Dom people
The Dom (also called Domi; دومي / ALA-LC: ALA, دومري / ALA, Ḍom / ضوم or دوم, or sometimes also called Doms) are descendants of the Dom with origins in the Indian subcontinent which through ancient migrations are found scattered across Middle East, 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. They used to be grouped with other traditionally itinerant ethnic groups originating from India: the Rom and Lom people. However, they 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. The Dom has an oral tradition and expresses 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. The Ghawazi dancers as have been associated with the development of their dancing reputation under the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha. Some Muslim Roma must have Dom ancestry too, because in Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname of 1668, he explained that the Gypsy's from Komotini (Gümülcine) swear by their heads, their ancestors came from Egypt. Also the sedentary Gypsys groups from Serres region in Greece, believe their ancestors were once taken from Egypt Eyalet by the Ottomans after 1517 to Rumelia, to work on the tobacco plantations of Turkish feudals there. Muslim Roma settled in Baranya and the City Pécs at the Ottoman Hungary. After the Siege of Pécs when Habsburg took it back, Muslim Roma and some other Muslims converted to the Catholic faith in the years 1686–1713.
