Sartōr Faqīr ( ps, سرتور فقير; died 1917), also known as "Mullah Mastan or Mullah Mastana"
[Easwaran p. 49] Pipi Faqir or Saidullah in
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...
[Beattie p. 171] and by the British as "The Great Fakir" or "Mad Faqir", "Mad Faqir of Swat" or the "Mad Mullah", was an
Afghan tribal
Yusufzai
The Yusufzai or Yousafzai ( ps, یوسفزی, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ) are one of the largest tribes of ethnic Pashtuns. They are natively based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to which they migrated to from Suliman mountains dur ...
leader and freedom fighter. His name Mullah Mastan translates to "God-intoxicated" as a reference to his religious convictions and his belief that he was capable of miraculous powers and challenging the British Empire.
Sartor Faqir was born as Saidullah Khan in the village of Rega Buner in the
Buner Valley and was a member of a branch of the
Yousafzai
The Yusufzai or Yousafzai ( ps, یوسفزی, ), also referred to as the Esapzai (, ) are one of the largest tribes of ethnic Pashtuns. They are natively based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to which they migrated to from Suliman mountains dur ...
tribe. In order to further his religious education, he lived and travelled throughout India and Central Asia, before setting in
Mazar-i-Sharif
, official_name =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia
, pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif
, pushpin ...
in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...
for a period of ten years. In 1895, he returned to Buner.
In response to the British occupation of the
North West Frontier Province of modern-day
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, and the division of Pashtun lands by the