Wasti

'Wasti', the name originates from the city of Wasit, Iraq, where the family emigrated to India from. It may refer to:

WASTI'S

People with the last name Wasti or Znasty are purportedly the direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad's great-grandson Imam Zain-ul-Abideen whose real name was Ali ibn Husain, which basically means Ali son of Husain. Zaidi (or people belonging to this family) can be found all over the world, especially in Iran and Indo-Pak subcontinent. Some Zaidis are known as Wasiti's. Zayd ibn Ali was martyred in Kufa, Iraq, many of his descendants either returned to al-Hijaz or remained in Iraq. Some of those who stayed in Iraq settled in Wasit. Some descendants from Wasit then moved to the Indian subcontinent. These Zaidis believe in twelve Imams and are part of Twelver Shiism. Most of them settled in India and Pakistan.[1]

The largest group of Zaidis believing in twelve Imams is known as Saadat-e-Bara. Saadat means descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and Bara means twelve in Hindi and Urdu. There are many interpretations of word bara and many spellings are current: Bara, Bahera, Barha (as spelled in Tuzuk Jehangiri and Akbarnama and other Moghul sources) and Bahira meaning "bright" in Arabic language. One explanation of the word is as mentioned above; another is that there are twelve villages in Muzaffarnagar District and their residents were called Sadat Barha. This explanation is mentioned by the Emperor Jahangir in his autobiography Tuzuk-e-Jahari or Memoirs of Jahangir. Living outside of imperial camps and not indulging in hedonism of court life is another explanation of the term, as these families never mixed up other noble families of Moghul court, most popular belief about Barha epithet is that they live in twelve villages in Muzaffarnagar district. These Sayyeds are descendants of Abul Farah Wasiti who came to India from wasit (Iraq) in the 11th century along with his four sons who settled in four villages of Punjab, Kundli, Chhatbanur,Tihanpur and Jajner giving names to all four clans of Sadat Barha. Kundliwals mainly live in Mujhera, Hashimpur, Valipura, Saifpur, Sikrehra, and Khujera Chhatraudies live in Sambalhera, Kakrauli, Morna and Kaithora. Their numbers are highest in Karachi (Pakistan) and Muzaffarnagar (India).

Saadat-e-Bara (Urdu: ہسادات بار), sometimes pronounced Sadaat-e-Barha, are a community of Sayyids, originally from a group of twelve villages situated in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh in India. This community had considerable influence during the reign of the Mughal Empire. Its members were also found in Karnal District and Haryana, Gujarat & Karnataka state in India. The majority of the members of this community have migrated to Pakistan after independence and have settled in Karachi, Khairpur State in Sind and Lahore.

History and Origin The ancestor of Bārha Sayyids, Syed Abu'l Farah AlHussaini, left his original home in Wasit, Iraq, with his twelve sons at the end of the 18th century (or in the beginning of the 19th century) and migrated to India, where he obtained four estates in Punjab. Over time, Abu'l Farah's descendants had taken over Bārha riyasat(township)in Muzzafarnagar.

There are four sub-divisions of Barha Sadaat in Muzaffarnagar area :

the Tihaanpuri, whose chief town was Jansath, the Chatraudi, whose chief town was Sambhalhera, the Kundliwal, whose chief town was Mujhera, the Jajneri, whose chief town was Bidauli. The origin of the Sadaat-e-Bara or Barha is traced to Sayyid Abu'l Farah AlHussaini Wasiti, son of Sayyid Daud AlHussaini, who came to Ghazni in Afghanistan, from Wasit, at the invitation of Mahmud Ghaznavi. He had twelve sons of whom four settled in four villages Kundli Tihanpur, Jajner and Chhat-Banur, near the city of Patiala. These four sons founded a number of clans, the main ones being Chhatrodi, Kundliwal, Tihanpuri and Jajneri, from the villages assigned to them.

Another descendant of Syed Abu'l Farah was Syed Mustufa AlHussaini (Thasra Village- Gujarat)& his brothers Syed Alaad(Alauddin) AlHussaini( Gothada Village -Savli-Gujarat) & Syed Nateeb AlHussaini ( Pali Village -Gujarat )During the Sultan Mahemud Begada's Sultanate & Syed Mustufa's son Syed Muhammed AlHussaini Qazi-ul-qazat who was given a post of Chief justice and a grant of three villages in Sarnal, Gujarat by emperor Aurangzeb in 1674 AD and he migrated there. These three brothers' descendants form the branched of Sadat Bárha in Gujarat (Thasra, Pali & Gothada). When the Sayyids came to India from Central Asia they chose to settle in Muzaffarnagar; these people were called the Saiyids of Barha or (Sadaat-e-Barah)]. The area has one of the largest concentrations of Sayyids in India.