Colonies of Saiyids, religious adventurers—theoretically those who are the direct descendants of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet—occupy several of the glens on the mountain itself, and have caused much of the bloodshed and trouble which have stained and disturbed these parts. In two of these glens on the eastern slope of the Black Mountain are the Pariari Saiyids. On the western face, among the Hassanzais, are the Saiyids of Tilli; one or two more such colonies are scattered through the Chagarzai country; while a rather formidable religious body, the Akhund Khels, holds the glens and spurs on the extreme north-west corner down to the Indus. Numerically all are more or less insignificant, but they exercise considerable influence.
Neither the extent nor the population of this Black Mountain country warrant its being ranked as of any exceptional importance. As Oliver reminds us, “the tribes are not numerous, nor particularly warlike, and most of them are miserably poor, but they, and the nests of fanatical hornets they shelter, have for long proved capable of inflicting an altogether disproportionate amount of annoyance.”
The first time the Hassanzai clan came into notice was on the occasion of the murder by them of two officers of the Indian Customs Department.
Shortly after the annexation of the Punjab a preventive line was established along the left bank of the Indus, so far as British jurisdiction extended, to prevent trans-Indus salt being smuggled into the Punjab. In 1851 this line was extended five miles beyond Torbela to a point on the Indus where the cis-Indus territory of the Nawab of Amb commenced. In November of that year two of our customs officials, visiting this portion of the border, were murdered by a band of armed Hassanzais, when actually within the bounds of the Nawab of Amb. The Nawab was at once called to account, and delivered up such Hassanzais as happened to be within his territory, for which act the Hassanzais made war upon him, laid waste his border villages, and seized two of his forts: upon this, British interference became necessary, and orders were issued for the assembly of a punitive force.
_Expedition against the Black Mountain Hassanzais, 1852–53._—In December 1852 the troops, as enumerated below, were concentrated at Shergarh on the north-western border of the Hazara district under the command of Lieut.-Col. Mackeson,[5] C.B., Commissioner of Peshawar.