User:Sutyarashi/Zuṭṭ

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User:Sutyarashi

Zuṭṭ (also as Zatt and Zott) is an Arabicised form of

Indus Valley, Jats were present in Mesopotamia since as early as 5th century AD, although their main migration occurred after the establishment of Umayyad Caliphate. They were one of the prominent ethnic groups in lower Iraq during Islamic Golden Age
, supplying mercenary soldiers to the Muslim states. Their mention fades from Muslim chronicles after 11th century. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

History

Original homeland

At the time of

Indus river, where cities of Mansura and Multan were located.[11] This vast region, known as bilād al-Zāt (land of the Jats) to Muslim geographers,[12] was mainly populated by Jats,[13] who safeguarded the trade routes and caravans in their region between Mansura and Karman.[12]

Regions of Makran and Turan were known as bilād al-Zāt during early medieval period.[12]

In early Islamic Arabia

The commercial activities of Zutt lead to their settlements in

Imam Bukhari narrated, Prophet Muhammad compared Moses with them in physique, and stated him to be of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature, resembling Zutt.[14] On another occasion, when Aisha fell ill, her nephew sent for a Zutt physician to treat her.[14] Some of them participated in Ridda Wars
against Muslims.

In Sassanid Empire

Sassanid emperor

Khuzistan or Bahrain.[17]
They also inhabited the city of Haumat al-Zutt in Khuzistan.

Zutt fought as mercenary soldiers for the

Ahwaz in Iran in 640, Zutt put up a strong resistance in the defence of the city along with Persian Aswaran.[16] Later, as did Aswaran, who were known as Asawira during the caliphate period, they settled in Basra as allies of Banu Tamim.[17]

In Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates

Zutt formed a large population of the garrison town of

battle of Camel in 656 under their chief, Ali bin Danūr.[22]

In 670, a large number of Zutt, along with Aswaran, were moved into coastal cities of Syria, such as Antioch, Beirut and Tripoli, replacing earlier Greek population, and a quarter in Antioch came to be known after them.[19][23] This was an attempt by Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I to ward off any possible naval invasion by Byzantine Empire.[24] During this period, the role of Zutt and the associated groups seems to guard the governors of different provinces, as well as to suppress revolts.[25] They also acted as special troops to guard provincial treasuries.[21] Zutt had been in Mesopotamia for long enough that they were considered distinct from Sindhis or Indians.[19] In Iraq and elsewhere, they had their separate units under their own leaders, giving them a status of distinct sub-tribe in the Muslim society.[26]

Map of Iraq in the later 9th century. Zutt primarily inhabited the marshland in lower Iraq.

Second migration

After the conquest of Sindh in 712, a second influx of Zutt occurred from Makran into Iraq.

Brahman dynasty had imposed discriminatory measures upon them, which were maintained by Arabs, and in some cases, even intensified after a long series of rebellions.[30] Four thousand Zutt became captive of Muslims during the early Muslim incursions into Makran, and later they participated as auxiliaries in the conquest of Sindh.[17] The two chief tribal groupings in Sindh at the time of Arab conquest were Zutt and Meds.[27] Unlike Jats, however, Meds were seafaring people. Some of them carried piracy in the Indian Ocean as Bawarij. The incident in which they captured two treasure ships coming from Ceylon to Basra became casus belli for the Umayyad invasion of Sindh.[31]

Zutt were, infact, not the only people from Indus Valley who had permanently settled into Mesopotamia. The other groups included Sāyabija, Andāghar and Qayqāniyya, who were at times considered as part of Jats, and sometimes described separately.[32] Muslim accounts describe these soldiers as originally inhabitants of Sind.[33] An important sub-group of Zutt were Qayqaniyya, who inhabited the region of Qayqan ( also known as Qiqān, modern Kalat).[34] Many of them had been taken as captives between 659 and 664 by Abd Allah bin Sawwar al-Abdi to Iraq, who was appointed as governor of regions surrounding Sindh.[35] He was himself killed in one of the wars against Qiqani Zutt in 667 and Qiqan was re-conquered by them.[35] Always armed with arrows, whether cavalry or infantry, these Zutt Qayqaniyya units were master archers of the caliphate, and acted as auxiliary group for shurta.[35] Qiqaniyya as well as Bukhariyya, an Iranian unit of soldiers, were sent to suppress revolt of Zayd ibn Ali in 740 by Umayyad Caliphate.[33] Another group associated with Zutt was that of Qufs, or "mountain dwellers", who were dark-skinned soldiers from Kerman.[17] They had been recruited by Sassanids as auxiliaries[17] and later, actively supported Arabs against Sassanids.[13] However, these soldiers had married among Persians and had assimilated to the Persian culture.[17]

Jats (with their very name being synonymous with dromedary-men or cameleers)

Amanus (present-day Turkey) to combat the large number of lions found there.[23]

In Abbasid Caliphate

The position of Zutt as mercenary soldiers remained stable for some time after the Abbasid revolution and establishment of the

abna’ al-dawla, the elite Khurasani troops of Abbasid caliphate.[38] His two sons, Abu Nāsr (r. 820–822) and Ubāydallah (r. 822–826) succeeded him as the emirs of Egypt
. Ubaydallah's reign came to an end in 826, when al-Ma'mun sought to achieve greater effective control over the country by dispatching to it the
Ikhshidids.[39]

Gold dinar minted in Egypt in 823/4, displaying the names of the caliph al-Ma'mun and Ubaydallah ibn al-Sari

Jats produced a number of well-known people during

Abu al-Khasib. During this period, Zutt increasingly intermingled with other non-Arab foreign people in Basra, a cosmopolitan port at the time. They, along with Sayabija and Zanj, were designated as one of the Black peoples (Arabic: as-swadan) by Arabs.[44] Grandfather of al-Jahiz, the famous 9th century author, was reportedly a black cameleer.[45] The term Black, however, was apparently applied to Berbers and Indians as well.[37]

Zutt rebellion

Main article: Zutt Rebellion

As the central power of caliphate broke down after the mid-9th century, Zutt came to be viewed as outlaws and brigands instead of allies. Zutt, Asawira and other troops were effectively demilitarized at the start of century. Some of Zutt later turned into Banu Sasan, who were members of what

C. E. Bosworth calls "Islamic Underworld".[43] The Qiqaniyya, who had reputation as sea-faring people, turned to piracy along the coast of Baluchistan and Makran.[46] The continued political suppression, as well as relative weakness of Abbasid control after the devastating civil war, encouraged the Zutt living in lower Iraq to rise in rebellion in 820 under the leadership of Muhammad ibn Uthman. Early Abbasid efforts to defeat Zutt proved unsuccessful, and they continued to levy taxes over caravans and to raid neighbouring regions of Basra. After the defeat of Ahmad bin Sa'd al-Bahili, Abbasids sent a large force of more than 10,000 under their general Ujayf ibn Anbasa in 834 to Wasit, which was a stronghold of Zutt. Abbasid forces blocked the waterways to the Iraqi marshes and thus cut down the communication lines of Zutt. The war continued for nine months, and included amphibious operations, until Zutt leaders agreed to surrender. They were ultimately deported to a village at the Byzantine frontier of Cilicia in 835.[47][48] In 855, Byzantine army made an unexpected raid on the city of Anazarbus (`Ain Zarbah) and took many of them to Constantinople.[49]

The Zutt rebellion lasted for 14 years before finally being put down. Al-Tabari, a 9th-century historian, quoted a long poem by a Zutt poet when they were being deported to Cilicia. in it, poet taunted people of Baghdad, where caliph was based, for their cowardice as they could not defeat Zutt and had to employ Turkic slave-soldiers against them.[50] The poet held these Turks in military posts in low regard and instead glorified austerity of the Zutt.[50]

Later period

Zutt also participated in the later

Kurd and Bedouin tribes.[46]

Abbasid caliphate itself disintegrated after the

Ma'danids, Hābbarids and Munābbihids, respectively. Owing to these developments, the movement of Jats into Iraq ceased.[53] During the same period, Jats left Makran and moved upward to the fertile but thinly populated Punjab plains, which, since 16th century, have been dominated by them.[53]

Descendants

Afterwards, Jats lost their distinct identity in the Mesopotamia that they had previously. The 19th century Dutch orientalist

northwestern Indo-Aryans,[48] with the present day Dom people (also called Nawar) is also spurious, as Dom are speakers of central Indo-Aryan Domari language,[54] and migrated from central India instead. However, the term Zott has persisted in Arab countries, albeit in a pejorative way, to describe them because of their Indian origins.[43] More probably, Zutt later became what are now known as Marsh Arabs of Iraq.[19]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-472-22063-2
    . Later, when the outcome of the First Kashmir War did not favor either side, the resulting stalemate led to a puzzling division of Kashmir between the two adversaries.
  2. ISBN 978-1-139-50193-4
    . Although certain minor operations were possible, India was essentially confronted with a stalemate.
  3. ISBN 978-0-19-989270-9
    . Although the war ended in a stalemate with international intervention, Pakistan may have rightly concluded that the strategy of using irregular fighters succeeded.
  4. ISBN 978-1-108-84059-0
    . In the stalemate that followed the first Indo-Pakistani War...
  5. ISBN 978-0-521-76721-7
    . In the end, the fighting proved inconclusive, and Pakistani and Indian forces reached a military stalemate.
  6. ISBN 978-0-8047-6086-7
    . That effort failed, and the ensuing war in 1947 – 48 ended in a military stalemate.
  7. ISBN 978-1-135-75658-1
    . In January 1948, with a military stalemate at hand, India referred the Kashmir dispute to the UN.
  8. ISBN 978-0-8157-1386-9
    . With British officers present in both armies and the international community urging restraint, the conflict ended in a tactical and strategic stalemate.
  9. ^
  10. ISBN 978-1-000-90453-6
    .
  11. ^ Wink 2002, p. 160.
  12. ^ a b c Nizami 1994, p. 57.
  13. ^ a b c Wink 2002, p. 142.
  14. ^ a b c d Nizami 1994, p. 55.
  15. ^ Wink 2002, p. 48, 157.
  16. ^ a b Zakeri 1995, p. 121–122.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Zakeri 1995, p. 122.
  18. ^ Wink 2002, p. 156–157.
  19. ^ a b c d Wink 2002, p. 157.
  20. ^ Zakeri 1995, p. 191.
  21. ^ a b c Anthony 2011, p. 121.
  22. ^ Zakeri 1995, p. 127.
  23. ^ a b Zakeri 1995, p. 159.
  24. ^ Zakeri 1995, p. 128.
  25. ^ Zakeri 1995, p. 193–194.
  26. ^ a b Zakeri 1995, p. 190.
  27. ^ a b Wink 2002, p. 156.
  28. ^ Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 270.
  29. ^ Wink 2002, p. 161.
  30. ^ Wink 2002, p. 162.
  31. ^ Wink 2002, p. 164.
  32. ^ Zakeri 1995, p. 123, 196.
  33. ^ a b Zakeri 1995, p. 196.
  34. ^ Zakeri 1995, p. 194–195.
  35. ^ a b c Zakeri 1995, p. 195.
  36. ^ Wink 2002, p. 160, 172.
  37. ^ a b Robert Haug; Steven Judd 2023, p. 222.
  38. ISBN 978-90-04-09834-3
    , retrieved 2023-12-07
  39. ^ Bianquis 1998, p. 97.
  40. ^ Malik 2020, p. 44.
  41. ^ Wink 2002, p. 161: Some Jat freemen became famous in the Islamic world, as for instance Abu Hanifa (699-767 ? ).
  42. ^ Malik 2020, p.44: ...Abu Hanifa (699–767), the founder of the Hanafi school of law, who was of Jat stock, most likely descending from those early prisoners sent to Iraq..
  43. ^ a b c Bosworth 1976, p. 170.
  44. ^ Robert Haug; Steven Judd 2023, p. 225.
  45. ^ Robert Haug; Steven Judd 2023, p. 225–226.
  46. ^ a b Bosworth 1976, p. 34.
  47. ^ al-Ṭabarī 2015, p. 7–10.
  48. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth 2012.
  49. ^ Kennedy 2006, p. 98.
  50. ^ a b Anooshahr 2008, p. 77.
  51. ISBN 978-0-315-20821-6
    .
  52. ^ Daftary 2011, p. 29.
  53. ^ a b Wink 2002.
  54. ^ Matras, Yaron (1996). "Domari" (PDF). In Brown, Keith (ed.). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.

Bibliography

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