The Shalmani or ''Shilmani'' ( ps, شلمانى) is a Pashtun tribe primarily concentrated in the

Shalman Valley Shalman valley (Urdu: شلمان وادی) is located in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The tehsil headquarters are located at Landikotal City.1998 Tehsil Census Report of Shalman, Population Census Organisation, Statistics Divisi ...

in Khyber Agency near Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. ''Shalmani'' is also known as ''Sulemani'' a variant of ''Shalmani'' ( ps, شلمانی) in , Mansehra and Haripur. The tribe is present in different parts of Pakistan. In Pakistan, the tribe lives in

Swat In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Bajour, Buner, Shangla,

Malakand District Malakand District ( ps, ملاکنډ ولسوالۍ, ur, ) is a district in Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. The District was formed in 1970 as a Provincially Administered Tribal Area, It had previously been a tri ...

, Dargai, Charsadda (

Hashtnagar Hashtnagar (Pashto: هشتنګر, more commonly known as اشنغر in Pashto) is one of the two constituent parts of the Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The name Hashtnagar is derived from the Sanskrit अष्टनगरम् ''A� ...

). According to Khan Roshan Khan, in his book about Pashtun's history "Tazkira" at page-379/380,"Shalmanis(Shilmanis) are "Banu Bakhtar"(بنو بختر) who were living in an area "Shalman" in Syria.These Banu Bakhtar were the land lords of areas like Shalman(شلمان), Ainab(عيناب) and Baiswad(بيسود) in Syria. Similar to Shalman of Khyber, a city by name

Shalman Shalman ( fa, شلمان, also Romanized as Shalmān and Shalimān; also known as Shalmānd) is a city in Kumeleh District, Langarud County, Gilan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 5,651, in 1,716 families. Shalman also spe ...

is also present in Gilan Province of Iran, and the fourth largest river in Iran is also named as Shalman. These landmarks with synonym Shalman suggest that this tribe could have moved from Syria through Iran (Gilan Shalman) to current

in Khyber Agency near Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

History

Roshan Khan in his book "Tazkira" wrote that Shalmani were originally brought to Swat ''(not to be confused with just Swat district of the present times)'' by the famous conqueror and King, Muhammad of Ghor, from

of Khyber Agency in present Pakistan and Karman of today's Afghanistan. M.Saida Khan Shinwari states in his book that, Shilmani are counted as Ghoryakhel tribe divided as Shamsher Khel, Halimzai and Kam Shilmanis and considers them to be Mohmand. He states that Shamsher Khels are related to Morcha Khel Mohmands, Halimzai to Halimzai Mohmands and Kam Shilmanis to Tarakzai Mohmands. Officially the Shilmanis are treated as a separate tribe since the Khyber Agreement of 1881. The Shilmanis are closer to Mohmands in characteristics and based on historical evidence they appear to be close kinsmen of the Mohmand. Shalmani are called as "Shalmani Momands" by Harold Carmichael Wylly, at page-317 in his book "From the Black Mountain to Waziristan". Prior to creation of Pakistan Bacha Khan Shalmani of Sakha Kot Malakand Agency, was the prominent figure of the Shalmani tribe and was a politician. Mr. Naek Amal Khan Shalmani and Rahat Khan Shalmani are scions of his family.

History

References

Further reading