The Bakhtiyari (the term refers not only to the people but also to the territory they occupy) itself encompasses approximately 20,000 square miles of which 12,000 miles consist of the rugged southwestern Zagros mountains whose peaks in this area are more than ll).,000 feet above sea level. Here are the headwaters of three of Iran’s more important rivers:
the Zayandeh Rud flowing east to Isfahan and the Karun and Dez flowing south to the Persian Gulf. The Bakhtiyari may be divided into three areas: the narrow fringe of the Khuzistan plain where low hills (ca. 1 ,0 0 0 -1 ,5 0 0 feet above sea level) provide the tribes with their winter (garmsir or qishlaq) encampment and also fields and pastures for sedentary agriculturalists; the mountains with their intermontane .valleys, divided into.three main northwest to southeast ranges with the highest in the center having passes of 11,000 feet above sea level and whose valleys ([(.,000-8,000 feet above sea level) furnish the summer (sardsir or yailaq) pastures for the Bakhtiyari; and the central plateau (ca. 5,000-6,000 feet above sea level) which is broken by lower mountain ranges and whose broad valleys form not only the summer pastures for part of the tribes but also the permanent habitat of a sedentary village population. In the Bakhtiyari these three areas are also known as Pusht-e Kuh, Miyan Kuh, and Pish-e Kuh, respectively.
The winter rains in the winter encampment (ca. 12-llj. inches per annum, although in 1935? 26 inches were recorded at one location^) are usually sufficient for pastures, cereal agriculture, and opium, and with irrigation rice, cotton, melons and cucumbers may also be raised. In early spring some of the flocks are taken to still lower elevations.
A portion of the nomads remain in the garmsir to harvest their wheat, but with the arrival of higher temperatures of over 100 o P. 9 and increasing desiccation in late spring, most of the nomads begin in late March and early April to move slowly to higher and better pastures until the yailaq is reached after approximately six weeks of travel. Here the higher precipitation, up to forty inches per annum, in the form of snow, and the cooler summer temperatures supply plentiful amounts of grass. In the autumn, before returning to the garmsir, some of the tribesmen plant winter wheat which they will harvest on their return.