Daytar
Daytars is a name applied to the Turkic people which originally inhabited Daytanistan. A Daytar is a person belonging to what would be called, in Dushtoo, o Daytar Shoobdiman (see also: shoobdiman).
Until the late-19th Century most Daytars lived in tribes, some of which were nomadic, but most of which settled and formed farming towns and villages through Dalysh, Jalaalalaal, and parts of Kashoun and Parshea. Those Daytars which did not have tribes, or had been banished from tribes or descended from those who had been banished from tribes were the only Daytars to inhabit Daytanistan's cities. Tribal Daytars didn't, for the most part, mix with other tribes on a personal, day-to-day level, although many tribes would cooperate with other tribes (both Daytar tribes and tribes from other shoobdimans) in joint projects, alliances, and so on. Most such agreements were cemented by arranged inter-tribal marriages. Despite this fairly insular existence, tribal Daytars were rarely xenophobic, and there had always been extensive shared cultural experiences between the Daytars and the other shoobdimans.
By the end of the 19th Century, however, the tribal way of life was slowly dying, as the cities became not merely places primarily of tribal exile, but of economic opportunity. A series of droughts made life on the land increasingly difficult and the factories of the cities a more attractive proposition. The overthrow of Mamood Amad Sha by Sheikh Ali Madi in 1892 led to an undermining of the authority of tribal chiefs by clerics, in whom Ali Madi's government vested much of a chief's traditional authority. Combined with the increasing hardship associated with staying on the land, many tribes disbanded and its members found their way into other tribes or, more likely, Daytanistan's cities.
The tribal system continued, however, until the Straw Hat Revolution, when the remaining legal powers of tribal chiefs were abolished, along with inheritance rules, arranged marriage contracts, and many of the other institutions which underpinned the tribal system. Today, many Daytars are still aware of their ancestral tribe, but even those who remain in close contact with most of their tribe do not regard it as more than a sort of community, only slightly closer than most small agricultural communities.
Although Daytanistan is an officially atheist nation, many Daytars still identify themselves as Muslims. It is amongst Daytars, however, that the Daytan Communist Workers Party enjoys the most widespread and enthusiastic support, and so Islam does not have the same influence over modern Daytars as it once did. Prior to the revolution, almost all Daytars were Muslims, dating back to the introduction of Islam to Daytanistan in the 12th Century by the Zirkshe tribes. Prior to that time, most Daytars held traditional pagan beliefs, and a substantial minority combined those beliefs with Buddhism.
