Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
• India • Pakistan | |
Languages | |
Urdu, Gujarati | |
Religion | |
Islam | |
Related ethnic groups | |
• Sindhi Shaikh • Shaikh of Rajasthan • Shaikh |
The Gujarati Shaikh are a Muslim community found in the state of Gujarat in India. The Shaikhs of Gujarat have no single definite origin, as anyone could take up the title "shaikh" and thus different groups could be called Shaikhs, regardless of common origin. Socioeconomically, they range from poor labourers to the urban lower class. They speak heavily Gujaratized Urdu. [1]
The Sodagar or "Arab Shaikh" are a small sub-group within the larger Shaikh community. They originate from the Hadhramaut region of Yemen, and settled in the city of Patan, during the period of Mughal rule, and intermarried with the Sunni Bohra community. The community were involved the buying and selling of silk, and exporting it to the Middle East. They still maintain links with the Middle East, being fluent in Arabic. However, the Sodagar mohalla in Patan has declined, with many of their houses becoming crumbling ruins. They have their own caste association, the Jamat Shams Sodagaran, which is involved in the up keep of their jamat khana, in the town of Patan. They are strictly endogamous, and do not marry with other Shaikh groups. However, there are still cases of intermarriage with Arab communities in the Middle East. [2]
Jamatkhana or Jamat Khana is an amalgamation derived from the Arabic word jama‘a (gathering) and the Persian word khana. It is a term used by some Muslim communities around the world, particularly sufi ones, to a place of gathering. Among some communities of Muslims, the term is often used interchangeably with the Arabic word musallah. The Nizārī Ismā'īlī community uses the term Jama'at Khana to denote their places of worship.
The Muzaffarid dynasty, also called the Muzaffarids, and sometimes, the Ahmedabad dynasty, ruled the Sultanate of Gujarat in western India from 1391 to 1583. The founder of the dynasty was Zafar Khan who was governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate. When the Sultanate was weakened by the sacking of Delhi by Timur in 1398, and Zafar Khan took the opportunity to establish himself as sultan of an independent Gujarat. His Grand son, Ahmed Shah I established the capital at Ahmedabad. The dynasty ruled for almost 200 years, until the conquest of Gujarat by the Mughal Empire in 1572. The sultanate reached its peak of expansion under Mahmud Begada, reaching east into Malwa and west to the Gulf of Kutch.
Lohana are a trading or mercantile jāti mostly in India and also in Pakistan.
Veraval is a city and the headquarters of Gir Somnath district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Somnath temple, a place of pilgrimage due to its importance as one of the 12 Jyotirlinga sites dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva, is located here. It is also known for the hub of fishing industries in India.
The Gujarati people, or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to a region of the Indian subcontinent primarily centered in the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While Gujaratis mainly inhabit Gujarat, they have a diaspora worldwide. Many notable independence activists were Gujarati, including Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Vallabhbhai Patel.
The Gujarat Sultanate or Sultanate of Guzerat was a late medieval Islamic Indian kingdom in Western India, primarily in the present-day state of Gujarat. The kingdom was established in 1394 when Muzaffar Shah I, the Governor of Gujarat, declared independence from the Tughlaq dynasty of Delhi.
Sunni Vohras or Sunni Bohras, are a community from the state of Gujarat in India. Sharing the same name as the Dawoodi Bohras, they are often confused with that community. A few families use the slightly different spelling of "Vora" or "Vahora" as their surname. Another common surname is Patel.
The Kakori Shaikh are a Muslim community found in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. They are also found in the province of Sindh in Pakistan, particularly the city of Karachi.
The term Gujarati Muslim is usually used to signify an Indian Muslim from the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India. Most Gujarati Muslims have the Gujarati language as their mother tongue, but some communities have Urdu as their mother tongue. The majority of Gujarati Muslims are Sunni, with a minority of Shia groups.
The Bhadala or Bhodala is a community of seamen and fishermen found in Sindh, Pakistan and Kutch and Saurashtra regions of Gujarat in India. In Pakistan, they are found mainly in Southern Sindh.
The Shaikhda or Shaikhra are a Muslim community found in the state of Gujarat and Bihar in India.
GujaratiPathans are a group of Pashtuns, who are settled in the region of Gujarat in western India. They now form a distinct community of Gujarati and Urdu/Hindi speaking Muslims. They mainly speak Urdu with many Pashto loanwords, but most of them have been Indianized so some may have Gujarati as their first language as well, few elders in the community still speak Pashto. Common tribes include Turk pathan, Babi or Babai, Niazi, Khan, Bangash, Durrani, and Yousafzai.
The Rajgonds are the ruling class of the Gonds. The region of Gondwana consisted of neighbouring kingdoms. To the south was the Kingdom of Chanda and to the north was the powerful Garha-Mandla kingdom. In the 16th century, the Kingdom of Deogarh rose as a powerful state with the Kherla Kingdom in its western past.
Weaving and cloth trading communities of Western India particularly of Gujarat are called Vankar/Wankar/Vaniya. The four major woven fabrics produced by these communities are cotton, silk, khadi and linen. Today majority of these community members are not engaged in their ancestral weaving occupation still some population of these community contribute themselves in traditional handloom weaving of famous Patola of Patan, Kachchh shawl of Bhujodi in Kutch, Gharchola and Crotchet of Jamnagar, Zari of Surat, Mashroo of Patan and Mandvi in Kutch, Bandhani of Jamnagar, Anjar and Bhuj, Motif, Leheria, Dhamakda and Ajrak, Nagri sari, Tangaliya Shawl, Dhurrie, Kediyu, Heer Bharat, Abhala, Phento and art of Gudri. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community.
The Babi dynasty was a Pashtun dynasty that formed the ruling royal houses of various kingdoms and later princely states. The Babai community, originally of Afghan descent, largely resides in India and some parts of Pakistan. The community traces its royal origins to the dynasty founded by Sher Khanji Babi in 1654, who was himself a ruler from the dynasty's founding until 1690. The last Nawab of the British Indian princely state of Junagadh, Sir Muhammad Khanji, signed an Instrument of Accession and acceded his princely state of Junagadh, as well as its vassal state of Sardargadh, Bantva Manavadar, to the Dominion of Pakistan after the Partition of British India in 1947. However, the Dominion of India did not recognize the accession and annexed the princely state shortly afterwards.
The Hadharem are an Arabic-speaking ethnographic group indigenous to the Hadhramaut region in the Arabian Peninsula, which is part of modern-day Yemen. The spoken language of the Hadharem is Hadhrami Arabic. Among the two million inhabitants of Hadhramaut, there are about 1,300 distinct tribes.
Arabs in India are people with Arab origins who have over a long period of time, settled in the Indian subcontinent. There have been extensive trade and cultural links between India and the Arab world spanning several millennia. The west coast region of India, especially Malabar and Konkan coasts were active trading hubs, where Arab merchants frequently used to visit on their way to Sri Lanka and South East Asia. Over a span of several centuries, migrants from different Arabian nations immigrated to various regions and kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent as merchants, missionaries and through intermarriages.
The Behlim are a Muslim community found mainly in North India. A small number are also found in the city of Karachi in Pakistan.
The Attarwala are a Muslim community found mostly in the state of Gujarat in India.
Muzaffar Shah I, born Zafar Khan, was the founder of the Muzaffarid dynasty in Medieval India, reigning over the Gujarat Sultanate from 1391 to 1403 and again from 1404 to 1411.