BRAHUI, a tribal confederacy in Baluchistan, inhabiting the Brahui hills from the Bolan pass to Cape Monze on the Arabian sea. The tribal speech is a northerly outlier of the Dravidian lan guages of peninsular India, but the tribes are all Muslim by creed, organized on Baluch lines and owing a loose allegiance to the Khan of Kalat, the "Fort," which has long been knit up with the confed eracy's destinies. Recent investigations limit the true Brahuis to about one-eleventh of the confederates. This nucleus comprises eight clans which claim descent, like the Baluch, from Mir Hamza, the Prophet's uncle, who in Islamic tradition left no issue. First of these eight stands the Ahmadzai, the ruling clan, and last the Rodeni, of semi-servile descent. To this nucleus were affiliated Baluch, Pathan, Persian, Jatt, aboriginal and war captive tribes, each so named rather from the reputed origin of its ruling set than from the descent of its various elements. The Pathan clan of the Bangulzai, e.g., comprises Rind-Baluch and Arab clans. And even the true Brahui tribes are of equally mixed origin. Historical evi dence only begins with the capture of Kalat by the Moguls and its recovery with Pathan aid, in the 15th or 16th century. In cessant warfare with Baluch and Jatt ensued, but eventually, in the I 7th century, Mir Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadzai, welded or rewelded the various tribes into a confederacy which, under Nasir the Great, who took the title of Khan, attained its zenith in the next century (see BALUCHISTAN : History). On that ruler's death in 1795 anarchy revived and the confederacy disintegrated, the Pathan elements taking a full share in its disruption, but closely followed by the Baluch and Persians. Modern Brahui his tory is one of constant fissure, and before long it may be hard to say what constitutes a Brahui. Physically the Brahui is described as a smaller man than his Baluch or Pathan neighbours, but sturdy, with the round face and blunt features of the Dravidian. Dark brown in complexion he is a hardy nomad, dwelling in tents of goats' hair and living on the produce of his herds. Sunnites by sect, the Brahuis are not so fanatical or so turbulent as the Pathans, more trustworthy but as avaricious. Women are not strictly se cluded. Social observances are at bottom Indian but thickly over laid with Muslim rites.
See Sir Denys Bray, Census Report of India, iv.; Baluchistan (Calcutta, 1913) and The Life-History of a Brahui (London, 1913) .