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Zutt[a]is an Arabicised form ofJat.[2]Originally inhabitants of lowerIndus Valley,Jats were present inMesopotamiafrom the 5th century AD since the times of theSasanian Empire,although their main migration occurred after the establishment ofUmayyad Caliphate.They were one of the prominent ethnic groups in lower Iraq during theIslamic Golden Age,supplying mercenary soldiers to the Muslim states. Their mention fades from Arab chronicles after the 11th century.

History

Original homeland

At the time ofUmayyad conquest of Sindhin the early 8th century, Zutt (Jats) populatedMakranandTuran(includingQiqan,modernKalat) as far as the east bank ofIndusriver, where cities ofMansuraandMultanwere located.[3]According toIbn Khordadbeh,Jats safeguarded the entire trade route in the region which was known asbilād al-Zāt(land of the Jats).[4]Makran had a significant number of Zutt at the time (or before) the Muslim conquest who had moved eastward intoSindas well in the following centuries.[5]Goejesays Zutt were a people originating from Sind and claims that they were distributed throughout theSassanid Empire.Al-Khwarizmialso elucidates their origins, attributing their roots to Sind and noting the Arabicization of their original name,Jit,to Zuṭṭ and further highlights that the Zutt were employed to protectbadhraqa(roads).[6]In Arabic literature, however,Sindreferred to a larger region than the present province ofSindhand Makran, and the "land of Sind" designated theIndus valleyor the area traversed by Indus river.[7]

Regions fromMakranandTurantillMansurawere the original homeland of Zutt people.[8][4]

In early Islamic Arabia

The commercial activities of Zutt lead to their settlements inArabia.They were evidently present in Arabia before the advent of Islam, mainly around thePersian Gulfand are known to have interacted withMuhammad.[9]Muhammad reportedly comparedMusa(Moses) with them in physique, and stated him to be of brown complexion, straight hair and tall stature, resembling Zutt.[9]On another occasion, whenAishafell ill, her nephew sent for a Zutt physician to treat her.[9]According toal-Tabari,some Zutt participated in theRidda Warsagainst Muslims.[10]

In Sassanid Empire

Sassanid emperorBahram V(431 – 38) is said to have adopted a policy of tribal resettlement in the coastal regions. Due to it, a number of Zutt migrated, often with great herds of water buffalo, to the marshland of southern Iraq where they introduced large-scale rice farming.[11]They may have came in the search of pastures there, and their presence is indicated by a canal calledNahr al-Zuṭṭin Iraq,[12]as well as a district calledZuttinKhuzistanorBahrain.[13]They also inhabited the city ofHaumat al-Zuttin Khuzistan.

Last Sassanid emperor,Yazdegerd III,called Zutt from Sind to help in his war against Arabs.[6]They fought as mercenary cavalry men for theSassanian Empire,later defecting to the side of Muslims.[14][15]When Muslims besieged the city ofAhwazin Iran in 640, Zutt put up a strong resistance in the defence of the city along with PersianAswaran.[12]Later, as did Aswaran, who were known asAsawiraduring the caliphate period, they settled in Basra as allies ofBanu Tamim.[13]

In Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates

Zutt formed a large population of the garrison town ofBasra,where they became allies of the Arab tribe of Banu Hanzala in the inter-tribal warfare.[16][17]The treasury of Basra was guarded by 40 or 400 Zutt soldiers during the reign ofAliunder their chief Abu Salama al-Zutti,[18][9][19]who were, according to the version narrated byAbu Mikhnaf,killed while protectingbayt al-malwhen rebels underTalhaandZubayroccupied the city.[19]Zutt regiments had fought along with Ali at thebattle of Camelin 656 under their chief, Ali bin Danūr.[20]

In 670, a large number of Zutt, along with Aswaran, were moved into coastal cities of Syria, such asAntioch,BeirutandTripoli,replacing earlier Greek population, and a quarter in Antioch came to be known after them.[17][21]This was an attempt by Umayyad caliphMu'awiya Ito ward off any possible naval invasion byByzantine Empire.[22]During this period, the role of Zutt and the associated groups was to guard the governors of different provinces, as well as to suppress revolts.[23][24]They also acted as special troops to guard provincial treasuries.[19][24]Zutt had been in Mesopotamia for long enough that they were considered distinct from Sindhis or Indians.[17]In Iraq and elsewhere, they had their separate units under their own leaders, giving them a status of distinct sub-tribe in the Muslim society.[25][26]

Map of Iraq in the later 9th century. Zutt primarily inhabited themarshlandin lower Iraq.

Second migration

After the conquest of Sindh in 712, a second influx of Zutt occurred from Makran into Iraq.[27]As a nomadic pastoral community, they did not originally profess Hinduism and instead followed their tribal religion.[28]Zutt were barely integrated into the Hindu society of Sindh,[29]and as they were always prone to rebellion,Brahman dynastyhad imposed discriminatory measures upon them, which were maintained by Arabs, and in some cases, even intensified after a long series of rebellions.[30]Four thousand Zutt became captive of Muslims during the early Muslim incursions into Makran, and later they participated as auxiliaries in the conquest of Sindh.[13]The two chief tribal groupings in Sindh at the time of Arab conquest were Zutt andMeds.[27]Unlike Jats, however, Meds were seafaring people. Some of them carried piracy in theIndian OceanasBawarij.The incident in which they captured two treasure ships coming from Ceylon to Basra becamecasus bellifor the Umayyad invasion of Sindh.[31]

In addition to Zutt, several other groups from Indus Valley had permanently settled into Mesopotamia, includingSāyabijaandAndāghar,who were at times considered as part of Jats, and sometimes described separately.[32]Muslim accounts describe these soldiers as originally inhabitants of Sind.[33]An important sub-group of Zutt wereQayqāniyya,who inhabited the region of Qayqan (also known as Qiqān, modern Kalat).[34][35]Many of them had been taken as captives between 659 and 664 by Abd Allah bin Sawwar al-Abdi to Iraq, who was appointed as governor of regions surrounding Sindh.[36]He was himself killed in one of the wars against Qiqani Zutt in 667 and Qiqan was re-conquered by them.[36]Always armed with arrows, whether cavalry or infantry, these Zutt Qayqaniyya units were master archers of the caliphate, and acted as auxiliary group forshurta.[36][35]Qiqaniyya as well asBukhariyya,an Iranian unit of soldiers, were sent to suppressrevolt of Zayd ibn Aliin 740 by Umayyad Caliphate.[33]Another group associated with Zutt was that ofQufs,or "mountain dwellers", who were dark-skinned soldiers from Kerman.[13]They had been recruited by Sassanids as auxiliaries[13]and later, actively supported Arabs against Sassanids.[37]However, they had married among Persians and had assimilated to the Persian culture.[13]

Jats (with their very name being synonymous with dromedary-men or cameleers)[37]in Makran reportedly reared fine-quality camels which were in demand as far as Khurasan, and tallQīqānihorses, which were presented to Mu'awiya I.[38]In Basra, they manufactured a distinct variety of cloth calledzuttīorzuttiyah.[39]In the first half of 8th century, many of them were settled with herds of buffalo in the regions of Massisa andAmanus(present-day Turkey) to combat the large number of lions found there.[21]

In Abbasid Caliphate

The position of Zutt as mercenary soldiers remained stable for some time after the Abbasid revolution and establishment of theAbbasid Caliphate.They still formed part of the armed forces of Basra during the governorship of Abbasid Sulayman bin Ali.[25]During theAbbasid civil war(809 – 813),al-Sāri ibn al-Hakam al-Zuttigained control of the lower Egypt, including the capital city ofFustatin 813 and ruled it till his death in 820. He was a Zutt soldier ofabna’ al-dawla,the elite Khurasani troops of Abbasid caliphate.[40]His two sons,Abu Nāsr(r. 820–822) andUbāydallah(r. 822–826) succeeded him as theemirs of Egypt.During this period, Egypt was independent from the Abbasids.[41]Ubaydallah's reign came to an end in 826, when al-Ma'mun sought to achieve control over the country by dispatching to it theTahiridgeneralAbdallah ibn Tahir.Ubaydullah chose to fight against him, but his forces were defeated and he was forced into exile inSamarra,where he died in 865. According to the ArabistThierry Bianquis,the succession of al-Sari by his sons signals the first attempt at creating an autonomous dynasty ruling Egypt, heralding the more successfulTulunidsandIkhshidids.[42]According to Juan Signes Codoñer, Zutt may have been also involved inThomas the Slav's revolt against theByzantine Empirein 821–23.[41]

Gold dinarminted in Egypt in 823/4, displaying the names of the caliph al-Ma'mun and Ubaydallah ibn al-Sari

Jats produced a number of well-known people during theIslamic Golden Age.[43]Famous theologian,Abu Hanifa,who was the founder ofHanafi schoolof thought, is considered by some to be one of them. His grandfather, named Zuttā, was brought as captive by Muslim armies in the late 7th century to lower Iraq.[44][45]Other Zutt scholars includeIbn Ulayya,who was from Qayqan, andal-Awza'i.[46]As they were earliest of the people from Indus Valley to have interacted with Muslims, "Zutt" became a general term for the people from Sind and Multan who were living in Syria,[47]which included scholars and governors likeIbn al-A'rabi,Ibn ShahakandAbu al-Khasib.During this period, Zutt increasingly intermingled with other non-Arab foreign people in Basra, a cosmopolitan port at the time. They, along with Sayabija andZanj,were designated as one of theBlackpeoples (Arabic:as-swadan) by Arabs.[48]Grandfather ofal-Jahiz,the famous 9th century author, was reportedly a black cameleer.[49]The termBlack,however, was apparently applied to Berbers and Indians as well.[39]

Zutt rebellion

Main article:Zutt Rebellion

As the central power of caliphate broke down after the mid-9th century, Zutt came to be viewed as outlaws and brigands instead of allies. Zutt, Asawira and other troops were effectively demilitarized at the start of century. Some of Zutt later turned intoBanu Sasan,who were members of whatC. E. Bosworthcalls "Islamic Underworld".[47]The Qiqaniyya, who had reputation as sea-faring people, turned to piracy along the coast of Baluchistan and Makran.[50]The continued political suppression, as well as relative weakness of Abbasid control after the devastating civil war, encouraged the Zutt living in lower Iraq to rise in rebellion in 820 under the leadership ofMuhammad ibn Uthman.Early Abbasid efforts to defeat Zutt proved unsuccessful, and they continued to levy taxes over caravans and to raid neighbouring regions of Basra. After the defeat of Ahmad bin Sa'd al-Bahili, Abbasids sent a large force of more than 10,000 under their generalUjayf ibn Anbasain 834 toWasit,which was a stronghold of Zutt. Abbasid forces blocked the waterways to the Iraqi marshes and thus cut down the communication lines of Zutt. The war continued for nine months, and included amphibious operations, until Zutt leaders agreed to surrender. They were ultimately deported to a village at the Byzantine frontier of Cilicia in 835.[51][52]In 855, Byzantine army made an unexpected raid on the city ofAnazarbus(`Ain Zarbah) and took many of them toConstantinople.[53][41]

The Zutt rebellion lasted for 14 years before finally being put down.Al-Tabari,a 9th-century historian, quoted a long poem by a Zutt poet when they were being deported to Cilicia. in it, poet taunted people ofBaghdad,where caliph was based, for their cowardice as they could not defeat Zutt and had to employ Turkic slave-soldiers against them.[54]The poet held these Turks in military posts in low regard and instead glorified austerity of the Zutt.[54]

Later period

Zutt also participated in the laterZanjandQarmatianrebellions against the caliphate, withAbu Hatim al-Zuttibeing one of the major Qarmatian Da'is.[55]Becoming active in 907, Abu Hatim prohibited his followers to slaughter animals and so they came to be known asBaqliyya,or "Green Grocers". They were a major sub-sect of Qarmatians in lower Iraq and staged multiple uprisings against the Abbasids.[56]A certain Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad al-Zutti was a Buyid minister in Baghdad in 990.[57]: 189 Zutt, along with Turks and Daylamis, formed part of army of Buyid prince Abu Nasr Shah-Firuz, ruler of Fasa, when he waged war againstBaha' al-Dawlafor the control of province ofFarsin 1000 AD.[52]They were described as most numerous and bravest of the warriors of Fars by Abbasid vizieral-Rudhrawari.[57]: 374 Little is known about them any further, although they seem to have gained certain degree of notoriety along withKurdandBedouintribes.[50]

Abbasid caliphate itself disintegrated after theanarchy at Samarra,and the regions of Makran, Sind and Multan became independent underMa'danids,HābbaridsandMunābbihids,respectively. Owing to these developments, the movement of Jats into Iraq ceased.[58]During the same period, Jats left Makran and moved upward to the fertile but thinly populatedPunjab plains,which, since 16th century, have been dominated by them.[58]

Descendants

Afterwards, Jats lost their distinct identity in the Mesopotamia that they had previously. The 19th century Dutch orientalistDe Goejeattempted to link Zutt withRomaniof Europe.[52]However, there is no evidence of any direct relation between the two groups, as Romani language does not contain any significant Arabic loan words,[52]and his thesis remains unproven.[52]Similarly, the identification of Zutt or Jats, who werenorthwestern Indo-Aryans,[52]with the present dayDom people(also calledNawar) is also spurious, as Dom are speakers ofcentral Indo-AryanDomari language,[59]and migrated fromcentral Indiainstead. However, the termZotthas persisted in Arab countries, albeit in a pejorative way, to describe them because of their Indian origins.[47]It is believed that the Zutt later became what are now known asMarsh Arabsof Iraq.[17][60]However, genetic studies show that the Marsh Arabs harbormtDNAsandYchromosomes that are predominantly of Middle Eastern origin and despite the cultural influence from the Indian subcontinent, the genetic input is marginal.[61]

References

  1. ^Arabic:الزط,romanized:al-Zuṭṭ,Classical Syriac:ܙܘ̈ܛܝܐ,romanized:ZWṬYʾ[1]
  1. ^Carlson, Thomas A.; Mutter, Jessica; Cady, McKenzie, “Zuṭṭ”in Thomas A. Carlson, ed. Historical Index of the Medieval Middle East, last modified September 16, 2021
  2. ^Maclean 1984,p. 45;Nizami 1994,p. 57;ʿAthamina 1998,p. 355;Wink 2002,p. 156;Anthony 2011,p. 178;Ehsan Yarshater 2015,p. 7;Malik 2020,p. 42;Bosworth 2012
  3. ^Wink 2002,p. 160.
  4. ^abNizami 1994,p. 57.
  5. ^Wink 2002,142: At the time of (and before) the Arab conquest, Makrān or Kīj-Makrān held a substantial population of Zutt or 'Jat' dromedary-men. These Zutt appear to have moved eastward into Sind in the following two or three centuries.
  6. ^abZakeri 1995,pp. 120–121.
  7. ^Wink 2002,pp. 145–146: "The Arabic literature often conflates 'Sind' with 'Hind' into a single term but also refers to 'Sind and Hind', to distinguish the two. Sind, in point of fact, while vaguely defined territorially, overlaps rather well with what is currently Pakistan. It definitely did extend beyond the present province of Sind and Makran; the whole ofBaluchistanwas included, a part of thePanjab,and theNorth-West Frontier Province.Sind derived its name and identity from the river which in Sanskrit was called Sindhu (meaning literally 'river' or 'stream'), i.e. the 'Indus' of the Greeks and Romans, the Mihran of the Arabs. 'The land of Sind' designated the alluvial plains created by the river on both sides in its middle and lower course, fromAttockto the coast, with varying portions of the rocky uplands (Kuhistan) adjoining Baluchistan and of the sandhills of theThar".
  8. ^Westphal-Hellbusch & Westphal 1964,p. 75.
  9. ^abcdNizami 1994,p. 55.
  10. ^ʿAthamina 1998,p. 355.
  11. ^Wink 2002,p. 48, 157.
  12. ^abZakeri 1995,p. 121–122.
  13. ^abcdefZakeri 1995,p. 122.
  14. ^Wink 2002,p. 156–157.
  15. ^Anthony 2011,p. 178.
  16. ^ʿAthamina 1998,p. 351.
  17. ^abcdWink 2002,p. 157.
  18. ^Zakeri 1995,p. 191.
  19. ^abcAnthony 2011,p. 121.
  20. ^Zakeri 1995,p. 127.
  21. ^abZakeri 1995,p. 159.
  22. ^Zakeri 1995,p. 128.
  23. ^Zakeri 1995,p. 193–194.
  24. ^abʿAthamina 1998,p. 357.
  25. ^abZakeri 1995,p. 190.
  26. ^ʿAthamina 1998,p. 356.
  27. ^abWink 2002,p. 156.
  28. ^Asher & Talbot 2006,p. 270.
  29. ^Wink 2002,p. 161.
  30. ^Wink 2002,p. 162.
  31. ^Wink 2002,p. 164.
  32. ^Zakeri 1995,p. 123, 196.
  33. ^abZakeri 1995,p. 196.
  34. ^Wink 2002,p. 158.
  35. ^abʿAthamina 1998,p. 373.
  36. ^abcZakeri 1995,p. 195.
  37. ^abWink 2002,p. 142.
  38. ^Wink 2002,p. 160, 172.
  39. ^abHaug & Judd 2023,p. 222.
  40. ^"Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume VIII (Ned-Sam): [Fasc. 131-146a]",Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume VIII (Ned-Sam),Brill, 1998-05-28, p. 138,ISBN978-90-04-09834-3,retrieved2023-12-07
  41. ^abcCodoñer 2016,p. 197.
  42. ^Bianquis 1998,p. 97.
  43. ^Malik 2020,p. 44.
  44. ^Wink 2002,p. 161: Some Jat freemen became famous in the Islamic world, as for instance Abu Hanifa (699-767? ).
  45. ^Malik 2020,p.44:...Abu Hanifa (699–767), the founder of the Hanafi school of law, who was of Jat stock, most likely descending from those early prisoners sent to Iraq..
  46. ^Schacht;Lewis;Pellat,eds. (1998-05-28).Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume II (C-G): [Fasc. 23-40, 40a].Brill. p. 489.ISBN978-90-04-07026-4.Imām al-Awzā'i was of Sindhī origin and his forefathers might have belonged to those Jāts who fell into the hands of Muhammad b. al-Kāsim and were sent as prisoners of war to 'lrāk.
  47. ^abcBosworth 1976,p. 170.
  48. ^Haug & Judd 2023,p. 225.
  49. ^Haug & Judd 2023,p. 225–226.
  50. ^abBosworth 1976,p. 34.
  51. ^Ehsan Yarshater 2015,p. 7–10.
  52. ^abcdefBosworth 2012.
  53. ^Kennedy 2006,p. 98.
  54. ^abAnooshahr 2008,p. 77.
  55. ^Maclean 1984,p. 134.
  56. ^Daftary 2011,p. 29.
  57. ^ab"The eclipse of the 'Abbasid caliphate; original chronicles of the fourth Islamic century: Amedroz, Henry Frederick, 1854-1917"(PDF).Archive.org.
  58. ^abWink 2002.
  59. ^Matras, Yaron (1996)."Domari"(PDF).In Brown, Keith (ed.).Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.Oxford:Elsevier.
  60. ^Westphal-Hellbusch & Westphal 1964,p. 10.
  61. ^Al-Zahery, Nadia; et al. (2011)."In search of the genetic footprints of Sumerians: a survey of Y-chromosome and mtDNA variation in the Marsh Arabs of Iraq".BMC Ecology and Evolution.11.288.doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-288.PMC3215667.PMID21970613.

Bibliography

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