Sheedi & Makrani

Re: Sheedi & Makrani

any song? he looks afro american

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will post later. you will enjoy his harkaat

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:)

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Sajid Billa aka DVD

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:omg:

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Its funny at end. arre jigar mardon main kidhar

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A Sheedi and tussle between Sindhi- Muhajir

The

There is a community in Sindh called ‘sheedi’. I have heard some refer to them to mean a bad person, just as in Punjab ‘majha’ is a bad word meaning ‘hoodlum’. Both words have noble origins. ‘Majha’ is from ‘Mi’raj’, a proper noun celebrating the ascension of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the sacred month of Rajab.

‘Sheedi’ is from ‘Sidi’. If you go to Morocco you will find that our honorific appellation Syed is reduced to ‘Sidi’ or simply ‘Sid’. There was a soldier of fortune in Spain who fought both Christians and Muslims to become the country’s national hero.

The 11[SUP]th[/SUP] century conqueror Rodrigo Diaz was called ‘El Cid’ by the Muslims and ‘El Camprador’ (the champion) by his countrymen. French classical poet Corneille wrote a play titled ‘El Cid’.

**In the 1960s, Sindhi nationalism focused on Hoshoo Sheedi, the martyred general of the Talpurs, who had fought the British army bravely and was buried in Pakka Qila in Hyderabad.
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The gravestone of his grave was actually found in Pakka Qila, after which the call to resettle the muhajirs was made. Sindhi nationalists wanted the Pakka Qila preserved as a historic site.
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In 1962, resettlement was imposed and the muhajir houses began to be demolished, especially in areas settled by late arrivals.
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**This led to a fight between muhajirs and Sindhis. It was the trouble at Pakka Qila — and the growing gulf between then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Army Chief Mirza Aslam Beg — that resulted in the dismissal of the PPP government in 1990.
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Who was Hoshoo Sheedi called ‘sheedi’? The original word must have been ‘Syedi’ which means ‘my lord’ in Arabic. But why should a Sindhi person be called ‘sheedi’?

Helene Basu, Associate Professor at Free University in Berlin, is a leading authority on ‘sheedis’. In medieval times, black African slaves were brought to South Asia in large numbers. Medieval Indian history refers to Ethiopian or Abyssinian slaves serving at royal courts or in the armies of imperial/local rulers.

**According to Dr Basu, Sheedis are found in many states in India, but nowhere do they exceed 20,000. The largest community of Sheedis is found in Sindh: some years ago, there were 50,000 of them, ‘but that number must have trebled’.
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Roots of word Sheedi**

The question is why are black people called* ‘sidi’*? Is it some kind of euphemism to avoid giving offence? After all, ‘maula’ (owner) in Arabic also means ‘slave’. The answer is in etymology. And a very strange etymology it is, as found in the Holy Quran.

T
he root is ‘swd’. It means black. It is from this root that we get ‘aswad’ the adjective we apply to hajr aswad the black stone that lies at the centre of the ritual of Hajj. Somehow the Holy Quran also uses the word for any thick collection of things.

Thickness implies blackness especially in regard to trees. The Holy Quran denotes wealth and large population by ‘sawwaad’. The leader of a large population is called ‘al saayid’, from where Syed (leader) is derived. He is rich and commands respect. We often refer to the majority population as ‘sawad-e-azam’.

It is therefore not surprising that African slaves brought to Sindh were called ‘sidis’. We made ‘sheedi’ out of that and applied it to hoodlums. Some sidis must have taken to bad ways. But the root of ‘sidi’ does mean black. It is another way of saying ‘habshi’.

Today, Sheedis live in Lyari and the coastal areas of Sindh. They are believers in the healing quality of the crocodiles of the Manghopir shrine.

Re: Sheedi & Makrani

^ interesting and how the person has tried to link siddis of morocco. How many of them live in makran and Karachi now?

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They are in abundance in Lyari, Karachi

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Apart from their style of music and dance, have they retained any other traces of their African past like in cuisine or african words in language or even other cultural norms ?

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They have adapted local languages, but their dialects are some what different than other local people.

One more thing that they still revere crocodiles (referring to Manghopir Karachi), which is probably prevalent in African tribes. Some historians say that the area (which is currently know as Karachi) was known as crocola and similar words as people there used to worship crocodiles.

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^^ Crocodiles scare me worse than snakes

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same here. They are more disgusting than scary. My Dadi used to tell that in old days, there crocodiles in river Sindh, who used to attack people traveling through boats. One of the incident that she used to tell (that make crocodiles image worse in our minds) was that a crocodile attacked two brothers in between river. one was injured and other one some how manged to escape and got her injured out of the water. He then kept his brother on the bank of river and went in search of medical help. In his absence, the crocodile came out of water and got back its escaped prey from the river bank. :hayaa:

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Sheedi music tone and Pakistani political parties anthems

PPP (the fake representative of Sheedi community.. Never worked for their rights)

MQM (the party who claim to be representative of all Karachiites including Sheedis)

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Hmm.. I once saw a video in which some Karachiites were feeding Gulab jamun to crocodiles.

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it was Halwa I think

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An ajooba indeed