Jarifis

Jarifis

Total population
c. 10 million
Languages
Jarifi language
Religion
Gregorianism, Himaya

The Jarifis are a Calesian Ahummic ethnic group that traditionally lived an itinerant lifestyle. Major populations of Jarifis exist in southern and eastern Calesia, in a belt roughly stretching from Hyacinthe and Melia to Olcabria. The Jarifi language is an Abbasian language with a heavy degree of Calesian influence.

Originating from a group of confederated Abbasian tribes in the western outskirts of the Shiraq, the ancestors of the Jafiris played a key role in the Abbasian invasions during the 8th century. As the Shiraqic Qal'aldesh consolidated, however, the ruling authorities grew concerned about the unruly nomadic tribes occupying their territories. As a result, the Jafiris, alongside other Abbasian tribes, were sent to the eastern frontier in order to subdue the Nishic states. During the 9th to 11th centuries, many of these tribesmen later served as mercenaries in the Tashar raids in Calesia; this seems to have driven a second major migration of Jarifi tribes. The Jarifis went on to established various states in southern Calesia, most famously the Bardal kingdom in modern Olcabria. After these kingdoms were overthrown, the Jarifis continued to play military and mercenary roles for various Calesian political entities.

Early Jarifi social organization was heavily militarized. Individual settlements or tribes were called "companies" or "regiments," and were able to be mobilized into a fighting force relatively quickly. Women often contributed to the war effort, usually as archers. In the modern day, Jarifi tribes maintain the same nomadic tradition of their forebears, albeit with less militarization, a fact which has driven Jarifi tribes in conflict with settled states in recent years.