and precipitated a monetary crisis in the urban and rural areas of the region. The Bangash Nawabs continued to rule Farrukhabad until they were defeated by the British at Kannauj on 23 October 1857 during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Today, many Bangash are settled in Uttar Pradesh, most notably in Farrukhabad. Bhopal State The Orakzai tribe is historically closely related to the Bangash; their traditional homeland (Orakzai District) was part of Bangash district. In 1723, Dost Mohammad Khan, who belonged to the Orakzai tribe and was formerly a mercenary in the Mughal army, founded the Bhopal State in the present-day Madhya Pradesh state of central India. After his death in 1728, his descendants, the Nawabs of Bhopal, continued ruling the state. Between 1819 and 1926, the state was ruled by four women – the Nawab Begums – unique in the royalty of those days. The third Nawab Begum of Bhopal, Shah Jahan Begum (1868–1901), built the Taj Mahal palace at Bhopal as her residence. Hamidullah Khan, the last sovereign Nawab of the dynasty, officially acceded the state to India in 1949. Pashto dialect The Bangash speak a northern or "harder" variant of Pashto similar to that of the Afridi dialect, but slightly differing in some lexicographical and phonetic features. Religion Most Bangash follow the religion of Islam, split almost evenly between Twelver Shia Muslims and Hanafi Sunni Muslims. The Bangash, along with the closely related Orakzais and Turis, are the only Pashtun tribes with large Shia populations. The Shia Bangash are more concentrated around Upper Kurram and Hangu in areas like Usterzai, while the Sunni Bangash are more concentrated around Lower Kurram and Tall. There is a small minority of Sikhs among the Bangash in Hangu, Orakzai, and Kurram. Due to the ongoing insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, like many other tribal Pashtuns, some Pashtun Sikhs were internally displaced from their ancestral villages to settle in cities like Peshawar and Nankana Sahib. Demographics The Bangash are primarily found in Pakistan, with a sizeable population also found in Afghanistan. The Bangash Pashtuns can be found all over Pakistan but majority reside in the cities of Kohat and Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as the Kurram Valley and Peshawar. In Afghanistan, they will be found in the districts that make up the historic "Loya Paktia" region, including Paktia, Paktika, and Khost. Between both Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are around 500,000 Bangash