Sindhi Jats

For the historical Jat community in lower Iraq, see Zutt.

Sindhi Jats
Languages
Sindhi (and its dialects).
Religion
Islam (majority), Hinduism (minority)
Related ethnic groups
Jats

The Sindhi Jats (Sindhi: سنڌي جت/جاٽ) are an indigenous community of Sindh, Pakistan.[1][2][3] They are mostly Muslims.

Originally from the lower Indus Valley, many Sindhi Jats would migrate to lower Iraq between the 5th and 11th centuries, where they formed the Zuṭṭ (Arabic: الزُّطِّ) community.[4][5][6] Another migration northwards into Punjab would take place between the 11th and 16th centuries, where many Sindhi Jats settled in newly cultivatable land and gradually took up farming.[7][8][9][10][11]

Etymology

The Arabic term "Zutt" is derived from Jat,[12][13][14] but referred generally to most tribes of the Indus valley, including non-Jat tribes such as the Qufs, Andaghars, and Sayabijas.[15]

In the Sindhi language, there are three words which can be romanized as Jat,[16] those being:

  • Jāṭ (جاٽ), which is the transliteration of Jats
  • Jat (جت), sometimes spelled Jath,[17] pronounced with a softer t, which refers to the camel-herding Jats of Makran, Sindh,[18] and Kutch; this community was a part of the Zutt who presented camels for Caliph Mu'awiyah[19]
  • J̱aṭ (ڄٽ), pronounced with an implosive j, which is a generic term for peasant, and is sometimes used as an insult

During Mughal rule, the term "Jat" began to be loosely synonymous with "peasant" in the Punjab region.[20] In West Punjab and the NWFP, "Jat" and "Rajput" were seen more as socioeconomic titles rather than ethnic identities.[21]

Background

The Jats of Sindh can be divided into three sections:

  1. Larai Jats (Sindhi: جت), known for their camel-herding profession.[22][23] They speak a dialect of Sindhi called Jatki. They are mainly found in lower Sindh, and the city "Jati" is named after them.[24][25]
  2. Central Sindhi Jats (Sindhi: جاٽ).[26]
  3. Sirai Jats (Sindhi: سيرائي جاٽ).

History

Sindhi Jats were originally nomadic pastoralists in lower Sindh. They (along with other groups like the Sayabija, Andaghar and Qufs) had been settling in lower Iraq since the 5th century, where they formed the Zuṭṭ (Arabic: الزُّطِّ) community.[27] These Sindhi Jat-origin Zutt would be among the first people from the Subcontinent to embrace Islam.[28]

The Zutt would serve as mercenaries for the Sasanid and later Caliphal armies.[29][30] Under the Caliphate, they were tasked with guarding governors and suppressing revolts.[31][32] A few rose to become governors themselves, such as Al-Sari of Egypt and Abu al-Khasib of Tabaristan.[33][34][35] Some Zutt soldiers also assisted in the Arab conquest of Sindh, although according to some sources, this did little to remove the restrictions placed on Rebellious Jat tribes in Sindh, such as the Samma and Lakha.[36][37] The Zutt power and identity broke down following the end of the twenty-five-year-long Zutt Rebellion (810–835) in Iraq, which began during the reign of al-Ma'mun and continued into the era of al-Mu'tasim.[38]

Between the 11th and 16th centuries, many Sindhi Jats would also migrate into Punjab and take up farming.[7][8][9][10][11]

See also

References

  1. ^ Khushalani, Gobind (2006). Chachnamah Retold : An Account Of The Arab Conquest Of Sindh. Bibliophile South Asia. ISBN 978-81-85002-68-2. JATS: One of the important tribes of ancient Sindh, generally a farming community.
  2. ^ Butt, Allah Rakhio (1998). Papers on Sindhi Language & Linguistics. Institute of Sindhology, University of Sindh. p. 280. ISBN 978-969-405-050-8.
  3. ^ Allānā, G̲h̲ulām ʻAlī (1986). Sindi Culture: A Preliminary Survey. Indus Publications. pp. 3 and 100.
  4. ^ Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries. BRILL. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8. "Sind, in point of fact, while vaguely defined territorially, overlaps rather well with what is currently Pakistan. It definitely did extend beyond the present province of Sind and Makran; the whole of Baluchistan was included, a part of the Panjab, and the North-West Frontier Province."
  5. ^ Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries. BRILL. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8. Pg. 48, 157.
  6. ^ Maclean, Derryl N. (1984). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. McGill University. ISBN 978-0-315-20821-6. Pg. 45.
  7. ^ a b Ansari, Sarah F. D. (1992). Sufi saints and state power: the pirs of Sind, 1843–1947. Cambridge University Press. p. ISBN 978-0-521-40530-0. Quote: "Between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, groups of nomadic pastoralists known as Jats, having worked their way northwards from Sind, settled in the Panjab as peasant agriculturalists and, largely on account of the introduction of the Persian wheel, transformed much of western Panjab into a rich producer of food crops. (page 27)"
  8. ^ a b Grewal, J. S. (1998), The Sikhs of the Punjab, Cambridge University Press, p. 5, ISBN 978-0-521-63764-0, retrieved 12 November 2011 Quote: "... the most numerous of the agricultural tribes (in the Punjab) were the Jats. They had come from Sindh and Rajasthan along the river valleys, moving up, displacing the Gujjars and the Rajputs to occupy culturable lands. (page 5)"
  9. ^ a b Asher, Catherine B.; Talbot, Cynthia (2006-03-16). India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7.
  10. ^ a b Tiemann, Günter (1963). "Review of The Jat of Pakistan". Anthropos. 58 (5/6): 936–938. ISSN 0257-9774. JSTOR 40456070.
  11. ^ a b Khazanov, Anatoly M.; Wink, Andre (2012-10-12). Nomads in the Sedentary World. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-12194-4.
  12. ^ Maclean, Derryl N. (1984). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. McGill University. ISBN 978-0-315-20821-6. Pg. 45.
  13. ^ Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad (1994). "Early Arab Contact with South Asia". Journal of Islamic Studies. 5 (1): 52–69. ISSN 0955-2340. JSTOR 26196673. Pg. 57.
  14. ^ ʿAthamina, Khalil (1998). "Non-Arab Regiments and Private Militias during the Umayyād Period"]. Arabica. 45 (3): 347–378. ISSN 0570-5398. Pg. 355. JSTOR 4057316
  15. ^ Zakeri, Mohsen (1995). Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʻAyyārān and Futuwwa. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-03652-8. Pg. 123, 195, 196.
  16. ^ جاٽَ (p. 640), جَتُ (p. 649), ڄَٽُ (p. 683), in Nabī Bakhshu Khānu Balocu. Jāmiʻ Sindhī lughāta. Karācī: Ḥaidarābād Sindhu, Pākistān: Sindhī Adabī Borḍ, 1960–1988. Available online at the Digital South Asia Library.
  17. ^ "Indus Delta's unique 'Kharai' camels on verge of extinction". Daily Times. 2017-10-28. Retrieved 2024-01-22. Jatt (Also Jat or Jath) is an ingenious community in lower Sindh, Makran and Katch (or Kachh) area of India.
  18. ^ Cheesman, David (2013-12-16). Landlord Power and Rural Indebtedness in Colonial Sind. New Delhi, India, Asia: Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-136-79449-0. In Baluchistan, a 'jat' signified a camel-handler and this seems to have been the original occupation of Sindhi Jats, but many were also farm labourers.
  19. ^ Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries. BRILL. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8. Pg. 160, 172.
  20. ^ Mayaram, Shail (2003), Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins, Columbia University Press, p. 33, ISBN 978-0-231-12730-1, Indeed "Jat" had been a generic term for a peasant in the Punjab.
  21. ^ Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 139. ISBN 9780521798426. For Ibbetson, then, both the Punjab and the northwest frontier regions were open societies where the difference between the 'Jat' and the 'Rajput' was not a matter of blood or ethnological fact... [but] a fluid representation of status as claimed by men of power.
  22. ^ Cheesman, David (2013-12-16). Landlord Power and Rural Indebtedness in Colonial Sind. New Delhi, India, Asia: Routledge. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-136-79449-0.
  23. ^ "Indus Delta's unique 'Kharai' camels on verge of extinction". Daily Times. 2017-10-28. Retrieved 2024-01-22. Jatt (Also Jat or Jath) is an ingenious community in lower Sindh, Makran and Katch (or Kachh) area of India.
  24. ^ Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries. BRILL. pp. 154–160. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8.
  25. ^ "Indus Delta's unique 'Kharai' camels on verge of extinction". Daily Times. 2017-10-28. Retrieved 2024-01-22. In the famous love story of Sassi Punnuh from Sindhi folklore, Punnuh was a Jatt from Makran who falls in love with Sassi and came to Sindh to marry her. Famous Sindhi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai has also sung about Jatts and their camels in his poetry.
  26. ^ Pirzada, Din Ali (1995). Growth of Muslim Nationalism in Sindh: Parting of Ways to Pakistan. Mehran Publishers.
  27. ^ Zakeri, Mohsen (1995). Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʻAyyārān and Futuwwa. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-03652-8. Pg. 123, 195, 196.
  28. ^ Nizam, Muhammad Huzaifa (2023-01-15). "HOW THE INDUS VALLEY FED ISLAM'S GOLDEN AGE". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2024-01-22. these Jatts, known as Zutt in Arabic, were amongst the earliest in Persia to accept Islam and thus join with the Muslim armies in their further conquests. They were also later replenished with more of their men, when the Indus Valley fell into the hands of the Ummayad Caliphate in 711 CE.
  29. ^ Zakeri, Mohsen (1995). Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʻAyyārān and Futuwwa. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-03652-8.
  30. ^ Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries. BRILL. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8. P. 156-157.
  31. ^ Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad (1994). Early Arab Contact with South Asia. Journal of Islamic Studies. 5 (1): 52–69. ISSN 0955-2340. JSTOR 26196673.
  32. ^ ʿAthamina, Khalil (1998). Non-Arab Regiments and Private Militias during the Umayyād Period. Arabica. 45 (3): 347–378. ISSN 0570-5398. JSTOR 4057316 P. 357.
  33. ^ Beg, Muhammad Abdul Jabbar (1981). Social Mobility in Islamic Civilization: The Classical Period: Y Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg. University of Malaya Press. p. 171. For instance, al - Sari b . alHakam b . Yusuf al - Zutti " was a governor of Egypt in 200-205 H./815-820 A.D. There were two other reported cases of social mobility among the Zutt people .
  34. ^ Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52940-2. P. 16
  35. ^ Malek, Hodge M. (2004). The Dābūyid Ispahbads and Early 'Abbāsid Governors of Tabaristān: History and Numismatics. Royal Numismatic Society. ISBN 978-0-901405-83-8.
  36. ^ Vijaya Ramaswamy, ed. (2017). Migrations in Medieval and Early Colonial India. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-55824-2.
  37. ^ Jackson, Peter (2003), The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History, Cambridge University Press, p. 15, ISBN 978-0-521-54329-3, A caliphal governor of Sind in the late 830s is said to have … (continued the previous Hindu requirement that) … The Jats and their rebellious clans, such as the Samma and Lakha (as mentioned in the Chachnama), were required, when walking outdoors, to be accompanied by a dog. As the dog was considered unclean in both Hindu and Muslim traditions, this practice served as a symbolic means of reinforcing their subjugated status. In effect, the new regime of the eighth and ninth centuries did not abolish the discriminatory regulations inherited from earlier Hindu sovereignty but rather maintained them. (page 15)"
  38. ^ The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 33: Storm and Stress along the Northern Frontiers of the ʿAbbasid Caliphate: The Caliphate of al-Muʿtaṣim A.D. 833-842/A.H. 218-227. State University of New York Press. 2015-07-01. pp. 7–10. ISBN 978-0-7914-9721-0.
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