Tajik

Member of the majority ethnic group in Tajikistan. Tajiks also live in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan and western China. The Tajiki language belongs to the West Iranian sub-branch of the Indo-European family, and is similar to Farsi; it is written in the Cyrillic script. The Tajiks have long been associated with neighbouring Turkic peoples and their language contains Altaic loan words. The majority of the Tajik people are Sunni Muslims; there is a Shiite minority in Afghanistan.

The Tajiks inhabit a varied geographical region, ranging from the high Pamir Mountains to warmer valleys in Afghanistan. They herd sheep, goats, cattle, and occasionally camels. Mountain farmers build terraced irrigated fields, in addition to growing barley and wheat on higher mountain slopes. From Persia their culture diffused to China. They linked Persia, India, and China by trade. They fought the Uzbeks when the Mongols moved west.