Jat Muslim or Musalman Jat also pronounced Jutt (Template:Lang-ur) are the patrilineal descendants of Jat people of Northern regions of the Indian Subcontinent who are followers of Islam. They are found primarily throughout Sindh, Pakistan and Punjab region of Pakistan.[1][2] Jats began converting to Islam from the early Middle Ages onward, and constitute a distinct sub-group within the diverse community of Jat people.[3]
Introduction of Islam
When Arabs entered Sindh and other Southern regions of current Pakistan in the seventh century, the chief tribal groupings they found were the Jats and the Med people. These Jats are often referred as Zatts (Template:Lang-ar) in early Arab writings. The Jats were the first converts to Islam, and many were employed as soldiers by the new Arab Muslim administration in Sindh. The Muslim conquest chronicles further point at the important concentrations of Jats in towns and fortresses of Lower and Central Sindh.[4][5]
Between the 10th and the 13th Century, there was large immigration of Jat groups northwards to Punjab and eastwards towards what is now Rajasthan. Many Jat clans initially settled in a region known as the Bar country, which referred to the country between the rivers of Punjab, thinly populated with scanty rainfall which accommodated a type of pastoral nomadism which was based primary on the rearing of goats and camels. Between the 11th and the 13th centuries, the Jats became essentially a farming population, taking advantage in the growth of irrigation. As these Jats became converted to farmers, they started accepting Islam. Most Jats clans of western Punjab have traditions that they accepted Islam at the hands of many famous Sufi saints of Punjab, Shaikh Faridudin Ganj Shaker of Pakpattan, Ahmad Sirhindi of east Punjab and Baha-ud-din Zakariya of Multan, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar of Sindh, Jalaluddin Surkh-Posh Bukhari of Bahawalpur area. In reality, the process of conversion was said to have been a much slower process.[6]
Social organization
In the plains of Punjab, there are many communities of Jat, some of whom had converted to Islam by the 18th century, while others had become Sikhs. Those clans that converted to Islam remained in what is now Pakistani Punjab after Partition. In Pakistan, most Jats are land-owning agriculturalists, and they form one of the numerous ethnic group in Sindh.[2][7]Template:Request quotation
Notable people
- Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani revolutionary poet[8]
- Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan Army[9]
- Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, Former President of Pakistan
- Shahbaz Gill, Special Assistant to Prime Minister
- Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, 1st Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan
- Asif Ali Zardari[10],Former President of Pakistan[11]
- Fawad Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting of Pakistan
- Hina Rabbani Khar, Former Foreign Minister of Pakistan[12]
- Aaqib Javed, Pakistan cricket coach
- Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Pakistani politician
- Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, FormerChief Minister of Punjab (Pakistan), from 2002 to 2007[13]
See also
References
- ↑ Jat caste on Encyclopedia Britannica website Retrieved 9 November 2020
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedJaffrelot2002 - ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedAl-Hind1 - ↑ Zuṭṭ | people. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedAl-Hind2 - ↑ When it comes to 'I do', the cult of clans matter. Dawn (newspaper)(29 December 2013). Retrieved 9 November 2020.
- ↑ His family (poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz family). Dawn (newspaper)(11 February 2011). Retrieved 9 November 2020.
- ↑ View: Most Pakistanis are actually Indians. The Economic Times (newspaper)(28 August 2019). Retrieved 12 November 2020.
- ↑ http://tribune.com.pk/story/814528/dastar-bandi-zardari-takes-over-as-chief-of-his-own-tribe/
- ↑ "People to get rid of govt, claims Bilawal Bhutto Zardari","The News International",November 9, 2019
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20131019040904/http://www.firstpost.com/hina-rabbani-khar/video/foreign-minister-hina-rabbani-khar/3753808q03h1H0MiMB11.html
- ↑ Top guns got Rs 54bn loans written off