The Taemuri dwell at Dorian and K uh'sun, on the western boundary of Herat, and in the villages and towns situated east of Iran, from Tarbat Shaikh Jam as far as Khaf. About a thousand of their families dwell near Herat.
The Taemuni dwell in the Jolgha-i-Herat, from Kerrukh to Sabzawar, the few who have extended to Farrah being styled by the Afghans, Parsivan. Each member of the Char Aimak knows no greater enemy than the Afghan, and all attempts to form Afghan colonies amongst them have failed. The Taemuni are of a wild, warlike nature, though agricultural.
The Firoz Kohi, a small number of people, about 8000, dwell on the steep hill N.E. of Kala Nao, and from their inaccessible position afflict their whole neighbourhood with their robbing and plundering. Kala Sao, on the summit of the mountain, and the fortified places of Darz-i-Cutch and Chakaaran, are considered similar to whole nests of the BakIi tiari and Luri in the environs of Isfahan. They have a resemblance to the Hamra, but their forehead, chin, complexion, and figure are leas Turanian. They are decidedly Iranian. They take their name, the Firoz Kohi, from Teheran. Timur settled them by force in Mazandaran, but they soon returned to their own country. They have a few cattle, and they sow a little, and plunder the caravans travelling on the Maimani road, or make inroads on the scattered tents of the Jam shidi.
Jamshidi are the only tribe of eastern Iranians who are exclusively nomades. They derive their descent from Janishid, and moved out of Segestan to the shores of the Murghab, which they have occupied from pre-historic times. They live in the neighbourhood of the Saler and Sarik Turkoman, and they use the round conical tent of the Tartars, surrounding it with felt and a reed matting ; and their clothing and food are Turkoraan, as also their occupation, for they are as great man stealers. They excel the other Aimak as horsemen, and for a chapao, band themselves with IIICII of Herat or with the tribes of Turkomans. It was this cause that led Allah Kuli Khan to transport them from Khiva to the banks of the Oxus, after he had conquered them with the allied Sarik. After a residence of 12 years, they fled, and returned to the town of Murghab. The Jamshidi is polite in word and manner. They still retain parts of the Zoroastrian faith, reverence fire, and pitch their tent door to the east.
The Tajak is Iranian. He is met with in largest number in the khanate of Bokhara and in Bivitikh shan, but many have settled in the towns of Khokand, Khiva, Chinese Tartary, and Afghan istan ; some even to the south, in Baluchistan.
The Tajak is of a good middle height, has broad, powerful frame of bones, and especially wide shoulder bones ; but they diverge from the Iran ian ; they have the Turanian wider forehead, thick cheeks, thick nose, and Large mouth. The Tajak originally came from the sources of the Oxus in the steppe of Pamir. The term is from Taj, a crown, the fire-worshipper's head-dress. The Tajak, however, does not so style himself, but regards the term as derogatory. The Turks style the Tajak, Sart. The Tajak is covetous, unwarlike, and given to agriculture and trade, but fond of literary pursuits, and polished ; and it is owing to their preponderance in Bokhara that that city has been raised to the position of the headquarters of Central Asiatic civilisation, for there, from pre-Muhammadan times, they have continued their previous exertions in mental cul ture, and, notwithstanding the oppressions which they have sustained from a foreign power, have civilised their conquerors. Most of the celebrities in the field of religious knowledge and belle lettres have been Tajaks ; and at the present day the most conspicuous of the Mullah and Ishan are Tajaks, and the chief men of the Bokhara and Khiva court are Tajaks, or, as the Turks style the race, Sart. Professor Vambery considers the Tajak and Sart identical, but he recognises that in their physiognomic peculiarities the Sart differs greatly from the Tajak, being more slender, with a larger face, and a higher forehead; but he attri butes these changes to frequent intermarriages between Sart men and Persian slaves. The Tajak have two branches,—the Galcha and the Tajak of the plains. The Galcha inhabit some of the mountainous districts of Badakhshan, Wakhan, Shighnan, Karatagin, and other Hill States to the east of the khanate of Bokhara. They are also said to be found on the Upper Zar-afshan, in the mountain S.W. of Tashkand, and to the E. of Panjkand ; and in the latter locality they are called Karatagin. Some, in the secluded alpine valleys of Afghanistan, have preserved their Irani type and language better than the Tajak of the west, who have been exposed to the waves of the Turkish and Mongol conquerors, and who, though obviously Persian, have more or less the heavy cheeks, thick nose, large mouth, and wide fore head of the Turk race.