RUMINATIONS ON MY GENETICS AND SWATI HISTORY
According to the population genetics tool “SNP Tracker”, my Y haplogroup Q-BZ528 mutated somewhere in about the year 1200 AD, in the very center of the Sulaiman Mountains, above the present location of Dera Ghazi Khan. Its immediately preceding parent clade (branch) of Q-YP3947 had mutated almost immediately before it (i.e in the same year) – in the notorious Chaghai Hills area of Balochistan (then called southeastern Sistan). These rapid mutations in instantaneous succession and northward movement, seem to indicate a quick population movement such as that of a campaigning army. The parent clade of Q-YP3947 is Q-Z36068, which is said to have mutated in 1000 AD in the same Chaghai Hills location.
These facts might have historical corroboration. Reliable researchers on Swati history such as M. Akhtar have attributed the immediate ancestry of the Swatis to the enigmatic “Rutbil” princes of Zabulistan – whose resistance delayed the advent of Islam in much of Sistan for about 200 years before they were defeated in 870 by Yaqub e Lais Saffari. After suffering this defeat, Prof. Akhtar says that the family of the Rutbil line fled north, towards Balkh.
Employing the above genetic evidence in support of this contention, one can surmise that if all this was so – then the Rutbil main line must have borne the clade Q-Z36068 and before that Q-YP754… After 200 years in Balkh they were displaced towards Darra e Pech in Kunar by the Samanids, from where they later joined the Ghori armies in their conquest of India – themselves conquering Uddyana, which they named Suwad (later “Swat”) after themselves. This means that the Rutbils were actually ancient Suwadi Dehqans of Sistan.
It is interesting to note further, that immediately after the conquest of Uddyana/Swat/Gandhara by the Tajik Rutbils/Swatis, the founding ruler of the eastern part of the Swat Kingdom Sultan Pakhal died – and an intense civil war of succession broke out among his nine sons. Prof. Akhtar notes their names and describes the circumstances of this war. One of their sons, in turn, was a Swati prince called Sultan Arghash – who fled south as a result of this war between his uncles. He came to the present day Balochistan where he captured several areas which he subsequently ruled for a few years. Akhtar says that he obtained the favour of a minor Seljuk prince of Azerbaijan, as whose governor he acted in this region.
Although investigations into Arghash’s line show that his haplogroup was R1a-M198, it seems that his movement south took place in 1200, and he took with him a whole army and retinue of supporters. It further seems that the same year mutations of Q-YP3947 and Q-BZ528 rapidly took place among one of these followers – some Mitravi chief specifically. After Arghash obtained his Seljuk patronage, it seems that most of these followers (including that newborn Mitravi boy in whom the mutation took place — who was born during the travels) returned to the Swat area. Arghash himself is said to have migrated to the court of his master in Azerbaijan where he died – likewise his own descendants are also said to have returned later from Azerbaijan to the Peshawar Valley area, because the renowned saint Akhund Panju Baba was from among them.
This haplogroup indicates cases of Pashtunised Swati Dehqans from northeast Afghanistan and the adjoining Pakistani regions.