The Wasitis in South Asia
The Zaidis of the Indian subcontinent are known as Wasitis. Zayd ibn Ali was martyred in Kufa, Iraq, many of his descendants either returned to al-Hijaz or remained in Iraq. Some of those who stayed in Iraq settled in Wasit. Some descendants from Wasit then moved to the Indian subcontinent. These Zaidis believe in twelve Imams and are part of Twelver Shiism. Most of them settled in India and Pakistan.
The largest group of Zaidis is known as Saadat-e-Bara. Saadat means descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and Bara means twelve in Urdu. There are many interpretations of word bara and many spellings are current: Bara, Bahera, Barha (as spelled in Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, Akbarnama and other Moghul sources) and Bahira meaning "bright" in Arabic language. One explanation of the word is as mentioned above; another is that there are twelve villages in Muzaffarnagar District and their residents were called Sadat Barha. This explanation is mentioned by the Emperor Jahangir in his autobiography Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri or Memoirs of Jahangir. Living outside of imperial camps and not indulging in hedonism of court life is another explanation of the term, as these families avoided the wrath of the noble families of Moghul court, most popular belief about Barha epithet is that they live in twelve villages in Muzaffarnagar district.
These Sayyeds are descendants of Abul Farah Wasti who came to India from Wasit (Iraq) in the 11th century along with his four sons who settled in four villages of Punjab, Kundli, Chhatbanur, Tihanpur and Jajner giving names to all four clans of Sadat Barha. Their numbers are highest in Karachi (Pakistan) and Muzaffarnagar (India). The Kundliwal clan mainly live in Mujhera, Hashimpur, Valipura, Saifpur, Sikrehra Khola, Tandhera, Khujhera, Khedhi Pachenda and Sarai Rasulpur. The Chhatraudi clan live in Sambalhera, Luckhmapur (Jaunpur), Kakrauli, Saidpura Kalan, Morna and Kaithora.
Read more about this topic: Zaidi (surname)
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