Karrani Sultans (Pashtun) of Bengal & Bihar: From Which Part of Afghanistan?

From 1564 to 1576 Bengal was ruled by a family of Pashtuns who were known as Karranis. The founder of that dynasty was Taj Khan Karrani who was one of the chief officers of Sher Shah Sur and Islam Shah Sur. After the fall of Sur dynasty in 1555, Taj Khan and his brothers ruled South Bihar independently. In 1564 Taj Khan supplanted Surs in Bengal and established the Karrani rule there. 

The proper spelling of Karrani is Karlanri (کرلاڼي). In 16th and 17th century Persian sources it is written as Karrani or Kararani, because there is no alphabet in Farsi which sound like Pashto’s ڼ alphabet.

Taj Khan Karrani was succeeded by his brother, Sulaiman Khan Karrani, who had served as the governor of South Bihar during the reign of Islam Shah Sur. Under Sulaiman Khan Karrani’s leadership, the Karrani Sultanate reached its zenith, encompassing present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, and western Assam. His formidable army, comprising 140,000 infantry, 40,000 cavalry, 3600 elephants, and 200 cannons, solidified his power. A seasoned general from Sher Shah’s era, Sulaiman Khan united the Pashtuns of eastern India under his banner. This formidable alliance deterred Mughal Emperor Akbar from invading the Karrani Sultanate during Sulaiman Khan’s lifetime. However, upon his death in 1572, internal discord within the Karrani ranks provided an opportunity for the Mughals to encroach on their territories. Ultimately, the combination of disunity, ineffective leadership, and betrayals led to the downfall of the Karrani kingdom to the Mughals in 1576. This marked the end of the last Pashtun dynasty to rule India as Sultans.

In Wikipedia’s article on Karrani dynasty, the Karrani Sultans are mentioned to be hailing from ‘Bangash district’ and belonging to Bangash tribe of Kurram valley.

A secondary source “History of Bengal Mughal Period (1526-1765 A.D.)” by Atul Roy Chandra (page 12) is cited as source.

When I checked the above-mentioned source, it was citing another secondary source “History of Bengal” Vol-2, published by Dacca University (Vol-2, page-181). 

I also checked it and found that there is no reference from a primary source. In fact, it does not say anywhere that Karrani sultans were from Bangash district or that they were Bangash. It simply says that Bangash district was a home of Karlanries. It is drawing information from Dorn’s History of Afghans and “A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West frontier province” by H.A.Rose. The two cited sources do not mention the tribe or the place of origin of Karrani sultans of Bengal.

History is completely silent on the sub-tribe of Karrani Sultans among Karlanris. It is because Karranis ruled briefly and have no official histories. The information about them provided by 16th and 17th century authors in western and southern India, is very scanty. 

The Karlanri tribes are Wazirs, Mahusds, Dawars, Bannuchi, Khattak, Afridi, Orakzai, Bangash, Dalazak, Turi, Khugiani, Zazai, Zadran, Tani, Mangal, Wardak, Utman Khel and few others. Karrani Sultans could be from any of the mentioned tribes. But in my opinion, they were most likely belonging to those Karlanri tribes which lived nearer to river Indus and had greater trend of migration towards India e.g. Bangash, Orakzai, Dilazak, Afridi, Khattak etc. Some Karlanri tribes like Wazir, Mahsud, Bannuchi, Zadran etc. had no trend of migration towards India.