GHILJI, a tribe in Afghanistan, which, with the Abdali, forms the bulk of the Afghanistan population. The Ghilji occupy the principal por tion of the country between Kandahar and Ghazni, and are the most numerous of the Afghan tribes. They are also found between Farrah and Herat, and again between Kabul and Jalalabad. The Ghilji between Kandahar and Ghazni comprise the great families of the Ohtak, the Thoki, the Tereki, and the Andari, with their subdivistons. The Olitak aro acknowledged the principal of the Ghilji families, and in the period of their supre macy furnished the sovereign. At the present day the Ghilji have two great sections, the Ohtak or Hotaki, with four clans, Sakzai, Tunzai, Sat Khel, and Shari ; and tho Turan or Tokhi, with nine clans, Shah Alam, Shah-u-Din, Kalu, Miranzai, Jalalzai, Bakarzai, Pir, Likaki, and Amir-khan. Tho Ghilji are both au agricultural and a pastoral people, dwelling in villages and forts, as well a.s in tents. They are a remarkably tall fine race of men, with marked features, tho Mask and Thoki peasantry being probably un surpassed, in the mass, by any other Afghan tribe for commanding statue and strength. They are brave and warlike, but the generality of them have a sternness of disposition amounting to ferocity, and their brutal manners aro not discountenanced by their chiefs. Some of tho inferior Ghilji are soviolent in their intercourse with strangers, that they can scarcely be considered in tho light of human beings ; while no lang,nage can describe the terrors of a transit through their country, or the indignities which are to bo endured.
Although the Ghilji are considered and call theinselves Afghans, and, moreover, employ Clio Puslatu or Afghan dialect, the name is evidently a inoditication of Khalji or Khilaji, that of a great Turki tribe, inentioned by Sharif-ml-Din in his history of Timur. The testimony of Ferislita, while clearly distinguishing the Gliilji tribes from the Afghans, also establishes the fact of their early conversion to Mahomedanisin. Still there is a
tradition that they were at some time Christians of the Armenian and Georgian churches. This tradition is known to the Armenians of Kabul ; and they instance, as corroborating it, the practice observed by the Ghilji of embroidering the front parts of the gowns or robes of their women and children with figures of the cross, and the custom of their housewives, who, previous to forming their dough into cakes, cross their arms over their breasts, and make the sign of the cross on their foreheads after their own manner.
East of Ghazni, in tho province of Zurmat, Etre the Sunman Khel Ghilji, exceedingly numerous, and notorious for their habits of violence and rapine. These have no positive connection with the Thoki or other tribes, neither have they ono acknowledged head, but are governed by their resp&tive malik, who aro independent of each other. Dost Muhammad Khan reduced them to the condition of tributaries, after having destroyed a multitude of their castles. Ghilji girls from the age of eight to twenty are not much veiled, but they twist their hair, and tie it like a cake, which hangs over their forehead, and a little below their eyebrows. The centre of the lock (or hairy cake) is adorned by a gold or silver coin, which in black hair shines prettily. This is the sign of virginity amongst the Glailji. The women allovr their twisted locks to hang upon their cars, and even as far as their arms.
At present (1879) they appear to be a nation of families submitting to their natural heads, and having the patriarchal institutions nearly com plete. But in the year 1707, Mir Wais, a leading Ghilji at Kandahar, was seized by tho Persian governor and sent to Isfahan, where, however, he ingratiated himself, and was allowed to return. On his arrival he raised a rebellion, defeated tho Persian governor, and before his death in 1715, after a reign in Kandahar of eight years, repulsed three armiea sent against him.