Marwat

The Marwats (Pashto: مروت‎) are a Pashtun tribe, a branch of the LohaniLodi confederacy, located primarily in Lakki Marwat District, Frontier Region Lakki Marwat, parts of DI Khan and some villages of Tank district, located in the south of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Across the Durand line, a smaller number of the Marwats are scattered in parts of Paktika and Ghazni provinces of Afghanistan. The Marwats are also known as Spin Lohani ("White Lohanis"), and are a cousin tribe of Sur, Niazi, Dotani, Kundi and Hotak. The Marwat are also related to the Ghilji, who are also a Bettani tribal confederacy like the Marwat and the Lodi. The Marwats were named for their ancestor Marwat.

History

Marwats lived in Katawaz (کټواز, which is now called Zarghun Shar District) in the Paktika province and in the Tutki area(now Parachinar) along the present Pak-Afghan border, from where they migrated in about 1500 CE, after coming into dispute with the Sulaiman Khels. The Marwat migrated eastwards to Daman (present day Tank) and Pezu, Pakistan. The Marwat were settled in Daman during the Lodi period but many Marwats also participated in military conquests of the Sur Empire in India. Khawas Khan Marwat was a famous Marwat general from the Sur period. Eventually the Marwats migrated from Daman to their current location, the district of Lakki Marwat in the province of Khyber Pashtunkhwa. There is a hill in Katawaz still called Marwati, named for the Marwat that formerly lived there. Marwats were assigned parganas in Bihar by Lodhi Sultans.