History
According to their tradition, they belonged to the Muslim Khatri communities and were converted to Islam by Sufi Saint Hazrat Shamsuddin Sabzwari. They often use the surname Shamsi ( a disciple of Shams), in his honour. Some families moved from Sargodha, in what is now Pakistan in the 17th century, in search of business opportunities to Uttar Pradesh and especially in Delhi on behalf of Mughal Empire Aurangzaib Alamgir . Other than Delhi, important Qaume-e-Punjabian communities exist in Aligarh, Agra, Roorkee, Aonla, Hapur, Moradabad, Rampur, Kanpur and Kolkata.
The Qaum-e-Punjabian use Saudagar or shamsi as their surname.They are an endogamous community, practising both cross cousin and parallel cousin marriages.
They are divided into various lineages some also use Sheikh, Allahwala, Dawawala as a title. Allahwala that literally translates as "God fearing" in English.
The Qaum-e-Punjabian played an important role in India's transregional trade. They are "most important Muslim Merchant communities of North India.
Read more about this topic: Punjabi Saudagaran-e-Delhi
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)