# Dom people

The Dom (also called Domi; Arabic: دومي / ALA-LC: Dūmī, دومري / Dūmrī, Ḍom / ضوم or دوم, or sometimes also called Doms) are descendants of the Dom caste with origins in the Indian subcontinent which through ancient migrations are found scattered across the Middle East and North Africa, the Eastern Anatolia Region, and parts of the Balkans and Hungary. The traditional language of the Dom is Domari, an endangered Indo-Aryan language, thereby making the Dom an Indo-Aryan ethnic group.
The Doms were formerly grouped with other traditionally itinerant ethnic groups originating from medieval India: the Rom and Lom peoples. However, these groups left India at different times and used different routes. The Domari language has a separate origin in India from Romani, and Doms are not closer to the Romani people than other Indians, such as Gujaratis. Dom people do not identify themselves as Romanis.

## Culture

The Dom have an oral tradition and express their culture and history through music, poetry, and dance. Initially, it was believed that they were a branch of the Romani people, but recent studies of the Domari language suggest that they departed from the Indian subcontinent at different times and using different routes.
Among the various Domari subgroups, they were initially part of Ghawazi who were known for their dancing and music business. Some Muslim Roma may share Dom ancestry too, because in the travel book Seyahatnâme, written by the Ottoman Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi in 1668, he explained that the Romani from Komotini (Gümülcine) believe that their ancestors originated in Ottoman Egypt. Also the sedentary Romani groups from Serres region in Greece believe their ancestors were once taken from Ottoman Egypt by the Turks after 1517 to Rumelia, to work on the tobacco plantations of Turkish feudals that were based there.
Muslim Roma settled in Baranya and the city of Pécs in southwestern Hungary. After the Siege of Pécs (1686), when the Habsburgs took it back, Muslim Roma and some other Muslim ethnic minorities abandoned Islam and converted to Christianity, choosing the Roman Catholic faith in the years 1686–1713. The Ghagar, a subgroup of the Doms in Egypt, say that some of them went to Hungary.

## Language

Domari shows Turkic, Kurdish and Arabic influence. Domari in the Middle East is known as Nawari.

## Distribution

The Dom people, with an estimated population of 2.2 million, predominantly inhabit regions spanning Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. The actual population is believed to surpass this estimate, given that some Dom individuals are left out of official national censuses, and others identify themselves using national labels rather than the term "Dom."
There is a large concentration of Doms in Jordan, where they call themselves Bani Murra. Researchers have written that "they accommodate Arab racism by hiding their ethnic identity", since they would not be accepted into Arab societies once their true identity is revealed due to the anti-Romani sentiment that is prevalent in the Arab world. Their community numbers around 70,000 in Jordan according to estimates in 2015.
A small community in east Jerusalem lives in Bab Huta neighborhood, in the Old City of Jerusalem. The population in Jerusalem is around 15,000
The population in Lebanon is around 3,112 (estimated).

## Al-Nawar

Al-Nawar (Arabic: نور) is an Arabic term for several nomad communities used primarily in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. The term, regarded as derogatory, is used by Arabs for several diverse ethnic groups. They have historically been called "Gypsies", though as a whole they are not Romani per se. The Dom people are especially known as Nawar. While both they and Romani people originated from the Indian subcontinent, they came from two drastically different ethnicities and cultures. The Nawar in Palestine are also known as Ghajars (gypsies).
The Nawar in Syria number 100,000 to 250,000 people according to estimations. The vast majority is sedentary.

## Notable people

* Bilal