(Source: https://threader.app/thread/1445730540921835532)
Westward migration
Considerable numbers of Jats had migrated from Sindh to Iraq, Mesopotamia even before the Muslims began to deport them as slaves. Jats had been settled by Bahram V in the Persian Gulf region. Some of the Jats served as mercenaries in Sassanid armies that fought the Arabs. Many of these mercenary Jats converted to Islam. Their support was sought by several Arab clans. Around 670, large number of Zuṭṭ moved to Syrian coastal towns doing rice farming. They were in Iraq for so long, their Indian origins were forgotten & they mixed with Marsh Arabs.
The Arabs branded the Jats, Sammas and other similar tribes of Sindh as “highway robbers, thieves or pirates”. Numerous armed conflicts occured between Arabs and Jats, if the Jats lost they would be deported as slaves to Iraq. However, enlistment of Jats in the Arab armies had become common. Jats were prohibited to carry swords & Jizya was imposed on them, often their hands were tattooed to mark them – these were measures imposed on them because they were ahl adh-dhimma (protected non-Muslim subjects).+++(5)+++
Jats of Multān and Bhatiyā with around 4,000-8,000 boats fought Mahmud of Ghazni during his seventeenth expedition to India in 1026 CE in a naval battle. At this time, they were also found in the Salt Range.
There is a possibility that Abū Hanifā, the founder of the most popular Hanafite school of law in Orthodox Sunni Islam was a Jat by origin..
Displacement from sindh
Jats were one of the primary inhabitants of Makran and Sindh but no traces of them in the Punjab were found before the 9th century. The invading Baloch population would eventually replace them in the region & they would migrate Northwards. They resembled the Kurds or the Bedouins as they were dromedary raising (camel people) who lived in huts of reed, thickets, swamp water and ate dairy produce. There is a considerable Sindhi-like substrate in Multani Punjabi, pointing to movement of the Jats from Lower Sindh. In Sindh today, the name “Jat” is an occupational term meaning dromedary-man (camel man).
It seems Jats first moved into Punjab between the 10-11th century. It seems by the 11th century, the Jats of Punjab were seen as Hindus as the historian Baihaqī refers to them as “seditious Hindus” who joined other infidels in pursuit of a rebel governor of Multan for a reward of 100,000 dirhams. By 16th century, modern Jat caste had formed.