The Pamiris[a] are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group, native to Central Asia, living primarily in Tajikistan (Gorno-Badakhshan), Afghanistan (Badakhshan), Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan[b]) and China (Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County).

[13] Mass migration particularly strengthened after the 5th and 6th centuries because of the Turkic movement into Central Asia (and the Mongols afterwards) from whom the settled Iranian population escaped in canyons that were not attractive for cattle-breeding needed wildest.

[14] Vasily Bartold (d. 1930), in his work "Turkistan" mentions that in the 10th century three Pamiri states: Wakhan, Shikinan (Shughnan) and Kerran (probably Rushan and Darvaz) have already been settled by pagans, however in the political realm, probably, were subjugated by Muslims.

[19][20] On 2 January 1925, the Soviet government decided to create a new geographical and political entity known in modern times as the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast' (GBAO).

[21] In 1991, after the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), GBAO remained part of the newly independent country of Tajikistan.

[23][24][25] The founder of this organization was Atobek Amirbekov, a Pamiri born in Khorog who had worked at the Dushanbe Pedagogical Institute as a lecturer and deputy dean.

[24][26] La'li Badakhshan's primary objective was to represent the cultural interests of the Pamiri people and to advocate for greater autonomy for the GBAO.

[23] Since the end of 1992, the Pamiris' national movement has declined, which was primarily due to the sharp deterioration of socio-economic conditions and the civil war (1992–1997) that unfolded in Tajikistan.

[27][28][29] Together with Gharmis, the Pamiris were part of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), a coalition of different nationalist, liberal democratic and Islamist parties.

A United Nation investigation reported that in December 1992 in Dushanbe "buses were routinely searched, and persons with identity cards revealing they were of Pamiri or Gharmi origin were forced out and either killed on the spot or taken away and later found dead or never heard from again.

[45][46] As Lydia Monogarova asserts, one of the main reasons why Pamiris accepted Isma'ilism can be seen as their extreme tolerance to various beliefs compared to the other sects of Islam.

[53] The most detailed biographical narrative of Shah Khamush is found in Fadl Ali-Beg Surkh-Afsar's appendix to the Tāʾrikh-i Badakhshān of Mirza Sangmuhammad Badakhshi.

For instance, Surkh-Afsar claims that the aforementioned Shah Khamush ('the silent king'), referred to as Sayyid Mīr Ḥasan Shāh, who traced his descent to Musa al-Kazim (d. 799), the seventh Imam of the Twelver Shi'is, was an uwaisi saint (wali) from his mother's line, migrated from Isfahan to Shughnan in the 11th century, and that he was the ancestor of Shughnan's pirs and mirs.

[54][55][56] This story was narrated to Bobrinsky, one of the Russian pioneers of Pamiri studies, by the Shughni pir Sayyid Yūsuf ʿAlī Shāh in 1902.

[57][58] Many Persian-speaking poets and philosophers, such as Sanai, Attar, and Rumi, are considered by Pamiri Isma'ilis as their co-religionists and are regarded as pīran-i maʿrifat (lit.

[59][57] Recognizing as their leaders Muhammad, his daughter Fatima, son-in-law Ali and grandsons Hasan and Husayn, the Pamiris call their religion "Dīn-i Panj-tanī" (lit.

Until the last decades of the 20th century the panj-tanis were led by their local religious masters (pīrs) and their deputies (khalīfahs), who assumed their authority from the Isma'ili Imam of the Time.

[75] The Pamiris linguistically vary into the Shughni-Rushani group (Shughni, Rushani, Khufi, Bartangi, Roshorvi, Sarikoli), with which Yazghulami and the now extinct Vanji closely linked; Ishkashimi, Sanglechi, and Zebaki; Wakhi; Munji and Yidgha.

[81][82] During the Great Purge in the USSR, Nadir Shanbezoda's collection of poems was destroyed, and he himself was subjected to repression, like other Pamiri intellectuals who had started working by that time.