Lurs () are an
Iranian people living in the mountains of western
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. The four Luri branches are the
Bakhtiari,
Mamasani, Kohgiluyeh and Lur proper, who are principally linked by the
Luri language
Luri ( lrc, لٛۏری, Łôrī, luz, لُرِی, Lorī) is a Southwestern Iranian language continuum spoken by the Lur people, an Iranian people native to Western Asia. The Luri dialects are descended from Middle Persian and are Central Lur ...
.
Lorestan Province is named after the Lurs, but the ethnic group also live in the provinces of
Fars,
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari,
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad,
Khuzestan
Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...
,
Hamadan
Hamadan () or Hamedan ( fa, همدان, ''Hamedān'') ( Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,300 in 230,775 families. The majority of people living in Ha ...
,
Isfahan
Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...
,
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
and southern
Ilam Province.
Language
Luri is a Western
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
language
continuum
Continuum may refer to:
* Continuum (measurement), theories or models that explain gradual transitions from one condition to another without abrupt changes
Mathematics
* Continuum (set theory), the real line or the corresponding cardinal number ...
spoken by about four million people. The continuum constitutes the three dialects of
Bakhtiari, Luristani and Southern Luri and linguist Anonby situates them between
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
.
Luri branches
There are several established branches of the Luri people.
* Bakhtiari
* Southern Lori
** Boyerahmadi (Yasuji)
** Kohgiluyei
** Mamasani
* Luristani (Northern Lori)
** Khorramabadi
** Borujerdi
** Bala Gariva Lori
** Hinimini
** Shuhani
History
![Woman spinning-Sb 2834-IMG 0921-black](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Woman_spinning-Sb_2834-IMG_0921-black.jpg)
Lurs are a mixture of aboriginal
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
tribes, originating from
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
and the pre-Iranic tribes of western Iran, such as the
Kassites
The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology).
They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon ...
(whose homeland appears to have been in what is now
Lorestan) and
Gutians
The Guti () or Quti, also known by the derived exonyms Gutians or Guteans, were a nomadic people of West Asia, around the Zagros Mountains (Modern Iran) during ancient times. Their homeland was known as Gutium ( Sumerian: ,''Gu-tu-umki'' or ,'' ...
. In accordance with geographical and archaeological matching, some historians argue that the
Elam
Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
ites were the Proto-Lurs, whose language became
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
only in the Middle Ages.
Michael M. Gunter
Michael M. Gunter is a professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee and considered an authority on the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Brendan O’Leary referred to Gunter as, "The doyen of ...
states that they are closely related to the Kurds but that they "apparently began to be distinguished from the
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
1,000 years ago." He adds that the ''
Sharafnama
The ''Sharafnama'' (Kurdish: شەرەفنامە Şerefname, "The Book of Honor", Persian: Sharafname, شرفنامه) is the famous book of Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi (a medieval Kurdish historian and poet) (1543–1599), which he wrote in 1597, in Pe ...
'' of
Sharaf Khan Bidlisi
Sharaf al-Din Khan b. Shams al-Din b. Sharaf Beg Bedlisi ( Kurdish: شەرەفخانی بەدلیسی, ''Şerefxanê Bedlîsî''; fa, شرفالدین خان بن شمسالدین بن شرف بیگ بدلیسی; 25 February 1543 – ) wa ...
"mentioned two Lur dynasties among the five Kurdish dynasties that had in the past enjoyed royalty or the highest form of sovereignty or independence."
Sharafkhan dedicates a chapter of his
1597 book to the Lurs and Luri rulers, and he considered them to be Kurds.
Genetics
Considering their
NRY variation, the Lurs are distinguished from other Iranian groups by their relatively elevated frequency of
Y-DNA
The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abse ...
Haplogroup R1b
Haplogroup R1b (R-M343), previously known as Hg1 and Eu18, is a human Y-chromosome haplogroup.
It is the most frequently occurring paternal lineage in Western Europe, as well as some parts of Russia (e.g. the Bashkirs) and pockets of Central A ...
(specifically, of subclade R1b1a2a-L23).
Together with its other clades, the
R1 group comprises the single most common haplogroup among the Lurs.
Haplogroup J2a (subclades J2a3a-M47, J2a3b-M67, J2a3h-M530, more specifically) is the second most commonly occurring patrilineage in the Lurs and is associated with the diffusion
Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...
of agriculturalists from the Neolithic Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
c. 8000-4000 BCE.[ Another haplogroup reaching a frequency above 10% is that of ]G2a
G2A.COM Limited (commonly referred to as G2A) is a digital marketplace headquartered in the Netherlands, with offices in Poland and Hong Kong. The site specializes in the resale of gaming products by the use of redemption keys. Other product ...
, with subclade G2a3b accounting for most of this. Also significant is haplogroup E1b1b1a1b, for which the Lurs display the highest frequency in Iran.[ Lineages Q1b1 and Q1a3 present at 6%, and T at 4%.][
]
Culture
The authority of tribal elders remains a strong influence among the nomadic population. It is not as dominant among the settled urban population. As among Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...
, Lur women have much greater freedom than women in other groups within the region. The women have more freedom to participate in different social activities, to wear diverse types of female clothing and to sing and dance in different ceremonies. Bibi Maryam Bakhtiari is a notable Luri woman. Luri music, Luri clothing Luri culture has been developed along with the long history of coexistence among Lurs with surrounding natural elements across the Iranian plateau, and geographical, cultural and religious effects.
Men's clothing
Felt hats
Felt hats (کُلأ ...
and Luri folk dances are some of the most distinctive ethno-cultural characteristics of this ethnic group.
Many Lurs are small-scale agriculturists and shepherds. A few Lurs are also traveling musicians. Lurish textiles and weaving skills are highly esteemed for their workmanship and beauty.
Religion
Most Lurs are Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
Muslim. Historically, many Lurs adhered to Yarsanism
Yarsanism, Ahl-e Haqq or Kaka'i ( ku, یارسان, translit=Yarsan or ; fa, اهل حق, ar, كاكائي), is a syncretic religion founded by Sultan Sahak in the late 14th century in western Iran. The total number of followers of Yarsanism i ...
but almost the whole Yarsani Luri population has converted to Shia Islam. A small Sunni Muslim
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word ''Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagree ...
community of Lurs also exists. According to the ''Encyclopaedia of Islam
The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...
'', the Lurs revere bread and fire like the Zoroastrians.
See also
* Ahmed Lur
Ahmed Lur was a primary Luri follower of the Hurufism school of Sufi Islam in 15th century in Iran. He was one of the disciples of Fazlallah Na'imi, the founder of the Hurufism sect.
Ahmed Lur also attempted to assassinate the Timurid ruler, Sh ...
* Bakhtiari people
The Bakhtiari (also spelled Bakhtiyari; fa, بختیاری) are a Lur tribe from Iran. They speak the Bakhtiari dialect of the Luri language.
Bakhtiaris primarily inhabit Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari and eastern Khuzestan, Lorestan, Bushehr, a ...
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Luristan
Ethnic groups in Iran
Indigenous peoples of Western Asia
Iranian ethnic groups
Lorestan Province
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province
Khuzestan Province
Ilam Province
Fars Province
Hamadan Province
Tehran Province
Isfahan Province
Ethnic groups in the Middle East