Mengal (Brahui: مینگل) is an ethnic Brahui tribe inhabiting Balochistan, Pakistan.[1] It belongs to the Jhalawani branch of the Brahui tribes, and is bilingual in Brahui and Balochi.[2][3]
Origins
editAccording to the official list by Mir Ahmad Yar, the last Khan of Kalat, Mengal was originally one of the Jaṭṭ tribes inhabiting Balochistan.[4] In the Balochi language, plurals of substantives and collective nouns are formed, generally, by adding the suffix "gal" to the noun itself, tribes like Jadgal, Kurdgal are formed in this manner, similarly the term Mengal (Meng-gal,) merely denotes the Meng (Ming, or Men, or Min) name of a tribe and the suffix "gal" means (Speech and group), thus meaning (the group of Mins).[5]
Tribal area
editThe Mengal tribal area is around 70,000 square miles (180,000 km2), stretching from the Helmand River in the North to Lasbela District in the south, and bordering on the province of Sindh to the east.[6]
Prominent people
edit- Sardar Ataullah Mengal is a former Chief Minister of Balochistan.[7]
- Sardar Akhtar Mengal is a former Chief Minister of Balochistan.[8]
- Mir Amir-ul-Mulk Mengal was Governor and Chief Justice of Balochistan.[9]
- Mir Muhammad Naseer Mengal served as acting Chief Minister of Balochistan[10] and as Pakistan's acting Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources.[11]
- Mir Nooruddin Mengal was a prominent politician of Balochistan. He was assassinated on 13 October 2010.[12]
References
edit- ^ Table 13 in Elfenbein (1989)
- ^ Table 13 in Elfenbein (1989)
- ^ Scholz, Fred (2002) [1974]. Nomadism & colonialism : a hundred years of Baluchistan, 1872-1972. Karachi; Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-19-579638-4.
- ^ Table 13 in Elfenbein (1989)
- ^ Tate, George Passman (1912). Seistan: A Memoir on the History, Topography, Ruins, and People of the Country, in Four Parts. Superintendent government printing. p. 291.
- ^ Balochistan Administrative Districts database Planning and Development Department (P&DD) of the Government of Balochistan. Retrieved 25 November 2008
- ^ Nothing but provincial autonomy, The DAWN Group of Newspapers, retrieved 25 March 2009
- ^ Taking on the State: Frontline March 09, 2007, Hindunet, retrieved 25 November 2008
- ^ Press briefing by the UN offices for Pakistan and Afghanistan, UN News Center, retrieved 25 March 2009
- ^ Senators: Mir Muhammad Naseer Mengal, Pakistan Senate, retrieved 26 March 2009
- ^ "Daily Times - Latest Pakistan News, World, Business, Sports, Lifestyle".
- ^ Sheikh, Irfan (14 October 2010). "Senior Balochistan National Party leader shot dead". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
Bibliography
edit- Elfenbein, Josef (1989). "Brahui". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume IV/4: Bolbol I–Brick. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 433–443. ISBN 978-0-71009-127-7.