TAJAK, an Iranian race met with in largest numbers in the khanate of Bokhara, and in Badalchshan, but many have settled in the towns of Khokand, Kliiva, Chinese Tartary, and Afghan istan. Tajak is a term of doubtful origin, rather loosely applied to the settled race in the countries ruled over by the Turk, Uzbak, Hazara, Afghan, and Brahui, where the Turki, Puslitti, Brahni, and 1.3aluchi languages are spoken, but whose vernacular language is Persian. The terms Tajak and Parsivan are indeed used indifferently both in Afghanistan and Turkestan to the race whose vernacular language is Pemian.
Tajak is applied by the Uzbak and Armenians to the Iranian population in Khiva, Bokhara, Kho rasan and Badakhshan. In Persia proper, the Tajak is so termed in contradistinction to the I liyat, and throughout Persia the term is applied to cultivator, to distinguish Ilitn from an in habitant of towns. On the Oxua, a Tajak used RS opposed to an Uzhalc ; in Afghaniatan, as opposed to an Afghan or Hazara. The term for this race in l3okhara is Sart ; in Afghanistan, Dehgan ; in Baluchistan, Delmar. On the Kabul river, they aro called Kabuli. In Seistan, tho mass of tho population is Tajak, and many of them dwell in reed huts on the great lake, and live by fishing and fowling. The Tajnk of Badakh shan possessed that country before the inroads of the Uzbak and Turk. They are purer Iranian than other Tajak. They are a wild race, living in the little mountain glens, in villages surrounded by gardens. The Tajak of Badtiklishan are not so handsome as the men of Chitral, their dress is like that of the Uzbak.
The Tajak of Bokham have occupied the country from unknown times, and were forcibly converted to Muhammadanism before the close of the 1st century of the Ilijira. In Bokhara they are a cowardly, avaricious, untruthful, faithless race ; tall, fair men, with black eyes and hair. Khani koff attributes to the Tajaks the greatest purity of race. Rawlinson allows this distinction to the Vakhani, the wild mountaineers of Badakhshan. In Central Asia itself, the Galtcha are regarded as the oldest Iranians of the land.
The term is from Taj, a crown, the fire worshipper's head-dress ; but the Tajak does not so style himself, and regards the term as deroga tory. The Tajak is given to agriculture and trade, but fond of literary pursuits and polish, 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-Islamic times, they have con tinued their previous exertions in mental culture, and, notwithstanding the oppression which they have sustained from a foreign power, have Chit ised their conquerors. Most of the celebrities in the field of religious knowledge and belles-lettres have been Tajak ; and at the present day the most conspicuous of the Mullah and Ishan arc Tajak, and the chief men of the Bokhara and Khiva court are Tajak. 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 longer face and a higher forehead ; but these changes he attributes to frequent intermarriages between Sart men and Persian slaves. In Central Asia, the warrior, the shepherd, the priest and the layman, youth and old age, equally affect poetry and reciting of tales. The literature of the Multammadans or settled nations, brought from the south, is filled with exotic metaphor and illus tration. In KItiva, I3okharrt, and Khokand, the Mullah and Ishan have writtea much on religions subjects, but their mystical allusions are beyond the reach of the people. The Uzbak, the Turko man, and ICirghiz esteem music as their highest pleasure, and often break out son,g, siDging soft minor airs. The Uzbak poetry on religious sub jects i3 exotic, derived from Persian or Arabic sources. The Tartar compositions are tales, and relate to heroic deeds, similar to the romances of Europe.— Vambery's Bokhara, pp. 8,338 ; stone's Cat/bill; Ferrier's Journey.