Suri (Pashtun)
Encyclopedia
Sur or Soor is one of the historical names of the Afghan tribes, they are now found primarily among the Pashtun people
in Afghanistan
and Pakistan
. They claim to be descendants of Mohammad Sur, one of the princes of the Ghorids, who left his native Ghor region and settled among the Afghan tribes
in the Sulaiman Mountains
. The founder of Sur dynasty
in India
, Sher Shah Suri
, belonged to the Sur Afghan tribe. They ruled Delhi Sultanate
from 1540 until 1556-57 after being removed from power by the Mughal Empire
.
Today, Sur is part of the Pashtun tribal system
and belongs to the sub-groups of the Ghilzai
s.
s are descended from the Ghori tribe. Several books by Islamic historians including Tarikh-I-Guzida of Hamdu-lla-Mustaufi, Towareekh Yumny, as well as Ferishta record the Hindu King of the Ghorians Suri was attacked by Mahmud of Ghazni
and the Hindu population converted to Islam by Him.
clan The Hindu and Sikh Suri now living in India, form one of the Kukhran clan that originates from Khurasan and is found in Greater Punjab areas of India and Pakistan.
is said to have been appointed king of Khorasan
by Caliph Hazrat Ali
after having murdered the Iranian
Sassanian king Yazdegerd III. According to the historian in Shahnameh
Lord of Khorasan
, Mahuy Suri
treacherously asked one of his millers to kill Yazdgerd III
, the last Persian king
, after his defeat in Iraq
.
Another Suri king, Banji Baharan, was appointed by Khalifah
Harun al-Rashid
as the king of Ghor after he signed a peace treaty.
Subsequently, after their arrival in Afghanistan, Islam
ic rulers ended an era of peaceful policies and began a struggle against Pashtunwali
, Pashtun nationalism and Afghan nationalism. The Pashtun kingdoms were crushed during this Islamic expansion.
The Suri clan originates from the Pashtun belt of Afghanistan
and Pakistan
and have migrated and settled in Punjab
province where Pashtun communities exist today. There is also a sizable community of Suri Pathans in Bihar
in especially around Rohtas
and Sasaram
.
The most famous Suri in the history was The Afghan Pashtun
Emperor Sher Shah Suri
of Sasaram
belonged to the Suri tribe of the Pathans. Ruled over undivided India from Sasaram Bihar.
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. They claim to be descendants of Mohammad Sur, one of the princes of the Ghorids, who left his native Ghor region and settled among the Afghan tribes
Pashtun tribes
The Pashtun people are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second largest in Pakistan. Pashtun, tribes are divided into four supertribal confederacies: the Arbanee , Betanee , Gharghasht, and Karlanee .Traditionally, according to folklore, all Pashtuns are said to have descended, at...
in the Sulaiman Mountains
Sulaiman Mountains
The Sulaiman Mountains are a major geological feature of southeastern Afghanistan and northern Balochistan province of Pakistan. In Pakistan, it forms the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau where the Indus River separates it from the Asian Subcontient...
. The founder of Sur dynasty
Sur Dynasty
The Suri Empire was established by a Muslim dynasty of Afghan origin who ruled a vast territory in the Indian subcontinent between 1540 to 1557, with Delhi serving as its capital...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Sher Shah Suri
Sher Shah Suri
Sher Shah Suri , birth name Farid Khan, also known as Sher Khan , was the founder of the short-lived Sur Empire in northern India, with its capital at Delhi, before its demise in the hands of the resurgent Mughal Empire...
, belonged to the Sur Afghan tribe. They ruled Delhi Sultanate
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...
from 1540 until 1556-57 after being removed from power by the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
.
Today, Sur is part of the Pashtun tribal system
Pashtun tribes
The Pashtun people are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and the second largest in Pakistan. Pashtun, tribes are divided into four supertribal confederacies: the Arbanee , Betanee , Gharghasht, and Karlanee .Traditionally, according to folklore, all Pashtuns are said to have descended, at...
and belongs to the sub-groups of the Ghilzai
Ghilzai
Ghilzai are the largest Pashtun tribal confederacy found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are also known historically as Ghilji, Khilji, Ghalji, Ghilzye, and possibly Gharzai...
s.
Conversion to Islam
According to recorded Afghan tradition, Surs and SherwaniSherwani (tribe)
Sarwani or Sherwani is a Batani Pashtun tribe settled in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.- History :The history of Pashtuns is based mainly on myths and largely on truths. One Niamatullah, in the court of Mughul Emperor Jahangir, in 17th century wrote the history of Pashtuns, in his book"TARIKH E...
s are descended from the Ghori tribe. Several books by Islamic historians including Tarikh-I-Guzida of Hamdu-lla-Mustaufi, Towareekh Yumny, as well as Ferishta record the Hindu King of the Ghorians Suri was attacked by Mahmud of Ghazni
Mahmud of Ghazni
Mahmud of Ghazni , actually ', was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty who ruled from 997 until his death in 1030 in the eastern Iranian lands. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today's Iran,...
and the Hindu population converted to Islam by Him.
Hindu and Sikh Kukhran Suri
Suri is the name of a KhatriKhatri
Khatri is a caste from the northern Indian subcontinent. Khatris in India are mostly from Punjab, region but later they migrated to regions like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu, Uttarkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber...
clan The Hindu and Sikh Suri now living in India, form one of the Kukhran clan that originates from Khurasan and is found in Greater Punjab areas of India and Pakistan.
Ibn I Suri, last Suri king of Ghor
Mahuy Suri
In some historical texts, Mahuy SuriMahuy Suri
Mahuy Suri was the Sassanid governor of Merv in Khorasan during the reign of Yezdegerd III. After the Arab invasion he killed Yazdegerd III, who fled to Merv from the Arabic invasion. According to the Shahnameh, the satrap of Khorasan, Mahuy Suri, treacherously had one of his millers to kill...
is said to have been appointed king of Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
by Caliph Hazrat Ali
Hazrat Ali
Hajji Hazrat Ali bin Bahawal Sheir is a military commander in eastern Afghanistan.-Biography:He was born in 1964 and is an ethnic Pashai....
after having murdered the Iranian
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
Sassanian king Yazdegerd III. According to the historian in Shahnameh
Shahnameh
The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...
Lord of Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
, Mahuy Suri
Mahuy Suri
Mahuy Suri was the Sassanid governor of Merv in Khorasan during the reign of Yezdegerd III. After the Arab invasion he killed Yazdegerd III, who fled to Merv from the Arabic invasion. According to the Shahnameh, the satrap of Khorasan, Mahuy Suri, treacherously had one of his millers to kill...
treacherously asked one of his millers to kill Yazdgerd III
Yazdgerd III
Yazdegerd III or Yazdgerd III was the twenty-ninth and last king of the Sassanid dynasty of Iran and a grandson of Khosrau II . His father was Shahryar, whose mother was Miriam, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice...
, the last Persian king
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
, after his defeat in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.
Another Suri king, Banji Baharan, was appointed by Khalifah
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
Harun al-Rashid
Harun al-Rashid
Hārūn al-Rashīd was the fifth Arab Abbasid Caliph in Iraq. He was born in Rey, Iran, close to modern Tehran. His birth date remains a point of discussion, though, as various sources give the dates from 763 to 766)....
as the king of Ghor after he signed a peace treaty.
Subsequently, after their arrival in Afghanistan, Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic rulers ended an era of peaceful policies and began a struggle against Pashtunwali
Pashtunwali
Pashtunwali or Pakhtunwali is a non-written ethical code and traditional lifestyle which the indigenous Pashtun people from Afghanistan and Pakistan follow. Some in the Indian subcontinent refer to it as "Pathanwali". Its meaning may also be interpreted as "the way of the Pashtuns" or "the code of...
, Pashtun nationalism and Afghan nationalism. The Pashtun kingdoms were crushed during this Islamic expansion.
The Suri clan originates from the Pashtun belt of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and have migrated and settled in Punjab
Punjab (Pakistan)
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan, with approximately 45% of the country's total population. Forming most of the Punjab region, the province is bordered by Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the Pakistani province of Sindh to the...
province where Pashtun communities exist today. There is also a sizable community of Suri Pathans in Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
in especially around Rohtas
Rohtas
Rohtas can refer to:*Rohtas, Pakistan, a village located in Rohtas Fort, Pakistan*Rohtas Fort, Pakistan*Rohtas District, a district in Bihar, India*Rohtas Plateau in north-western Bihar...
and Sasaram
Sasaram
Sasaram , sometimes also spelled as Sahasram, is the administrative headquarters of the Rohtas district in the Indian state of Bihar.It is one of the oldest cities in India, and is famous for production of stone chips and for the local quarrying industry...
.
The most famous Suri in the history was The Afghan Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
Emperor Sher Shah Suri
Sher Shah Suri
Sher Shah Suri , birth name Farid Khan, also known as Sher Khan , was the founder of the short-lived Sur Empire in northern India, with its capital at Delhi, before its demise in the hands of the resurgent Mughal Empire...
of Sasaram
Sasaram
Sasaram , sometimes also spelled as Sahasram, is the administrative headquarters of the Rohtas district in the Indian state of Bihar.It is one of the oldest cities in India, and is famous for production of stone chips and for the local quarrying industry...
belonged to the Suri tribe of the Pathans. Ruled over undivided India from Sasaram Bihar.