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".