The Zand tribe is a
Laki-speaking
Kurdish tribe
mainly populating the countryside of
Khanaqin
Khanaqin ( ar, خانقين; ku, خانەقین, translit=Xaneqîn) is the central city of Khanaqin District in Diyala Governorate, Iraq, near the Iranian border (8 km) on the Alwand tributary of the Diyala River. The town is populate ...
in Iraq and in the provinces of
Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languag ...
and
Hamadan of
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 ...
.
History
The Zand tribe is originally from the Khanaqin area and settled in
Malayer near
Hamadan.
Incorporated into the army of Iranian ruler
Nader Shah
Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian ...
(1736-1747), they were moved to
Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
* Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
.
The Zands and other tribes of the
Zagros Mountains managed to return home following Nader's assassination in 1747.
Many returned to
Lorestan according to M. Reza Hamzeh'ee,
while Soane notes that parts of tribe ultimately returned to Khanaqin.
The tribe is most known for their member,
Karim Khan Zand, who founded the
Zand dynasty, ruling from 1751 till his death in 1779. His death was followed by internal conflicts for his succession which resulted in the weakening of the dynasty, ending with the defeat of Karim Khan's nephew
Lotf Ali Khan by the
Qajar ruler
Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789-1797).
The tribe was also known as one of the few where women fought alongside their husbands.
[The Zands are notable as one of the few Kurdish ruling bodies to allow women in their military. Zand women often fought alongside their husbands against invading Afghan forces ]
Origins
According to Tucker, the Zands "were a branch of the Laks, a subgroup of the northern
Lurs, who spoke
Luri." Perry also states that the Zands "belonged to the Lakk group of Lurs".
, likewise, states that the Zand tribe "spoke the Lakk dialect of the Lur language".
When Soane visited the tribe around 1918, the tribe denied any connection to Lurs.
References
Further reading
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{{Iran-stub
Kurdish tribes