Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 6.djvu/93

 AHMED KHAN. (296)

HE Nizamanees have been illustrated in plate ante, No. 258, and a second instance is given, on account of the difference in costume and general features of the tribe. The person represented wears a kurti, or coat of quilted silk as a cold weather dress, not unlike an English dressing-gown; over it is a bulky kumur-bund, or waistband, tightly wound round the person, over which is the soft leather sword-belt; the usual Sindee cap completes the dress. Ahmed Khan, the subject of the Photograph, is the son of Mahomed Khan, a member of the Lushkurianee division of the Nizamanees, a much esteemed adherent of the late Noor Mahomed Talpoor. He possesses a jahgeer, or estate, in the Hyderabad collectorate.

The Nizamanees are a large tribe of Belochees, who take their name from a common ancestor, "Nizam," but who are also subdivided into certain houses and families. Many of them are jahgeerdars, or estate holders, and many are employes of Government. They may be said to form honourable exception to the ordinary Belochees in respect of education. They maintain schools of their own foundation, and great numbers of the tribe, both high and low, have at least acquired proficiency in reading and writing Persian and Sindee. The Nizamanees are distinguished from the Talpoors and IMurrees by squareness of forehead and straightness of nose, the latter being the most marked characteristic.

The ordinary system of education among the Nizamanees is very simple. In Persian, and Sindee which is a distinct language of its own peculiar to the country, reading, writing, and simple arithmetic are taught: with the forms of letter writing, private and official, including titles of address. As the student advances, he may be taught in Persian, tales and poems from the Goolistan and other works, and extracts fr-om the Shah Nameh, or History of the Persian Kings; if he be destined for a religious life, Arabic grammar is added, in order to understand the Koran; mantiq, or logic, in its elementary books, rhetoric, and in some instances elementary algebra. With this preparation the Koran is studied,