The Bakhtiyari are a confederation of tribes of pastoral nomads who live in the Zagros mountains in an area west of Isfahan to the plains of Khuzistan and south from Golpayegan to Ram Hormoz (31 N to 3^4- N and I4.9 E to $1 E). Their immediate neighbors to the north are the pastoral nomadic Lurs of Bala Gariveh, Pusht-e Kuh, and Pish-e Kuh. Still in the Zagros but farther to the north are the Kurds.
Southwest of the Bakhtiyari are the partially nomadic Arab tribes of Khuzistan, and to the south and southeast are the Kuhgfluyeh and the Mamasani, to name only the larger groups of pastoral nomads in this section of the Zagros. Adjacent to their southeast corner, near Urujan, are the summer pastures of the Qashqa’i, and farther south, and to the east, are the tribes of Khamseh confederation.
There are no accurate census figures for these tribes, but their comparative sizes will be seen in the following population estimates from 1923: Khamseh, 17*330 families; Qashqa’i, 55,000-60,000 families; Mamasani, lj.,200 families;Kuhgiluyeh 21,200 families; and Bakhtiyari, ii-7,000 families.’’; The following population estimates for the Arabs and the Liars are from an earlier period and less accurate: Arab tribes in Khuzistan, 199,000 persons; 2 and Lurs of Pish-e Kuh, Pusht-e Kuh, and Bala Gariveh, 36,702 families,-^ |
The basis of classification and identification for these tribes is political; yet, even among themselves there are cross-cutting linguistic, geographic, and economic classifications. Linguistically and traditionally the Bakhtiyari are considered a part of the Lurs who are divided into two major Persian dialect groups coinciding with two geographic areas: Lur-e Bozorg (the Great Lur) composed of the Bakhtiyari, Kuhgiluyeh, and the Mamasani, and Lur-e Kuchek (the Little Lur) made up of the Liars of Bala Gariveh, Pish-e Kuh, and Pusht-e Kuh. The Qashqa’i speak a Turkish dialect, and the Khamseh confederation is made of Persian, Turkish, and Arabic speaking tribes.
Economically the Bakhtiyari are long-range pastoral nomads and are thus set apart from the agricultural villages which are scattered throughout the lower elevations of their territory. Many of these villages, however, practice some form of transhumant nomadism; that is, their flocks of sheep and goats are taken to higher elevations during the heat of summer and are returned to the lower pastures for the winter.
These villages add to the ethnographic and linguistic variety of the area because of the number of languages and dialects spoken in them; these include Arabic, Ibrsian, Turkish, and Armenian. This linguistic complexity and the juxtaposition of long-range nomadism, transhumant nomadism, and sedentary agriculture are characteristic of the Zagros mountains.