Gujar
Gujar (Gujjar) (Gurjjar) (Gurjar) (Gurjara) (Goojar) (Gujur). Name of an ancient tribe, wide-spread in many parts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, akin to the Rajputs, the Jats, and the Ahirs. They were a source of great trouble to the Mughal Emperor Babur and to Shir Shah Sur, the Afghan Sultan of Delhi. They were finally forced to a settled life by the Mughal Emperor Akbar. It is not known when they adopted Islam.
Muslim Gujars, unlike other Muslims in India, are an unenviable people for they have not been able to attain the same socioeconomic and religious status as their co-religionists. Being converts, they have neither been accepted fully into the Muslim fold, nor have they been able to break away completely from their early Hindu moorings. Whether the latter situation has contributed to the former or vice versa, or whether it is their nomadic way of life which has kept them out of the mainstream of the Muslim community is difficult to say. Perhaps all these factors have contributed, together with the fact that they are despised by other Muslims for their life style, which is viewed as full of intrigue and corruption.
There are numerous opinions as to the origins of the Gujars. Some place them among the Scythian tribes who conquered Kabul around 100 B. C. T. and marched into India. They established themselves in Kashmir and northwestern India, where such place names as Gujranwala and Gujarat (now in Pakistan) are testimony to their early settlements. By the middle of the fifth century, they had built a Gujar kingdom, Gujradesa. Some scholars trace their origin to the White Huns, who in about 463 poured into India as nomadic hordes. Still other scholars said they came after the Huns, became Hindu and eventually founded the kingdom of Rajasthan. It is theorized that Gujars, Jats and perhaps Ahirs are of one ethnic stock who entered India at different times and settled in different places.
Gujars were converted to Islam in different localities at different times. In all probability this process started with the attack of Mahmud of Ghazni and the plundering of Somnath in Gujarat in 1024, when Gujars and Jat fought valiantly to defend their kingdom. The Gujars of Oudh and Meerut attribute their conversion to Timur, when he attacked Delhi in 1398 and forcibly converted the people. Successive invasions of Muslims from the northwest quickened this process. When Babur invaded India in 1525, he found that in northern Punjab, Gujars and Jat had already adopted Islam. The process continued through the seventeenth century under the Mughal rule of Aurangzeb, who forcibly converted the Gujars of Himachal Pradesh.
Pushtun and Baluch Muslims of northwestern India were contemptuous of these Gujar and Jat Muslim converts, seized their lands and drove them from their homeland to seek a nomadic life. Since then, the Gujars have been wandering in jungles and hills with their herds of buffalo in search of grazing land.
While the origin of the Gujjars is uncertain, the Gujjar clan appeared in northern India about the time of the Huna invasions of the region. In the 6th to 12th Century, they were primarily classed as Kshatriya and Brahmin, and many of them later converted to Islam during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent. Today, the Gujjars are classified under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in some states in India. The Gujjars today are assimilated into several varnas of Hinduism.
There are various references talking about the origin of the Gujjars. In Ramayana, it is told that a war was fought among demons and gods. Gurjars fought against demons under the leadership of King Dasharatha. There is also references of gurjar widows in Yoga Vasistha, whose husbands laid down their lives in the battlefield, having their heads tonsured as a mark of their bravement.
In the Mahabharata war, Gurjars fought and later on along with lord Krishna migrated from mathura to Dwarka, Gujarat.
The Gujjar clan appeared in northern India about the time of the Huna invasions of northern India. Some scholars believe that the Gurjars were foreign immigrants, possibly a branch of Hephthalites ("White Huns"). Other scholars believe that the Gurjars came into India with the Hunas, and the name was sanskritized to "Gurjara." It is also believed that several places in Central Asia, such as "Gurjistan", are named after the Gujars and that the reminiscences of Gujar migration is preserved in these names.
The Imperial Gazetteer of India states that throughout the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Gujars and Musalman (Muslim) Rajputs proved the "most irreconcilable enemies" of the British in the Bulandshahr area. A band of rebellious Gurjars ransacked Bulandshahr after a revolt by the 9th Native Infantry on May 21, 1857. The British officers initially left for Meerut but later sent a small force to retake the town. The British forces were able to retake the town with the help of Dehra Gurkhas, but the Gujars rose again after the Gurkhas marched off to assist General Wilson's column in another area. Under the leadership of Walidad Khan of Malagarh, the British garrison was driven out the district. Walidad Khan held Bulandshahr from July to September, until he was expelled after an engagement with Colonel Greathed's flying column. On October 4, the Bulandshahr District was regularly occupied by the British Colonel Farquhar and measures of repression were adopted against the armed Gujars.
During the revolt of 1857, the Muslim Gujars in the villages of the Ludhiana District showed dissent to the British authorities. The British interests in Gangoh city of Saharanpur District were threatened by the rebel Gujars under the self-styled Raja Fathua. These Gujars rebels were defeated by the British forces under H. D. Robertson and Lieutenant Boisragon, in June 1857. The Gujars of Chundrowli rose against the British, under the leadership of Damar Ram. The Gujars of Shunkuri village, numbering around three thousand, joined the rebel sepoys. According to British records, the Gurjars plundered gunpowder and ammunition from the British and their allies. In Delhi, the Metcalfe House was sacked by the Gurjar villagers from whom the land was taken to erect the building. The British records claim that the Gujars carried out several robberies. Twenty Gujars were reported to have been beheaded by Rao Tula Ram for committing dacoities in July 1857. In September 1857, the British were able to enlist the support of many Gujars at Meerut. Some believe that the British classified the nomadic tribes as "criminal tribes" because they considered these tribes to be prone to criminality in the absence of legitimate means of livelihood, and also because of their participation in the revolt of 1857. The Imperial Gazetteer of India stated that the Gujars were impoverished due to their "lawlessness in the Mutiny", and that the Gujars in Delhi had a "bad reputation as thieves". During World War II, several Gurjars served in the British Indian army. Kamal Ram, a Gurjar sepoy, was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry.
Gurjars are mainly concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Himalayan region, and eastern parts of Afghanistan, although the Gujjar diaspora is found in other places as well. A majority of Gurjars follow Hinduism and Islam, though small Gujjar communities following other religions exist.
In India, Gurjar populations are found mainly in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand,Haryana, northern Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The semi-nomadic Gujjar groups are found in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and north-western Uttar Pradesh. The name for the state of Gujarat has derived from "Gurjar".
In 2002, some Gujjars and Bakarwals in Jammu and Kashmir demanded a separate state (Gujaristan) for Gujjar and Bakerwal communities, under the banner of All India Gujjar Parishad. The Gujjars who moved to the state remained in an almost oblivion as there is hardly any mention of these people in the history of the state. In the 17th century, however, there were Gujjars of high official status in Poonch. They lived at Lahore-Kot now known as Loran, in the Haveli Tehsil of the Poonch District. They provided ministers to assist the rulers of the area. At the end of the 18th century, one of their leaders named Ruh-Ullah Khan obtained full control of the country and assumed the title of Raja. He was the most important Gujjar personality of the time. He was Wazir of Raja Khan Bahadur of Poonch. On the murder of the later Ruh-Ullah Khan ruled as the deceased Raja's representative until he got his own son, Amir Khan, declared Raja of Poonch in 1797. Ruh Ullah Khan died in 1819 and Amir Khan in around 1825. The later was succeeded by his son Mir Baz Khan, who was captured by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab and removed to Lahore where he was murdered by one Pir Bakhsh Khan Chib in 1837. The dynasty started by Ruh-Ullah Khan was known as the Sango line of Gujjars. With the disappearance of Mir Baz Khan, their short period of power came to an end and the statues and influence of the Gujjars gradually declined. No outstanding Gujjar has since appeared in the state in comparison to Ruh-Ullah Khan. As generations have passed, the Gujjars throughout the state have become less important in all respects except in numbers.
The Van Gujjars ("forest Gujjars") are found in the Shivalik hills area of North India. The Van Gujjars follow Islam, and they have their own clans, similar to the Hindu gotras. They are a pastoral semi-nomadic community, practicing transhumance. In the winter season, the Van Gujjars migrate with their herds to the Shiwalik foothills, and in summer, they migrate to pastures high up in the mountains. The Van Gujjars have had conflicts with the forest authorities, who prohibited human and livestock populations inside a reserved park, and blamed the Van Gujjar community for poaching and timber smuggling. After the creation of the Rajaji National Park (RNP), the Van Gujjars in Deharadun were asked to shift to a resettlement colony at Pathari near Hardwar. In 1992, when the Van Gujjars returned to the foothills, the RNP authorities tried to block them from the park area. The community fought back and finally the forest authorities had to relent. Later, a community forest management (CFM) program aiming to involve the Van Gujjars in forest management was launched.
Fairs of Shri Devnarayan Bhagwan are organized two times in a year at Demali, Maalasheri, Asind and Jodhpuriya. Gurjars form one of the major communities in Rajashtan, and are seen as a vote bank by political parties. The Gurjars of Rajasthan are predominantly rural, pastoral and semi agriculturist community whose traditional and primary occupation is selling milk and milk products. They rear mainly cows, buffalo, goats and sheep.The Gujars lead a technologically simple life in close harmony with its natural environment. In Rajasthan, some members of the Gurjar community resorted to violent protests over the issue of reservation in 2006 and 2007. The more powerful and more influential Jat community had been included under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, which prompted the Gurjars to demand Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. During the 2003 election to the Rajasthan assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised them ST status. However, the party failed to keep its promise after coming to the power, resulting in protests by the Gujjars in September 2006.
In May 2007, during violent protests over the reservation issue, the members of the Gurjar community clashed with the police, twenty six people (including two policemen) were killed.. Subsequently, the Gurjars protested violently, under various groups including the Gurjar Sangarsh Samiti, Gujjar Mahasabha and the Gujjar Action Committee. The protestors blocked roads and set fire to two police stations and some vehicles. Presently, the Gurjars in Rajasthan are classified as Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
On June 5, 2007 the Gurjar rioted over their desire to be added to the governments of India list of tribes who are given preference in India government job selection as well as placement in the schools sponsored by the states of India. This preference is given under a system designed to help India's poor and disadvantaged citizens. However, other tribes on the list oppose this request as it would make it harder to obtain the few positions already set aside.
In December 2007, the Akhil Bhartiya Gurjar Mahasabha ("All-India Gurjar Council") stated that the community would boycott BJP, which was in power in Rajasthan. But in 2009 Gurjars were supporting BJP so that they could be politically benefitted. Kirori Singh Bainsala fought and lost on the BJP ticket. In the early 2000s, the Gujjar community in Rajasthan were also in the news for the falling sex ratio, unavailability of brides and the resulting polyandry.
Gujjar see Gujar
Gurjjar see Gujar
Gurjar see Gujar
Goojar see Gujar
Gujur see Gujar
Gurjara see Gujar
Gujar (Gujjar) (Gurjjar) (Gurjar) (Gurjara) (Goojar) (Gujur). Name of an ancient tribe, wide-spread in many parts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, akin to the Rajputs, the Jats, and the Ahirs. They were a source of great trouble to the Mughal Emperor Babur and to Shir Shah Sur, the Afghan Sultan of Delhi. They were finally forced to a settled life by the Mughal Emperor Akbar. It is not known when they adopted Islam.
Muslim Gujars, unlike other Muslims in India, are an unenviable people for they have not been able to attain the same socioeconomic and religious status as their co-religionists. Being converts, they have neither been accepted fully into the Muslim fold, nor have they been able to break away completely from their early Hindu moorings. Whether the latter situation has contributed to the former or vice versa, or whether it is their nomadic way of life which has kept them out of the mainstream of the Muslim community is difficult to say. Perhaps all these factors have contributed, together with the fact that they are despised by other Muslims for their life style, which is viewed as full of intrigue and corruption.
There are numerous opinions as to the origins of the Gujars. Some place them among the Scythian tribes who conquered Kabul around 100 B. C. T. and marched into India. They established themselves in Kashmir and northwestern India, where such place names as Gujranwala and Gujarat (now in Pakistan) are testimony to their early settlements. By the middle of the fifth century, they had built a Gujar kingdom, Gujradesa. Some scholars trace their origin to the White Huns, who in about 463 poured into India as nomadic hordes. Still other scholars said they came after the Huns, became Hindu and eventually founded the kingdom of Rajasthan. It is theorized that Gujars, Jats and perhaps Ahirs are of one ethnic stock who entered India at different times and settled in different places.
Gujars were converted to Islam in different localities at different times. In all probability this process started with the attack of Mahmud of Ghazni and the plundering of Somnath in Gujarat in 1024, when Gujars and Jat fought valiantly to defend their kingdom. The Gujars of Oudh and Meerut attribute their conversion to Timur, when he attacked Delhi in 1398 and forcibly converted the people. Successive invasions of Muslims from the northwest quickened this process. When Babur invaded India in 1525, he found that in northern Punjab, Gujars and Jat had already adopted Islam. The process continued through the seventeenth century under the Mughal rule of Aurangzeb, who forcibly converted the Gujars of Himachal Pradesh.
Pushtun and Baluch Muslims of northwestern India were contemptuous of these Gujar and Jat Muslim converts, seized their lands and drove them from their homeland to seek a nomadic life. Since then, the Gujars have been wandering in jungles and hills with their herds of buffalo in search of grazing land.
While the origin of the Gujjars is uncertain, the Gujjar clan appeared in northern India about the time of the Huna invasions of the region. In the 6th to 12th Century, they were primarily classed as Kshatriya and Brahmin, and many of them later converted to Islam during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent. Today, the Gujjars are classified under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in some states in India. The Gujjars today are assimilated into several varnas of Hinduism.
There are various references talking about the origin of the Gujjars. In Ramayana, it is told that a war was fought among demons and gods. Gurjars fought against demons under the leadership of King Dasharatha. There is also references of gurjar widows in Yoga Vasistha, whose husbands laid down their lives in the battlefield, having their heads tonsured as a mark of their bravement.
In the Mahabharata war, Gurjars fought and later on along with lord Krishna migrated from mathura to Dwarka, Gujarat.
The Gujjar clan appeared in northern India about the time of the Huna invasions of northern India. Some scholars believe that the Gurjars were foreign immigrants, possibly a branch of Hephthalites ("White Huns"). Other scholars believe that the Gurjars came into India with the Hunas, and the name was sanskritized to "Gurjara." It is also believed that several places in Central Asia, such as "Gurjistan", are named after the Gujars and that the reminiscences of Gujar migration is preserved in these names.
The Imperial Gazetteer of India states that throughout the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Gujars and Musalman (Muslim) Rajputs proved the "most irreconcilable enemies" of the British in the Bulandshahr area. A band of rebellious Gurjars ransacked Bulandshahr after a revolt by the 9th Native Infantry on May 21, 1857. The British officers initially left for Meerut but later sent a small force to retake the town. The British forces were able to retake the town with the help of Dehra Gurkhas, but the Gujars rose again after the Gurkhas marched off to assist General Wilson's column in another area. Under the leadership of Walidad Khan of Malagarh, the British garrison was driven out the district. Walidad Khan held Bulandshahr from July to September, until he was expelled after an engagement with Colonel Greathed's flying column. On October 4, the Bulandshahr District was regularly occupied by the British Colonel Farquhar and measures of repression were adopted against the armed Gujars.
During the revolt of 1857, the Muslim Gujars in the villages of the Ludhiana District showed dissent to the British authorities. The British interests in Gangoh city of Saharanpur District were threatened by the rebel Gujars under the self-styled Raja Fathua. These Gujars rebels were defeated by the British forces under H. D. Robertson and Lieutenant Boisragon, in June 1857. The Gujars of Chundrowli rose against the British, under the leadership of Damar Ram. The Gujars of Shunkuri village, numbering around three thousand, joined the rebel sepoys. According to British records, the Gurjars plundered gunpowder and ammunition from the British and their allies. In Delhi, the Metcalfe House was sacked by the Gurjar villagers from whom the land was taken to erect the building. The British records claim that the Gujars carried out several robberies. Twenty Gujars were reported to have been beheaded by Rao Tula Ram for committing dacoities in July 1857. In September 1857, the British were able to enlist the support of many Gujars at Meerut. Some believe that the British classified the nomadic tribes as "criminal tribes" because they considered these tribes to be prone to criminality in the absence of legitimate means of livelihood, and also because of their participation in the revolt of 1857. The Imperial Gazetteer of India stated that the Gujars were impoverished due to their "lawlessness in the Mutiny", and that the Gujars in Delhi had a "bad reputation as thieves". During World War II, several Gurjars served in the British Indian army. Kamal Ram, a Gurjar sepoy, was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry.
Gurjars are mainly concentrated in the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Himalayan region, and eastern parts of Afghanistan, although the Gujjar diaspora is found in other places as well. A majority of Gurjars follow Hinduism and Islam, though small Gujjar communities following other religions exist.
In India, Gurjar populations are found mainly in Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand,Haryana, northern Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The semi-nomadic Gujjar groups are found in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and north-western Uttar Pradesh. The name for the state of Gujarat has derived from "Gurjar".
In 2002, some Gujjars and Bakarwals in Jammu and Kashmir demanded a separate state (Gujaristan) for Gujjar and Bakerwal communities, under the banner of All India Gujjar Parishad. The Gujjars who moved to the state remained in an almost oblivion as there is hardly any mention of these people in the history of the state. In the 17th century, however, there were Gujjars of high official status in Poonch. They lived at Lahore-Kot now known as Loran, in the Haveli Tehsil of the Poonch District. They provided ministers to assist the rulers of the area. At the end of the 18th century, one of their leaders named Ruh-Ullah Khan obtained full control of the country and assumed the title of Raja. He was the most important Gujjar personality of the time. He was Wazir of Raja Khan Bahadur of Poonch. On the murder of the later Ruh-Ullah Khan ruled as the deceased Raja's representative until he got his own son, Amir Khan, declared Raja of Poonch in 1797. Ruh Ullah Khan died in 1819 and Amir Khan in around 1825. The later was succeeded by his son Mir Baz Khan, who was captured by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab and removed to Lahore where he was murdered by one Pir Bakhsh Khan Chib in 1837. The dynasty started by Ruh-Ullah Khan was known as the Sango line of Gujjars. With the disappearance of Mir Baz Khan, their short period of power came to an end and the statues and influence of the Gujjars gradually declined. No outstanding Gujjar has since appeared in the state in comparison to Ruh-Ullah Khan. As generations have passed, the Gujjars throughout the state have become less important in all respects except in numbers.
The Van Gujjars ("forest Gujjars") are found in the Shivalik hills area of North India. The Van Gujjars follow Islam, and they have their own clans, similar to the Hindu gotras. They are a pastoral semi-nomadic community, practicing transhumance. In the winter season, the Van Gujjars migrate with their herds to the Shiwalik foothills, and in summer, they migrate to pastures high up in the mountains. The Van Gujjars have had conflicts with the forest authorities, who prohibited human and livestock populations inside a reserved park, and blamed the Van Gujjar community for poaching and timber smuggling. After the creation of the Rajaji National Park (RNP), the Van Gujjars in Deharadun were asked to shift to a resettlement colony at Pathari near Hardwar. In 1992, when the Van Gujjars returned to the foothills, the RNP authorities tried to block them from the park area. The community fought back and finally the forest authorities had to relent. Later, a community forest management (CFM) program aiming to involve the Van Gujjars in forest management was launched.
Fairs of Shri Devnarayan Bhagwan are organized two times in a year at Demali, Maalasheri, Asind and Jodhpuriya. Gurjars form one of the major communities in Rajashtan, and are seen as a vote bank by political parties. The Gurjars of Rajasthan are predominantly rural, pastoral and semi agriculturist community whose traditional and primary occupation is selling milk and milk products. They rear mainly cows, buffalo, goats and sheep.The Gujars lead a technologically simple life in close harmony with its natural environment. In Rajasthan, some members of the Gurjar community resorted to violent protests over the issue of reservation in 2006 and 2007. The more powerful and more influential Jat community had been included under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, which prompted the Gurjars to demand Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. During the 2003 election to the Rajasthan assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised them ST status. However, the party failed to keep its promise after coming to the power, resulting in protests by the Gujjars in September 2006.
In May 2007, during violent protests over the reservation issue, the members of the Gurjar community clashed with the police, twenty six people (including two policemen) were killed.. Subsequently, the Gurjars protested violently, under various groups including the Gurjar Sangarsh Samiti, Gujjar Mahasabha and the Gujjar Action Committee. The protestors blocked roads and set fire to two police stations and some vehicles. Presently, the Gurjars in Rajasthan are classified as Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
On June 5, 2007 the Gurjar rioted over their desire to be added to the governments of India list of tribes who are given preference in India government job selection as well as placement in the schools sponsored by the states of India. This preference is given under a system designed to help India's poor and disadvantaged citizens. However, other tribes on the list oppose this request as it would make it harder to obtain the few positions already set aside.
In December 2007, the Akhil Bhartiya Gurjar Mahasabha ("All-India Gurjar Council") stated that the community would boycott BJP, which was in power in Rajasthan. But in 2009 Gurjars were supporting BJP so that they could be politically benefitted. Kirori Singh Bainsala fought and lost on the BJP ticket. In the early 2000s, the Gujjar community in Rajasthan were also in the news for the falling sex ratio, unavailability of brides and the resulting polyandry.
Gujjar see Gujar
Gurjjar see Gujar
Gurjar see Gujar
Goojar see Gujar
Gujur see Gujar
Gurjara see Gujar
Gujaratis
Gujaratis. Located in the westernmost portion of central India, Gujarat includes the region of Kutch, Kathiawar and Surastra and the territories between the rivers Banas and Damanganga. The state encompasses great contrasts from wet fertile rice-growing plains in the southern tip to the almost rainless salt deserts of Kutch. To the west lies the Indian Ocean with two major gulfs, Kutch and Cambay, exposing the major commercial seaports of Surat, Broach and Cambay, to which Gujarat owes much of its historical importance.
Gujarat experienced numerous unsuccessful land based raids by the Arabs through the eighth century. Concurrently, immigrant Arab trading communities settled on the western Indian seacoast, from where they conducted the Indian Ocean trade. They were later joined by Persian traders. The ultimate expansion and subsequent extension inland of these Muslim trading communities was directly related to the flourishing trade across the ocean, and wherever the Muslims settled, they constructed mosques.
For the Muslims of Gujarat, the late eleventh century, during the reign of Siddharaj Jayasingha, proved to be their most glorious period. The alien Muslim population experienced exceptional generosity and fairness from the Hindu ruler. Moreover, this period witnessed considerable Muslim proselytization, which resulted in the establishment of Muslim communities of all sects. Muslim missionaries of the Shi‘a sect, who came to Gujarat to find converts, used Hindu beliefs of incarnation and declared Hazarat Ali as the tenth avatar of Vishnu. The missionaries simplified their teachings and used the language which those in the lower stratum of society could at once follow. Thus religious songs (bajans), a common form of poetry, were also used to reach the masses.
The Turkish invasion of Gujarat further opened the way to a large influx of Muslims from the north and the conversion of numerous Rajputs to Islam.
Gujaratis. Located in the westernmost portion of central India, Gujarat includes the region of Kutch, Kathiawar and Surastra and the territories between the rivers Banas and Damanganga. The state encompasses great contrasts from wet fertile rice-growing plains in the southern tip to the almost rainless salt deserts of Kutch. To the west lies the Indian Ocean with two major gulfs, Kutch and Cambay, exposing the major commercial seaports of Surat, Broach and Cambay, to which Gujarat owes much of its historical importance.
Gujarat experienced numerous unsuccessful land based raids by the Arabs through the eighth century. Concurrently, immigrant Arab trading communities settled on the western Indian seacoast, from where they conducted the Indian Ocean trade. They were later joined by Persian traders. The ultimate expansion and subsequent extension inland of these Muslim trading communities was directly related to the flourishing trade across the ocean, and wherever the Muslims settled, they constructed mosques.
For the Muslims of Gujarat, the late eleventh century, during the reign of Siddharaj Jayasingha, proved to be their most glorious period. The alien Muslim population experienced exceptional generosity and fairness from the Hindu ruler. Moreover, this period witnessed considerable Muslim proselytization, which resulted in the establishment of Muslim communities of all sects. Muslim missionaries of the Shi‘a sect, who came to Gujarat to find converts, used Hindu beliefs of incarnation and declared Hazarat Ali as the tenth avatar of Vishnu. The missionaries simplified their teachings and used the language which those in the lower stratum of society could at once follow. Thus religious songs (bajans), a common form of poetry, were also used to reach the masses.
The Turkish invasion of Gujarat further opened the way to a large influx of Muslims from the north and the conversion of numerous Rajputs to Islam.
Gujars
Gujars. See Gujar.
Gujars. See Gujar.
Gula, Sharbat
Sharbat Gula (b. c. 1972). An Afghan woman who became famous for her photo taken by photojournalist Steve McCurry during the Soviet-Afghan War, when 12-year-old Gula was living in a refugee camp in Pakistan. The photo, known as Afghan Girl, became famous in June 1985 after appearing on the cover of National Geographic magazine. Gula's identity was unknown until 2002, when her whereabouts were verified and she was photographed for the second time in her life.
Gula was born into a Pashtun family. In the early 1980s, her village was attacked by Soviet helicopters and during the attacks her parents were killed. Her sisters, brothers and grandmother moved to Pakistan to the Nasir Bagh refugee camp on the border with Afghanistan. It was whilst Gula was attending school there, that McCurry photographed her and other girls. It was later alleged that McCurry did not obtain permission to take the images, which contradict Pashtun culture, where women should not show their faces to men outside the family.
In the mid 1980s, Sharbat was married to baker Rahmat Gula when she was aged 13, and returned to Afghanistan in 1992. As of 2002, Gula had three daughters, Robin, Zahid and Alyan – her fourth daughter died shortly after birth; she later had a son. Her husband died in 2012.
In late October 2016, Gula was arrested by Pakistani police on suspicion of forging an identity document. She was deported by the Pakistani Courts to Afghanistan, where the government promised to take care of her family housing, education and health. In 2017 she was given a house by the Afghan government and a $700 per month stipend for living and medical costs. As of 2016, she was living in Kabul.
Following the crisis which occurred after the Taliban capture of Kabul in 2021, Gula was evacuated to Italy, where she received refugee status.
In 1984 National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry travelled to Afghanistan to document the effects of the war, visiting refugee camps, many of which were on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Whilst there, McCurry took what was to become one of the most iconic cover photographs for National Geographic. Initially, the magazine's editor did not want to use the image, but eventually gave in, publishing a cover image which was simply called Afghan Girl. The photo, which shows a girl with a unique green eye color, looking straight into the lens, became a symbol of the Afghan conflict and the problems affecting refugees around the world.
The identity of the girl remained unknown for more than 17 years. In the 1990s, the journalist made several unsuccessful attempts to find out the girl's name. In January 2002, a National Geographic team led by Steve McCurry travelled to Afghanistan to find her, however during this search several women and men came forward, claiming to either be Gula, or to be married to her. Eventually she was tracked down through a camp resident who knew her brother. Her identity was verified by John Daugman using iris recognition software.
In the intervening years, Gula had no idea how globally symbolic her face had become. It is the only image to have been used three times on National Geographic covers.
The Finnish metal band Nightwish dedicated an instrumental work to Gula, on the 2015 album Endless Forms Most Beautiful entitled "The Eyes of Sharbat Gula". Here Be Dragons, an album by The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble includes a composition called "Sharbat Gula".
In 2017, the New England Review published a new work by poet Gjertrud Schnakenberg, entitled "Afghan Girl", which the author had been composing since 2012.
Gulbadan Begam
Gulbadan Begam (Gulbadan Begum) (c.1523-1603). Daughter of the Mughal Emperor Babur. She wrote her memoirs under the title Humayun-nama.
Gulbadan Begum was a daughter of Zāhir ud-Dīn Mohammad Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India, she is best known as the author of 'Humayun Nama', the account of the life of her brother, Humayun.
Her name (Gulbadan Begum) means literally princess with a body like roses in Persian. She was a descendant of the lines of the highest Central Asian aristocracy: Timur through his son Miran Shah, and Genghis Khan through his son Chagatai Khan. Her mother was Dildar Begum and she was sister to Humayun, the second Mughal emperor.
She also finds reference throughout, Akbarnama, the Book of Akbar, written by Abul Fazal, and much of her biographical details are accessible through the work
When Princess Gulbadan was born her father had been lord in Kabul for nineteen years; he was master also in Kunduz and Badakhshan, had held Bajaur and Swat since 1519, and Qandahar for a year. During ten of those nineteen years he had been styled "padshah", in token of headship of the house of Timur and of his independent sovereignty. Two years later Babur set out on his last expedition across the Indus to conquer an empire in India. Gulbadan Begum was brought to India at the age of six. Gulbadan was married at 17, and had at least one son.
In 1540, Humayun lost the kingdom that his Kabul-born father Babur had established in India to Sher Shah Suri, an upstart from Bihar. With only his pregnant wife, one female attendant and a few loyal supporters, Humayun first fled to Lahore, and then later to Kabul. He was in exile for the next fifteen years in Afghanistan and Persia. Gulbadan Begum went to live in Kabul again. Her life, like all the other Mughal women of the harem, was intricately intertwined with three Mughal kings – her father Babur, brother Humayun and nephew Akbar. Two years after Humayun re-established the Delhi Empire, she accompanied other Mughal women of the harem back to Agra at the behest of Akbar, who had begun his rule.
Akbar commissioned Gulbadan Begum to chronicle the story of her brother Humayun. He was fond of his aunt and knew of her storytelling skills. It was fashionable for the Mughals to engage writers to document their own reigns (Akbar’s own history, Akbarnama, was written by the well-known Persian scholar Abul Fazl). Akbar asked his aunt to write whatever she remembered about her brother’s life. Gulbadan Begum took the challenge and produced a document titled Ahwal Humayun Padshah Jamah Kardom Gulbadan Begum bint Babur Padshah amma Akbar Padshah. It came to be known as Humayun-nama.
Gulbadan wrote in simple Persian without the erudite language used by better known writers. Her father Babur had written Babur-nama in the same style and she took his cue and wrote down from her memory. Unlike some of her contemporary writers, Gulbadan wrote a factual account of what she remembered, without embellishment. What she produced not only chronicles the trials and tribulations of Humayun’s rule, but also gives us a glimpse of life in the Mughal harem. It is the only surviving writing penned by a woman of Mughal royalty in the sixteenth century.
The memoir had been lost for several centuries and what has been found is not well preserved, poorly bound with many pages missing. It also appears to be incomplete, with the last chapters missing. There must have been very few copies of the manuscript, and for this reason it did not receive the recognition it deserved.
A battered copy of the manuscript is kept in the British Museum. Originally found by an Englishman, Colonel G. W. Hamilton. it was sold to the British Museum by his widow in 1868. Its existence was little known until 1901, when Annette S. Beveridge translated it into English (Beveridge affectionately called her Princess Rosebud).
Historian Dr. Rieu called it one of the most remarkable manuscripts in the collection of Colonel Hamilton (who had collected more than 1,000 manuscripts). A paperback edition of Beveridge’s English translation was published in India in 2001.
Pradosh Chattopadhyay has translated Humayun Nama into Bengali in 2006. Chirayata Prokashan published the book.
Upon being entrusted with the directive by Akbar to write the manuscript, Gulbadan Begum begins thus:
There had been an order issued, ‘Write down whatever you know of the doings of Firdous-Makani (Babur) and Jannat-Ashyani (Humayun)’. At this time when his Majesty Firdaus-Makani passed from this perishable world to the everlasting home, I, this lowly one, was eight years old, so it may well be that I do not remember much. However, in obedience to the royal command, I set down whatever there is that I have heard and remember.
From her account we know that Gulbadan was married by the age of seventeen to Khizr Khwaja Khan, a Chagtai Mughal by ancestry and her second cousin. She had at least one son. She had moved to Delhi/Agra in 1528 from Kabul with her foster mother. After the defeat of Humayun in 1540 she moved back to Kabul to live with one of her half brothers. She did not return to Agra immediately after Humayun won back his kingdom. Instead, she stayed behind in Kabul until she was brought back to Agra by Akbar, two years after Humayun died in a tragic accident in 1556. Gulbadan Begum lived in Agra and then Sikri for the rest of her life, except for a period of seven years when she undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Gulbadan appears to have been an educated, pious, and cultured woman of royalty. She was fond of reading and she enjoyed the confidences of both her brother Humayun and nephew Akbar. From her account it is also apparent that she was an astute observer, well versed with the intricacies of warfare, and the intrigues of royal deal making. The first part of her story deals with Humayun’s rule after her father’s death and the travails of Humayun after his defeat. She had written little about her father Babur, as she was only aged eight when he died. However, there are anecdotes and stories she had heard about him from her companions in the Mahal (harem) that she included in her account. The latter part also deals with life in the Mughal harem.
Gulbadan recorded one light-hearted incident about Babur. He had minted a large gold coin, as he was fond of doing, after he established his kingdom in India. This heavy gold coin was sent to Kabul, with special instructions to play a practical joke on the court jester Asas, who had stayed behind in Kabul. Asas was to be blindfolded and the coin was to be hung around his neck. Asas was intrigued and worried about the heavy weight around his neck, not knowing what it was. However, when he realized that it was a gold coin, Asas jumped with joy and pranced around the room, repeatedly saying that no one shall ever take it from him.
Gulbadan Begum describes her father’s death when her brother had fallen ill at the age of twenty-two. She tells that Babur was depressed to see his son seriously ill and dying. For four days, he circumambulated the bed of his son repeatedly, praying to Allah, begging to be taken to the eternal world in his son’s place. As if by miracle, his prayers were answered. The son recovered and the forty-seven year old father died soon after.
Soon after his exile, Humayun had seen and fallen in love with a thirteen year old girl named Hamida Banu in the harem of Shah Husain Mirza. At first she refused to come to see the Emperor, who was much older than she was. Finally she was advised by the other women of the harem to reconsider, and she consented to marry the Emperor. Two years later, in 1542, she bore Humayun a son named Akbar, the greatest of the Mughal rulers. Gulbadan Begum described the details of this incident and the marriage of Humayun and Hamida Banu with glee, and a hint of mischievousness in her manuscript.
Gulbadan also recorded the nomadic life style of Mughal women. Her younger days were spent in the typical style of the peripatetic Mughal family, wandering between Kabul and Delhi. During Humayun’s exile the problem was further exaggerated. She had to live in Kabul with one of her step brothers, who later tried to recruit her husband to join him against Humayun. Gulbadan Begum persuaded her husband not to do so.
Gulbadan Begum described in her memoir a pilgrimage she took to Mecca, a distance of three thousand miles, crossing treacherous mountains and hostile deserts. Though they were of royal birth, the women of the harem were hardy and prepared to face hardships, especially since their lives were so intimately intertwined with the men and their fortunes. Gulbadan Begum stayed in Mecca for nearly four years and during her return a shipwreck in Aden kept her from returning to Agra for several months. She finally returned in 1582, seven years after she had set forth on her journey.
Akbar had provided for safe passage of his aunt on her Hajj and sent a noble as escort with several ladies in attendance. Lavish gifts were packed with her entourage that could be used as alms. Her arrival in Mecca caused quite a stir and people from as far as Syria and Asia Minor swarmed to Mecca to get a share of the bounty.
If Gulbadan Begum had written about the death of Humayun, when he tumbled down the steps in Purana Qila in Delhi, it has been lost. The manuscript seems to end abruptly in the year 1552, four years before the death of Humayun. It ends in mid-sentence, describing the blinding of Prince Kamran. As we know that Gulbadan Begum had received the directive to write the story of Humayun’s rule by Akbar, long after the death of Humayun, it is reasonable to believe that the only available manuscript is an incomplete version of her writing. It is also believed that Akbar asked his aunt to write down from her memory so that Abul Fazl could use the information in his own writings about the emperor Akbar.
When she was seventy, her name is mentioned with that of Muhammad-yar, a son of her daughter, who left the court in disgrace. Again, she and Salima join in intercession to Akbar for Prince Salim. Again, with Hamida, she receives royal gifts of money and jewels.
Her charities were large, and it is said of her that she added day unto day in the endeavor to please God, and this by tending to the needs of the poor and needy.
When she was eighty years old, in February, 1603, her departure was heralded by a few days of fever. Hamida was with her to the end, and it may be that Ruqaiya, Hindal’s daughter, also watched her last hours. As she lay with closed eyes, Hamida-banu spoke to her by the long-used name of affection, "Jiu!" (elder sister). There was no response. Then, "Gul-badan!" The dying woman opened her eyes, quoted the verse, "I die—may you live!" and died.
Akbar helped to carry her bier some distance, and for her soul's repose made lavish gifts and did good works. He will have joined in the silent prayer for her soul before committal of her body to the earth, and if no son were there, he, as a near kinsman, may have answered the Imam’s injunction to resignation: "It is the will of God."
It is said that for the two years after her death, Akbar lamented constantly that he missed his favorite aunt, until his own death in 1605.
Gulbadan was also said to have been a poet, fluent in both Persian and Turkish. None of her poems have survived.
For much of history the manuscript of Gulbadan Begum remained in obscurity. There is little mention of it in contemporary literature of other Mughal writers, especially the authors who chronicled Akbar’s rule. Yet, the little known account of Gulbadan Begum is an important document for historians, with its window into a woman’s perspective from inside the Mughal harem.
Begam, Gulbadan see Gulbadan Begam
Begum, Gulbadan see Gulbadan Begam
Gulbadan Begum see Gulbadan Begam
Gulbadan Begam (Gulbadan Begum) (c.1523-1603). Daughter of the Mughal Emperor Babur. She wrote her memoirs under the title Humayun-nama.
Gulbadan Begum was a daughter of Zāhir ud-Dīn Mohammad Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India, she is best known as the author of 'Humayun Nama', the account of the life of her brother, Humayun.
Her name (Gulbadan Begum) means literally princess with a body like roses in Persian. She was a descendant of the lines of the highest Central Asian aristocracy: Timur through his son Miran Shah, and Genghis Khan through his son Chagatai Khan. Her mother was Dildar Begum and she was sister to Humayun, the second Mughal emperor.
She also finds reference throughout, Akbarnama, the Book of Akbar, written by Abul Fazal, and much of her biographical details are accessible through the work
When Princess Gulbadan was born her father had been lord in Kabul for nineteen years; he was master also in Kunduz and Badakhshan, had held Bajaur and Swat since 1519, and Qandahar for a year. During ten of those nineteen years he had been styled "padshah", in token of headship of the house of Timur and of his independent sovereignty. Two years later Babur set out on his last expedition across the Indus to conquer an empire in India. Gulbadan Begum was brought to India at the age of six. Gulbadan was married at 17, and had at least one son.
In 1540, Humayun lost the kingdom that his Kabul-born father Babur had established in India to Sher Shah Suri, an upstart from Bihar. With only his pregnant wife, one female attendant and a few loyal supporters, Humayun first fled to Lahore, and then later to Kabul. He was in exile for the next fifteen years in Afghanistan and Persia. Gulbadan Begum went to live in Kabul again. Her life, like all the other Mughal women of the harem, was intricately intertwined with three Mughal kings – her father Babur, brother Humayun and nephew Akbar. Two years after Humayun re-established the Delhi Empire, she accompanied other Mughal women of the harem back to Agra at the behest of Akbar, who had begun his rule.
Akbar commissioned Gulbadan Begum to chronicle the story of her brother Humayun. He was fond of his aunt and knew of her storytelling skills. It was fashionable for the Mughals to engage writers to document their own reigns (Akbar’s own history, Akbarnama, was written by the well-known Persian scholar Abul Fazl). Akbar asked his aunt to write whatever she remembered about her brother’s life. Gulbadan Begum took the challenge and produced a document titled Ahwal Humayun Padshah Jamah Kardom Gulbadan Begum bint Babur Padshah amma Akbar Padshah. It came to be known as Humayun-nama.
Gulbadan wrote in simple Persian without the erudite language used by better known writers. Her father Babur had written Babur-nama in the same style and she took his cue and wrote down from her memory. Unlike some of her contemporary writers, Gulbadan wrote a factual account of what she remembered, without embellishment. What she produced not only chronicles the trials and tribulations of Humayun’s rule, but also gives us a glimpse of life in the Mughal harem. It is the only surviving writing penned by a woman of Mughal royalty in the sixteenth century.
The memoir had been lost for several centuries and what has been found is not well preserved, poorly bound with many pages missing. It also appears to be incomplete, with the last chapters missing. There must have been very few copies of the manuscript, and for this reason it did not receive the recognition it deserved.
A battered copy of the manuscript is kept in the British Museum. Originally found by an Englishman, Colonel G. W. Hamilton. it was sold to the British Museum by his widow in 1868. Its existence was little known until 1901, when Annette S. Beveridge translated it into English (Beveridge affectionately called her Princess Rosebud).
Historian Dr. Rieu called it one of the most remarkable manuscripts in the collection of Colonel Hamilton (who had collected more than 1,000 manuscripts). A paperback edition of Beveridge’s English translation was published in India in 2001.
Pradosh Chattopadhyay has translated Humayun Nama into Bengali in 2006. Chirayata Prokashan published the book.
Upon being entrusted with the directive by Akbar to write the manuscript, Gulbadan Begum begins thus:
There had been an order issued, ‘Write down whatever you know of the doings of Firdous-Makani (Babur) and Jannat-Ashyani (Humayun)’. At this time when his Majesty Firdaus-Makani passed from this perishable world to the everlasting home, I, this lowly one, was eight years old, so it may well be that I do not remember much. However, in obedience to the royal command, I set down whatever there is that I have heard and remember.
From her account we know that Gulbadan was married by the age of seventeen to Khizr Khwaja Khan, a Chagtai Mughal by ancestry and her second cousin. She had at least one son. She had moved to Delhi/Agra in 1528 from Kabul with her foster mother. After the defeat of Humayun in 1540 she moved back to Kabul to live with one of her half brothers. She did not return to Agra immediately after Humayun won back his kingdom. Instead, she stayed behind in Kabul until she was brought back to Agra by Akbar, two years after Humayun died in a tragic accident in 1556. Gulbadan Begum lived in Agra and then Sikri for the rest of her life, except for a period of seven years when she undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Gulbadan appears to have been an educated, pious, and cultured woman of royalty. She was fond of reading and she enjoyed the confidences of both her brother Humayun and nephew Akbar. From her account it is also apparent that she was an astute observer, well versed with the intricacies of warfare, and the intrigues of royal deal making. The first part of her story deals with Humayun’s rule after her father’s death and the travails of Humayun after his defeat. She had written little about her father Babur, as she was only aged eight when he died. However, there are anecdotes and stories she had heard about him from her companions in the Mahal (harem) that she included in her account. The latter part also deals with life in the Mughal harem.
Gulbadan recorded one light-hearted incident about Babur. He had minted a large gold coin, as he was fond of doing, after he established his kingdom in India. This heavy gold coin was sent to Kabul, with special instructions to play a practical joke on the court jester Asas, who had stayed behind in Kabul. Asas was to be blindfolded and the coin was to be hung around his neck. Asas was intrigued and worried about the heavy weight around his neck, not knowing what it was. However, when he realized that it was a gold coin, Asas jumped with joy and pranced around the room, repeatedly saying that no one shall ever take it from him.
Gulbadan Begum describes her father’s death when her brother had fallen ill at the age of twenty-two. She tells that Babur was depressed to see his son seriously ill and dying. For four days, he circumambulated the bed of his son repeatedly, praying to Allah, begging to be taken to the eternal world in his son’s place. As if by miracle, his prayers were answered. The son recovered and the forty-seven year old father died soon after.
Soon after his exile, Humayun had seen and fallen in love with a thirteen year old girl named Hamida Banu in the harem of Shah Husain Mirza. At first she refused to come to see the Emperor, who was much older than she was. Finally she was advised by the other women of the harem to reconsider, and she consented to marry the Emperor. Two years later, in 1542, she bore Humayun a son named Akbar, the greatest of the Mughal rulers. Gulbadan Begum described the details of this incident and the marriage of Humayun and Hamida Banu with glee, and a hint of mischievousness in her manuscript.
Gulbadan also recorded the nomadic life style of Mughal women. Her younger days were spent in the typical style of the peripatetic Mughal family, wandering between Kabul and Delhi. During Humayun’s exile the problem was further exaggerated. She had to live in Kabul with one of her step brothers, who later tried to recruit her husband to join him against Humayun. Gulbadan Begum persuaded her husband not to do so.
Gulbadan Begum described in her memoir a pilgrimage she took to Mecca, a distance of three thousand miles, crossing treacherous mountains and hostile deserts. Though they were of royal birth, the women of the harem were hardy and prepared to face hardships, especially since their lives were so intimately intertwined with the men and their fortunes. Gulbadan Begum stayed in Mecca for nearly four years and during her return a shipwreck in Aden kept her from returning to Agra for several months. She finally returned in 1582, seven years after she had set forth on her journey.
Akbar had provided for safe passage of his aunt on her Hajj and sent a noble as escort with several ladies in attendance. Lavish gifts were packed with her entourage that could be used as alms. Her arrival in Mecca caused quite a stir and people from as far as Syria and Asia Minor swarmed to Mecca to get a share of the bounty.
If Gulbadan Begum had written about the death of Humayun, when he tumbled down the steps in Purana Qila in Delhi, it has been lost. The manuscript seems to end abruptly in the year 1552, four years before the death of Humayun. It ends in mid-sentence, describing the blinding of Prince Kamran. As we know that Gulbadan Begum had received the directive to write the story of Humayun’s rule by Akbar, long after the death of Humayun, it is reasonable to believe that the only available manuscript is an incomplete version of her writing. It is also believed that Akbar asked his aunt to write down from her memory so that Abul Fazl could use the information in his own writings about the emperor Akbar.
When she was seventy, her name is mentioned with that of Muhammad-yar, a son of her daughter, who left the court in disgrace. Again, she and Salima join in intercession to Akbar for Prince Salim. Again, with Hamida, she receives royal gifts of money and jewels.
Her charities were large, and it is said of her that she added day unto day in the endeavor to please God, and this by tending to the needs of the poor and needy.
When she was eighty years old, in February, 1603, her departure was heralded by a few days of fever. Hamida was with her to the end, and it may be that Ruqaiya, Hindal’s daughter, also watched her last hours. As she lay with closed eyes, Hamida-banu spoke to her by the long-used name of affection, "Jiu!" (elder sister). There was no response. Then, "Gul-badan!" The dying woman opened her eyes, quoted the verse, "I die—may you live!" and died.
Akbar helped to carry her bier some distance, and for her soul's repose made lavish gifts and did good works. He will have joined in the silent prayer for her soul before committal of her body to the earth, and if no son were there, he, as a near kinsman, may have answered the Imam’s injunction to resignation: "It is the will of God."
It is said that for the two years after her death, Akbar lamented constantly that he missed his favorite aunt, until his own death in 1605.
Gulbadan was also said to have been a poet, fluent in both Persian and Turkish. None of her poems have survived.
For much of history the manuscript of Gulbadan Begum remained in obscurity. There is little mention of it in contemporary literature of other Mughal writers, especially the authors who chronicled Akbar’s rule. Yet, the little known account of Gulbadan Begum is an important document for historians, with its window into a woman’s perspective from inside the Mughal harem.
Begam, Gulbadan see Gulbadan Begam
Begum, Gulbadan see Gulbadan Begam
Gulbadan Begum see Gulbadan Begam
Gulshani
Gulshani (Gulsheni) (Ibrahim Gulshani) (Ibrahim Gulsheni) (c.1435-1534). Turkish mystic and prolific poet. He wrote in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and constructed a convent in Egypt for the order named after him, which is a branch of the Khalwatiyah.
The Gulshani (Turkish: Gülşenî) is a Halvatî (Khalwati) sub order founded by Pir Ibrahim Gulshani, a Kurdish sufi sheikh from Eastern Anatolia who died in Egypt.
When the Ottomans conquered Egypt the Gulshani order became popular with serving soldiers of the Ottoman army in Egypt. The order was later carried back to Istanbul where several zawiyas or tekkes were established.
Gulsheni see Gulshani
Ibrahim Gulshani see Gulshani
Ibrahim Gulsheni see Gulshani
Gulseni see Gulshani
Gulshani (Gulsheni) (Ibrahim Gulshani) (Ibrahim Gulsheni) (c.1435-1534). Turkish mystic and prolific poet. He wrote in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and constructed a convent in Egypt for the order named after him, which is a branch of the Khalwatiyah.
The Gulshani (Turkish: Gülşenî) is a Halvatî (Khalwati) sub order founded by Pir Ibrahim Gulshani, a Kurdish sufi sheikh from Eastern Anatolia who died in Egypt.
When the Ottomans conquered Egypt the Gulshani order became popular with serving soldiers of the Ottoman army in Egypt. The order was later carried back to Istanbul where several zawiyas or tekkes were established.
Gulsheni see Gulshani
Ibrahim Gulshani see Gulshani
Ibrahim Gulsheni see Gulshani
Gulseni see Gulshani
Guntekin
Guntekin (Reshad Nuri Guntekin) (1892-1956). Turkish novelist, journalist, and playwright. Guntekin was educated at a French school at Izmir (Smyrna) and at Istanbul University. Guntekin worked as a teacher and a school inspector.
A very prolific writer, Guntekin began his literary career after World War I as a playwright. Guntekin’s first novel, Calikutu (“The Wren”), was published in 1922. Calikutu won Guntekin fame and immense popularity.
Guntekin’s novels and short stories owe their success to a clear style, a fecund (inventive) gift of narration pointed by realistic detail, and a sympathetic, rather sentimental, exploration of character.
Guntekin's novel, Calikutu (Çalıkuşu) ("The Wren", 1922) is about the destiny of a young Turkish female teacher in Anatolia. The movie was filmed on this book in 1966, and remade as TV series in 1986. His narrative has a detailed and precise style, with a realistic tone. His other significant novels include Yeşil Gece ("Green Night") and Yaprak Dökümü ("The Fall Of Leaves")
His father was a major in the army. Reşat Nuri attended primary school in Çanakkale, the Çanakkale Secondary School and the İzmir School of Freres. He graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Literature in 1912. He worked as a teacher and administrator at high schools in Bursa and Istanbul, then as an inspector at the Ministry of National Education (1931). He served as the deputy of Çanakkale between 1933 and 1943 in the Turkish Parliament, the chief inspector at the Ministry of National Education (1947), and a cultural attaché to Paris (1950), when he was also the Turkish representative to UNESCO.
After his retirement, he served at the literary board of the Istanbul Municipal Theatres. He died in London, where he had gone to be treated for his lung cancer. He is buried at the Karacaahmet Cemetery in İstanbul.
The works of Guntekin include:
Books
Roçild Bey (1919)
Eski Ahbab (Without known time)
Tanrı Misafiri (1927)
Sönmüş Yıldızlar (1928)
Leylâ ile Mecnun (1928)
Olağan İşler (1930)
Novels
Çalıkuşu (1922) (The Wren - translated as: "The Autobiography Of A Turkish Girl")
Gizli El (1924)
Damga (1924)
Dudaktan Kalbe (1923) (From The Lip To The Heart)
Akşam Güneşi (1926) (Afternoon Sun)
Bir Kadın Düşmanı (1927)
Yeşil Gece (1928) (The Green Night)
Acımak (1928) (To Pity)
Yaprak Dökümü (1939) (The Fall of Leaves)
Değirmen (1944) (The Mill)
Kızılcık Dalları (1944)
Miskinler Tekkesi (1946)
Harabelerin Çiçeği (1953)
Kavak Yelleri (1961)
Son Sığınak (1961) (The Last Shelter)
Kan Davası (1962)
Ateş Gecesi (1953) (The Night Of Fire)
Plays
Hançer (1920)
Eski Rüya (1922) (The Old Dream)
Ümidin Güneşi (1924) (Hope's Sun)
Gazeteci Düşmanı, Şemsiye Hırsızı (The Umbrella Thief), İhtiyar Serseri (1925, three works)
Taş Parçası (1926)
Bir Köy Hocası (1928)
İstiklâl (1933) (Independence)
Hülleci (1933)
Yaprak Dökümü (1971)
Eski Şarkı(1971) (The Old Song)
Balıkesir Muhasebecisi (1971) (The Accountant Of Balıkesir)
Tanrıdağı Ziyafeti (1971)
Reshad Nuri Guntekin see Guntekin
Guntekin (Reshad Nuri Guntekin) (1892-1956). Turkish novelist, journalist, and playwright. Guntekin was educated at a French school at Izmir (Smyrna) and at Istanbul University. Guntekin worked as a teacher and a school inspector.
A very prolific writer, Guntekin began his literary career after World War I as a playwright. Guntekin’s first novel, Calikutu (“The Wren”), was published in 1922. Calikutu won Guntekin fame and immense popularity.
Guntekin’s novels and short stories owe their success to a clear style, a fecund (inventive) gift of narration pointed by realistic detail, and a sympathetic, rather sentimental, exploration of character.
Guntekin's novel, Calikutu (Çalıkuşu) ("The Wren", 1922) is about the destiny of a young Turkish female teacher in Anatolia. The movie was filmed on this book in 1966, and remade as TV series in 1986. His narrative has a detailed and precise style, with a realistic tone. His other significant novels include Yeşil Gece ("Green Night") and Yaprak Dökümü ("The Fall Of Leaves")
His father was a major in the army. Reşat Nuri attended primary school in Çanakkale, the Çanakkale Secondary School and the İzmir School of Freres. He graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Literature in 1912. He worked as a teacher and administrator at high schools in Bursa and Istanbul, then as an inspector at the Ministry of National Education (1931). He served as the deputy of Çanakkale between 1933 and 1943 in the Turkish Parliament, the chief inspector at the Ministry of National Education (1947), and a cultural attaché to Paris (1950), when he was also the Turkish representative to UNESCO.
After his retirement, he served at the literary board of the Istanbul Municipal Theatres. He died in London, where he had gone to be treated for his lung cancer. He is buried at the Karacaahmet Cemetery in İstanbul.
The works of Guntekin include:
Books
Roçild Bey (1919)
Eski Ahbab (Without known time)
Tanrı Misafiri (1927)
Sönmüş Yıldızlar (1928)
Leylâ ile Mecnun (1928)
Olağan İşler (1930)
Novels
Çalıkuşu (1922) (The Wren - translated as: "The Autobiography Of A Turkish Girl")
Gizli El (1924)
Damga (1924)
Dudaktan Kalbe (1923) (From The Lip To The Heart)
Akşam Güneşi (1926) (Afternoon Sun)
Bir Kadın Düşmanı (1927)
Yeşil Gece (1928) (The Green Night)
Acımak (1928) (To Pity)
Yaprak Dökümü (1939) (The Fall of Leaves)
Değirmen (1944) (The Mill)
Kızılcık Dalları (1944)
Miskinler Tekkesi (1946)
Harabelerin Çiçeği (1953)
Kavak Yelleri (1961)
Son Sığınak (1961) (The Last Shelter)
Kan Davası (1962)
Ateş Gecesi (1953) (The Night Of Fire)
Plays
Hançer (1920)
Eski Rüya (1922) (The Old Dream)
Ümidin Güneşi (1924) (Hope's Sun)
Gazeteci Düşmanı, Şemsiye Hırsızı (The Umbrella Thief), İhtiyar Serseri (1925, three works)
Taş Parçası (1926)
Bir Köy Hocası (1928)
İstiklâl (1933) (Independence)
Hülleci (1933)
Yaprak Dökümü (1971)
Eski Şarkı(1971) (The Old Song)
Balıkesir Muhasebecisi (1971) (The Accountant Of Balıkesir)
Tanrıdağı Ziyafeti (1971)
Reshad Nuri Guntekin see Guntekin
Gurage
Gurage. An Ethiopian chronicle of the fourteenth century contains the earliest known reference to the Muslim Gurage of Ethiopia. Their traditional homeland in southwestern Shoa Province lies roughly between Lake Zway on the east and the Awash River on the west. Bordered on all sides by groups who speak Cushitic languages, the Gurage represent the southernmost extension of North Ethiopic Semitic people. No reliable figures exist on the number of speakers of Guragina, which is spoken only by the Gurage, but it is estimated that one third of the speakers of Guragina are Muslim.
Islam was introduced among the Gurage perhaps as early as the thirteenth century. In this era of Islamic expansion in Ethiopia, several Muslim sultanates flourished in Shoa Province. A Muslim invasion of Christian Ethiopia in the sixteenth century left behind in Gurage territory contingents of Muslim soldiers who established a foothold for the later expansion of Islam. {See also Sultan.}
Gurage is an ethnic group in Ethiopia. According to the 2007 national census, they numbered 1,867,377 people (or 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia), of whom 792,659 are urban dwellers. This is 2.53% of the total population of Ethiopia, or 7.52% of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR). The Gurage people inhabit a semi-fertile, semi-mountainous region in southwest Ethiopia, about 150 miles southwest of Addis Ababa. Their homeland extends to the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River (a tributary of the Omo) to the southwest, and to Lake Zway in the east. The Gurage ethnic group has usually been said to consist of three distinct subgroups, Northern, Eastern and Western, but the largest grouping within the Eastern subgroup, known as the Silt'e, did not consider themselves to be Gurage, and in a referendum in 2000 they voted unanimously to form their own administrative unit, the Silte Zone, within the SNNPR.
The origins are explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Aksumite Empire, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other.
The Gurage languages do not constitute a coherent linguistic grouping, rather, the term is both linguistic and cultural. The Gurage people speak a number of separate languages, all belonging to the Southern branch of the Ethiopian Semitic language family (which also includes Amharic). The languages are often referred to collectively as "Guraginya" by other Ethiopians (-inya is the Amharic suffix for most Ethiopian Semitic languages).
Gurage, also known as Guragie is written with the Ethiopic alphabet. The Guragie subset of Ethiopic has 44 independent glyphs.
There is no general agreement on how many languages or dialects there are, in particular within the West Gurage grouping.
The Gurage live a sedentary life based on agriculture, involving a complex system of crop rotation and transplanting. Ensete is their main staple crop, but other cash crops are grown, which
include coffee and chat. Animal husbandry is practiced, but mainly for milk supply and dung. Other foods consumed include green cabbage, cheese, butter, and roasted grains, with meat consumption being very limited (also used in rituals or ceremonies).
Gurani
Gurani (Sharaf al-Din Gurani) (Molla Gurani) (1410-1488). Ottoman scholar and Shaykh al-Islam. He wrote commentaries on the Qur’an and on the Sahih of al-Bukhari.
Sharaf al-Din Gurani see Gurani
Molla Gurani see Gurani
Gurani (Sharaf al-Din Gurani) (Molla Gurani) (1410-1488). Ottoman scholar and Shaykh al-Islam. He wrote commentaries on the Qur’an and on the Sahih of al-Bukhari.
Sharaf al-Din Gurani see Gurani
Molla Gurani see Gurani
Gurgani
Gurgani (Fakhr al-Din As‘ad Gurgani) (Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani) (Fakhraddin Asaad Gorgani). Eleventh century Persian poet. Author of the first known courtly romance in Persian, called Wis and Ramin, this work was written in the eleventh century.
Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani, also spelled as Fakhraddin Asaad Gorgani, was a 11th century Persian poet. He versified the story of Vis and Ramin, (Vis and Ramin) (Wis and Ramin), a story from the Arsacid (Parthian) period. Contemporary scholar Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub however disagrees with this view, and concludes that the story has a Pahlavi (middle-Persian) origin in the 5th century Sassanid era. Besides Vis and Ramin other forms of poetry were composed by him. For example, some of his quatrains are recorded in the Nozhat al-Majales.
Fakhr al-Din As‘ad Gurgani see Gurgani
Gurgani (Fakhr al-Din As‘ad Gurgani) (Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani) (Fakhraddin Asaad Gorgani). Eleventh century Persian poet. Author of the first known courtly romance in Persian, called Wis and Ramin, this work was written in the eleventh century.
Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani, also spelled as Fakhraddin Asaad Gorgani, was a 11th century Persian poet. He versified the story of Vis and Ramin, (Vis and Ramin) (Wis and Ramin), a story from the Arsacid (Parthian) period. Contemporary scholar Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub however disagrees with this view, and concludes that the story has a Pahlavi (middle-Persian) origin in the 5th century Sassanid era. Besides Vis and Ramin other forms of poetry were composed by him. For example, some of his quatrains are recorded in the Nozhat al-Majales.
Fakhr al-Din As‘ad Gurgani see Gurgani
Gurnah, Abdulrazak
Abdulrazak Gurnah (b. December 20, 1948, Sultanate of Zanzibar). Tanzanian-born novelist and academic who was based in the United Kingdom. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include Paradise (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; Desertion (2005), which was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize; and By the Sea (2001), which was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents".
Abdulrazak Gurnah was born on December 20, 1948 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which is now part of present-day Tanzania. He left the island at the age of 18 following the overthrow of the ruling Arab elite in the Zanzibar Revolution, arriving in England in 1968 as a refugee. He is of Arab heritage.
Gurnah initially studied at Christ Church College, Canterbury, whose degrees were at the time awarded by the University of London. He then moved to the University of Kent, where, in 1982, he earned his PhD, with a thesis titled Criteria in the Criticism of West African Fiction.
From 1980 to 1983, Gurnah lectured at Bayero University Kano in Nigeria. He went on to become a professor of English and postcolonial literature at the University of Kent, where he taught until his retirement in 2017, and where he became professor emeritus of English and postcolonial literatures.
Alongside his work in academia, Gurnah is a writer and novelist. He is the author of many short stories, essays and ten novels.
While his first language is Swahili, he has used English as his literary language. However, Gurnah integrates bits of Swahili, Arabic, and German throughout most of his writings. He has said that he had to push back against publishers to continue this practice, while they would have preferred to "italicize or Anglicize Swahili and Arabic references and phrases in his books." Gurnah has criticized the practices in both British and American publishing which want to "make the alien seem alien" by marking 'foreign' terms and phrases with italics or by putting them in a glossary.
In his works, Gurnah draws on the imagery and stories from the Qur'an, as well as from Arabic and Persian poetry, particularly “The Arabian Nights.”
Gurnah began writing out of homesickness during his 20s. He started by writing down thoughts in his diary, which turned into longer reflections about home; and eventually grew into writing fictional stories about other people. This created a habit of using writing as a tool to understand and record his experience of being a refugee, living in another land, and the feeling of being displaced. These initial stories eventually became Gurnah's first novel, Memory of Departure (1987), which he wrote alongside his Ph.D. dissertation. This first book set the stage for his ongoing exploration of the themes of "the lingering trauma of colonialism, war and displacement" throughout his subsequent novels, short stories and critical essays.
Consistent themes run through Gurnah's writing, including exile, displacement, belonging, colonialism, and broken promises on the part of the state. Most of his novels tell stories about people living in the developing world, affected by war or crisis, who may not be able to tell their own stories.
Much of Gurnah's work is set on the coast of East Africa, and all but one of his novels' protagonists were born in Zanzibar. Though Gurnah has not returned to live in Tanzania since he left at 18, he has said that his homeland "always asserts himself in his imagination, even when he deliberately tries to set his stories elsewhere."
Gurnah edited two volumes of Essays on African Writing and has published articles on a number of contemporary postcolonial writers, including V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Zoe Wicomb. He is the editor of A Companion to Salman Rushdie (Cambridge University Press, 2007). He has been a contributing editor of Wasafiri magazine since 1987, and he has been a judge for awards including the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Booker Prize, and the RSL Literature Matters Awards.
In 2006, Gurnah was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL). In 2007, he won the RFI (Radio France Internationale) Témoin du Monde ("Witness of the world") award in France for By the Sea.
On October 7, 2021, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". Gurnah was the first Black writer to receive the prize since 1993, and the first African writer since 2007.
Gurnah lives in Canterbury, England, and has British citizenship. He maintains close ties with Tanzania, where he still has family, and where he says he goes when he can: "I am from there. In my mind I live there."
Gypsies
Gypsies (Cingane) (Cingene) (Luli) (Nuri) (Zutt) (The Romani) ( Romany) (Romanies) (Romanis) (Roma) ( Roms). Ethnic group of Europe tracing their origins to medieval India.
The Gypsy communities are indicated by a variety of names. It is suggested that the name Cingane (in Turkish, Cingene) comes from Cangar or Zingar, said to be the name of a people formerly dwelling on the banks of the Indus. Luli is one of the names for gypsies in Persia, while the terms Nuri and Zutt are also found. In Muslim countries, the gypsies usually are said to profess Islam, but they have in fact their own form of religion. The Arab historian al-Baladhuri relates that the Zutt had been settled in the ports of the Persian Gulf since before Islam. The Arab historian Hamza al-Isfahani and the Persian poet Firdawsi relate that Bahram Gur, king of Persia (r.420-438), asked the king of India to send him 10,000 Luri, men and women, expert at playing the lute. The Zutt, who had settled in the marshes between Wasit and Basra in great numbers, rose in rebellion during the reign of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun, but submitted in 834 on condition that their lives and property be spared.
Gypsies profess, in nearly all cases, the religion dominant in their area of residence. Thus, there are Catholic Gypsies, various types of Protestant and Orthodox Gypsies and, throughout the Islamic world and those portions of southeastern Europe where the Ottomans most recently ruled, large numbers of Muslim Gypsies. The particular sect of Islam which they profess varies with the area. Everywhere they are accused by non-Gypsies of being only superficially Muslim and of lacking true piety. While this alleged indifference in religious matters is frequently overstressed, there often is a fusion of Islamic and traditional Gypsy religious belief and practice, particularly among those Gypsies still nomadic.
Gypsy ethnogenesis apparently took place in northwestern India, where there still live Gypsy like peoples thought to be derived from the same stock as Gypsies elsewhere. They are believed to have entered Persia by the ninth century, whence they spread across the Middle East, arriving in the Balkans in the early fourteenth century. They comprise a number of different “tribes,” each identified with a particular sub-culture, often including a distinct dialect of Romany and a particular occupation or set of occupations traditional to the group. In theory, each tribe or group of Gypsies is endogamous (although marriage with other types of Gypsies and non-Gypsies is not uncommon in practice). In many respects, Gypsies can be considered a caste, or group of closely related castes, intruded into a society that is generally non-caste in structure.
Cingane see Gypsies
Cingene see Gypsies
Luli see Gypsies
Nuri see Gypsies
Zutt see Gypsies
Roma see Gypsies
Gypsies (Cingane) (Cingene) (Luli) (Nuri) (Zutt) (The Romani) ( Romany) (Romanies) (Romanis) (Roma) ( Roms). Ethnic group of Europe tracing their origins to medieval India.
The Gypsy communities are indicated by a variety of names. It is suggested that the name Cingane (in Turkish, Cingene) comes from Cangar or Zingar, said to be the name of a people formerly dwelling on the banks of the Indus. Luli is one of the names for gypsies in Persia, while the terms Nuri and Zutt are also found. In Muslim countries, the gypsies usually are said to profess Islam, but they have in fact their own form of religion. The Arab historian al-Baladhuri relates that the Zutt had been settled in the ports of the Persian Gulf since before Islam. The Arab historian Hamza al-Isfahani and the Persian poet Firdawsi relate that Bahram Gur, king of Persia (r.420-438), asked the king of India to send him 10,000 Luri, men and women, expert at playing the lute. The Zutt, who had settled in the marshes between Wasit and Basra in great numbers, rose in rebellion during the reign of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun, but submitted in 834 on condition that their lives and property be spared.
Gypsies profess, in nearly all cases, the religion dominant in their area of residence. Thus, there are Catholic Gypsies, various types of Protestant and Orthodox Gypsies and, throughout the Islamic world and those portions of southeastern Europe where the Ottomans most recently ruled, large numbers of Muslim Gypsies. The particular sect of Islam which they profess varies with the area. Everywhere they are accused by non-Gypsies of being only superficially Muslim and of lacking true piety. While this alleged indifference in religious matters is frequently overstressed, there often is a fusion of Islamic and traditional Gypsy religious belief and practice, particularly among those Gypsies still nomadic.
Gypsy ethnogenesis apparently took place in northwestern India, where there still live Gypsy like peoples thought to be derived from the same stock as Gypsies elsewhere. They are believed to have entered Persia by the ninth century, whence they spread across the Middle East, arriving in the Balkans in the early fourteenth century. They comprise a number of different “tribes,” each identified with a particular sub-culture, often including a distinct dialect of Romany and a particular occupation or set of occupations traditional to the group. In theory, each tribe or group of Gypsies is endogamous (although marriage with other types of Gypsies and non-Gypsies is not uncommon in practice). In many respects, Gypsies can be considered a caste, or group of closely related castes, intruded into a society that is generally non-caste in structure.
Cingane see Gypsies
Cingene see Gypsies
Luli see Gypsies
Nuri see Gypsies
Zutt see Gypsies
Roma see Gypsies
No comments:
Post a Comment