Muzaffarids (Gujarat)

According to medieval sources, Zafar Khan was the son of Sahāran (also known as Wajīh-ul-Mulk), a local notable and landholder. The 16th-century Gujarati chronicler Sikandar Ibn Manjhu, author of the Mirʾāt-i-Sikandarī, records that the Tanks and Khatris were originally one community, later separated when the former were expelled due to their fondness for drinking. On the basis of Sikandar’s account, several modern historians identify Zafar Khan’s family as belonging to the Tank subdivision of the Khatri caste from Punjab.^[4][5][6]

Some historians such as Aparna Kapadia offer another account, asserting that Sahāran (also spelled Sadhāran), the father of Zafar Khan, was a Tank Rajput who originally lived in Thanesar in present-day Haryana, although Kapadia also notes the tradition of Khatri Tank descent by Sikander.^[7] Noting the Sikander's account and other local traditions about profession of Zafar Khan's forefathers, some modern writers have also proposed an association between Zafar Khan’s family and the Kalal caste, traditionally linked with wine-selling.^[8][9]

Zafar Khan's father Saharan was a Jat Chaudhary who was an agriculturist by profession.^[10][11] Zafar Khan adopted the name Wajih-ul-Mulk. Wajih-ul-Mulk and his brother were influential Chaudharis who were agriculturists by profession but could also muster thousands of fighting men on their call.^[12] His Hindu forebears claimed descent from Rāmachandra, who the Hindus worshipped as God. Such genealogies were fabricated to glorify royalty and were generally not accepted.^[13]

• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties