Tajiks (تاجيک Тоҷик)
Avicenna • Rumi • Beruni • Ahmad Shah Massoud
Total population
c. 16.5 to 28.5 million
Regions with significant populations
Afghanistan 8,610,279 [1]  Tajikistan 5,849,331 [2]  Uzbekistan         (estimates vary) 1,365,356 4,915,284 11,000,000 [3] [4] [5]  Iran 1,700,000 (Afghan refugees)  Pakistan 1,100,000 (Afghan refugees)  Russia 500,000  Germany 120,000  United States 93,000  Qatar 87,000  China 41,083
Language(s)
Persian (varieties of Dari and Tajik Persian)
Religion(s)
Islam (predominantly Sunni, with sizable Ithna Ashari and Ismaili minorities)

Tājīk (Persian: تاجيک; UniPers: Tâjik; Tajik: Тоҷик) is a term generally applied to Iranian-speaking peoples living to the east and northeast of modern Iran. Among the Iranian languages that linguists have identified as being spoken by Tajiks are "Western Farsi", "Tajiki" and "Shughni".^[6] The traditional Tajik homelands are in present-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, western China, and Chitral.

Alternative names for the Tajiks are Fārsī (Persian), Fārsīwān (Persian-speaking), and Dīhgān (literally "village settlers" in contrast to "nomadic") ^[7].

History

Main articles: Iranian peoples, Persian people, Farsiwan, and Persian language

Like all Iranian-speakers, and also the Indic, Dard, and Nuristani peoples, the Tajiks trace their origins to the ancient Aryan nomads^[8] who settled in Central Asia as early as 4000 years ago.

The Tajiks trace their more immediate ancestry to the East Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, and Parthians, which means that the historical ancestors of the Tajiks did not speak Persian - the south-western Iranian language, today known as Farsi in Iran and Dari in Afghanistan. The Tajiks' adoption of New-Persian language is believed to have been caused by the Islamic conquest of the Central Asia by the Arabs, which sent large numbers of Persians to Central Asia, India and even southwest of China. Additionally, many Persians also entered the Central Asian region as forces converted to Islam, and settled in the conquered lands. As a result of these waves of Persian migration (Zoroastrian and Muslim) in the course of more than 200 years, in addition to their East-Iranian ancestry, the Tajiks also have an important ethnic Persian ancestry which eventually resulted in the general adoption of the (West Iranian) Persian language. 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.^[9]

Geographical border between the eastern and the western Iranians was and is a desert Dasht-e Kavir, situated in the center of the Iranian plateau.

Other groups

There are other Iranian-speakers in Central Asia such as the Hazara and Aimak who originate from the Mongol conquerors of Central Asia in the 13th century, and subsequently adopted the local Iranian languages. The so-called 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

"Tājīk" is a word of Turko-Mongol origin and means (literally) Non-Turk. It has the same root as the word Tat which is used by Turkic-speakers for the Iranian-speaking population of the Caucasus. In a historical context, it is synonymous with Iranian^[10] and particularly with Persian. Since the Turko-Mongol conquest of Central Asia, Iranian-speakers in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and all the way to Pakistan, Kashmir and India have been identified as Tājīks. The term is mainly used as opposed to "Turk" and "Mongol".

History of the name

First mentioned by the Uyghur historian Mahmoud Al-Kāshgharī, Tājīk is an old Turkic expression referring to all Iranian-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.^[10] 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 Tājīk, something remarked upon in the 15th century by the poet Mīr Alī Šer Navā'ī.^[11] In addition, Tibetans call all Iranian-speakers (including those in Iran) Tājīk.

The word "Tājīk" in medieval literature

The word Tājīk 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 the word Tajik in Persian literature, however, can be found in the writings of Djalāl al-Dīn Rūmī, himself being an Iranian-speaker - and thus a "Tājīk" - from Central Asia.^[12]

Other meanings of the word

At certain periods of history, the word Tājīk also referred to Iranian-speaking scholars and clerks of early Islamic time who were schooled in Arabic. In the Safavid Empire, Tājīk referred to the Iranian administrators and nobles of the kingdom, linked to the so-called Qezelbâš movement.

According to some old Tājīk folktales, as well as old Persian books, the word "Tājīk" literally refers to the "people having the crown ("Tāj" in Tajik, Persian)". It is believed that it initially refers to the East-Iranian people who ruled over the Bactrian, Soghdian 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

Main article: Sart

As an alternative, the term Sart was also used as a synonym for Tājīk 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

Tājīk are the principal ethnic group in most of Tajikistan, as well as in northern and western Afghanistan. In Uzbekistan the Tājīk 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. Historically, the ancestors of the Tajiks lived in a larger territory in Central Asia then now.

A view of the Registan architectural monuments in Samarkand. Although the second largest city of Uzbekistan, it is predominantly a Tajik populated city, along with Bukhara

Today, Tajiks comprise around 79.9% of the population of Tajikistan, and between 27-33% of the population of Afghanistan. Official statistics in Uzbekistan state that the Tajik community comprises 10% of the nation's total population. However, these numbers do not include ethnic Tajiks, who for a variety of reasons, declare themselves to be ethnic Uzbeks.^[13] 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 a less developed agricultural mountainous Tajikistan. Tajiks may make up closer to 15 to 45 percent of Uzbekistan's population.

There are an estimated 700,000 to 1 million Tajiks found in western Pakistan (NWFP), most being refugees from the Soviet war in Afghanistan while others are native to various regions such as Chitral (see Wakhi language) and the Gilgit Agency. In the last decade, many Tajik economic and migrant workers from Tajikistan have settled in Pakistan's Northern Areas, particularly in the city of Ishkuman where they are active in business as well as trade; there is also a sizeable community further south in Islamabad and Lahore.

A modern example of Persian miniature: painting is an important element of Tājīk culture

Though Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz, Baghlan, Kapisa, Balkh, Jawzjan, Parwan, Kabul, Ghazni, Ghor, Farah and Herat are named as mainly Tajik inhabited areas in Afghanistan but Tajiks are living in almost all parts and provinces of Afghanistan. Upper and central parts of Laghman, Surkhrood in Nangarhar, Gardez in Paktia, Urgoon in Paktika, Toopkhana locality in Kandahar Provinces are of significant Tajik or Persian speaking population. However, in Logar, Wardak and Ghazni Provinces in Afghanistan, more or less, one to two-third of their population is comprised of Tajiks.

Source: Afghanistan census 1975.

Language

Main articles: Tajik language and Persian language

The language of the Tajiks is Persian, also called Dari. The variety spoken in Tajikistan is called Tajik. It is an Indo-European language, more specifically part of the Iranian language group. Tajik is an offspring of the Persian language, and belongs—along with Afghanistan's Dari—to the Eastern dialects of Persian. Historically, it was considered the local dialect of Persian spoken by the Tajik ethnic group in Central Asia, however Tajik has far fewer Arabic loan words than the Persian spoken in Iran. In Afghanistan Tajiks continue to use the Arabic script. However, when the Soviet Union introduced the use of the Latin script in 1928, and later the Cyrillic script, Tajik came to be considered a separate language in Tajikistan. The language remains greatly influenced by Russian because of political borders. A transcribed Tajik text can, in general, be easily read and understood by a speaker of the western dialect of Persian, and vice versa, and speakers of Tajik and the western Persian can readily converse with each other. The common origin of the two languages is underscored by the Tajiks' claim to such famous writers as Omar Khayyám, Firdausi and Rumi. Russian is widely used in government and business in Tajikistan as well.

Children in Tajikistan

Physical characteristics

Physically, most Tajiks resemble the Mediterranean stock.^[14] The average Tajik has dark hair and eyes with medium to fair skin. Light hair and eyes are relatively common, particularly in northern regions such as Badakhshan. A minority of Tajiks in Central Asia show definite Turkic-Mongol admixture, while remote mountain Tajiks appear to more closely resemble the Indo-European Soghdian, Bactrian, and Scythian populations that existed before the Turkic and Mongol invasions and migrations. A few Tajiks in Afghanistan also show traces of Turkic-Mongol ancestry (possibly derived from the Hazaras and/or Uzbeks). In addition, Tajiks are often distinguished from the related Farsiwan by religion as opposed to appearance. The Tajiks, as a whole, are a somewhat eclectic population genetically and display a wide range of phenotypes.^[15]

Religion

Mazari Sharif's Blue Mosque in Afghanistan. Many such architectural monuments can be attributed to the efforts of the Tajik peoples who are predominantly followers of Islam today.

The great majority of Tajiks follow the Sunnite Islam, although small Ismaili and Jafari Shia minorities also exist in scattered pockets. Some of Sunni's famous scholars were from East-Iranian regions and therefore can arguably viewed as Tajik. They include Abu Hanifa, Al-Ghazali, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood, and Imam Bukhari amongst many others.

In Afghanistan, Tajiks who follow Jafari Shiism are called Farsiwan^{[citation needed]}. Additionally, small Tajik Jewish communities (known as Bukharan Jews) have existed since ancient times in the cities of Bukhara, Samarqand and other Tajik populated centers.^[16] Over the 20th century, the majority of these Tajik-speaking Jews emigrated to Israel and the United States, although many of these emigrants maintain ties with their homeland.

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 "-ov" from his surname and directed others to adopt Tajik names when registering births. ^[17]

Famous Tājīks

al-Khwarizmi - medieval mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer. Often considered the most important founder of algebra.	Khaled Hosseini - of Qizilbash descent; author of the best selling novel The Kite Runner.	al-Bīrūnī - was a Muslim polymath of the 11th century, whose experiments and discoveries were as significant and diverse as those of Leonardo da Vinci or Galileo, five hundred years before the Renaissance	Emomali Rahmon - President of Tajikistan.
Ibn Sina Bukhari - often regarded as the father of modern medicine. His most famous works are The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, which was for almost five centuries a standard medical text at many Islamic and European universities.	Ahmad Shah Massoud - a prominent, and the most well known, commander in Soviet war in Afghanistan and leader of the anti-Taliban resistance. Assassinated by al-Qaeda on September 9, 2001	Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Balkhī - 13th century Muslim poet, jurist, and theologian. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages in various formats.	Latif Pedram - ex-candidate for Afghanistan's presidency and currently a political activist
Abu Muslim Khorasani, 8th century Abbasid general

See also

• Persian language
• Persian culture
• Persian people
• Iranian peoples
• Samanid dynasty
• Demographics of Afghanistan
• Demographics of Tajikistan
• Demographics of Uzbekistan
• R1a1

Notes & References

Literature

• Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980
• Jawad, Nassim, Afghanistan: A Nation of Minorities, London: Minority Rights Group, 1992, ISBN 0-946690-76-6.
• World Almanac and Book of Facts 2003, ISBN 0-88687-882-9.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Tajiks

• Khorasan: History Of The Tajik Nation
• Tajikam.com - A Worldwide Online Community for Tajiks
• Uzbekistan: Ethnic Composition And Discrimination
• "Central Asian Jews."
• Ethnologue statistics on Eastern Farsi speakers & statistics regarding Tajiki speakers.
• Female Genetics of Central Asia, South Asia, and West Asia
• Male Genetics of Central Asia, South Asia, and West Asia (the origin of R1a1 is under question see) (see Genetics and Archaeogenetics of South Asia)

Donate to Wikimedia