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For the Afghan singer, see Abdul Rahim Sarban. For the British author, see Sarban (author).
Portrait of Ahmad Shah Durrani.jpg
Ahmad Shah Durrani, who established the Durrani Empire in 1747. The name of Durrani tribe originates from that period
Ameer Hamza Shinwari, a famous Pashtun poet, from the Shinwari tribe
Hamid Karzai 2004-06-14 140x190.jpg
Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, from Popalzai Durrani tribe
Total population
several millions
Regions with significant populations
Afghanistan, Pakistan
Pashto, Urdu, Hindko, Dari
Related ethnic groups
other Pashtun tribes, other Iranian peoples

Sarbaṇī (Pashto: سربڼي‎) are the largest[1] tribal group of Pashtuns. They are situated in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Sarbani include many Pashtun tribes, among whom the most numerous are the Durrani (historically Abdali), Yusufzai, Mohmand, Khalil, Ghoryakhel, Shinwari, and Kasi tribes.[2] According to the Pashtun legend of origins, the members of the Sarbani group all descend from Sarban, son of the legendary founding father of the Pashtun people, Qais Abdur Rashid.


The name Sarbani is similar (or identical) with the name of an historical tribe on Caucasus that was also named Sarbani (the Caucasian tribe was recorded under this name in the 10th century). Pashtuns are believed to be of Scythian descent[3] and their language is classified as East Scythian (Sarmatian language is also grouped within Scythian branch).[4] Some scholars considered that these Caucasian Sarbani could be identified with the tribe Serboi.[5][6][7][8]

According to the research of Henry Walter Bellew[9] and Ibbetson Denzil,[10] the Pashtun genealogist took the term Saraban for their ancestors from Suryabans which was the distinctive race title of the solar clans of Kshatriya people among whom the Pashtuns had become absorbed, and it was also a title held in high respect among the people of the country at that time. Further, as it included a large and important population, it was a convenient term to adopt as an ancestral title.[11]

The name Sarban is evidently a corrupted, or perhaps a natural variant form of Suryabans the solar or royal race now represented in India by some solar clans of the Rajput. Similarly the names of the Saraban's sons Karshabun/Khrishyiin and Sharkabun/Sharjyun, and of his grandson Sheorani, are clearly changed forms of the common Rajput and Brahman proper names Krishan, Surjan, and Shivaram or Sheoram [12]


The origin of the Sarbani, might be connected with Hephthalites,[13] who had a large nomadic confederation that included present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 5th-6th centuries AD, as well as with Scythians,[14] who are known to have settled where most of Pashtuns live today.

The Durrani Empire that existed in the 18th-19th centuries and that was centered in the territory of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan was founded by the Ahmad Shah Durrani, a Pashtun military commander under Nader Shah of Persia and chief of the Abdali Sarban tribe. Since that time, the Abdali tribe is known as Durrani.

Geographic distribution[edit]


In Afghanistan, Sarbani mainly inhabit the provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Helmand, Nimroz, Farah, Herat, Badghis, Balkh, and Kunduz, as well as the provinces Nangarhar and Kunar in the eastern part of the country.


In Pakistan, Sarbani are situated in the northern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas regions, as well as in the northern part of Balochistan.[15]


Some Balochi-speaking tribes of Iran trace their origin to the Sarbani, including the Sadozai and the Barakzai of Sistan and Baluchestan Province.


Many communities of Sarbani ancestry exist.

Sarbani tribes[edit]

There are 105[16] Sarbani tribes, including these main/large ones:

  1. Babar
  2. Durrani
  3. Kasi
  4. Khalil
  5. Miani
  6. Mohmand
  7. Ormur
  8. Sherani
  9. Shilmani
  10. Shinwari
  11. Tareen
  12. Yusufzai

See also[edit]


  1. ^
  2. ^ The races of Afghanistan : being a brief account of the principal nations inhabiting that country (1880),
  3. ^ A brief history of Afghanistan, Shaista Wahab, Barry Youngerman, Infobase Publishing, 2007, page 14.
  4. ^ The history and geography of human genes, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, Alberto Piazza, Princeton University Press, 1994, page 242.
  5. ^ De administrando imperio, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (Emperor of the East), Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Görög Filológiai Intézet, 1949, page 115.
  6. ^ India in Kurdistan, Parameśa Caudhurī, Qwality Book Company, 2005, page 79.
  8. ^ Constantini Porphyrogenneti... libri duo De ceremoniis aulæ Byzantinæ. Prodeunt nunc primum Græce, cum Latina interpretatione et commentariis. Curarunt Io. Henricus Leichius et Io. Iacobus Reiskius..., VII Constantin, Gleditschius, 1754, page 397.
  9. ^
  10. ^
  11. ^ A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West frontier province by Ibbetson Denzil,
  12. ^ Afghanistan and Afghans (1879),
  13. ^ The Hephthalites: Archaeological and Historical Analysis, Aydogdu Kurbanov, Berlin, 2010, page 242.
  15. ^
  16. ^

External links[edit]