The Garachi (; ), also spelled Karachi or Karaci, are a group of the Dom people living in Azerbaijan and Turkey. Little research has been done on the Garachi, and most of what is known about them is based on the works of the 19th-century scholars Kerope Patkanov and Jean-Marie Chopin.
The term Garachi is sometimes used to describe the Domari-speaking people of northern Iran. The confusion is explained by the fact that both groups live in the regions populated mostly by Azeri-speakers who apply the word Garachi to medieval collective migrants from Karachi from Sindh.
Origins and history
Even though the Garachi of Azerbaijan and Turkey call themselves
Dom (the name
Garachi was given to them by the local population and derives from the Azeri word
qara - "black" and the suffix
-çı denoting the stem-word's function/occupation), they do not seem to share same origins with the Dom people. According to Jean-Marie Chopin, the Azerbaijani Garachi descend from the medieval Romani nomads of
Central Asia.
[Chopin, Jean-Marie. New Articles on the Ancient History of the Caucasus and Its Inhabitants. St Petersburg, 1896] In 1944,
Vasily Yan suggested that the Garachi of Azerbaijan and the Dom of Iran (sometimes referred to as the Garachi) differ in terms of their origins.
[ Turkestan Campaigns by Vasily Yan]
In 1887, Kerope Patkanov stated that the Garachi of the South Caucasus (then part of the Russian Empire) numbered 2,399 people living mostly in the Goychay uyezd (present-day Goychay District, Ujar District, Agsu District, and Ismayilli districts of Azerbaijan) and Nakhchivan. The largest Garachi settlement was named after them and is situated around 4 km southeast of Khacmaz town in Khachmaz region.[Patkanov, Kerope. Gypsies: Several Words on the Dialects of the Transcaucasian Gypsies, the Bosha and the Karachi. St. Petersburg, 1887]
Their main occupation was the production of household items such as baskets, sieves and chewing gum made by men and sold by women in the neighbouring towns. Among other sources of income Patkanov lists fortune-telling and cattle larceny. Nomadic Garachi groups used to train animals and make street song-and-dance performances.[ Gypsies and Crime by Oleg Kucheriavy] This practice was described in the famous 1913 story Garaja giz by the Azeri writer Suleyman Sani Akhundov.[ Qaraca Qiz by Suleyman Sani Akhundov (full text)]
Language
Patkanov's analysis of the language of the Garachi (based on 101 common phrases) indicated that despite being Indo-Aryan, it is not mutually intelligible with any of the
Romani language or
Domari language dialects of the
Balkans,
Russia, or the
Middle East. In addition to it, the Garachi observed by Patkanov spoke Azeri and sometimes Tat as a second and third language respectively.
Here are four phrases in Garachi and Romani languages with translation.
|
- - Salamalikim, baro, kefoj kybra?
- - Kasta mashgul astoj?
- - Ma dom astum!
- - Kiti dom astak?
|
- - Selamo, baro, sökerdan?
- - So keresa?
- - Me sem rom!
- - Kicik romen san?
|
- - Hello, brother, how are you?
- - What are you doing?
- - I am Gipsy (Dom, Rom)!
- - How many Gypsies are there?
|
Present-day
Most Garachis nowadays are settled and live in communities in
Yevlakh, Agdash,
Gakh, Khachmaz and
Baku suburbs numbering altogether around 2,000 people. Small communities in
Shusha and
Jabrayil were driven out by the Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
[ Our Romani Neighbours by Kamal Ali. Echo. 30 December 2006. Retrieved 29 April 2007.] Presently the Garachi are undergoing cultural and linguistic assimilation by Azeris. Modern Garachi couples tend to have 2 to 3 children as opposed to 5 and above, as was often the case throughout their history.
External links
