Hazara ethnic group

Hazaras
هزاره

Ethnic Hazara school children in Bamyan, 2012
Total population
c. 7–8 million
Regions with significant populations
Afghanistan	~2,300,000 to ~3,000,000 (7-9%)
Pakistan	900,000. Some ~ 40,000 Afghan citizens of Hazara descent in Pakistan (2005)
Iran	500,000
Europe	130,000
Australia	18,000 (2014)
Canada	4,300
Indonesia	3,800
Languages
Hazaragi and Dari (eastern varieties of Persian)
Religion
Shia Islam (Twelver and Ismaili), with a Sunni minority (see Aimaq Hazara)
Related ethnic groups
Mongolian peoples

4,300

3,800

The Hazaras (Hazaragi: آزاره) are an ethnic group native to the region of Hazarajat in central Afghanistan, speaking the Hazaragi variant of Dari, itself an eastern variety of Persian and one of the two official languages of Afghanistan.

They are overwhelmingly Twelver Shia Muslims and make up the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. They also make up a significant minority group in the neighboring Pakistan, with a population of over 650,000–900,000, largely living in the region of Quetta.

Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire in the early 16th century, records the name Hazara in his autobiography. He referred to the populace of a region called Hazaristan, located west of the Kabulistan region, north of Ghazna, and southwest of Ghor.

The conventional theory is that the name Hazara derives from the Persian word for "thousand" (هزار hezār). It may be the translation of the Mongol word ming (or minggan), a military unit of 1,000 soldiers at the time of Genghis Khan. With time, the term Hazar could have been substituted for the Mongol word and now stands for the group of people.