Kakar

Kakar or Kaker is a Pashtun tribe located in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is named for Kakar Afghan, who was the great-grandson of Qais Abdur Rashid. Kakar's father was Dani, son of Ghourghusht, son of Qais Abdur Rashid, according to the Afghan appendix of tribes.

According to Afghan historians, Ghorghushet was alive in 388 AH (988 CE). Kakar is also known in some parts of Afghanistan as Kakar-khel. Locally, in Hirat, Kakar is called "KAK" by the public. In historical context, it is sometimes called "Kak-kor" (family of Kak).

The tomb of Kakar Afghan is located in front of the Jamia Mosque in central Hirat. Afghan historians claim that he was buried first in Kohistan of Ghor province of Afghanistan, but that the King of Hirat, Sultan Ghyasudin Tughluq, brought his corpse to Hirat and reburied him near the Central Mosque. Sultan Ghyasudin was also a Kakar and belonged to the sub-tribe of Taghluk or Taghruq or Tughluq.

Dani had four other sons named Panai, Babai, Naghar and Davi, who are also a part of the Kakar tribe. Kakar had 24 sons; six were adopted. A minority of historians claim that Kakar in fact had either 26 or 29 sons.

Source, Musawer Ali khan Kakar

• Sanzarkhel
• Haiderzai
• Barakzai
• Parizon
• Abdullahzai
• Khudiadadzai
• Mirdadzai
• Jogizai
• Abubakarzai
• Abusyedzai

Sanzarkhel is the biggest sub-tribe of the Kakar, comprising a large number of sub-tribes like Abdulrehmanzai, Khudiadadzai, Haiderzai, Habibzai, Qulazai, Popalzai, Paqirzai, Mosakhel , etc. They are all distributed in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Abdulrehmanzai are in both countries Pakistan and Afganistan, but their majority is in the Qilla Abdullah District of Balochistan (Source: Musawer khan Kakar S/O Haji Anwer Ali (LALA) Usmanzai from AbdurrehRehman Zai) Historians such as Saifullah Khan Khudiadadzai, Abdul Hai Habibi and Bahdur Shah Zafar Kakakhel are confident that Jadoon or Gadoon are also part of the Kakar.

In India Kakar are found in [ After Afghan (Pashtun) tribes—including the Kakar tribes—attacked India several times, they seized control there and the Hindu people of the area adopted a surname of Kakar; tis means they were not truly Kakar but Indian. Some of the Hindu also adopted Islam, but others remained Hindu. Among the Muslims, Kakars are mostly true Afghans. In the town of Kohana Abusyedzai Kakar, the Afghans exist in large numbers. They belong to the family of Malik Abdul Mali. Alikhel Kakar live in the District of Rohtik. Also, in other parts of India—especially Bihar and Bangol—Kakar is a known Afghan tribe. Kakar have descendants in Sarhad province of Pakistan but are mostly in [[Afghanistan] and western Iran.

Sher Shah Suri and Kakar

Sher Shah Suri or Sher Khan's real name was Farid Khan. His father's name was Hassan Khan and his grandfather's name wae Ibrahim Khan Suri. Ibrahim was a middle-class and common man of ROWA (an independent land of Afghans which included the territories of Hassanabdal, Kabul, Peshawar, Hirat, Kandahar and Koh-e-Sulaiman), and belonged to the sub-tribe Barakzai of Kakar. Barakzai is a sub-tribe of Taraghzai, son of Kakar. According to Sir Olf Caero, the author of book The Pathans, Sher Shah was born Sihasram in (Bihar) in 1479 CE, where his father was a landlord and a respected ally of a Mughal Empire. The real homeland of Sher Shah was likely located between Qaisi Ghar and Koh-e-Sulaiman, near the Kozhak range.

Kalkar Najin, in his book Sher Shah and His Times, asserts that this place is between Chaman and Ghazni and that it is Sargorgai (Toba Kakar Ranges), where the Kakar tribe has been living for centuries. Sir Olaf claims that when Sher Shah was young, he hunted and killed a lion (likely a Bengal tiger) by his own sword—and since the lion is called "Sher" in Pashto and Persian, the people of the area began to call him "Sher Khan." Sher Shah's hunting of the lion using a sword is similar to the story of David.

Reign of Sher Shah Suri

Sher Shah Suri's rule lasted less than 6 years, but he accomplished much in this short time. He defeated the Mughal Emperor Hamayun in 1539. He changed his name from Sher Khan to Sher Shah (King of Lions) when he conquered Delhi. Unlike other Afghan warriors that ruled the subcontinent of South Asia, who were outsiders, Sher Shah actually originated from the Indians. He ruled in India from 1539 to 1545. Under his rule, India saw many developments such as the Genrali road (from Bengal to Kabul), the old fort of Delhi, Rohtaas fort in Punjab, and theGrand Trunk Road. In 1545, an artillery shell blew up near Sher Shah during a battle and he was critically injured; shortly thereafter he died and was buried in Sihasram, Bihar, India.

Sources

• History of Pashtoon (Persian), 1979, by Sardar Sher Muhammed Gandapur
• A history of Afghan (Persian), 1960, by Abdul Hai Habibi
• The Pathans (English), 1967, by Sir Olf Cearo
• Pashtoon history (Pashto), 1965, by Syed Bahadur Shah Zafar Kakakhel
• Tarekh-e-Khan Jahani Wa Mukhzan Afghani (Persian-Pashto), 1500-1600, by Khwaja Nimatullah Harvi and Hebat Khan Abubakarzai Kakar.