BAKHTIARI

Luri-speaking tribal people of central Iran.

The Bakhtiari historically are members of several tribes claiming descent from a common ancestor and residing in the Bakhtiari region of the Zagros Mountains. The Bakhtiari primarily practiced pastoral nomadism. During the mid-nineteenth, Bakhtiari khans (leaders) organized the tribes into a large confederation that played an important role in Iran's national politics for fifty years. In particular, the khans were active supporters of the Constitutional Revolution between 1909 and 1911. Reza Shah Pahlavi's policy of forcible sedentarization of all nomadic tribes effectively destroyed the Bakhtiari confederation. Following his abdication in 1941 under Anglo-Soviet pressure, several thousand Bakhtiari villagers resumed pastoral nomadism, but the majority did not, and the sons of the former khans preferred urban life, where they were integrated with the political and social elite of the country. During the 1970s, an estimated 100,000 Bakhtiari—about 20 percent of the total—continued to carry out the twice-annual migrations. By the early 2000s, only 10 percent of Bakhtiari practiced pastoral nomadism, while an estimated 50 to 60 percent lived in cities.

see also constitutional revolution; pahlavi, reza.

Bibliography

Garthwaite, Gene R. Khans and Shahs: A Documentary Analysis of the Bakhtiyari in Iran. New York and Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Lois Beck

Updated by Eric Hooglund