The root of the Minhas family in Sialkot from which Abdul Rashid descended is the Minhas Rajput clan of Jammu, bordering both modern day Pakistan and India.  Minhas is an off-shoot of Jamwal-Dogra Rajputs, the founders of the city and state of Jammu and its rulers from ancient times.

The Minhas were a warrior clan and it was in the early 13^th century, during the time of the conquests by the early Islamic phase of Muhammed Ghauri, many of these warriors fighting for the Dogras converted to Islam.

The Minhas branch from which Abdul Rashid descended were originally engaged in timber logging, they managed the forest estates of the Dogra rulers of Jammu, and possibly owned some of the land themselves. After logging they would send the timber downstream to the fertile plains of Punjab where it would be distributed.

 

Figure 1: Forests of Jammu Kashmir where logs were sent downriver to Punjab

In the early 1700s, the earliest known direct ancestor of Abdul Rashid, named Rai Luckoo Minhas (b. 1690) migrated down-river to the town of garrison town of Sialkot, at that time a town populated by a mix of Hindu, Sikh and Muslims. His aim was to support his family up-river by establishing a sawing and distribution facility at Sialkot for the family timber floated downstream. The logs were collected from the Chenab river and carried overland in bullock carts the 6 miles south to Sialkot. Here in Sialkot, they were sawn in the newly-created timber mills and loaded again onto bullock carts for distribution around the Punjab. Early accounts were that Rai Luckoo was successful in this venture and his local footprint grew with his sons; Amanat Minhas (b. 1720) and Shahadat Minhas. See attached family tree, Figure 3.  MINHAS FAMILY TREE - 1690 TO PRESENT

Descendants of this branch in Sialkot are also known as Rai Minhas, after Rai Luckoo.

 

Figure 2    : Sialkot: the major town downstream of the river Chenab and Jammu

 

 

Figure 3    : The Minhas Family Tree: click for whole family tree (1690 to 2009)

Not much is known of Shahadat Minhas, however Amanat married and fathered a son, Haji Minhas (b. 1750) and a daughter (unknown). Haji Minhas was a rather frail man and very religious. He was well-respected as he was in the rare position of having performed Haaj. However the timber profession was not for him, and he took up the somewhat less labour-intensive trade of tailoring and settled in the district of Rangpura. Therefore from the late1790s the Minhas family in Sialkot took on this concern as their primary means of income.

Haji Minhas fathered two sons; Mian Hashim Minhas and Mian Qasim Minhas (both born around 1790).  The title Mian (pronounced Miah) was conferred upon them as clan-elders.  The older of the two sons Mian Hashim is the great-grandfather of Abdul Rashid.  Little contact is maintained with the other brother Mian Qasim and his present day descendants.

Mian Hashim had three sons; Mian Noor Ahmed, Mian Ghulam Ali and Mian Ghulam Moyyid-Din (1820 to 1900).  Mian Ghulam Moyyid-Din (1820 to 1900) in turn fathered two sons; Mian Abdus-Samad (born around 1850) and Mian Atta Mohammed (1860 to 1952), three daughters (Fazal Bibi, Aisha Bibi and Karam Bibi)

Atta Mohammed was the grandfather of our father Abdul Rashid.  Our father had very fond memories of him as a child and considered him as a strong unifying force.  Atta Mohammed married Hussain Bibi (see Figure 4) and bore three sons; Meher Ellahi (1887 to 1969) , Fazal Ellahi (1895 to 1994) and Mohamed Sadiq (1908 to 1972), and three daughters; Mehera Bibi (1890 to 1924), Begum Bibi (1900 to 1961) and Barkat Bibi (1905 to 1973).

 

 

 

Figure 4 Mian Atta Mohammed (grandfather of Rashid) and Hussain Bibi (1932)

 

 

 

Figure 5 Mian Atta Mohammed (grandfather of Rashid) (late 1930s)

Meher Ellahi, the father of Abdul Rashid and shown in Figure 6, married Hakim Bibi, daughter of Mian Abdus-Samad (see above). They raised 6 children: 4 sons; Abdul Ghani Minhas (1910 to 1983), Abdul Aziz Minhas (1920 to 2001), Abdul Latif Minhas (1925 to 1984) and Abdul Rashid, and 2 daughters Ghulam Fatima (1933 to 2001) and Ameena Begum (1935 to 1999). See link in Family Tree, Figure 3.

 

 

 

Figure 6  : Meher Ellahi and Hakim Bibi (parents of Rashid)