Ghilji

The Ghiljī (Pashto: غلجي, pronounced [ɣəlˈd͡ʒi]; Persian: خیلجی, romanized: Xelji), also spelled Khilji, Khalji, or Ghilzai and Ghilzay (غلزی), are one of the largest Pashtun tribes. Their traditional homeland is Ghazni and Qalati Ghilji in Afghanistan but they have also settled in other regions throughout the Afghanistan-Pakistan Pashtun belt. The modern nomadic Kochi people are predominantly made up of Ghilji tribes. The Ghilji make up around 20–25% of Afghanistan's total population.

According to a popular folk etymology, the name Ghəljī or Ghəlzay is derived from Gharzay (; ghar means "mountain" while -zay means "descendant of"), a Pashto name meaning "born of mountain" or "hill people."

One theory of origin states that Ghiljis are likely to be descended from the Khalaj people. According to historian C.E. Bosworth, it seems very likely that the Khalaj people of the Gazna formed the core of the Ghilji tribe, The Khalaj were sometimes mentioned alongside Pashtun tribes in the armies of several local dynasties, including the Ghaznavids (977–1186).

The 17th-century Mughal courtier Nimat Allah al-Harawi, in his book Tārīkh-i Khān Jahānī wa Makhzan-i Afghānī, wrote a mythical genealogy according to which the Ghilji descended from Shah Hussain Ghori and his first wife Bībī Matō, who was a daughter of Pashtun Sufi saint Bēṭ Nīkə (progenitor of the Bettani tribal confederacy), son of Qais Abdur Rashid (progenitor of all Pashtuns). Shah Hussain Ghori was described in the book as a patriarch from Ghor who was related to the Shansabani family, which later founded the Ghurid dynasty. He fled Ghor when al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (Umayyad governor of Iraq, 694–714) dispatched an army to attack Ghor and entered into the service of Bēṭ Nīkə, who made him an adopted son. The book further stated that Shah Hussain Ghori fell in love with the saint's daughter Bībī Matō, fathering a son with her out of wedlock.