The
Dom (
دوم) people migrated from
South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
to the territory of present-day Egypt, and have considerably mixed with Egyptians. The assumed consensus was that they were originally from Egypt, which later made them known around the world by the vernacular term ''
Gypsies
{{Infobox ethnic group
, group = Romani people
, image =
, image_caption =
, flag = Roma flag.svg
, flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress
, ...
'', deriving from the word ''Egyptian.''
History
Though some of the Dom people self-segregated for centuries from the dominant culture of Egypt, historically, Domari in Egypt have intermixed with Egyptians and participate in local musical entertainment at weddings, circumcisions, and other celebrations, sing Egyptian traditional songs, and dance in return for money. The Dom people in Egypt, or Roma Egyptians, include subgroups, such as
Nawar and Ghagar or Ghaggar (
غجر).
The Dom in Egypt are
Sunni Muslims
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...
, and apart from
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian, or simply as Masri, is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic variety in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt. The esti ...
, they also speak their own
Domari language
Domari is an endangered Indo-Aryan language, spoken by Dom people scattered across the Middle East and North Africa. The language is reported to be spoken as far north as Azerbaijan and as far south as central Sudan, in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Isr ...
.
Ottoman sources
In
Evliya Çelebi
Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi (), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through his home country during its cultural zenith as well as neighboring lands. He travelled for over 40 years, rec ...
's ''
Seyahatnâme
''Seyahatname'' () is the name of a literary form and tradition whose examples can be found throughout centuries in the Middle Ages around the Islamic world, starting with the Arab travellers of the Umayyad period. In a more specific sense, the ...
'' of 1668, he explained that the Gypsies from
Komotini
Komotini (, , ), is a city in the Modern regions of Greece, region of East Macedonia and Thrace, northeastern Greece and its capital. It is also the capital of the Rhodope (regional unit), Rhodope. It was the administrative centre of the Rhodope- ...
(Gümülcine) "swear by their heads" their ancestors came from Egypt.
Moreover, the sedentary Gypsy groups from the
Serres
Serres ( ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki.
Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northern Greece. The c ...
region in Greece believe their ancestors were once taken from
Egypt Eyalet
Ottoman Egypt was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517), conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517. The Ottomans administered Egypt as a Eyalet, province (''eyalet'') of their empir ...
by the Ottomans to
Rumelia
Rumelia (; ; ) was a historical region in Southeastern Europe that was administered by the Ottoman Empire, roughly corresponding to the Balkans. In its wider sense, it was used to refer to all Ottoman possessions and Vassal state, vassals in E ...
after 1517 to work on the tobacco plantations of Turkish feudals there.
Muslim Roma
Muslim Romani people or Muslim Roma are people who are ethnically Romani and profess Islam. They may also be known as Muslim Gypsies, with some Roma preferring to use the term, not perceiving it as derogatory. They primarily live in the Balkan ...
settled in Baranya and the City Pécs at the
Ottoman Hungary
Ottoman Hungary () encompassed the parts of the Kingdom of Hungary which were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from the occupation of Buda in 1541 until the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The territory was incorporated into the empire, under ...
. After the
Siege of Pécs
The siege of Pécs was fought from 14 to 22 October 1686, in the city of Pécs in southwestern Hungary, between the armies of the Ottoman Empire and of the Holy Roman Empire.
After the castle of Buda was wrested from Ottoman rule in 1686, the A ...
,
Muslim Roma
Muslim Romani people or Muslim Roma are people who are ethnically Romani and profess Islam. They may also be known as Muslim Gypsies, with some Roma preferring to use the term, not perceiving it as derogatory. They primarily live in the Balkan ...
and some other Muslims converted to the Catholic faith in the years 1686–1713. The Ghagar a subgroup of the Doms in Egypt, tell that some of them went to Hungary.
See also
*
Doms in Libya
*
Doms in Syria
The Domari-speaking (or rather, historically speaking) community in Syria, commonly identified as Dom and Nawar, is estimated to number 100–250,000 or 250–300,000 people. The vast majority is sedentary. There are semi-nomadic groups, some m ...
*
Doms in Iraq
References
External links
The Gypsies of Egypt, Dom Research Center
{{Asia topic , Romani people in
Ethnic groups in Egypt
Dom in Africa
Dom people