Language

Wakhi is one of the several languages that belong to the Pamiri or the eastern Iranian group of languages. Its origin is Wakhan, an area divided between the extreme northeast of Afghanistan and Gorno-Badakhshan (mountain Badakhshan) autonomous province in Tajikistan. The people of Gorno-Badakhshan speak several Iranian languages of a group called Pamiri, which is quite distinct from Tajik.

None of the Pamiri languages have a written tradition. Grammars and texts of Wakhi appeared in the former Soviet Union in 1974. Rich in archaisms, it differs considerably from the Pamiri languages, and generally from the south-eastern group of Iranian languages, having certain common characteristics with the Indian languages. Although divided by borders, the Wakhi language is still very much the same, and dialectal differences are not great.

Among the 25,000 population of Gojal valley where the Wakhi Pamiri people are concentrated, the majority speak Wakhi (Xhikwor) language; while Burushaski and Domaaki languages are also spoken in some villages.

ISMAILI INFLUENCE

Most of Pamiri people in the Gorno-Badakhshan region, Wakhan and northern Pakistan are Ismailis. The people of the Pamirs were introduced to the Ismaili sect, in the 11th century. Central Asia was the hub of this spread. Many great scholars of that time converted to Ismaili faith giving birth to some of the most famous thinkers of the Muslim world, such as Abu Ali Ibne Sina, al-Biruni and Firdousi. During the Ghaznavid (962-1186 CE) and Seljuk (1034-1300 CE) rules, Ismailis across Central Asia and Sindh were subjected to persecution because these rulers were unsympathetic to their intellectual life and tradition. This resulted in the migration of the Ismailis from the valleys and cities of Khurasan and Transoxania to remote mountain areas like Badakhshan. The great Ismaili thinker and poet of the time of the Fatimid caliph Al-Mustansir Billah, Nasir Khusraw, took refuge in Badakhshan and spent a great part of his life there.