E. Mockler —Origin of the Baloch. 
33 
1895.] 
Hajjaj, the then governor of Irak, about A. H. 65, appointed Sa’id bin 
Aslam bin Zura al Kalabi to Makran and its frontiers, and that he was 
killed by Mua‘wlyah and Muhammad, the sons of Al Haris al ‘Alafi, 
viz., Al Haris of the ‘Alafi tribe. The pedigree of the founder of the 
tribe is then given as follows :— 
that is to say they were the descendants of a man called ‘Alaf who was 
a descendant in a direct line from a well-known personage named 
Quza‘a of Kahtanic stock. Sa’id bin Aslam was opposed by these two 
brothers (sons of Al Haris of the ‘Alafi tribe ) because he had killed 
a relation and fellow-countryman of theirs. They had come from ‘Uman 
(• ‘Oman ) and after killing Sa’id they took possession of Makran. 
Subsequently Al Hajjaj appears to have sent a strong force against 
them, before which, although they are said to have been the victors, 
they retired, about A. H. 86, into Sindh, where their name is conspicu¬ 
ous in the annals of that country for the next two hundred years 
or so. 
These and many other recorded facts regarding these ‘Alafi and 
their doings, tally so well with the traditions regarding the earliest 
movements, in Makran, of the Rinds and some few clans, which really 
were, or had become, more or less closely connected with them (some 
of whom I believe to have been also Arabs and some others probably 
foreign to Makran), give me grounds for expressing a belief that the 
Rinds are, as they assert, of Arab descent, not indeed a people who 
emigrated from the town of Alaf = Haleb = Aleppo in Syria, but a people 
decended from a man named ‘Alaf i.e., a tribe called the ‘Alafi, of ‘Uman 
(‘Oman.) Not Quraish, who are Ishmaelites, but ‘Alafi, who are 
Kahtanites. The Baloch, and the Arabs for that matter, are fond of 
philological discussions as to the origin and meanings of names, and, 
given a name, they will certainly find a history and meaning for it; and 
being some of them Alafi, viz., ‘Alafi, or descended from them, their 
derivation of the name is probably founded on no better authority than 
their own fancy or that of their ballad makers. The ballad was com¬ 
posed, I believe, within the last 200 years, or less, and the migration 
from Haleb = Alaf was not improbably suggested by some of the many 
Makranis who have taken service in Mesopotamia and to whom the 
name of Haleb = Alaf = Aleppo was familiar, and it was a very likely 
one for them to hit upon. 
As regards the status of the Rinds, it will be readily understood, 
that as the whole of the tribes of Balochistan have adopted the Muham¬ 
madan religion, they are not unwilling to be believed to be related to 
a people of undoubted Arab descent; who were certainly amongst the 
J. i. 5 
