Kuhgilu (tribe)

Kuhgilu
کهگیلو
Kuhgilu tribespeople in traditional clothing
Regions with significant populations
Mainly Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, parts of Khuzestan province, Fars province, Bushehr province, and Isfahan province
Languages
Southern Luri, Persian
Religion
Predominantly Shia Islam
Related ethnic groups
Other Lur tribes

The Kuhgilu, also spelt Kohgiluyeh, are a collection of Lur tribes from the historic region of Kuhgilu in Iran. They mainly live in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, as well as parts of Khuzestan, Fars, Bushehr, and Isfahan provinces. They make up one of the main subdivisions of Lurs.[1][2] The tribes speak various dialects of Southern Luri.[3]

History

The region of Kuhgilu was historically part of Lur-e-Bozorg. After the Safavid era, Lur-e-Bozorg was divided into the regions of Bakhtiari and Kuhgilu. Later, in the 18th century, the Mamasani occupied Shulestan, creating a third Lur territory known as Mamasani, located between Kuhgilu and Shiraz. Mamasani was located to the east of Kuhgilu, and both regions were historically part of Fars province. The region of Kuhgilu stretched from Basht to Behbahan, the traditional center of the tribes of Kuhgilu. To the south, the tribes or Kuhgilu extended as far as the Persian Gulf.[4]

Minorsky wrote that the Lurs consisted of the Bakhtiari, Mamasani, Kuhgilu, and Lur proper. He added that the tribes of Kuhgilu included the tribes of Aqajari, Bavi, and Jaki. He added that the three-fold composition of the Kuhgilu was typical for many other Lur tribes. The Aqajari had diverse Turkic and Lur origins, while the Bavi were said to be of Arab origin (although there was a mountain with the same name near Khorramabad), and the Jaki were entirely Lur.[5] He described the Kuhgilu as Lurs with a considerable Turkic element.[6] In the 1960s, the inhabitants of the Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad province were divided into three tribal groups, the Jaki, Bavi, and Aqajari. The tribes still existing in the province in the early 1980s were listed as the Boyerahmadi, Cherami, Bavi (Babu'i), Doshmanziari, Tayyebi, and Bahma'i.[7] The tribes spoke their own dialects of Southern Luri. Among the dialects, the Boyerahmadi dialect was spoken around Yasuj, the Kohgiluyeh dialect was spoken around Dehdasht, and the Liravi dialect was spoken around northern Bushehr province.[8]

In 1757, Karim Khan Zand began a campaign to impose his authority in Behbahan. He blockaded and sacked the city, and then besieged Jayezan for eight months until it fell. Much of the Kuhgilu were pacified in 1757. When Karim Khan was visiting Azerbaijan in 1760, one of his governors over the Kuhgilu Lurs had revolted, and was later captured, but the Kuhgilu region remained outside of Zand control until spring 1765 when Karim Khan returned from Khuzestan and all tribes submitted to him except the Liravi. The Liravi desperately protected their two fortresses near Behbehan, which fell to the Zands after high casualties on both sides. The Zands did not give any leniency to the Liravi, killing the prisoners and building towers out of their skulls.[9][10] In Tarikh-i Gitigusha, the historian Nami Isfahani frequently condemned specific Zand dynasty figures for causing anarchy and instability, although he also criticized the Kuhgilu Lurs, calling them "savage-natured, beast-dispositioned, and fox-like deceivers," who deserved their punishment from Karim Khan.[11]

Tribes

Jaki

The Jaki were divided into the Chaharbonicha and the Liravi. The former consisted of the Boyerahmadi, Cherami, Doshmanziari, and Nu'i, while the latter consisted of the Liravi of the plain and the Liravi of the mountain. The Liravi of the mountain included the tribes of Bahma'i, Tayyebi, Shir Ali, and Yusufi.[12][7]

Boyerahmadi

The Boyerahmadi were historically the largest tribe, and consisted of the tribes of Tamoradi, Qaid Givi, Gudarzi, Aqa'i (including Narmabi, Zengeva'i, and Babakhani), Dashtemawri (including Owlad-e Mirza-Ali, Shaykh, and Tas-Ahmadi), and around 15 tribes of sayyid origin, including the Sadat-e Imamzadeh-Ali, Sadat-e Mahmudi, and Sadat-e Reza Tawfiq. Other important ones were the Jalili, Negintaji, and Sistakhi. Additionally, there were around forty smaller tribes, two thirds of which were named after their native region, like the Chitabi tribe named after the village of Chitab. The Boyerahmadi tribes, in a partially overlapping manner, were divided across three political entities, Boyerahmadi Garmsir, Boyerahmadi Sardsir-e Olya, and Boyerahmadi Sardsir-e Sofla. There were around 70 Boyerahmadi tribes.[13] The Aqajari which remained nomadic were later absorbed by the Boyerahmadi, in which they became known as the Aqa'i tribe, and consisted of the tribes of Jama Bozorgi, Tileku, Jaghata'i, Begdeli, Afshar, Lor Zaban, She'ri, Aqbaghi, Bashiri, Daylami, Gashtil, and Davudi. Some spoke Turkic, but most spoke Luri and Persian.[14]

Cheram

The Cheram or Chorum tribe, in the 1890s, consisted of the tribes of Begler (the tribe of the Cheram chief), Bonari, Parukhuri (or Parvkhuri), Tarmuni, Hosam-Bahauddini, Dilgun, Shaykh Golbar, Goshtasb, Kamankeshi, and Masih-Shahi. Their names also suggested diverse Turkic and Lur origins.[15]

Bahma'i

The Bahma'i tribe was divided into the Sardsiri, traditionally centered around Dishmuk, and the Garmsiri, traditionally centered around Qal'a-ye A'la. After a leadership dispute, the Bahma'i were divided into the tribes of Bahma'i Ahmadi and the Bahma'i Mohammadi.[16]

Bavi

The Bavi or Babu'i tribe, which spoke Luri, was commonly claimed to be an offshoot of the Arab Bawiya tribe of Khuzestan, although Minorsky mentioned a mountain south of Khorramabad named Bavi. The Bavi were relatively smaller than the other tribes of Kuhgilu. Kayhan wrote that the Bavi tribe consisted of the tribes of as Ali-Shahi, Gashin, Musa'i, Bar-Aftabi, and Qal'ayi.[17]

Doshmanziari

The Doshmanziari tribe of the Kuhgilu tribes was distinct from the Doshmanziari tribe historically associated with the Mamasani. The Doshmanziari of Kuhgilu was one of the four components of the Chaharbonicha tribal confederation, alongside the Boyerahmadi, Cheram, and Nu'i (Novi). The Doshmanziari was divided into four tribes, the Elyasi, Bavardinari, Sadat, and Novi. The Elyasi included the clans of Shir-Mohammadi, Ra'is, Goshtasbi, Khwaja, Koli, and Shah-Hosayni, the Bavardinari included the clans of Qalandari, Buyri, Shaykh-Ali, and Soltan-Ali, the Sadat included the clans of Sadat-e Esmaili, Sadat-e Abbasi, Sadat-e Mashhadi, Sadat-e Kordli, and Sadat-e 'Ala'i.[18]

References

  1. ↑ Minorsky, V. (1986). "Lur". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2.
  2. ↑ Minorsky, V. (1986). "Luristān". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 829–832. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2.
  3. ↑ "LORI LANGUAGE ii. Sociolinguistic Status of Lori". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  4. ↑ Minorsky, V. (1986). "Luristān". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 829–832. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2.
  5. ↑ Minorsky, V. (1986). "Lur". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume V: Khe–Mahi. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-07819-2.
  6. ↑ Minorsky, V. “The Tribes of Western Iran.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 75, no. 1/2, 1945, pp. 77. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2844282. Accessed 29 Aug. 2026.
  7. 1 2 "ʿAŠĀYER". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  8. ↑ "LORI LANGUAGE ii. Sociolinguistic Status of Lori". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  9. ↑ Iran at War: 1500-1988, Kaveh Farrokh, 2011, pp. 141, ISBN 9781780962214
  10. ↑ The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 7, From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic, Peter Avery, Gavin Hambly, Charles Melville, pp. 81–82, ISBN 9780521200950
  11. ↑ The Peoples of Iran: Unity or Division Amidst the Challenge of Ethnicity and Nationhood, Kameel Ahmady, 2025, pp. 157, ISBN 978-87-93926-09-7
  12. ↑ "JĀKI". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  13. ↑ "BOIR AḤMADĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  14. ↑ "AḠĀČ ERĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  15. ↑ "ČERĀM". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  16. ↑ "BAHMAʾĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  17. ↑ "BĀVĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
  18. ↑ "DOŠMANZĪĀRĪ". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
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