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Iran
Indo-Iranian-speaking Groups
Lurs and Bakhtiaris
In the central and southern Zagros live the Bakhtiaris and the
Lurs, two groups that speak Luri, a language closely related to
Persian. Linguists have identified two Luri dialects: Lur Buzurg,
which is spoken by the Bakhtiari, Kuhgiluyeh, and Mamasani tribes;
and Lur Kuchik, which is spoken by the Lurs of Lorestan. Like
the Persians, the Bakhtiaris and Lurs are Shia Muslims. Historically,
each of the two groups was organized into several tribes. The
tribal leaders or khans, especially those of the Bakhtiari
tribes, were involved in national politics and were considered
part of the prerevolutionary elite (see table 3, Appendix).
The Bakhtiaris have been considered both a political and a tribal
entity separate from other Lurs for at least two centuries. They
are concentrated in an area extending southward from Lorestan
Province to Khuzestan Province and westward from Esfahan to within
eighty kilometers of the present-day Iraqi border. A pastoral
nomadic tribe called Bakhtiari can be traced back in Iranian history
to as early as the fourteenth century, but the important Bakhtiari
tribal confederation dates only from the nineteenth century. At
the height of Bakhtiari influence, roughly from 1870 to 1930,
the term Bakhtiari came to be associated not just with
the nomadic tribes that provided the military prowess of the confederation
but also with the villagers and even town dwellers who were under
Bakhtiari jurisdiction. Thus, some Arabic-, Persian-, and Turkic-speaking
peasants were considered part of the Bakhtiari. Beginning in the
1920s, the Pahlavi shahs gradually succeeded in establishing the
authority of the central government in the Bakhtiari area. Several
campaigns also were undertaken to settle forcibly the nomadic
pastoral component of the Bakhtiari. The combined political and
economic pressures resulted in a significant decline in the power
of the Bakhtiari confederation. Detribalized Bakhtiaris, especially
those who settled in urban areas and received an education in
state schools, tended to be assimilated into Persian culture.
By the time of the Revolution in 1979 the term Bakhtiari
tended to be restricted to an estimated 250,000 tribespeople,
most of whom still practiced pastoral nomadism.
Historically, the Bakhtiaris have been divided into two main
tribal groups. The Chahar Lang are located in the northwest of
the Bakhtiari country and until the middle of the nineteenth century
retained the leadership of all the Bakhtiari tribes. The Haft
Lang, the southwestern group, have been more closely associated
with modern Iranian politics than the Chahar Lang and in some
instances have exercised significant influence.
The Lurs (closely related to the Bakhtiaris) live in the Zagros
to the northwest, west, and southeast of the Bakhtiaris. There
were about 500,000 Lurs in Iran in the mid-1980s. The Lurs are
divided into two main groups, the Posht-e Kuhi and the Pish-e
Kuhi. These two groups are subdivided into more than sixty tribes,
the most important of which include the Boir Ahmadi, the Kuhgiluyeh,
and the Mamasani. Historically, the Lurs have included an urban
segment based in the town of Khorramabad, the provincial capital
of Lorestan. Prior to 1900, however, the majority of Lurs were
pastoral nomads. Traditionally, they were considered among the
fiercest of Iranian tribes and had acquired an unsavory reputation
on account of their habit of preying on both Lur and non-Lur villages.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the government of Reza Shah undertook
several coercive campaigns to settle the nomadic Lurs. Following
the abdication of Reza Shah in 1941, many of the recently settled
tribes reverted to nomadism. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's government
attempted with some success through various economic development
programs to encourage the remaining nomadic Lurs to settle. By
1986 a majority of all Lurs were settled in villages and small
towns in the traditional Lur areas or had migrated to cities.
Data as of December 1987
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