Babai (Pashtun tribe)

The Babai (Pashto: بابئی or بابئے), also known as Babi (Pashto: بابی ), is a Gharghashti Pashtun tribe.

Babai is the son of Ghorghasht (Ismail) also called as Gharghashti.^[1] Babai had two more brothers Dani and Mando.

Babai was the third son of Ghurghust. He had four sons, Jabrael, Mikael, Israfiel, and Izrael, named after the four principle angels. However , these names were later changed to Mirzai, Sud, Israel and Katozai respectively. Historians points out a large and important tribe in Persia (Iran) called Babi which may be related to Afghan Babis.

This tribe lives mostly in Quetta, Pakistan and Zabol Province, Afghanistan.<^[1] The tribe speaks the most archaic and soft dialect of Pashto language, referred to as Kandahari Pashto dialect or the Southern Dialect.^[2]

The babi tribe of Junagadh State, India who formed Babi Dynasty^[3] also belong to the same Babai tribe and trace back their roots to Afghanistan. Apart from this many babi tribesmen live in India , but they do not speak Pashto as their mother tongue, unlike the Babais of Quetta or Afghanistan

Notables

• Nawab Muhammad Dilawar Khanji Babi, 14th Governor of Sindh, Pakistan and Nawab of Junagadh State
• Nawab Muhammad Mahabat Khanji Babi, of Junagadh State
• Nawab Muhammad Jahangir Khanji Babi, present Nawab of Junagadh State
• Abdul Majeed Babai, Minister of Information & Culture , Afghanistan (Assassinated by Taliban in Kandahar)

See also

• Pashtun tribes
• Gharghashti
• Pathans of Gujarat
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties
• Babi Dynasty
• Nawab of Junagarh

References

1. "AfghanTribes". afghantribes.com.
2. "Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, Volume 4 Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri" (PDF).
3. Babai, Khan (20 dec 2014). "Babi tribe". www.barmazid.com. Check date values in: |date= (help)