The Sindhi Jats ( Sindhi: سنڌي جت/جاٽ) are an

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

community of

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

. They are mostly

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. Originally from the lower

Indus Valley The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the disp ...

, many Sindhi Jats would migrate to lower Iraq between the 5th and 11th centuries, where they formed the

Zuṭṭ Zuṭṭ is an Arabicised form of Jat Muslim, Jat. Originally inhabitants of lower Indus Valley, Jats were present in Mesopotamia from the 5th century AD since the times of the Sasanian Empire, although their main migration occurred after the estab ...

() community. Another migration northwards into

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

would take place between the 11th and 16th centuries, where many Sindhi Jats settled in newly cultivatable land and gradually took up farming.Ansari, Sarah F. D. (1992)
Sufi saints and state power: the pirs of Sind, 1843–1947
Cambridge University Press. p. . 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)"''Grewal, J. S. (1998)
The Sikhs of the Punjab
Cambridge University Press, p. 5, , 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)''"

Background

The Jats of Sindh can be divided into three sections: # Larai Jats (Sindhi: جت), known for their camel-herding profession. They speak a dialect of Sindhi called Jatki. They are mainly found in lower Sindh, and the city " Jati" is named after them. # Central Sindhi Jats (Sindhi: جاٽ). # Sirai Jats (Sindhi: سيرائي جاٽ).

History

Sindhi Jats were originally

nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anima ...

in lower

. 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

() community. These Sindhi Jat-origin Zutt would be among the first people from the

Subcontinent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as in the case of A ...

to embrace

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. The Zutt would serve as

mercenaries A mercenary is a private individual who joins an War, armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rath ...

for the

Sasanid The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...

and later Caliphal armies. Under the Caliphate, they were tasked with guarding governors and suppressing revolts. A few rose to become governors themselves, such as Al-Sari of Egypt and

Abu al-Khasib Abu al-Khaṣīb Marzuq was an Abbasid general and administrator during the reign of Abu Ja'far al-Mansur. A ''mawla'' of Mansur in his early life, Abu al-Khasib rose to the position of ''Hajib'' ( chamberlain) in 755. In 760, he was sent by Mans ...

of Tabaristan. Some Zutt soldiers also assisted in the

Arab conquest of Sindh The Umayyad conquest of Sindh took place in 711 AD and resulted in Sindh being incorporated as a province into the Umayyad Caliphate. The conquest resulted in the overthrow of the last Hindu dynasty of Sindh, the Brahmin dynasty, after the death ...

, although this did little to uplift the position of Sindhi Jats.Jackson, Peter (2003)
The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History
Cambridge University Press, p. 15, , Quote: ''"... Nor can the liberation that the Muslim conquerors offered to those who sought to escape from the caste system be taken for granted. … a caliphal governor of Sind in the late 830s is said to have … (continued the previous Hindu requirement that) … the Jats, when walking out of doors in future, to be accompanied by a dog. The fact that the dog is an unclean animal to both Hindu and Muslim made it easy for the Muslim conquerors to retain the status quo regarding a low-caste tribe. In other words, the new regime in the eighth and ninth centuries did not abrogate discriminatory regulations dating from a period of Hindu sovereignty; rather, it maintained them. (page 15)"'' The Zutt power and identity broke down following the failed

Zutt Rebellion Zutt Rebellion was a rebellion by the Zutt (Jats) Who were inhabitants of lower Indus Valley (Pakistan), between 810 and 835 in Iraq during the reign of al-Ma'mun and continued to the era of al-Mu'tasim. Background The Rebellion began from the Z ...

.{{Cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ky2rl0xN2SQC&dq=Zutt+rebellions&pg=PA7 , title=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 , date=2015-07-01 , publisher=State University of New York Press , isbn=978-0-7914-9721-0 , pages=7–10 , language=en Between the 11th and 16th centuries, many Sindhi Jats would also migrate into

and take up farming.

References

History of Sindh Sindhi tribes Jat

Background

History

See also

References