History

In Addition to a common homeland, Baluch history also serves as a strong cohesive force that brands the Baloch together through a set of shared historical memories based on their common historical experience. The Baluch nation nationalists express a strong sense of pride in their past for having successfully defended and preserved their past for having successfully defended and preserved their national and cultural identity against powerful foreign adversaries throughout history. Therefore, they interpret Baluch history as a history of a perennial common struggle against surrounding empires and empire builders and view the contemporary Baluch national movement as the latest phase of this continuing struggle. They are still fresh with the memories of the pre-division era in Baluchistan known as the BALOCHI DOURA (era) (approximately 1400-1948 A.D.) when the Baluch not only enjoyed self-rile, but also resisted successfully the relentless foreign invasion for the permanent annexation of Balochistan into the surrounding empires, The essence of the Balochi perception of their history is captured best by the following observation by Selig Harrison,

Reliving their past endlessly in books, magazines, and folk ballads, the Baluch accentuate the positive. They revel in gory details of ancient battles against Persians, Turks, Arabs, Tartars, Hindus, And other adversaries, focusing on how valiantly their generals fought rather than on whether the Baluch won or lost. They point to the heroes who struggled to throw off the yoke of more powerful oppressors and minimize the role of the Quisling who sold out the Baluchi cause. Above all they seek to magnify the achievements of their more successful rulers. (14)  

Therefore, it is important to investigate the Baluchi accounts of their   history not only to place the contemporary Balochi national movement in its historical perspective, but also to understand some of the historical explanations and interpretation used by the nationalists to justify their present national claims.

Historians have not been able to determine with certainty whether the Baluch are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the land such as the Indo-Aryan tribes who arrived there around the middle of the second millennium B.C. ancient gedrosians and Saks, or whether they superseded them and inherited their legacy after having migrated to the land from the southern shores of the Caspian sea as is assumed by linguists and most historians. As far as the pre-Islamic era is concerned, the only references to the Baloch under this name are found in firdausi’s Shah Name (the Book of kings), the great Iranian national epic of the tenth century. The book for the most part deals with pre-Islamic Iranian mythology, but its last chapters recount the events and personalities of the sassanian period, thus purported to be historical. The Baluchis are mentioned in both sections. They are described as forming part of the armies of the mythical Persian kings’ kai kaus and kai Khusrow in the Iranian wars against Turanians. As dames has pointed out, “this means no more than that their name occurred among others in the ballads or legends which Firdausi drew upon”. (15)  The shah Name’s description of Balochi warriors is noteworthy,

After gustasm came Ashkash… His army was from the wanderers of the koch and Baluch, intent on war and with exalted cockscomb crests, whose back none in the world ever saw. Nor was one of their fingers bare of armour, His banner bore the figure of tiger. (16)

Historically, however, the allusion to the Perso-Baluchi wars under the Sassanian kings, Ardashir (presumably the founder of dynasty) and chosroes Anosarvan (531-578 A.D) is more relevant. According to the Shah Name, Ardashir had campaigned to subdue the Baloch, but in vain. Then, the Baloch are described to have laid waste the country once again during the reign of Chosroes Anosarvan. This news and the story of the failure of his predecessor enraged the emperor whose troops succeeded in controversy between the contemporary actual passages as it is. Says the shah Name, 

He [Anosarvan] went his way, and tidings came to him,

“The world is wasted by the Balochis, Till from exceeding slaughter, pillaging

And harrying the earth is overwhelmed, But greater ruin cometh from Gilan,

And curses banish blessings.” Thence the heart of Nausherwan, the shah, was sorrwfull,

And grief commingled with his joy. He said to the Iranians,”The Alans and Hind were,

In their terror of our scimitars, like silk. Now our own realm is turned against us,

Shall we hunt lions and forego the sheep?” One said to him, “The garden hath no rose,

Without a thorn, O king! So too these marches, Are ever troublesome and treasure-wasting.

As for Baloch the glorious Ardashir tried it with all his veteran officers,

But all his stratagems and artifices, His feints, his lab ours, arms, and fighting failed.

And though the failures even to himself.” The story of the (failure) enraged the shah,

Who went upon his way towards the Baluch, Now when he drew near those lofty mountains?

He went around them with his retinue, And all his host encircled them about,

And barred the passage e’en to wind and ant, The troops, like ants and locusts, occupied

The mountains-outskirts to the sandy deserts.  A heralds went his rounds about the host,

Proclaiming from the mountains, caves, and plains, “whene’er the Balochis are seeking food

If they be warriors and carrying arms, However many or however few,

Let not a single one of them escapes.” The troops, ware of the anger of them escape.”

The troops, ware of the anger of the shah, stopped every outlet with their hors and food;

Few of the Baluchis or none survived, No women, children, warriors, were left.

All of them perished by the scimitar, And all their evil doings had an end,

The world had quiet from their ravagings, No Baluchi seen or unseen remained,

While on their mountains, so it came to pass, The herds thenceforward strayed without a guard;

“Alike on waste and lofty mountain-top. The sheep required no shepherd all the folk

Around thought nothing of past sufferings, And looked on vale and mountain as their home.”

“The wolf’s clases grow too short reach the sheep , World without end strife with Baloch had raged,

And filled the cities with distress and anguish. But by the grace, Nausherwan, the sky

Had changed its use and favors.” (17)

Whatever the historical relevance of the Shah names passage, it remains a source of contention and various interpretations between the Baloch and Persian nationalists. Marri has taken it as evidence that the Baluchis must have a mighty emperor as Anosarvan rejoices on his victory over them, thus, “not a band of robber-tribes and troublemakers, as maliciously described by some contemporary Irani historians and ill-informed western travelers.”(18) Sarder khan Baluch, another Balochi historian, views the passage as a further indication underlining the historical animosity between the two sides, thus scorning the emperor for his heavy-handled campaign against the Baloch. (19)

Consequently, Anosarvan’s military campaigns against the Baluch are thought by some scholars to have played a major role in the latter events the Baloch deseted the Sassanian army and joined the ranks of the Muslims during the Arab invasion and conquest of Iran in the seventh century or eighty-five years later. Naser Askari, and Iranian writer, points to the “atrocities” committed against the Baloch by the aforementioned emperor as the likely cause that led a reputed Balochi general Siah Sawar Baloch to abandon other Sassanian generals and join the invading Arabs. (20) On the other hand, Bahar, an Iranian historian and poet laureate of the Reza Shah Pahlavi, attributes the Persian defeat on the shustar fron (al-Sus) to the treachery of Baluchi general siah sawar, whom he identifies as genral Aswara of Beladhuri, (21)  a renowned Arab chronicler of the ninth century. In response to Bahar, Sardar Khan Baluch treats him as “the Baluchi hero,” while Marri takes bahar’s opinion as a sign of “his personal dislike for Baloches,” observing that the nationalist poet “must have been influenced by the events of his own time when late Reza Shah pahlavi, his master, was feversidhly engaged in subduing the Irani Baluch. “(22) These two episodes are mentioned here to illustrate how historical events, no matter how controversial, have become the subject of nationalist interpretation, which in turn affect and, to some extent, shape the national perceptions on all sides.

To turn to the Islamic period, the earliest account of the Baluchis are scattered in the works of the tenth century Muslims geographers, of whom masudi (943 A.D) Istakhri (951 A.D.) and Ibn Haukal are the most renowned; while in the succeeding centuries the choronicles of Idrisi, Yakut, and many other medieval authors shed some light on the history of the people. The Baluches are referred to as “Balus,” or “Bulus” and are mentioned together with “Qufs” as “Qufs and Balus” while the medival Persian sources call them “koch  and Baluch” (koch-va-Baluch”) as mentioned in shah Name, yet whether the two words are synonymous or refer to two different people has not yet been established by historians. From these sources we learn that by the late tenth century the Baluch were living in eastern Kerman, western Makuran; that they wre organized into many tribes each under its own chief; that they were occupied manly with stock breeding; and that they were also noted for their marauding activities. However, Idrisi and Yakut do not confirm the last account and describe them as a rich and prosperous people who owned numerous cattle and did not plunder caravans. (23)

The final Aran conquest of Makuran appears to have been effected by the Umawid general Muhammad bin Qasim, the country was ruled by Arab governors at least until the late tenth century when the central rule of the Abasid Caliphate began decline. The Arabs established large garrisons and naval fortifications in the country, turning it into a major staging point for their conquests in sind and beyond. Parallel to this, Arab trade centers expanded in Makuran towns, reviving the old trade routes going from India a to Persia trough Makuran. It is also known that many Arab tribes gradually settled in the country, particularly in coastal Makuran. (24)

The Period of Islamic rule under discussion constitutes the period of direct Arab rule over Makuran that lasted until the close of the tenth century. Not only did the Baloch gradually accept Islam and become united under its banner during this period, but they were also relived from the constant political and military pressure from Persia in the north. Moreover, they benefited materially from the growth of trade and commerce which flourished in towns and ports under the Arabs, reviving the old sea and land-based trade routes that linked India to Persia and Arabia through western Makuran. These developments appear to have played a significant role in enabling the Baluch to from large-scale tribal federations that led to their gradual political and military supremacy in the territories now forming Baluchistan during the period of the tenth through thirteenth centuries

These events appear to have contributed to the disintegration of cln organization and the formation of large-scale tribal groupings which were more effective not only in dealing with powerful northern adversaries mentioned earlier, but also for consolidating their power over Makuran during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Dames and other students of Balochi folklore and genealogical legends refer to the period between the eleventh and twelfth centuries as the time corresponding with the lifetime of the legendary ancestor of the Baluchis, Mir Jalal Khan, who is said to have headed all the Baluch, then forming “one body” divided into forty-four tribes or boloks. He left four sons-Rind, Lashari, Hot, Korai-and one daughter-Jato_who are eponyms of large Baluchi tribes to this day.  Gankovsky confirms this notion by asserting that “it is evidently during this period that the major tribal unions which formed the nucleus of the Baluchi feudal nationality in the sequal did arise.” He adds that “several small feudal states” also flourished there including turan with its capital Khuzdar in eastern Baluchistan, Kanabil, present-day Gandava, kej in western Makuran and others. (28)

There is evidence to suggest that the country was relatively more prosperous in medieval times than it was during the last few centuries. Saniu-al-Doula, an Iranian geographer, asserts that iron, steel, sugar, copper, and other metals were exported from Balochistan to India, Khurasan, and Kabul during the Middle Ages. (29) Relying on twelfth- century sources, sir Percy Sykes states that during the region of Toghrul Shah Seljuk of Kerman the duty on silk from Makuran was 30,000 dinars, while the duties collected only from the port of Tiz were half that amount. (30) In wetern Baluchistan, the towns of Bampur, Dizal, Kasarkand, Kej, And pajgor formed major centers for cultural and economic life. Maraco Polo also visited the country, referred to as Kesmacoran, during his travels the Orient and gave the following account.

“This is a great kingdom with a king and language of its own. Some of the people are idolaters, but most are scarceness. They live by trade and industry. They have rice and wheat in profusion. The staple foods are rice, meat and milk; merchants come here in great numbers by sea and by land with a variety of merchandise and export the products of kingdom. There is nothing else worthy of note. (31)

However, the Mongol invasion in the mid-thirteenth century followed by the Timur forays into the country in the next century resulted in the decline of agricultural and the breakdown of the irrigation systems, forcing large-scale tribal migration from Makuran farther south and northeast where they entered Sind and Punjab in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. (31)    <--back to index---