History and origin

The Attarwala claim to be descended from a group of Hazara soldiers who were initially settled in Agra

Agra

Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

, during the rule of the Mughal

Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 Emperor Jahangir

Jahangir

Jahangir was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1605 until his death. The name Jahangir is from Persian جهانگیر,meaning "Conqueror of the World"...

. According to their recorded documents, they then migrated to Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...

 via Gwalior, Ratlam

Ratlam

Ratlam , known historically as Ratnapuri, is a city in the Malwa region in Madhya Pradesh state of central India. The town of Ratlam lies 480 m above sea level. It is the administrative headquarters of Ratlam District....

 and Godhra

Godhra

Godhra is a town and originally the name came from "Gou" which means "Cow" and "Dhara" which has two meanings: one in Sanskrit which means "Hold or Land" and the other in Hindi which means Flow. So, identically it means The Land of the Cow, a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of...

. This migration followed their participation of the community in the 1857 Indian War Independence. Once settled in Gujarat, the community took up the occupation of manufacturing of perfumes known as ittars. The word attarwala means the manufacturer of perfumes. A second migration took place in 1947 from Agra

Agra

Agra a.k.a. Akbarabad is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, west of state capital, Lucknow and south from national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 , it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most...

, after the partition of India

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

, with some member immigrating to Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, while others joining their co-ethnics in Ahmedabad. The Attarwala are now found mainly in Ahmedabad, while those in Pakistan are found mainly in Karachi

Karachi

Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...

.

Present circumstances

The Attarwala are distinct from other Gujarati Muslims, as their mother tongue is Urdu

Urdu

Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

. They are divided into fourteen lineages, the main ones being the Peer Baksh, Ammer Ali, Khorata, Mandusa, Hussainsa, Zahur Hussain, Mohammad Hussain, Khodar Baksh, Barkhan, Mashoob Khan and Ghulam Khan. These lineages are named after an ancestor. There is no system of clan heirachy, and all the clans intermarry. The community marry among close kin, and practice both cross cousin and parallel cousin marriages.
The Attarwala are a landless community, and are still involved in the manufacture of attar, the traditional perfume of North India

North India

North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...

. Many now are wage labourers, involved in pulling rickshaw. They are Shia Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s and have their own caste association, the Shia Jafria Attarwala Jamat. The caste association runs a madrasa as well as other welfare activity.