Tajiks

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This article is about the Central Asian Persians known as Tajiks. Refer to Persian people regarding ethnic Persians in Iran. For South Asian Persians see or Parsis.

{{Ethnic group |image=Image:Tajiks.jpg |group=Tajiks |poptime=c. 14.5-18 million |popplace=Afghanistan:
   8,100,000<ref>CIA - The World Factbook - Afghanistan</ref>
Tajikistan:
   4,550,000<ref>CIA - The World Factbook - Tajikistan</ref>
Iran:
   1,700,000
Uzbekistan:
   1,500,000+
Pakistan:
   1,000,000
Germany:
   120,000
Qatar:
   87,000
China:
   41,000
|langs=Persian (dialects of Dari and Tajiki or Tadzhik) and Russian |rels=Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Atheism, Others |related=Other Iranian peoples }}

The Tajiks (Persian: تاجيك) are one of the principal ethnic groups of Central Asia, and are primarily found in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan, and the Xinjiang province of China.

1 Application of the term
2 Origin of the term
3 Location
4 Language
5 Religion
6 Physical characteristics
7 Recent developments
8 Tajiks in China
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
12 External links

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Application of the term

Tajiks descend from the Aryans, an ancient people who spoke Indo-European languages, and are among the oldest inhabitants of the region. They can trace their roots back to the original Iranian (Aryan) peoples <ref>Library of Congress Country Studies - Tajikistan - Historical & Ethnic Background - 1996</ref> that settled around Central Asia in ancient times, such as the Bactrians, Sogdians, Parthians as well as large numbers of Persians who fled to Central Asia, China, and India during the Islamic expansion. Their ancestors have inhabited Central Asia (including modern Afghanistan and western China) for roughly 4,000 years. The term "Tajik" is generally applied to the Persian-speaking peoples of Iranian (Aryan) origin living in the lands east of Iran. Although other Persian-speaking groups live in Central Asia, such as the Hazara, and Aimak, they are distinguished from the Tajiks in that they are mainly of non-Iranian origin, and only adopted the Persian language over the last millennium. The so-called Mountain Tajiks or Pamiris of the Badakhshan region in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan as well as the group usually known as "Tajik" in China's western Xinjiang region are actually a collection of over a dozen small Eastern Iranian who merged with the Tajiks, who are themselves a very mixed group.

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Origin of the term

The origin of the term "Tajik" is somewhat unclear. Today, most historians believe that the word "Tajik" - first mentioned by the Turkish historian Mahmoud Al-Kāshgharī - is an old Turkish expression referring to all Persian-speaking peoples of the region who are of Iranian origin. The word did not exist before the Turkic conquest of Central Asia. Even Persians in Iran who live in the Turkish-speaking parts of the country call themselves "Tajik". In addition to that, Tibetans call all Persians (including those in Iran) Tajik.

Based on these facts, the name Tajik can be considered a synonym for Persian. It may have originated from Ta-Hia (Chinese for Bactria) or Ta-Yuezhi (Chinese for Tocharian) by which certain Indo-European tribes of Central Asia were known to the Chinese and Turkic peoples.

In the Turco-Persian culture of the conquerors Timur and Babur, the word "Tajik" referred to the Persian-speaking clerks who were schooled in Arabic. In the Safavid era, "Tajik" referred to the Persian administors and nobles of the kingdom.

In addition, the name Tajik, both for the people and for the nation itself, is a geographic reference to the crown (Taj) of the Pamir Knot.

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Location

Image:Prokudin-Gorskii-53.jpg

Tajiks are the principal ethnic group in most of Tajikistan, as well as in northeastern Afghanistan and the Afghan cities of Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, and Kandahar Tajiks also dominate the populations of the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand in Uzbekistan, and are found in large numbers in the Surxondaryo Province of southern Uzbekistan, and in the eastern part of that country, along its border with Tajikistan. Historically, the ancestors of the Tajiks lived in a much larger territory in Central Asia, but were largely displaced as waves of Turkic invaders moved into the region from the north and east. Today, Tajiks comprise around 66% of the population of Tajikistan, and between 25-30% of the population of Afghanistan. While official statistics in Uzbekistan state the Tajik community as comprising 5% of the nation's total population, although these numbers do not include many ethnic Tajiks whose mother tongue was Uzbek. Moreover, some Tajiks choose for a variety of reasons to declare themselves to be ethnic Uzbeks; it is widely believed that they make up 15 to 30 percent of the country's population.<ref>See for example the Country report on Uzbekistan, released by the United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor here.</ref> In addition, there are an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Tajiks found in western Pakistan (NWFP), most being refugees from the Afghan war while others are native to various regions such as Chitral (see Wakhi language) and the Gilgit Agency.

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Language

The language of the Tajiks is Persian, also called Dari. The dialect of Tajikistan is called Tajiki also spelled as Tadzhik. 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; when the Soviet Union imposed the use of the Latin script in 1928, and later the Cyrillic script, it came to be considered a separate language in Tajikistan, partly for political reasons. (In Afghanistan, however, Tajiks continued to use the Arabic script.) The language has diverged from Persian, as spoken in Iran, however, it has very much fewer Arabic loan words. However, the lanuage is greatly influenced by Russian because of political borders; however, a transcribed Tajik text can in general easily be read and understood by a speaker of the western dialect of Persian, and vice versa. The common origin of the two languages is underscored by the Tajiks' claim to such famous writers as Omar Khayyám, Firdausi, and Alisher Navoi.

Russian is widely used in government and business in Tajikistan as well.

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Religion

The great majority of Tajiks follow the Sunni form of Islam, although small Ismaili and Jafari Shia minorities also exist in scattered pockets. In Afghanistan, Tajiks who follow Jafari Shiism are called Farsi or Farsiwan (Persians). The popular forms of Islam practiced by the Tajiks often bear the influence of Zoroastrianism and pre-Zoroastrian cults that were followed before the advent of Islam to Central Asia. Additionally, large Tajik Jewish communities have existed since ancient times in the cities of Samarqand and Bukhara, and in smaller numbers in Herat, Kabul, and other Tajik centers.Template:Fact 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. Despite the advent of Christian missionaries to Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Tajik Christian population is virtually non-existent. There is also a resurgence of interest in Zoroastrianism amongst the Tajiks in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. <ref>UNESCO Assisted Parsi Zoroastrian Project - Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity</ref>

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Physical characteristics

Image:Hammasa np5 Kopie.gif Physically, most Tajiks belong to the Mediterranean subgroup of the Caucasian race. While the average Tajik has dark hair and eyes with medium to fair skin, light hair and eyes are not uncommon, particularly in mountainous regions such as Badakhshan. Some Tajiks in Central Asia show definite Turkic-Mongol admixture, while remote Mountain Tajiks appear to more closely resemble the populations that existed before Turkic and Mongol invasions. A minority of Tajiks in Afghanistan also show traces of Turkic-Mongol ancestry (possibly derived from the Hazara and/or Uzbeks) as well as some Indian phenotypes. In addition, Tajiks are often distinguished from the related Farsiwan by religion as opposed to appearance. The Tajiks, as a whole, are an eclectic population genetically and display a wide range of phenotypes.<ref>Library of Congress Country Studies - Afghanistan - Ethnic Groups - Tajik - 1997</ref>

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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 conquest.

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Tajiks in China

Tajik (Chinese: 塔吉克族, Pinyin: Tǎjíkèzú) is one of the 56 nationalities officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.

This group with a population of 41,028 (2000), is located mainly in China's western Xinjiang region with 60% living in Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County; some researchers view them as a collection of over a dozen small East Iranian ethnic groups that are related to, but distinct from, the Tajiks of Tajikistan.

In China, the Tajik language has no official written form. The great majority of Chinese Tajik speakers (16,000) speak the Sariqul (or Sariköli) dialect and use Uyghur and Chinese to communicate with people of other nationalities in the area. A small proportion of Chinese Tajik speakers (6,000) speak the Wakhi dialect.

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Notes

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References

Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980
Jawad, Nassim, Afghanistan: A Nation of Minorities, London: Minority Rights Group, 1992, ISBN 0946690766.
World Almanac and Book of Facts 2003, ISBN 0886878829.
Gawarjon [Gāo Ěrqiāng 高尔锵] (ed.): Tǎjíkè-Hàn cídiǎn 塔吉克汉词典. Tujik ziv – Hanzu ziv lughot (Tajik-Chinese dictionary; Chengdu, Sichuan minzu chubanshe 1996).

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