Aimaq people

"Aymāq" redirects here. For other uses, see Aimaq (disambiguation).
Aimaq
ایماق
Total population
1,593,418 (2021)
4% of the population of Afghanistan[a][2][3][4]
Languages
Aimaq dialect of Persian[5]
Religion
Predominantly Sunni Islam[6]
Related ethnic groups
Hazaras, Tajiks, Pashtuns[5]

The Aimaq, Aimaq Persians[7][8] (Persian: ایماق, romanized: Aimāq), or Chahar Aimaq (چهار ایماق), also transliterated as Aymaq, Aimagh, Aimak, and Aymak, are a collection of Sunni and mostly Persian[9] nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.[10] They live mainly in the central and western highlands of Afghanistan, especially in Ghor and Badghis. Aimaqs were originally known as chahar ("four") Aymaqs: Jamshidi, Aimaq Hazara, Firozkohi, and Taymani.[11] The Timuri, which is a separate tribe but is sometimes included among Aimaqs, which is known as Aimaq-e digar ("other Aimaq").[12]

The Aimaq speak several subdialects of the Aimaq dialect of the Persian language, but some southern groups of Taymani, Firozkohi, and northeastern Timuri Aimaqs have adopted the Pashto language.[13]

  1. ^ "Population Matters". 3 March 2016.
  2. ^ World Population Review (19 September 2021). ""Afghanistan Population 2021"".
  3. ^ "Distribution of Afghan population by ethnic group 2020". statista.com. 20 August 2021.
  4. ^ "Afghan Ethnic Groups: A Brief Investigation". reliefweb.int. 14 August 2011.
  5. ^ a b Janata, A. "AYMĀQ". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). United States: Columbia University.
  6. ^ "Aimaq". Minority Rights Group. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Aimaq | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  8. ^ PeopleGroups.org. "PeopleGroups.org - Aimaq of Afghanistan". peoplegroups.org. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  9. ^ "AYMĀQ – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  10. ^ Tom Lansford -A bitter harvest: US foreign policy and Afghanistan 2003 Page 25 "The term Aimaq means "tribe" but the Aimaq people actually include several different ethnic groups. The classification has come to be used for a variety of nonaligned nomadic tribes"
  11. ^ Spuler, B. (2012-04-24), "Aymak", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Brill, retrieved 2023-07-14
  12. ^ Vogelsang, Willem (2002). The Afghans. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 37–. ISBN 9780631198413. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  13. ^ Vogelsang, Willem (2002). The Afghans. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 18. ISBN 0631198415. Retrieved 23 January 2012.


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