Native Name: k'om.
Other Names: "Kam" (Robertson [1896]), kâmozi (Pashto name), "Bashgali" (from Khowar bašgal'i 'Nuristani; person from bašg'al [the lanDai sin Valley]').
Location: the lower LanDai Sin basin and an adjoining portion of the Kunar Valley. This land is traditionally called kâm'aston in ancient Kom songs.
Population: between 5,000 – 10,000.
Settlements:
Native Language Name: kâmv'iri. The kSt'o, bini'o, jâmc'o, and jâš'i also speak the kâmv'iri dialect, but they call the language by their own tribal names (kSt'aviri, jâšv'iri). Non-indigenous names include "Bashgali" (from Khowar) and "Kati" (Morgenstierne 1926).
Linguistic Position of Kâmv'iri: Kâmv'iri is a dialect of Kâmk'ata-viri, which forms with
Vâs'i-vari the Northern Group of Nuristâni languages (see the
Table of Languages). Being somewhat isolated, speakers on the
Pakistan side of the boundary diverge slightly from the dialectal norms of their more numerous cousins in
Afghanistan.
Pashto has displaced Kâmv'iri in the villages of p'âšaŋar, gâN'ür,
ćün'uk, š'âŋir, šâl'ikuT, and mâC'iamon in kun'ař.
Subsistence: Kâm'aston has extensive mountain pastureland, called so˜, and lowland winter grazing areas, called Sor, which support the raising of goats and cattle for dairy, meat, and other products. Communities are typically surrounded by irrigated fields. Crops include maize, wheat, millet, sorghum, several kinds of legumes, and squash. During the agricultural season the fields are the locus of women´s work, while the mountain pastures are the domain of livestock-tending males. Arboriculture is extensive, with an abundance of walnuts, mulberries, and various kinds of fruit.
Society: Kom tribal organization comprises a number of
agnatic groups that are bound together by a
common genealogy and ties of intermarriage. Each male in an
agnatic group is "X´s Boy" (X-dâra), "X" being the name or nickname of the patrilineal ancestor
from whom the agnates claim a common inheritance. This inheritance is mountain pastureland
(so˜), which agnates must manage and defend. In pre-Islamic times a male could not
marry the daughter of an agnate. If one of X´s Boys eloped with one of X´s Boys´ girls, he "split the
branch" and was denied further access to his patrimonial so˜. If he succeeded in
obtaining his own, new so˜, his inheritors would designate themselves as his "Boys",
otherwise they would become "nobodies." Nowadays, following Islamic and Afghân practice, men are
beginning to marry agnates´ daughters.
As in other Nuristâni societies, there is a caste division between the
âź'o 'freemen' and the bâr'i 'emburdened ones'. Before the
introduction of Islâm, the bâr'i were slaves, and even today they do not form agnatic
groups and may not own pastureland. They are responsible for all craft production and are divided into
two occupational subcastes: the jâšb'ari, who do woodworking, and the
cimk'ara, who are blacksmiths.
History: In the 500 years since the Kom occupied their present site of Kombřom, their history has been one of expansion over the lower LanDai Sin watershed. At one point during their wars with the KSto, they wrested away the region of so˜ that the KSto inhabitants shared with their fellow tribesmen in the Dungal Valley, on the south side of the Nicangal-Kunar watershed. From that time on the KSto have lacked so˜ and have had to take their flocks through Kom territory to the upper Dungal Valley in the summer. The Kom also expropriated the so˜ of the Binio, Jâmco, Jâši, Ârom, Gahwâr, and Kâta peoples in the lower LanDai Sin basin and further down the Kunar to the present site of Nišagâm. Some so˜ in the Nicangal-Kunar watershed were acquired from the Vä people who had been expanding eastward from Wâigal; the region around mumd'eš is said to have been won from the Vä in a game of quoits.
Their expansion brought the Kom into increasing conflict with the Afghân khânates that had been encroaching into the Kunar basin from the south and east. As the Afghân Âmir Abdur Rahmân Khân moved to consolidate his hegemony over these khânates in the late 19th century, he set his eye on conquering the "infidels" (kâfirs), as the pre-Islamic Nuristânis were called then. His army under Army Chief Ghulâm Haidar Charkhi marched up the Kunar in 1895, and when the Army Chief reached BarikoT in December, he sent emissaries to the Kom asking for negotiations. He claimed that all he wanted was tribute, and that they could continue to practice their old religion. When a deputation of leading Kom elders arrived in BarikoT, they were duplicitously taken prisoner and held hostage in order to intimidate the remaining population to capitulate to the Islamic force. In January, 1896, Afghân tribal irregulars, led by a Muslim Kom turncoat named Akram Jân, sacked the side villages of UštroT, Pitigal, and Sâret, while the main force marched up the LanDai Sin, captured Kombřom, and went on to conquer the KSto, Mumo, and Kâta. Sons of tribal leaders were taken as "slave boy" hostages to the Âmir´s court in Kâbul, and the males of the region were forced to undergo circumcision as a sign of their submission to Allâh. All vestiges of the old religion were expunged by governmental mullahs sent in to reeducate the newly converted. As a result Kom culture is today profoundly changed from its pre-Islamic tradition.
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