Gypsies-A Wondering Race

Filed in archive More Information on June 30, 2010

© Robert the Noid

There is the Tamerlane theory of Grellmann (1783), according to which the Gypsies first reached Europe in 1417. This Gypsy history is disapproved by firmly established facts. There is the Behram Gur Theory of Pott and Batillard (who later relinquished it) developed in 1844-49 and adopted by Newbold, Sir Henry Rawlinson, De Goeje, Sir Richard Burton and an Edinburgh Review(July 1878). According to this theory, about 420 A.D. Behram Gur imported 12000 jet minstrels from India to Persia, and their descendants gradually wandering westward, entered Europe in 1025 or as late as the beginning of the 14th century. Plausible and it may be containing a modicum of truth. This theory fails as in the marked unlikeliness of Jatali, the language of the Jats, and Romani, the language of the Gypsies. Lastly attempts have been made on this ground for the most of the similar habit of life, to identify the Gypsies with various Indian vagrants.
Original gypsy music, also known as Romani music has become relatively rare.