Description
A sub-caste of Muhammadan Kalwars. They profess to take their name from the country of ’Iraq, which is now divided into’Iraq Ajami, or Persian Iraq, which is nearly coincident with ancient Media, and ’Iraq Arabi, or Arabian Iraq, on the lower course of the Tigris and Euphrates.” According to others the name is only a corruption of ‘Araqi, from,’ Araq “ spirituous liquor.’’ In Bihar they are known as Kalal, which is merely a variant of Kalwar and the name by which the tribe are known in the Eastern Panjab The word Kalal is derived from the Sanskrit kalyapala kalyapala kalyapalaka or kalyapalaka meaning a distiller.” Some of the Rankis profess to be the descendants of Persian immigrants, but there seems little doubt that they are little more than Kalwars who have embraced Islam. Mughal-Library