The Aimak (or Eimak, Aimaq) are a Persian-speaking nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes of a mixed Iranian and Mongolian stock inhabiting the north and north-west Afghan highlands immediately to the north of Herat. They are closely related to the Hazara. They live in western Hazarajat in the provinces of Ghor , Farah, Herat, Badghis, Faryab , Jozjan and Sar-i-Pul . The name is Mongolian for clan, or section of a tribe.
They were originally known as chahar (the four) Eimaks, because there were four principal tribes: the Taimani (the predominating element in the population of Ghur ), the Ferozkhoi , the Temuri , and the Jamshidi .
Estimates of the Aimak population vary between a quarter of a million and 2 million. They are Sunni Muslims in distinction from the Hazara who are Shiites. They are predominantly of Iranian or quasi-Iranian blood, while the Hazara are Turanian. They are a bold, wild people and renowned fighters.
The Aimagh population in Afghanistan is estimated to be 1-2 million. The calculation is made difficult by the fact that due to centuries of oppression of the Hazara people, some Aimagh Hazaras are classified officially as Tajik, or Persian).
Playing on this sectarian divides , successive Afghan governments (usually dominated by the ethnic Pushtuns) divided the Aimaks and the Hazaras politically, listing them as separate nationalities in the list of the ethnic groups of Afghanistan, thereby reducing the Hazara population in the national percentage.
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