Hazara

The Hazaras are a Persian-speaking, mostly Shia people of central Afghanistan (Hazarajat: Bamyan, Daikundi, Ghor, Wardak and neighbouring provinces), about 9% of Afghanistan's population by common estimates (range 3-20%). The name comes from Persian hazar, 'thousand', probably a Mongol military unit; their self-name is Azra. Genetic and linguistic evidence points to mixed Turkic, Mongolic and Iranian ancestry, and their East Asian features set them apart from their neighbours. They speak Hazaragi, a Persian dialect with Turkic and Mongolic words, and became Twelver Shia under Safavid influence. Emir Abdur Rahman's conquest of Hazarajat in 1888-1893 killed a large part of the population (over 60% by some estimates), enslaved many and seized their land, driving the first exodus to Quetta and Mashhad; the Taliban killed thousands in 1998 and Islamic State attacks have targeted them since 2015. Large communities live in Pakistan (Quetta), Iran, the Gulf, Europe and Australia.

Hazaras of Hazarajat are farmers and herders in high, cold valleys, living in flat-roofed mud-brick villages; in exile they are labourers, traders and, increasingly, an educated urban class. The dambura, a two-stringed lute, accompanies sung poetry (dobaiti) and Hazaragi folk songs; Nowruz and Muharram are the high points of the year. Families are patrilineal, with tribal and clan affiliations (for example Dai Kundi, Dai Zangi, Jaghori, Behsud). Women have taken a prominent role in Hazara education and politics, and girls' schooling is valued highly.

Hazaras are mostly Twelver Shia. Muharram mourning for Imam Husayn, Ashura processions and passion rites, majlis gatherings at takiyakhana prayer halls, and pilgrimage to Mashhad, Qom and Karbala are central. Sayyids (Sadat) hold religious prestige, and many Hazaras follow marja' in Najaf or Qom. Folk practice includes vows, amulets and shrine visits. In Iran the Hazara second generation is shaped by Iranian Shia schooling and seminaries in Qom, while others have grown secular or critical of clerical rule; in Europe and Australia some Hazara refugees have converted to Christianity.

The New Testament is available in Hazaragi, with portions published 2008-2015, and the complete Bible in Dari is widely understood. The JESUS film and Global Recordings Network audio exist in Hazaragi. Persian-language Christian media reach Hazaras in Iran and Afghanistan. Hazara Christian fellowships exist mainly in Europe and Australia; in Afghanistan open witness is impossible under the Taliban.

Hazara migration to Iranian Khorasan began before the modern refugee era. In 1850 about 5,000 Hazara families settled in Jam and Bakharz, and many more fled Emir Abdur Rahman's subjugation of Hazarajat in the 1890s. Iranians first called them Barbari; in 1937 Reza Shah ordered the less insulting name Khawari, 'people of the east'. Persian-speaking and Shia, they integrated faster than any other Afghan group, and some later moved on to Iraq and Syria, with many expelled from Iraq in the 1970s returning to Mashhad. Today they are Iranian citizens, but officials often treat them as Afghans and neighbours judge them by their features, so many keep apart from newly arrived Afghan Hazaras in the same Mashhad districts.