Punjabi Musalmans

Detailed guidelines for the benefit of recruitment officials are also given, as the book was then aimed at putting into the hands of young army officers, in easily accessible form as much information as possible concerning the history, customs, etc., of men whom they were serving.

The work originally published in 1915 is a sociological and anthropological study relating to Musalmans located between the Indus and the Sutlej rivers to the south of the main Himalayan range in the undivided Punjab and North Western Frontier Provinces. It studies the divisions, origin and ancestry of various Punjabi Musalman tribes, sketches the history of Punjab starting from Alexander''s invasion and provides useful statistical data regarding the population and geographical distribution of the tribes besides tracing the history of Islamic religion and its doctrines. It covers their characteristics, religious observances, festivals, food habits, customs and ceremonies relating to marriage and burial, language, manners, gestures, laws of inheritance, amusement, games and superstitions, etc. In addition to the Punjabi Musalman tribes described in details, the book also provides a very useful table of other tribes classed as Rajputs and Jats in the Census of 1911, indicating their names, habitat and population.