Bakhtiari

The Bakhtiari are the largest and most famous Lur tribal confederation, the 'Middle Lurs' between the Northern Lurs of Lorestan and the Southern Lurs of Kohgiluyeh. They are first recorded by name in 1413 by the Timurid historian Mo'in al-Din Natanzi. The confederation is divided into two moieties, the Haft Lang ('seven legs') and the Chahar Lang ('four legs'), each made up of tribes and sections: the Haft Lang includes the Duraki, Babadi, Bakhtiarvand and Dinarani, and the Chahar Lang the Mamivand, Mohammad-Saleh, Muguyi, Kayanarsi and Zalaqi. They speak Bakhtiari, a Southwestern Iranian language of the Luri group, close to Persian. Their homeland is the high central Zagros between Isfahan and the Khuzestan plain: the summer pastures (yeylaq) of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari around Zard Kuh, and the winter pastures (qeshlaq) of eastern Khuzestan around Masjed Soleyman, Izeh and Lali. Bakhtiari khans played a decisive role in the Constitutional Revolution, when Bakhtiari forces under Sardar As'ad and Najafqoli Khan Samsam al-Saltaneh marched on Tehran in 1909, and their lands held the first Middle Eastern oil strike at Masjed Soleyman in 1908. Reza Shah broke the khans' power and forced the tribes to settle in the 1930s. Famous Bakhtiari include Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar and Queen Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary.

The Bakhtiari are the classic example of Iranian pastoral nomadism: twice a year whole families move their flocks of sheep and goats, horses and donkeys along ancestral migration roads (il-rah) between the Khuzestan lowlands and the Zagros highlands, crossing the Karun and Bazoft rivers and passes above 3,000 m; the 1925 film 'Grass' recorded this migration. Families live in black goat-hair tents in the mountains and stone houses or settled villages in winter. The men's dress is the chugha, a white or striped woven wool cloak, over wide black trousers, with a round felt cap (kolah); women wear long colourful dresses, layered skirts and a scarf tied under a small cap, and weave the famous Bakhtiari carpets with garden-panel designs, kilims and the chugha cloth itself. Weddings include stick-fighting dances (tarka-bazi, chub-bazi) and handkerchief dances to sorna and dohol, and horsemanship and marksmanship are prized. Mourning is marked by women's sung laments (gagriw) and, historically, by carved stone lions (shir-e sangi) placed on the graves of brave men. Hospitality, honour and loyalty to the tribe and its khans are core values, and elders still arbitrate disputes and arrange marriages, which are usually within the tribe.

The Bakhtiari are Twelver Shia, observing Muharram with mourning gatherings and processions, and many make pilgrimage to Mashhad, Qom and Karbala. Their religion has long been described as less clerical than that of the towns: nomad camps rarely had mullahs, and religious life centred on vows (nazr), sacrificing sheep for blessing, visits to local shrines and imamzadehs along the migration routes, and the honouring of ancestors and warrior dead, whose graves were marked with stone lions. Folk beliefs about the evil eye, spirits and protective amulets remain common among older and rural people. Since the revolution, state religious institutions have expanded in Shahr-e Kord, Masjed Soleyman and Izeh, while urban youth show the same drift away from formal religion seen across Iran.

Bakhtiari has Scripture portions (2020 according to Joshua Project's language data), the JESUS Film, an 'Acts' video in 44 segments, and text and audio on Bible.is (Wycliffe version); Global Recordings Network also has Bakhtiari recordings. Persian Bibles, satellite Christian television and online ministries reach Bakhtiari, nearly all of whom are bilingual in Persian. Joshua Project records 0.2% evangelical, one of the few Lur groups with any known believers, though no public church exists.

In 1909, during the Constitutional Revolution, Bakhtiari tribal forces led by Ali-Qoli Khan Sardar As'ad and Najafqoli Khan Samsam al-Saltaneh advanced from Isfahan and, together with the Gilan revolutionaries, took Tehran and deposed Mohammad Ali Shah. Bakhtiari khans then dominated the government for several years: by 1912 they governed seven cities, Sardar As'ad served as minister of war, and Samsam al-Saltaneh was prime minister. Their territory also held the 1908 oil strike at Masjed Soleyman, and the khans drew royalties from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Reza Shah ended their autonomy, executed or imprisoned several khans, banned tribal dress and forced the tribes to settle in the 1930s; many resumed migration after his abdication in 1941.

The Bakhtiari migration (kuch) is one of the world's most demanding pastoral journeys: tens of thousands of people and their flocks walk for weeks along fixed tribal roads (il-rah), crossing the Karun and Bazoft rivers on rafts or by swimming and climbing snowbound passes of the Zard Kuh range. The 1925 documentary 'Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life' by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack filmed the Baba Ahmadi section's migration and made the Bakhtiari internationally known; the anthropologist Jean-Pierre Digard called them the most complete example of Iranian nomadism.