The Pushtun Family Tree

In the early seventeenth century, a Pashtun from North India called Khwaja Ni’mat Allah described the tribal structure and origin of Pashtun Society in this work, the Makbzan-I Afghani. Although it undoubtedly contains information on the ethnogenesis of the Pashtuns, this genealogy should not be read as a sound historical source that indicates how the Pashtuns came into being as a distinct ethnic group. Instead, it should be used as a source of information, from the seventeenth century or earlier, for the way in which the Pashtuns saw themselves as a group.
Ni’mat Allah differentiates between four main groups of Pashtuns. These are the descendants of the three sons of the putative ancestor of al Pashtuns, Qays Abdul Al-Rashid Pathan, plus another, fourth group. The putative ancestor himself descended, according to traditional genealogies, from King Sarul (Saul), the Jewish king. The allegedly Jewish ancestry of the Pashtuns was a subject always hotly debated in Pashtun tea houses!
The three sons of Qays Abdul Al-Rashid pathan were named Sarban, Bitan and Ghurghusht (although there are many variants of these names). Most important of these, at least in the eyes of Ni’mat Allah, was Sarban. He was the eldest son. His descendants, via his son Sharkhbun, are mainly found in South Afghanistan, and via his other son Kharshbun, in the Peshawar Valley. Those in the west include the Abdalis, who since the mid-eighteenth century are called the Durranis. Those in the east include the Yousfzay, who lie north of Peshawar, and many other tribes in the same area.