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Jat Muslim

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For historical Jat community in lower Iraq, see Zutt.

Jat Muslims
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan • India
Languages
Punjabi (and its dialects) • Sindhi (and its dialects) • Urdu • Khariboli • Haryanvi
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Jat people

Jat Muslims or Musalman Jats (Punjabi: جٹ مسلمان; Sindhi: مسلمان جاٽ), also spelled Jatt or Jutt (Punjabi pronunciation: [d͡ʒəʈːᵊ]), are an elastic and diverse[1] ethnoreligious subgroup of the Jat people, who follow Islam and are native to the northwestern Indian subcontinent.[2] They are primarily found in Sindh and Pakistani Punjab.[3] Some are also found in Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, where they are known as Muley Jats.[4] Many Muley Jat families migrated to Pakistan following the Partition.

The Jats began converting to Islam during the early medieval period, influenced by Sufi saints like Baba Farid. The conversion process was gradual.[5]

History

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A gold dinar minted in Egypt, displays the names of the Caliph and Zutt Emir Ubaydallah ibn al-Sari

The Jats were one of the first communities of the Subcontinent to interact with Muslims. They were known to the Arabs as the Zuṭṭ (Arabic: الزُّطِّ), which is the Arabicized word for Jat.[6][7][8] However, this term described several groups (such as the Sāyabija, Andāghar, and Qayqāniyya) who were not always described as Jats.[9] The Arab conquerors noted several agglomerations of Jats settled across various regions of Sind.[10]

Between the 11th and 16th centuries, Sindhi Jats began migrating into Punjab.[11][12] Many clans have traditions of converting in this period, influenced by saints like Baba Farid.[13] By the 16th century, many, if not most, of the chief Punjabi clans west of the Ravi were Muslims.[14] However, local Jats would continue harassing Muslim forces (like that of Mahmud of Ghazni, Timur, Babur, and Sher Shah Suri).[15][16][17][18]

Grand Vizier Saadullah Khan meeting with his officials

During Mughal rule, Jats came to own considerable land and exert local influence.[19][20] The Mughals, even at the zenith of their power, devolved authority and never had direct control over many of these rural grandees.[21] Some Jats also climbed the Mughal ranks, such as Saadullah Khan, the celebrated Grand Vizier and Vakil-i-Mutlaq of the empire, and forefather of Mutawassil Khan and Nizam Muzaffar Jang Hidayat.[22][23]

As the Mughals declined, many communities broke out into revolt.[24] In Rohilkhand, the adopted Jat Nawab Ali Mohammed Khan would lead the Rohillas and found the Kingdom of Rohilkhand.[25][26][27] His son, Faizullah Khan, would later found the Rampur State.[28] In Punjab, local Jat murīds would help establish the Chishti Pakpattan state,[29] while the Chattha chiefs would found a principality which would become the chief rival of the rising Sukerchakia Misl (as memorialized in the war ballad, Chattian di Vaar).[30]

During British rule, Punjabi Muslims, including Jats, enticed by potential social mobility and economic empowerment, joined the British Indian army.[31][32] Most Punjabi Muslim recruits were from Pothohar.[33]

Demographics

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British Punjab

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As per the 1921 census, 47.3% of the Jats followed Islam in British Punjab.[34]

In the 1931 census, the total Jat Muslim population in British Punjab was 2,941,395 (out of 28,490,857).[35]

Pakistan

[edit]

The Muslim Jat population is estimated to number around 40.6 million.[36] Jats, together with Rajputs and Gujjars, are the dominant Punjabi Muslim communities settled across eastern Pakistan.[37]

Notable people

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, society and politics in India from the eighteenth century to the modern age. The new Cambridge history of India / general ed. Gordon Johnson 4, The evolution of contemporary South Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6.
  2. ^ Jairath, Vinod K. (3 April 2013). Frontiers of Embedded Muslim Communities in India. Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-136-19680-5.
  3. ^ Jaffrelot, Christophe, ed. (2002). A History of Pakistan and Its Origins. Translated by Gillian Beaumont. London: Anthem Press. pp. 205–206. ISBN 978-1-84331-030-3. OCLC 61512448.
  4. ^ Gupta, Dipankar (1997). Rivalry and Brotherhood: Politics in the Life of Farmers in Northern India. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997. pp. 2, 34, 44-47, 50, 57, 60, 63–65, 82–85, 87, 124, 160. ISBN 9780195641011.
  5. ^ Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11th-13th Centuries. Vol. 2. Boston: Brill. pp. 241–242. ISBN 978-0-391-04174-5. OCLC 48837811.
  6. ^ Maclean, Derryl N. (1984). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. McGill University. ISBN 978-0-315-20821-6. Pg. 45.
  7. ^ Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad (1994). "Early Arab Contact with South Asia". Journal of Islamic Studies. 5 (1): 52–69. ISSN 0955-2340. JSTOR 26196673. Pg. 57.
  8. ^ ʿAthamina, Khalil (1998). "Non-Arab Regiments and Private Militias during the Umayyād Period". Arabica. 45 (3): 347–378. ISSN 0570-5398. Pg. 355.
  9. ^ Zakeri, Mohsen (1995). Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʻAyyārān and Futuwwa. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-03652-8. Pg. 123, 195, 196.
  10. ^ Mayaram, Shail (2003), Against history, against state: counterperspectives from the margins, Columbia University Press, p. 19, ISBN 978-0-231-12730-1
  11. ^ Grewal, J. S. (1998), The Sikhs of the Punjab, Cambridge University Press, p. 5, ISBN 978-0-521-63764-0, 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)"
  12. ^ Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7.
  13. ^ Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11th-13th Centuries. Vol. 2. Boston: Brill. pp. 241–242. ISBN 978-0-391-04174-5. OCLC 48837811.
  14. ^ Gandhi, Rajmohan (2015). Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten. Rupa. ISBN 9789383064083.
  15. ^ Baumer, Christoph (30 May 2016). The History of Central Asia: The Age of Islam and the Mongols. Bloomsbury. pp. 207–208. ISBN 978-1838609399. Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. "In 1026, warriors of the Jats, the indigenous population of Sindh, inflicted heavy losses on Mahmud's army when he retreated from Somnath to Multan. Mahmud returned a year later to take revenge on the Jats, who had been stubbornly resisting forced Islamisation since the eighth century. As the contemporary writer Gardizi reports, Mahmud had 1,400 boats built; each boat was to carry 20 archers and be equipped with special projectiles that could be filled with naphtha. Mahmud's fleet sailed down the Jhelum and then the Indus, until it met the Jat fleet. Although the Jats had far more boats than Mahmud, their fleet was set ablaze and destroyed."
  16. ^ Elliot, Henry Miers (1959). The History of India: As Told by Its Own Historians; the Muhammadan Period; the Posthumous Papers of H. M. Elliot, Volume 3. Susil Gupta (India) Private, 1959. pp. 428–429. ISBN 9781108055857. "...[Timur] learned that they were a robust race, and were called Jats. They were Musulmáns only in name and had not their equals in theft and robbery. They plundered caravans on the road, and were a terror to Musulmáns and travellers... these turbulent Jats were as numerous as ants or locusts... [Timur] marched into the jungles and wilds, and slew 2,000 demon-like Jats."
  17. ^ Rose, Horace Arthur (1970). A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province (in 360) (Reprint ed.). Languages Department, Punjab, 1970. ISBN 9788175361522. "Every time that [Babur] entered Hindustan, the Jats and Gujars regularly poured down in prodigious numbers from their hills and wilds in order to carry off oxen and buffaloes."{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  18. ^ Sarvānī, ʻAbbās Khān (1974). Tārīk̲h̲-i-Śēr Śāhī. Translated by Brahmadeva Prasad Ambashthya. K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1974. Archived. Quote: "[Suri] ordered Habibat Khan to be rid of Fath Khan Jat who was in QABūLA and who had once laid the entire country right upto PANIPAT to pillage and plunder in the time of the Mughals and had made them desolate, and had also brought MULTAN under his control after wresting it from the Balūcīs."
  19. ^ Mayaram, Shail (2003), Against history, against state: counterperspectives from the margins, Columbia University Press, p. 19, ISBN 978-0-231-12730-1
  20. ^ Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7.
  21. ^ Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7.
  22. ^ a b Journal of Central Asia. Centre for the Study of the Civilizations of Central Asia, Quaid-i-Azam University. 1992. p. 84. Retrieved 30 July 2022. Sadullah Khan was the son of Amir Bakhsh, a cultivator of Chiniot. He belonged to a Jat family. He was born on Thursday, the 10th Safar 1000 A.H./1591 A.C.
  23. ^ Beveridge H. (1952). The Maathir Ul Umara Vol-ii (1952). The Calcutta Oriental Press Ltd. p. 647.
  24. ^ Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7.
  25. ^ a b Irvine, W. (1971). Later Mughal. Atlantic Publishers & Distri. p. 118. Retrieved 30 July 2022. Once Daud was sent against the village of Bankauli, in pargana Chaumahla, with which his employer was at feud. Along with the plunder taken on this occasion Daud obtained possession of a Jat boy seven or eight years of age, whom he caused to be circumcised and then adopted under the name of Ali Muhammad Khan.
  26. ^ Ḥusain, M.; Pakistan Historical Society (1957). A History of the Freedom Movement: 1707-1831. A History of the Freedom Movement: Being the Story of Muslim Struggle for the Freedom of Hind-Pakistan, 1707-1947. Pakistan Historical Society. p. 304. Retrieved 30 July 2022. Amongst other prisoners he obtained a young Jat boy of eight years . Daud took a fancy to him and adopted him as his son and named him ' Ali Muhammad Khan.
  27. ^ Gommans, Jos J. L. (1995). The Rise of the Indo-Afghan Empire: C. 1710-1780. BRILL. p. 120. ISBN 978-90-04-10109-8. Most of the contemporary sources, however, call him a Jat or an Ahir.
  28. ^ a b Gupta, Hari Ram (1999) [1980]. History of the Sikhs. Vol. III: Sikh Domination of the Mughal Empire (1764–1803) (2nd rev. ed.). Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 11. ISBN 978-81-215-0213-9. OCLC 165428303. "The real founder of the Rohilla power was Ali Muhammad, from whom sprang the present line of the Nawabs of Rampur. Originally a Hindu Jat, who was taken prisoner when a young boy by Daud in one of his plundering expeditions, at village Bankauli in the parganah of Chaumahla, and was converted to Islam and adopted by him."
  29. ^ Richard M. Eaton (1984). Metcalf, Barbara Daly (ed.). Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520046603.
  30. ^ Mirzā, Shafqat Tanvir (1992). Resistance Themes in Punjabi Literature. Sang-e-Meel Publications - University of Michigan Library (digitized 9 May 2008) via Google Books website. pp. 56–62. ISBN 978-969-35-0101-8.
  31. ^ Omissi, David (8 April 2001). "Military Planning and Wartime Recruitment (India)". "The single most numerous "class" of Indian recruits in both world wars, however, was the Punjabi Muslims"
  32. ^ Singh, R. S. N. (2008). The Military Factor in Pakistan. New Delhi ; Frankfort, IL: Lancer Publishers. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-9815378-9-4.
  33. ^ Leigh, Maxwell Studdy (1922). The Punjab and the War. Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1922. ISBN 978-9693508468.
  34. ^ “Census of India 1921. Vol. 15, Punjab and Delhi. Pt. 1, Report.” Census Reports - 1921, 1923., 1923. JSTOR. Accessed 8 Apr. 2024. Page 345.
  35. ^ “Census of India 1931. Vol. 17, Punjab. Pt. 2, Tables.” Census Reports - 1931, 1933., 1933. JSTOR. Accessed 8 Apr. 2024. Page 290.
  36. ^ "Y-STR Haplogroup Diversity in the Jat Population Reveals Several Different Ancient Origins - PMC". "Assuming the ratio among religions has stayed about the same [from the 1931 census] (i.e., 33% for Islam and 67% combined for Hinduism and Sikhism), the population of Muslim Jats in 2012 can be extrapolated to about 40.6 million (82.5 million/67 × 33)."
  37. ^ Christophe Jaffrelot, ed. (2004). A history of Pakistan and its origins. London: Anthem Press. ISBN 1-84331-149-6. OCLC 56646546.
  38. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  39. ^ Gupta, Hari Ram (1999) [1980]. History of the Sikhs. Vol. III: Sikh Domination of the Mughal Empire (1764–1803) (2nd rev. ed.). Munshiram Manoharlal. p. 11. ISBN 978-81-215-0213-9. OCLC 165428303. "The real founder of the Rohilla power was Ali Muhammad, from whom sprang the present line of the Nawabs of Rampur. Originally a Hindu Jat, who was taken prisoner when a young boy by Daud in one of his plundering expeditions, at village Bankauli in the parganah of Chaumahla, and was converted to Islam and adopted by him."
  40. ^ Iqbāl Qaiṣar, پاكستان وچ سكھاں دياں تواريخى پوتر تھاواں, Punjabi History Board, 2001, p.206
  41. ^ Griffin, Lepel Henry (1865). The Panjab Chiefs: Historical and Biographical Notices of the Principal Families in the Territories Under the Panjab Government. T.C. McCarthy.
  42. ^ Matinuddin, Kamal (1999) The Taliban Phenomenon: Afghanistan 1994-1997, p 63. Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0-19-579274-2, ISBN 978-0-19-579274-4
  43. ^ Carlotta Gall (3 March 2010). "Former Pakistani Officer Embodies a Policy Puzzle". The New York Times.
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