Settlement of Hunza Valley
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In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful. My name is Mashqul Alam. My father's name is Hub-e-Ali and as he was educated, he wrote my birthday as 6 February 1935, thus I am 89 years old.
How did the settlement of Hunza start? We have heard from our forefathers that the Aryan people were part of the Hun and Mughal army. They had attacked China, moved towards Afghanistan and returned to Hunza from Chitral. There were many Hun people in the army, the so called Hunza. This led to this place be named Hunza [after them]. Six groups of people settled here: The Titam from the tribe Diramiting, the Mamukhuro my grandfa-ther's name, the Shano, the Bharataling, and the Khurokuz. The descendants of Saffar have vanished and on their land now live the Burong people who are now in Ganish. Also in Ganish are the Fololo, the Mamukhuro in Uttar, the Titam in Shishpur, the Bharat in Diramitishal, and the Brong in Hassainabad Nala.
Before there were no people [in Hunza Valley], only snow and wild trees. With the growing population also the need for water increased. A man named Geesaran built [the first] water channel to Altit. He kept his wife on the Ladyfinger with hichuti (5 kg) of buckwheat, her name was Langha-Bono.
The first water channel was called Hamachi and the king of Gilgit collected taxes (maliya) from the people using its water. The people of Diramiting attacked these people and started to collect those [water] taxes for them-selves. Therefore, the kings of Gilgit sent his army and finally killed all of them once they were drunk from wine.
The people of Hamachi dug a canal to Ganish where the Fololo lived as did the Khurokuz in Karimabad, the Diramiting and the Bharataling. Again, the need for water increased given a growing population.
It was decided to divide the water of Ultar nala into four parts. One part was for Ganish, one part for Altit, and the two remaining parts were for Aliabad and Karimabad. There were wooden gates through which water would be custom-divided. The water for Karimabad and Hyderabad came from the same Hyderabad canal whereby it was allocated for six days to Hyderabad and for six days to Karimabad. This is how the settlement started whereby in the beginning there was not much cropping as [Hunza's] population was low. To cope with food scarcity, people depended on meat through hunting ibex and milk of animals. Little by little the people started to cut wild trees and set up farming by cultivating buckwheat, barely, and wheat.
The people of Nagar and Hunza [who live on opposite sides of the Hunza river] were enemies who used to attack each other. They used to build (and gather) in strongholds near their forts to protect themselves from attacks.
Subsequently, people planned to dig the canal of Summerqan under the leadership of a man called Saeed Khuro. He was the wazeer of the Hunza ruler Ghuwani Mirza, whose second wife had a son who [later] became king Saleem. His mother was Khurokuz. Saleem lived at Skardu where Saeed Khuro has brought him from Chilas by promising that they would kill Ghuwani Mirza and award the kingship to Saleem thereafter. The Khurokuz strug-gled day and night and to get the channel dug from Kharum-Bat to Shah-e-Mardan Tori. The king was happy about that and awarded them a title of bravery (Star-e-Jurath).
At the time animals and people fetched water from the same pond. Therefore, wazeer Asadullah Baig, son of Kind Shah Ghanzafar, son of Saleem decided to dig the Barbar water channel. However, the people revolted against the king's design of the water canal and tried to kill him. However, the people of Khurokuz decided to cooperate with the king's design because the people of Khurokuz also needed water. Therefore, they started to dig the Barbar water channel whereby seven people were killed and buried during its construction.[...]
While the population of Hunza further increased, the people of Gilgit went always to war but were afraid of the Hunza people who sold many Nagar people to Kashgar in exchange for Hissar lambs. During the time of Jamal Khan Thum, the newly established route from Skardu to Nagar via the Hisper Glacier made it possible that fruit trees entered from Skardu and thus people from all over took them to their own gardens. This led to the planting of many new varieties. Thus, local people have brought in [many of] the fruits and vegetables that are grown here now. [...]
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