The Shabak people have lived in Iraq for centuries, and have known special customs and traditions that distinguished them from other nationalities, and most of them are concentrated in the villages of the Nineveh Plain (in the north of the country). Opinions differ about the origins of this minority, whose numbers range from 250 to 350 thousand people, according to unofficial estimates. .
Specialized researchers believe that the Shabak language is descended from the Mago language (one of the dialects of the Kurdish language), and it needs to be a written language to take its place among the recognized languages.
Shabak has certain peculiarities in some customs, traditions, folklore, and the relationship of the individual to the family (the island)
The history of their existence
The stories differ regarding the origins of the Shabak, their history, language, religion, and numbers, but it is agreed that they are one of the components of authentic Iraq, which resides in Nineveh province, according to Shabaki journalist Muhammad Sharif.
He adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the oldest historical accounts indicate their presence in Iraq since the late Abbasid era, and Ottoman documents referred to them as an independent group since the 16th century AD.
The artist and activist Ammar Al-Aziz is likely that the Shabaks entered Iraq in the 18th century AD during the second attack of the Iranian leader "Nader Shah" and his siege of Mosul.
Researcher and academic Saad Salem Sultan determines the locations of the Shabaks in the center of the city of Mosul, and in the districts of Tilkif and Al-Hamdani, and the districts of Bartella, Bashiqa, and Al-Nimrod, and their affiliated villages, within the governorate of Nineveh.
Activist and journalist Yunus Jalal Al-Agha reports that the Shabaks are stationed between the Tigris and Khazir rivers and Jabal Al-Nuran in the north, reaching Al-Nimroud district in the south, and they are spread in more than 65 villages distributed into 6 administrative units.
He added to Al-Jazeera Net that the Shabak are Muslims (from the Shiites and Sunnis), and they were known for coexistence and acceptance of the other, as they lived side by side with members of other religions and sects of Christianity, Yazidism and Kaka, by virtue of friendships and commercial dealings extending for hundreds of years, pointing out that the Sufi order of the Bektashi had existed. Previously great among them.
Regarding the designation of the Shabak, Al-Aziz believes that it came from the agreement of the Shah (meaning the Persian King) and the Bey (meaning the Turkish Master), after the problems between them ended, and the agreement became called (Shah and Al-Baik), then it was pronounced as (Shabak).
In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Aziz pointed out that the Shabaks were also called “the kumbhiyya” or “the cambiyeen,” meaning the owners of the domes, where the style of their houses was built in the form of domes, or a bulb, as Shabak calls it.
Whereas, the head of the Council of Shabak notables, Sheikh Abbas Hussain Agha, attributed the reason for this name to the fact that the Shabaks have several clans who speak the Shabak dialect, and these clans intertwined and their name became Shabak.
Shabaks in Iraq use high hills as graves for their dead (Al-Jazeera)
Cultures and customs
The customs and traditions of the Shabak may not differ much from the rest of the Muslims and Arab tribes in the region, including funeral councils, weddings, traditions and other customs, according to Hussein Agha.
He adds to Al-Jazeera Net that some tribes in the region are called Bajlanistan and others, Shabakstan, and share the same societal customs and traditions.
In the same context, Aziz points out that the Shabak culture was influenced by the Arabs in Mosul and the Kurds in the Kurdistan region by virtue of their region separating the two nationalities in the Nineveh Plain.
However, the Shabaks have certain peculiarities related to some customs, traditions, folklore, and the individual's relationship with the family.
A woman or a girl, for example, has a special place in society, according to Al-Aziz.
Returning to Sharif, he says that what distinguishes Shabak is the old dress that is different from the costumes of other nationalities, but this old dress has disappeared with the passage of time.
Sharif explains that the network dress was previously a white dishdasha (long dress) slightly short than what is known today, and the daimer (similar to the jacket) is detailed in a distinctive style, and they have a white "hood" turban, which differs according to the person, as the rich wore expensive clothes imported from India. And others.
He notes that the followers of the Bektashi order (one of the Sufi orders) of the Shabak used to make vows at the beginning of the year, seeking God's forgiveness, and this custom existed more than 50 years ago, but it has now ceased.
The network community is very cohesive (Al Jazeera)
Sharif continues that the Shabak are distinguished by their eagerness to continuously visit each other, and this has led to the cohesion of the Shabak community, unlike what is present in some other nationalities and minorities.
Regarding more customs and traditions, Shabaki citizen Mahmoud Hassan Abbas says that they have a special folkloric dance in which the drum and zurna (a musical wind instrument) are used in marriage, and wheat and barley are sprinkled as a sign of blessing, and the jar is broken under the bride’s man during weddings.
The rainbow-colored flags are raised as evidence of the existence of a wedding and joy in that house, and Abbas pointed out that they do not exaggerate in the requests to marry the groom, and they have low dowries' values, which indicates their simplicity.
As for the burial and death rituals, the Shabakite citizen explains that they choose the high hills to be cemeteries, and they call them "the Tabah" (the low hill).
The Shabaks are distinguished - according to Abbas - with a social system of their own, similar to what exists in other civilized and civilized societies, and is based on homes and not the tribal system.
Abbas Hussain Agha: The customs and traditions of the Shabak may not differ much from the rest of the region's population (Al-Jazeera)
Private language
The Shabaks speak Arabic with the general population, while they speak with some of them their own Shabak language, which includes a mixture of Arabic, Persian, Kurdish and Turkmen vocabulary, according to Mahmoud Abdel-Hussein, a mathematics teacher in a network school in the Nineveh Plain.
He added to Al-Jazeera Net that the network language was affected by its external environment a lot, and it underwent several changes as a result of introversion and isolation, and the woes that happened to the network minority in Iraq, as there was no ability to transcribe the network language as their own language and be legally recognized.
Historians and Shabak representatives considered the Shabak language to be one of the branches of the Azeri or Indo-Aryan language, but Abd al-Hussein asserts that most Shabak citizens are fluent in the Arabic language, as well as the Kurdish and Turkmen languages.
Some historical accounts trace the presence of Shabaks in Iraq to the late Abbasid era (Al-Jazeera)
In a related context, Sheikh Husayn Agha says that the language spoken by the Shabak clans amongst themselves is "mago".
While Sharif confirms that the history of the Shabak language goes back to the time of their presence in Iraq, while its origins go back to Persian, and the countries beyond the river in the Caspian Sea.
The network journalist believes that the network language, in fact, has become just a heritage, history and culture for those who want to preserve their dialect, but in fact there is no interest in it from the government, agencies, institutions and forums for the network language, unlike the interest in other languages such as Syriac and others.
For his part, the dear activist notes that many of the residents of the Nineveh Plain other than the Shabaks have been greatly influenced by the language and language of the Shabak (Magoism), which is a mixture of Persian, Kurdish (Sorani), Turkmen and even Hindi languages, and has peculiarities and rules the same as other languages.
Reticulated hair
Posted by Shabak Now on Friday, 3 April 2020
Their most prominent personalities
Network culture abounds in many poets, writers and writers, such as Sayed Hurr, the Sufi mystic Aziz Agha, Khalil al-Muhajir Mashkhti, and Salem al-Shabaki, according to Aziz.
He lists some of the names of young writers, including Aref al-Daoudi, Ali Bajlan, Taha Bajlan, Firas Zindar, Hazem Khodrani, Noah al-Shabaki and others, while Sharif points to the existence of poems and poems written in the Shabaka language, but the problem is that they do not distinguish between the masculine and the feminine, as is found in Arabic.
Regarding the most famous historically networked personalities, Abbas says that the most prominent of them are Hussein Agha, a senior officer in the Ottoman army, the Khurshid and Rashid Agha brothers who led a revolution-like movement against the feudal lords, the poet writer Mulla Hassan bin Mahmoud, Major General Abdullah Zainal, Shahir Fendi Agha, and Ali Suleiman Bahar And others.