Mahsud

Mehsud

ماسید‎
A Pashtun of the Mehsud tribe during the anti-British War in Waziristan, 1919
Languages
Pashto
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Wazir, Bannuzai, Dawar, Zadran, other Karlani Pashtun tribes

The Mahsud or Maseed is a Karlani Pashtun tribe inhabiting mostly the South Waziristan Agency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.^[1][2][3]

The Maseeds usually pronounce their name Māsīd. They are divided into three great clans or subtribes, namely Alizai, Bahlolzai, and Shamankhel. Maseeds usually call these Drei Māsīd, meaning the "Three Maseeds". Each tribe has his own Khan.^[1]

A minor number of Maseed are settled in the Logar Province of Afghanistan, especially in Charkh District, Baraki barak and Muhammad Agha, but also in Wardak, Ghazni and Kunduz Provinces. The Maseeds also inhabit the center and north of South Waziristan valley, surrounded on three sides by the Darweshkhel Wazirs, and being shut off by the Bettanis Pashtun tribe on the east from the Derajat and Bannu districts. Two Pashtun tribes, the Ahmadzai Wazirs and the Maseeds (Mahsuds), inhabit and dominate South Waziristan. Within the heart of Maseed territory in South Waziristan lies the influential Ormur (Burki) tribe's stronghold of Kaniguram.^[4] The Ormurs are considered by other tribes of South Waziristan to be close brethren of the Maseeds due to marital and other ties and the fact that the Ormurs have lived in and controlled Kaniguram for over a thousand years.^{[citation needed]} There are also some Maseeds living in the UAE, Germany and the United Kingdom.