Mengal is an ethnic Brahui tribe inhabiting Balochistan, Pakistan. It belongs to the Jhalawani branch of the Brahui tribes, and is bilingual in Brahui and Balochi.

Origins

According to the official list by Mir Ahmad Yar, the last Khan of Kalat, Mengal was originally one of the Jaṭṭ tribes inhabiting Balochistan. In the Balochi language, plurals of substantives and collective nouns are formed, generally, by adding the suffix "gal" to the noun itself, tribes like Jadgal, Kurdgal are formed in this manner, similarly the term Mengal (Meng-gal,) merely denotes the Meng (Ming, or Men, or Min) name of a tribe and the suffix "gal" means (Speech and group), thus meaning (the group of Mins).

Tribal area

The Mengal tribal area is around 70000 sqmi, stretching from the Helmand River in the North to Lasbela District in the south, and bordering on the province of Sindh to the east.

Prominent people