Navras नवरस نورس נברס

In Mango Land

2011-05-02T04:03:00.001-07:00

Virendra Singh Rawat, Business Standard, April 30, 2011

The people of Malihabad are as interesting as the Dussehri mangoes grown here.

The frown on his forehead eases a bit as the old man moves for the kill. Check and mate. “Shatranj sharpens your mental faculties, but makes you an addict too,” he tells anybody who cares to listen, evidently satisfied with the result of the game. This cannot be contested. After all, Padmashri Haji Kaleemullah Khan is the country’s best known expert on mangoes. You could call Khan the ultimate aam aadmi, to borrow from the Manmohan Singh government’s lexicon. He has developed innumerable new varieties of mango — 300 alone grow on a tree, in his orchard at Malihabad near Lucknow, which is at least 100 years old (one of these he calls Sachin and another Aishwarya). So, under the shade of mango trees laden with fruit, the peace disturbed only by the chirping of birds, his judgment on chess goes uncontested.

Of all the fruit we eat, mango perhaps is the only one indigenous to India. Soon, the mango crops, in all their splendid colours, flavours and shapes, will come to the market. First will be the Alphonso from the Ratnagiri belt in Maharashtra. Some time towards the end of May, Dussehri from Malihabad, long and sensuous, meant to be sucked and not cut, will hit the market. In a good year, it can fetch up to Rs 150 crore to the 8,000-odd mango growers of Malihabad. It is now sold to mango lovers in faraway Japan and United States also.

Malihabad, one of the three tehsils of Lucknow, has several claims to fame. It was home to Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi (born Shabbir Hasan Khan, he was close to Jawaharlal Nehru; but he migrated to Pakistan in 1958 because he feared Hindi would kill Urdu) and tennis champion Ghaus Mohammed. Shyam Benegal’s celluloid caper, Junoon, based on Ruskin Bond’s A Flight of Pigeons and featuring Shashi Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah and Nafisa Ali, was shot extensively in Malihabad. But it is the Dussehri mango that has put the village on the world map. The Malihabadi Dussehri was granted Geographical Indication registration in 2009. It now sits on the same exalted pedestal as Darjeeling Tea and Coorg Orange (Karnataka).
* * * * *
The first Dussehri was grown some 150 years ago. That tree still exists, and locals say it is “in good health”. There are about 2,000 nurseries here and almost 30,000 hectares under mango plantation. The economy of Malihabad runs on the Dussehri mango; it’s the lifeline of the 17,000 people who live here, most of them Afridi Pathans. Legend has it that their ancestors came from the north-west in pre-British times to work as soldiers of fortune in the armies of local rajas and nawabs. In peace time, they took to farming and plantations. During 1857, several locals joined the mutineers against the forces of East India Company.

The men here are sturdy and handsome, and talk fondly of the Pathan code of honour that revolves around revenge, hospitality and protection. One Malihabad hothead, Nabi Sher Khan, is known to have removed his eye to drive away the fly that was nagging it — Na rahegi aankh, na baithegi makkhi (Where will the fly sit when there is no eye), he is said to have told his people.

Now there is a new twist to their ancestry. According to research carried out by Navras Jaat Aafreedi, assistant professor in the Gautam Buddha University in Greater Noida, on the lost tribes of Israel, the Afridi Pathans have Jewish lineage. He started his research work in 2002 and, after his PhD from the Lucknow University in 2005, went to the Tel Aviv University in Israel for this work on the history of the Jewish people. “About half of the Pathans in Malihabad are Afridis who are one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel,” he says. He prefers to call them Israelite meaning someone related to the ancient times in modern-day Israel which came into existence as a nation for Jews only in 1948.

But that is the last of the worries of Khan and the other mango growers of Malihabad. Their problems are more mundane. “Production is falling every year and it is sad that aam(mango, pun for commoner) is becoming khaas (special). Falling production and the high prices will keep it away from the common man’s plate,” says Khan.
* * * * *
Last year, Uttar Pradesh had produced 3.5 million tones of mangoes. About 40 per cent of that came from Malihabad. But this year, the crop is smaller — experts reckon not more than 20 per cent of last year. “The flowering has been less and slower due to colder winter and pleasant April this year. The weather conditions have not been conducive,” says Khan. This means, Dussehri prices will stay high this summer. It may not be such a bad thing for the farmers. But they insist profits are down because of the drop in yield. Bugs and pests are regular spoilers here, so are parrots and squirrels.

A scientist in the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture at Lucknow says that mango trees have biennial bearing and a regular crop is always followed by ‘shy bearing’. But farmers here say that, if the weather doesn’t turn inclement, with proper care these trees can give a rich harvest every year. That way, they might end up over-flogging the trees. Scientists suggest the mango plantations in Malihabad be rejuvenated to secure future production. In the early part of the last century, almost 1,300 mango varieties are said to have been grown in Malihabad; this figure is down to 600-odd now. Apart from Dussehri, other famous varieties grown here include Chausa, Langda, Amrapali, Safeda, Husnara etc.

Some growers rue that the fall in yields has driven their new generation away from the plantations. In the lucrative West Asian market, Pakistan is giving Malihabad a run for its money because it transports its fruit by sea, which works out cheaper than Malihabad mangoes which are sent there by air. Some sharp farmers have even begun to ask for a subsidy from the government to run their plantations! “There are no facilities or incentives from the government for the mango belts,” All India Mango Growers’ Association President Insram Ali says. What is left unsaid is that farm income is not taxed in the country.

Some threats are imaginary, some real. Malihabad is only 30 km away from Lucknow. Like most other cities, the Uttar Pradesh capital, too, has seen an explosion in population. Many people dread the day when the lush green mango orchards of Malihabad may have to make way for concrete and glass high rises.

At the moment, it is business time in Malihabad. Any day now, several contractors will come to Malihabad, some local and many outsiders, some on bicycles and others on motorcycles and cars, to take part in the auction of the orchards. Nadeem Siddiqui of Shahnaz Exports is excited. Last year, he exported over 200 tonnes of mango to various destinations. “This year, I am planning to double my exports. I have already had trade enquiries from Japan; besides I will export mango to Dubai, West Asian nations and Singapore,” says he. The sweet taste of success, and money, is unmistakable.

A TV Interview of Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi

2011-04-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

Il segreto dei Talebani

2010-04-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

Cambridge, UK

I Taliban di Afghanistan e Pakistan sarebbero i discendenti delle antiche tribu israelite che centinaia di anni fa attraversarono l'Asia. Lo sostengono alcuni storici, tra i quali un giovane ricercatore indiano e pashtun (stessa etnia alla quale appartengono i Taliban), che ha raccolto diversi campioni di dna dei pashtun di Malihabad, nel nord dell'India. Ma loro, i pashtun, che sono musulmani, come hanno preso la notizia del legame genealogico con gli israeliti? Cristina Balotelli è andata a Malihabad, tra i pashtun dell'India, per raccogliere qualche reazione: http://www.radio24.ilsole24ore.com/main.php?articolo=segreto-talebani-asia-afghanistan-pakistan

„Talibai buvo žydai“. Mokslinis tyrimas gali pakeisti istoriją

2010-02-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

Delfi, 2010 vasario mėn. 8 d

Dabartiniai puštūnai, o tai reiškia, ir talibai, gali būti Efraimo genties atstovų palikuonys, teigia dienraštyje „La Repubblica” išspausdintame savo straipsnyje Alberto Stabile. Ar gali puštūnų tautybės atstovams priskiriami talibai būti prarastųjų žydų genčių palikuonys ir turėti europietiškų šaknų?

Atsakymą į šį klausimą stengiasi surasti Indijos mokslininkė Shahnaz Ali, kuri šiuo metu Haife esančiame prestižiniame Izraelio mokslo centre „Technion” atlieka tyrimą. Viena maža detalė - tyrimą finansuoja Izraelio užsienio reikalų ministerija, pažymi autorius.

Ne pirmą kartą Izraelio valdžia demonstruoja aiškų susidomėjimą etninėmis grupėmis ir tautybėmis, kurios didžiuojasi arba gali didžiuotis priklausančios judėjų tradicijai. Remiantis Izraelio grįžimo įstatymu, bet kuriam žydui, gyvenančiam bet kuriame pasaulio kampelyje, garantuojama teisė sugrįžti į tėvynę. Tuo pagrindu visai neseniai buvo patvirtintas planas dėl 8 tūkst. Bnei Menanshe – Menanše vaikų, priklausančių vienai iš taip vadinamų prarastųjų genčių, imigracijos iš Indijos organizavimo.

Vadovaujantis tradiciniu aiškinimu, 10 iš 12 genčių, gyvenusių Izraelio karalystėje, po VII a. pr. m. e. įvykusio asirų įsiveržimo buvo deportuoti ir pasklido po pasaulį. Jiems priskiriama ir Efraimo gentis, kurios atstovai apsigyveno dabartiniame šiaurės vakarų Pakistane, Rytų Afganistane ir Indijos mieste Malichabade.

Šiuo metu šioje teritorijoje gyvena puštūnai, kuriems priklauso ir nuosaikus prezidentas Hamidas Karzajus, jo provakarietiškų pažiūrų varžovas Abdallah Abdallah, o taip pat „studentai” – radikaliojo islamo kariai, talibai, vadovaujami mulos Omaro ir Osamos bin Ladeno, rašo straipsnio autorius.

Lengva įsivaizduoti, kokia politinę ir kultūrinę audrą gali sukelti įrodymai dėl genetinių ryšių tarp europiečių ir puštunų, rašo straipsnio autorė.

2006 m. iš Europos kilęs Indijos mokslininkas Navras Iaatas Aafridis išanalizavo kultūrines ir religines tradicijas, būdingas nedidelei (apie 600 žmonių) Malihabdo miesto bendruomenei. Didžia dalimi bendruomenės atstovai – puštūnai, kurie vadina save afridi – susiję su Efraimu.

Mokslininkas iškėlė prielaidą, kad Efraimo genties atstovai, bėgę iš Izraelio ir apsigyvenę Indijoje, buvo priversti slėpti savo tradicijas, kad neužsitrauktų vietos valdžios rūstybės. Bet vėliau ši grupė smarkiai išaugo ir pradėjo išpažinti islamą.

Indijos mokslininkė surengė ekspediciją į Malichabadą, paėmė 50 Afridi bendruomenės gyventojų DNR pavyzdžius ir atvežė juos tirti į Izraelį. Kokie bebūtų tyrimo rezultatai, ne visi yra pasiruošę peržiūrėti savo šaknis. Tokiems priklauso ir Kavi Kamalis Khanas, Navraso Aafridžio senelis, kuris dienraščiui „Times of India” pareiškė: „Aš didžiuojuosi, kad esu puštūnas, ir nenoriu būti niekuo kitu”.

Les Talibans sont-ils issus de l’une des tribus perdues ?

2010-02-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

Yael Ancri, ACTU.CO.IL, 5 Fevrier 2010

Le Times of India a indiqué la semaine dernière que le gouvernement israélien avait demandé à une généticienne indienne de rechercher un éventuel lien entre la tribu indo-européenne des Pathans et certaines tribus d’Israël.

La généticienne Shahnaz Ali a été priée d’étudier le rapport entre les Pathans Afridi qui vivent dans la région du Lucknow en Inde et les tribus d’Israël perdues qui furent exilées en Asie il y a des milliers d’années. Ali travaille à Haïfa en collaboration avec l’université du Technion, où elle analyse génétiquement des échantillons de sang prélevés chez des Pathans Afridi de Malihabad pour vérifier leurs origines juives.

Certains analystes pensent qu’Israël a décidé de financer une telle recherche, à cause de la théorie soutenant que les combattants pachtounes d’Afghanistan, dont sont issus la plupart des Talibans, sont des descendants des Pathans Afridi.

Ce n’est pas la première fois que l’on parle d’une origine juive des Pathans, mais le ministère des Affaires étrangères n’avait encore jamais décidé de financer ce genre de recherches. Un scientifique pathan Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi a déjà fait une étude génétique sur 1 500 de ses homologues et a trouvé quelque 650 membres porteurs d’un matériel génétique spécifique reconnu déjà parmi 40% des Juifs du monde.

Aafreedi a déclaré dans une interview accordée au Times of India : « L’étude de Shahnaz sera importante si elle établit un lien génétique entre les Pathans et les Juifs. On aurait alors une preuve scientifique de la croyance populaire de l’origine juive des Pathans. Cette étude a une implication importante sur les relations entre d’une part les Musulmans et d’autre part les Juifs en particulier et le monde en général. »

Certains affirment que les Pathans sont des descendants de la tribu d’Ephraïm, exilée par les Assyriens en 721 avant l’ère commune. Certains descendants des dix tribus perdues se seraient installés en Inde entre 1202 et 1761 de l’ère commune. Les Pathans Afridi de Malihabad pourraient faire partie de ces tribus.

« Malihabad dans le district du Lucknow est le seul territoire où se trouvent des Pathans – ou Pachtouns – qui est accessible à ceux qui veulent vérifier les origines juives de ces derniers. Il est bien sûr impossible de prélever des échantillons d’ADN en Afghanistan ou au Pakistan, où la plupart des Pathans vivent », explique Aafreedi.

Il reste en fait peu de Pathans en Inde, essentiellement à Malihabad et à Qayamganj en Farrukhabad, lesquels ont déjà été étudiés par Aafreedi. Mais, les Pathans Afridi d’Inde, s’ils se réclament d’origine juive, sont tout aussi hostile à l’égard d’Israël que les Musulmans de n’importe où ailleurs.

İsrail Taliban'ın kökenini araştırıyor

2010-02-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

Firat News Agency, 15 Ocak 2010

Talibanlar Yahudi kökenli mi? Belki… Talibanların etnik kökeni olan Peştunların İsrail’in kayıp 10 kabilesinden biri olduğu iddia ediliyor. En azından İsrail hükümeti bunu doğrulamaya çalışıyor.

İsrail Dışişleri Bakanlığı Peştunların kayıp 10 İsrailli kabileden biri olup olmadığını öğrenmek için yapılan araştırmaları finanse ediyor. Bu araştırmalar ise Hindistan’da yapılıyor. Bunun da tek bir nedeni var; Afganistan ve Pakistan’da bu araştırmaları yürütmek Yahudiler açısından imkansız görünüyor.

Uzun zamandan beridir Afganistan’ın Güney ve Güney Doğusu ile Pakistan’ın Batı ve Kuzey Batısında yaşayan Peştunlar ya da diğer bir ifadeyle Pathanların İsrail’in kayıp kabilelerinden biri olduğu iddia ediliyor. İbadetleri, kıyafetleri, ailesel gelenekleri ve mutfakları arasındaki benzerlikler de bu iddiaların desteklemek için kullanılıyor. Tüm bunlara dayanarak Peştunların Yahudi kökenli olduğu sonucuna varılıyor.

Peştunların Yahudi kökenli olup olmadığını doğrulamakla uğraşan bilim adamları Hindistan’ın kuzeyindeki Uttar Pradeş eyaletinin başkenti Lucknow’da rahat bir şekilde çalışıyorlar. Lucknow Üniversitesi profesörü Navras Jaat Aafreedi, “Lucknow’un bir kasabası olan Malihabad Pathanların İsrail kökenli olma olasılığı ile ilgilenen herkes için güvenli ve kolaylıkla giriş yapabilecekleri tek Peştun ya da Pathan toprağıdır” dedi.

Kendisi de Peştun kökenli olan Hindistanlı araştırmacı Aafreedi kendi blog sayfasındaki yazısına göre Peştunların Yahudilerin ardılı olduğu kesin bir şekle belirlenirse bu ileriye doğru gerçek bir sıçrama olacak.

Kudüs’teki ABC News muhabiri Simon McGregor-Wood, ironik bir ifadeyle, “Talibanlara bunu söylemeyin ama ataları belki de Yahudidir” diyerek, Talibanların Yahudilere karşı nefreti bilindiğinden bunun “koyu bir ironi” olduğunu sözlerine ekliyor.

İSRAİL’İN AMACI NE?

Times of India gazetesine göre İsrail Dışişleri Bakanlığı, durumun aydınlığa kavuşması için Hindistanlı genetikçi Şahnaz Ali’nin çalışmalarını finanse etmeye karar verdi. Haifa’daki Technion Enstitüsü’nde ağırlanan Şahnaz Ali’nin burada çalışmaların yürüteceği ifade ediliyor.

İsrail’in bununla ne amaçladığı ise akıllarda soru işaretleri bırakıyor. Navras Aafreedi, amacın Yahudilerle Müslümanları uzlaştırmak olduğunu savunuyor. Ancak bu yorum şüpheleri gidermeye yetmiyor.

KÜRDİSTAN VE IRAK’TA DA BENZER İDDİALAR

İsrail’in bu araştırmaları kuşkusuz Talibanların da hoşuna gitmeyecek. Yahudiler bölgede daha önce de benzer çalışmalar yürütmüştü. Kürdistan’daki arkeolojik kazılar ve bilimsel araştırmalarla da sık sık gündeme gelen İsrail, özellikle Hewler, Musul ve Kerkük’te çalışmalarını yoğunlaştırması dikkat çekmişti.

İsrailliler özellikle El Kuş’taki Yahudi peygamber Nahum ve Musul’taki Yunus peygamber tapınakları ile Kerkük’te Daniel peygamber mezarı ile ilgileniyor. ABD’lilerin 2003’teki işgalinden sonra bu gerekçeleri öne süren İsrailli Kürtlerin Güney Kürdistan’da, tarihi Yahudi ‘mülkü’ olarak değerlendirilen toprakları satın almaya başladığı bilgileri gelmeye başlamıştı.

Kuzey Kürdistan’da da İsrail uzun yıllardır çeşitli şekillerde varlık göstermeye çalışıyor. Daha çok GAP projesi ile ismi anılan İsrail’in Harran’a ilgisi artık bir sır değil. GAP projesinin arkasında İsrail’in olduğu iddia ediliyor. İsrail'in talimatıyla GAP'ın suyunun bir kanalla sadece Harran'a götürülmesi de bu kuşkuları arttırıyor. Buna karşın Viranşehir, Ceylanpınar, Suruç, Bozova gibi yerler de susuz bırakılıyor.

GAP İSRAİL PROJESİ

Güney Kürdistan’da olduğu gibi toprak satın alma gibi yöntemlere Kuzey Kürdistan’da da başvuruluyor. Bu duruma özelikle Kürt Halk Önderi Abdullah Öcalan dikkat çekmişti. Öcalan, Haziran 2009’daki değerlendirmelerinde şu tespitlerde bulunmuştu: “GAP, tamamen İsrail projesidir. Hatta parasını bile İsrailliler vermiştir. Ben gençken GAP’a gidip bakardım. Dikkatimi çeken şey, kanallarla suyu Harran’a götürmek istemeleriydi. Etrafını neden sulamıyorlardı da ta Harran’a kadar suyu taşıyorlardı? Kendime hep bunu soruyordum. Etraf kupkuruyken suyu neden bu kadar uzağa götürüyorlar diye. İsrailliler İbranilere dayanır. Hatta Harran ismi Harun’dan gelir. Harun, İbrahim’in kardeşidir. Yahudiliğin buradan çıktığı söyleniyor. Yahudiler için bu toprakların önemi büyüktür deniliyor. Bunlar büyük projelerdir. Enka yatırım ortaklığı, orada yatırım yapıyorlar, çiftlikler satın alıyorlar, oraya yerleşiyorlar. Para verip parça parça arsa alıp genişletiyorlar.”

İsrail Kürdistan’ın yanı sıra Irak’ın birçok bölgesi ile de Yahudi ‘mülkü’ olduğu iddiasıyla ilgileniyor. Irak’ın güneyindeki Şiilerin çoğunlukta olduğu iki bölgede; Necef yakındaki Babil eyaletinde bulunan El Kifl köyünde Ezekiel Tapınağı ve Basra yakındaki Misan eyaletinde bulunan El Uzayr’da Esdras’ın mezarı Yahudilerin gözünü diktiği yerler olarak dikkat çekiyor.

İsrailli yayılmacılar “Jude ve Samari” olarak adlandırdıkları bu tapınakları da Batı Şeria ve Kudüs kadar “Büyük İsrail”in parçası olarak görüyor. Kürt ve Iraklı kaynaklar MOSAD’ın Irak’taki İsrail Yahudilerinin ‘mülk’ taleplerinin ihtiyaçlarını sağlamak için İsrailli şirketler ve turistlerle birlikte çalıştığını belirtiyor.

ANF NEWS AGENCY

Et si les talibans étaient juifs?

2010-02-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

Marie-France Calle, Namaste! Salam!, January 26, 2010

Les talibans sont peut-être juifs... Du moins d'origine juive. C'est - en raccourci - ce que tente de vérifier le gouvernement d'Israël. Le ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères a décidé de financer des recherches visant à établir pour de bon si oui ou non, les Pachtouns (ethnie dont sont issus les talibans) descendent bien de l'une des dix tribus perdues d'Israël. Et c'est en Inde que s'effectueront ces recherches. Pour une raison évidente : elles sont impossibles à mener en Afghanistan et au Pakistan.

On le sait depuis longtemps, les Pachtouns - ou Pathans - qui peuplent essentiellement le Sud et le Sud-est de l'Afghanistan et l'Ouest et le Nord-ouest du Pakistan seraient des descendants de l'une des tribus perdues d'Israël. Similitudes dans les rites, les vêtements, les traditions familiales, culinaires... tout porte à croire que les Pachtouns ont des ancêtres juifs. Ce que l'on sait moins, c'est qu'il existe en Inde plusieurs communautés pachtounes. Une aubaine pour les scientifiques qui tentent d'établir la véracité de l'origine israélite des Pachtouns. Ils peuvent travailler tranquillement au nord de l'Inde, à Lucknow, la capitale de l'Uttar Pradesh.

''Malihabad, un district de Lucknow, est le seul territoire pachtoun, ou pathan, sûr et facilement accessible à tous ceux qu'intéressent la probable origine israélite des Pathans. Il n'est certainement pas possible de récolter des échantillons ADN en Afghanistan ou dans les Zones tribales de la Province du Nord-ouest frontalière de l'Afghanistan (NWFP), où vivent la plupart des Pachtouns'', note à juste titre Navras Jaat Aafreedi, professeur à l'Université de Lucknow.

Et comme le relève le chercheur indien, lui-même d'origine pachtoune, sur son blog, ce serait un réel bond en avant si l'on pouvait déterminer de manière exacte l'ascendance juive des Pachtouns.

"Ne le dites pas aux talibans, mais leurs ancêtres sont peut-être bien juifs", ironise Simon McGregor-Wood le correspondant d'ABC News à Jérusalem. Une sombre ironie, poursuit-il, quand on sait la haine que vouent les talibans à Israël.

Le ministère israélien des Affaires étrangères a néanmoins décidé de financer les recherches d'une généticienne indienne, Shahnaz Ali, pour tirer l'affaire au clair, rapporte le Times of India.. Elle est accueillie à l'Institut Technion de Haifa, où elle devrait mener à biens ses travaux.

Qu'espère Israël avec une telle démarche ? "Réconcilier Juifs et Musulmans" ? comme le suugère sans vraiment y croire Navras Aafreedi. Wishful thinking...

Les Talibans sont-ils issus de l’une des tribus perdues?

2010-01-19T11:10:00.000-08:00

lessakele.over-blog.fr, January 19, 2010

Le Times of India a indiqué la semaine dernière que le gouvernement israélien avait demandé à une généticienne indienne de rechercher un éventuel lien entre la tribu indo-européenne des Pathans et certaines tribus d’Israël.

Ali travaille à Haïfa en collaboration avec l’université du Technion, où elle analyse génétiquement des échantillons de sang prélevés chez des Pathans Afridi de Malihabad pour vérifier leurs origines juives. Certains analystes pensent qu’Israël a décidé de financer une telle recherche, à cause de la théorie soutenant que les combattants pachtounes d’Afghanistan, dont sont issus la plupart des Talibans, sont des descendants des Pathans Afridi.

Ce n’est pas la première fois que l’on parle d’une origine juive des Pathans, mais le ministère des Affaires étrangères n’avait encore jamais décidé de financer ce genre de recherches.

Un scientifique pathan Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi a déjà fait une étude génétique sur 1 500 de ses homologues et a trouvé quelque 650 membres porteurs d’un matériel génétique spécifique reconnu déjà parmi 40% des Juifs du monde. Aafreedi a déclaré dans une interview accordée au Times of India : « L’étude de Shahnaz sera importante si elle établit un lien génétique entre les Pathans et les Juifs.

On aurait alors une preuve scientifique de la croyance populaire de l’origine juive des Pathans. Cette étude a une implication importante sur les relations entre d’une part les Musulmans et d’autre part les Juifs en particulier et le monde en général. » Certains affirment que les Pathans sont des descendants de la tribu d’Ephraïm, exilée par les Assyriens en 721 avant l’ère commune. Certains descendants des dix tribus perdues se seraient installés en Inde entre 1202 et 1761 de l’ère commune.

Les Pathans Afridi de Malihabad pourraient faire partie de ces tribus. « Malihabad dans le district du Lucknow est le seul territoire où se trouvent des Pathans – ou Pachtouns – qui est accessible à ceux qui veulent vérifier les origines juives de ces derniers.

Il est bien sûr impossible de prélever des échantillons d’ADN en Afghanistan ou au Pakistan, où la plupart des Pathans vivent », explique Aafreedi. Il reste en fait peu de Pathans en Inde, essentiellement à Malihabad et à Qayamganj en Farrukhabad, lesquels ont déjà été étudiés par Aafreedi. Mais, les Pathans Afridi d’Inde, s’ils se réclament d’origine juive, sont tout aussi hostile à l’égard d’Israël que les Musulmans de n’importe où ailleurs.

The 2,700 year old Pashtun link to Israel

2010-01-18T12:02:00.000-08:00

The Dawn, 18 January, 2010

A genetic study to investigate a connection between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan will be funded by Israel, according to a report in The Observer.

Israeli anthropologists have claimed that the Pashtuns may be one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel in light of longstanding historical and anecdotal evidence. No scientific proof has ever been able to demonstrate a conclusive link.

However, an Indian researcher based at the National Institute of Immuno-haemotology in Mumbai will now spend time at a leading Israeli institute, Technion to study the findings of her research. Shahnaz Ali collected the blood-samples from members of the Pashtun Afridi tribe living near Lucknow, India. Previous research in a similar area failed to determine a link either way.

According to the report, 10 of the original 12 tribes of Israel were pushed into exile 2,730 years ago when the Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel. Modern-day Jews belong to the two remaining tribes of Benjamin and Judah, according to Jewish history. Ever since, speculation has centered on the exact whereabouts of the lost tribes. Claims of their traces in China, Burma, Nigeria and Central Asia have been offered in the past. It is believed that the tribes settled in areas around latter-day Northern Iraq and Afghanistan therefore making the Pashtun link the most compelling.

Navras Aafreedi, an academic at Lucknow University said, "Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists."

However, Ali remains cautious. "The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don't know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us direction," she told The Times of India last year.

Pashtun clue to lost tribes of Israel

2010-01-16T21:48:00.000-08:00

Genetic study sets out to uncover if there is a 2,700-year-old link to Afghanistan and Pakistan

Rory McCarthy, Jerusalem
The Guardian, Sunday 17 January 2010

Israel is to fund a rare genetic study to determine whether there is a link between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.

Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggest a connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading Israeli anthropologists believe that, of all the many groups in the world who claim a connection to the 10 lost tribes, the Pashtuns, or Pathans, have the most compelling case. Paradoxically it is from the Pashtuns that the ultra-conservative Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan emerged. Pashtuns themselves sometimes talk of their Israelite connection, but show few signs of sympathy with, or any wish to migrate to, the modern Israeli state.

Now an Indian researcher has collected blood samples from members of the Afridi tribe of Pashtuns who today live in Malihabad, near Lucknow, in northern India. Shahnaz Ali, from the National Institute of Immunohaematology in Mumbai, is to spend several months studying her findings at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa. A previous genetic study in the same area did not provide proof one way or the other.

The Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel some 2,730 years ago, scattering 10 of the 12 tribes into exile, supposedly beyond the mythical Sambation river. The two remaining tribes, Benjamin and Judah, became the modern-day Jewish people, according to Jewish history, and the search for the lost tribes has continued ever since. Some have claimed to have found traces of them in modern China, Burma, Nigeria, Central Asia, Ethiopia and even in the West.

But it is believed that the tribes were dispersed in an area around modern-day northern Iraq and Afghanistan, which makes the Pashtun connection the strogest.

"Of all the groups, there is convincing evidence about the Pathans than anybody else, but the Pathans are the ones who reject Israel most ferociously. That is the sweet irony," said Shalva Weil, an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Pashtuns have a proud oral history that talks of descending from the Israelites.

Their tribal groupings have similar names, including Yusufzai, which means sons of Joseph; and Afridi, thought by some to come from Ephraim. Some customs and practices are said to be similar to Jewish traditions: lighting candles on the sabbath, refraining from eating certain foods, using a canopy during a wedding ceremony and some similarities in garments.

Weil cautioned, however, that this is not proof of any genetic connection. DNA might be able to determine which area of the world the Pashtuns originated from, but it is not at all certain that it could identify a specific link to the Jewish people.

So far Shahnaz Ali has been cautious. "The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don't know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us direction," she told the Times of India last year.

Some are more certain, among them Navras Aafreedi, an academic at Lucknow University, himself a Pashtun from the Afridi tribe. His family traces their roots back to Pathans from the Khyber Agency of what is today north-west Pakistan, but he believes they stretch back further to the tribe of Ephraim.

"Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century till the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists. ," Aafreedi said.

The implications of any find are uncertain. Other groups that claim Israelite descent, including those known as the Bnei Menashe in India and some in Ethiopia, have migrated to Israel. That is unlikely with the Pashtuns.

But Weil said the work was absorbing, well beyond questions of immigration. "I find a myth that has been so persistent for so long, for 2,000 years, really fascinating," she said.

ISRAEL BUSCA UNA DE SUS TRIBUS PERDIDAS EN AFGANISTÁN

2010-01-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

RT.com, 15 de enero 2010

Una genetista india recibió una subvención del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de Israel para investigar si el pueblo de los pastunes, el principal grupo étnico de Afganistán, tiene raíces hebreas.

Pero la científica Shahnaz Ali no tendrá que desplazarse al peligroso suelo afgano donde son frecuentes los ataques de los talibanes, que son pastunes en su mayoría. Tampoco irá al noroeste de Pakistán. Trabajará en Haifa con sus colegas israelíes estudiando el ADN de las muestras de sangre de los pastunes de estirpe afridi, que habitan el distrito de Lucknow en el norte de la India. Es el único lugar donde se pueden obtener las muestras sin arriesgar la vida.

El noroeste de Pakistán, otra región que cuenta con una población extensa de pastunes -y campamentos de talibanes-, tampoco sirve para los estudios científicos, y mucho menos realizados bajo el patrocinio hebreo.

El estudio tiene el próposito de confirmar la hipótesis de que los pastunes son descendientes de la tribu israelita de Efraím, una de las diez que fueron expulsadas de sus tierras por los invasores asirios en el norte de Israel, en el siglo VIII a.C., y se asentaron en la India unos centenares de años más tarde.

Otro científico indio, Navras Aafreedi, uno de los principales partidarios de la teoría, comentó que la investigación puede tener unas “ramificaciones interesantes para las relaciones entre los musulmanes y los judíos, así como para el resto del mundo”. Matizó que, aunque los afridi se consideran de origen israelí, son igual de hostiles hacia Israel que los otros musulmanes. Eso parece una paradoja, pero el caso es que el antiguo reino de Israel en el norte tenía enemistad con el reino de Judá en el sur, del que se originó el gentilicio judío.

Pastunii, principalul grup taliban, ar putea fi descendenti ai evreilor

2010-01-16T02:53:00.000-08:00

de A.N. HotNews.ro, Miercuri, 13 ianuarie 2010

Pastunii, grupul etnic care formeaza nucleul talibanilor din Afganistan si Pakistan, ar putea fi descendenti ai dusmanilor lor evrei, sustin cercetatori indieni, citati de ziarul britanic Telegraph. Experti de la Institutul National de Imuno-hematologie din Mumbai au declarat ca grupul pastunilor ar putea fi unul dintre cele zece "Triburi disparute ale Israelului".

Guvernul israelian finanteaza in prezent un studiu genetic care sa stabileasca daca exista o dovada a legaturii intre pastuni si evrei.

Un genetician indian a recoltat probe de sange de la tribul de pastuni Afridi din Lucknow, in nordul Indiei. Probele au fost recoltate din aceasta regiune deoarece a fost considerata singura unde se poate face, in siguranta, un proiect atat de controversat pentru musulmani.

Shanaz Ali urmeaza sa-si petreaca urmatoarele 12 luni la Institutul de Tehnologie Technion din Tel Aviv, unde va compara probele de sange cu cele ale evreilor israelieni. Navras Aafreedi, un cercetator al "Triburilor disparute ale Israelului", a declarat ca studiul ar putea avea "repercusiuni moderne majore" precum si "ramificatii interesante pentru relatiile dintre musulmani si evrei in particular, dar si in plan global".

Telegraph precizeaza ca in lume traiesc in prezent circa 42 de milioane de pastuni, din care 14 milioane se afla in Afganistan si peste 28 de milioane in Pakistan.

Multi dintre pastuni au crescut auzind povesti despre neamul lor ca fiind "Copiii lui Israel". Potrivit legendei, ei sunt urmasi din tribul Efraim, care a fost alungat din Israel de invazia asirienilor, in jur de 700 i.Cr.

In Herat, la granita dintre Afganistan si Iran, au fost descoperite morminte insciptionate in ebraica, dovada a existentei unor vechi asezari evreiesti in zona. In plus, in Kabul exista o sinagoga veche de cateva secole, care acum este abandonata.

Taliban may be descended from Jews

2010-01-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

The ethnic group at the heart of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan may have descended from their Jewish enemy, according to researchers in India.

By Dean Nelson, Telegraph, 11 January, 2010

Experts at Mumbai's National Institute of Immeunohaematology believe Pashtuns could be one of the ten "Lost Tribes of Israel".

The Israeli government is funding a genetic study to establish if there is any proof of the link.

An Indian geneticist has taken blood samples from the Pashtun Afridi tribe in Lucknow, Northern India, to Israel, where she will spend the next 12 months comparing DNA with samples with those of Israeli Jews.

The samples were taken in Lucknow's Malihabad area because it was regarded as the only place safe enough to conduct such a controversial project for Muslims.

Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow, will lead the study at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Tel Aviv.

There are an estimated 40 million Pashtuns around the world, including more than 14 million in Afghanistan and 28 million in Pakistan, mainly in the North West Frontier Province and Tribal areas, but also with a strong presence in Karachi.

Many have grown up with stories of their people being "Children of Israel". According to legend, they are descended from the Ephraim tribe which was driven out of Israel by the Assyrian invasion in around 700 BC.

Evidence of ancient Jewish settlement has been found in Herat, close to afghanistan's border with Iran, where a graveyard contains tombs inscribed in Hebrew. The Afghan capital Kabul also has centuries-old synagogue which has long been abandoned.

Navras Aafreedi, a leading researcher on the Lost Tribes of Israel, said the DNA investigation could have major repercussions.

"It could be seen as scientific validation of traditional belief about the Israelite origin of [Pashtuns] and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large," he said.

Could the Taliban be genetically linked to the Jews?

2010-01-15T21:18:00.000-08:00

By Haaretz Service, 14 January, 2010

Israel has asked an Indian geneticist to study the link between the Indian Pathans tribe and certain tribes of Israel, the Times of India reported this week.

Geneticist Shahnaz Ali has been asked to study the link between the Afridi Pathans, based in the Lucknow region of India, and certain tribes of Israel who migrated across Asia thousands of years ago.

Ali is based in Haifa where she is working in collaboration with Israel's prestigious university the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Some experts attribute Israel's decision to fund the research to a theory supported by many that Afghanistan's Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans.

This is not the first time speculations of a deep rooted connection between the two seeemingly unrelated people have been raised, yet this is the first time Israel's Foreign Ministry has decided to fund the research.

Ali has been genetically analyzing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad which she collected earlier to confirm their Jewish origin.

In an interview with the Times of India, Dr. Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies and one of the first proponents of the common origin theory in India said, "Shahnaz's research would be important if it does establish the genetic link between Pathans and Jews, as it could be seen as a scientific validation of a traditional belief about the Israelite origin of Pathans and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large."

The Pathans in India are believed to be descendants of the Ephraim tribe, one of the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian invaders in 721 BCE.

Some descendants of these tribes lost tribes are said to have settled in India between 1202 C.E. and 1761 C.E., Afridi Pathans of Malihabad being one of them.

"Malihabad in Lucknow district is the only Pathan, or Pashtun, territory safely and easily accesible to those interested in the probable Israelite origins of Pathans. It is certainly not possible to collect DNA samples in Afghanistan or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, where most of the Pathans or Pashtuns live," Aafreedi said.

There are few Pathans left in India, primarily at places like Malihabad near Lucknow and Qayamganj in Farrukhabad, all of who Aafreedi appoached for the academic research.

According to Aafreedi, the Afridi Pathans in India, even though they claim Israeli origin, are just as hostile and antagonistic towards Israel as Muslims anywhere else in the world.

Israelis and Taliban Separated at Birth?

2010-01-13T05:20:00.000-08:00

Israel Finances Study About Pashtun Bloodlines

Simon McGregor-Wood, ABC News, Jan. 12, 2010

Don't tell the Taliban, but their ancestors may be Jewish.

Israel's foreign ministry is funding research into whether members of the ethnic tribe from which the Taliban draws its manpower have Jewish ancestors.

Pashtuns are the largest ethnic community in Afghanistan. It is widely believed they are an offshoot of the Pathans whose members are scattered across northern India and Pakistan. Both are today exclusively Muslim. Neither has any sympathy for modern Israel.

Scientists are now trying to determine whether the Pathans themselves are directly descended from the tribe of Ephraim which was exiled from the land of Israel by the invading Assyrians in 721 B.C. Pathan folklore and culture are filled with references to an Israelite past.

The last king of Afghanistan Zahir Shah who reigned in Kabul until 1973 reportedly claimed his family was descended from what he called the tribe of Benjamin.

The Taliban spare no effort in expressing their hatred for Israel. Any genetic link they may have with people of Jewish descent would be a dark irony.

Last year, a Persian blog item set off rumors suggesting that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is of Jewish descent. Several global news outlets picked up the story and examined the notion of a Jewish Ahmadinejad, rooted in the claim that his original family name of "Sabourjian" links him to weavers of the Jewish prayer shawl.

But Meir Javednafar, an Iranian Jewish scholar on the Middle East, dismissed the idea, telling ABC News that the political vetting process would make it nearly impossible for someone to reach the post of president of the Islamic Republic without solid Muslim credentials.

Until now the supposed link between Pathans and Jews has only been discussed on the fringes of the academic and anthropological worlds. But now Shahnaz Ali, an Indian researcher from the National Institute of Immunohaematology in Mumbai has received a grant from Israel to test the theory with DNA samples she collected from Pathans in India. She will conduct her research at the prestigious Technion Institute in Haifa.

Research Into Taliban's Jewish Roots to Take Months

Dr. Navras Aafreedi from the University of Lucknow is himself a Pathan and believes his distant ancestors were Jews from the tribe of Ephraim. He has been studying the link for years.

"It's great news that my research would be analyzed scientifically. I also hope that such effort will have positive ramifications and will bring the Muslims and Jews close and enable them to forget historical animosity," he wrote on his blog.

The Afghan people are a mix of tribes and ethnicities. For years scientists have been investigating a group of Afghans living in the north of the country. They are blonde and are thought to be the descendents of the soldiers of Alexander The Great.

The research into the Taliban's Jewish roots will take many months. Long-lost family reunions are not being planned.

Lara Setrakian contributed to the reporting of this story.

Lucknow Pathans have Jewish Roots?

2010-01-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

Israel Govt Has Asked Indian Geneticist To Study Link Between Afridis And The Lost Tribes

Sachin Parashar, The Times of India, New Delhi, January 11, 2010

New Delhi: Despite their animosity, do Jews and the Pathans in India come from the same ancestral stock — the biblical lost tribes of Israel? A subject of speculation among academicians in the past, the Israeli government has now asked an Indian geneticist, Shahnaz Ali, to study the link between the Afridi Pathans based in the Lucknow region and certain tribes of Israel who migrated from their native place to all over Asia a few thousand years ago.

Ali, who has been granted a scholarship by Israel’s foreign ministry to work on the project, is genetically analysing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad near Lucknow which she collected earlier to confirm their Israeli origin. Ali is based in Haifa where she is working in collaboration with the prestigious Technion — Israel Institute of Technology.

‘‘Shahnaz’s research would be important if it does establish the genetic link between Pathans and Jews, as it could be seen as a scientific validation of a traditional belief about the Israelite origin of Pathans and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large,’’ Dr Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies and one of the first proponents of the common-origin theory in India, told TOI.

It is believed that the Pathan are descendants of the Ephraim tribe, one of the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian invaders in 721BC. Some descendants of these lost tribes are said to have settled in India between AD1202 and AD1761, Afridi Pathans of Malihabad being one of them.

According to experts, Israel’s decision to facilitate the research could also be because of the theory supported by many that Afghanistan’s Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans.

‘‘Malihabad in Lucknow district is the only Pathan, or Pashtun, territory safely and easily accessible to those interested in the probable Israelite origins of Pathans. It is certainly not possible to collect DNA samples in Afghanistan or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, where most of the Pathans or Pashtuns live,’’ Aafreedi said.

India has only a sprinkling of Pathans, primarily at places like Malihabad near Lucknow and Qayamganj in Farrukhabad, predominantly of the Afridi tribe. But these were the only Pathans, said Aafreedi, who could be approached for academic purposes.

According to Aafreedi, the Afridi Pathans in India, even though they claim Israeli origin, are just as hostile and antagonistic towards Israel as Muslims anywhere else in the world.

Who Are The Lost Tribes?

The term Ten Lost Tribes refers to the ancient Israeli tribes that disappeared from the Biblical account after Assyrians overran the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and sent them into exile. The tribes were named Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun. Two other tribes, Judah and Benjamin, had set up the Kingdom of Judah. The descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin have survived as Jews.

The belief persists that one day the Ten Lost Tribes would be found. Many groups claim descent from specific lost tribes. The Pashtuns – ethnic Afghans – are one such group.

Are Taliban descendants of Israelites?

2010-01-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Amir Mizroch , The Jerusalem Post, January 9, 2010

Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago?

This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research.

But now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe that provides the hard core of today's Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim.

Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai, has joined the Technion to study the blood samples that she collected from Afridi Pathans in Malihabad, in the Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, to check their putative Israelite origin.

Shahnaz, an expert in DNA profiling and population genetics, will be supervised by Prof. Karl Skorecki, director of Nephrology and Molecular Medicine at the Technion Faculty of Medicine. Skorecki is famous for his breakthrough work on Jewish genetic research.

Shahnaz's research, which is expected to last anywhere between three months and a year, will be supported by a scholarship from the Foreign Ministry for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Shahnaz, who is staying in Haifa for the duration of her research, earlier worked at the prestigious Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). While the scholarship only provides her with $600 per month (excluding travel to and from India), her work will be followed closely by many here and abroad.

While the vast majority of Afghan Taliban are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, the theory that they are descendants of the Afridi Pathans is widespread in the area. The theory is based on a variety of ancient historical texts and oral traditions of the Pashtun people themselves, but no scientific studies by any accredited organizations have upheld the claim. It continues to be believed by many Pashtuns, and has found advocates among some contemporary Muslim and (to a lesser extent) Jewish scholars.

Official confirmation of the link by the Technion would lend immense weight to the argument. Afridi Pathans have an age-old tradition of Israelite origin, which finds mention in texts dating from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars.

According to some researchers, members of the tribe still observe many Israelite customs in their native places in eastern Afghanistan and in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, though they have lost all these traditions of theirs in India. In Afghanistan and Pakistan they are all Muslim today and form the core of the Taliban.

In his 1957 The Exiled and the Redeemed, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel's second president, wrote that Hebrew migrations into Afghanistan began "with a sprinkling of exiles from Samaria who had been transplanted there by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria (719 BC)."

Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, when asked about his ancestors, claimed that the royal family descended from the tribe of Benjamin.

On the academic level, British researcher Dr. Theodore Parfitt has been conducting research on genetic effects and chromosome Y among numerous tribes around the world. In India he is assisted by a young researcher from the University of Lucknow - Dr. Navras Aafreedi - who claims that his ancestors were Afreedi, descendants of the tribe of Efraim, and that many of the Pathans and other tribes are descendants of the Ten Tribes. Afreedi did his post-doctoral work at Tel Aviv University, titled "Indian Jewry and the Self-professed Lost Tribes of Israel in India."

Shahnaz's genetic research would examine Navras's theory that Afridi Pathans are descendants of the tribe of Ephraim, which was exiled in 721 BCE. The research uses DNA analysis to trace shared ancestries and origins of certain populations of interest in the eastern provinces of India, to map the cause of a certain disorder that is very frequent in the large populations of those provinces, and to see if the DNA mutations originate in a certain "founder event."

Shahnaz traveled to Malihabad and collected blood samples from the tribal population there. It is thought that the Afridi Pathans migrated from the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan, areas that are now "ground zero" in the war on terror. Shahnaz herself, while aware of the possible connection, is cautious to jump to conclusions.

"The research itself will take some three months, and after that we'll see what happens. It could take a huge amount of time to analyze all the data, as it was taken from tribal people in India, and we will need to examine how much the men from this tribe mixed in with the local population," she said.

Navras welcomed Shahnaz's research grant. "It's a great news that now my research would be analyzed scientifically," he said on his blog.

"I don't know what would be the outcome of the DNA analysis, but it would provide us a direction to resolve the complex issue. I also hope that such effort will have positive ramifications and will bring the Muslims and Jews close and enable them to forget historical animosity," Navras wrote.

Gene travel: To Malihabad via Israel?

2009-11-04T18:42:00.000-08:00

Ashish Tripathi, The Times of India, Lucknow, November 5, 2009

Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immuno-Hematology, Mumbai, has been awarded a scholarship by the government of Israel for the academic year 2009-2010, to study the DNA of Afridi Pathans of Malihabad in Lucknow to confirm whether they are of Israelite origin or not.

Shahnaz Ali had collected blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad in October 2008, when she was associated with the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata. Now, with the scholarship in hand, she will conduct the analysis of the DNA at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa. The study will be done under the supervision of scientist, Professor Karl Skorecki.

The theory of the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans was brought into focus by Indo-Judaic studies scholar, Navras Jaat Aafreedi. He did his doctoral and post-doctoral research at the universities of Lucknow and Tel Aviv respectively. Shahnaz's genetic research would examine Navras's theory that Afridi Pathans are descendants of the lost Israelite tribe of Ephraim, which was exiled in 721 BC.

When contacted, Shahnaz expressed her pleasure at being selected for the scholarship. "The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long and now I hope a scientific analysis would provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don't know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us a direction," said Shahnaz.

Navras, who himself is an Afridi Pathan, has been working on the hypothesis of the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans since 2002. He invited Professor Tudor Parfitt and Yulia Egorova of SOAS, London University to collect mouth swabs of Afridi Pathans in November 2002. The swabs were analysed at the University College London by Neil Bradman and Mark Thomas, but the results were never made public.

Navras also welcomed the development. "It's a great news that now my research would be analysed scientifically. I don't know what would be the outcome of the DNA analysis, but it would provide us a direction to resolve the complex issue. I also hope that such effort will have positive ramifications and will bring the Muslims and Jews close and enable them to forget historical animosity," he said.

Navras was awarded PhD degree in 2005 by Lucknow University, on his research on Afridi Pathans based on religious and secular texts written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars. Later, in June 2007, he did his post-doctoral research from the Graduate School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University, on the "Traditions of Israelite Descent among Certain Muslim Groups in India".

It was after navras presented his paper on Afridi Pathans in October 2007 at the 19th annual conference of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association, USA, he was contacted by Shahnaz, who wanted to scientifically analyse the findings.

In October 2008, Shahnaz, then a Senior Research Fellow at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kokata, came to Malihabad in Lucknow and collected blood samples.

Navras said that as per history, ten Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel were exiled by the Assyrian invaders in 721 BC. It is believed that some descendants of these lost tribes settled in India between AD 1202 and AD 1761. Afridi Pathans of Malihabad are said to be one of them. Some Israeli academicians have visited Malihabad in the last few years to study customs and traditions of Pathans to find if they have any resemblance to Israelite traditions.

Inikah Suku Israel yang Hilang?

2009-05-27T23:25:00.000-07:00

Oleh: Farzand Ahmed, India Today, 6 November 2006

http://unseenhands.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/inikah-suku-israel-yang-hilang/

Studi baru-baru ini telah menemukan bahwa asal-usul suku Afridi Pathan di sebuah kota kecil bernama Uttar Pradesh berasal dari ‘suku hilang’ Israel yang sesuai dengan Bibel. Namun suku Pathan tidak bersedia menerima diri mereka sebagai Yahudi. Malihabad, sebuah kota kecil yang terkenal akan buah-buahannya, di daerah pinggiran Lucknow, akan menarik perhatian Anda. Tempat yang mahsyur dengan buah mangga Dussheri yang manis dan harum itu telah melahirkan beberapa syair Urdu dan Persia terindah. Dan pernyataan tersebut tak berakhir di situ. Kota berdebu itu kini dianggap memiliki sesuatu yang dapat ditelusuri hingga masa Bibel. Di antara penduduk Malihabad terdapat sebuah suku berperawakan tinggi, berkulit kuning langsat, dan bertubuh tegap, yang menyebut diri mereka sebagai penyair dan prajurit Afridi Pathan. Selain itu, sebuah panah raksasa yang terletak di gerbang masuk kota didedikasikan untuk Bab-e-Goya, seorang penyair dan prajurit terkenal. Namun bukti-bukti yang berkembang menyiratkan bahwa leluhur mereka bukanlah Muslim tapi Israel dan mereka sebenarnya bukan berasal dari wilayah Afghanistan-Pakistan tapi ternyata merupakan salah satu ‘suku hilang’ Israel. Di Malihabad, di jantung kota Uttar Pradesh, mereka sangat menonjol dengan ciri-ciri fisik mereka yang unik.

Kini sebuah studi yang dilakukan oleh salah satu anggota suku mereka sendiri, Navras Jaat Aafreedi, yang dipublikasikan baru-baru ini dalam bentuk e-book berjudul “The Indian Jewry & The Self-Professed ‘Lost Tribes of Israel’ in India”, menelusuri garis silsilah mereka hingga ke salah satu ‘suku hilang’ Israel. Navras mengatakan, “Tujuan utama penelitian ini (untuk gelar doktor dari Universitas Lucknow) adalah untuk menelusuri leluhur suku Afridi Pathan.” Untuk membuat studinya lebih kredibel, ia mendapat bantuan dari tim peneliti internasional termasuk Profesor Tudor Parfitt, direktur Centre of Jewish Studies di Universitas London, dan Dr Yulia Egorova, seorang ahli bahasa dan sejarah dari Rusia. Tim tersebut mengunjungi Malihabad dan mengumpulkan sampel DNA dari 50 pria Afridi yang tidak memiliki hubungan secara paternal, guna memperkuat informasi mengenai silsilah Israel mereka. Para peneliti mempelajari hubungan Israel dengan Pathan di beberapa daerah perbatasan Pakistan serta kaitannya dengan Afridi Pathan di Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh, dan Qaimganj (Farrukhabad), juga dengan suku Pathan di Aligarh, Sambhal, dan Barabanki, di samping suku-suku di Kashmir, Manipur, dan Guntur di Andhra Pradesh.

Para sejarawan dan ilmuwan seperti Profesor S.N. Sinha (mantan kepala departemen sejarah di Universitas Jamia Millia Islamia), dan Profesor V.D. Pandey (kepala departemen sejarah India zaman modern dan pertengahan di Universitas Lucknow), menyatakan bahwa penelitian Navras menjadi studi ‘yang penting’ mengenai Yahudi di India dan hubungannya dengan Uttar Pradesh. Menurut Bibel, terdapat 12 suku Israel. Kerajaan utara terdiri dari 10 suku yang dibuang dan kemudian dianggap ‘hilang’. Empat dari ‘suku hilang’ tersebut telah ditemukan di India: Afridi, Shinlung di Timur Laut, Yudu di Kashmir, dan suku non-Muslim di Guntur. Para sejarawan percaya bahwa Afghan adalah keturunan Israel – nama lain cucu Ibrahim, Jacob atau Yakub. Mereka datang ke wilayah yang dikenal sebagai Perbatasan Barat Laut dan Afghanistan; dan setelah pindah mereka dipanggil Afridan, dalam bahasa Persia berarti ‘baru tiba’ dan karena itu memperoleh sebutan ‘Afridi’. Banyak dari Afridi-Afghan masih mengikuti tradisi Yahudi seperti Sabbath dan khitanan pada hari ke-8 kelahiran bayi. “Ada 3 kelompok utama Israel atau Yahudi di India: Bene Israel (kelompok tebesar), Cochini (kelompok terkecil), dan Baghdadi. Pathan di Malihabad dan Farrukhabad menyebut diri mereka sebagai Bani Israel, yang berarti Anak-anak Israel (Children of Israel). Suku-suku Bani Israel juga ditemukan di Aligarh dan Sambhal, Moradabad.

Perkampungan Pathan-Afridi di Malihabad telah ada sejak tahun 1202, ketika desa Bakhtiarnagar didirikan oleh Mohammad Bakhtiar Khilji. Sebagian besar suku Pathan datang pada sekitar pertengahan abad 17 dan semua suku migran mengambil kepemilikan atas desa-desa di sekitar Malihabad. Namun, gelombang terbesar migran Pathan, terutama Afridi, tiba di Malihabad satu abad kemudian saat terjadi lima invasi Ahmad Shah Abdali antara tahun 1748 dan 1761. Banyak Israel-Afridi di Malihabad dan Qaimganj memperoleh kedudukan terkemuka di bidang peperangan, politik, literatur, dan olah raga. Jika Dr. Zakir Husain, seorang Israel-Pathan, Presiden India ke-3 dan pendiri Universitas Jamia Millia Islamia berasal dari Farrukhabad, Malihabad bangga memiliki Nawab Faqueer Mohammad Khan ‘Goya’ (penyair dan anggota istana Awadh yang kemudian pindah ke Pakistan), Ghaus Mohammad Khan (pemain tenis), dan Anwar Nadeem (artis, penulis, dan penyair).

Terdapat sekitar 1200 sampai 1300 suku Pathan di Malihabad, dan setengah dari mereka, menurut penelitian terbaru, adalah Israel-Afridi. Penelitian tersebut telah menimbulkan kegemparan di antara Afridi Pathan karena mereka tidak bersedia mengakui identitas ke-Yahudian mereka. Tidak seperti suku-suku lainnya yang telah bersedia menyatakan pertalian mereka dengan ‘suku hilang’ Israel, Afridi Pathan bersikap tdiak percaya tentang status ke-Yahudi-annya. Kengganan ini terbukti ketika Qavi Kamal Khan (91 tahun), salah satu anggota suku Afridi Pathan di kota, mengatakan, “Saya telah mendengar bahwa kami memiliki garis silsilah Israel, tapi kami bukan Yahudi. Kami adalah Afridi.” Namun, para sejarawan mempercayai penelitian Navras dapat menjadi tonggak penting dalam penelitian sejarah-genealogis yang berangkat dari Lucknow yang tak dikenal, untuk menemukan kembali pertalian yang hilang dalam perjalanan waktu. Studi tersebut, sekali lagi, membuktikan bahwa dunia ini ternyata adalah desa global.

Lost and Found?

2009-05-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Sunday Indian, 4 May - 10 May, 2009

THE AFRIDI PATHANS OF MALIHABAD, A TOWN NOT FAR FROM LUCKNOW, MAY TRACE THEIR LINEAGE TO ONE OF THE FORGOTTEN TRIBES IN ISRAEL. PUJA AWASTHI EXPLORES THE TRAIL...

Does Malihabad, a sleepy town 27 kilometres from Lucknow, one that yields some of the sweetest mangoes and even sweeter Urdu poetry, also hold a piece of one of the world's most fascinating puzzles - what haapened to Israel's lost tribes?

One bit of research on the subject, titled The Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India, authored in 2006 by a 30-year-old scholar called Navras Jaat Aafreedi, that has drawn wide appreciation in Israel, holds that the 600-plus Afridi Pathans of Malihabad (probably like those living in Qayamganj, Farukhabad, 270 kilometres from Lucknow) have descended from the Ephraim, one of the ten tribes driven out of northern Israel by the Assyrians in 721 BC. (The migrations of these 10 tribes went unrecorded and they gradually melted into larger populations and were hence lost).

Citing ancient Persian and Jewish texts and illustrating with existing practices and beliefs among the Afridi Pathans, Aafreedi says they came to India between 1202 and 1761 AD from what is today known as the North West Frontier Province (Pakistan) and from Afghanistan, where the Ephraim had settled after being ejected from Israel. They journeyed as part of the conquering army of Ahmad Shah Abdali and moved to Malihabad, which was home to other Pathans(though not of Israelite descent). To curry favour with India's non Pathan rulers of the time, they kept quiet about their origins, finally losing its knowledge.

That contention, fascinating as it is, is yet to be backed by scientific evidence.

In 2002, a team led by Tudor Parfitt, professor of Modern Jewish Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and author of The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth (Phoenix, 2003), collected mouth swabs of 50 paternally unrelated Afridi Pathan males from Malihabad to test them for possible genetic links to Israelites.

While the results of the study are yet to be made public, Parfitt, in an e-mail interview, says of them: "They were neutral, that is, they did not say anything one way or the other."

In October 2008, Shahnaz Ali, a research assistant at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Kolkata, collected blood samples from 53 subjects from Malihabad. "This is a fascinating subject," says Ali, who is likely to be sponsored by the Israeli government to begin her tests at the Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, in May 2009.

What makes Malihabad and Qayamganj's Afridi Pathans important subjects of study is also the fact that the other, much larger concentration of their kind, in Afghanistan and Pakistan (where they make large parts of the Taliban) is unavailable for any academic inquiry.

Three other groups in India - the Kashmiris, the Benei Menashe of the Northeast and the Benei Ephraim (Madigas) of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, claim descent from Israel's lost tribes. Of these, the Benei Menashe (Chin, Lushai and Kuki tribes of Mizoram and Manipur) were studied by CFSL, a study that did not make the cut with the Israeli scientific establishment that objected to the gene sequencing methods employed. That makes the Afridi Pathans only the second such group to be scientifically studied.

The search for Israel's lost tribes is much more than a tantalizing secret that has lured the world for centuries. Backing it is a Biblical prophecy that holds that apocalypse will be triggered when the lost tribes return to Israel, while legal sanction is provided by Israel's Law of Return, 1950, that gives every Jew (practicing or otherwise), anywhere in the world, the right to return to Israel and gain Israeli citizenship.

If that were to happen and people of Israelite descent from far flung corners of the world were indeed to return home, the socio-political ramifications would be massive. Aryeh Gallin, Founder and President of the Root and Branch Association Limited, a 27 year old Israel-based volunteer organisation working to better relations between Israel and the world, believes that the research has the potential for "critical and positive impacts on the geo-political situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir and India", besides serving as a "powerful spiritual counterforce and antidote to the Taliban/Deobandi/Salafi/Wahabi poison."

"The reunion of Muslim Pathans and Jews will be a catalyst in reconciliation between Muslims and Jews worldwide, between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Pakistan, and will have as one of many additional side effects a positive influence on relations between Muslims and Hindus in India," says Gallin, who is part of the large and growing band of lost tribe enthusiasts.

Some critics point out that this search is merely a clever trick to lure poor from the world over to feed the growing ranks of soldiers pushed into service for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as to swell the country's pool of cheap labour.

But for Qavi Kamal Khan (93), the oldest living Afridi Pathan of Malihabad, the suggestion that he could be of Israelite descent is simply an abomination. "Bahut burri qaum hai (It is a very bad community)," he says.

His criticism, like those of most other Indian Muslims flows from a strong disapproval of Israel's conflict with Palestine. The fact that Aafreedi, who has made the claim, is Khan's nephew holds for little. "No other authority has said that. I do not want to be a Yehudi (Jew), I am an Afridi Pathan," Khan says with obvious pride for being part of a community that among other greats has produced India's third president Dr. Zakir Husain and Ghaus Muhammad Khan, the first Indian to reach the Wimbledon's quarter finals in 1939.

The possibilities held out by the research have begun to attract tour operators to explore a "Jewish circuit", with Malihabad at its centre.

Aafreedi builds a cautious defense for his research. "No historian can ever say his work will be definitive for all times to come. But all the evidence that we have so far, convinces me." If science were to back that conviction, Malihabad might well be forced out of its slumber.

Roots Researcher

2009-03-10T10:56:00.000-07:00

Vidya Pandit, Education World, 4 February 2009

The doctoral thesis of Lucknow-based Navras Jaat Aafreedi (31), on the possible Jewish ancestry of Afridi Pathans, has become one of the most widely discussed works on lost tribes of humanity in recent times.

Aafreedi's research (The Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India, 2006) draws from ancient Persian and Jewish texts, and existing customs and beliefs of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad (27 kms from Lucknow), to suggest they could be descendants of the Ephraim, one of the tribes driven out of northern Israel in 721 BC by Assyrians. Ten tribes were banished from Israel at that time, and as they moved and merged with larger populations they were lost to the world.

Himself an Afridi Pathan, the motivation behind Aafreedi's research study was personal and academic. "In part the study was an investigation into my own roots," says Aafreedi, an alumnus of La Martiniere Boys college and Lucknow University. It is the first anthroplogical research conducted in India and was instrumental in getting Aafreedi a post-doctoral position in the Graduate School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University in 2007, following the award of a scholarship from the government of Israel.

Aafreedi's thesis is that Afridi Pathans travelled with the conquering armies of Ahmad Shah Abdali and Bakhtiyar Khilji between 1202 AD and 1761 AD. To curry favour with India's non-Pathan rulers of the time, they suppressed their ethnicity and gradualy lost their cultural moorings. The study is important as the other, much larger concentration of Afridi Pathans, in Afghanistan and Pakistan (where they provide the jihadi foot soldiers of the Taliban), is inaccessible for academic enquiry.

Inevitably, given that Afridi Pathans are among the world's most militant Islamists, criticism of Aafreedi's work has come from within his own family, with his 93-year-old paternal uncle Qavi Kamal Khan accusing him of using his research to "get cheap publicity".

Beyond the family circle, research on lost tribes is also being slammed as a Zionist conspiracy to lure poor people around the world into Israel, to swell the ranks of Israeli soldiers required to sustain the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Such suspicions are fuelled by Israel's Law of Return, 1950, which gives every person of Jewish origin worldwide, rights of residence and Israeli citizenship.

Scientific validation of Aafreedi's work can come from genetic testing. Last October, Shahnaz Ali, a Research Assistant at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata collected blood samples from 53 paternally unrelated males from Malihabad. In May, she will begin testing the samples at the Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, sponsored by the Israeli government.

If they indeed prove the Jewish origins of the Afridi Pathans, Aafreedi's doctoral research thesis could well catalyse a rapprochement in the war-torn Middle East.

ד"ר נבראס ג'אאט אפרידי

2008-07-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

מחבר הספר "יהודי הודו ושבטי ישראל האבודים שבהודו, ד"ר נבראס ג'אאט אפרידי מלקנאו הוא חוקר בנושא לימודים הודים-יהודים. את הדוקטורט שלו קיבל מאוניברסיטת לקנאו בשנת 2005 ואת המשך לימודיו סיים באוניברסיטת תל אביב. ד"ר אפרידי הוא מרצה מבוקש בארה"ב, ישראל והודו, והוא הראשון שחוקר את הקשר בין שפת האורדו – השגורה על רוב המוסלמים בדרום יבשת אסיה – לבין השפה העברית. כעת עובד ד"ר אפרידי במרכז ללימודי תקשורת ופיתוח שבעיר פונה, הדוגל בשינוי חברתי מתוך ידע ותקשורת בין אישית, בתוכנית הידועה בשם "מרחב פתוח".
התעניינותו בעולם היהודי נבעה מתוך ששבטו – האפרידים – הוכרו על ידי חוקרים כצאצאיהם של בני שבט אפרים. זו מסורת עתיקה שמקובלת בין שבטי הפטאנים\פשטונים\פחטונים. כוונתו של ד"ר אפרידי להקדיש את חייו להמשך הקשר היהודי-הודי

Rabbi William Kloner's Message

2008-03-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, Israel with the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in distant background

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem, Israel

The Truth, January 5, 2007, Vol. XCV, No. 2787

The scientific discovery of DNA in establishing beyond doubt the identity of an individual has revolutionized the solving of criminal cases. Criminals have been convicted who would have escaped the consequence of their evil deeds. DNA has come to the rescue of innocent victims of the law, even escaping capitol punishment. Yes, we rejoice that DNA has become a major player in the cause of justice.

DNA has been introduced into the long standing discussion and debate, “Who is a Jew”. Defining Jewishness has been critical in determining who has the right to become a citizen of Israel. The rabbinical establishment in Israel still holds sway in defining Jewishness according to their religious criteria. Long standing rabbinic communal contentions will be saved for a future message.

Novel claims of Jewishness have been brought to the fore by the introduction of DNA. About six years ago, a Mr. Haedrich, a Christian, while plodding through the Auschwitz Concentration Camp Memorial was struck, as he put it, by the “serendipitous feeling” that he might be Jewish. To satisfy this urge, this “epiphany” bordering apparently on obsession, he resorted to a DNA testing procedure. It confirmed he did indeed conform genetically to a “pedigree of Ashkenazi Polish Jews”. On the basis of his DNA report, Mr. Haedrich, a 44 year old successful nursing home director, applied for citizenship in the state of Israel under the Law of Return. Pleading his cause, Mr. Haedrich took out ads in Israeli and United States papers. He established “The Jewish by DNA Research Institute” to help others claiming to be Jewish on biological grounds. Though one might marvel that Mr. Haedrich would claim his “DNA biological Jewishness” in seeking Israeli citizenship, one would think he could resolve the issue and achieve his “Jewish goal” by simply converting. “As a matter of principle,” replied Mr. Haedrich, he will not convert because “he is already Jewish”.

Not surprisingly, the Israeli government denied his petition on the grounds that DNA does not prove Jewish identity. Nevertheless, Mr. Haedrich remains undeterred in his battle for “DNA Jewishness”.

Apparently, the DNA Jewish “epiphany” has not been restricted to a Christian from California, Mr. Haedrich. As far away as northern India, there has arisen the genetic link proposed by Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi. He has researched a link between Muslim Aafreedi Pathans and one of the 10 lost Tribes of Israel. Dr. Aafreedi has pursued this improbable genetic link in a scientific manner as a PhD researcher at the Tel Aviv University. He has pursued the possible Israelite decent among certain Indian Muslim groups. Dr. Aafreedi’s published work proposes that 650 out of 1500 members of his tribe may possess genetic material shared by 40 percent of Jews worldwide. How dramatic is the academic claim based on genetic DNA, that an Indian Moslem clan, no less, is the possible lost tribe of Ephraim?

Whereas the Christian Mr. Haedrich from California found his Jewish “epiphany” in Auschwitz, Dr. Aafreedi, a PhD historian, was introduced to his “Jewishness” by an uncle who told him as a child of their family and tribal connection to the Israelites. Tribal descendants, after settling in a hostile Muslim environment, lost their traditions. Surely, Dr. Aafreedi has aroused a Jewish DNA hornet’s nest, the stinging emissions of which he must surely have anticipated. Muslims being told they are really, Israelites, Jewish? Stinging remarks from “Moslem Jews” were ready at hand. “There were those who looked at my research as a Zionist conspiracy against Islam, said Dr. Aafreedi. “They felt I was trying to deprive Islam of its bravest followers by converting them to Judaism, attempting to convince them their Jewish heritage was just another forum of conversion”.

This “DNA Jewish” factor is an irony touched with humor, but the more serious aspects of “Who is a Jew” and the genetic factor will be explored further in a later Truth issue. In the meantime, some Jewish humor makes a subtle but significant point. A Jewish business executive on a trip to Japan, as was his practice in New York, sought out a Japanese synagogue for his Sabbath observance. Happily, he found a wonderful Sabbath service, the Hebrew and the ritual just like his service at home with one exception. All the worshippers were oriental in appearance with excellent Hebrew recitation and participation. Wishing to introduce himself as a Jew from New York City, he approached the rabbi. The rabbi gladly wished him a “good Shabos” and remarked, “Strange you don’t look Jewish.”

आम ही नहीं, आफरीदी भी

2008-03-16T02:37:00.000-07:00

येरुशलम में डॉ नवरस आफरीदी

फर्जंद अहमद, इंडिया टुडे , १० अक्टूबर २००६

एक नौजवान शोधकर्ता ने इसराइल की धरती से कभी गायब हुए एक कबीले के वंशजों को उत्तर प्रदेश की राजधानी लखनऊ से सेट धूल-ढूस्रीत कस्बे में खोज निकाला

इस ज़माने में भी बदल (बदला) , नन्वातई (शरण) अउर मेल्मास्ताया (मेजबानी) नाम के तीन शब्दों से परिभाषित होने वाली अपनी आन-बाण-शान को बचाने के लिए जीने-मरने वाले आफ्रीदियों के विचित्र संसार में आपका स्वागत है। ये लडाकू पठान क़बायली अफगानिस्तान- पाकिस्तान की सीमा पर फैले किसी ऊबड़-खाबड़ इलाके में नहीं, बल्कि नवाबी लख न ऊ के बाहरी हिस्से में बसे छोटे से कस्बे मलीहाबाद में रहते हैं, जो दुनिया भर में अपने मीठे तथा खुशबूदार दशहरी आम और उर्दू तथा फारसी की बहतरीन शायरी के लिए प्रसिद्ध है। इस धूल-ढूस्रीत कस्बे में घुसते ही बाब-ऐ-गोया नाम का एक विशाल तोरण द्वार आपका स्वागत करेगा। इसका यह नाम मशहूर योद्धा और शायर गोया के नाम पर है । कुछ ही फर्लांग दूर कसर-ऐ-गोया नामक २०० साल पुराना महल है। इसके लान में क़दम रखते की अस सलाम अले कउम की द्रिड आवाज़ आती है । लंबे, ९१ वर्षीय कवि कमाल खान अपने दीवान से उठकर खड़े हो जाते हैं और "सैफ- ओ - कलम की धरती पर आपका स्वागत है" कहते हुए हाथ मिलाते हैं। वह अवध के निवासी नहीं लगते। उन्हें देखकर यह भी नहीं लगता की उनकी उम्र ढल रही है। कस्बे के आफरीदी पठानों में से यह खान बड़े गर्व से याद करते हैं, "मैंने सूना है की हमारे पुरखे इसराइल के थे , पर हम यहूदी नहीं, आफरीदी हैं।"

दरअसल , यह सब पहले उन्हें परी कथाओं जैसा लगता था। पर एक गहन अध्धयन ने लगभग यह स्थापित कर दिया है की बहुत कम आबादी वाले आफरीदी पठान इज्राईलीयों के वंशज हैं। एक नौजवान नवरस आफरीदी के किए इस अध्धयन में , जिसे दा इंडियन ज्यूरी एंड दा सेल्फ-प्रोफेस्द लौस्त त्रैब्ज़ ऑफ इज्रैल नाम से ई-बुक के रूप में प्रकाशित किया गया है , इस बात की पुष्टी की गयी है की खान जिसे परी कथा समझते थे, वह हकीकत है। शोध के अनुसार, आफरीदी पठान इसराइल के लुप्त कबीलों में से एक के वंशज हैं। नवरस कहते हैं, "शोध का मुख्य उद्देश्य आफरीदी पठानों की वंश परम्परा को खोजने के अलावा मुसलमानों और यहूदियों के सम्बंदों के मिथक का पता लगाना था। अपने लंबे अध्धयन से में इस निष्कर्ष पर पहुंचा की यहूदियों के प्रति मुसलमानों की घृणा या मुसलमानों के प्रति यहूदियों की घृणा ज्यादातर सुनी-सुनाई बातों पर आधारित है।" नवरस यह दावा भी करते हैं की दूसरे कई देशों में अपने सह्धार्मियों के विपरीत भारत के यहूदियों की स्थिति कुल मिलाकर सुखद है। भारत में यहूदियों के ३४ धर्मस्थल हैं, जिनमें से कईयों के प्रभारी मुसलमान हैं, जबकी मुम्बई में मुसलमान लड़कियों के लिए बने शैक्षिक संस्थान अंजुमन-ऐ-इस्लाम की प्रिन्सेपल यहूदी महिला थीं।darasl

नवरस का अध्धयन रोचक और कुछ हद तक मार्को पोलो के डिस्क्रिप्शन ऑफ़ डी वर्ल्ड की तरह प्रमाणिक है । पाकिस्तान के सरहदी सूबों में रहने वाले निष्ठुर पठानों तथा उत्तर प्रदेश के मलीहाबाद (लख न ऊ) व कायमगंज (फर्रुखाबाद) के आफरीदी पठानों से इसराइल के नाते पर नवरस के सीमित विवरण को लेकर देर-सवेर बहस ज़रूर होगी । खासकर ऐसे समय में जब यहूदियों और मुसलमानों के बीच घृणा नए दौर में प्रवेश कर रही है। जामिया मिल्लिया इस्लामिया में इतिहास विभा के पूर्व अध्ध्यक्ष डॉ एस एन सिन्हा और लख न ऊ विश्व विद्यालय के मध्य यौगीन एवं आधुनिक भार्तिये इतिहास विभाग के अध्ध्यक्ष डॉ वी दी पांडे जैसे सरीखे इतिहासकारों और विद्वानों ने नवरस के अध्धयन को भारत के यहूदियों और उत्तर प्रदेश में उनके संपर्कों पर महत्त्व पूर्ण शोध माना है ।

यह अध्यन महज़ सिध्धान्तों और पाठ्य पुस्तकों की कहानियों पर आधारित नहीं है। निश्चित निष्कर्ष पर पहुँचने के लिए नवरस एक अंतर्राष्ट्रीय शोध दल बनाया , जिसमें सेंटर ऑफ़ नीयर एंड मिडल ईस्ट स्टडीज़ , लंदन यूनिवर्सिटी और रूस की भाषा वैज्ञानिक एवं इतिहासकार डॉ युलिया एगोरोवा को शामिल किया गया। आफ्रीदियों की इज्राएली वंश-परम्परा की पुष्टी के लिए इस दल ने मलीहाबाद की यात्रा की और पेट्रिक रूप से असम्भद्ध ५० आफरीदी पुरषों के डी एन ऐ नमूने लिए ।

अध्धयन से यह रहस्योद्घाटन हुआ है की कई मुसलमान समूह ख़ुद को इसराइल के कबीलों से जोड़ते हैं। बा ई बिल के मुताबिक , इसराइल (इब्राहिम के पोते याकूब का दूसरा नाम) के १२ कबीले थे, जो दो राज्यों में विभाजित थे - १० कबीलों वाला उत्तेरी राज्य , जिसका नाम इसराइल ही रहने दिया गया, और दक्षिणी राज्य। ईसा पूर्व ७३३ और ७२१ में इसराइल को तहस-नहस कर वहाँ के कबीलों को खदेड़ दिया गया । बाद में इन दस कबीलों को लुप्त मान लिया गया। लेकिन लुप्त कबीलों में से चार को भारत में पाया गया है। यह हैं आफरीदी, शिन्लुंग (पूर्वोत्तर भारत), युदु (कश्मीर) और गुंटूर के गैर-मुस्लिम कबीले । बहादुर योद्धा आफ्रीदियों को पठान, पख्तून और अफगान कहा जाता है और वे सफ़ेद कोह (अफगानिस्तान) तथा पेशावर (पाकिस्तान) की सीमायों के बीच ऊबड़-खाबड़ इलाकों में रहते हैं । इतिहासकारों का मानना है की अफगान इसराइल (याकूब) के वंशज हैं , लेकिन उनका नाम लुप्त कबीलों की सूची में दाल दिया गया । शोध के मुताबिक , पैगम्बर मुहमद के जीवन काल (६२२ ईसवी) में इसराइल के एक दर्जन काबाइली सरदारों कोण इस्लाम में दीक्षित किया गया और जब उन्हें प्रताडित किया जाने लगा टू वह पलायन कर गए, दूरी तरफ़ , कुछ अफान-पठानों का विश्वास है की वह इब्राहीम की दूसरी पत्नी बीबी कटोरा के वंशज हैं और उनके ६ बेटे तूरान (उत्तरी-पश्चिमी ईरान) में जाकर बस गए।

इस तरह वह इस शेत्र में आ गए जिसे उतर-पश्चिमी सीमा प्रांत और अफगानिस्तान के रूप में जाना जाता है। यही नहीं , वह ख़ुद में कानों भी बन गए , तूरान में आने और फिर आगे बढ़ने पर उन्हें फारसी में आफ्रीदन कहा गया, जिसका अर्थ 'नया आया हुआ शख्स' होता है । इस तरह उन्हें आफरीदी की उपाधी मिली । कई आफरीदी पठान अभी भी शबात और जन्म के ठीक आंठवें दिन खतना जैसी यहूदी परम्परा का पालन करते हैं।

मलीहाबाद में पठान आबादी १२०२ ईसवी में बसी थी , जब मुहम्मद बख्तुइयार खल्जी के हमले के बाद बख्तियार नगर बसाया गया। लेकिन ज्यादातर पठान आबादी १७वीन् शताब्दी के मध्य के लगभग आई आई और हर प्रवासी कुनबे ने मलीहाबाद के आस-पास १०-१२ गाँवों पर कब्जा कर लिया । मलीहाबाद में प्रवासी पठानों , खासकर आफ्रीदियों की सबसे बड़ी लहर एक शाब्दी बाद १७४८ और १७६१ के बीच अहमद शाह अब्दाली के ५ हमलों के दौरान आई । सं १७६१ में उन्होंने पानीपत की तीसरी लड़ाई में मराठों को हरा दिया । उस समय अवध शिया नवाबों के आधीन था , जो नजफ़ के विख्यात सैय्यद परिवार के वंशज थे। मलेहाबाद और कायमगंज के कई इज्राएली - आफरीदी तलवार और कलम के बल बल पर काफ़ी मशहूर हुए। उन्होंने युद्ध, राजीती , साहित्य और खेलकूद में भी काफ़ी नाम कमाया। भारत के त्रितिये राष्ट्रपति और जामिया millia इस्लामिया के संस्थापक इज्राएली पठन डॉ जाकिर हुसैन फर्रुखाबाद के थे, इसी तरह मलीहाबाद के शायर और अवध के दरबारी, फौज के कमांडर तथा खैराबाद के गवर्नर नवां फकीर मुहम्मद खान 'गोया', बागी शायर जोश मलीहाबादी , टेनिस खिलाडी गॉस मुहमद खान और रंग कर्मी , लेखक व शायर अनवर नदीम पर इस इलाके को गर्व है। ख़ुद को बनी इसराइल(इसराइल की संतान) कहने वाले इज्राएली पठान अलीगढ और संभल में बस आये, अलीगढ़ के मौजूदा काजी मुहम्मद अजमल भी इज्राएली मूल के हैं।

कई लोगों का मानना है की युवा विद्वान् नवरस का अध्धयन मलीहाबाद के अनुवांशिक-ऐतिहासिक शोध में मील का पत्थर साबित हो सकताहै जो उसे इसराइल के कई लुप्त कबीलों के ज़माने से जोदेगा। बहरहाल , लखनऊ के एक कोने में यह कड़ी पायी गई है।

तलाश अपनी जड़ों की

2008-03-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

डॉ नवरस आफरीदी कुब्बतुस्सख्रा की मस्जीद के सामने येरूशलम, इसराइल में

मलीहाबाद को इसराइल से जोड़ता है एफ्राइम कबीला

अपराजीता श्रीवासतव, सिटी, हिंदुस्तान, लखनऊ, २४ अप्रैल, २००६

अगर कोई एक दम से पूछ बैठे की लखनऊ और इसराइल में कोई नाता है या नहीं. टू हम में से ज्यादातर लोगों का जवाब होगा 'नहीं'. थोडा रुकिए नाता टू है. इसराइल के लुप्त्प्राये कबीले 'एफ्राइम' की खासी आबादी आज अपने मलिहाबाद में है. इस हैरातान्गेज़ राज़ को खोला है अपने शहर के एक युवक ने. उस युवा ने इस विषय पर गहन शोध किया है. नवरस आफरीदी का शोध अपराजिता श्रीवास्तव की कलम से।

मलीहाबाद में, अपनी दीलेरी और जानबाजी के लिए मशहूर , आफरीदी पठानों की छोटी सी आबादी रहती है । आफरीदी पठान मूल रूप से अफ्घान-पाक सीमा के पर्वतिये इलाके के रहने वाले हैं । १७६१ के कुछ दशक पहले आफरीदी पठान यहाँ आ बसे । आज हालत यह हैं की यह अपनी बुनियाद, अपनी जड़ों से बेखबर हैं । यह लोग ख़ुद भी नहीं जानते की वे दुनिया के किस कोने से तालुक रखते हैं। अपनी जड़ों से हजारों किलोमीटर दूर बसे इन लोगों का इतिहास खोजा है नवरस आफरीदी ने । नवरस लखनऊ विश्वविद्यालय में शोध छात्र हैं । नवरस आफरीदी के रीसर्च में निकल कर सामने आया है की यह आफरीदी पठान वास्तव में में इसराइल का लुप्त कबीला इफ्राइम है।

नवरस के शोध 'भार्तिये यहूदी तथा भारत में इसराइल के लुप्त कबीले' में यह तथ्य उजागर हुए की ७२१ ईसा पूर्व में असीरियाई हमले के कारन इफ्राइम सहित दस कबीलों को इसराइल छोड़ना पडा। इसके बाद यह कबीले , यहाँ के लोग कहाँ गए किसी को कुछ नहीं मालूम था । इस शोध में यह बात सामने आयी की असीरियाई हमले के बाद इस कबीले के कुछ लोग अफ्घान-पाक सीमा के पर्वतिये इलाके में आ बसे । दस्तावेज़ इस और इशारा करते हैं की मलीहाबाद में पठान टैब से रह रहे हैं जब सं १२०२ के आस-पास मुहम्मद बख्तियार खल्जी के नाम पर बख्तियार्नगर गाँव बसा था । वैसे अधिकतर पठान आबादी १७वीं शताब्दी के दौरान यहाँ आए। सं १७४८ से १७६१ के बीच अहमद शाह अब्दाली की हमलों के दौरान आफरीदी पठान सैनीक भारत आए और यहाँ के होकर रह गए । जब वे भारत के घैर-पठान मुसलमान इलाकों में आकर बसे टू उन्होनें यही उचित समझा की अपने इजराइली अतीत का उल्लेख ना करें / परिणाम स्वरूप उनकी आगामी नस्लें अपनी इज्राएली उत्पत्ति से अनजान की रह गयी ।

अपने शोध को पुख्ता करने के लिए नवरस ने ५० अलग-अलग आफरीदी पठान परिवारों के पुरषों के ड़ी एन ऐ इकखट्टे कीए । इन पर लंदन के एक अनुसंधान केन्द्र में विश्लीशन हो रहा है। आफरीदी पठानओं के इज्राएली सम्भंद को ड़ी एन ऐ की सहायता से सामने लाने के लिए नवरस ने लंदन विश्व विद्यालय के यहूदी इतिहास के प्रोफेसर टुदोर पार्फीट तथा रूस की भाषा विद व इतिहासकार डॉ युलिया एगोरोव के साथ एक अन्तर राष्ट्रीय शोध दल का गठन कीया ।

आफरीदी पठानों के इज्राएली जुडाव को सामने लाने वाले डॉ नवरस आफरीदी ख़ुद आफरीदी पठान हैं। नवरस बताते हैं, "जब में १२ साल का था टैब मेरे ताऊ ने मुझे बताया था की बहुत सम्भव है की हम इज्राएली मूल के आफरीदी पठान हैं । बस तभी मैंने यह फैसला कर लिया था की अपनी जड़ों का पता ज़रूर लगाऊँगा । नवम्बर २००२ में मध्य कालीन व आधुनिक भार्तिये इतिहास वीभाग के अध्यक्ष प्रोफेसर वी ड़ी पांडे के नीरदेशन में अपना शोध शुरू किया। इसे पूरा होने में तीन साल लग गए । २००५ में में नवरस को पी एच ड़ी की उपाधी प्रदान की गयी । उत्तर प्रदेश में आफरीदी पठान मुख्य रूप से मलीहाबाद और फर्रुखाबाद जीले की कायमगंज तहसील में रहते हैं । इसके अलावा रामपुर, शाहजहांपुर, मुरादाबाद, बदायूं और हरदोई जीले में शाहाबाद में भी इनकी कुछ आबादी रहती है।

नवरस से पहले इस शोध में उनके सहयोगी प्रोफेसर पारफीट मुम्बई, पूने, थाने, और अहमदाबाद में रह रहे ४,००० बेनी इसराइल का सम्भंद यहूदियों से साबीत कर चुके हैं । डॉ पारफीट का नाम अफ्रीका के लुप्त कबीले लिम्बा और यमन के प्राचीन नगर 'सेना' को खोजने के लिए भी लिया जाता है । पारफीट ने जेनेटिक शोधों के ज़रिये दवा किया है की वास्तव में मराठी यहूदी हजरत मूसा के भाई ऐरन के वंशज हैं । दुनिया भर में छोटी-छोटी आबादी में रह रहे यहूदियों को खोज नीकआलने का काम आज से क़रीब १२-१३ साल पहले शुरू हो चुका है । १९९३ में येरुशलम रिपोर्ट में एक लेख प्रकाशित हुआ जिस में पठानों की इज्राएली सम्भंद में गहन अध्यन था। इसके अलावा २००२ में अमेरीकी फ़िल्म निर्माता सिम्खा याकोवित्सी को पठानों की इज्राएली उत्पत्ती पर बने वृत्त चित्र लिए एमी पुरस्कार प्रदान किया गया । इसके अलावा स्कूल ऑफ ओरिएण्टल एंड अफ्रीकन स्टडीज़ , लंदों में आफरीदी पठानों का इज्राएली सम्भंद स्थापीत करने के लिए शोध चल रहा है। येरुशलम में बेन-ज्वी अनुसंधान से प्राप्त इसराइल के दूसरे राष्ट्रपती और विश्वविख्यात इतिहासकार यिजाक बेन-ज्वी की वर्ष १९५७ की प्रकाशित पुस्तक 'द एक्जैलेद एंड दा रीडीम्द' में ऐसी एक दर्जन से अधीक यहूदी परम्पराओं और रस्मों के बारे में ज़िक्र किया है जो आफरीदी पठानों में में प्रचलित हैं।

इसराइल में दुनिया भर में बसे यहूदियों को अपने वतन, अपने लोगों के बीच वापस बुलाने के लिए घर वापसी का कानून बनाया है। इसके बाद वहाँ के कई घैर-सरकारी संगठनों ने मलीहाबाद सहित भारत के अन्य इलाकों में रह रहे आफरीदी पठानों के वंशजों को निमंत्रण पत्र भेजा है

इसराइल के लुप्त कबीलों और यहूदियों को खोजने व उन्हें अपने पूर्वजों की भूमि लौटाने का आमंत्रण देने वाली इज्राएली संस्था आमीशाव ने मलीहाबाद के कई लोगों को उनकी वर्तमान स्थीती से एक पायेदान ऊपर अपने समाज में स्थापित करने का भरोसा दिलाते हुए 'घर-वापसी' का संदेश भेजा है।

तेल अवीव युनीव्र्सीती ने डॉ आफरीदी को आमंत्रित कीया है इज्रईली मूल के मुसलमानों पर पोस्ट-डोक्तोरल रीसर्च के लिये। भारत के मानव वीकआस मंत्रालय ने स्कोलार्शीप के लिए मनोनीत कीया है।

Megkerult Efraim torzse? [Turkish]

2008-03-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Pathan ferfi

A nyomok Indiába vezetnek

http://www.ujexodus.hu/index.php?cikk=840

Egy indiai történész genetikai kapcsolatot talált saját észak-indiai törzse, a jelenleg muzulmán vallású afridi pathanok és Izrael tíz szétszóródott törzsének egyike között. Aafreedi tanulmánya szerint az afridi pathan törzs 1500 tagjából 650-nek olyan a genetikai állománya, amilyen a zsidóság negyven százalékának világszerte. Ha ez megerősítést nyer, akkor ezek a leletek bizonyíthatják az Efraim törzsével való rokonságot. Aafreedi doktori disszertációjához készítette a kutatást, de személyes indítékok is vezették. Gyermekkorában nagybátyja beszélt neki arról, hogy törzsük rokon az izraelitákkal. A történész magát világi humanistának tartja, aki nincs előítélettel a zsidókat illetően, ám ez a fajta magatartás nem jellemző törzsére, amely jelenleg inkább ellenséges Izraellel és a zsidósággal szemben. A pathanok új generációi ugyanis az ellenséges iszlám közegben elveszítették ősi tradíciójukat. Származásuk szájhagyomány útján adódott át apáról fiúra, de ma már csak a vének emlékeznek rá. Michael Freund, a Jerusalem Post munkatársa és a szétszóródott zsidók Izraelbe való visszatérését segítő Sávé Jiszraél Alapítvány elnöke szerint a pathanok asszimilációja nem meglepő: az iszlám fundamentalizmus mindent elkövetett, hogy kitörölje a pathanok emlékezetéből a zsidó gyökerek tudatát.

A Biblical Connection

2008-03-11T04:50:00.000-07:00

Dudu Landoy, Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi and Mosh Savir in Lucknow

Dudu Landoy and Mosh Savir from Israel (left) and Col. Ahuja (right) with Khalid Wali Khan (centre) flanked by Khan's two sons

Dudu Landoy and Mosh Savir from Israel and Col. Ahuja in conversation with Qavi Kamaal Khan, 93, the oldest Afridi Pathan of Malihabad

Lucknow's Tehsil Malihabad To Be Part of Jewish Tourist Circuit

Times News Network, The Times of India, Lucknow, March 11, 2008

Known for its delightful mangoes, Malihabad, situated 25 km from the state capital, is all set to become a part of the Jewish tourist circuit in the country.

The tehsil houses 650 Afridi Pathans believed to be decedents of one of the ten lost Biblical Israelite tribes. The fact has prompted two leading Israeli travel companies to market Malihabad as a tourist destination for Jewish community world over with the theme “The Lost Tribe Challenge”.

As a first step in this direction, Mosh Savir of Shai Bar Ilan Geographical Tours and Dudu Landau of Eretz Ahavati Nature Tours recently toured Malihabad along with Indian tour operator Col SP Ahuja to conduct a ground survey for facilitating the first “theme tour”, expected in November 2008.

The tours will showcase the lifestyle of Afridi Pathans and include
dialogue between the natives and the visitors in addition to sightseeing, lectures and exposure to local handicraft such as Chikan and Zardozi.

Malihabad is also the birth place of famous Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi, who was also an Afridi Pathan. Another illustrious Afridi Pathan from Malihabad is Ghaus Mohammed Khan, first Indian to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1939.

The tour will also include Qayamganj in Farrukhbad district of UP. Qayamaganj has produced famous Afridi Pathan like Zakir Husain, India’s third President. While Afridi Pathans are Muslims, some of their old customs have slight resemblance with Israeli traditions.

“We have no intention of preaching Judaism. The expedition will help our people understand, enjoy and appreciate different cultural customs, practices and folklores,” explained Dudu Landau. Mosh Savir, on the other hand, felt that it will also increase the demand for special interest tourism.

History has it that the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel were exiled by the Assyrians invaders in 721 BC. It is also believed that some of the descendants of the tribes settled in India.

“Pathan tribes came to India between 1202 AD and 1761 AD along with Muslim and Afghani invaders and settled in different parts of the country. Afridi Pathans of Malihabad came from the North Western Frontier Province, now in Pakistan,” claimed Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Afridi Pathan himself, who has conducted a research which supports the theory of Jewish origin of the Afridis. “Afridi pathans are descedents of Ephraim Tribe, one of the lost tribes,” said Navras who was also a part of the ground survey.

However, today Afridi pathans are ignorant about their past and are averse to the idea of being linked with Jews. Hence there are apprehensions that such visits might invite opposition. But Navras says “India as a secular state provides Jews with an opportunity to understand Muslims closely which is not possible in Israel because of the Muslim-Jew confrontation”. For the last few years, Malihabad and Qayamganj have been centres of attraction for researchers interested in tracing lost tribes. In November 2002, a team headed by Prof Tudor Parfitt, director of the Centre of Jewish Studies, London University, had visited Malihabad to collect DNA samples of Afridi Pathans in order to confirm their putative Israeli descent. The results are still awaited. Eyal Beeri, from Lander Institute, Jerusalem had visited Malihabad in October 2007.

Apart from Malihabad and Qayamganj, the theme tours will also take tourists to areas inhabited by Bnei Menashes in Manipur and Mizoram. Beni Menashe is the name adopted by people who earlier belonged to Kuki, Chin and Lushai tribes of Northeast but now have embraced Judaism as they believe that they are decedents of Menashe, one of the lost Israelite tribes. In Hebrew, Beni Menashe means children of Menashe. Around 1,000 out of over 8,000 Beni Menashes of India have already settled in Israel.

बुलावा आ रहा है इसराइल से

2008-03-02T03:33:00.000-08:00

डॉ नवरस आफरीदी इज्राएली संसद के सामने राष्ट्रीय चिन्ह मनोराह के सामने येरूशलम, इसराइल में

योगेश मिश्र, आउटलुक साप्ताहिक, १० नवम्बर २००३

याद दिलाई जा रही है सदियों पहले के पुरखों की

अपने पुराने, बहुत पुराने बाशिंदों को वापस घर बुलाने की एक नई पहल शुरू की गई है. दुनिया भर में बिखरे इसराइल के इन मूल निवासियों में उर्दू के अजीम शायर पद्मभूषण जोश मलीहाबादी , १९३९ में विम्बिल्दों टेनिस टूर्नामेंट के कौर्टर फिनल तक पहुचने वाले पद्म श्री घुस मुहम्मद खान, आम के एक पेड़ में ३१५ प्रजातियाँ उगाने का कीर्तिमान स्थापित कर चुके हाजी कलीमुल्लाह खान और कभी बघ्बानी में खासा नाम कम चुके अब्दुल बारी खान के नाम अकेले उत्तर प्रदेश के मलिहाबाद से शामिल हैं. इसराइल में घर वापसी कानून लागू होने के बाद वहाँ के कई गैर-सरकारी संगठनों ने मलिहाबाद इलाके में रह रहे आफरीदी पठानों के वंशजों को विधिवत निमंत्रण पत्र भेजा है.

इन आफरीदी पठानों की इस्रेली पृष्ठभूमि की प्रमाणिकता जांचने-परखने के लिए लोंदों विश्व विद्यालय में यहूदी इतिहास के प्रोफेस्सर ९द्र० तुदोर पार्फित तथा रूस की भाषाविद और हिन्दी-उर्दू के अलावा कई एशियाई और एउरोपिये भाषाओं की ज्ञाता युलिया एगोरोव ने पिच्च्ले साल १४ नवम्बर को यहाँ का दौरा किया. इस दौरान इन लोगों ने डी.न.अ. जांच के लिए पचास विभिन आफरीदी परिवारों के पुरषों के नमूने लिए. डॉ पर्फित की ख्याति अफ्रीका के लुप्त कबीले लम्बा और यमन के प्राचीन नगर सेना को ढूँढ निकालने वाले के रूप में भी है. उनका मानना है की लाख नौ के समीप स्थित मलिहाबाद और फरुखाबाद के कायमगंज इलाके में रह रहे अल्प संख्यक समुदाये के लोग वस्तुतः इस्रेली मूल के यहूदी हैं. पर्फित ने जेनेटिक शोधों के ज़रिये दावा किया है की वास्तव में मराठी यहूदी हजरत मूसा के भाई एरों के वंशज हैं.

उर्दू शायर जोश मलीहाबादी के खानदान के नवरस आफरीदी ल ख नौ विश्व विद्यालय के मध्य युगीन और आधुनिक इतिहास विभाग से "भार्तिये यहूदी तथा भारत में इसराइल के लुप्त कबीले" विषये पर शोध कर रहे हैं. नवरस ने आउटलुक साप्ताहिक से कहा, "अपने पुरखों के बारे में जानने की तमन्ना के चलते हमने शोध के लिए यह विषय चुना." इसराइल के लुप्त कबीले और यहूदियों को खोजने और इन्हें अपनी पूर्व भूमि लौटने का आमंत्रण देने वाली इस्रेली संस्था आमिशाव ने नवरस और मलिहाबाद के कई लोगों को "वे जहाँ हैं, जिस स्थिति में हैं" उस से एक सीर्ही ऊपर अपने समाज में स्थापित करने का भरोसा दिलाते हुए घर वापसी का पैघाम भेजा है. १८ मार्च २००० को पेहली बार भेजे गए ख़त में कहा गया है की आफरीदी पठानों का मूल निवास स्थान अफ्घन-पक सीमा का पश्चिमी पर्वतिये इलाका है. पठानों का आफरीदी कबीला वास्तव में इफ्राइम है. इसराइल का एक लुप्त कबीला जिसे ७२२ ईसा पूर्व में असीरियाई आक्रमण के कारण इसराइल छोड़ना पड़ा और जो समय के साथ खो गया. कुछ आफरीदी पठान १७६१ ईसवी में पानीपत के तीसरे युद्ध में विजयी होने के बाद मलिहाबाद अ बसे. दो पन्ने के इस ख़त में इसराइल के दूसरे राष्ट्रपति और इतिहासकार यिजाक बेन जावी की एक दर्जन से अधिक पुस्तकों के दृष्टांत भी दिए गए हैं. इसमें यिजाक बेन ज्वी की पुस्तक डी एक्जैल्ड एंड डी रिदीम्द के पृष्ठ २०९ से २१९ तक का हवाला देते हुए बताया गया है की आफरीदी पठानों का मूल निवास इसराइल है और ये वास्तव में 'इफ्राइम' है.

इसके अलावा इसी काम में जुटी हुई एक अन्य संस्था 'बेत जूर' ने भी ७ जनवरी २००१ को घर वापसी की एक भावनात्मक अपील यहाँ के लोगों को घेजी है. इसराइल जा बसने की तमन्ना संजोये नवरस से इस्रेली संस्थाओं की काटो-किताबत जारी है. नवरस बताते हैं, "मैं जाना चाहता हो. मेरी प्रबल इच्छा है. अपनी जड़ों तक पहुँचने की तमन्ना किसे नहीं होती? और फिट मैं टू इतिहास का छात्र हूँ. लेकिन उनकी माँ इसके लिए बिल्कुल तय्यार नहीं हैं. वह चाहती हैं की उनका बेटा भारत में रहे. परन्तु दिलचस्प यह है की अपने बेटे को इसराइल ना भेजने के पीछे उनका तर्क है, "वहाँ बहुत असुरक्षा है." उधर शायर कवि कमल खान के नाती ने कहा, "अगर हमारा यहूदी साम्बअंध सिद्ध भी हो, टैब भी हममें इसराइल का ऐश्वर्या मंज़ूर नहीं." परन्तु लाख नौ विश्व विद्याला में पढ़ रही रौशनी मरियम कहती हैं, "सुनकर खुशी टू होती है की हमारे पूर्वज वहाँ से आए हैं. हमें वह स्थान देखकर प्रसन्नता ज़रूर होगी.

Looking for lost tribes of Israel in Malihabad

2008-01-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

Eyal Beeri with 92-year-old Qavi Kamal Khan, the oldest Afridi Pathan of Malihabad

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi in conversation with Eyal Beeri

92-year-old Qavi Kamaal Khan, the oldest Afridi Pathan/Pashtun of Malihabad

Ashish Tripathi, The Times of India, Lucknow, November 12, 2007

It was not just the delightful dussehri mangoes which made Eyal Beeri come all the way from Jerusalem to Malihabad, a township 25 kilometres from Lucknow. A librarian and student adviser in the Lander Institute of Jerusalem, the historian is the latest one to arrive in search of the lost tribes of Israel, which have brought many scholars from world over to India since ages. But Beeri’s visit is significant as he is the first Jew and Israeli to visit the Pathan settlement of Malihabad.

History has it that the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel were exiled by the Assyrians invaders in 721 BC. The tribes eventually went into oblivion with the passage of time. Since then efforts are being made to track them down. It is also believed that some of the descendants of the tribes settled in India. Afridi Pathans of Malihabad are said to be one of them. Prof Tudor Parfitt and Dr Yulia Egorova of London University had visited Malihabad in 2002 to take DNA samples of the Afridi Pathans to ascertain whether they had an Israeli lineage or not.

In league with the famous losttribes-explorers like Benjamin of Tudela and Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, Beeri arrived in India on September 16. During his three weeks expedition, he first visited Pathan settlements in Rajasthan. His second stop was Malihabad before leaving for Qayamganj in Farrukhabad. The purpose of his visit is to study the age-old customs and traditions of Pathans and find if they have any resemblance to the Israeli traditions. His objective was to educate the Pathans about Israel and to help them form relationship with
the Jewish community the world over.

“India fascinates me. I feel a positive energy inside me whenever I am here,” said Beeri recalling his earlier two visits. “My maternal grandfather had come from Baghdad to settle in Israel. He belonged to the famous Sassoon family of Jews, descendants of which are also settled in Mumbai. Perhaps this could be a reason why I feel at home in this country,” he said. Beeri is particularly interested in the lives and customs of the Muslim tribes. India provides him an opportunity to understand Muslims closely which is not possible in Israel because of the Muslim-Jew confrontation.

Beeri came across two Pathan tribes, Musakhel and Mohammedzai, living in villages around Jaipur and Ajmer. Some of the traditions followed by these tribes since ages have some resemblance, if not striking similarities, with that of Jews, he said. “One of the tribes had the custom of circumcising their male child six days after the birth. In Jews it is done eight days after the birth,” he said. “Pathans don’t eat camel meat, which is also forbidden for Jews. Like ‘Pathanwali’ in Pathans, Jews also have a code of conduct, ‘Torah Laws’, passed on from one generation to another,” he added.

In Malihabad, Beeri visited the family of Qavi Kamal Khan, now over 90-year-old and the eldest Afridi Pathan in the area. Khan was averse to the idea of being linked with Jews but he welcomed the Israeli guest with warmth. Beeri was escorted by a young research scholar Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Afridi Pathan himself, who has conducted a research which supports the theory of Jewish origin of the Afridis. In fact, Navras said, some historians believe that the word “Pathan” has been derived from “Pithon”, the name of the great grandson of King Saul, the first King of Israel. Navras elaborated that many Pathan tribes came to India between 1202 AD and 1761 AD along with Muslim and Afghani invaders and later settled in different parts of the country. “Afridi Pathans of Malihabad came from the Khyber tribe of the North Western Frontier Province, now in Pakistan. There are historical texts which support Jewish origin of the Afridi Pathans,” he claimed. “But today they are ignorant about their Jewish origin and have even forgotten their ancestral language. They speak in local dialects and have produced great Urdu poets like Josh Malihabadi,” he added.

Lectures at Mickve Israel, Savannah, Georgia on 14th and 15th December 2007

2007-12-16T06:29:00.000-08:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi with Rabbi Arnold Mark Belzer of Congregation Mickve Israel, Savannah, Georgia, and Mrs. Belzer at the synagogue

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi with Rabbi Arnold Mark Belzer, Founder & East Coast Director of the Sino-Judaic Institute at the Mickve Israel Congregation synagogue he is the rabbi of
http://www.mickveisrael.org/rabbi.htm

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi with the emblem of the Mickve Israel Congregation, founded in 1773, the third oldest in America
http://www.mickveisrael.org/index.htm

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi addressing the congregation

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi giving the lecture

Unexpected, Impassioned Student of Indian Jewry

2007-12-04T05:48:00.000-08:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi

Cynthia Dettelbach, ed., Cleveland Jewish News, November 30, 2007

http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2007/12/05/community/editor/odet1130.txt

The title of Navras Jaat Aafreedi’s lecture caught my eye: “Jewish Contributions to Indian Cinema.” It sounded like an academic variation on the old joke about “the elephant and the Jewish question” as if everything, no matter how far- fetched, has a Jewish connection.

Only this was no joke.

I spoke with Dr. Aafreedi by phone prior to his talk sponsored by the Judaic Studies Program and the Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies at Case Western Reserve University.

We touched on Indian cinema, the Jewish population of India, and perhaps most interesting of all, the attraction of the young Indian scholar to the subject of Jews.

His doctoral thesis, now an e-book, is titled The Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed “Lost Tribes of Israel" in India. While it is written in English, he has published numerous papers on Jewish themes in Urdu, the common language of almost all South Asian Muslims, the largest Muslim population in the world.

The Indian film industry, largest in the world today, produces 800 motion pictures annually. Knowing mostly of “Bollywood-style” films, I assumed that India was relatively new to the cinematic arts. Aafreedi quickly corrected my error. India, he noted, began making films roughly the same time as Hollywood, in the early years of the 20th century.

Indian cinema “owes a deep debt of gratitude to Indian Jewry,” he explains, because most of its earliest female actors came from the country’s Jewish community. At that time, acting was considered “demeaning” to Muslim women. “Jewish women were the first to break the taboo.” Prior to that, as in Shakespeare’s time, slim young men took the female parts.

The first Indian female star was a Jewish woman, Patience Cooper (1905-83). Her successor was Sulochana (b. Ruby Myers). Sulochana “changed the nature of Indian movies,” maintains Aafreedi. With her dark brown eyes and deep olive skin, she “fulfilled the criteria of ideal Indian beauty.” Further, in taking risks, she “encouraged other women, from other Indian communities, to take risks.”

Female actors in the early days of the Indian film industry came from the Baghdadi, one of the three distinct Jewish communities residing in India. Baghdadi, Aafreedi explains, is the “umbrella name” given to Jews from all over the Mideast who first settled in India in the 1830s. They’re newcomers on the block compared with the much larger B’nai or Bene Israel, who date from 175 B.C.E., when a shipwreck brought them to India. The smallest group is the Cochini, from Cochin, in the Indian state of Kerala.

Not surprisingly, the Baghdadi are the most liberal of the three Jewish groups, explains Aafreedi. They were also the most Anglicized of the three, wishing to identify with British society, rulers of India until 1947.

The Baghdadi adopted English as their mother tongue and never bothered to learn Hindi or any other Indian languages. When the talkies came to film, that ended their careers as actors!

Because of their Anglicized ways, the Baghdadi also had a “strained relationship” with the Bene Israel; the latter, although very “Indianized,” were strict adherents of Judaism. Acting was not the only arena in which Indian Jews made a difference, maintains Aafreedi. The Father of Indian animation was Ezra Mir (b. Edwin Myers) of Calcutta. Mir was also responsible in various capacities for over 700 documentaries.

India’s “foremost film journalist” was Bunny Rueben, who wrote for film magazines; he also produced a film. Rueben died just this year. Currently, says Aafreedi, not a single Jew is involved with Indian cinema, either as actor, writer or producer. I am intrigued that Aafreedi, whose mother taught Arabic culture and history at the local university and whose father is a poet and writer in the Urdu language, chose Jews for his area of study.

While his mother has always been supportive of his endeavors, he says, his friends “think I’m crazy because my research was my consuming passion.” Whenever he watched a film, listened to music, or read fiction, it had to be written or composed by Jews or be on a Jewish subject. “Small minorities and marginal groups have always interested me,” he explains. Jews, in particular, caught his attention “because of their achievements and because the Muslims of my hometown (Lucknow, in Uttar Pradesh) blame Jews for everything evil in the world.”

Although he is a pacifist, Aafreedi comes from people with “a warlike temperament”: the Pashtuns, who now fill the ranks of the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He thinks the Pashtun hatred for Jews is “explained by the fact that, according to the popular interpretation of the Koran, Jews are cursed until they convert. They also look at Israel as imperialist.”

Many Jewish and Muslim scholars, he adds, identify the Pashtun tribe, from whom Aafreedi’s family is descended, with Ephraim, one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Despite his heritage and scholarly interest, Aafreedi only met a Jew for the first time when he was doing research for his doctoral dissertation. (Among India’s population of 1.1 billion today, there are only 5,300 Jews.) Aafreedi then did post-doctoral work at Tel Aviv University.

The Indian scholar has unqualified praise for the Jewish people. “I admire them as much for their resilience as for their wisdom and scholarship,” he says. “For all these reasons, I chose this subject although I live in a country where Jewish studies is not available.”

Aafreedi’s goal is to make Jewish studies recognized as an academic discipline in Indian universities. He also wants to make the study of Jews “my lifelong vocation.”

At age 29, the handsome and voluble young scholar has many years ahead of him to accomplish his challenging and admirable goals. He recently spoke at the conference of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association conference and is lecturing in several American cities on his dissertation topic.

After that, in the time-honored pursuit of all Ph.D.s everywhere, he is looking for a teaching job.

Lecture Tour of the US: October 2007 - January 2008

2007-11-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi in San Diego, CA

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at the Millennium Park in Chicago

October 21, 2007: The Ninteenth Annual Conference of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association in Evanston, Illinois

http://www.case.edu/artsci/rosenthal/Program2007.doc

November 19, 2007: Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

http://www.case.edu/artsci/rosenthal/events.htm

December 14 and 15, 2007: Congregation Mickve Israel, Savannah, Georgia

January 26, 2008: Valley Beth Shalom, Encino, California

http://www.vbs.org/shabbaton/index.htm

January 27, 2008: Limmud- Community Day of Learning, San Diego, California

Goldberg Charitable Trust Adult Education Lectures

Mark Mann Memorial Fund Educator Lectures

The Agency for Jewish Education

Please refer to page 8 of the Limmud Brochure at the weblink below:

http://www.ajesd.org/Assets/pdf/limmud%20brochure.pdf

המוצא הקרוב לודאי של האפרידים הפתאנים במליהבאד משבטי ישראל

2007-11-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

חנן בלכמן

ממוקמת ב 26.92° צפונית ו 80.72° מזרחית מניו דלהי, 500 ק"מ מניו דלהי, העיירה מליהבאד ( במחוז לאקנו, על קו הרכבת ניו דלהי-וראנאסי, במדינת הודו הצפונית אוטר פראדש) , היא אחת מהיישובים הרבים של פזורת הפתאנים/פאחתונים/פאשטונים/אפגאנים בהודו ומחוצה לה.

31.8 מליון פתאנים עצמאיים וחזקים, היושבים במזרח אפגניסטן וצפון-מערב פקיסטן , מחולקים ל60 שבטים ו 400 משפחות, הם אנשים לוחמניים בעלי מסורת של מוצא משבטי ישראל. מבין יישוביהם בהודו,העיירה מליהבאד היא הכי חשובה ביותר עם 1,200 פתאנים , בעיקר משבט האפרידי, מתוך כלל האוכלוסייה של 16,840. שבט האפרידי הפתאני מזוהה עם אפרים, אחד מעשרת השבטים האבודים שהוגלו בשנת 721 לפני הספירה ע"י האשורים.הם התיישבו במליהבאד,הודו באמצע המאה ה-18.

האפרידים הפתאנים מחשיבים את עצמם כ"בַּאני ישראיל" (תרגום פשטוני/ערבי/פרסי ל"בני ישראל") ,למרות שאלו שהתיישבו בהודו איבדו במידה רבה את המסורת הזו על מוצאם כמו רבות מהמסורות האחרות שלהם, לדוגמה ריקוד ומוזיקה. מספר טקסטים פרסיים מימי הביניים ,מהמאה ה 13 עד ה 18, מתייחסים למוצאו הישראלי האפרידים הפתאנים . נשיאה השני של ישראל , יצחק בן-צבי בספרו " נדחי ישראל" (1963) ורבי אליהו אביחיל בספרו " שבטי ישראל" (1996) , מצטטים מספר עולים מאפגניסטן המעידים על שכיחות של הרבה פולחנים ומנהגים בקרב שבט האפרידים הפתאנים, דהיינו, הדלקת נרות בשבת,שמירת פיאות ארוכות , לבישת צעיף הדומה לטלית, מילה ביום השמיני ללידה וייבום.

בהתחשב במספר הנושאים שתומכים בטענה ששבט האפרידי הוא למעשה שריד של שבט אפרים האבוד, אין זה מפתיע למצוא שהמוסלמית היחידה בעולם שמלמדת תיאולוגיה יהודית באוניברסיטה מערבית הוא פתאנית אפרידית. זוהי פרופסור מהנאז מונה אפרידי מהמחלקה ללימודי תיאולוגיה, אוניברסיטת לויולה מרימאונט, לוס אנג'לס, קליפורניה.

דגימות ד.נ.א של 50 זכרים ללא קרבה מצד האב מעיירה מליהבאד נאספו ע"י ד"ר נבראס ג'אט אאפרידי יחד עם פרופסור תודור פראפיט (המרכז ללימודי אסיה , אפריקה והמזה"ת באוניברסיטת לונדון) וד"ר יוליה אגורובה ( אוניברסיטת קארדיף) עכשיו נבחנות ע"י ד"ר מארק תומאס וד"ר ניל בראדמן ביוניברסיטי קולג' לונדון. המוצא הישראלי המסתבר של השבט נחקר גם ע"י ד"ר אאפרידי בחוג להיסטוריה, אוניברסיטת תל אביב, בסיוע מלגת פוסט-דוקטורט ממשלת ישראל. ד"ר אפרידי מעוניין להמשיך במחקרו אם הוא יקבל מענק לשם כך בארה"ב.

ד"ר נבראס ג'אט אאפרידי הוא הפתאן הראשון בהיסטוריה לחקור את מוצאם של הפתאנים מעשרת השבטים , וזאת גם באוניברסיטה ישראלית. בכינוס השנתי ה-19 של אגודת לימודי יהדות במערב התיכון באבאנסטון, אילינוי , ארה"ב, הוא הציג מאמר הכולל את תוצאת מחקרו באוניברסיטת תל אביב, שהוערך מאד. כרגע הוא במסע הרצאות בארה"ב וכן מחפש למענקי מחקר.

אם המוצא של האפרידים הפתאנים מעשרת השבטים יוכח, זה לא רק ישים סוף לחיפוש של לפחות אחד מעשרת השבטים האבודים של ישראל, אפרים, אלא גם ירמוז שבדמוקרטיה הגדולה בעולם, הודו , היה אדם שמוצאו מעשרת השבטים, ד"ר זאקיר חוסיין שעמד בראשה. הוא היה נשיא הודו מ 1967 עד מותו ב 1969. זה יהיה גם האות הראשון להגשמת הנבואה התנ"כית שהשבטים האבודים של ישראל יובלו חזרה לארץ ישראל ע"י בית יוסף, שבטי אפרים ומנשה, והחוקר הפתאני ד"ר נבראס ג'אט אאפרידי, שבא משבט האפרידי, כבר היה בישראל לשנה אחת להתחקות אחרי שורשיו משבטי ישראל.

Meeting with the American Jewish Committee officials on October 24, 2007 in Chicago

2007-10-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi and Ms. Emily D. Soloff, Area Director, Chicago Chapter, The American Jewish Committee

Mr. Tod Winer, Director of Public Relations & Communications, Chicago Chapter, The American Jewish Committee and Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi

19th annual conference of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association in Evanston, IL, USA on October 21, 2007

2007-10-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

From left to right: Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi; Mr. Bruce L. Kaplan, Cambridge, MA; Prof. Sheldon J. Kopperl, Grand Valley State University; Prof. Agnieszka Friedrich, University of Gdansk; Ms. Mara Cohen-Ioannides (Missouri State University), Conference Organiser and Vice-President, MJSA; Prof. Russell Hendel, Towson University ; Prof. Richard Haas, Case Western University; Ms. Linda Forgosh, Outreach Director, Jewish Historical Society, Metrowest at the reception at Northwestern University Hillel

From left to right: Ms. Linda Forgosh, Outreach Director, Exhibit Curator, Jewish Historical Society, Metrowest; Ms. Mara Cohen-Ioannides (Missouri State University), Conference Organizer and Vice-President, MJSA; Mr. Bruce L. Kaplan, Independent Scholar, Cambridge, MA and Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at the reception at Northwestern University Hillel

Когда Патан позвал еврея [Russian]

2007-07-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

Д-р Закир Хусейн (1897-1969): третий президент Индии и первый мусульманин на этом посту (1967-69). Был также националистом, борцом за повышение уровня образования и удостоился Высшей гражданской награды Индии - Бхарат Ратна (Bharat Ratna).

Джош Малихабади (1898-1982): Великий поэт Удру . Революционный стиль его поэзии принес ему звание Ша’ир-и-Инкилааб (Поэт Революции). Многие из его антиимпериалистических поэм были запрещены британскими властями

Гаусс Мухаммад Хан (1915-82): Мастер спорта по Теннису. Первый Индийский теннисист, вышедший в четверть-финал в турнире Уимблдон в 1939.

Agniva Banerjee
18 Июля 2007
http://www.sedmoykanal.com/article.php3?id=230874

Первозданное умиротворение жизнью утопает в манговых рощах древнего мусульманского Малихабада, что примерно в часе езды от Лакнау. Здесь, во Дворце Бада Махал, в том самом месте, где когда то герой Шаши Капура сражался за сердце Нафисы Али в роли неотразимой англичанки в классическом индийском фильме “Джунун”, на этот раз другой патан проходит через бурю эмоций.В происходящем сейчас дела сердечные не есть суть.

Патриарх клана Квави Камаал Хан: “Я беспокоюсь за безопасность Навраса”92-летний патриарх Квави Камаал Хан восседает под величественными куполами Бада Махала. Скрестив ноги на лежаке, он размышляет про историю Африди, своего племени. В течение последнего тысячелетия его воинственное племя Африди, когда-то пришедшее из Афганистана, расселилось в дюжине мест северной провинции Утар Прадеш и в других частях Индии.Либеральный в своих политических взглядах, но непреклонный в Исламе правоверный магометанин, Хан пытается вновь осознать родословную своего клана в новом свете результатов исследования, сделанного его собственным 28-летним племянником.Племянник, Наврас Джат Аафриди, является частью международного проекта поиска Десяти Потерянных Колен Израиля. Требуется немало личной смелости, чтобы публично объявить сообществу воинственных мусульман, что они ведут свои корни от евреев.Аафриди бросил этот вызов, вдохновленный литературными источниками древности и общностью семитских обычаев, связывающих племя Аафриди с одним из потерянных Колен Израиля.Пять лет назад, с целью научного обоснования этой предпосылки, пробы ДНК племени Африди были собраны в Малихабаде. Камаал Хан знает, что результаты анализа должны стать известными в любую минуту.Он не хочет быть в числе живых, чтобы услышать, что он происходит от еврея. “Йхудийо Ки Ом эк бхот баднам ком Хе”. “Евреи имеют очень плохую репутацию”, произносит Хан на чистом Урду. Меня ранит, когда я думаю, что мои праотцы были из Израиля”.В противоположность дяде, Аафриди, человек с современным мироощущением, не стесняется своей возможной еврейской родословной.

Племянник, Наврас Джат Аафриди (на снимке с автором перевода), является частью международного проекта поиска Десяти Потерянных Колен Израиля.В определенной мере, в эмоциональном стрессе Хана виновата газета “Санди Таймз ов Индия”.Пять лет назад лондонский корреспондент этого издания опубликовал эксклюзивный материал про то, как генетические исследования доказывают семитские корни говорящего на наречии Марахти сообщества Бани Исраиль (Дети Израиля). В настоящее время большинство членов Бани Исраиль проживают в Бомбее, Тане, Пуне и Ахмедабаде.В статье упоминается, что проект был возглавлен Тюдором Парфиттoм, профессорoм Еврейских Исследований Лондонской школы изучения Ближнего Востока и Африки.Аафриди, на тот момент пост-докторант в университете Лакнау, а с недавнего времени стипендиат Тель-Авивского, знал свой следующий шаг. Он пригласил Парфитта на совместную экспедицию в Малихабад. Парфитт, занимающийся следами потерянных племен Израиля по всему миру, проводил свое собственное исследование о племени Эфраима, от которого, предположительно, происходит племя Африди. В связи с невозможностью набора достаточного количества образцов ДНК членов племени в раздираемом войной Афганистане, Парфитт воспользовался предоставленной возможностью и, прибыв в Малихабад 14 ноября 2002, собрал образцы ДНК на месте. На данный момент, анализ результатов, производимый парой ученых из лондонского Университетского Колледжа, находится еще в процессе.Первые патаны пришли в Малихабад в 1202 с тюркским военачальником Мухаммадом Бахтияром Хилджи, одним из генералов Кутб уд-дину Айбекa и основателем династии Хилджи. Следующая громадная волна миграции Африди, четыре с лишним века спустя, пришла с завоевателем Ахмад Шахом Абдали, победившим Маратхов в Третьей Битве Панипата.В обширных манговых рощах Малихабда, Африды, как и все остальные населяющие его патанские племена Юсуфзаев, Бангашей и Гильзаев, уже давно сделали свой выбор, предпочтя былой воинственности пасторальные радости жизни. Кроме того, они забыли язык Пушту. Сейчас они говорят на Хинди и Урду, дав Индии величайших поэтов современности, творивших на Урду.

Наваб Мухаммед Ахмед Хан 'Ахмед' (1828-1903): выдающийся поэт на Урду в свое время и Феодальный правитель провинции Малихабад, воевал с Британией во время большого восстания 1857.Наваб Башир Ахмед Хан 'Вашир' (1874-1916): великий поэт на Урду из Малихабада.Хан Шахиб Абдул Бари Хан (1886-1940): выдающийся специалист в культуре садоводства, националист и журналист. Один из основателей Института развития плодовых культур Уттар Прадеш (Uttar Pradesh).

Они стали бизнес сообществом, специализирующимся на торговле плодами манго и на мугальском исскустве “зардози”, (вышивка золотыми нитями по шелку). Сегодня это поселение красивых, статных мужчин и очень привлекательных женщин миниатюрной комплекции. Патаны Малихабада чрезвычайно горды своими ладными фигурами, точеными чертами лица и цветом кожи, которые легко отличают их от других общин (они обычно стараются это не афишировать). Это одна из причин, по которым люди этого племени редко заключают браки с представителями других племен, сохраняя в неприкосновенности генетическую информацию.Oчень важный фактор для детективов от генетики.Несмотря на историческую метаморфозу патанского темперамента, одно лишь упоминание слова “еврей” - и в мирном Африде просыпается древний воинственный нрав пуштуна. “Я бы не советовал вам бродить по округе, выспрашивая местное население на тему этого исследования”, предупредил корреспондента Халед Ифтихар, плантатор манго, известный в округе своим добродушием. “С тех пор как Парфитт взял образцы ДНК, среди Афридов наблюдается растущее недовольство целью исследования”.Собирание образцов ДНК в ноябре 2002 было не простым делом и производилось в атмосфере максимальной дискретности. Был месяц Рамадан. Аафриди и Парфитт испытавали большие трудности, убеждая людей, что мазок внутренней полости рта ни в коей мере не является актом нарушения поста.

“Ни одна извлекаемая частица не попадает вовнутрь, мы просто извлекаем частицы с внутренней стороны вашей щеки”, непрестанно приходилось повторять Аафриди перед тем, как Парфитт мог взять мазок.Судьба предприятия оказалась под вопросом, когда семьи Афридов осознали, что эксперимент проводится с целью доказательства их еврейской родословной. Со временем производимое исследование стало достоянием гласности среди всех патанов. В рассматриваемом контексте, при всей щепетильности и взрывоопасности исследуемой темы, только прямое родство к патриарху клана Квави Камал Хана сохранило Наврасу жизнь.Тема становится все горячееВ марте мне позвонил человек из Израиля. “Привет, мой долгожданный потерянный брат”, произнес он.Он сказал, что скоро прибудет в Индию встретить своих “Еврейских братьев” в Малихабаде. Разумеется, я от души приветствовал его. Но он еще не объявился”, говорит Ифтихар.Предполагаемые еврейские корни Афридов основательно подкреплены упоминаниями в средневековых текстах. “Племя было принуждено уйти в изгнание и, в конце концов, в забвение Ассирийцами в 721 году до нашей эры. “Такие великие еврейские писатели, как живший в 10 веке Саадия Гаон и живший в11 веке Мозес ибн Эзра, упоминают пакистанские территории патанов как пристанище потомков Потерянных Колен, - говорит Аафриди. - И второй Президент Израиля, Ицхак Бен-Цви, энтузиаст розыска Потерянных Колен, подробно обрисовал Израильские корни Афридских патанов в своей книге “Изгнанные и возвращенные" (“The Exiled and the Redeemed”)в 1957”.
В ведении партизанской войны пуштуны считаются самыми лучшими боевиками в мире. Ни англичане в XIX веке, ни советские войска в XX веке не смогли сломить боевой дух пуштунов. Британцы с раздражением называли их “евреями” из-за их упорства и боевого духа, а также из-за их наружности, не подозревая, что это действительно евреи. Об этом феномене также писал в своей книге покойный израильский президент Ицхак Бен Цви “The Exiled and the Redeemed”. Критики вышеизложенного проекта ДНК видят в нем очередной грандиозный сионистский заговор, призванный объявить определенное, незначительное количество населения Третьего Мира еврейским с целью увеличения резервуара своей дешевой рабочей силы; либо имеющий целью создание живой пограничной буферной зоны, в свете продолжающегося конфликта с палестинцами.

Критики…
Но Парфитт и Аафриди видят в исследовании великую гуманистическую цель. “Впервые в истории человечества генетика дает нам неопровержимое доказательство ложности расизма. Со времен Второй Мировой Войны современный мир болезненно пытается найти свой универсальный, общий культурный знаменатель. Но идея, что различия между людьми не должны разделять человечество, а, наоборот, должны являться причиной радости - до сих пор остается неоцененной. “Послевоенная эпоха, современный мир сконцентрированы на сходствах. Биология и генетика показывают нам, что мы схожи”, говорит Парфитт корреспонденту в ранее имевшем место интервью.Вот что полностью занимает теперь Патанов Малихабада и Квави Камаал Хана, когда-то борца за свободу.

Опубликовано в издании The Times of India, 20 мая 2007

перевод: Александр Левитес

И с кем, спрашивается, Советская Армия воевала в Афганистане? [Russian]

2007-07-12T00:32:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

http://blogs.mail.ru/mail/alevites1975/

http://www.rusamny.com/386/t02(386).htm

http://www.novasich.org.ua/index.php?go=News&in=view&id=2854

В ведении партизанской войны (герильи) пуштуны считаются самыми лучшими боевиками в мире. Ни англичане в XIX веке, ни советские войска в XX веке не смогли сломить боевой дух пуштунов. Британцы с раздражением называли их «евреями» из-за их упорства и боевого духа, а также из-за их наружности, не подозревая, что это действительно евреи.

"В результате многолетних исследований среди различныхнародностей Востока, сохранивших еврейские традиции, были обнаружены пуштуны, называемые также патанами, которые проживают в Афганистане и Пакистане. Этот народ насчитывает 20 миллионов человек, 12 млн. из них живут в Пакистане и разделены на 60 племен и подплемен".

Первозданное умиротворение жизнью утопает в манговых рощах древнего мусульманского Малихабада, что примерно в часе езды от Лакнау. Здесь, во Дворце Бада Махал, в том самом месте, где когда то герой Шаши Капура сражался за сердце Нафисы Али в роли неотразимой англичанки в классике индийского кино "Джунун", на этот раз другой патан проходит через бурю эмоций. В происходящем сейчас, дела сердечные не есть суть.

Патриарх клана Квави Камаал Хан. "Я беспокоюсь за безопасность Навраса". Девяносто двух летний патриарх Квави Камаал Хан восседает под величественными куполами Бада Махала. Скрестив ноги на лежаке, он размышляет про историю Африди, своего племени. В течение последнего миллениума его воинственное племя Африди, изначально пришедшее из Афганистана, расселилось в дюжине мест северной провинции Утар Прадеш и остальных частях Индии. Либеральный в своих политических мировоззрениях, но непреклонный в Исламе правоверный магометанин, Хан пытается вновь осознать родословную своего клана в новом свете результатов исследования, сделанного его собственным, двадцати восьмилетним племянником. Племянник, Наврас Джат Аафриди, является частью интернационального проекта поиска Десяти Потерянных Колен Израиля. Требуется не мало личной смелости публично объявить сообществу воинственных мусульман, что они ведут свои корни от евреев.

Аафриди бросил этот вызов, вдохновленный литературными источниками древности и общностью семитских обычаев, связывающих племя Аафриди с одним из потерянных Колен Израиля. Пять лет назад, с целью научного обоснования предпосылки, пробы ДНК племени Африди были собраны в Малихабаде. Камаал Хан знает, что результаты анализа должны стать известными в любую минуту. Он не хочет быть в числе живых, что бы услышать, что он происходит от еврея. " Йхудийо Ки Ом эк бхот баднам ком Хе". "У евреев ужасная репутация", произносит Хан на чистом Урду. Меня ранит, когда я думаю, что мои праотцы были из Израиля".

В противоположность к дяде, Аафриди, человек с современным мироощущением, не стесняется своей возможной еврейской родословной. В определенной мере, за эмоциональный стресс Хана ответственна газета "Воскресные Времена Индии". Пять лет назад лондонский корреспондент этого издания опубликовал экс-клюзивный материал про то, как генетические исследования доказывают семитские корни говорящего на наречии Марахти сообщества Бане Исраиль (Дети Израиля).

В настоящее время большинство членов Бани Исраиль проживают в Бомбее, Тане, Пуне и Ахмедабаде. В статье упоминается, что проект был возглавлен Тюдором Парфиттoм, профессорoм Еврейских Исследований Лондонской школы Ориентальных и Африканских наук. Аафриди, на тот момент Пост Докторант в университете Лакнау и в недавнем настоящем стипендиат Тель-Авивского, знал свой следующий шаг. Он пригласил Парфитта на совместную экспедицию в Малихабад. Парфитт, занимающийся следами потерянных племен Израиля по всему миру, проводил свое собственное исследование о племени Эфраима, от которого, предположительно, происходит племя Аафриди.

В связи с невозможностью набора достаточного количества образцов ДНК Афридов в раздираемом войной Афганистане, Парфитт воспользовался предоставленной возможностью и, прибыв в Малихабад 14 ноября 2002, собрал образцы ДНК на месте. На данный момент, анализ результатов, производимый парой ученых из лондонского Университетского Колледжа, находится еще в процессе.

Первые патаны пришли в Малихабад в 1202 с тюркским военачальником Мухаммадом Бахтияром Хилджи, одним из генералов Кутб уд-дину Айбекa и основателем династии Хилджи. Следующая громадная волна миграции Африди, четыре с лишним века позже, пришла с завоевателем Ахмад Шахом Абдали, победившим Маратхов в Третьей Баталии Панипата.

В обширных манговых рощах Малихабда, Африды, как и все остальные населяющие его патанские племена Юсуфзаев, Бангашей и Гильзаев, уже давно сделали свой выбор, предпочтя былой воинственности пасторальные радости жизни. Также, они забыли Пушту. Сейчас они говорят на Хинди и Урду, дав Индии одних из величайших поэтов современности творивших на Урду. Они стали бизнес сообществом специализирующемся на торговле манго и мугальском исскустве "зардози", (вышивка золотыми нитями по шелку). Сегодня, это поселение приятных, статных мужчин и очень привлекательных женщин миниатюрной комплекции. Патаны Малихабада экстремально горды своими ладными, точеными чертами и цветом кожи, характерность которых легко отличает их от других общин (они обычно стараются этим не афишировать). Это одна из причин, по которой междуобщинные браки редки, сохраняя последовательность генетической информации в нетронутости. Oчень важный фактор для детективов от генетики.

Несмотря на историческую метаморфозу патанского темперамента, одно лишь упоминание слова "еврей" - и в мирном Африде просыпается древний воинский нрав пуштуна. "Я бы не советовал вам бродить по округе, спрашивая местное население относительно исследования", предупредил корреспондента Халед Ифтихар, плантатор манго, известный в округе своим добродушием. "С тех пор как Парфитт взял образцы ДНК, среди Афридов наблюдается растущее недовольство целью исследования". Собирание образцов ДНК в ноябре 2002 было не простым предприятием и произведено в атмосфере максимальной дискретности. Был месяц Рамазан. Аафриди и Парфитт испытавали большие трудности, убеждая людей, что мазок внутренней полости рта ни в коей мере не является актом нарушения поста.

"Ни одна извлекаемая частица не попадает вовнутрь, мы просто извлекаем частицы с внутренней стороны вашей щеки", непрестанно приходилось повторять Аафриди перед тем, как Парфитт мог сделать мазок. Судьба предприятия оказалась под вопросом, когда семьи Афридов осознали, что эксперимент проводится с целью доказательства их еврейской родословной.

С течением времени, производимое исследование стало достоянием гласности среди всех патанов. Во всем рассматриваемом контексте щепетильности и взрывоопасности, только сила прямого родства к патриарху клана Квави Камал Хана уберегла Наврасу жизнь. Тема становится все горячее. В марте мне позвонил человек из Израиля. "Привет, мой долгожданный потерянный брат", произнес он. Он сказал, что скоро прибудет в Индию встретить своих "Еврейских братьев" в Малихабаде. Разумеется, я от души приветствовал его. Но он еще не объявился, говорит Ифтихар.

Утверждаемые еврейские корни Афридов основательно подкреплены в средневековых текстах. "Племя было принуждено уйти в изгнание, и, в конце концов, в забвение - Ассирийцами в 721 году до нашей эры. "Такие великие еврейские писатели, как уроженец 10 века Саадия Гаон и уроженец 11 века Мозес ибн Эзра, упоминают пакистанские территории патанов как пристанище происходящих от Потерянных КОЛЕН ", говорит Аафриди. "И второй Президент Израиля, Ицхак Бен-Цви, энтузиаст Потерянных Колен, подробно обрисовал Израильские корни Афридских патанов в его книге " Изгнанные и Освобожденные в 1957".

Критики вышеизложенного проекта ДНК видят в нем очередную грандиозную сионистскую конспирацию, призванную объявить определенное, незначительное количество населения Третьего Мира еврейским с целью увеличения резервуара своей дешевой рабочей силы; либо имеющую цель создания живой пограничной буферной зоны, в свете продолжающегося конфликта с палестинцами. Но Парфитт и Аафриди видят в исследовании великую гуманистическую цель. "Впервые в истории человечества генетика дает нам неопровержимое доказательство ложности расизма. Со времен Второй Мировой Войны, современный мир болезненно пытается найти свой универсальный, общий культурный знаменатель. Но идея, что различия между людьми не должны разделять человечество, а наоборот являться причиной радости – до сих пор остается неоцененна. "Послевоенная эра, современный мир сконцентрирован на сходствах. Биология и генетика показывают нам, что мы схожи", говорит Парфитт корреспонденту в ранее имевшем место интервью.

Вот что полностью занимает в эти часы Патанов Малихабада и Квави Камаал Хана, когда-то борца за свободу.

When a Pathan is called a Jew

2007-05-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

Qavi Kamaal Khan at his ancestral palace in Malihabad in Lucknow district of India

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Israel

Agniva Banerjee, The Times of India, 20 May, 2007

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Sunday_Specials/When_a_Pathan_called_a_Jew/articleshow/2061970.cms

A Muslim settlement is awaiting the result of research that may confirm its Jewish ancestry. Agniva Banerjee reports from Malihabad on the wait of the Pathans.

About an hour's drive from Lucknow is Malihabad, an affluent farming settlement of ancient Muslim households and sprawling mango orchards where there is a calm reassurance that life is leisure. Here, in a palace called Bada Mahal, the same place where the character played by Shashi Kapoor tried to win over a lovely Englishwoman played by Nafisa Ali in Junoon, another Pathan is going through a conflict of emotions. This time, it's not a matter of the heart.

Sitting cross-legged on a charpoy under the grand canopy of Bada Mahal, Qavi Kamaal Khan, the 92-year-old patriarch of the house, ruminates over the identity of his Afridi tribesmen, originally warriors from Afghanistan who over the last millennium settled in a dozen locations in UP and the rest of India. Liberal by political temperament but pious by Islamic persuasion, Khan is bracing himself to face the result of his 28-year-old nephew's research into the clan's ancestry.

The nephew, Navras Jaat Aafreedi, is part of an international project to trace the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. It takes some courage to tell a Muslim warrior community that it was once Jewish. Aafreedi took the chance, inspired by ancient literary references and common Semitic customs that link the Afridis to one of the Lost Tribes. To prove the premise conclusively, DNA samples of Afridi men were collected at Malihabad five years ago. Kamaal Khan knows that the result of the DNA analysis may be out any time. He doesn't want to live to hear that he is descended from a Jew.

"Yahudiyon ki qaum ek bahut badnaam qaum hai," Khan says in chaste Urdu. "It hurts me when I think that my forefathers were from Israel." In contrast to his uncle, Aafreedi, a man with a modern outlook, is not ashamed of his possible Jewish ancestry. In some ways, The Sunday Times of India is responsible for Khan's distress. Five years ago, this paper carried an exclusive piece by its London correspondent on how genetic studies had proved the Semitic origin of the Marathi-speaking Bene Israel community mainly based in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Ahmedabad. The piece mentioned that the research was led by Tudor Parfitt, professor of modern Jewish studies at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.

Aafreedi, then a post-graduate student at Lucknow University and now on a scholarship at Tel Aviv University, read the report and knew what he had to do. He invited Parfitt on a joint expedition to Malihabad. Parfitt, who has traced lost Israeli tribes all over the world, was conducting his own research into the tribe of Ephraim, from whom the Afridis have purportedly descended. Since there was no way of collecting a large DNA sample data from the Afridis of war-torn Afghanistan, Parfitt seized the opportunity and arrived in Malihabad on November 14, 2002, and collected DNA samples of the Afridis there. The analysis is still being done by two scientists at University College, London.

The Pathans came to Malihabad in 1202 with the invader Muhammad Bakhtiar Khalji, one of the generals of Qutb-ud-din Aibak and founder of the Khalji dynasty. But it was in 1761 that the greatest wave of Afridi migrants arrived with the invader Ahmad Shah Abdali, who fought the Marathas in the Third Battle of Panipat.

In Malihabad's vast mango groves, the Afridis and all the other Pathan tribes, such as the Yusufzais, Bangashs and Ghilzais, have long given up their martial ways in favour of pastoral pleasures. They have also forgotten Pushto.

They now speak Hindi and Urdu, and have produced some of India's greatest Urdu poets. They have become a business community specialising in the mango trade and the Mughal art of zardozi, the embellishment of silk with gold. Today, the settlement is replete with handsome, fair-complexioned men and very pretty, petite women. The Pathans of Malihabad are extremely proud of their fine, chiselled features and skin colour, traits that easily distinguish them from other communities (they usually make their pride evident off-the-record). That's one reason why they seldom marry outside the community, maintaining the genetic information of the people of the Khyber Agency intact. Very valuable to the sleuths of genetics.

Despite the historical taming of these Pathans, mention the word Jew and the ancient warrior instinct of the Afridis comes alive. "I would advise you not to go around asking the men here what they feel about the research," Khalid Iftikhar, a mango planter and a man known among the locals for his good nature, warned this correspondent. "Ever since Parfitt took the DNA samples, there has been increasing displeasure among the Afridis over the purpose of the research."

Collecting the DNA samples in November 2002 was a taxing exercise and took great discretion. It was the month of Ramzaan, and Aafreedi and Parfitt took great pains convincing the men that their fast was in no way broken by their act of collecting mouth swabs. "No particle is getting inside your system. Rather, we are just extracting particles from the inside of your cheek," Aafreedi kept saying before Parfitt could take a mouth swab. The exercise almost came to a halt when an Afridi family realised that the swabs were taken to prove their Jewish ancestry.

Over the years, all the Pathans here have come to know of the ongoing research. It is such a sensitive issue that only the virtue of being a direct relation of Qavi Kamaal Khan has kept Aafreedi from coming in harm's way. "I am worried about Navras' safety. The issue (of the research) is also getting hotter. One day in March, I got a call from a man in Israel. 'Hello my long lost brother' he told me on the phone. He said he would come down to India soon to meet his 'Jewish brothers' in Malihabad. Of course, I welcomed him. But he hasn't shown up yet," says Iftikhar.

The purported Jewish origins of the Afridis is well documented in medieval texts. "The tribe was driven into exile and eventually into oblivion by the Assyrians in 721 BC. Great Jewish writers like the 10th century Saadia Ga'on and the 11th century Moses ibn Ezra mention Afghanistan and the Pathan territories in Pakistan as the home of Jews descending from the Lost Tribes," Aafreedi says. "And the second President of Israel, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, a Lost Tribes enthusiast, wrote in great detail about the Israelite descent of the Afridi Pathans in his book The Exiled and the Redeemed in 1957."

Critics of the DNA project see in it a grand Zionist agenda to declare a few Third World populations as Jewish and bring them over to Israel to swell a cheap labour pool or to put them at the frontlines of the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. But Parfitt and Aafreedi see a grand humanist purpose in the research. "Genetics for the first time is giving us incontrovertible evidence that racism is false. The modern world since the Second World War has been at great pains to put different cultures on an equal footing.

But the idea that the differences between people should not divide humanity but be a cause to celebrate has mostly gone unappreciated. Post-World War, the modern world concentrates on similarities. Biology and genetics are showing us that we are identical," Parfitt told this correspondent in an earlier interview.

It is this that bothers the Pathans of Malihabad and Qavi Kamaal Khan, once a freedom fighter, the most.

2007-05-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

A hypothetical picture of Pathans at the Wailing Wall created by Yehoshua Fleisher

Yksi Kadonnut Israelin Sukukunta [Finnish]

2007-04-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi in the Old City of Jerusalem

YKSI KADONNUT ISRAELIN SUKUKUNTA löydetty, vakuuttaa intialainen historioitsija tri Navras Jaat Aafreedi. Hän tutkii Tel Avivin yliopistossa muutamien Intian muslimiheimojen mahdollista geneettistä yhteyttä juutalaisiin heimoihin. Hän kertoo tutkimuksistaan E-kirjassa, jossa hän sanoo tutkimiensa 650 Afridi Pathan klaanin jäsenen Malihabadissa Intiassa omaavan luultavasti samaa geneettistä materiaalia, joka havaitaan 40 % juutalaisissa maailmanlaajuisesti. Tässä Pahtan-heimossa on 1500 jäsentä. Toisen Intiassa asuvan Pathan-heimon 800 jäsentä ei ole tutkittu. Aafreedin mukaan geneettinen yhtäläisyys viittaa siihen, että he ovat Epfraim-heimon jälkeläisiä. Hän sanoo saaneensa henkilökohtaisen kiinnostuksensa asiaan sedältään, joka oli kertonut heimon sukulaisuudesta israelilaisiin. Aafreedi kertoo, että phataanit asuivat Intiassa vihamielisen muslimiväestön keskellä ja vähitellen menettivät omat traditionsa.

INtiassa on muitakin väestöryhmiä, joitten uskotaan olevan muinaisten kadonneitten Israelin heimojen jälkeläisiä. Historioitsijat uskovat, että muhamettilainen Shintung (Bnei Menashe) Intian koillisosassa ja ei-muhamettilainen Guntur-heimo kuuluvat myös tähän juutalaiseen geneettiseen perimään.

Afganistanissa asuvat Afgan-Afridit ovat tradition mukaan juutalaisen Menashe-heimon jälkeläisiä. Maailmassa lasketaan olevan 40-50 miljoonaa Pathan-heimon jäsentä, pääasiassa Afganistanissa ja Pakistanissa. (Jpost 15.11.06 Matt Zalen)

http://israelupdate.tripod.com/kirjoitukset/KESKIVIIKKO_15.11.06h.htm

Is One of the Lost Tribes the Taliban?

2007-04-13T02:07:00.000-07:00

Scouting for stories in Afghanistan’s hinterlands, a Jewish American reporter and her Muslim Pashtun interpreter, discover they may have ancestors in common…

Ilene R. Prusher, Moment, April 2007

http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2007/2007-04/200704-Taliban.html

It was Seder night in Kabul, and the bread most afflicting me was the pile of nan - Afghan flatbread - that our cook kept placing on the table just before the guests were due to arrive. I repeatedly removed the offending plate and explained to the cook - already baffled by my trying to give him the week off - that there would be no bread served with this meal. He’d nod to show he understood, but a few minutes later, I’d find the same pile of nan back in its usual place.

I had planned for this Seder even before leaving home on the second of what would be many reporting trips to Afghanistan, tucking a box of matzah in my suitcase and wrapping two Haggadot inside my flak jacket. But celebrating the Jewish people’s liberation from slavery in Egypt was proving more complicated than just setting a proper table. My attempt to banish the nan and the cook’s determination to return it was just one of many challenges.

This was 2002, after all, in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which until the U.S invasion only months earlier had been controlled by the fiercely repressive Islamist Taliban. Although driven from Kabul, the Taliban were hardly gone from the country and memories of their rigid rule - and their Ministry of Virtue and Vice - were fresh. A colleague who was co-hosting the Seder and I dared not reveal to our Afghani staff and guests - interpreters, drivers and guards - that they were actually helping us observe a Jewish holiday. Instead, we related the Passover story in metaphorical terms: Just as you here in Afghanistan are celebrating your freedom from the oppression of the Taliban and the terror of civil war, we commemorate the day of our freedom from slavery. This is a feast to show our love of liberty, our thanks to God.

The Afghanis ate it up - and reached for seconds of my charoset.

The only guest in on the secret was my guide and interpreter, Mashal, a member of Afghanistan’s prominent Pashtun people. Gentlemanly son of a judge, author of two books of Pashto poetry and master of four other languages, Mashal had been running an Internet café in Pakistan soon after 9/11 when a colleague of mine coaxed him into journalism.

A few days before the Seder, I found myself in an unexpected conversation with Mashal. He and I were on one of our long car trips through the ragged slate-gray Afghan hinterlands, scouting stories about Al Qaeda’s evasion of U.S. forces and local warlords who were besting America’s plans for the region. Somewhere between Khost and Kabul, Mashal raised a subject I had considered best to avoid in these precincts.

“I, I, I want to find out more about the Jews,” he said from the front seat, craning his neck to talk to me as we bounced over the rocky road like hot popcorn kernels. I didn’t respond; instead, I continued to stare out the window at the packed-mud buildings dotting the remote landscape, careful as ever to avoid direct eye contact with the men we passed. “Because I believe that they are related to us,” Mashal continued, “and that maybe we, we were once Jews.”

“What?” I asked, as if I hadn’t quite heard him, buying more time to think. I knew there were peoples, from remote pockets of Africa to the far corners of East Asia, who believe they are descended from the Israelites. I had not, though, heard this mentioned in regard to the Pashtuns, who claim a proud martial history in Central Asia that long predates Islam. Also called Pakhtuns or Pathans, they are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, whose populace also includes other Muslim groups like the Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks. More notoriously, Pashtuns make up the ranks of the Taliban.

Was I to believe that the likes of Mullah Omar - the Taliban luminary who ordered public executions and floggings, made burka-wearing law, and gave succor to Osama bin Laden - possessed even a molecule of Jewish ancestry?

“Once Jews?” I finally replied, turning to him and pulling up my ever-slipping head scarf. “What do you mean?”

“We have all kinds of traditions that no other Muslims have,” he said, “like Saturday was the rest day. And many of the words in our language are not related to any other language in the region. And I, I think maybe that’s because they are from Hebrew!” Mashal punctuated that last word with a pleasing emphasis. His love of poetry had a way of seeping into the sweet rhythms of his speech.

“Well, if there’s something you want to know, I might be able to help,” I said, half-shocked to hear myself utter these words to an Afghan. “I’m Jewish.”

“Really?” He was exuberant. “You?” Our driver turned to ask what had caused this sudden burst of enthusiasm, but Mashal dismissed him with a shake of the head and a vague smile. Lowering his tone a notch, he said, “Wow. That’s great. I want to ask you a lot of questions.”

Mashal’s discretion confirmed my instinct that I could trust him. Still, such confidence was not to be given lightly. This was hardly two months after the murder of Daniel Pearl in neighboring Pakistan, an event that shook many intrepid reporters to the core. Suddenly, to not hide one’s religious identity seemed reckless. Like the thousands of landmines still embedded in Afghanistan’s parched landscape, Jewishness could be hazardous to your survival.

Later that day, I gingerly walked over one such landmine-strewn plain of cracked earth, dry and gritty as nan. At regular intervals, we had driven past gaggles of bright fabric flapping flirtatiously in the wind. Tied to thin wooden poles in the ground, they looked from afar like sails attached to the masts of sunken schooners trying to catch the breeze and move on. Mashal said they marked graves, but I couldn’t see how that could be.

I asked our driver to stop so I could take a photograph. He shrugged and obliged, telling me to watch my step. As I neared the poles, my feet crunching the dirt beneath me, I could see that Mashal had been right. The flapping fabrics were head scarves from women who had buried loved ones here, colorful signs of remembrance for those they mourned.

Up close, I found something even more surprising: stones scattered on nearly every grave. A memory from early childhood rushed through my head—one hand in my mother’s, the other reaching down to place a pebble on my grandfather’s tombstone. I returned to the car in wonderment, retracing my footsteps as I’d learned to do in a land as rich in mines as more fortunate countries are in coffee beans.

I asked Mashal what the story was: Why the stones on the graves? This was a peculiar Pashtun way of marking a visit to the deceased, he said.

“But that’s what Jews do,” I told him quietly. In all my travels, I had never come across another people who preferred pebbles over flowers on a loved one’s grave.

“Really?” Mashal said, surprised, “I thought only we, we Pashtuns did that.”
Less than an hour later, we passed through a typically poor village on the road back toward Kabul. Paint markings on some of the buildings caught my eye. They resembled five-branch menorahs. I asked Mashal what they were.

“Oh, we call it nars,” he replied. “People in the countryside put this up to mark a celebration, such as a birth or wedding.”

“Do all the peoples in Afghanistan do that, or just the Pashtuns?” Iasked.
“This is only for the Pashtuns,” he said.

It seemed uncanny. Menorah…nars. They sounded as if they shared the same root. And unlike the Star of David, which did not originate with the Jews, the menorah symbol had never belonged to another people.

Mashal and I raised our eyebrows and looked at each other. In the weeks that followed, we were to come across further peculiarities of Pashtun customs that would ring familiar. There is the tradition among many rural women, for instance, of lighting candles on a Friday. They then hide them in a basket - perhaps to conceal their glow from censorious mullahs. There are wedding customs: Some Afghans marry under a cloth that is similar to the chuppa. Another Afghan cloth, the uniquely Pashtun shoulder drape for men that doubles as a ritual prayer mat, is called a tolia; Both its name and function, I told Mashal, reminded me of tallit.

From then on, Mashal and I made a point of paying visits to Afghanistan’s Jewish sites: Gardez, where it’s rumored that a Jewish warrior named Gabur built an ancient fortress; Ghazni Province, where Pashtuns make pilgrimages to the tomb of a “Jewish saint” called Zikria; and Balkh Province, an ancestral area and possible cradle of Pashtun culture that once boasted a large Jewish population that disappeared long before the country’s other Jewish communities in Herat and Kabul dwindled after 1948 and died out in the 1970s. Mashal thought the Pashtuns might have acquired their name from Balkh pronounced pakh-tu by most Afghans.

There are several stories about how the Pashtun people—spread throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan and India—came by their Jewish roots. Many Pashtun, Mashal pointed out, believe themselves to be descended from a legendary figure named Qais Abdu Rashid, who might have been from one of the Israelite tribes. Another theory is that Pashtuns are descended from Pithon, a tribal descendant mentioned in First Chronicles, 8:35.

Curiosity piqued, I spoke to experts and consulted every book I could find on Afghanistan and the lost tribes. It seems Mashal and I were far from the first to wonder. One can find Muslim and Jewish references from the 13th to the 18th centuries attesting to the presence of lost tribes of Israel in the Pashtun territories in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These include the 1612 classic called Makhzan-i-Afghani, which was translated into English in the early 19th century as History of the Afghans.

Hardly a contemporary academic or journalistic work - from Sir Olef Caroe’s The Pathans of 50 years ago to the most recent histories of Afghanistan - fails to mention it. British colonial official Mountstuart Elphinstone, writing in the early 19th century, compared Pashtu to Hebrew in his book, The Kingdom of Caubul. Israel’s second president, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, believed in the Jewish lineage of the Pashtuns, as did Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan. Once, when asked about his ancestors, Shah claimed that the royal family descended from the Tribe of Benjamin.

Jews I spoke with who had grown up in Afghanistan also immediately identified with Pashtun-Jewish links. Their parents or grandparents, they would tell me, had always said, that of all Afghan peoples, they could expect Pashtuns to treat them well on account of their shared heritage. In Jerusalem, I met with Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, founder of Amishav (“My People Returns”), a group that brings supposed descendants of the lost tribes - such as the B’nei Menashe in India and the Shin-lung in Burma - to Israel. He flipped to the map on the back cover of his book, The Tribes of Israel, and with his finger traced for me the tribes’ putative path from Palestine into Iran, eastward across Afghanistan, and eventually into India and China.

Avichail’s claims brought to mind other intriguing details that Mashal had mentioned like some of the provisions of the complex Pashtun code of ethics, pashtunwali, which have no apparent connection to Islam and are not shared by other peoples of the region. These include exacting standards for hospitality and the requirement that a man marry his brother’s widow - a stipulation also found in the Torah.

Recently, I had a long phone conversation about Pashtun origins with Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Indian historian on a research fellowship this year at Tel Aviv University. He’s been studying Muslim groups in India that have traditions of Israelite descent. In one - a Pashtun tribe called the Bani Yisrael - everyone shares the last name of Yisraeli. According to Aafreedi, they believe that they are the descendants of a Jewish sahabi (“friend” in Arabic) of the Prophet Mohammed.

“Why do they claim Israelite origins, if there is nothing to support it?”
he asked me.
“Why do they take it seriously, and why are there others
who take them seriously?”

Tudor Parfitt, a British professor of Jewish studies and author of The Lost Tribes of Israel, subjects the lost tribe theory to an unforgiving academic light apparent in his recent book’s subtitle: The History of a Myth. Parfitt argues that the last traces of the 10 northern tribes, who were exiled into Assyria and forced to assimilate, are Hebrew names recorded in Assyrian army documents from the 7th century. He has concluded that this is where the history of the lost tribes ends, and the myth of the lost tribes begins.

A perfectly reasonable explanation for the cultural overlap, according to naysayers, is that large numbers of Jews lived and traveled in the lands that are now Afghanistan well before the arrival of Islam. As far back as the 7th century, Chinese travel writer Hsuan Tsang noted a large number of Jewish communities there. Eventually, most converted to Islam.

Whatever the arguments for and against, many Pashtuns - my friend and colleague Mashal among them - remain convinced they are related to the Jews, or at least deeply curious to learn whether they truly are. Their belief has some interesting ramifications: In the ever-shifting power struggles among ethnic groups in this part of the world, the Israelite card is used both for and against the Pashtuns. Pakistanis in particular disparage the Pashtuns as Jews, while some Pashtuns use the possibility of Israelite heritage as evidence of having legitimate, ancient roots in the region. For the religious-minded, a connection to Judaism is proof of having been monotheistic even before the arrival of Islam. And unlike other groups that may or may not be descended from lost tribes, the issue isn’t about to get swept up into Israeli migration politics: the Pashtuns have no interest in emigrating to Israel.

At my nan-less Seder this year, I will recall how Jews, as the descendents of the Israelites, have probably wandered more than any other people. Deuteronomy 10:22 tells us that, before slavery, “Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy people, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.” Where those stars shine today is anyone’s guess.

Ilene R. Prusher is a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor, and is the Boston-based newspaper’s Jerusalem bureau chief. She has spent the last decade reporting from countries throughout the Middle East, East Asia and Africa. Her articles have also appeared in publications such as the The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New Republic and The Jerusalem Report.

Pashtun Tribe in India may be one of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel

2007-04-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

Dr. Aafreedi receiving his certificate of post-doctorate from Prof. E. R. Toledano, Director, Graduate School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University on 18th June 2007

Dr. Zakir Husain, third President of India (1967-1969), an Afridi Pathan and recipient of India's highest civilian award the Bharat Ratna

'I love Israel - My forefathers were Probably
Jews'

by Alexander Maistrovoy

Arutz Sheva: Israel National News. com, April 12, 2007
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122084

IsraPundit, April 10, 2007
http://www.israpundit.com/2006/

The United Jerusalem Foundation, http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=902499

JewishIndy, April 16, 2007, http://www.jewishindy.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6599

40 years ago, as Israel celebrated its 1967 triumph, an extraordinary event occurred in the Jewish community of India. The President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain, made a highly surprising visit to the Ohel David Synagogue of Pune, Maharashtra, which was celebrating its centenary. The significance of the event and the title of the guest were unprecedented. Why did he visit?

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi has his own explanation: Dr. Hussain, one of the most famous sons of India, honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, was a member of a Pashtun (Pakhtun/Pathan) tribe known as Afridi. And the Afridi tribe is identified with Ephraim, one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

Dr. Aafreedi is an Indian citizen, a representative of the Afridi tribe too, and an historian. He isn't 30 yet, but he has a Ph.D. in Medieval and Modern Indian History, and his research thesis was entitled: "Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India." His book of the same title is the third serious major work ever by a Gentile on this subject. Now he is doing his Post-Doctoral Research at Tel Aviv University.

"Small minorities and marginal groups in all parts of the world have always interested me", he told this reporter. "But I was always more interested in Jews than any other group because of their impressive accomplishments and achievements, in spite of their numerical insignificance, and also because Muslims in my home town Lucknow tended to blame Jews for everything evil in the world. My interest in the Jews further deepened when my late uncle once said to me that our roots were Israelite. I was then 12 years old. Right then I decided that I would explore my probable Israelite roots when I get to the doctoral level.

"There were no Jews in my home town Lucknow. I only met Jews for the first time when I started researching for my Ph.D. But the more I read about Jews, the more my admiration grew for them. The Jewish saga is a tale of unprecedented heroism and self-sacrifice; Jews were humiliated and mistreated like no other people in history. That despite this, the Jews rose and returned to their ancient homeland (Israel) after two thousand years speaks volumes about the character of these tenacious people. I admire Jews as much for their resilience and courage as for their wisdom and scholarship."

After getting his Ph.D. from Lucknow University in 2005, Navras won scholarships from the Center for Judaic Studies at Shandong University, China and from the Israeli government. The terms of the Chinese scholarship were more lucrative, but Navras chose Tel-Aviv. "It's only for my love for Israel," he explains.

Navras began his research of the connection between Afridi Pashtuns from Malihabad in Lucknow district (of the state of Uttar Pradesh) and the Ephraim tribe. Pashtuns settled there in the mid-18th century and they are about 1,200 today. It is a drop in the ocean compared to about 45 million Pashtuns around the world. Pashtun tribes mainly live in the highlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and they are divided into 60 tribes and 400 clans.

The Afridi tribe is one of the largest (about three million) and very martial. They controlled the famous Khyber and the Kohat passes, collected tribute from caravans and became famous for their fearlessness and selflessness in battles with everyone who tried to conquer Afghanistan - from Mughal troops in the 16th and 17th centuries to the British in the 19th and Russians in the 20th century.

For hundreds of years, Afridis have called themselves Bani Israel (Pushto for the Hebrew B'nei Yisrael, meaning "Children of Israel") and believe that they originated from the Ephraim tribe. Lately, the hatred of Jews in the Islamic world made the young generation of Pashtuns give up their beliefs, but Navras quotes a number of Jewish immigrants from Afghanistan who testify to the prevalence of many Jewish rituals and customs among the Afridi Pashtun, such as the lighting of candles on Shabbat, growing long side-locks, wearing shawls resembling the tallit (ritual prayer shawl), circumcision on the eighth day after birth, and Levirate marriage.

Dr. Aafreedi refers to great Jewish rabbis, such as Saadia Ga'on and Moses Ibn Ezra, who mention Afghanistan and the Pathan territories in Pakistan as the home of Jews descended from the lost tribes. He also notes that a number of medieval Arabic and Farsi texts refer to the same phenomenon. In the 19th century some British travelers and officers, like Sir Alexander Brunes and J.P. Ferrier, wrote about the Israelite origin of Afghan tribes.

Many Pashtuns don't conceal their descent. For example, Emir Abdul Rahman, the grandfather of the former Afghan Shah Amanullah, stated expressly in his History of the Afghans that the Afghan tribes were of Israelite origin.

Lately, other and more impressive arguments have been produced by Joshua Benjamin in his book Mystery of the Lost Tribes, the second president of Israel, Yitzchak Ben-Zvi (The Exiled and the Redeemed [1957]), Social Anthropologist from Hebrew University Dr. Shalva Weil (Beyond the Sambatyon: The Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes), Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail (The Tribes of Israel), ex-Director of Archeology Fida Hasnain from Kashmir and others. According to some Jewish and European explorers from the Middle Ages until the present day, the Afridi tribe originates from Ephraim, the Yusufzai tribe from Joseph, the Rabbani from Reuben, the Levani from Levi, the Ashuri from Asher, etc.

Together with Prof. Tudor Parfitt (SOAS, London University) and Dr. Yulia Egorova (Cardiff University), Navras collected DNA samples of 50 paternally unrelated Afridi males of Malihabad and they are now being analyzed at University College, London.

Navras sees deep meaning in the fact that the world's only Muslim who teaches Jewish theology at a Western university happens to be an Afridi Pathan. She is Prof. Mehnaz Mona Afridi of the Department of Theological Studies in Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. And the only Muslim in the world who has initiated a Jewish-Muslim dialogue with Daniel Pearl's father Judea Pearl, happens to be a Pathan, as well, Prof. Akbar S. Ahmad. And isn't it amazing that he, Navras Jaat Aafreedi himself, was from his very childhood so strongly drawn to Jews, absolutely unfamiliar and alien to him? "It can be a peculiar proof too," my interviewee smiles.

Would the time for repatriation of the bellicose and unruly Afridi tribe to Israel ever come? "Not today, and not tomorrow, but it is possible. During his recent trip to London, Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail met two Afridi Pathan families who had fled their country during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They spoke about their desire to embrace Judaism, the faith of their supposed ancestors,” Dr. Aafreedi says.

Alexander Maistrovoy is a journalist with the Russian language newspaper Novosty Nedely.

Is it the lost tribe of Israel?

2007-03-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi with his e-book (CD-Rom)

Acclaimed Urdu poet and writer Anwar Nadeem (b.1937), an Afridi Pathan from Malihabad

The great Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi (1898-1982), an Afridi Pathan from Malihabad and recipient of India's third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan

An Afridi Pathan family of Malihabad, India

by Farzand Ahmed, India Today, November 6, 2006

A recent study has traced the origin of Afridi Pathans in a small town of Uttar Pradesh to the biblical 'lost tribes' of Israel. But the Pathans are not ready to accept themselves as Jews.

Malihaba d, the small orchard town on the outskirts of Lucknow, will appeal to your senses straightway. While it is renowned for the sweet and fragrant Dussheri mango, the place has given birth to some of the finest Urdu and Persian poetry. And its claim to fame does not end there. The dusty town now stands home to something which can be traced back to biblical times. Among the inhabitants of Malihabad are a clan of tall, fair, well-built people who call themselves Afridi Pathans-warrior and poets. In fact, a huge arch at the entry to the town is dedicated to Bab-e-Goya, a famous warrior and poet. Growing evidence, however, suggests that their ancestry is not Muslim but Israelite and they are not originally from the Afghanistan-Pakistan area but are, in fact, one of the 'lost tribes' of Israel. In Malihabad, in the heart of Uttar Pradesh, they certainly stand out with their unique physical features.

Now a study by one of their own tribe, Navras Jaat Aafreedi, and published recently in the form of an e-book titled The Indian Jewry & The Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India traces their lineage to one of the 'lost tribes' of Israel. Says Navras, "The main purpose of the research (for a doctorate from Lucknow University) was to trace the Afridi Pathans' ancestry." To make his study credible, he got help from an international research team which included Professor Tudor Parfitt, director of the Centre of Jewish Studies, London University and Dr Yulia Egorova, a linguist and historian from Russia. The team visited Malihabad and collected DNA samples from 50 paternally unrelated Afridi males to confirm their Israelite descent. The researchers looked at Israel's connections with Pathans in the Frontier areas of Pakistan and their links with Afridi Pathans in Uttar Pradesh's Malihabad and Qaimganj (Farrukhabad) as well as with Pathans in Aligarh, Sambhal and Barabanki besides tribes in Kashmir, Manipur and Guntur of Andhra Pradesh.

Historians and scholars like Professor S.N. Sinha, former head of the department of history, Jamia Millia Islamia and Professor V. D. Pandey, head of the department of medieval and modern Indian history, Lucknow University, have found Navras' research a 'landmark' study on the Jews in India and their links to Uttar Pradesh. According to the Bible, there were 12 tribes of Israel. The northern kingdom consisted of 10 tribes who were exiled and subsequently considered 'lost'. Four of 'lost tribes' have been traced in India: the Afridis, the Shinlung in the Northeast, the Yudu in Kashmir and the non-Muslim tribes in Guntur. Historians believe that Afghans were the descendents of Israel - another name of Abraham's grandson Jacob or Yaqub. They came to the region known as North West Frontier and Afghanistan and as they moved onwards they were called Afridan, in Persian meaning 'newly arrived' and thus acquired the title 'Afridi'. Many of the Afridi-Afghans still follow Jewish tradition like Sabbath and circumcision on the eighth day of the birth. There are three major groups of Israelites or Jews in India: Bene Israel, which is the largest group, the Cochini, the smallest group and the Baghdadi. The Pathans of Malihabad and Farrukhabad call themselves Bani Israel, which means Children of Israel. Bani Israel clans are also found in Aligarh and Sambhal in Moradabad.

The Pathan-Afridi settlement in Malihabad dates back to 1202 A.D., when the village of Bakhtiarnagar was founded by Mohammad Bakhtiar Khilji. Most of the Pathans came in around the middle of the 17th century and each migrant clan took possession of villages around Malihabad. However, the greatest wave of migrant Pathans, mainly Afridis, arrived in Malihabad a century later during Ahmad Shah Abdali's five invasions between 1748 and 1761.

Many Israelite-Afridis of Malihabad and Qaimganj rose to eminent positions in the field of warfare, politics, literature and sports. If Dr. Zakir Husain, an Israelite-Pathan, the third President of India and founder of Jamia Millia Islamia University hailed from Farrukhabad, Malihabad prides itself on Nawab Faqueer Mohammad Khan 'Goya', the poet and courtier of Awadh, Josh Malihabadi, the rebel poet who later migrated to Pakistan; Ghaus Mohammad Khan, the tennis player and Anwar Nadeem, stage artist, writer and poet.

There are around 1,200 to 1,300 Pathans in Malihabad and half of them, according to the latest research, are Israelite-Afridis. The study has evoked much excitement among the Afridi Pathans as they are not ready to accept their Jewish identity. Unlike the other tribes who have readily claimed affiliation to the 'lost tribes' of Israel, Afridi Pathans are sceptical about their Jewish status. The reluctance is quite evident as 91-year-old Qavi Kamal Khan, one of the Afridi Pathans of the town, says, "I have heard that we have Israelite lineage but we are not Jew. We are are Afridis." Historians, however, believe that Navras' research may turn out to be a milestone in the genealogical-historical research that takes off in an obscure of Lucknow, re-discovering a link lost in the passage of time. The study, for once, proves that the world is, in fact a global village.

Is Muslim clan the lost tribe of Ephraim?

2007-03-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi (second from right) with Bollywood actors Farouk Sheikh and Shabana Azmi (left) and the Governor of the Indian state of Haryana, Dr. A. R. Kidwai (extreme right) at the release of his e-book, on June 12, 2006, at the International Literary Festival in Lucknow, India

Matt Zalen, THE JERUSALEM POST, Nov. 14, 2006

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1162378397742

Indian historian finds genetic material common to Pathans, Jews

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, an Indian historian, says he may have found a genetic link between members of his clan in northern India, the now-Muslim Afridi Pathans, and one of the Ten Lost Tribes."

There were those who looked at this research as part of a big Zionist conspiracy against Islam," said Aafreedi, who is currently conducting research at Tel Aviv University into possible Israelite descent among certain Muslim Indian groups. "They felt I was trying to deprive Islam of its bravest followers, the Pathans, by converting them to Judaism. They felt that my convincing them of their Jewish heritage was just another form of conversion."

According to Aafreedi's study, which was published as an e-book, about 650 out of the 1,500 members of the Afridi Pathan clan in Malihabad, India, may possess genetic material shared by nearly 40 percent of Jews worldwide. If confirmed, the findings would support the clan's connection to the tribe of Ephraim, Aafreedi said. A related Indian Pathan group numbering some 800 people was not tested for the project.

Although he performed the research for his doctoral studies at Lucknow University, the main motivation for Aafreedi's research was personal."My uncle told me when I was a child about our connection to the Israelites," he said.

He has been deeply interested in his ancestry ever since, especially in "the fact that the tribe is identified with Israel."Aafreedi describes himself as a secular humanist with no bias against Jews, but says such open-mindedness is not common in his clan."The new generation of the Pathans is largely ignorant," he said, adding that after settling in a "hostile Muslim environment," the Pathans largely lost their own traditions."The knowledge of our ancestry was passed down orally, he said. "But now only the elders know about it."

According to Michael Freund, a Jerusalem Post correspondent and chairman of Shavei Israel, a Jerusalem-based group that assists lost Jews seeking to return to the people of Israel, this assimilation comes as no surprise."With the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in that part of the world over the decades, an attempt has been made to erase any trace of their [the Pathan's] Jewish connection," Freund said.

Aafreedi agrees. "They have been affected by the yellow journalism of Muslims in India, and it has shaped their political outlook. The Muslim press is usually anti-Jewish and anti-Israel," he said.Claims of Jewish heritage are nothing new in India. Historians believe that that at least two groups, the Shinlung (Bnei Menashe) in the northeast, and the non-Muslim tribes in Guntur, share Jewish ancestry. In addition, experts say evidence exists linking the Afridi Pathan tribe outside of India to the ancient Israelites."

Historically, there were Persian writers who wrote about the connection between the Pathans and the people of Israel," said Freund. "When the British arrived in the area there were missionaries who wrote about it as well. There is quite a good deal of historical evidence to support this assertion."Even former president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi addressed the connection. In his book, The Exile and Redeemed, he quoted an Afghani Jew as saying, "

According to the tradition current among the [Afghan] Afridis, they are indeed descendants of the Israelites, more particularly the sons of Ephraim." There are an estimated 40 to 50 million Pathans, mostly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Aafreedi's research is now being analyzed by geneticists in England. If his results are confirmed, it will be the first genetic evidence linking the Afridis Pathan tribe to the Israelites.

There are some who doubt a genetic connection could provide genuine proof of Jewish lineage."There's no such thing as Jewish DNA," said Post contributor Hillel Halkin, author of Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel, which discusses the issue of an ancient Israelite migration to India. "There is a [genetic] pattern which is very common in the Middle East, and 40% of Jews worldwide have it. But many non-Jews and people in the Middle East have it also," he said.•

Citation from the Maulana Azad Memorial Academy, Lucknow, India

2007-03-31T06:04:00.000-07:00

Dr. N. J. Aafreedi (centre) being felicitated by the Advocate General of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. S. M. A. Kazmi (right) and the General Secretary of the Maulana Azad Memorial Academy, Dr. A. Q. Hashmi (left)

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi

It gives Maulana Azad Memorial Academy immense pleasure to felicitate Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi for his remarkable contribution to Indo-Judaic Studies. The world's only serious researcher of Muslims of Israelite descent in India, he is the biggest contributor of research papers on Afridi Pathans. His e-book, titled The Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India, which embodies his doctoral (Ph.D.) thesis, is the first book to combine the study of the non-Jewish claimants of Israelite descent in India with that of the Indian Jews, and the third major work ever by a non-Jew on the lost tribes of Israel. Dr. Aafreedi is also the first writer to make any worthwhile contributions to Jewish Studies in the Urdu language. His writings have, in their own small way, helped to ease tensions between Jews and Muslims, who are sadly seen as natural adversaries today. The academy greatly appreciates Dr. Aafreedi's devotion to the task of getting Indo-Judaic Studies recognised as an academic discipline in universities, and wishes him all the best for his future endeavours.

Dr. A. Q. Hashmi, Secretary and S. M. Nasim, President
10th October, 2006

Tracing Jewish Links in Malihabad

2007-03-31T05:46:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at his Ph.D. convocation at Lucknow University, India

Great Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi, an Afridi from Malihabad, India

Times News Network, The Times of India, Lucknow, August 10, 2005

Lucknow: DNA tests of 50 paternally-unrelated Afridi Pathan males of Malihabad are being conducted at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University. The results of which are expected to be here soon and will come handy in deciding whether they have an Israeli lineage or not. However, Navras Jaat Aafreedi, a research scholar at Lucknow University strongly believes that these Afridi Pathans, who had come from the Khyber tribe of the North West Frontier, now in Pakistan, have a Jewish lineage.

Navras came to this conclusion after three years of extensive research titled "The Indian Jewry and the Self-Professed 'Lost Tribes of Israel' in India", for which Lucknow University has also awarded him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. Navras, who himself belongs to Malihabad, started working on this research project in November 2002, under the supervision of the head of Medieval & Modern History Department, Prof. V. D. Pandey.

"It is an effort to trace my own roots," says Navras, as he narrated how he went through the entire study, spending hours in History books, searching for facts and clues, which could help in his research. "I was all of 12, when my uncle first told me that our family could be having a Jewish lineage," he said. He decided at that very moment that one day he would explore the truth. Navras formed a team with Prof. Tudor Parfitt, Chairman of the Centre of Near and Middle East Studies and Director of the Centre of Jewish Studies, SOAS, London University and Dr. Yulia Egorova, a linguist and historian from Russia. They went to Malihabad, where they collected DNA samples of Afridi Pathans in order to confirm their putative Israeli descent.

Significantly, during the course of the study, the team interviewed hundreds of Afridi Pathans in Malihabad and learnt that most of them were ignorant of their Israeli descent.Navras explained that when Afridi Pathans came to Malihabad they did not disclose their Jewish lineage due to the fear of being isolated in the pre-dominantly non-Pathan Muslim society. As a result, the word was not passed to the coming generations and subsequently, they were left ignorant of the historical fact. "Few of the illustrious Afridi Pathans India has seen, are the third President of India Dr. Zakir Husain, the great Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi and Ghaus Mohammad Khan, the first Indian to reach the Wimbledon quarter finals in 1939," he said.

Navras also went to Aligarh along with Dr. Yesudian Storfjell, SOAS, London, and visited the Mohalla Bani Israilan and interviewed the District Qazi of Aligarh, Muhammad Ajmal, who was not shy of admitting that he belonged to the clan of Bani Israel there, which is believed to have descended from a Jewish sahabi (companion of Prophet Mohammad), and came to India to spread the message of Islam around one-thousand years ago.

He also took part in discussions with Prof. Jay Waronker, School of Architecture, North Dakota State University, authority on Indian synagogues, and Dr. Shalva Weil, an anthropologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of India's Jewish Heritage. In March this year, he also did an assignment for a London University project, titled "Representation of Jews, Zionism and Israel in Pakistani and Indian Muslim Discourse", funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Board, UK.

Des recherches génétiques auraient permis de retrouver la Tribu perdue d'Ephraïm en Inde musulmane [French]

2007-03-31T05:31:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel

News: ISRAEL HISTOIRE Nov 16 Par John O'BrianRubrique: CultureIsrael Valley, Site Officiel de la Chambre de Commerce France Israel

http://www.israelvalley.com/news/2006/11/16/6372/israel-histoire-des-recherches-genetiques-auraient-permis-de-retrouver-la-tribu-perdue-d-ephraim-en-inde-musulmane

La tribu musulmane des Afridi Pathans dans le Nord de l’Inde pourrait s’avérer être l’une des 10 tribus perdues d’Israël.

La génétique a ceci d’extraordinaire qu’elle voit bien au-delà des religions et des conflits, sans à priori. La science avance et l’ADN, cette structure bien particulière du vivant révèle nos racines.Après avoir démontré à 100% la filiation de certaines tribus Juives de l’Afrique de l’Est, notamment au Swahili et au Lesotho, de nombreux généticiens passionnés par leurs racines continuent à chercher inlassablement. Des recherches se focalisent notamment sur les descendants de la Tribu de Nephtali (la Tribu de la Rose) en Europe Centrale.

Les résultats de telles initiatives pourraient révolutionner notre approche des religions.

C’est le cas pour les recherches du Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi, un musulman du clan des Pathans. Selon lui, seule la vieille génération du clan est consciente de certains liens ancestraux avec les Juifs. Lorsqu’il était enfant, son vieil oncle lui a raconté ces fameux contes de leurs aïeux et il a décidé d’en savoir plus.

Mais les jeunes générations, imbibées d’Islam plus fondamentaliste, se réfutent à tout changement et se révolte par rapport aux recherches de Navras Jaat Aafreedi. Peu lui importe, il s’entête et affirme avoir trouvé un lien génétique. Selon lui, près de 650 membres de la Tribu Pathans comptant 1500 membres portent un matériel génétique spécifique reconnu déjà parmi 40% des Juifs mondiaux.

Les résultats de ses recherches sont actuellement vérifiés dans des laboratoires en Angleterre. On saura bientôt si les Pathans sont des juifs musulmans…--xl-Source: Israel Valley

Islamitische stam in werkelijkheid Joods? [Dutch]

2007-03-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi (in her midden)

AMI Jeruzalem Bijbel Centrum Nieuws, 32 ste jaargang, nr.2, Febbruari 2007
http://home.planet.nl/~koekruud//archief/2007_02feb.pdf

• Zionistische samenzwering

De eerste reactie op het onderzoekdat door een Indiase historicus is verricht,is: dit is de zoveelste zionistischesamenzwering tegen de islam. Menvindt het de zoveelste poging ommoslims te bekeren, dit keer door hente laten geloven dat ze joden zijn.

Navras Jaat Aafreedi denkt er echteranders over. Niet alleen probeert hijzijn stelling met wetenschappelijkebewijzen te onderbouwen, hij zegtook dat zijn oom hem van kleins afaan verteld heeft van de banden vanzijn clan met het joodse volk.

• Genetische overeenkomst met Joden

Aafreedi zegt dat 650 van de 800 ledenvan zijn Pathaanse clan genetisch materiaalbezitten dat 40% van de jodenin de wereld ook bezitten. De kennisvan de banden van de Pathanen metIsraël is weliswaar mondeling overgeleverd,maar alleen de oude mensenweten het nog.

“De nieuwe generatie Pathanen weeter over het algemeen niets van. Toende Pathanen zich in een vijandige islamitischeomgeving hadden gevestigd,hebben zij hun eigen tradities grotendeelsverloren. Ze zijn beïnvloed door degekleurde journalistiek van de moslimsin India en dat heeft hun politieke perspectiefgevormd. De islamitische pers ismeestal antizionistisch en anti-joods.”Het is niets nieuws te horen dat erIndiërs met joodse voorouders zijn. Erzijn al eeuwenlang gegevens bekendover het bestaan van joden in dat deelvan de wereld. De algemene conclusieluidt dat als zij joden zijn, zij van detien verloren stammen moeten zijn,die meestal Efraïm worden genoemd.

Nájdený ďalší stratený kmeň Izraela ? [Slovak]

2007-03-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

Dr. Navras Jaat Aafreedi (druhý zprava) pri prezentácii jeho elektronickej knihy o indickom židovstve z 12.júna 2006 v Lucknowe, India.

Miroslav Illias, 8. januára 2007

http://ilias.blog.sme.sk/clanok_tlac.asp?cl=76157

V časoch biblického Izraela bolo do asýrskeho zajatia v 7.storočí pred Kr. odvlečených jeho desať kmeňov. Sú dnešní Paštúni na Strednom východe potomkovia biblického kmeňa Efrajim ?
Mal som tú česť osobne hovoriť s doktorom Navrasom Jaatom Aafridim (ďalej len Navras), ktorý v roku 2005 obhájil svoju doktorandskú prácu o indickom židovstve a "stratených" kmeňoch Izraela v Indii.

Teraz robí výskum na univerzite v Tel Avive.

Navras, mladý Ind, príslušník etnickej skupiny afridických (efridických) Paštúnov, a bývajúci v internáte o poschodie nižšie, mi rozprával o spojitosti dnešných Paštúnov so Židmi.

Hoci táto nepoddajná a húževnatá etnická skupina je moslimského vierovyznania, zachováva si niektoré židovské prvky a ich ústna tradícia hovorí o spojitosti so starým Izraelom. O tvrdosti Paštúnov hovoria aj záznamy z anglickej koloniálnej éry, či ich aktívna účasť v hnutí Taliban.
Genetické vzorky niekoľkých afridických Paštúnov, odobraté výskumníkmi, sa v súčasnosti spracúvajú.

Paštúnov je asi 20 miliónov, tých z afridického kmeňa je asi 3,7 milióna. V indickom Malihabade je 650 afridických členov komunity, z ktorej pochádza aj môj priateľ Navras.

.Zapálený rabín

Navštíviť Paštúnov v indickom Malihabade s úmyslom ich možnej konverzie na judaizmus sa chystá rabín Elijahu Avichail, zakladateľ organizácie Amishav.

Navras, ktorý seba označuje za sekulárneho humanistu, mu bude "vstupenkou" do - pre Židov nehostinného - moslimského prostredia svojho rodiska.

.Odozvy v tlači

Navras mi ukazoval početné výstupy jeho práce v tlači.

Napriklad izraelský denník Jerusalem Post o tom priniesol objektívny článok.

Skeptici ale poukazujú na zotrvávani afridických Paštúnov na ich súčasnej identite. Objavili sa aj zmienky o "sionistickej konšpirácii".

.Požehnanie Jákobovo

Čo na to Biblia ? Patriarcha Jákob, otec dvanástich kmeňov Izraela, dáva požehnanie Jozefovmu synovi Efrajimovi, ktorý bude väčší ako jeho starší brat Menašše a "...z jeho potomstva bude množstvo národov." (Gen. 48:19).

Nemnohí príslušníci indickej komunity Bnei Menašše, potomkovia kmeňa Menašše, sú už konvertovaní v Izraeli.

Každopádne bude zaujímavé sledovať, do akej miery sa "vydoluju" Židia z etnickej skupiny Paštúnov, predpokladaných potomkov kmeňa Efrajim. Rabíni stoja pred tažkou úlohu.

Александр Майстровой, Новости недели [Russian]

2007-03-28T01:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.isra.com/lit/item.phtml?id=29937

Так считает мусульманский историк-пуштун из Индии Навраз Джаат Африди «Чем больше я узнавал о евреях, чем больше читал о них, - говорит он, - тем больше они восхищали меня».

Сорок лет назад, в год, когда Израиль потряс весь мир, за семь дней сокрушив три арабские армии, в еврейской общине Индии произошло экстраординарное событие. На празднование столетия синагоги Оэль-Давид (Шатер Давида) в небольшом городке Пуне (штат Махарашта) прибыл ни больше ни меньше президент Индии доктор Закир Хусейн. Значимость события и титул гостя были совершенно несопоставимы, и визит этот породил как энтузиазм в небольшой еврейской общине, так и множество вопросов. Что заставило Хусейна самому приехать на церемонию, когда он мог прислать своего представителя, и уже это было бы расценено как знак уважения? Вкладывал ли Хусейн какой-то особый смысл в свое посещение синагоги?

У доктора Навраза Джаата Африди есть если не ответ на этот вопрос, то, по крайней мере, правдоподобное предположение. Президент Индии и один из наиболее известных ее сынов, награжденный высшей гражданской наградой своей страны, орденом «Бхарат Ратна», был мусульманином, выходцем из пуштунского клана Африди. А клан Африди ведет свое происхождение от колена Эфраима – одного из десяти потерянных колен Израилевых.

Навраз Африди - гражданин Индии, выходец из пуштунского клана Африди и историк по образованию. Ему еще нет 30-ти, но он уже защитил докторскую степень в университете Лакнау по средневековой и современной истории Индии. Главная тема его исследований - индийские евреи и история потерянных колен Израилевых в этой стране. Он – автор многочисленных статей на эту тему, его книга «Индийское еврейство и самопровозглашенные потерянные колена в Индии» - третье серьезное исследование, проведенное неевреями в этой области. Сейчас Навраз делает постдокторат в тель-авивском университете.

В интервью, которое он дал автору этих строк в Иерусалиме, в американском институте по изучению еврейских ценностей, Навраз рассказывает о пути, который привел его, мусульманина и пуштуна, к теме потерянных колен Израилевых.

«Я с детства проявлял интерес к разным национальным и религиозным меньшинствам в мире. Но более всего меня интриговали евреи, их уникальность. С одной стороны, меня поражали их успехи и достижения, совершенно несопоставимые с их численностью. С другой, интерес подогревался тем, что мусульмане в моем родном городе Лакнау всячески стремились обвинить евреев во всех бедах и несчастьях в мире.

Мой интерес к евреям резко возрос после того, как мой дядя в разговоре обмолвился, что наше племя – потомки древних исраэлитов. Тогда мне было всего 12 лет, но я твердо решил, что посвящу себя этой теме, стану ученым-историком, которой изучит связь между пуштунами и израильскими коленами. В Лакнау не было евреев, и я начал искать возможности встретиться с ними. Мне удалось это сделать во время подготовки доктората о средневековой и современной истории Индии. И чем больше я узнавал о евреях, чем больше читал о них, тем больше они восхищали меня. История евреев – это история беспрецедентного героизма и самопожертвования, и при этом евреев унижали и преследовали так, как не унижали и не преследовали ни один народ в мире. И то, что несмотря на все эти гонения, евреи сохранили свою веру и духовную силу, то, что спустя две тысячи лет после изгнания, они поднялись и вернулись на свою древнюю родину, потрясало мое воображение. Сам этот факт говорит о воле и непреклонности еврейского народа. Я восхищаюсь как его гибкостью, так и его мудростью и ученостью».

После защиты доктората Навраз получил предложения о продолжении исследований сразу в двух местах: в Центре еврейских исследований университета города Шандонг в Китае и в тель-авивском университете. Условия, предоставляемые китайским университетом, были предпочтительнее: Навразу оплачивалась дорога и, главное, предоставлялась стипендия за два года работы. Тель-авивский университет предоставлял лишь годичную стипендию и не оплачивал расходы на проезд. «Я выбрал Тель-Авив, - говорит Навраз. – Только лишь потому, что люблю Израиль».

Дети царя Шауля или сыновья Эфраима?

Свои исследования о принадлежности пуштунов к колену Эфраимову Навраз начал с Малихабада – селения, расположенного в 40 километрах от административного центра Лакнау (штат Уттар-Прадеш). Малихабад – главный центр сосредоточения пуштунов в Индии, большинство из которых принадлежат к клану Африди. Пуштуны появились здесь в середине XVIII века, и число их сегодня составляет около 1200 человек. Эта капля в море в сравнении с численностью пуштунов (или патханов) в мире, которых насчитывается более 45 млн. и которые сосредоточены, главным образом, в горных районах Афганистана и Пакистана.

В общей сложности они делятся на 60 племен и 400 кланов. Клан Африди – один из крупнейших (три миллиона) и наиболее воинственных и непокорных, рассказывает Навраз. Африди контролировали знаменитый Хайберский перевал и перевал Кохат (или Дарра Адам-хель), собирали дань с караванов, следовавших из Средней Азии в Индию. Они прославились своим бесстрашием и самоотверженностью в сражениях против всех, кто пытался захватить Афганистан: начиная от Великих Моголов до англичан в девятнадцатом веке и русских – в двадцатом.

На протяжении веков у Африди из поколения в поколение передавалось предание, что они происходят от колена Эфраима. Себя они называли Бани-Исраиль, что в переводе с персидского и пуштунского означает Бней-Исраэль. В последнее время, в связи с ненавистью к евреям в исламском мире, молодое поколение пуштунов отреклось от этого предания и от всех связанных с ним традиций. Между тем, говорит Навраз, старики в пуштунских селениях могут рассказать о местных обычаях и ритуалах, воспроизводящих по сути дела еврейские. Еще в середине прошлого века многие путешественники и исследователи рассказывали об обычае зажигать свечи в субботу в пуштунских деревнях, об особых ограничениях в употреблении и приготовлении пищи, о специфических головных уборах, напоминающих по виду талит, об обычае делать обрезание ребенку на восьмой день после его рождения.

Навраз апеллирует к еврейским мудрецам Саадии Гаону и Моше Ибн-Эзре, упоминавших Афганистан и пуштунские земли как прибежище потерянных колен Израилевых, а также к многочисленным средневековым арабским и персидским текстам, в которых открыто признается, что многие пуштунские кланы (и в том числе клан Африди) ведут свое происхождение от колен Израилевых, угнанных ассирийцами на Восток в 721 году до н.э.

Арабские хроники повествуют, что у короля Шауля был сын Ермиягу (о нем не упоминается в еврейских священных книгах). У Ермиягу, в свою очередь, родился сын по имени Афган, чьи потомки спустя много веков перебрались в город Джат на территории нынешнего Афганистана. Когда в этих местах появились арабы, их военачальник Халид Ибн-Валид встретился с вождями еврейских племен, которых возглавлял прямой потомок Афгана - Киш.

Киш, покоренный доводами Ибн-Валида, принял ислам и взял себе мусульманское имя Абдул Ибн-Рашид, под которым и прославился как знаменитый полководец и любимец самого пророка Мохаммеда.

Навраз ссылается, в частности, на проповедника нового движения Ахмадийя в исламе Мирзу Гуляма Ахмада, который цитирует древних арабских и персидских авторов. По словам последних, Мохаммед дал Кишу имя "патхан" (пуштун), что на сирийском наречии означало "рулевой". Это название закрепилось за всеми племенами, подвластными Кишу. Потомки талибов гордятся тем, что ведут происхождение от... Ибн-Рашида.

Многие арабские летописцы называют конкретные место и время расселения потомков Афгана. Например, "Мират уль-Алам" ("Зеркало мира") повествует о странствиях иудеев и упоминает города, куда они прибыли, выйдя из Святой земли: Гхор, Газни и Кабул.

Некоторые авторы - например, Саяд Джалал ад-Дин Афгани и Саяд Абдул Джаббар Шах - прямо утверждают, что потомки принца Афгана и есть потерянные колена Израилевы.

Исраэлитское прошлое пуштунов, рассказывает Навраз, многократно упоминается в средневековых текстах: «Хайат-и-Афгани» Мохаммеда Хайат Хана, «Хулассат-уль-Ансаб» Хафиза Рахмат Хана, «Мажма-уль-Ансаб» Хамидуллы Муставфи, «Миратуль-Алам» Бахтияр Хана и др. – в общей сложности, в двенадцати источниках.

Принадлежность к Бней-Исраэль считалась среди пуштунов до последнего времени не легендой, но общепризнанным, не подлежащем сомнению и заслуживающим всяческого уважения фактом. Например, эмир Абдул Рахман, дед бывшего афганского шаха Амануллы, с гордостью указывает в своей книге «История афганцев», что последние являются наследниками еврейских племен. А бывший глава еврейской общины Герата раввин Авраам Акоэн, утверждал, что лично слышал свидетельство короля Афганистана о его принадлежности к одному из потерянных колен.

«Придет день – и мы вернемся»

Новое время изобилует многочисленными дополнительными подтверждениями этой версии – от европейских путешественников, археологов, исследователей и представителей британской военной администрации.

В своем "Путешествии в Бухару", написанном в 1835 году, сэр Александр Бранес пишет, что афганцы называют себя часто "Бани-Исраиль". В подкрепление этих слов, продолжает Бранес, они приводят легенду, согласно которой евреи были расселены в провинции Гхор около Бамиана и начали называть это место Афганом – по имени царя, от которого вели происхождение. Британский путешественник также приводит историю о Кише, который был вождем перешедших в ислам еврейских племен.

Другой английский исследователь, Фарриер, в 1858 году выпускает книгу "История Афганистана", в которой без тени сомнения утверждает, что нынешние афганцы происходят от колен Израилевых. При этом он приводит любопытный факт. Когда Надир-шах, идя в поход на завоевание Индии, прибыл в Пешавар, глава местного племени Юсуф-Заус подарил ему священные тексты, написанные на древнееврейском языке. Евреи, служившие в армии Надир-шаха, признали подлинность этих религиозных текстов.

Доктор Михаэль Рубин (Йельский университет), специалист по истории Афганистана, Центральной Азии и Ирана, ссылается на мемуары британского посла в Персии Джона Малкольма (1801 год). Малкольм рассказывает о бытующей в ряде провинций Афганистана легенде, согласно которой родоначальниками некоторых местных племен были изгнанные ассирийцами евреи. Михаэль Рубин сам побывал в Афганистане и пишет, что старейшины ряда племен признавались ему в своих еврейских корнях.

В книге выходца из Индии еврея Иегошуа Бенджамина «Мистерия потерянных племен» содержатся уникальные факты. Например, рассказ некого Шалома Дадеша, родившегося в Герате и сопровождавшего группу евреев, бежавших из Афганистана через Пешавар: "Во время перехода мы встретили нескольких солдат, несших охрану. Услышав, что мы евреи, этот солдат сказал: "Вы и правда евреи? Но я ношу цицит, мой отец носит цицит, моя мать зажигает свечи, моя бабушка зажигала свечи. Это значит, что мы тоже евреи?" "Из этих расспросов, – продолжает Шалом Дадеш, – я понял, что он и его семья происходят из колена Биньямина. Я спросил его, почему он не хочет вернуться к еврейству. Он ответил: "Придет день, и мы вернемся".

Характерное свидетельство - письмо Габриэля Барухова, парикмахера из Бухары, президенту Израиля Ицхаку Бен-Цви, в котором он описывает встречи с представителями пуштунов в Кабуле. По словам Барухова, он был шокирован, узнав, что непримиримые в своем мусульманском рвении воинственные главы пуштунских кланов зажигают свечи на Хануку, прибивают к дверям похожие на мезузы дощечки со священными текстами, надевают талит и каждую пятницу зажигают свечи. Когда они приходили к Барухову постричься, то просили не сбривать пейсы, которые прятали в окладистой бороде.

Еврей из Герата Абрам Бенджамин утверждает, что, согласно устной традиции этих мест, племя Африди происходит от "сынов Эфраима". "Представители старшего поколения не скрывают своего еврейского происхождения, но молодежь предпочитает не оглашать этот факт, поскольку в нынешней атмосфере принадлежность к еврейству непопулярна", – заключает он. Написано это в 1951 году.

Шалва Вейль, антрополог из Еврейского университета в Иерусалиме, провела много времени в Афганистане и соседнем Кашмире и имела немало возможностей лично убедиться в справедливости этих рассказов. "Во многих семьях, – говорит она, – укоренились традиции, имеющие исключительно еврейское происхождение. Мальчикам делают обрезание, женщины соблюдают законы чистоты, описанные в Торе, во многих семьях действуют запреты на определенные виды пищи, сходные с законами кашрута. Некоторые жители деревень носят амулеты, на которых написано "Шма, Исраэль".

"Находясь в Сринагаре (Кашмир), – пишет д-р Вейль, – я поехала в одну из деревень, расположенную неподалеку от Кабула и принадлежащую клану Африди. Беседуя с местными жителями, я узнала об удивительном обычае, существующем в деревне. По пятницам многие женщины деревни зажигают свечи и прячут их в углу. Хозяева дома, в котором я остановилась, сказали, что они делают так из поколения в поколение, хотя не захотели (или не смогли) объяснить, почему. Вечером в пятницу они подают к столу виноградный сок, похожий на вино. Исламский закон запрещает пить вино, но они сказали, что это древняя традиция, которая должна быть соблюдена".

В самом Кашмире Вейль обнаружила не менее стойкие представления местных патриархов о своем происхождении. "Мы сидели во фруктовом саду в деревне в Кашмире, у подножия Гималаев. Мохаммед Вали, пуштун из племени Юсуф-Зай (в переводе – "Дети Йосефа") рассказывал мне свою родословную. Я спросила его, откуда ведет происхождение клан Юсуфа, и он ответил: "Ибн-Якуб" ("Сын Яакова").

Тогда я спросила его, кто такой Якуб. Мохаммед посмотрел вверх, словно прося небеса простить мне такое чудовищное невежество, затем повернулся ко мне и со снисходительным выражением и нескрываемой жалостью по отношению ко мне, несведущей, ответил: "Якуб – это Израиль. А мы – Бани-Исраиль, сыны Израиля".

По словам Вейль, вполне образованные и получившие западное образование афганцы не считают эти предания сказками и говорят о еврейском происхождении своих соплеменников как о чем-то само собой разумеющемся.

Известный историк, профессор Сарва Даман Сингх из Института азиатских исследований в Австралии пишет: «Эта территория (северо-запад Пакистана и восток Афганистана) населена многочисленными пуштунскими племенами, часть из которых, согласно местным поверьям, - наследники израэлитов: Африди, Юсуфзай, Раббани, Левани, Шивари, Дафтани, Джаджи, Ашири, Юним.

По словам профессора Саффолкского колледжа в Нью-Йорке Лоуренса Эпштейна, у многих пуштунских племен в качестве символа и магического знака используется шестиконечная "звезда Давида". Имена, принятые среди этих племен, являются, по мнению Эпштейна, производными от еврейских: например, Рабани – от Реувена, Ашури – от Ашера, Левани – от Леви, Нафтахни – от Нафтали, Африди – от Эфраима, Шинмари – от Шимона и Юсуф-Зай – от Йосефа.

Интересно, что индийские исследователи приходят к таким же выводам, что и их западные коллеги. Бывший директор Института археологии Кашмира профессор Фида Хассанан пишет, что во время своих поездок по штату столкнулся с поразительным явлением. Крестьяне некоторых местных деревень, по его словам, будучи ортодоксальными мусульманами, верят, что произошли от угнанных в рабство евреев, и называют себя "Бней-Исраэль".

Старейшина деревни Гутлибгах, 90-летний Мир Алам, после многочисленных отговорок согласился поведать Хассанану генеалогию своего рода. "Мы – наследники Яакова, чей отец был Исаак, а дед – Авраам, – сказал он. – У Яакова было 12 сыновей. Каждый из них стоял во главе племени. Эти племена рассеялись среди других народов. До прихода мусульман мы были буддистами, а еще раньше – Бней-Исраэль".

Хассанан, пораженный этими откровениями, провел собственное исследование и собрал поразительные факты. Оказалось, что жители Гутлибгаха и ряда соседних деревень не вступают в браки с другими мусульманами провинции и соблюдают весьма оригинальные для местной среды обычаи. Так, они не едят рыбу, не имеющую чешуи, и сухожилия, вырезанные из бедра. Не используют для приготовления пищи животный жир, пользуясь исключительно растительным маслом. Наконец, не ездят, не торгуют и не занимаются сельскохозяйственными работами в субботу. То есть соблюдают запреты, которых придерживаются только евреи.

Эти странные совпадения

Навраз неоднократно ссылается в своих исследованиях на книгу бывшего президента Израиля Ицхака Бен-Цви («Изгнанные и возвращенные», 1957 год) и труд раввина Элиягу Авигайля, возглавляющего организацию «Амишав» («Колена Израилевы: потерянные и рассеянные», 1991 год). Однако Навраз Африди пошел дальше всех предыдущих исследователей и предпринял попытку доказать еврейское происхождение пуштунов, основываясь не только на истории, но и на биологии. В ноябре 2002 года международная исследовательская экспедиция, в которую, кроме Африди, входили председатель Центра ближневосточных исследований и директор Центра еврейских исследований профессор Тюдор Парфитт из Лондонского университета, и историк и лингвист доктор Юлия Егорова из Кардиффского университета, собрала в пуштунских деревнях возле Малихибада образы ДНК у местных жителей, дабы подтвердить предположения об их исраэлитском происхождении. Результаты генетических исследований находятся в настоящий момент в стадии обработки, и положительный результат, убежден Африди, устранит последние сомнения в истинности гипотезы.

Навраз считает, что вряд ли можно объяснить случайным стечением обстоятельств тот факт, что среди крайне немногочисленных исследователей иудаизма в исламском мире и сторонников диалога с евреями – выходцы из его племени, племени Африди. Например, говорит он, единственный мусульманский теолог в мире, преподающий иудаизм, - это профессор Мехназ Мона Африди из департамента теологических исследований в Университете Лойолы Мэримонта в Лос-Анджелесе. А едва ли не единственный мусульманский ученый в мире, призывающий к еврейско-мусульманскому диалогу, - профессор Акбар С.Ахмад, также пуштун. Да и то обстоятельство, что он сам, Навраз Джаат Африди, испытывал с детства такую удивительную тягу к совершенно незнакомым и чуждым ему евреям, - тоже, возможно, своеобразное доказательство, улыбается мой собеседник: «Случайности перестают быть случайностями, когда их собирается много».

Придет ли время, когда воинственные и непокорные пуштуны репатриируются в Израиль? «Не сегодня, и не завтра, - но все возможно. Во время недавней поездки раввина Авигайля в Лондон две пуштунские семьи из клана Африди, бежавшие в Англию из Афганистана во время советской оккупации, признались ему в своем желании перейти в иудаизм. Поскольку иудаизм – вера их праотцев...».

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Pathans

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Navras by Navras

2007-03-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

Navras is the aesthetic experience (not the emotional experience itself) of the nine basic emotions or tastes (rasas), viz., sensitive (perception of love, shringar), comic (hasya), heroic (veer), furious (raudra), apprehensive (vibhatsa), compassionate (karuna), horrific (bhayanak), marvelous (adbhut), and calmed (shaant).

The earliest mention of Navras is found in the Natyashastra, which has been variously dated from the second century A.D. This work is in many respects a manual for the producer of stage plays and deals with all aspects of drama, including dance and music. Much of the present-day musical terminology stems from the Natyashastra, a source of inspiration for many treatises over the centuries. The drama is, according to the Natyashastra, an imitation of all the actions of the world, the essential part being the emotions (bhavas) which the characters are represented as experiencing during their actions.

In the sixteenth century, we find Navras in verse, in the Sultan of Bijapur, Ibrahim Adil Shah II’s (AD 1580-1627) remarkable collection of fifty-nine Dakkhini songs, Kitab-i-Navras. Songs contained in it are dedicated to Hindu gods and goddesses, and are preceded by an indication of the ragas and raginis in which they should be sung. There are also songs dedicated to the Prophet Muhammad, Hazrat Banda Nawaz, the sufi saint from Gulbarga, and other Muslim saints. According to his court-poet Zuhuri, he wrote it to introduce the theory of nine rasas, which occupies the most important place in Indian aesthetics, to those who were familiar only with Persian ethos. Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II even founded a township called Navraspur to give concrete shape to his musical conception or idea of a musical city. The town was meant only for artists, painters, sculptors, musicians, singers, actors, poets, artisans, craftsmen, and people of other creative pursuits.

Navras soor juga sarogunuiyu Saraswati mata
Ibrahim para sada bhayi dooni

(“Oh mother Saraswati! Since you have blessed Ibrahim,
His work Navras will last for long.”)