According to a narrative, the Bangash tribe descended from a man named Ismail, who is described as a governor of Multan whose 11th-generation ancestor was Khalid ibn al-Walid, the famous Arab commander of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, But they are most likely descended from their Tribe Name Originator Banga who was a friend of Sikandar Shah (Orakzai) became the closest to the ruler of Kohat.

After the ruler died he tried to secure the throne and betrayed his childhood best friend Sikandar Shah (Ancestor of Orakzais) as written in the Book History of Pathans, by Haroon Rashid, Volume-IV p-52).

[1] According to the legend, Ismail moved from Multan to settle in Gardez, Paktia, while his wife was from Farmul in Urgun, Paktika.

Ismail had two sons, Gār and Sāmil, who were the progenitors of the modern Gari and Samilzai clans of the Bangash, respectively.

[4][5] In 1505, after plundering Kohat for two days, Babur's Timurid army marched southwest to raid Bangash district.

[6][7] In the second half of the 16th century, the Bangash tribe joined the Roshani movement of Pir Roshan, an ethnic Ormur,[8] who migrated with his family and few of his disciples from Waziristan to Tirah.

Pir Jalala was succeeded by his nephew Ahdad, who set up a base in Charkh, Logar, and attacked Mughal-held Kabul and Jalalabad several times between 1611 and 1615, but was unsuccessful.

In 1630, when Pir Roshan's great-grandson, Abdul Qadir, launched attacks on the Mughal army in Peshawar, thousands of Pashtuns from the Bangash, Afridi, Mohmand, Kheshgi, Yusufzai, and other tribes took part.

He was succeeded by his brother Sulaiman Khan Karrani, who shifted the capital from Gaur to Tandah (also in Malda district) in 1565.

However, the Pashtuns and the local landlords known as Baro Bhuyans led by Isa Khan continued to resist the Mughal invasion.

[20] Ahmad Khan practised the Utara, a peculiarity of Indian Muslim horsemen, which was the act of dismounting and fighting on foot in times of crisis, which the Hindustanis such as the Sadaat-e-Bara considered to be proof of exceptional bravery, something ridiculed by the Persian counterparts.

The abolition of the mint dealt a heavy blow to the thriving grain trade and precipitated a monetary crisis in the urban and rural areas of the region.

[26] The Bangash Nawabs continued to rule Farrukhabad until they were defeated by the British at Kannauj on 23 October 1857 during the War of Independence.

The Bangash Pashtuns can be found all over Pakistan but majority reside in the cities of Kohat and Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as the Kurram Valley and Peshawar.

The Bangash descent Pathans of Bangladesh are Muhajirs that migrated from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to East Pakistan.