Niazi

Niazi (Pashto: نیازی) is a Pashtun tribe, a subgroup of the Ghilzai Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The word Niazi is derived from the word Niazai like the other forms of Pashtun tribes, such as Yusafzai and Orakzai.
The history of the Pashtuns is ancient, and much of it has yet to be fully researched. From the 2nd millennium BC to the present, Pashtun regions have seen invasions and migrations including Aryan tribes (Iranian peoples, Indo-Aryans), Medes, Persians, Mauryas, Scythians, Kushans, Hephthalites, Greeks, Arabs, Turks, and Mongols. There are many conflicting theories about the origins of the Pashtun people, some modern and others archaic, both among historians and the Pashtuns themselves. Some anthropologists lend credence to the theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites, however, most modern authorities have found this oral tradition to be inconsistent. Ghilzais are reputed to be descended from the Turko-Mongolic Khiljis and Tajiks, as well as the numerous other invaders from Central Asia and the Middle East who have entered Afghanistan over the centuries. Their name being another form of Khitali the Turkish word for 'swords man' who early settled, perhaps as mercenaries rather than as a corporate tribe, in the Siah-band range of the Ghor mountains. They first rose into notice in the time of Mahmud of Ghazni when they accompanied in his invasions of India.