Career
Akhund (or Akhond, akhoond, akhwand or Akond) is a Persian honorific for "a religious leader, teacher, or scholar", "akhund". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed). Oxford University Press.
September 2005.
Akhund Ghaffur was an influential mullah and his residence in Swat was the destination for numerous pilgrimages by his disciples to consult him. Akhund Ghaffur was succeeded by a notable line of other mullahs and theologians. Saidu Baba was born at Jabrai Matta, upper Swat valley in 1793 AD. He got his early education from Mian Brangola.
Later, he went to Mardan, Nowshehra and Peshawar for completion of his education.
In 1835, he returned back to Swat and settled in Baligram (now Saidu Sharif). In 1836, when the British tried to annex Swat valley, at that time Saidu Baba united the people against them and called for Jihad of Ambela, which discouraged the British expansion to the region.
They started a new uprising against the British Empire under Akhund Ghaffur"s leadership in 1862. In return, the Afghan Emir awarded Akhund Ghaffur with lands in Swat, Lundkhwar and Mardan among the Yusufzai Pathans, despite being an ethnic Gujjar.
Eventually, when Akhund Ghaffur was about 43 years old, he permanently settled in Saidu Sharif and gradually turned it into a thriving city.
In 1863, Akhund Ghaffur lead the Yusufzai and other groups in a battle at the Ambela Pass against the British forces (see Ambela Campaign). Akhund Ghaffur conferred a scheme for a united throne of Swat. In 1849, he nominated Sayyid Akbar Shah, a descendant of Pir Baba, as the emir of the Islamic state of Swat.
After Akbar Shah"s death in 1857, Akhund Ghaffur assumed control of the state himself till his own death in 1878.
Akhund Ghaffur referred to Kotah Mullah as a disciple of Pir Roshan and practitioner of heretical rituals, and managed to convince the Yusufzai of Buner to push Kotah Mullah out of the village where he was being hosted. Edward Lear"s "The Akond of Swat"
George T. Lanigan (1846–1886) wrote "The Ahkoond of Swat" on hearing of the Akhund"s death in 1878.
Ken Nordine"s rendition of the Lear piece in his "Word Jazz" radio show.
