St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies

St Petersburg International Conference of Afghan Studies 83 Panel Five. Political Patterns in Afghanistan and in the Liminal Areas... frustration at times) of many colleagues leaning towards fundamental research that apparently nobody takes it up for ‘translation into action’ so that policy makers for example could make use of this knowledge. III. GlobalizedAfghanistan: Given the extent to whichAfghanistan and its people have been ‘globalized’—whether as refugees, inmarriage networks, as diaspora group, local consumers, businessmen, travellers, labour migrants, aspiring citizens — today the Afghanistan Area Studies cannot limit themselves looking at issues confined exclusively to the territorial boundaries (‘vessel’) of the state of Afghanistan. Instead, ‘Afghanistan’ needs to be studied in its connectivity, translocal patterns of social, political and economic relations, including ‘Afghans’’ mobility patterns. Moreover, knowledge generation about globalized Afghanistan should be carried out in inter- and trans-disciplinary manner — a European Society for Afghan Studies would be an interesting first step in this direction. However, future studies of Afghanistan should not be exclusively conducted from a northern / external perspective. Mikhail Pelevin (Faculty of Asian and African Studies, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia) The Sheikhs vs. the Chiefs: a Khattak Case of 1724 Fragmentary data on Pashtun tribes in the late Middle Ages and early modern times offer a disjointed picture of local conflicts expectedly caused by strife for material and administrative resources, viz., livelihood and political power. The latter was tra- ditionally exercised by chiefs ( malik , khān , məšr ) who shared it with tribal assemblies ( jirga ) within the limits defined by customary laws. However, the earliest writings produced on tribal territories both in Pashto and Persian indicate that even as early as in the 16th century a nascent “caste” of spiritual leaders ( shaykh , pīr , miyān ) regularly trespassed into tribal affairs and politics. Shaykh Mali is credited with imperative long-term rulings in the sphere of land use in Swat among the Yusufzays; the leaders of the Roshani community were deeply involved into various political processes and military campaigns in the Peshawar Valley. A power balance between secular and spiritual authorities in each individual tribe was shaped by the tribe-specific level of structural and leadership hierarchi- zation . In 17–18 centuries the neighbouring Yusufzay and Khattak tribes, which unlike many other Pashtun tribes possess written histories, had different, if not the opposite systems of social and administrative organisation. While the Yusufzays maintained a patriarchal autonomy of its subdivisions, the Khattaks, having been strongly integrated into the Mughal Empire, developed a more hierarchical con- figuration, which produced two elite kin subdivisions, viz., the ruling military-ad- ministrative one ( khānkhel ) and the spiritual one ( stāna ): Akorkhel and Yasinkhel (later Kakakhel). Since its eventual institutionalization after the death of the widely