Afshar
One
of the Kizilbash (q.v.) Turkish tribes settled in Persia since the 16th
century. It is divided into many branches and numbers, about 12,000 families
who have mostly discarded their original nomad ways of life and now live in
villages and towns. More than a quarter of the tribe is settled in Azarbaijan
and in the Urumieh, Sain Kaleh, Ardabil and Mishkin districts, others live in
Mazandaran Khorasan, ‘Iraq, Fars, and Kirman. About 1,400 men are in service in
the Persian cavalry; in case of emergency the tribe could it is said, put
15,000 well armed horsemen in the field.
About
2,000 fighting men of this tribe accompanied Nadir to India; on his return
march he left them in Kabul, whither he sent their families too. Their
descendants speak Turki and with the exception of dress there is very little
difference between them and their brothers in Persia.― (Schindler.)
Gazetteer of Persia. Volume II, Simla: Government of
Monotype Press, 1914, p. 14.
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