The Chaush or Chaus are an Indian Muslim community who are Hadhrami Arab descent. They are found in the Deccan region of India.[1][2]
The Chaush or Chaus were brought from Yemen to work in the former Hyderabad State as military men and body guards for the Nizams. It is said that especially when it came to safe guarding his family, the 7th Nizam had absolute trust on these Arab bodyguards.[3] They are most concentrated in Marathwada, Telangana and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions and most numbers of their population concentrated in the neighbourhood of Barkas in Hyderabad city and Aurangabad city [3]
The founders of both the Qu'aiti and Kathiri states in Hadhramawt had previously served as jemadars in Hyderabad.[4]
Among the cultural contributions of the Chaush to India are Marfa music and dance, and Hyderabadi haleem, both which are culturally important to the Hyderabadi Muslim people, and seen at almost all wedding ceremonies.[5]
Culture
Cuisine
The Hyderabadi Haleem and Mandi have been introduced in Hyderabad by the Chaush people.[6][7]
See also
References
Further reading
- Leif Manger,3 Hadramis in Hyderabad: From Winners to Losers, Asian Journal of Social Science, Volume 35, Numbers 4–5, 2007, pp. 405–433(29)
- Engseng Ho, The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean, University of California Press, 2006
- Ababu Minda Yimene, An African Indian community in Hyderabad, Cuvillier Verlag, 2004, pg 201
- Hadhrami Traders, Scholars, and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean:1750s-1960s By-Ulrike Freitag and W. G. Clarence-Smith