Tanoli

The Tanoli (Hindko/Urdu: تنولی‎; Pashto: تنولي‎) are a tribe ,who might possibly be of Pashtun origins, although other theories also exist

The Tanolis mostly inhabit the Tanawal Valley in the Hazara Division, in the eastern part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, which they took over around the 14th century and named after their tribe. Although Tanawal is today part of a Pakistani province, in the past its larger portion comprised the two semi-independent native states or principalities of Amb and Phulra, ruled over by Tanoli chiefs of the same family, from about the 1840s to 1969. Prior to that, the area or 'Ilaqa' of Tanawal remained an independent tribal territory from around the 14th to the 19th century. The English writer Charles Allen, citing from a draft manuscript written by Major James Abbott at the British Library, London, writes that the Tanolis were "extremely hostile, brave and hardy, and accounted the best swordsmen in Hazara".

Descent legend

There are two prominent theories about the descent of Tanolis; one relates them to Pashtun origin and the other to Turco-Mongol.