Eimaks

Eimaks (properly Char Eimak, i.e. the Four Tribes), the inhabitants of the western part of the Paropamisan mountains between Kabul and Herat, N. Afghanistan. The four divisions are: - Taemiini, S. slope of the Siah Koh, about Gor; Hazdra Zeidnat, Kalao Nao district, about the head waters of the Murghetb; Taeimiri, W. of Herat, now mostly within the Persian frontier; Zuri (Siiri), on the hills E. of the road from Farah to Herat. The Eimaks are a mixed Mongolo-Tartar people, who now speak a mediaeval form of Persian, and who claim pure Mongol descent. Many still spoke Mongol in Sultan Baber's time (16th century), and the historian Abul Fazl regarded theen as the remains of the hordes commanded by Manku Khan, grandson of Jenghiz Khan. In any case, they are of the same race as their eastern neighbours, the Hazeiras,-though hostile to them, being of the Suni (orthodox) sect, whereas the Hazaras are Shiahs. The Eimaks still live almost entirely in "urds," or camps, each of which is administered by a ketkhoela dependent on the khan or chief ruler, who pays reluctant tribute to the Amir of Kabul; total population about 450,000. (Col. C. M. MacGrcgor, Afghanistan, Calcutta, 1871, pp. 245, et seq.)