Sartor Faqir (died 1917), born Saidullah Khan, was an Afghan mullah and a leader of the anti-British resistance during the late 19th century. He was nicknamed the "Mad Mullah" for his fanatical religiosity and his belief that he was capable of miraculous powers.
Biography[]
Saidullah Khan was born in the village of Rega in the Buner Valley of present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and he belonged to the Yousafzai tribe. Saidullah was educated in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan for ten years before returning to Buner in 1895 and declaring a jihad against the British Empire in 1895, opposing the division of Pashtun lands by the British Durand Line. In 1897, he led 100,000 Pashtun tribesmen in an uprising that culminated in the Siege of Malakand, and he also persuaded other Afghan chieftains to invade India, resulting in the Battle of Saragarhi. The British were ultimately able to make agreements with other local tribes and rulers to counter Saidullah, who was forced to make his own agreements with the British. His resistance movement broke up on his death in 1917.