The Rise of the Yusufzais: From Kabul to the Heart of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
OpinionFrom Malik Suleman Shah’s Alliance to Malik Ahmad Khan Baba
By Major (R) Haroon Rasheed. Defense & Strategic Analyst specializing in South Asian military dynamics, deterrence strategy, and defense modernization; Member, Research and Evaluation Cell for Advancing Basic Amenities and Development, Writer and Defense Contributor — Pakistan First & Pakistan Hamesha Zindabad.
The history of the Yusufzai Pashtuns is not simply the history of a tribe moving from one valley to another. It is a story of migration, political alliances, betrayal, survival, military struggle, and the emergence of a powerful tribal leadership that eventually established itself across large parts of present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Among the personalities who stand at the center of this remarkable history are Malik Suleman Shah and his young nephew Malik Ahmad Khan Yusufzai later remembered as Malik Ahmad Baba.
The story begins in the Kabul region during the period of the Timurid prince Mirza Ulugh Beg. Historical accounts describe the Yusufzais and allied Khakhai tribes as having considerable influence in and around Kabul.
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When Ulugh Beg arrived in Kabul in difficult circumstances, Malik Suleman Shah reportedly became one of his most important supporters. According to historical accounts, Suleman Shah provided him with military assistance and treated the young Timurid prince almost as a member of his own family.
Suleman Shah's support was not merely symbolic. The Yusufzai leadership possessed substantial tribal influence and military strength, and their assistance helped Ulugh Beg consolidate his position in Kabul.
One scholarly account describes Suleman Shah as an exceptionally powerful figure in the early administration of Ulugh Beg, with authority that at times extended far beyond that of an ordinary tribal chief.
CREDIT: WikiWand.
But the very success of the Yusufzais eventually created a new political problem.
When an Alliance Became a Threat
As Ulugh Beg's position became stronger, the balance of power between the Timurid ruler and the Yusufzai leadership began to change.
The traditional accounts describe the Yusufzai maliks as having acquired enormous influence in Kabul. Their independent authority and military strength increasingly became uncomfortable for the ruler. Eventually, the relationship between Ulugh Beg and the Yusufzai leadership deteriorated.
According to the traditional narrative, Ulugh Beg invited the Yusufzai elders to a royal reception. The gathering was then turned into a deadly trap.
Different historical accounts give different numbers for the victims. Some traditional accounts speak of approximately 700 Yusufzai elders, while other versions give different figures. A scholarly study of Mughal-Afghan relations records the killing of a large number of Yusufzai and other Afghan maliks, including Malik Suleman Shah, while another academic publication has specifically cautioned that the large-scale massacre and its precise details cannot be independently verified through contemporary sources.
What is consistent across the tradition is the central theme: the Yusufzai leadership suffered a devastating blow in Kabul and was forced into a new phase of migration and political struggle.
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And at the center of this tragedy was a young man.
Malik Ahmad Khan — The Young Survivor
Malik Ahmad Khan was the nephew of Malik Suleman Shah and the son of Malik Sultan Shah. Traditional accounts differ regarding his exact age and birth year, but they agree that he was very young when the crisis occurred.
One account published in The News records that Malik Suleman had taken responsibility for raising and training the young Ahmad and considered him capable of eventually leading the Yusufzais. It further records the tradition that Suleman Shah appealed for Ahmad's life when the Yusufzai elders were seized.
This part of the story is particularly important because the survival of Malik Ahmad meant that the destruction of the old Yusufzai leadership did not result in the destruction of the tribe itself. Instead, the leadership passed to a new generation.
The young Malik Ahmad inherited not a kingdom but a broken tribal confederacy.
He had to rebuild its unity, find new territory, and protect his people.
From Kabul Towards the Peshawar Valley
The Yusufzais subsequently moved eastward from the Kabul region toward the Peshawar valley.
Their arrival brought them into contact with tribes that were already established in the region, particularly the Dilazaks.
Historical accounts describe the Yusufzais being given territory in the Doaba, the fertile tract associated with the area between the Kabul and Swat rivers. From there, their territorial ambitions expanded.
The migration was, therefore, not simply a single movement of an entire tribe on one particular day. It was a prolonged process involving different groups, families, and allied clans moving through different routes and settling in different areas.
This distinction is important when studying tribal history because later, traditions sometimes compress decades of migration and warfare into a single dramatic episode.
The Yusufzais gradually established themselves in the Peshawar valley and surrounding areas. Their expansion eventually extended towards Hashtnagar, Mardan, Swabi, Malakand, Bajaur, and Swat.
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Academic research on Malik Ahmad's life identifies Hashtnagar and Swat as central areas in the subsequent Yusufzai expansion.
The Struggle for Hashtnagar and Swat
Malik Ahmad's greatest achievement was not merely surviving the Kabul tragedy.
It was rebuilding Yusufzai political and military power.
The Yusufzais entered into competition and conflict with groups already occupying parts of the Peshawar valley and surrounding territories. Their struggle with the Dilazaks became particularly important.
Over time, Yusufzai and allied forces expanded their control. Hashtnagar became one of their important centres, while their attention increasingly turned toward the fertile valleys of Swat.
Research published in Ancient Pakistan describes the Yusufzai move towards Swat as a prolonged process rather than a single battle. The study estimates that the conquest of the different parts of Swat took many years, with the process beginning around the late fifteenth century and continuing for approximately seventeen years.
This demonstrates the scale of Malik Ahmad's challenge.
He was not simply leading a migrating tribe.
He was creating a new political order.
Malik Ahmad Baba and the Yusufzai Confederacy
Malik Ahmad gradually became the central figure around whom Yusufzai political power was reorganised.
Traditional accounts remember him as Malik Ahmad Baba, a leader who united different Yusufzai groups and their allies.
His political importance increased as the Yusufzais acquired new territories. Leadership was increasingly organised around tribal maliks, alliances, and territorial divisions.
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The Yusufzai political system that developed in the region was therefore different from the centralised monarchy of Kabul. It depended heavily upon tribal leadership, consultation, alliances, and military mobilisation.This system eventually produced a powerful Yusufzai presence across large parts of what is today Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
From a Displaced Tribe to a Regional Power
The transformation is remarkable.
A community that had suffered the destruction of much of its traditional leadership around Kabul eventually became one of the most influential Pashtun tribal groupings in the Peshawar valley, Malakand region, and Swat.
The geographical footprint associated with Yusufzai settlement eventually included areas corresponding to modern Mardan, Swabi, Malakand, Swat and parts of Dir and Bajaur, although the demographic and political history of each area is considerably more complicated than a simple tribal map suggests.
The Yusufzais also became significant actors in the political and military history of the region in later centuries.
Their strength was sufficiently important that even Babur, after establishing himself in Kabul, regarded the Yusufzais as a significant strategic challenge. His campaigns in the region and his eventual arrangements with Yusufzai leadership demonstrate the importance the tribe had acquired by the early sixteenth century.
Babur crossing the Kunar River on a raft, west of Bajaur. CREDIT: WikiWand.
Thus, within a relatively short historical period, the Yusufzais had moved from being migrants and displaced political actors around Kabul to becoming a major regional power in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent.
The Legacy of Malik Suleman Shah
There is an irony at the heart of the Yusufzai story.
Malik Suleman Shah helped the Timurid prince Ulugh Beg establish himself in Kabul. His support strengthened the ruler, who eventually became powerful enough to regard the Yusufzais themselves as a political threat.
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Yet the destruction of the old leadership did not destroy the Yusufzai people.
Instead, it produced a new generation of leadership.
Malik Suleman Shah's greatest historical legacy may, therefore, have been connected not only to his own political influence but also to the young nephew whose life he helped preserve.
Malik Ahmad survived — and with him survived Yusufzai political ambition.
A Young Leader Who Changed the Course of History
The story of Malik Ahmad is particularly significant because leadership came to him at an exceptionally difficult moment.
He inherited a tribe affected by political betrayal, loss of elders, and displacement.
Rather than disappearing into history, the Yusufzais reorganised themselves.
They moved into the Peshawar valley, established themselves in Doaba and Hashtnagar, fought for territory, expanded towards Malakand and Swat, and gradually created a political and demographic presence that remains deeply embedded in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The historical Malik Ahmad, therefore, represents something larger than a single tribal chief.
He represents the ability of a displaced community to reorganise itself under new leadership.
The Yusufzais Today
Centuries after the events surrounding Malik Suleman Shah and Malik Ahmad Khan, Yusufzai identity remains strongly associated with many parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mardan, Swabi, Malakand, and Swat are among the areas historically associated with major Yusufzai settlement, while Yusufzai families and communities are found far beyond these traditional heartlands, including elsewhere in Pakistan.
The modern spread of the Yusufzais should not, however, be interpreted as a simple continuation of medieval tribal boundaries. Population movements, marriages, urbanisation, administrative changes, and migration over several centuries have transformed the demographic landscape of Pakistan.
Nevertheless, the historical foundation laid during the era of Malik Ahmad remains an important part of the region's history.
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Conclusion (Khulasa)
The rise of the Yusufzais is ultimately a story of survival and transformation.
Malik Suleman Shah helped a struggling Timurid prince establish himself in Kabul. The relationship eventually collapsed as political interests changed, and the Yusufzai leadership suffered a devastating blow. But from that tragedy emerged a young leader — Malik Ahmad Khan — who inherited the responsibility of rebuilding his people.
From Kabul, the Yusufzais moved towards the Peshawar valley. From Doaba and Hashtnagar, they expanded their influence towards Mardan, Swabi, Malakand, and Swat. Over years of migration, alliances, and warfare, they transformed themselves from a displaced tribal population into one of the major historical Pashtun powers of the region.
The story, therefore, is not merely about a massacre or a migration.
It is about how the fall of one generation created the opportunity for another generation to rise.
At the center of that transformation stands the young Malik Ahmad Khan Yusufzai — remembered by history as Malik Ahmad Baba.
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By Major (R) Haroon Rasheed. Defense & Strategic Analyst specializing in South Asian military dynamics, deterrence strategy, and defense modernization; Member, Research and Evaluation Cell for Advancing Basic Amenities and Development, Writer and Defense Contributor — Pakistan First & Pakistan Hamesha Zindabad.
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