Mamasani

The Mamasani (a contraction of Mohammad-Hasani, after a founding ancestor) are a confederation of Lur tribes in northwestern Fars, between Kohgiluyeh and Shiraz. Their ancestors entered Greater Lorestan after 1203-04 and lived in Kohgiluyeh until, late in the Safavid era, they moved south and conquered Shulestan, the territory of the older Shul Lurs, which became known as Boluk-e Mamasani; their historic seat was Fahliyan. The confederation is usually counted as four tribes, the Rostam (about 800 families in 1918), Bakesh (1,200 families in 15 clans), Javidi (700 families) and Doshmanziari, the last weakened after its chief Mohammad-Reza Khan was executed in 1840 and separate by 1945; some writers count five. Safavid shahs recruited Mamasani musketeers, and Zand and Qajar governors fought them; they rose against Reza Shah in 1928-29 before the area was pacified in 1934 and joined the southern tribal revolt of 1962-63. They speak the Mamasani dialect of Southern Luri, with Persian as a second language, and are closely related to the Boyer-Ahmad and Kohgiluyeh Lurs.

Mamasani life combines village farming with sheep and goat herding, and some families still migrate seasonally with black goat-hair tents. Society is organised by tribe, clan and lineage, under khans and village kadkhodas who held land and authority until the 1960s land reform. Women's dress has three parts: a headscarf (mina or kaneh), a long tunic and layered skirts cut from five to twelve metres of brightly coloured cloth. Music is played on the saz (shawm) and naqareh or dohol drums, with ney and violin; at weddings women perform the handkerchief dance (dastmal-bazi) and men and women dance in circles, and funerals bring sung laments. Hospitality, honour and lineage pride are strong. Women weave pile rugs and kilims known in the bazaars as Mamasani carpets.

The Mamasani are Twelver Shia Muslims, described by Persian sources as tolerant in religious practice. As among other Southern Lurs, village religion includes vows and votive meals, visits to imamzadeh shrines and saints' tombs, amulets and healing lore alongside mosque prayer, and Muharram mourning processions with laments are the high point of the year. State religious institutions have grown in Nurabad since 1979, while observance among educated and urban youth has weakened.

Southern Luri has Scripture portions (2024) on YouVersion and Bible.is and Global Recordings Network audio; there is no Southern Luri Jesus Film, but Persian Bibles, films and broadcasts are understood by nearly all Mamasani. No Mamasani church or believer is publicly known.

Before the Mamasani, the valleys northwest of Kazerun were Shulestan, the land of the Shul Lurs, whose name appears in medieval geographers. Late in the Safavid period the Mamasani tribes moved south from Kohgiluyeh, drove out or absorbed the Shul, and gave the district their own name, Boluk-e Mamasani; Fahliyan became their seat. In the 18th and 19th centuries the confederation was a power on the road between Shiraz and Behbahan, and European travellers such as Baron de Bode, who crossed 'the country of the Mamasani' in January 1841, wrote of it. Under Reza Shah the tribes rebelled in 1928-29 and were disarmed and settled by 1934; in 1962-63 Mamasani khans joined the Boyer-Ahmadi and Qashqai in the revolt against land reform and the nationalisation of pastures.