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Baloch people

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Baloch
بلۏچ
Baloch people
Total population
c. 15 million
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan8,117,795 (2023 census)[a][1]
Iran4,800,000[2]
Oman1,000,000[3]
Afghanistan300,000–500,000
United Arab Emirates383,000[4]
India64,000[4]
Qatar53,000[4]
Bahrain44,000[5]
Turkmenistan36,000[6]
Kuwait20,000
Saudi Arabia12,000
Somalia12,000[7]
Languages
Balochi, Brahui, various other languages of host regions spoken by splinter groups

Other languages:

Persian (in Iran and Afghanistan), Urdu (in Pakistan), Pashto (in Afghanistan), English
Religion
Predominantly Islam (mainly Sunni Islam)
Related ethnic groups
Iranian peoples

The Baloch people[b] or the Balochs are an ethnic group which speaks the Western Iranian Balochi language[8] and are native to the Balochistan region of South and West Asia, occupying parts of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. There are also Baloch diaspora communities in neighbouring regions, including in Central Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula. They were traditionally nomadic pastoralists.[9][10][11]

The majority of the Baloch reside within Pakistan. About 50% of the total Baloch population live in the Pakistani province of Balochistan,[12] while 40% are settled in Sindh and a significant albeit smaller number resides in the Pakistani Punjab. They make up 3.6% of Pakistan's total population, 2% of Iran's population, and around 0.5%–1% of the population of Afghanistan,[13] and the largest non-Arab community in Oman.[14]

Etymology

The exact origin of the word "Baloch" is unclear. Ernst Emil Herzfeld believes that the word Baloch is derived from the Median term brza -vačiya meaning "loud shouting".[15][16]

Language

Balochi (بلۏچی, romanised: Balòci) is an Indo-European language, spoken by the Baloch and belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the family. As an Iranian language, it is classified in the Northwestern group,[17] spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Africa and in diaspora communities in other parts of the world.[18]

There are a number of characteristic features that Balochi shares to Parthian and Median and close affinity with them.[19][20]

The Balochi dialects are classified as:[21]

Koroshi is also classified as Balochi.[22]

Many Baloch are either bilingual or multilingual, speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Urdu, Persian, and Arabic as a second language alongside their native Balochi, while those in diaspora communities often speak three or more languages.[17]

History

Antiquity

During the rule of Achaemenid, the Baloch were among rebellious Medes and Parthians who supported Bardiya against Darius I and later allied with Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela with Alexander.[23]

Agha Mir Nasir Khan Ahmadzai the author of seven-volume book on the history of Baloch and Balochistan,[24] connects Balochs with Medes[25] and considers them descendants of the Medes, the people of ancient Iran. He makes mention of all Baloch tribes[26][27] are descendants of the Medes, who came to Balochistan and settled in ancient time.[24]

Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr is a surviving Middle Persian text on Sasanian administrative geography and history,[28] based on the source, Padishkhwārgar (located at the vicinity of Segistan) was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity and people who contributed to building 21 cities in Padishkhwargar were the Kōfyār "mountain dweller" people called Baločān "Balochs".[29]

The Baloch were among Kay Khosrow allies and formed part of his army headed by General Ashkash.[30] Ashkash was assigned by Kay Khosrow to Governor of Makran[31][32][33] and during Kay Khosrow's campaign against Turan, he commanded the Kuch and Baloch army from Makran.[31][32][33] This is depicted in the mythological part of the Shahnamah a prose work written in Middle Persian.[34]

"Next after Gostaham came shrewd Aškash
endowed with prudent heart and ready brain
An army of warriors of the kuch and Baloch
Scheming war like the faighting-ram
No one in the word has seen(them tun) their backs
No one has seen(as much as) one of their fingers unarmed”
They have brought a banners with the figure of a leopard
from whose banners war rained down”[35][36][37]

Also in another piece of this pose which is depicted in the same work:

"Also from Pahlav and Pars and Koch o Baloch"
from the warriors of Gilan and Dasht-e Soroch"[note 1][35][36]

During the Sassanid era, Anoshervan and Ardashir fought against the Balochs and After initially sustaining a defeat, succeeded in subjugating the Baloch. The Baloch scattered in the Makran (modern-day Balochistan in Iran and Pakistan) and Kerman regions, areas that formed the southeastern frontier of the Sassanid Empire. Periodic uprisings or refusals to pay tribute might have been part of their interactions with the Sassanid kings.[39][17][19][40]

Medieval period

According to Baloch lore, their ancestors hail from Aleppo in what is now Syria.[41] After the fight against abbasid Caliph Harun under Ameer Hamza the Kharijites leader[34][42] migrated to east or southeast of the central Caspian region, specially toward to east or southeast of the central Caspian region, specially toward Sistan, Iran.[citation needed]

Based on an analysis of the linguistic connections of the Balochi language, which is one of the Western Iranian languages, the original homeland of the Baloch tribes was likely to the east or southeast of the central Caspian region. The Baloch began migrating towards the east in the late Sasanian period. The cause of the migration is unknown but may have been as a result of the generally unstable conditions in the Caspian area. The migrations occurred over several centuries.[43]

By the 9th century, Arab writers Istakhri, Yaqut al-Hamawi and Al-Muqaddasī refer to the Baloch as a distinct ethnical group living in the area between Kerman, Khorasan, Sistan, and Makran.[19] Ibn Khordadbeh, in Kitab al-Masalik wal-Mamalik, describes the geography of Makran, and mentions the Baloch as They are powerful, numerous, and engaged in animal husbandry, their houses are made of wood. Al-Muqaddasī documented that Panjgur was the capital of Makran and that it was populated by people called Baloch.[44][34]

The 12th century Seljuk invasion of Kerman seemed to have stimulated the further eastwards emigration of the Baloch,[45] towards what is now the Balochistan province of Pakistan, although some remained behind and there are still Baloch in the eastern parts of the Iranian Sistan-Baluchestan and Kerman provinces. By the 13th–14th centuries, waves of Baloch were moving into Sindh, and by the 15th century into the Punjab.[19]

Dayaram Gidumal writes that a Baloch legend is backed up by the medieval Qarmatians.[citation needed] The fact that the Kalmatis were ethnic Baluchis is also confirmed by the Persian historian in the 16th century Muhammad Qasim Ferishta.[citation needed]

Traditionally, Jalal Khan was the ruler and founder of the first Baloch confederacy in the 12th century. (He may be the same as Jalal al-Din Mangburni the last ruler of the Khwarazmian Empire.)[citation needed] Jalal Khan left four sons – Rind Khan, Lashar Khan, Hoth Khan, Korai Khan and a daughter, Bibi Jato, who married his nephew Murad.[34] Since 12th century Baloch chieftains ruled over most of Balochistan. Mir Jalal khan and Mir Chakar after the establishment of the Baloch Confederation, They extended their dominance on outside the borders of Balochistan, Mir Chakar seized control over Punjab and captured Multan.[46] The great Baloch kingdom was based on tribal confederation, Punjab and Balochistan remained under his rule for a period of time .[47][40]

According to Akhtar Baloch, professor at University of Karachi, the Baloch migrated from Balochistan during the Little Ice Age and settled in