Thursday, September 21, 2017

Afshar (General Staff, 1914)

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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