Brief mention has been made of the ethnic composition of the pastoral nomads who inhabit the Zagros: the Kurds in; the north, the Lurs in the center, and the Qashqa’i and Khamseh in the south. Although all of these tribes are pastoral nomadic there are significant differences and similarities between them as the result of variations in their ecology, political organization, population density and settlement pattern, and historical development.
Kurdistan, the home of most of the Kurds, is located in the Zagros mountains in an area stretching from Kermanshah (Iran) north to Lake Van in Turkey and much of adjoining Soviet Armenia and from the foothills of the Tigris plain to the central north-south axis of the Zagros. Most of the area is a high plateau with broad valleys between mountains with peaks from 10,000 – 12,000 feet. It has been, and still remains, the locus of political and cultural conflict among the Iranians, Turks, Arabs, and Russians.
This large geographic area contains Kurdish pastoral nomads, transhumant nomads, and agriculturalists, as well as a variety of Turkish, Armenian, Assyrian, and Persian transhumants and agriculturalists. The long migration routes of the pastoral nomads extend from-what is now the Iran-Iraq border area to the mountain meadows in western Iran and southeastern Turkey, and they pass through a relatively populated agricultural area. The possibility of contact and conflict with a sedentary population along the length of the migration has given rise to a strong centralized political leadership among the nomads. The nomads do not usually practice agriculture but obtain its products through trade or in exchange for transport. Brigandage and raiding have been important in the past because of the richness of the region and because there are a number of important trade routes passing through Kurdistan from Mesopotamia to the Iranian and Anatolian plateaus. As a result of these trade routes, the agricultural richness, and strategic location there are a number of cities on the periphery of Kurdistan; therefore, there is the potential for intervention and the maintenance of security by an urban and centralized government.
This is not the case in Luristan, immediately to the south of Kurdistan, from Kermanshah to Behbehan in the Zagros. Here the mountains are higher, the valleys are narrower, and there is less rainfall. Until this century there were few trade routes passing through from Mesopotamia to the central plateau. Also there are fewer sedentary agricultural villages and urban centers than in Kurdistan. And in this area of difficult access there has been less contact with governmental authority, and it has been less secure. The nomads themselves practice a considerable amount of agriculture, and they are more self-sufficient. Their migration routes are shorter and do not traverse populated agricultural areas; therefore, there is less peasant-nomad contact and conflict, and expectedly the nomad’s political organization is fragmented.
The Bakhtiyari are an exception to this; their migration is long, through rugged terrain, and with limited access to the summer pastures and, also, they come into contact with a more densely populated area at both ends of their migration; consequently, greater central organization is necessary.
In past history the central Iranian government has recognized a variety of ilkhans, khans, and valis (Arabic, guardian or governor) as rulers of the various tribes and tribal confederations in the Zagros. These leaders were drawn from princely families of the khans, and, as will be seen later, they were able to maintain their power through their tribal political and social organization and with the support of an army of retainers (khanzadeh, darbar, or ‘amaleh), loyal to them.” It was through these tribal leaders that the central government and administrative centers maintained contact with the tribes. Below this level of leadership there was great diversity in political organization in the Zagros, and in Luristan, except for the Bakhtiyari, there would appear to have been a greater shifting and segmenting of political alignments and loyalties to the khans and to their acknowledged leaders, the tushmals, kalantars, and khadkhodas, than in the remainder of the Zagros. This is particularly true for the Kuhgiluyeh tribes and country south of the Bakhtiyari (from Ram Hormoz to Fahliyan).
The fragmentation and absence of any centralized governing body, at least in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, was so great in the isolated Kuhgiluyeh area that it appears that political groups were little more than shifting robber bands under their khans. The area was insecure and depopulated, and trade was possible only in the hands of a special group, most likely sayyids, ” . . . whose general usefulness ensures the safety of their caravans wherever they go.”
Robbery played an important role in the economy of the Kuhgiluyeh and they raided extensively on the Bakhtiyari-Lynch road (a route opened in 1899 connecting Central Iran with the head of the Persian Gulf) and in late autumn and early spring on the trade routes between Abadeh, Yazd, and Isfahan. Winter storms and the Qashqa’i summer encampments cut them off in the other seasons. Brigandage was widespread but
the majority [of the Kuhgeluyeh] . . . are pastoral relying upon acorns, rather than corn, for their daily bread. There is no export of grain . . . and each valley grows sufficient for its needs, and could support a population 20 times as great as it does at present.
Between the tribes there were at times no friendly communications. To act as a buffer, and to enable them to till the arable land in between, imported saiyids have built little villages each with its tomb to augment the personal sanctity of the inhabitants and render them all but inviolable to the superstitious but predatory tribal people. The saiyids maintain friendly relations with mutually aggressive factions.
This insecurity and the relative absence of sedentary villages in Luristan has long been noted by historians, especially in Lur-e Kuchek. In this area there are numerous tapehs (mounds), walls, terraces, and irrigation systems that indicate that it once supported a larger sedentary population.
Dans le Lourestan infSrieur, il est vrai que je n ’y ai pas vu autant d’agriculture, mais beaucoup de vestiges montraient qu’il y en avait eu jadis.
The Kuhgiluyeh overlaps into Pars province which is the home of the great Qashqa’i and Khamseh confederations as well as the smaller Lashani, Mishmat, Dushmanziari, and the very small, specialized tribes of tinkers, peddlars,
blacksmiths, and musicians— the Changi, Ghurbati, Zargari, and ‘Asheq. The Qashqa’i migrate from south of Shiraz, Riz, Jam, and Gelahdar, north to Qumsheh and the Bakhtiyari. And the Khamseh move from as far south as Lar and north -to Abarqu ■X and Abadeh. Their migration routes are long, approximately: 250 miles, and similar to the Bakhtiyari in climatic change as well as altitude (6,000 – 8,000 feet). Like the Kurds, the Qashqa’i and the Khamseh pass through areas with populated sedentary agricultural villages. This latter factor limits the routes available to the long-range nomads, and necessitates scheduling the migrations. Because of the length of the migration with the attendant possibility for numerous contacts between nomads, agriculturalists, and administrative authorities, and the heavy traffic on the migration routes themselves, the Qashqa’i and the Khamseh have a strong central political organization. Like the Kurds they obtain necessary agricultural products by trade or sale of the produce from their flocks, by raids in their own or adjacent territory and on the important caravan routes of Bushehr-Shiraz-Isfahan and Bandar ‘Abbas-Shiraz (this is particularly important for the Qashqa’i and the Arab tribes of the Khamseh ), and through “landlordism.” The Qashqa’i in particular maintained military control over their area, whether the villages were made up of sedentary Qashqa’i or not, and fulfilled a number of administrative functions; therefore, they were able to expropriate or buy large parcels of land.