Hindukush Black-Robed Kafir people
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The Black or Dark-Robed (Siah-Posh) Kafirs were the major division of the Kafir of Kafiristan (present-day Nuristan).
In Afghanistan they were converted to Islam in 1896. It is sometimes assumed that the Kalasha of Chitral from Pakistan are the last original Black-Robed Kafir people. Unlike to the present-day Nuristani the Chitral Kalasha retained widely their original religion and traditions. However, the exact relation to the Nuristani and especially to the former Black-Robed Kafir people of Kafiristan is due to the lack of historic references and their different Indo-Iranian ethnicity disputed.
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[edit] Divisions
The Siah-Posh division of the Kafirs was further subdivided into five clans, namely:
Some people write that the Kata and the Kom (present Nuristanis) were historically known as White-Robed (Sfed-Posh) or Red-Robed (Lal-Posh) Kafirs, so named because of the white color of their skin. It is also stated that the so-called Black-Robed (Siah-Posh) appellation has historically and exclusively been applied to the Chitral Kalash people of the Kalasha country in Pakistan and not to the Kafir people of Kafiristan (present Nuristan).
This is not true. The skin color of the present-day Nuristanis is no whiter than that of the Chitral Kalasha. Also, the term Siah-Posh has historically and always been applied to the former Kafirs mainly Kata and Kom (present Nuristani) and the Kalasha people of Chitral.
It may also be mentioned here that the slave population owned by the Siah-Posh Kafirs also customarily wore the Siah or dark color robes (George Scott Robertson).
John Bidduulph notes in 1880 that the Kalash people are a broken clan and are subject to the Chitralis, but the Bashgulis (i.e. Katir/Kom) claim them as their slaves. Probably, the decadent Kalash people had adopted the Siah or dark color for their robes from their neighbors and masters, the Bashguli Kafirs (present Nuristanis).
[edit] Siah-Posh Kafirs in History
The first reference to Siah-Posh Kafirs occurs in Timur's invasion of Afghanistan in March 1398 CE.
According to Timur's autobiography (Tuzak-i-Timuri), a military division of ten thousand Muslim soldiers was sent against the Siah-Posh (Kam) Kafirs under the command of General Aglan Khan to either slay these infidels or else to convert them into Islam. Tuzak-i-Timuri frankly admits that the regiment was badly routed by a small number of Siah-Posh Kafirs. The Muslim forces had to flee from the battle-field leaving their horses and armor. Another detachment had to be sent under Muhammad Azad which fought gallantly and recovered the horses and the armor lost by General Aglan and came back home, leaving the Siah-Posh alone (Hist & Culture of Indian People, Vol VI, p 117).
It is very notable that Timur does not boast of any killings or imprisonment of the Siah-Poshes as he does for the Katirs and numerous other communities of India proper. Also, he gives no further details of his conflict with the Siah-Poshes in his Tuzak-i-Timuri after this encounter, which clearly shows that the outcome of the fight against the Siah-Poshes was very costly and shameful for Timur. (Ref: Tuzak-i-Timuri, pp 401-08).
Other references to these Kafirs are made in the fifteenth and later in sixteenth century during the Moghul period. In 1839, the Kafirs sent a deputation to Sir William Macnaghten in Jalalabad claiming relationship with the fair skinned British troops who had invaded the country [1].
[edit] References
- The Kafirs of Hindukush, 1896, George Scott Robertson
- An Account of the Kingdom of Caubol, London, M Elphinstone
- Tribes of Hindukush, Craz (Austria), 1971, J Biddulph
- The Kâta. Retrieved July 04, 2006, from Richard F. Strand: Nuristan, Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush [2].
[edit] See also
- Hindukush Kafir people
- Kata
- Kom
- Kalasha of Chitral
- Hindukush White-Robed Kafir people
- Nuristani
- Kambojas
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