Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/253

Rh INHABITANTS.] AFGHANISTAN 235 invasion the Ghilzais showed a rooted hostility to the foreigner, and great fidelity to Dost Mahommed, though of a rival clan. It is remarkable that the old Arab geo graphers of the 10th and llth centuries place in the Ghilzai country a people called Khilijis, whom they call a tribe of Turks, to which belonged a famous family of Dehli kings. The probability of the identity of Khilijis and Ghilzais is obvious, and the question touches others regarding the origin of the Afghans, but it does not seem to have been gone into. The Yusvfzais occupy an extensive tract of hills and valleys north of Peshawar, including part of the Peshawar plain. Except those within our Peshawar district, they are independent; they are noted even among Afghans for their turbulence. The Kakars, still retaining in great measure their inde pendence, occupy a wide extent of elevated country in the south-east of Afghanistan, among the spurs of the Toba and Sulimani mountains, bordering on the Biluch tribes. But the region is still very imperfectly known. Of the non-Afghan population associated with the Af ghans, the Tajiks come first in importance and numbers. They are intermingled with the Afghans over the country, though their chief localities are in the west. They are regarded as descendants of the original occiipants of that part of the country, of the old Iranian race; they call themselves Parsiwan, and speak a dialect of Persian. They are a fine athletic people, generally fair in com plexion, and assimilate in aspect, in dress, and much in manners to the Afghans. But they are never nomadic. They are mostly agriculturists, whilst those in towns follow mechanical trades and the like, a thing which the Afghan never does. They are generally devoid of the turbulence of the Afghans, whom they are content to regard as masters or superiors, and lead a frugal, industrious life, without aspiring to a share in the government of the country. Many, however, become soldiers in the Amir s army, and many enlist in our local Panjab regiments. They are zealous Sunnis. The Tajiks of the Daman-i-Koh of Kabul are said to be exceptional in turbulent and vindictive character. The Kizilbashes may be regarded as modern Persians, but more strictly they are Persianised Turks, like the present royal race and predominant class in Persia. They speak pure Persian. Their immigration dates only from the time of Nadir Shah (1737). They are chiefly to be found in towns as merchants, physicians, scribes, petty traders, &c., and are justly looked on as the more educated and superior class of the population. At Kabul they con stitute the bulk of the Amir s cavalry and artillery. Many serve in our Indian regiments of irregular cavalry, and bear a character for smartness and intelligence, as well as good riding. They are Shiahs, and heretics in Afghan eyes. It is to the industry of the Parsiwans and Kizilbashes that the country is indebted for whatever wealth it pos sesses, but few of them ever attain a position which is not in some degree subservient to the Afghan. The Hazards have their stronghold and proper home in the wild mountainous country on the north-west of Afghanistan proper, including those western extensions of Hindu Kush, to which modern geographers have often applied the ancient name of Faropamisus. In these their habitations range generally from a height of 5000 feet to 10,000 feet above the sea. The Hazaras generally have features of Mongol type, often to a degree that we might call exaggerated, and there can be no doubt that they are mainly descended from fragments of Mongol tribes who came from the east with the armies of Chinghiz Khan and his family, though other races may be represented among the tribes called Hazaras. The Hazaras generally are said by Major Leech to be called Moghals by the Ghilzais; and one tribe, still bearing the specific name of Mongol, and speaking a Mongol dialect, is found near the head waters of the Murghab, and also further south on the skirts of the Ghur mountains. But it is remarkable that the Hazaras generally speak a purely Persian dialect. The Mongols of the host of Chinghiz were divided into tomans (ten thousands) and hazaras (thousands), and it is probably in this use of the word that the origin of its present application is to be sought. The oldest occurrence of this application that M. de Khanikoff has met with is in a rescript of Ghazan Khan of Persia, regarding the security of roads in Khorasan, dated A.H. 694 (A.D. 1294-95). Though the Hazaras pay tribute to the Afghan chiefs, they never do so unless payment is enforced by arms. The country which they occupy is very extensive, embracing the upper valleys of the Arghand-ab and the Helmand, both sides of the main range of Hindu Kush, nearly as far east as the longitude of Andarab, the hill country of Bamian, and that at the head waters of the Balkh river, the Murghab, and the Hari-Rud; altogether an area of something like 30,000 square miles. The Hazaras are accused of very loose domestic morals, like the ancient Massagetce, and the charge seems to be credited, at least of certain tribes. They make good powder, are good shots, and, in spite of the nature of their country, are good riders, riding at speed down very steep declivities. They are said to have a yodel like the Swiss. They are often sold as slaves, and as such are prized. During the winter many spread over Afghanistan, and even into the Panjab, in search of work. Excepting near Ghazni, where they hold some lands and villages, the position of the Hazaras found in the proper Afghan country is a menial one. They are Shiahs in religion, with the exception of one fine tribe called the Zeidnat Hazaras, occupying the old territory of Badghis, north of Herat. Eimdk is a term for a sept or section of a tribe. It has come to be applied, much as hazara, to certain nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes west of the Hazaras of whom we have been speaking, and immediately north of Herat. These tribes, it is said, were originally termed &quot; the four Eimaks.&quot; It is difficult in the present state of information regarding them, sometimes contradictory, to discern what is the broad distinction between the Eimaks and the Hazaras, unless it be that the Eimaks are predominantly of Iranian or quasi-Iranian blood, the Hazaras Turanian. The Eimaks are also Sunnis. Part of them are subject to Persia. Ilindkis. This is the name given to people of Hindu descent scattered over Afghanistan. They are said to be of the Ksliatri or military caste. They are occupied in trade ; they are found in most of the large villages, and in the towns form an important part of the population, doing all the banking business of the country, and holding its chief trade in their hands. They pay a high poll-tax,, and are denied many privileges, but thrive notwithstanding. The Jats of Afghanistan doubtless belong to the same vast race as the Jats and Jats who form so large a part of the population of the territories now governed from Lahore and Karachi, and whose origin is so obscure. They are a fine athletic, dark, handsome race, considerable in numbers, but poor, and usually gaining a livelihood as farm-ser vants, barbers, sweepers, musicians, &c. Biluchis. Many of these squat among the abandoned tracts on the lower Helmand; a fierce and savage people, professing Islam, but not observing its precepts, and hold ing the grossest superstitions ; vendetta their most stringent law; insensible to privation, and singularly tolerant of heat ; camel-like in capacity to do without drink ; superior to the Afghans in daring and address, which are displayed in robber raids carried into the very heart of Persia,