Pir Piai

Last updated • 4 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Pirpiai پئرپئأي
Town and Union Council
Nickname: 
Little England
Pakistan location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Pirpiai پئرپئأي
Coordinates: 34°00′N71°54′E / 34°N 71.9°E / 34; 71.9
Country Pakistan
Province Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Area
  Total3 km2 (1 sq mi)
Elevation
308 m (1,010 ft)
Population
 (1998)
  Total35,000
   Demonym
Pirpiaiwal
Time zone UTC+5 (PST)
Calling code 0923
Number of Union Councils 1
Website Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Government Website

Pirpiai is a town in the District of Nowshera in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Its population is around 35,000. Pirpiai has a high literacy rate of 92%, compared with Pakistan's average literacy rate of 55%. [1] The village is on GT Road, 8 km from Nowshera Cantonment towards Peshawar. Most of the villagers are working-folk, adding to the work-pool through government service, and self-employment. Substantial number of people from the village are working abroad and adding to national exchequer. The village is rich in producing educated and professional class like engineers, doctors, officers of armed forces, civil servants, professors and so on.

Contents

History

Pirpiai is said to have been named after Pir Muhammad Khan of Pirpiai. Pir muhammad khan an Afghan who migrated from Afghanistan and settled in the area. History says that Pir Muhammad Khan was the son of Daulat Khan. Daulat Khan was a commander and confidant of Nadir Shah Afshar, the ruler of Iran.

Nadir Shah Afshar, having defeated the Pushtun Hotaki ruler Mir Hussain Hotaki in Herat and Ghazni in 1738, attempted to invade India. After his defeat, Mir Hussain Hotaki agreed to send Pushtun forces with the army of Nadir Shah. There were 12,000 Abdali (Durrani) and 4,000 Pushtun Khilji soldiers in this army. A hamlet of the Dalazak tribe was on the south bank of the Kabul River near present-day Pirpiai. The area along the river was forested at that time. When the Shah's forces reached this area they asked the Dalazak tribe to join their army, but they refused. Nadir Shah then ordered his army to destroy and burn the village, causing the Dalazaks to flee from the area. Nadir Shah awarded the area to Daulat Khan, his confidant. Daulat Khan belonged to the Gumoriani also known as the Zmaryani tribe, which is a branch of the Kasi (Pashtun tribe). Daulat Khan rebuilt the village, but it was later destroyed by flood of River Kabul. Pir Muhammad Khan moved some two and a half miles south and settled with family.

According to the Tareekh-e-Peshawar by Rai Bahadur Munshi Gopal Das, in 1874 there were 52 Hindus and 1502 Muslims living in the village. [2]

Originally Pirpiai acted as a merchant town for passing travelers. It is situated beside the original Sher Shah Suri's Highway, known in modern times as the Grand Trunk Road. The Mughals and their armies often used this route. Men from the village were recruited by the passing armies. Bahadur Baba was a famous soldier recruited at that time, an older man who fought fiercely and with great skill. When he died fighting for the Mughal armies, the Mughal Emperor sent him back to be buried in his native village of Pirpiai, Baba's last wish.

Education, health and recreation

Besides many private educational institutions from primary to Intermediate, the village has six Government Primary Schools and three High Schools for both girls and boys. The village owns two Boys Colleges and one Girls College. [3]

Basic healthcare and medical facilities are available 24/7, both at private clinics and at Government hospitals closer to village. CMH and other Govt hospitals are within reach of the village. [4]

Cricket, Soccer, Volleyball and Badminton are popular sports in Pirpiai.[ citation needed ] The village has a 30-acre (120,000 m2) park with lakes 1 km away on the Grand Trunk Road.[ citation needed ]

Miscellany

Pirpiai, for so long, was known as Small England (chotta wilayat) due to its high rate of literacy and development.[ citation needed ] The village is divided into smaller sectors known as "Mohallah", a few of which are: Miskeen Khail, Qamar khail, Baba Khail, Sadri Khail, Tapu Khail, Jan abad, Babar, New Miskeen Khail, Zar Muhammad Khail, Mandoori etc. Pirpiai has more than 35 mosques within its own Mohallahs. Each Mohallah has at least two mosques.[ citation needed ]

The village has a bank, a post office, a railway station and a sanctioned dry port. Facilities such as electricity, gas, water, sewage, landline telephone, and internet are available along with cellular mobile phone services.[ citation needed ] All five mobile operators of Pakistan have their towers installed in the village. Notable British generals including General Sir Douglas Gracey, Sir George Roos-Keppel are said to have visited the village, invited by one of the known villager named Col. Mir Haider Khan [5] 78 people from Pirpiai took part in the First World War as soldiers in the Indian Army. Pirpiai is one of the few villages in Pakistan that has an official plaque commemorating its First World War contribution.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nowshera District</span> District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan

Nowshera District is a district in the Peshawar Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The capital and district headquarter is Nowshera city.

The Marwat is a Pashtun tribe, a branch of the Lohani tribe and belong to Lodi section. The Marwats were named for their ancestor Marwat Khan Lodi.

Ghulam Faruque Khan Khattak HPk, CIE, OBE was a Pakistani politician and businessman who was the founder of Ghulam Faruque Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paniala</span> Town and union council in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Paniala Pashto: پنياله Pashto pronunciation:[panyɑla] is a small town located in the north of district D.I.Khan of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa about 55 km away from D I Khan and approx 300 km from provincial capital Peshawar. The Link Road from main Indus Highway that connects with Paniala is of about 18 km. It is a submontane settlement and one of the oldest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saidu Baba</span>

Akhūnd Abdul Ghaffūr was a prominent religious saint and founder of the state of Swat. The city of Saidu Sharif, that serves as the administrative capital of Swat District, is named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pir Baba</span> Saint, Sufi, Arabic descent (1502 - 1583)

Sayyid Ali Tirmizi, more commonly known as Pir Baba, was a Naqvi Sayyid, and a Sufi who settled in Buner among the Yusufzai Pashtuns. He was probably born in 908 AH, in Fergana, of Sayyid descent, died in AH 991. He was a supporter of the Mughal emperor Babar, and was an opponent of Bayazid Pir Roshan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barakzai dynasty</span> 1818–1978 ruling dynasty of Afghanistan

The Barakzai dynasty ruled modern day Afghanistan from 1823 to 1978 when the monarchy ended de jure under Musahiban Mohammed Zahir Shah and de facto under his cousin Sardar Mohammed Daoud Khan. The Barakzai dynasty was established by Dost Mohammad Khan after the Durrani dynasty of Ahmad Shah Durrani was removed from power.

Zimri Tribe is also called Zimri or Mizri, is a Pashtun tribe in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Some Zimri live's in Afghanistan. The name Zimri or Zmarai means "fierce tiger" in the Pashto language. The history shows that one day at the place located in Musakhail city between the Sherani and Isot, the father of Zimri had a fight with tigers in the mountains. After being victorious, the father of Musakhail gave him the honour Zmarai (lion), which means "lion" in Pashto. Zimri, Mizri, the same nation named changed due to the languages of different areas.

Tangi is a Tehsil and union council of Charsadda District in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Aba Khel is the subtribe of Mandanr Yusafzai Pashtun tribe in Swabi District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan. They are settled in villages Zaida, Kaddi, Hund, Shah Mansur, Khunda, Ambar, Panj Pir, Beka, Aryan, Lahor and Kheshgi .and village Ragastoon swat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kakazai</span>

The Kakazai, also known as Loi, Loe, or Loye Mamund, a division of the Mamund clan, are a Pashtun tribe part of the larger Tarkani tribe who are primarily settled in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan, but originally hailed from the Laghman province of Afghanistan. However, it has grown and scattered around to such an extent that it is recognized as tribe of its own.

Sheikh Muhammad Rohani(1220-1305 AD)(Pashto:شيخ محمد روحانى) also known as Shah Muhammad Rohani and Rohani Ba Ba was a Sufi cleric born around 1220 AD. The cleric, whose shrine in southern Afghanistan attracts thousands of Sufi visitors every year, is said to have migrated to current day Afghanistan in the later parts of the 13th century AD during the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. He was a disciple of the renowned Sheikh Rukn-e-Alam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khan Roshan Khan</span> Pashtun historian and writer (1914–1988)

Khan Roshan Khan Yousafzai was a Pashtun historian, educationalist, and writer from Pakistan known primarily for being president of the Muslim League in Swabi and for writing books on the history of the Pashtun people.

The Akakhel, pronounced Akaa Khel or Akakhail, are a Pashtun sub-tribe of the Ghilji/Ghilzais confederation. Their mother language is Pashto. In the early 20th century, the tribe was generally pastoral. The Akakhel are one of the largest Ghilji Pashtun subtribes. A reasonable majority of those who were living on the Durand Line migrated since 1900 into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Punjab provinces of Pakistan to Sikander Abad Charsadda,Peshawar,Swat(Barikot), Buner(Topdara), Abbottabad, Nowshera, Mardan, Attock, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujranwala, Gojra, Faisalabad, Lahore, Multan, Hyderabad, Karachi and Quetta. The exact population number of this clan is not known; however, it is estimated to be around 2 million all around the world The population of this tribe primarily lives in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 85% live in Pakistan and about 1% or 2% live in Afghanistan and remaining 13% lives in England, Germany, United Arab Emirates, China, Malaysia, Canada and United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian campaign of Ahmad Shah Durrani</span> Overview of 18th-century Afghan military conquests in India under Ahmad Shah Durrani

Ahmad Shah Durrani invaded the Indian subcontinent from the northwest eight times between 1748 and 1767. After the assassination of Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah Durrani succeeded the throne of Afghanistan and started plundering wealth from nearby regions. His repeated incursions brought the Mughal empire to the brink of collapse and further dealt a major blow to Maratha dominions in the North at Panipat, creating a power vacuum. His objectives were met through the raids and caused political issues in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NA-32 Peshawar-V</span>

NA-32 Peshawar-V is a constituency for the National Assembly of Pakistan.

Ghwarband is a valley in the Shangla District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suba Khan Tanoli</span> Dewan

Zabardust Khan Tanoli also known by his nick-name Suba Khan Tanoli was a chieftain of the Tanoli tribe, in 18th century Mughal India. He fought at the Third Battle of Panipat and his intelligence, rifles and zamburak artillery skills contributed to the Afghan victory. He played a considerable part with Ahmed Shah Abdali to fighting against the Sikh and Hindu Jats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sayyid Kastir Gul</span> Saint

Sayyid Kastir Gul (1573-1653) also known as Sheikh Al-Mashaikh Sheikh Rahmakar alias Kaka Sahib, was an Islamic jurist and Sufi saint of the 16th and 17th centuries who is still highly revered among Afghans and Pakistanis. He is the patriarch of the Kakakhel tribe.

References

  1. "Statistics - Pakistan". UNICEF. 27 December 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  2. Tareekh-i-Peshawar of Munshi Gopal Das Extra Assistant Commissioner Punjab
  3. Tareekh-i-Peshawar of Munshi Gopal Das Extra Assistant Commissioner Punjab
  4. Pir Piai Tareekh ke Ayeney Main. Urdu article in Daily Mashriq by Engineer Zahoor ud Din dated March 15, 2005.
  5. Urdu by Syed Bahadur Shah Zafar Kaka Khel University Book Agency. Peshawar 2007.