~The Gypsy (Zutoot) Situation in Oman.~
It has been suggested in my previous posts that Gypsies from India wandered about in Oman randomly doing sword manufacturing for commissions using a wandering forge system.
Evidence is almost impossible to verify, though, there are a few exceptional accounts from those that can remember or by stories passed down the ages. It is tantalizing that Gypsies from Hyderabad could have been involved.
The following skills were practiced in Oman by Zutoot (Gypsies) from India who had dark skin, danced and played music, stole everything , moved about from place to place, used an unintelligible language and had no apparent religion. Their skills viz;
1. Tinning.
2. Fixing broken metal objects.
3. Sword and knife makers fixers and sharpeners.
4. Medical Practitioners.
Tinning. Virtually every copper and brass vessel, plate, tray, spoon, ladle and coffee pot was traditionally tinned. This was normally done by drenching the object in molton tin and draining off the superfluous metal. It was done to protect from verdigris poisoning.
Fixing broken metal objects. Many pots even today can be seen to have crenelated repairs and resoldering repairs etc..Far less expensive than a new item repairing was standard practice.
Sword and Knife makers, fixers and sharpeners. It is noted from the Cultural Heritage of Oman that swords were said to be made on commission by Gypsies. Local dignatories can remember Zutoot making basic knives on the Buraimi Oasis and some apparently still exist today and are sought. National Documents Research Abu Dhabi have also given similar evidence.
Medical Practitioners. This was a cross between herbal medicine superstitious belief and accepted socio-religious structures; Zutoot were experts at Circumcision. They knew herbal cures.
Timeline. All sources indicate that frequent visits by Zutoot faded out between 30 and 40 years ago which ties in with events in Oman since most of the above activities became rapidly obsolete after 1970 . Before that there were no doctors, clinics or hospitals and modern items like plastic vessels and pots had not yet appeared. Work for a few bands of wandering tinkers would have been quite plentiful. Once Oman had been injected into the late 20th Century many of the ancient ways vanished. The Zutoot went out on that ticket…it seems.
To what extent did Gypsies make weapons in Oman? No written record exists but it may be assumed that a few swords were made; perhaps dozens but not hundreds. Apparently no examples exist/have yet been discovered today. It is more likely that they were repairers of broken handles and blade sharpeners but some sword making cannot be ruled out. They may have been from Hyderabad, therefore, expert swords makers, however, I suggest they were of small importance but fascinating in the general picture of Omani Swords and their development.
A fairly vast quantity of information exists on Gypsy history and I have included that in my notes though those have been largely plagiarized from the web. I have outined in
Bold Print the relevant skills. All of the detail concerns their history in Europe and parts of the Islamic world though nothing exists from Oman. It makes interesting reading especially and in addition; the gunpowder weaponry in which they were engaged.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
Notes; Web References:
http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/history/early-european-history-first-discrimination/ottoman-empire
[URL=http://www.hinduwisdom.info/War_in_Ancient_India.htm (for all things India)[/URL]
Gypsies
Artillery was introduced into Europe by the Roma (Gyspsies), who were none else than the Jats and Rajputs of India.
This has been revealed in a study by a reputed linguist, Weer Rajendra Rishi, after an extensive tour of Roma camps in Europe.
He explains that the Romas, who are the Gypsies of Europe, also taught the use of artillery to Europeans. These Roma belonged to the Jat and Rajput clans who left India during the invasions by Mohamud Ghaznavi and Mohammad Ghori between the 10th and 12th centuries of the Christian era.
He says the use of artillery was known in Asia, notably in India, from time immemorial, while it was introduced to the Europeans much later.
Mr. Rishi reveals that the Roma had helped different countries of Europe in making artillery. “Evidence of this is given as early as 1496 by a mandate of that date granted by Wadislas, King of Hungary, wherein it is said that Thomas Polgar, chief of 25 tents of wandering Gypsies had, with his people,
made at Funfkirchen musket-balls and other ammunition for Bishop Sigismond.
“In 1546 when the English were holding Boulogne against the French the latter took the help of two experienced Romas of Hungary to make great number of cannons of greater caliber than earlier guns. The Hungarian Roma of the 16th century possessed fuller knowledge of fabricating artillery than the races of Western Europe.
There were also records that the Roma were employed as soldiers by some countries of Europe. Dr. W. R. Rishi, is the author of the book, Roma - The Panjabi Emigrants in Europe, Central and Middle Asia, the USSR, and the Americas - published 1976. Mr. Rishi is a well-known linguist of India and was awarded the honour of 'Padmashri' by the President of India in 1970 for his contributions in the field of linguistics. He is also the Founder Director of the Indian Institute of Romani Studies.
THE TAX REGISTER OF SULTAN SULEIMAN I THE MAGNIFICENT
1522-1523, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent, another tax register was prepared, entitled “Comprehensive roll of the income and taxation of the Gypsies of the Province of Rumelia”. This vast register consisted of 347 pages and specifically dealt with the “Gypsies”. It recorded the number of “Gypsy” households classified according to tax communities, situated in nine judicial districts encompassing big parts of what is now the Balkan peninsula. This is a unique document with a huge quantity of data about the “Gypsy” population in the Balkans in the beginning of the 16th century.
The register recorded 10,294 Christian and 4,203 Muslim “Gypsy” households (in the total a further 471 widows’ households were included). Apart from these, there were a further 2,694 Muslim households in the “Gypsy sanjak”. According to the same calculations, counting each household having an average of 5 people, this made a total of 66,000 “Gypsies” in the Balkans, of which about 47,000 were Christian.
Further calculations made on the basis of this register are also of great interest. According to these, a total of 17,191 “Gypsy” households – in what became the territory of the present-day Balkan states – were distributed as follows: Turkey – 3,185, Greece – 2,512, Albania – 374, former Yugoslavia – 4,382 and Bulgaria 5,701, while the exact locality of 1,037 households is uncertain. The Ottoman tax registers are also a source for understanding the religious confessions of the Roma. Generally speaking, summarising the data yet available from the tax registers, it can be said that Christian Roma predominated in the 15th and 16th centuries.
HOW THE ROMA EARNED THEIR LIVING
Roma in the Ottoman Empire worked in a range of occupations. In the tax register of 1522-1523 the “Gypsies” were most often recorded as musicians (military or “free lanced”), which is also confirmed by other sources. The musical instruments most commonly mentioned are the “zurnas” (a kind of oboe) and drums, but other instruments were also used (most often the tambourine and in more recent times different string instruments). Along with this, there is much evidence about “Gypsy” ensembles with dancers (mainly Roma and sometimes Jewish women).
In many places around the world the Roma are known as smiths. This occupation has a long tradition, and has been well preserved in the Balkans until the present day. Although during certain periods of time – as in the early 16th century – Roma blacksmiths and ironmongers were relatively uncommon in the Ottoman Empire, evidence concerning blacksmiths becomes very extensive from the 17th century onwards. [Ills. 9, 10]
In some cases the Roma abandoned their former occupations and became involved in agriculture, which they practiced within the framework of the existing feudal possessions of military officers. For example, in an inventory of fiefdoms in the Sofia region, dating to 1445-1446, there is detailed information on one belonging of Ali, which included the village of Dabijiv; it consisted of 15 complete and 3 widows’ households; the inventory categorically states that “they are Gypsies”.
Ill. 9
Closely related to the art of the “Gypsy” musicians was the development of some specialised forms of musical theatrical performances, for example, the puppet shows.
(from Marushiakova / Popov 2001, p. 66)
In the 1522-1523 tax register, among the recorded occupations of the “Gypsies”, are musicians, tinsmiths, farriers, goldsmiths, sword-makers, stove-makers, shoemakers, slipper-makers, makers of clout-nails, leather workers, tailors, carpet-makers, dyers, ironmongers, cheese-makers, butchers, kebab-makers, gardeners, muleteers, guards, prison guards, manservants, couriers, monkey-breeders, well-diggers and others, occasionally including army officers, janissaries, policemen, doctors, surgeons.
Perhaps the earliest record of Gypsy migrations is that recorded in the Shah Nameh (or King's Book) written about 1,000 AD. The Persian poet Firdawsi tells of twelve thousand itinerant minstrels, the Luri, sent to Persia from India about 420 AD, upon the request of a Sassanide prince, Bahram Gur, who intended that they should lighten the life of his hard-working people and charm away their misery. He provided them with grain and agriculture that they should support themselves. This plan was, of course, doomed to failure. The Luri used the supplies and made no attempt at farming. Furious at the waste, the prince sent them all away and condemned them to roam and earn a living by smuggling and begging. This account was confirmed in 940 A.D. by the Arab historian, Hamza.
THE “GYPSY SANJAK” – ROMA IN THE OTTOMAN ARMY
The “Law concerning the Gypsies in the Province of Rumelia” confirms the special administrative legal status and the extended rights to taxation self-government for those living in the “Gypsy sanjak”. Dating from 1541, there was also a special law concerning the leader of the “Gypsy sanjak”. This institution originated in Anatolia but was modified to suit the “Gypsies” in the Balkans. In this case “sanjak” is not used in the usual sense of a territorial unit but in the sense of a special category of the “Gypsy” population which was involved in a number of auxiliary activities in the service of the army.
Roma were, however, recruited into the actual army as well. There is evidence, dating from 1566, that some members of the taxable population who were called up for military duties were Muslim Roma. Estimations made on the basis of the data preserved shows that during the 16th and the 17th centuries between 15,000 and 20,000 “Gypsies” must have been involved in the Ottoman army undertaking various services, mostly auxiliary military duties.
THE “GYPSY SANJAK” – ROMA IN ARMY AUXILIARY SERVICES
The “Gypsies” included in the “Gypsy sanjak” were grouped into “myusellem” (platoons) and their auxiliary units. At the head of each “myusyulem” was the “mir-liva” (major), a non-“Gypsy”, who was in charge of four captains and eleven corporals. For their service the “myusellem” (altogether 543) received land properties, 449 in total, situated in 17 regions of Rumelia. The members of the “myusellem” undertook auxiliary military duties. The head of the “Gypsy sanjak” was based in the town of Kırk Klise (modern Kırklareli) in Eastern Thrace.
Processes of sedentarization in towns and villages were active among the Gypsy population in the Ottoman Empire. A new type of semi-nomadic lifestyle emerged (Gypsies with a specific residence and an active nomadic season within regional boundaries). Most certainly, these processes did not include all Gypsies, nevertheless they were rather active. Often Gypsies would break away from their traditional crafts and take up farming (e.g. 15th c. the village of Dabizhiv populated only by Gypsy households was registered in Sofia county) but usually they still practised some occupations and crafts.
The most popular occupations were village blacksmiths and town musicians. Registers from the years 1522-1523 listed also tinsmiths, farriers, goldsmiths, sword-makers, cutlers, shoe-makers, curriers, sieve-makers, butchers, guards, servants, etc.
It is hard to define which occupations were traditional and which were newly acquired, but the traditional professional specialisation of Gypsy groups seems to have been the case in most instances. Demographic information about Gypsies in Bulgarian lands in 17th and 18th c. is incomplete and quite unreliable. However, one thing is obvious - the tendency of Gypsies to change their religion: while in the 15th and 16th c. Christian Gypsies were the majority, the ratio changed drastically in the 19th c. in favour of Muslim Gypsies.
Known as Dakshini - Sikhs, they belong to the Sikligar, Vanjara and Lubana castes and live as gypsies in various states across India.
The history of Dakshini Sikhs dates back to the time of sixth Sikh guru Hargobind in 1595.
They made swords, spears and shields for the Sikh army.
Their descendents worked for the tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, and joined his army to fight against the Mughals.
In 1832, the Nizam of Hyderabad requested Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the ruler of Punjab, to send his army to ward off attacks from the neighbours. Ranjit Singh sent a force of 2,000 Sikh soldiers, mostly from these castes, many of whom stayed on in Hyderabad.
The Nizam gave jobs to these soldiers who came to be known as Dakshini Sikhs.