and Persia then to Afghanistan where there is a Province which is Laghman Province. When Lawspeakers migrated to South East Asia (Persian, Afghan and Indian region) they translated their surnames to Qanungoh or Kanungo and then it appeared in Mughal Empire in different times.
Qanungoh word means Lawspeaker and is descendant from 10th century Lawspeaker (Swedish: lagman, Old Swedish: laghmaþer or laghman, Danish: lagmand, Norwegian: lagmann, Icelandic: lög(sögu)maður, Faroese: løgmaður, in Old Norse origin: Lamont (name) or Lamond) from Scandinavian countries, Lawspeakers Traveled in the Era of Ottoman Empire from Scandinavian and European countries to Turkey and Persia then to Afghanistan where there is a Province which is Laghman Province. When Lawspeakers migrated to South East Asia (Persian, Afghan and Indian region) they translated their surnames to Qanungoh or Kanungo and then it appeared in Mughal Empire in different times.
The title of Qanungoh appeared in the Sub-Continent between 1270 and 1290 possibly owing to migrations of the minor Arab aristocracy prompted by Hulegu Khan's destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. The hereditary office of the Qanungoh was well established and instituted during the Khilji dynasty. The loose suzerainty of the Mamluk Caliphs over the Khiljis served as a further conduit for the movement of literate people from Central Asia and the Middle East to the Delhi Sultanate to serve as administration over the local populace.
Their office continued and was greatly extended under the Mughals. For the purposes of Qanungoh Shaikhs, the northern expansion of the Mughal empire particularly under Akbar resulted in people representing largely Khatri and other Punjabi tribes as well as some Baluch and Pakhtoon tribes acquiring the title of Qanungoh. This was a golden age for the Qanungoh and these groups through marital and political affiliation collectively instituted and integrated the Qanungoh Shaikhs as a powerful and wealthy clan. From the early 15th Century onwards a small number of Sikhs also joined the Qanungoh, the descendants of whom became the Rulers of Kangra.
During the British period the Qanungoh continued in their hereditary office although their importance declined particularly following the Indian Mutiny. As their influence waned during this period they were popularly portrayed as corrupt, debauched and tyrannical.
Today certain voting areas in Pakistan retain the name of Qanungoh Halqas based on the jurisdiction of the regional Qanungoh, although the title does not officially exist. Qanungoh Shaikhs even today remain influential and amongst most literate elements of Pakistani society.
The British subsequently chronicled the Qanungoh Shaikhs as follows:
Qanungo , lit . 'an expounder of law '. The title of a family in Karnal who were original modis or store keepers and who also engaged in commerce at Joli . One member of the family was appointed Qanungo of Karnal and the family then settled there .Originally Mahajan by caste , its founder Maidi Mal had a son Rai Mal , ancestor of the present Qanungo family , but he subsequently embraced Islam and his son Shaikh Tayab by a Muhammadan wife is said to have risen to the rank of wazir at the Mughal court and to have obtained his brothers appointment as Qanungo . Qanungo families are also found in Hoshiarpur where a family of Jirath Khatris who were one Qanungos of Bajwara in Mughal times :in Gujarat :in Jullundur at which town there was an old Sahgal Khatri family which held the office and is now partly Mohummadan
The above description of the origins of the Shaikh is only somewhat accurate owing to its recentness and also as the history of Sheikh Tayab's non-Muslim family is an issue in dispute. No historian has fully been able to trace the exact lifestyle of Shaikh Tayab's family prior to his conversion and acceptance of the title of Wazir in the Mughal court. In fact, the Shaikhs themselves are unsure concerning this area of their ancestry and only fragmentary records of this time remain, one being the Shaikh family tree currently in the possession of Shaikh Abdul Rashid. It has been suggested that the Shaikhs are originally of Royal Arabian descent, although it is likely that the alternative theory of Sheikh Tayab, the great Wazir of the Mughal Court, is the most likely ancestry of the Shaikhs and agrees with their ancestral family tree.
The Gazetteer of the Attock District 1930 records that Attock District had a significant population of Shaikhs.
Shaikhs are usually comparatively recent converts from Hinduism and accordingly contain many very varying elements (have different lineages and are not necessarily related to each other).Their numbers have fallen almost 50 percent since the census of 1891 , and they now number less than 4000. They are found almost solely in Attock Tahsil , and own ten villages on the sandy upland running from Cambelpur to the edge of the Chhachh. In the Sarwala they own ten percent of the cultivated area and pay 12 percent of the revenue.
The Shaikhs of Tagall and Saman represent the old Kanungo families .
After independence of Pakistan in 1947, nearly all Qanungoh Shaikh of East Punjab, Haryana and other parts of northern India escaped from pograms and genocide in India and settled in Pakistan.
See also
- Muslim Kayasths
- Shaikh
- Shaikhs in South Asia
- Punjabi Shaikh
- Kashmiri Shaikh
- Khawaja Shaikh
- Shaikh Siddiqui
- Sindhi Shaikh
- Siddiqui
- Kakkezai
- Khatri
External links
References
- Encyclopaedia of Historiography By M.M. Rahman pgs. 68-75 Published by Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2006
- Mughal Land Revenue System By Lanka Sundaram pgs 51 and 86 Published by READ BOOKS, 2007.
- The Panjab chiefs : historical and biographical notices of the principal families in the Lahore and Rawalpindi divisions of the Panjab by Lepel Henry Griffin, Sir; Charles Francis Massy
- Calcutta Review Vol. XI University of Calcutta pg.380 Jan-June 1849 (2)
- A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North -West provinces , compiled by H A Rose , vol II Page 258
- ^ Gazetteer of the Attock District 1930 published by Sang-E-Meel Publications Page 115