Yusufzai

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The Yusufzai or Yousafzai or (also Esapzey) (Yusufi) (Urdu: یوسف زئی, Hindi: युसुफ़्ज़ै युज़ी) are an Pashtun tribe. The majority of the Yousafzai tribe reside in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Yousafzais are the predominant population in the districts of Swat, Mardan, Malakand and Swabi. They speak the northern variant of "Pukhtu" with the hard "kh" replacing the softer "sh" of southern Pashtun tribes. Their manner of speaking Pashto is universally recognised as being the purest among all Pashtun tribes. ^{[citation needed]}

In their migration eastward, arrived at Kabul when Mirza Ulugh Beg was governor. He succeeded his father, Shah Rukh, who was a son of Timur (Taimur-e-Lang), in 1446 A.D. In the time of Babur, who first came to Kabul in 1504 A.D. the whole of the Peshawar district had already been colonized by different Afghan tribes; and, on his second visit, fourteen years later, he found the Yusafzais had spread well into Swat. The settlement of the Yusafzais in their present limits, on these data, must, therefore, have been and subsequent to the dates above-mentioned.

An account of the Yusafzais' migration from Kandahar, their wanderings, and final settlement in their present limits, is their take over on the lands from the Dilazaks, whom, without much difficulty, they drove across the Indus to the Hazara mountains (now known as the Hazara District where lies the beautiful city of Abbottabad), after a single but desperate and decisive battle fought on the plains between the villages of Gadar and Langarkot.

After settling themselves firmly in the plains, the Yusafzais pushed on into the hill country beyond and in a few years became the masters of Swat and Buner. Three sections of the tribe, the Hassanzai, Akazai and Chagharzai, inhabit the west slopes of the Black Mountain, and the Yusafzai country stretches thence to the Utman Khel territory. The Kamalzai Yusafzais inhabit Hoti of Mardan District.

The Yusafzais are said to be descended from one Mandai, who had two sons, Umar and Yusaf. Umar died, leaving one son, Mandan; from Mandan and Yusaf come the two primary divisions of the Yusafzais, which are split into numerous subdivisions, including the Isazai, Malizai, Akazai, Ranizai and Utmanzai. There also have been some theories that they are descended from the lost tribes of Bani Israel, but this has not been proven yet.

1 Indian Yousafzai
2 See also
3 References
4 External Link

[edit] Indian Yousafzai

During the Mughal rule, thousands of Yousafzai men migrated to present day India for better future. They married with local women there and settled permenantly in many parts of India, such as Bhopal,Rampur,Tonk, and Baroda. After partition of India in 1947, many of them migrated to the urban areas of Punjab and Sindh. Their long stay in India has changed their mother tongue from Pashtu to pure Urdu. Infact, they have played a great role in the promotion of Urdu language.