Bashkardi

The Bashkardis are the mountain people of Bashagard (locally Bashkard), at the western end of the Makran ranges in eastern Hormozgan. Their language, Bashkardi, is a Southwestern Iranian language within the Garmsiri dialect continuum of Hormozgan and Kerman, with two markedly different groups: North Bashkardi (Marzigal) around Sardasht and toward Kerman, and South Bashkardi (Molkigal) in Gafr and Parmon, with an outlying island at Garu near Minab. Ilya Gershevitch's journey of 1956 first documented the region, and his recordings are now being published by Agnes Korn and others. The population is mixed: Iranian families alongside darker-skinned families of African and South Asian descent who have adopted Bashkardi, with Baloch neighbours.

Bashkardis live in isolated stone and palm-frond villages in dry mountain valleys, growing dates, garlic, pomegranates and figs on qanat-watered plots and herding goats. They gather wild honey, mushrooms, almonds, pistachios and cumin, and Bashagard garlic is prized for its sharp aroma. Oral culture includes trickster and fool tales, animal chain tales, and elaborate ritual greetings and hospitality formulas like those of Baluchistan. Some South Bashkardi speakers call their speech Mishekari, 'of the archers', after a hunting tribe.

Most Bashkardis are Twelver Shia, an unusual Shia enclave in Iran's largely Sunni southeast; Sunni Islam is followed by Afro-Iranian and Baloch residents. After the 1979 revolution Ayatollah Khomeini's call to 'rescue Bashagard' made the region a showcase of the Jihad-e Sazandegi rural development movement, which built roads, schools and mosques, and the state's religious presence remains strong.

No Scripture, film or audio exists in Bashkardi. Younger people and most men understand Persian. No believers or outreach are known.