History | Hazara Community of Milton Keynes UK

OUR HISTORY

The word, 'Hazara' refers to people who live in central part of Afghanistan and comprise the third largest ethnic group of Afghanistan, forming about 19% (according to other sources up to 25%) of the total population. More than 650,000 Hazara live in neighbouring Pakistan (mostly settled in Quetta) and an estimated one million in Iran. Milton Keynes UK. is a new homeland for Hazara people they migrated from different part of the world.

The word 'Hazara' is derived from persian, which means thousands__thus historian believe Hazaras are the people who were one of Chengiz Khan's Army unit, which were consisting of Thousands.

The origins of the Hazara have not been fully discovered. Significant Inner Asian descent – in historical context Mongolian and Turkic - is impossible to rule out because the Hazara' physical attributes, facial bone structures and parts of their culture and language resemble those of Mongolians and Central Asian Turks. Thus, it is widely and popularly believed that Hazara have Mongolian ancestry. This is partially supported by genetic tests.

The Bamiyan Valley, the site of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

Some Hazara tribes are named after famous Mongol generals, for example the Tulai Khan Hazara who are named after Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan. Some believe Hazara are descendants of Mongol soldiers and their slave women who settled in Bamiyan following the 1221 siege of Bamiyan. Theories of Mongol or partially Mongol descent are plausible, given that the Il-Khanate Mongol rulers, beginning with Oljeitu, embraced Shia Islam. Today, the majority of the Hazara adhere to Shia Islam, whereas Afghanistan's other major ethnic groups are mostly Sunni. However, the Sunni and Ismaili Hazara population, while existent, have not been extensively researched by scholars.

Another popular theory proposes that Hazara are descendants of the Kushans, the ancient dwellers of Afghanistan who are believed to have built the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Its proponents find the location of the Hazara homeland, and the similarity in facial features of Hazara with those on frescoes and Buddha's statues in Bamiyan, suggestive. However, this belief is contrary not only to the fact that the Kushans were Tocharians, but also to historical records which mention that in a particularly bloody battle around Bamiyan, Genghis Khan's grandson, Mutugen, was killed, and he allegedly ordered Bamiyan to be destroyed in retribution.

The theory accepted by most scholars, however, is that Hazara are a mixed group. This is not entirely inconsistent with descent from Mongol military forces. For example, Nikudar iMongols settled in eastern Persia and mixed with native populations who spoke Persian. A second wave of mostly Chagatai Mongols came from Central Asia and were followed by other Mongolic groups, associated with the Ilkhanate (driven out of Persia) and the Timurids, all of whom settled in Hazarajat and mixed with the local, mostly Persian-speaking population, forming a distinct group.

The first mention of Hazara are made by Babur in the early 16th century and later by the court historians of Shah Abbas of the Safavid dynasty. It is reported that they embraced Shia Islam between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, during the Safavid period.

Hazara men along with tribes of other ethnic groups had been recruited and added to the army of Ahmad Shah Durrani in the 18th century. Some claim that in the mid‑18th century Hazara were forced out of Helmand and the Arghandab District of Kandahar Province. During the second reign of Dost Mohammad Khan's in the 19th century, Hazara from Hazarajat began to be taxed for the first time. However, for the most part they still managed to keep their regional autonomy until the subjugation of Abdur Rahman Khan began in the late 19th century.

Genetically, the Hazara are primarily eastern Eurasian with western Eurasian genetic mixtures. While it has been found that "at least third to half of their chromosomes are of East Asian origin, PCA places them between East Asia and Caucasus/Middle East/Europe clusters". Genetic research suggests that the Hazaras of Afghanistan cluster closely with the Uzbek population of the country, while both groups are at a notable distance from Afghanistan's Tajik and Pashtun populations. There is evidence of both a patrimonial and maternal relation to Mongol peoples of Mongolia. Mongol male and female ancestry is supported by studies in genetic genealogy as well, which have identified a particular lineage of the Y‑chromosome characteristic of people of Mongolian descent ("the Y-chromosome of Genghis Khan"). This chromosome is virtually absent outside the limits of the Mongol Empire except among the Hazara, where it reaches its highest frequency anywhere. These results indicate that the Hazara are also characterized by very high frequencies of eastern Eurasian mtDNAs at 35%. which are virtually absent from bordering populations, suggesting that the male descendants of Genghis Khan, or other Mongols, were accompanied by women of East Asian ancestry. Women of Non-eastern Eurasian mtDNA in Hazaras are at 65% most which are West Eurasians and some South Asian.

R1b1a1 (2011 name) is defined by the presence of SNP marker M73. It has been found at generally low frequencies throughout central Eurasia, but has been found with relatively high frequency among particular populations there including Pakistani Hazaras (8/25 = 32%). However, the most frequent paternal Haplogroup type found amongst the Hazara's in the same study was haplogroup C-M217 at 40%(10/25) with Haplogroup O3 (Y-DNA) at 8% (both which are Eastern Eurasian males ancestry associated with the Mongols and Kazakhs.