Hazarah

The Hazaras ( fa, , Həzārə; haz, , Āzərə) are an ethnic group and the principal component of the population of Afghanistan, native to, and primarily residing in the Hazaristan (Hazarajat) region in central Afghanistan and generally scattered throughout Afghanistan. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in Afghanistan, and are also significant minority groups in neighboring Pakistan, mostly in Quetta, and as well as in Iran. They speak the Hazaragi dialect of Persian, which is mutually intelligible with Dari, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.

Hazaras are considered to be one of the most persecuted groups in Afghanistan, and their persecution has occurred various times across previous decades.

Etymology

The etymology of the word "Hazara" remains disputed, but some have differing views on the term.

*Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire in the early 16th century, records the name "Hazara" in Baburnama. He has mentioned "Hazara" as "Turkoman Hazaras" several times in Baburnama.

*Historian Abdul Hai Habibi considers the word "Hazara" ( ) to be very old, and it is derived from "Hazala" ( ), which has changed to "Hazara" over time and has meant "good-hearted".

*Another view is that the name "Hazara" ( ) derives from the Persian word for "thousand" ("Hazar") ( ). It may be the translation of the Mongolic word (), a military unit of 1,000 soldiers at the time of Genghis Khan. The term could have been substituted for the Mongolic word and stands for the group of people, while the Hazara people in their native language call themselves "Azra" ( or ).

Origin

Despite being one of the principal population elements of Afghanistan, the origins of the Hazara people have not been fully reconstructed. However, due to genetic and linguistic analysis, Hazaras are certainly a racially mixed group with Hazaras having varying degrees of Mongolic, Turkic and Iranic ancestry. As a result of common physical attributes, physical appearance, parts of their culture and language resembling those of Central Asian Turkic tribes and the Mongols. Although as a mixed ethnic group, phenotype can vary, with some noting that certain Hazaras may resemble Europeans or peoples native to the Iranian plateau.

Over the course of centuries, invading Mongols and Turco-Mongols mixed with the local indigenous Turkic and Iranic populations. Notably, the Qara'unas, the Central Asian Chagatai Turco-Mongols, the Ilkhanate and the Timurids, all of whom settled in Hazarajat and mixed with the local populations. While academics agree that Hazaras are ultimately the result of a combination of several Turkic, Mongol and Iranic tribes, there is a dispute by some on what groups played the largest roles in this combination. Temirkhanov L. (1968)
"О некоторых спорных вопросах этнической истории хазарейского народа"
Советская этнография. 1. P. 94. In Russian: ''"тюркские элементы ... по сравнению с монгольскими ... играли второстепенную роль."''

Despite being a mix of multiple distinct ethnicities, a number of researchers in their works write focusing on the Mongoliс component. Authors, along with the term Hazaras, use the name Hazara Mongols: such as Elizabeth Emaline Bacon,Elizabeth E. Bacon. (1951)
"The Inquiry into the History of the Hazara Mongols of Afghanistan"
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. Vol. 7. No. 3. pp. 230–247. Barbara A. West, Yuri Averyanov,Аверьянов Ю. А. (2017)
"Хазарейцы - ираноязычные монголы Афганистана""
Мир Центральной Азии. pp. 110–117. Elbrus SattsayevСатцаев Э. Б. (2009)
"Монголы-хазарейцы Афганистана и аспекты "народного шиизма""
Единая Калмыкия в единой России: через века в будущее. pp. 413–415. and other. According to historian Lutfi Temirkhanov, the Mongolian detachments left in Afghanistan by Genghis Khan or his successors became the starting layer, the basis of the Hazara ethnogenesis. Temirkhanov L. (1968)
"О некоторых спорных вопросах этнической истории хазарейского народа"
Советская этнография. 1. P. 86. In Russian: ''"...монгольские отряды, оставленные в Афганистане Чингиз-ханом или его преемниками, стали исходным пластом, основой хазарейского этногенеза. "'' According to him, the Turkic elements compared to the Mongolian ones played a secondary role. Temirkhanov L. (1968)
"О некоторых спорных вопросах этнической истории хазарейского народа"
Советская этнография. 1. P. 94. In Russian: ''"тюркские элементы ... по сравнению с монгольскими ... играли второстепенную роль."'' The Hazaras in the Ghilji neighborhood are called Mongols. Temirkhanov L. (1968)
"О некоторых спорных вопросах этнической истории хазарейского народа"
Советская этнография. 1. P. 91. In Russian: ''"Ближайшие соседи хазарейцев – гильзаи – называли и называют их «монголы»."'' The participation of the Mongols in the ethnogenesis of the Hazaras is evidenced by linguistic data, historical sources, data on toponymy, Temirkhanov L. (1968)
"О некоторых спорных вопросах этнической истории хазарейского народа"
Советская этнография. 1. P. 91. In Russian: ''"Об участии монголов в этногенезе хазарейцев свидетельствуют и данные лингвистики... также исторические источники (например, «Записки Бабура») и данные топонимики"'' as well as works on population genetics.Sabitov Zh. M. (2011
"Происхождение хазарейцев с точки зрения ДНК-генеалогии"
The Russian Journal of Genetic Genealogy. 2 (1): pp. 37–40. In the 16th century the Mongolian language was widespread among the Hazaras. Массон В. М., Ромодин В. А. (1964)
История Афганистана. Том I. С древнейших времен до начала XVI века.
Москва: Наука. pp. 289–290. In Russian: ''"Еще в XVI в., по сообщению Бабура, среди хазарейцев был распространен монгольский язык, а небольшая часть их, по-видимому, и в XIX в. говорила на языке, близком к монгольскому."'' According to the Great Russian Encyclopedia until the 19th century Hazaras spoke Mongolian."Хазарейцы • Большая российская энциклопедия - электронная версия"
bigenc.ru. In Russian: ''"Упоминаются с 16 в. До 19 в. говорили на монг. языке."'' Such scholars as Vasily Bartold, Бартольд. В. В. (2022)
Ислам. Культура мусульманства.
Москва: Litres. p. 162. In Russian: ''"...еще в XVI веке говорили хазарейцы по-монгольски в северной части Афганистана..."'' Ármin Vámbéry, Ármin Vámbéry (2003)
Путешествие по Средней Азии.
Москва: Восточная литература. In Russian: ''"Говорят, что хазарейцы ... были перевезены Чингисханом из Монголии, своей прародины, на юг Средней Азии и благодаря влиянию шаха Аббаса II обращены в шиизм. Поразительно, что они заменили свой родной язык персидским, который даже в населенных ими областях не повсеместно распространен, и лишь небольшая часть, оставшаяся изолированной в горах поблизости от Герата и уже несколько столетий занимающаяся выжиганием угля, говорит на некоем жаргоне монгольского языка."'' Vadim Masson, Vadim Romodin, Массон В. М., Ромодин В. А. (1964)
История Афганистана. Том I. С древнейших времен до начала XVI века.
Москва: Наука. pp. 289–290. In Russian: ''"Еще в XVI в., по сообщению Бабура, среди хазарейцев был распространен монгольский язык, а небольшая часть их, по-видимому, и в XIX в. говорила на языке, близком к монгольскому."'' Ilya Petrushevsky, Петрушевский И. П. (1952)
Рашид-ад-дин и его исторический труд.
Москва/Ленинград: Издательство Академии Наук СССР. P. 29. In Russian: ''"Как известно, большой массив монгольского населения (хезарейцы), отчасти сохранявшего свой язык еще в XIX в., сложился на территории Афганистана..."'' Allah Rakha, Fatima, Min-Sheng Peng, Atif Adan, Rui Bi, Memona Yasmin, Yong-Gang Yao also wrote about the use of the Mongolian language by the Hazaras.Allah Rakha, Fatima, Min-Sheng Peng, Atif Adan, Rui Bi, Memona Yasmin, Yong-Gang Yao (2017
"mtDNA sequence diversity of Hazara ethnic group from Pakistan"
Forensic Science International: Genetics. Volume 30: Pages e1-e5. In English: ''"Moreover, there are also lines of evidence that some of the remote tribes of Hazaras spoke Mongol language till last century. Their central Asian facial features including sparse beards, high cheekbones and epicanthic eye folds further supports their Mongol origin."''

Genetics

Genetically, the Hazara are a mixture of West Eurasian and East Eurasian components, i.e. racially Eurasian. Genetic research suggests that the Hazaras of Afghanistan cluster closely with the Uzbeks population of the country, while both groups are at a notable distance from Afghanistan's Tajiks and Pashtuns populations. There is evidence of both paternal and maternal relations to Turkic peoples and Mongols amongst Hazaras.

Begoña Martínez-Cruz in 2011, together with other scientists, as a result of a study of autosomal microsatellite loci, concluded that the Hazaras are closely related to the Turkic populations of Central Asia rather than Mongols and East Asians or Indo-Iranians.

In a 2019-2020 study (by Guanglin He, Atif Adnan, Allah Rakha, Ivy Hui-Yuan Yeh and other), outgroup and admixture f3, f4, f4-ratio, qpWave, and qpAdm results further demonstrate that Hazara shares more alleles with East Asians than with other Central Asians and carries 57.8% Mongolian-related ancestry. According to Guanglin He, Hazaras have experienced genetic admixture with the local or neighboring populations and formed the current East-West Eurasian admixed genetic profile after their separation from the Mongolians.Guanglin He, Atif Adnan, Allah Rakha, Ivy Hui-Yuan Yeh (2019
"A comprehensive exploration of the genetic legacy and forensic features of Afghanistan and Pakistan Mongolian-descent Hazara"
According to Atif Adnan, admixture and outgroup findings further clarified that Hazara have 57.8% gene pool from Mongolians.

East Eurasian male and female ancestry are supported by studies in genetic genealogy as well. East Asian maternal haplogroups (mtDNA) make up about 35%, suggesting that the male descendants Mongolic and Turkic peoples were accompanied by women of East Asian ancestry,Allah Rakha, Fatima, Min-Sheng Peng, Atif Adan, Rui Bi, Memona Yasmin, Yong-Gang Yao (2017
"mtDNA sequence diversity of Hazara ethnic group from Pakistan"
Forensic Science International: Genetics. Volume 30: Page 3. though the Hazaras as a whole have mostly west Eurasian mtDNA. Women of Non-East Asian mtDNA in Hazaras are at about 65%, most which are West Eurasians and some South Asian.

The most frequent paternal haplogroups found amongst the Pakistani Hazara in one study were haplogroup C-M217 at 40% (10/25) and Haplogroup R1b at 32% (8/25). Relatively high frequencies of R1b were also found in Eastern Russian Tatars and Bashkirs. All three groups are thought to be associated with the Golden Horde. Haplogroup C-M217, also known as C2, is most frequent haplogroup in Mongol and Kazakh populations. According to PhD Sabitov: "Y-DNA haplogroup C2 is certainly associated with the expansion of the Mongols".Sabitov Zh. M. (2011
"Происхождение хазарейцев с точки зрения ДНК-генеалогии"
The Russian Journal of Genetic Genealogy. 2 (1): pp. 37–40. In Russian: ''"Гаплогруппа СЗ безусловно связана с экспансией монголов..."'' According to PhD Zhabagin: "The high frequency of haplogroup C2-M217 is consistent with the Mongolian origin of the Hazaras". Жабагин М. К. (2017)
Анализ связи полиморфизма Y-хромосомы и родоплеменной структуры в казахской популяции
Москва. p. 71. In Russian: ''"...за счет высокой частоты гаплогруппы С2-М217, что согласуется с монгольским происхождением хазарейцев."'' Haplogroup C-M217 originated in Mongolia about ~ 1,000 years ago.

One study about paternal DNA haplogroups of Afghanistan shows that the Y-DNA haplogroups R1a and C-M217 are the most common, followed by J2-M172 and L-M20. Some Hazaras also have the haplogroup R1a1a-M17, E1b1b1-M35, L-M20 and H-M69, which are common in Tajiks, Pashtuns as well as Indian populations. In one study, a small minority had the haplogroup B-M60, normally found in East Africa, and in one mtDNA study of Hazara, mtDNA Haplogroup L (which is of African origin) was detected at a frequency of 7.5%.

A recent study shows that some Hazaras are linked to the Uyghurs.

History

The first mention of Hazara is made by Babur in the early 16th century and later by the court historians of Shah Abbas of the Safavid dynasty. It is reported that they embraced Shia Islam between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, during the Safavid period. Hazara men, along with those of other ethnic groups, were recruited to the army of Ahmad Shah Durrani in the 18th century.

19th century

During the second reign of Dost Mohammad Khan in the 19th century, Hazara from Hazarajat began to be taxed for the first time. However, for the most part, they still managed to keep their regional autonomy until the 1892 Battle of Uruzgan and subsequent subjugation of Abdur Rahman Khan began in the late 19th century.

When the Treaty of Gandomak was signed and the Second Anglo-Afghan War ended in 1880, Abdur Rahman Khan set out a goal to bring Hazaristan (Hazarajat), Turkistan and Kafiristan under his control. He launched several campaigns in Hazarajat due to resistance from the Hazara in which his forces committed atrocities. The southern part of Hazarajat was spared as they accepted his rule, while the other parts of Hazarajat rejected Abdur Rahman and instead supported his uncle, Sher Ali Khan. In response to this Abdur Rahman waged a war against tribal leaders who rejected his policies and rule. This is known as the Hazara Uprisings.

These campaigns had a catastrophic impact on the demographics of Hazaras causing over 60% of them to perish with some becoming displaced.

After these massacres, Abdul Rahman Khan forced many Hazara families from the Hazara areas of Uruzgan and other parts of Hazarajat to leave their hometowns and ancestral lands. causing some many Hazaras fled to neighboring countries such as Central Asia, Iran, British India, Iraq and Syria. Those Hazaras living in the northern Hindu Kush went to Tsarist Russia, mostly in the southern cities of Russia, and some of them went to Iran. Hazara people living in the Tsarist Russian regions lost their language, accent and ethnic identity over time due to the similarities between the racial building and the physical appearance of the people of those regions, and they settled and gravitated among them. These fleeing Hazaras settled in previous Tsarist Russia regions, including Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Dagestan. But the Hazaras in northwestern Afghanistan migrated to Iran and settled in neighborhoods in and around Mashhad. These Hazaras later became known as Khawari or Barbari. Another part of Hazaras from the southeast of the Hazara regions of Afghanistan has moved to British India, which resides in Quetta, present-day Pakistan. One of the most famous political and military figures of these Hazaras is Muhammad Musa Khan, who held the general's military rank in Pakistani system. Another group has settled in Syria, Iraq and British India. These Hazara people who migrated to Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Iraq were unable to settle with the people of these areas because of the differences in physical appearance, so they have not lost their language, culture and ethnic identity.

20th and 21st century

In 1901, Habibullah Khan, Abdur Rahman's eldest son and successor granted amnesty to all people who were exiled by his predecessor. Hazara continued to face social, economic, and political discrimination through most of the 20th century. In 1933 Mohammed Nadir Shah the King of Afghanistan was assassinated by Abdul Khaliq Hazara. The Afghan government captured and executed him later, along with several of his family members.

Mistrust of the central government by the Hazaras and local uprisings continued. In particular, from 1945 to 1946, during Zahir Shah's rule, a revolt took place against new taxes that were exclusively imposed on the Hazara. The Kuchis meanwhile not only were exempted from taxes but also received allowances from the Afghan government. The angry rebels began capturing and killing government officials. In response, the central government sent a force to subdue the region and later removed the taxes.

The repressive policies of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) after the Saur Revolution in 1978 caused uprisings throughout the country. Fearing Iranian influence, the Hazaras were particularly persecuted. President Hafizullah Amin published in October 1979 a list of 12,000 victims of the Taraki government. Among them were 7,000 Hazaras who were shot in the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison.

During the Soviet-Afghan War, the Hazarajat region did not see as much heavy fighting as other regions of Afghanistan. Most of the Hazara mujahideen fought the Soviets in the regions which were on the periphery of the Hazarajat region. There was a division between the Tanzeem Nasle Nau Hazara, a party based in Quetta, of Hazara nationalists and secular intellectuals, and the Islamist parties in Hazarajat. By 1979, the Hazara-Islamist groups had already liberated Hazarajat from the central Soviet-backed Afghan government and later took entire control of Hazarajat away from the secularists. By 1984, the Islamist dominance of Hazarajat was complete.
As the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the Islamist groups felt the need to broaden their political appeal and turned their focus to Hazara nationalism. This led to the establishment of the Hizbe-Wahdat, an alliance of all the Hazara resistance groups (except the Harakat-e Islami). In 1992 with the fall of Kabul, the Harakat-e Islami took sides with Burhanuddin Rabbani's government while the Hizbe-Wahdat took sides with the opposition. The Hizbe-Wahdat was eventually forced out of Kabul in 1995 when the Taliban movement captured and killed their leader Abdul Ali Mazari. With the Taliban's capture of Kabul in 1996, all the Hazara groups united with the new Northern Alliance against the common new enemy. However, despite fierce resistance Hazarajat fell to the Taliban in 1998. The Taliban had Hazarajat isolated from the rest of the world going as far as not allowing the United Nations to deliver food to the provinces of Bamyan, Ghor, Maidan Wardak, and Daykundi.

In 1997, a revolt broke out among Hazaras in Mazar-e Sharif when they refused to be disarmed by the Taliban; 600 Taliban were killed in subsequent fighting. In retaliation, the genocidal policies of Abdur Rahman Khan's era was adopted by the Taliban. In 1998, six thousand Hazaras were killed in the north; the intention was ethnic cleansing of Hazaras. In March 2001, the two giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, were also destroyed even though there was a lot of condemnation.

Hazaras have also played a significant role in the creation of Pakistan. One such Hazara was Qazi Muhammad Essa

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