Social System of the Swat YËsufzÊ

Abstract

YËsufzÊ (formerly pronounced as IsafzÊ and YËsufzÊ; and now erroneously YËsufza’Ê) is a famous and large Afghan/PukhtËn tribe. Their seats were at GÉr. ah* and NËshkÊ near Dasht-i LËt or the Great Salt Desert (now parts of Iran and Afghanistan and a minor portion in Pakistan’s Baluchistan). At the end of thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century C.E., they were forced by circumstances, as a result of a war between them and the sister Ghawryah Khel clans in which they were defeated by the Ghawryah Khels, to leave their homeland at GÉr. ah and NËshkÊ who then migrated and settled in the neighbourhood of Kabul. They lent their support to MirzÉ Ulugh Beg, the young son of MirzÉ AbË Sa‘Êd, to make him stay to keep his position as the ruler of Kabul with whom they lived in a cordial relation.