Many historians have written about the Pashtuns of the North West Frontier. They were, and are, a uniquely independent people occupying one of the most hostile pieces of land in the world. The Pashtun know their land as Pakhtunkhwa, while their preferred way of life was Pakhtunwali, a strict code of hospitality and revenge.
Harry Lumsden, one of the great early British commanders of the Guides, said of the Pashtun: "Everywhere family is arrayed against family, and tribe against tribe, in fact, one way and another every man"s hand is against his neighbour."
In 1898, the Army believed there were around 200,000 tribal warriors with approximately 48,000 rifles. Ownership of a rifle gave a Pashtun warrior great prestige, and the British tried all they could to stem the flow of modern weapons
