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Tajiks
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Tajik ( Tajik; UniPers: Tâjik; ; ) is a general designation for a wide range of mostly Persian-speaking peoples of Iranian origin, with traditional homelands in present-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, southern Uzbekistan, north west Pakistan and western China. Because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, large refugee populations can also be found in both Iran and Pakistan.
Alternative names include Farsi (Persian), Farsiwan (Persian-speaking), and Dihgan or Dehqan (cf.
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Tajik ( Tajik; UniPers: Tâjik; ; ) is a general designation for a wide range of mostly Persian-speaking peoples of Iranian origin, with traditional homelands in present-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, southern Uzbekistan, north west Pakistan and western China. Because of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, large refugee populations can also be found in both Iran and Pakistan.
Alternative names include Farsi (Persian), Farsiwan (Persian-speaking), and Dihgan or Dehqan (cf. , literally "peasant", in a wider sense "settled" in contrast to "nomadic").
As a self-designation, the term Tajik, which earlier on had been more or less pejorative, has
become acceptable only during the last decades, particularly as a result of Soviet administration in Central Asia.
The Persian-speaking Tajiks are, at least in terms of language, culture, and history, closely related to the Persian-speakers of Iran. The Tajiks of China, although known by the name Tajik, speak Eastern Iranian languages and are distinct.
History
The Tajiks trace their ancestry to the East Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, and Parthians, which means that the historical ancestors of the Tajiks did not speak Persian - the southwestern Iranian language, today known as 'Farsi' in Iran and Afghanistan. The 'Tajiks' adoption of the now dominant southwestern branch Persian language is believed to have as its root cause, the Islamic conquest of Central Asia by the Arabs. This conquest sent large numbers of Persians fleeing into Central Asia. Subsequently, many Persians, after conversion to Islam, entered Central Asia as military forces and settled in the conquered lands. As a result of these waves of Persian migration (Zoroastrian and Muslim) over the course of more than 200 years, the Tajiks have ethnic Persian ancestry in addition to their original East-Iranian ancestry. Cultural dissemination through Persian literature also helped to establish the new language, as well as intermittent military dominance. According to Iranologist Richard Nelson Frye, the Persian migration to Central Asia may be considered the beginning of the "modern" Tajik nation, and ethnic Persians along with East-Iranian Bactrians and Sogdians, as the main ancestors of "modern" Tajiks.
Sir George Abraham Grierson holds that the Tajiks of Badakshan belong to the same Aryan race as do the other Ghalcha speakers of the Tajikstan “. George Grierson also records that the speech of Badakshan was a Ghalcha till about three centuries ago when it was supplanted by a form of Persian. It has been shown that the modern Ghalcha dialects, Valkhi, Shigali, Sriqoli, Jebaka (also called Sanglichi or Ishkashim), Munjani and Yidga , mainly spoken in Pamirs and countries on the headwaters of the Oxus, still use terms derived from ancient Kamboja verb Savati in the sense "to go". Furthermore, the Yagnobi dialect spoken in Yagnobi province around the headwaters of Zeravshan valley in Sogdiana, also still contains a relic "Su" from the ancient Kamboja Savati in the sense "to go". The ancient Kambojas, were originally located in the Badakshan, Pamirs and northern territories including Yagnobi province in the doab of the Oxus and Jaxartes. On the east they were bounded roughly by Yarkand and/or Kashgar, on the west by Bahlika (Uttaramadra), on the northwest by Sogdiana, on the north by Uttarakuru, on the southeast by Darada, and on the south by Gandhara. Numerous Indologists have located Kamboja in Pamirs and Badakshan and the Parama Kamboja, in the Trans-Pamirian territories, comprising Zeravshan valley and north up the parts of Sogdiana/Fargana—in the Sakadvipa or Scythia of the classical writers. The Ghalcha speaking Tajik population occupy, more or less, the same territories, which in ancient time, were held by east Iranian Kambojas and the Parama Kambojas. This people are stated to have held their own in spite of centuries of Hunic, Turkic and Mongol invasions. Based on George Grierson's Sociolinguistics researches in India, eminent scholars like Dr J. C. Vidyalankara, Dr Moti Chandra, Dr S. K. Chatterjee, Dr J. L. Kamboj etc write that the Tajiks are the modern representatives of the ancient Kambojas/Parama Kambojas. Some scholars hold that the Ghalcha Tajiks are descendants both of the Kambojas as well as the Tukharas
The geographical division between the eastern and western Iranians is often considered historically and currently to be the desert Dasht-e Kavir, situated in the center of the Iranian plateau.
Other groups
The Mountain Tajiks or Pamiris of the Badakhshan region in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, as well as the smaller group usually known as "Tajik" in China's western Xinjiang region are descendants of the original East-Iranian tribes.
Origin of the term
"Tajik" is a word of Turko-Mongol origin and means (literally) Non-Turk. The 17th century Persian dictionary Farhang Burhan Qati' (????? ????? ????) by Muhammad Husayn ibn Khalaf Tabrizi also defines it as "non-Arab" and "non-Turk". It has the same root as the word Tat which is used by Turkic-speakers for the Persian-speaking population of the Caucasus. In a historical context, it is synonymous with Iranian and particularly with Persian. Since the Turko-Mongol conquest of Central Asia, Persian-speakers in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and all the way to Pakistan and Kashmir have been identified as Tajiks. The term is mainly used as opposed to "Turk" and "Mongol". "Tajik" is just another word for "Persian". In the past 1200 years, Persians had to face 2 important foreign invasions: Arabs and Turks. Although the Iranian people have always called themselves and their lands "Iran", "Irani", the foreign invaders never called them that way. The Greeks called them "Persians", the Arabs called them "Ajam", and Turks called them "Tajik". The origin of the name Tajik has been embroiled in twentieth-century political disputes about whether Turkic or Iranian peoples were the original inhabitants of Central Asia. The explanation most favored by scholars is that the word evolved from the name of a pre-Islamic Arab tribe.
History of the name
First mentioned by the Uyghur historian Mahmoud Al-Kashghari, Tajik is an old Turkic expression referring to all Persian-speaking peoples of Central Asia. From the 11th century on, it came to be applied principally to all East-Iranians, and later specifically to Persian-speakers. It is hard to establish the use of the word before the Turkic- and Mongol conquest of Central Asia, and since at least the 15th century it has been used by the region's Iranian population to distinguish themselves from the Turks. Persians in modern Iran who live in the Turkic-speaking areas of the country, also call themselves Tajik, something remarked upon in the 15th century by the poet Mir Ali Šer Nava'i. In addition, Tibetans call all Persian-speakers (including those in Iran) Tajik.
The word "Tajik" in medieval literature
The word Tajik is extensively used in Persian literature and poetry, always as a synonym for Persian. The Persian poet Sa'adi, for example, writes:
It is clear that he, too, uses the word as opposed to Turk. The oldest known reference of this usage of the word Tajik in Persian literature, however, can be found in the writings of Djalal al-Din Rumi, himself being an Persian-speaker - and thus a "Tajik" - from present-day Afghanistan.
Other meanings of the word
At certain periods of history, the word Tajik also referred to Persian-speaking scholars and clerks of early Islamic time who were schooled in Arabic. In the Safavid Empire, Tajik referred to the Iranian administrators and nobles of the kingdom, linked to the so-called Qezelbâš movement.
According to some old Tajik folktales, as well as old Persian books, the word "Tajik" literally refers to the "people having the crown" ("Taj" means crown in Persian). It is believed that it initially refers to the East-Iranian people who ruled over the Bactrian, Soghdian, Arian, Kabul and Badakhshan highlands and later over other areas of Central Asia and beyond - a region traditionally known as the "crown of the world".
Alternative names
As an alternative, the term Sart was also used as a synonym for Tajik and Persian in the medieval - post Genghis Khan - period. Turkic people named by this word the local East-Iranian population. However, the term was abolished by the Soviet government of the Central Asian states.
Location
The Tajiks are the principal ethnic group in most of Tajikistan, as well as in northern and western Afghanistan. North and western Pakistan. Tajiks are a substantial minority in Uzbekistan, whilst and a few are found in Xinjiang, China, as well as in overseas communities. Historically, the ancestors of the Tajiks lived in a larger territory in Central Asia than now.
Afghanistan
Tajiks comprise between 27-34% of the population of Afghanistan. They predominate four of the largest cities in Afghanistan (Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, and Ghazni) and the northern and western provinces of Balkh, Parwan, Kapisa, Panjshir, Baghlan, Takhar, Badakhshan, and Ghor, large parts of Konduz Province, and they predominate in the city of Herat and large parts of Farah Province. In addition, Tajiks live in all other cities and provinces in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, the Tajiks do not organize themselves by tribes and refer to themselves by they region, province, city, town, or village they are from; such as Badakhshani, Baghlani, Mazari, Panjsheri, Kabuli, Herati, etc.
Tajikistan
Today, Tajiks comprise around 79.9% of the population of Tajikistan.
Uzbekistan
In Uzbekistan the Tajiks are the largest part of the population of the ancient cities of Bukhara and Samarqand, and are found in large numbers in the Surxondaryo Province in the south and along Uzbekistan's eastern border with Tajikistan. According to official statistics (2000), Surxondaryo Province accounts for 20.4% of all Tajiks in Uzbekistan, with another 24.3% in Samarqand and Bukhara provinces.
Official statistics in Uzbekistan state that the Tajik community comprises 5% of the nation's total population. However, these numbers do not include ethnic Tajiks who, for a variety of reasons, choose to identify themselves as Uzbeks in population census forms. During the Soviet "Uzbekization" supervised by Sharof Rashidov, the head of the Uzbek Communist Party, Tajiks had to choose either stay in Uzbekistan and get registered as Uzbek in their passports or leave the republic for the less developed agricultural and mountainous Tajikistan. It is only in the last population census (1989) that the nationality could be reported not according to the passport, but freely declared on the basis of the respondent's ethnic self-identification. This had the effect of increasing the Tajik population in Uzbekistan from 3.9% in 1979 to 4.7% in 1989. Subjective expert estimates suggest that Tajiks may make up 20%- 30% of Uzbekistan's population.
Kazakhstan
According to the 1999 population census, there were 26,000 Tajiks in Kazakhstan (0.17% of the total population), about the same number as in the 1989 census.
Kyrgyzstan
According to official statistics, there were about 47,500 Tajiks in Kyrgyzstan in 2007 (0.9% of the total population), up from 42,600 in the 1999 census and 33,500 in the 1989 census.
Turkmenistan
According to the , there were 3,149 Tajiks in Tukrmenistan, or less than 0.1% of the total population of 3.5 million at that time. The first population census of independent Turkmenistan conducted in 1995 showed 3,103 Tajiks in a population of 4.4 million (0.07%), most of them (1,922) concentrated in the eastern provinces of Lebap and Mary adjoining the borders with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
Pakistan
Tajiks have inhabited Pakistan's north western valleys which lay adjacent to Tajikistan since ancient time, though many are not counted as ethnic Tajik's due to Census irregularities. Tajik's historically, travelled to the Indus region of Pakistan as religious mystics (Sufis), for commerce/trade and as learned scholars. There are many shrines doted throughout Pakistan in honour of noted Tajik noblemen. In recent years, many Tajiks from Tajikistan have also settled in Pakistan due to the economic conditions prevalent in their home country, many have settled in the northern city of Ishkuman. In 1979, with the invasion by the Soviet Union of Afghanistan, a large number of Tajik refugees from that country came and settled throughout Pakistan. Exact numbers are difficult to ascertain as many don't have official identity cards or are counted as being Chitrali or Gilgiti in official census figures.
China
There is a population of approximately 41,000 (est. 2000) Persian speakers in China's western Xinjiang region with 60% of them living in Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County. This number includes the Persian speaking Sarikolis and Wakhis who are often considered Tajiks.
Russia
The population of Tajiks in Russia is 120,000 according to the 2002 census, up from 38,000 in the last Soviet census of 1989. Most Tajiks came to Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Physical characteristics
On the whole, Tajiks are a genetically eclectic population, displaying a wide range of phenotypes. Physically, most Tajiks resemble the Mediterranean-Caucasian stock. The typical Tajik has dark hair and eyes, and medium to fair skin. Lighter hair and eye colors are relatively common and are the majority in western Afghanistan (e.g., Herat and Ghor). A small minority of Tajiks in Central Asia also show a Turko-Mongol admixture. Remote mountain Tajiks more closely resemble the ancient Indo-European populations who dominated the region prior to the Turko-Mongol invasions and migrations.
The government of Afghanistan officially distinguishes Tajiks from the Farsiwan and other Persian subgroups, such as Chahar Aimak or Hazara, usually due to religion or physical appearance.
Culture
Language
The language of the Tajiks, as of their Persian brothers in Iran, is Persian, also called Dari or Parsi-e Darbari (Persian of royal courts/Language of royal court). The cyrillic variety written in Tajikistan is called Tajiki. Persian is an Indo-European language. Tajiks speak an eastern dialect of Persian, historically called Dari or also Parsi-e Darbari (see also the Persian population of eastern Iran´s dialect). Historically, it was considered the local dialect of Persian spoken by the Tajik/Persian ethnic group in Central Asia, from where it spread westward only to drive the Arabic language out as the mothertongue of ethnic Persians. In Afghanistan, unlike in Tajikistan, Tajiks continue to use the Perso-Arabic script as well as in Iran. However, when the Soviet Union introduced the Latin script in 1928, and later the Cyrillic script, the Persian dialect of Tajikistan (soghdi dialect) came to be considered a separate (Persian) language. This dialect remains partly influenced by Russian for historical reasons.
A transcribed Tajik text can, in general, be easily read and understood by Persians outside Tajikistan, and vice versa, and both groups can converse with each other. The languages of the Persians of Iran and of the Tajiks of central Asia have a common origin. This is underscored by the Tajiks' claim to such famous writers as Omar Khayyám, Firdausi, Anwari, Rumi, other famous Persian poets. Russian is widely used in government and business in Tajikistan as well, but the government of Tajikistan is trying to replace it gradually with full Persian.
Religion
The great majority of Tajiks follow the Sunni Islam, although small Twelver and Ismaili Shia minorities also exist in scattered pockets. Some of Sunni's famous scholars were from East-Iranian regions and therefore can arguably viewed as Afghan/Tajik. They include Abu Hanifa, Al-Ghazali, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood, and Imam Bukhari amongst many others.
In Afghanistan, Tajiks who follow Twelver Shiism are called Farsiwan. Additionally, small Tajik Jewish communities (known as Bukharian Jews) have existed since ancient times in the cities of Bukhara, Samarqand, Dushanbe, and other Tajik populated centers. Over the 20th century, the majority of these Tajik-speaking Jews emigrated to Israel and the United States. Most of these Jewish emigrants have negative views towards Tajikistan especially because of the destruction of the Dushanbe synagogue.
Recent developments
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the civil war in Afghanistan both gave rise to a resurgence in Tajik nationalism across the region. Tajikistan in particular has been a focal point for this movement, and the government there has made a conscious effort to revive the legacy of the Samanid empire, the first Tajik-dominated state in the region after the Arab advance. For instance, the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, dropped the Russian suffix "-ov" from his surname and directed others to adopt Tajik names when registering births. In an interview to Iranian news media in May 2008, Tajikistan's deputy culture minister said Tajikistan would study the issue of switching its Tajik alphabet from Cyrillic to Persian script used in Iran and Afghanistan when the government feels that "the Tajik people became familiar with the Persian alphabet".
See also
Further reading
External links
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