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TAJIK, or PARSIWAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 365 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TAJIK, or PARSIWAN , a subject See also:race of See also:Afghanistan. Underlying the predominant See also:Pathan elements in the See also:country, the Tajik (Tajak, or Tausik) represents the See also:original See also:Persian possessor of the See also:soil, who still speaks his See also:mother See also:tongue and therefore calls himself Parsiwan. There are pure Persians in Afghanistan, such as the See also:Kizilbashes of See also:Kabul and the Naoshirwanis of Kharan; but the name Tajik " stranger ") appears to be applied only to an admixture of original Arab and Persian stock, who are the slaves of the community—hewers of See also:wood and drawers of See also:water. Everywhere the Tajiks are the cultivators in rural districts, and the shopkeepers and clerks in the towns. They are a See also:fine, athletic See also:people, generally See also:fair in complexion, and assimilate in aspect, in See also:dress, and much in See also:manners to the Afghans, but they are never nomadic. The Tajik is as much the slave of the Pathan in Afghanistan as is the See also:Hindki (whose origin is similar) in the plains of the See also:Indus. Yet the Tajik See also:population of the richly-cultivated districts See also:north of Kabul proved themselves to be of See also:good fighting material in the Afghan See also:war of 1879-80, and the few Kizilbashes that are to be found in the See also:Indian See also:army are brave soldiers. The number of the Tajiks in Afghanistan is estimated at 900,000. The name itself originally occurs in the See also:Pahlavi writings, and is explained to mean, first, the See also:Arabs in See also:general, then their descendants See also:born in See also:Persia and elsewhere out of See also:Arabia, and, lastly, the Persians in general and their descendants born in See also:Turkestan and elsewhere out of Persia. Tajik thus came to be the collective name of all communities of Iranian stock and Persian speech wherever found in Central See also:Asia. These are co-extensive with the former eastward and northward limits of the Persian See also:empire; but, after the ascendancy of the See also:Turki races, they became the subject See also:element in Turkestan, Afghanistan, See also:Bokhara, See also:Khiva, Kashgaria, while still politically dominant in See also:Badakshan, Wakhan, Darwaz, Kost and See also:Karateghin. In most of these places the Tajiks, with the kindred See also:Galchas, seem to See also:form the bulk of the population, the distinction being that " Tajik " is applied rather to the settled and more civilized lowlanders of See also:modern Persian speech, " Galcha " to the highlanders of See also:Ferghana, See also:Kohistan, Wakhan, &c., who speak either archaic forms of Persian or dialects intermediate between the Iranian and Sanskritic branches of the Indo-See also:European linguistic See also:family.

But, although mainly of Iranian stock, with See also:

light complexion and See also:regular features, the Tajiks claim Arab descent, regarding the See also:district about See also:Bagdad as their primeval See also:home, and considering themselves the descendants of the Arabs who overran Central Asia in the first See also:century of the See also:Hejira. At the same See also:time, " it is evident that the inhabitants of the greater See also:part of this region (Central Asia) must from an See also:early See also:period have come in contact with the successive waves of See also:Turkish (Turki) and even Mongol population which See also:broke over them; accordingly we find that, although the type is essentially Iranian, it has undergone a certain modification " (Capt. J. M. Trotter, Bokhdra, p. 169). The See also:term Tajik must be distinguished from Sarte, the latter simply meaning " trader " or " shopkeeper," and being applied indiscriminately to the settled as opposed to the See also:nomad element, and especially to the See also:urban populations, of what-ever race, in Central Asia. The Tajiks are known as rats on the See also:west See also:side of the See also:Caspian (See also:Baku, See also:Lenkoran, &c.).

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