We have a fuller account of the Hezârehs in Lieut. Wood’s
narrative of his journey- to the sources of the Oxus. “ The
Hazaurehs and Eemiks; says this* intelligent writer,
“ occupy the whole wall of mountains extending from Kabul
to Ilerât : the former on the eastern part as far westward as
the Ghorhand valley.” He says, “ they are quite a Tartar
race, and even more marked with the disagreeable features
of that nomadic people than the Usbeks, in the valley of
the Oxus. They strongly resemble the Kirghiz, of Pamir.
Among individuals of the same family, the mere differences
of locality produce a strong effect on the physiognomy..
A low-lying plain smoothens and tames down the characteristic
features, which in mountain regions are seen in their
full strength and sharpness.”* He gives a~Mst of the
Hezâreh tribes, and concludes “ that the whole aggregate of
the Hezâreh nation inhabiting tlie, Paropamisan chain i§
about one hundred and fifty-six thousand soulsi” | The
Hezâreh females go unveiled. They are mucff Softer
featured than the men, and have a healthy florid complexion.
Both sexes endure extreme hardships.”
Many other tribes, of Turkish origin,- * are jenumerated
among the Iliyâhs of Persia, as the Shekâgi, Sh^lnseven,
Bayât : they are still recognised as of Turkish--descent
and speak the Turkish language. They are most numéro
ous in Azerbaijân and other northern parts of-Persia, but
some of them are very extensively spread over a great
portion of Iran.
Before I proceed to the indigenous Persian tribes,# pr
to those Ilâts who have had their abode immemorially in
the country, I must mention three classes of hordes ehiefly
nomadic, though not all considered as Iliyâhs.
1 st.—The Arab-zeban are the remains of Various Arabian
tribes «who, in the early times of the khalifat, migrated
from Arabia into Persia, where their descendents live
partly as nomades under movable tents, and in part
settled in villages. Some tribes retain their native language
; others speak the Persian. Jouannin reckons
* Wood’s Journey to the Sources of the Oxus. p. 204.
eight tribes-of Arab-zeban ; Morier, thirteen. Sir J. Morier
says, that they came, originally, from Nejd, and still retain
their pure Arabian blood.
Hiyàt Kurd-zebay } or Tribes of the Kurdish Language,
are tribes of people speaking the Kurdish language, who
said to have been brought from Kurdistan, by Shah
Ismail, and settled on the eastern frontier of Persia, to
check the inroads of the- Turkomans. They have increased
t9. fifty thousand houses" of 'families.' Thèy retain, with
tbeif'ëpeëbh, their old nomadic habits.
Kurd-Baeheb, dr* Kurdish children, are a tribe- sprung
from an intermixture of Kuïds with-Làks, a race to be
mentioned injthe sequel.
Of the Karaschi.
Anoiheÿ^set of wandering > people in Persia, are the
Karaschi,^r Black Race, iWhVam-hordes of vagabonds
spread" over the* country in diffèrent quarters, and having
^no principal district--as their hornet or proper abode. In
this, -and in other respeetsy they differ from-the. Hats,
among whom they are, however, now ^included. In some
parts of Persia they are named Kaouly, and thought to,
have- originated' from Kabfil, In Azerbaijân they are
termed Lôuly gih: BalitMsfan, Lourly^-and in Khorasan,
where -they are very numerous, they havedhe appellation
of Karaschar. According^ to public, opinion in Persia,
these wandering hordes- are descendents-from a band of
four thousand musicians, of the Loolyfbrib^ who migrated,
from India1 into* Iran, in the fith eentury,-during the;
reign of the Sassanide king, Bahramgar, or Varazanes- :
'f i ë William Ouseley collected a vocabulary of the
dialect of the Karaschi, in Azarbaïjân, which proves that
tfibe to be a branch of the race of Gipsfeys, or Cigani,
well-khown- in most parts o f Eurdpm The Indian origin
of the gipàeys is admitted; and it is probable that the
Persian Karaschi are the! same people win the state. of