After the withdrawal of American troops from the territory of Afghanistan in the press increased attention to the Pamirs. Many are afraid of destabilizing the situation in this region, which is actually isolated from the outside world. The "roof of the world" is a special place, since almost all the indigenous people of this region belong to the Ismailis.
Many people mistakenly confuse local residents with Tajiks and other peoples. The article will be able to explain who the Pamirs are, and why they are considered to be a separate ethnic group.
General information
Since the Pamiris live in a high mountain region, which is divided between four states, they are often equated with other peoples. Their historical region (Badakhshan) is located in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China. Most often, this nation is mistakenly confused with the Tajiks. Who are Pamiris?
They belong to the totality of the Iranian peoples who speak the diverse languages of the East Iranian group. Most Pamiris practice Islam. By comparison, Tajiks, for example, speak the West Iranian dialect and profess Sunnism by their majority.
Territory of residence
Pamiris are settled on the territory of the western, southern, eastern Pamirs. In the south, these mountains merge with the Hindu Kush. The area is a narrow valley located at an altitude of two or more thousand meters above sea level. The climate in this area is notable for its severity. The valleys are surrounded by steep mountain ranges up to seven thousand meters above sea level. They are covered with eternal snows. Not for nothing that the name “Roof of the World” is used as the name of this region (the area of Pamiri residents).
The peoples who live in the Pamirs have a similar culture and traditions. However, the researchers were able to prove (by studying languages) that these peoples belong to several ancient East Iranian communities that came to the Pamirs separately from each other. What are the ethnic groups of the Pamirs?
Diversity of nationalities
Pamir peoples are usually divided among themselves according to the linguistic principle. There are two main branches - these are the northern and southern Pamiri. Each of the groups consists of separate peoples, some of which can speak similar languages.
The Northern Parmirians include:
- Shugnans - the leading ethnic group, numbering more than one hundred thousand people, of which about twenty-five thousand live in Afghanistan;
- Rushans - about thirty thousand people;
- yazgulyamtsy - from eight to ten thousand people;
- Sarykoltsy - are considered part of the once-united group of Shugnan-Rushans, which has become isolated, its number reaches twenty-five thousand people.
The southern Pamirians include:
- Ishkashim people - about one and a half thousand people;
- Sanglitsy - the number is not more than one hundred and fifty people;
- Vakhans - the total number reaches seventy thousand people;
- Munchans - about four thousand people.
In addition, there are many close and neighboring peoples who are very close to the Pamirs. Some of them eventually began to use the local Pamiri languages.
Tongue
Pamiri languages are very numerous. But their scope is limited to everyday communication. Historically, the Persian language (Tajik) has had a great influence on them since ancient times.
For the inhabitants of the Pamirs, the Persian language has long been used in religion, literature, and folklore. It is also a universal tool for international communication.
Pamir dialects were gradually supplanted by the Tajik language. In some mountain peoples, they are less and less used even in everyday life. For example, in GBAO (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast), the official language is Tajik. It is on it that school education is conducted. Although if we talk about the Afghan Pamiris, there are practically no schools on their territory, so the population in general is illiterate.
The surviving Pamir languages:
- yazgulyamsky;
- Shugnansky;
- rushansky;
- Khufsky;
- Bartang
- Sarykol;
- Ishkashim;
- Wahan;
- Mundjan;
- yidga.
All of them are part of the group of East Iranian languages. In addition to the Pamiris, representatives of East Iranian ethnic groups were also Scythians, who once lived on the territory of the Northern Black Sea Region and left behind historical monuments in the form of barrows.
Religion
From the end of the first millennium BC, the Pamir tribes were influenced by Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. Islam began to penetrate and spread widely among the masses from the eleventh century. The introduction of the new religion was closely connected with the activities of Nasir Khosrov. He was a famous Persian poet who fled to the Pamirs from his pursuers.
Ismailism had a great influence on the spiritual life of the inhabitants of the Pamirs. According to the religious factor, it is easy to understand who the Pamir is (what kind of nation we have considered above). First of all, representatives of these peoples belong to the Ismailis (the Shiite branch of Islam, which was influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism). How is this trend in Islam different from traditional beliefs?
The main differences:
- Pamiri pray twice a day;
- believers do not fast in Ramadan;
- women did not and do not wear a burqa;
- men allow themselves to drink moonshine from a mulberry tree.
Because of this, many Muslims do not recognize the faithful in the Pamiri.
Family traditions
Relationships to family and marriage will make it possible to understand who the Pamir is. What kind of nation and what are its traditions, can tell the family way. The most ancient version of the family was based on the principle of patriarchal relations. Families were big. At their head stood an elder to whom all implicitly obeyed. That was before the advent of commodity-money relations. The family became monogamous, preserving patriarchal traditions.
This continued until the establishment of Islam. The new religion legalized the superiority of males over females. Under Sharia law, a man had advantages and rights in most cases, for example, in inheritance matters. The husband received the legal right to divorce. At the same time, in mountainous regions, where women took an active part in rural labor, their position was freer.
Kin marriages were adopted in some mountain peoples. Most often, this was stimulated by economic reasons.
Core activities
To understand who the Pamirs are, it is better to study their lifestyle. The main occupation of them has long been agriculture of the high mountain type, which is combined with animal husbandry. As domestic animals, they bred cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses. The cattle were stunted, not of good quality. In winter, the animals were in the villages, and in the summer they were driven to pastures.
The traditional home crafts of the Pamiri people, first of all, include the processing of wool and the manufacture of fabrics. Women worked wool and made yarns, and men wove world-wide striped lint-free carpets.
The industry for processing horns, especially wild goats, was developed. Crests and handles for cold steel were made from them.
