The Chibs descend from the Katoch rajas of Kangra, one of the oldest royal houses of the Himalayas. Around 1400 Raja Partab Chand, son of Raja Megh Chand, founded the Chib state of Bhimber, and his son Chib Chand gave the clan and the land of Chibhal their name.
Raja Shadab Khan, also called Sandeep Chand or Raja Dharam Chand and remembered as Baba Shadi Shaheed, was the first Chib ruler to embrace Islam. Every Muslim Chib family traces its descent from him, and his shrine near Bhimber is the spiritual heart of the clan.
For three centuries the Mughal emperors passed through Bhimber on their way to Kashmir. The Chib capital stood at the foot of the hills, where the imperial road began its climb, and the ruins of the imperial sarai still stand above the town.
In 1812 Raja Sultan Khan held the heights above Bhimber against a Sikh army sent under Prince Kharak Singh and forced it to retreat: the proudest victory in the history of the Chib rajas.
Raja Sultan Khan defended Bhimber against the Sikh kingdom of Lahore for more than a decade. Imprisoned, released and finally killed at Jammu, he was the last independent ruler of the Chibs.
Faith, lineage, honour and hospitality: the customs that have bound the Muslim Chib Rajputs together for five centuries, from the old fiefs of the Bhimber kingdom to the family gatherings of today.
Perched above a lake in the Samahni valley, Baghsar Fort watched over the Mughal road to Kashmir. It came under the Chib rajas of Bhimber, and it holds the burial place of Emperor Jahangir’s entrails.
High above the Jhelum at Mangla stands an ancient fort long called a gateway to Kashmir. According to the histories of the hill states, it was the capital of Khari-Khariali, the state founded by Kharak Chand, brother of Raja Chib Chand.
On a high ridge above Karjai village near Khuiratta in Kotli District stand the ruins of Karjai Fort, also known as Devigarh, one of the hill forts of the old Chibhal country.
At Jandi Chontra near Bhimber lies the shrine of Baba Shadi Shaheed, ancestor of the Muslim Chibs. For generations Chib families have brought their sons here for the ceremony of the first haircut.
