Tanoli

The Tanoli (Hindko/Urdu: تنولی‎; Pashto: تنولي‎) are a tribe inhabiting the Tanawal valley, in the Hazara region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Across the Durand line, there are also Tanolis living in Ghazni and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan. There is a controversy whether the Tanolis are Pashtun Afghans or Barlas Turks, because sometimes they are acknowledged as a Barlas Turkic tribe related to the Mongols, who are Pashtunified to an extent and have assimilated many Pashtun cultural features. During the British Raj, the Tanoli, allied with other Pashtuns of the region, participated in the frontier wars c. 1840s against the British. In Charles Allen's analysis of these wars, the Tanolis were described as "extremely hostile" and "brave and hardy and accounted for the best swordsmen in Hazara".

Members of the Tanoli tribe mostly inhabit the districts of Haripur, Abbottabad and Mansehra in the Hazara region of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. A branch of the Tanoli tribe also resides in Kashmir, mainly in Muzaffarabad and Srinagar. Some Tanolis are working and settled as far away as Karachi, Lahore and other parts of Pakistan. In Afghanistan, the Tanoli primarily live in the provinces of Ghazni and Paktia, in particular in Gardez. Though today the Tanawal area is part of the Hazara division, in the past the larger portion of it comprised the two semi-independent native states or principalities of Amb and Phulra, ruled over by Tanoli chiefs of the same family, c 1840s to 1972. Prior to that, the area or 'Ilaqa' of Tanawal had remained an independent territory for long, from c the 14th century to the 19th.

The Tanoli may be different from their fellow Pashtuns of Taniwal tribe, who are instead a subgroup of the Khostwal supertribe and inhabit southern parts of Khost Province, primarily Tani District and adjacent villages of neighbouring districts. Tanolies are considered to be of Karlanri origin but through a different super-tribe.