Laki

The Laks are a tribal people of the central Zagros in western Iran, numbering roughly 1.2 to 2 million. They speak Laki, which most linguists class as a Kurdish language transitional towards Luri. Their ethnic identity is contested: some Laks see themselves as Kurds, others as Lurs, and many as a people in between. Their main tribes include the Delfan, Selseleh, Tarhan, Beyranvand, Kakavand, Hasanvand and Bajalan. The Laks' most famous son is Karim Khan Zand of the Lak Zand tribe, founder of the Zand dynasty, who ruled Iran from Shiraz between 1751 and 1779. In the Safavid era Lak tribes were settled in Lorestan, and small Lak groups were moved as far as Salmas and Khorasan.

Lak culture grew out of transhumant pastoralism, with black goat-hair tents, flocks of sheep and goats, and rugs, gelims and saddlebags woven by women. Music runs through daily life: mour laments for the dead, bezran songs and dance songs such as Bena Bena accompanied by sorna and dohol, and the chamari mourning dance at funerals. Laki literature includes the divan of the poet Molla Parishan and Yarsan religious poetry. Women wear long layered dresses and the golvani, a long fringed silk headscarf. Extended families and tribal loyalties shape marriage and social life.

Most Laks are Twelver Shia Muslims who observe Muharram mourning, visit imamzadeh shrines and make vows. Until the early 20th century most Laks followed Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq), and a significant minority still do, especially in Delfan, Sahneh and Harsin. Yarsan followers gather in jam ceremonies to sing sacred kalam to the tanbur and share food offerings, keep their own fasts and festivals rather than Ramadan, and venerate Sultan Sahak and his companions. Many families blend Shia identity with Yarsan heritage, and Yarsan practice is kept discreet because the state does not recognise it.

Joshua Project lists a New Testament in Laki, and Scripture Earth links a Laki (Central dialect) text on Bible.com; Global Recordings Network has Laki audio, including Words of Life Bible stories. There is no Jesus Film in Laki. Persian Scripture and Christian media are understood by most Laks.

Karim Khan Zand (c. 1705-1779) was born in the village of Pari into the Zand, a small Lak tribe, and rose from tribal chief to ruler of most of Iran after the collapse of Nader Shah's empire. Refusing the title of shah, he called himself Vakil al-Ra'aya, regent of the people, and ruled from Shiraz, which he endowed with the Vakil bazaar, mosque and bathhouse. His reign is remembered as a time of relative peace and mild government. The Zand dynasty fell in 1794, when Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar executed the last Zand ruler, Lotf Ali Khan. Laks today hold Karim Khan as the great figure of their history.