During the 19th century, the tribal group known as the Sherani was recorded as living on the northwest Punjab border in what became the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of British India. After annexation by the British, their homeland became a part of the Sherani Agency. The agency occupied an area of , and had a population of 12,371, according to the 1901 census. The Sherani occupied the principal portion of the mountain known as the Takht-e-Sulaiman, and the country southeast from there to the border of Dera Ismail Khan district, close to Balochistan. They were constrained on the north by the Gomal Pass, and beyond that by the Mahsud and Waziri tribes; on the south by the Ustarana and Zimri tribes; and on the west by the Harifal, Kakar, and Mandokhel tribes.