Yaghnobi people
Encyclopedia
Yaghnobi people, or Yagnobian people, (Yaghnobi
:yaγnōbī́t/,/) is the name of an isolated people who live in the Sughd
province
of Tajikistan
in the valley
s of the Yagnob, Kul and Varzob
river
s. These are the last living relics of the great Sogdian
nation that once inhabited most of Central Asia
beyond the Oxus/Amu Darya
River. The Soghdian language gradually gave way to Persian
after the 5th century AD, with the latter largely supplanting the former by the 10th century AD. It is nothing short of a miracle that the Sogdian language and people have survived to the present in the small numbers of the Yaghnobi people and their language.
The 1926 and 1939 census data gives the number of Yaghnabi speakers as approximately 1,800. In 1955, M. Bogolyubov estimated the number of Yaghnabi native speakers as more than 2,000. In 1972, A. Khromov estimated 1,509 native speakers in the Yaghnob valley and about 900 elsewhere. The estimated number of Yagnobi people is approximately 25,000.
, growing produce
such as barley
, wheat
, and legumes as well as breeding
cattle
, oxen and ass
es. There were traditional handicrafts including weaving
which was mostly done by the men. The women worked on molding the earthenware crockery.
The Yagnobian people originated from the Sogdians, a people dominant in the area until the Arab
conquests in the 8th century when Sogdiana
was defeated. In that period Yagnobians settled in the high valleys. The Yaghnobi people are Sunni Muslims, and some elements of pre-Islamic religion (probably, Zoroastrianism
) are still preserved.
and some still do, as the area they originally inhabited is still remote from road
s and electrical lines. The first negative contact with the outer world occurred with Communism
in the 1930s during the Great Purge
, when some Yagnobians were exile
d, but the most traumatic events were the Communist 1957 and 1970 forced resettlings by the Soviet Union
, from the Yagnob mountains to the semi-desert lowland
s of Tajikistan
.
Red Army
Helicopter
s were sent to valleys, ostensibly as there was an avalanche
threat, to evacuate the population. Some Yagnobians died of shock in helicopters as they were moved to the plains. They were then forced into hard-labor by Communist officials to work on the cotton plantations on the plain
s. Some Yagnobians rebelled, with a few groups escaping back to the mountains, but Communists destroyed all kishlak
s (villages) in the valleys to prevent any attempts to return. As a means to finally genocide the group, Communists tried to annihilate the ancient Yagnobian culture
, by destroying Yagnob religious books, the oldest of which was 600 years old. Pskon, the biggest village on the Yaghnob River
, was erased from the maps, and Yagnobian ethnicity was officially abolished by the Soviet State. Through the change in climate
and back-breaking work, several hundred Yagnobians died.
Since 1983, families have begun to return to the Yagnob Valley
. The majority of those that remain on the plains tend to be assimilated
with the Tajiks, as their children study in school in the Tajik language
. The returnees keep the Yagnobi culture and language alive, as their children do not speak either Tajik or Russian
. The returnees live through the natural economy
, and the majority remain without roads and electricity
.
Yaghnobi language
The Yaghnobi language is a living East Iranian language . Yaghnobi is spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people...
:yaγnōbī́t/,/) is the name of an isolated people who live in the Sughd
Sughd
Sughd Province is one of the four administrative divisions and one of the three provinces that make up Tajikistan. Centered in the historical Sogdiana, it is located in the northwest of the country, with an area of some 25,400 square kilometers and a population of 2,132,100 , up from 1,870,000...
province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...
of Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
in the valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...
s of the Yagnob, Kul and Varzob
Varzob
Varzob is a settlement which located 25 km to north from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in the Region of Republican Subordination, Varzob district. Varzob is a capital of the Varzob district.-Geography:...
river
River
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...
s. These are the last living relics of the great Sogdian
Sogdian
Sogdian may refer to* anything pertaining to Sogdiana, an ancient civilization of Iranian peoplesand in particular to* the Sogdian language* or the Sogdian people...
nation that once inhabited most of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
beyond the Oxus/Amu Darya
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya , also called Oxus and Amu River, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
River. The Soghdian language gradually gave way to Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
after the 5th century AD, with the latter largely supplanting the former by the 10th century AD. It is nothing short of a miracle that the Sogdian language and people have survived to the present in the small numbers of the Yaghnobi people and their language.
The 1926 and 1939 census data gives the number of Yaghnabi speakers as approximately 1,800. In 1955, M. Bogolyubov estimated the number of Yaghnabi native speakers as more than 2,000. In 1972, A. Khromov estimated 1,509 native speakers in the Yaghnob valley and about 900 elsewhere. The estimated number of Yagnobi people is approximately 25,000.
History
Their traditional occupations were agricultureAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, growing produce
Produce
Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...
such as barley
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
, wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
, and legumes as well as breeding
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
, oxen and ass
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
es. There were traditional handicrafts including weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
which was mostly done by the men. The women worked on molding the earthenware crockery.
The Yagnobian people originated from the Sogdians, a people dominant in the area until the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
conquests in the 8th century when Sogdiana
Sogdiana
Sogdiana or Sogdia was the ancient civilization of an Iranian people and a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great . Sogdiana is "listed" as the second of the "good lands and countries" that Ahura Mazda created...
was defeated. In that period Yagnobians settled in the high valleys. The Yaghnobi people are Sunni Muslims, and some elements of pre-Islamic religion (probably, Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
) are still preserved.
20th century
Until the 20th century Yagnobians lived through their natural economyNatural economy
Natural economy refers to a type of economy in which money is not used in the transfer of resources among people. It is a system of allocating resources through direct bartering, entitlement by law, or sharing out according to traditional custom...
and some still do, as the area they originally inhabited is still remote from road
Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...
s and electrical lines. The first negative contact with the outer world occurred with Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in the 1930s during the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
, when some Yagnobians were exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d, but the most traumatic events were the Communist 1957 and 1970 forced resettlings by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, from the Yagnob mountains to the semi-desert lowland
Lowland
In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or...
s of Tajikistan
Tajikistan
Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east....
.
Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
Helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
s were sent to valleys, ostensibly as there was an avalanche
Avalanche
An avalanche is a sudden rapid flow of snow down a slope, occurring when either natural triggers or human activity causes a critical escalating transition from the slow equilibrium evolution of the snow pack. Typically occurring in mountainous terrain, an avalanche can mix air and water with the...
threat, to evacuate the population. Some Yagnobians died of shock in helicopters as they were moved to the plains. They were then forced into hard-labor by Communist officials to work on the cotton plantations on the plain
Plain
In geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...
s. Some Yagnobians rebelled, with a few groups escaping back to the mountains, but Communists destroyed all kishlak
Kishlak
Kishlak or qishlaq is a rural settlement of semi-nomadis Turkic peoples of Central Asia , in Afghanistan, and in other places...
s (villages) in the valleys to prevent any attempts to return. As a means to finally genocide the group, Communists tried to annihilate the ancient Yagnobian culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, by destroying Yagnob religious books, the oldest of which was 600 years old. Pskon, the biggest village on the Yaghnob River
Yaghnob River
The Yaghnob River is a tributary of the Zeravshan River of Sughd , Tajikistan. Its valley is the location of the Yaghnobi people and Yaghnobi language. The river flows west south of and parallel to the upper Zarafshan River. It joins the east-flowing Iskander River to form the Fan River which...
, was erased from the maps, and Yagnobian ethnicity was officially abolished by the Soviet State. Through the change in climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
and back-breaking work, several hundred Yagnobians died.
Since 1983, families have begun to return to the Yagnob Valley
Yagnob Valley
Yagnob Valley North West Tajikistan, is situated between the southern slope of the Zarafshan Range and the northern slope of the Gissar Range. The valley is formed by the Yagnob River and belongs to the Zarafshan basin...
. The majority of those that remain on the plains tend to be assimilated
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
with the Tajiks, as their children study in school in the Tajik language
Tajik language
Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...
. The returnees keep the Yagnobi culture and language alive, as their children do not speak either Tajik or Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. The returnees live through the natural economy
Natural economy
Natural economy refers to a type of economy in which money is not used in the transfer of resources among people. It is a system of allocating resources through direct bartering, entitlement by law, or sharing out according to traditional custom...
, and the majority remain without roads and electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
.
