Lak (tribe)

Not to be confused with the Caucasus Laks of Dagestan, Russia.

Lak

لەک / Lek
Total population
c. 2.5 million (est. 2000)
Regions with significant populations
Western Iran:   1,160,000 to 2,000,000
Languages
Laki
Religion
Mostly Shia Islam, Yarsanism minority

Lak (Kurdish: Lek ,لەک) is a Kurdish tribe native to Western Iran. They speak Laki, which is considered a Kurdish dialect by most linguists.

Laks inhabit a large part of Lorestan province where they constitute over 65% of the population and most of the eastern regions of the neighboring province of Kermanshah, some parts of western Ilam province (Poshte-Kuhi Laks), and around western Hamadan. The area to the east of Mount Kabir is known as Pishe-Kuh, and west of the mountain is known as Poshte-Kuh.

The majority of the Laks consider themselves followers of the Shia branch of Islam.

Origins

Vladimir Minorsky, who wrote the entry "Lak" in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, referred to the Lak as "the most southern group of Kurd tribes in Persia" and stated that their language has the characteristics of Kurdish. Some of the Lak tribes living in Lorestan province live among Lur tribes, and have assimilated over time toward a Lur identity. Although, Minorsky quotes some evidence indicating that they were brought there from further north. He mentions that they are often confused with the Lurs, whom they resemble from an ethnic and somatic point of view, but are different.

According to the third edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam, the Zands "were a branch of the Laks, a subgroup of the northern Lurs, who spoke Luri, a Western Iranian language". Similarly, according to the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Zands "belonged to the Lakk group of Lurs". According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, likewise, the Zand tribe "spoke the Lakk dialect of the Lur language".

History

The name of the Laks was commonly believed to derive from "lak", a Persian word meaning "one hundred thousand", which was said to have been the original Lak population. It was also suggested that "Lak" emerged as an ethnic term emerged after a process of cultural and ethnological amalgamations between the migrant tribes and people of the region, and that the term was originally used to refer to certain nomadic tribes before developing into an ethnic term for a large population, both settled and nomadic.

The Laks were first mentioned in the Sharafnama alongside the Zands as subjects of Persia. Vladimir Minorsky described the Laks as the most southern group of Kurdish tribes which had immigrated to Luristan from further northwards, while Rabino claimed they were settled in Luristan by Shah Abbas to support the Vali dynasty when they were established after the Khorshidis. Of the Lak tribes, the Silsila were said to have previously lived near Mahidasht, the Delfan took their name from the Dulafid dynasty, and the Bajalan of Zohab and northern Luristan were one tribe and claimed to come from Mosul, with the Luristan branch seemingly exchanging their Kurmanji for Laki during their sojourn with the Laks.

Zayn al-Abidin Shirvani mentioned the Zand, Mafi, Bajalan, and Zandi-yi kala among the Lak tribes, and Karim Khan Zand was said to belong to the last one. While at Shiraz, Karim Khan Zand called for the Lak tribe of Beyranvand. In 1797, the Beyranvand and Bajalan actively supported Mohammad Khan Zand against the Qajars. Under the Qajars, several Lak tribes were broken up, and the Zand tribe suffered extensively and was almost wiped out. Oskar Mann and Rabino listed the Lak tribes of Lorestan as the Silsila, Delfan, Tarhan-Amra'i, Beyranvand, and Dalvand. A list compiled by J. L. Rousseau at Kermanshah in 1807 listed the local Lak tribes as Kalhor, Mafi, Nanaki, Jalilvand, Payravand, Kolya'i, Sufivand, Bahramvand, Karkuki, Tawali, Zuyirvand, Kakuvand, Namivand, Ahmadvand, Bohtu'i, Zuliya, Harsini, and Shaykhvand. The Kalhor, Mafi, Sufivand, Karkuki, Jalilvand, and Kolya'i tribes mentioned in the list were known southern Kurdish tribes.

The geographical territory of the Laks was sometimes called Lakestan. The main Lak region included the southern and western parts of Hamadan, eastern parts of Kermanshah, western and northern parts of Lorestan, and eastern parts of Ilam. However, the Laks also lived in the wider region stretching from the city of Hamadan as far as the north of Khuzestan province. Previously, the entire region was an Iranian province officially known as "the fifth province" (ostan-e panjom), with the city of Kermanshah as its provincial capital. It continued eastward as far as the city of Shahr-e Kord. Some Laks also lived near Efandabad and Leylakh near Sanandaj.

There were other exclaves of Laks further in areas such as Qazvin, Hashtgerd, Damavand, Kerman, and in the Caspian regions such as Manjil in Gilan and Kelardasht in Mazandaran, Salmas in West Azerbaijan, as well as in Dargaz and Kalat in Razavi Khorasan. Some Lak exclaves continued to speak Laki while others were linguistically assimilated. After the fall of the Zand dynasty, many of their supporters in central Iran were absorbed by greater nomadic confederations. The Laks were mainly absorbed into the Qashqai confederation, although some Laks were absorbed by the Bakhtiari or Boyer Ahmadi tribes. Rahimi Othmani noted thirteen Qashqai tribes of Lak origin. There were also said to be Lak communities in Iraq, as well as in Turkey around Adıyaman and between Adana and Central Anatolia, who adopted the local northern Kurdish dialects, or different languages altogether.

The most distinguished point in the history of the Laks was the rise of Karim Khan Zand. Two revolutionary leaders later of emerged from among the Laks, namely Yar-Mohammad Khan Kermanshahi, who fought alongside the Constitutionalists in Tabriz and was killed in battle against Qajar prince Farmanfarma in Kermanshah in October 1912, and Khalu Qorban Harsini, the commander of partisan units of Mirza Kuchik Khan in the Jangali movement before the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1920.

Minorsky claimed that the majority of Laks were Yarsani. Most Laks were Shia Muslims by the 21st century. A considerable amount of Laks remained Yarsani, mainly around Sahneh and Nurabad. Minorsky also claimed that all of the Delfan and many Amala of Tarhan were Yarsani.

Self-identification

The Laks had always been divided, with some identifying as Kurds, as Lurs, or as a distinct ethnic group related to both. The majority of Laks in Lorestan province firmly identified with the Lurs, with the identification strengthening by the beginning of the 21st century. Academics linked their tendency to identify as Lurs to the fact that the Lurs were historically dominant as the ruling class of both Lorestan and Ilam provinces, and that the main corpus of the Laks, which was in Lorestan province, were subjects under Lur rulers, such as the Vali dynasty. The Laks who identified as Lurs actually identified as Lur before Lak, claiming that they were Lurs identical to the other Lurs in Lorestan province, with the only difference being that they spoke Laki instead of Luri. However, the Laks of Lorestan province identifying as Lurs often led to all Laks being generalized as such, affecting the Laks who did not identify as Lurs. In the village of Chashin located in Hamadan County, the population was made up of Laks who followed Yarsanism, and had a population of 1,400 in 2015. The surrounding villages spoke Persian, Azerbaijani, and Luri. The Laks of Chashin identified either as Laki-speaking Kurds or as Laks altogether, and had explicitly distinguished themselves from the residents of the nearby village of Khaku because they spoke northern Luri.

The Laks were not a homogenous people, and were traditionally divided into two main groups, the Laks of Lorestan province (historically Pish-e-Kuh) and the Laks of Kermanshah and Ilam provinces (historically Posht-e-Kuh). The main link between the two groups was the Laki language, otherwise they were relatively independent of each other. This later caused debates over whether a Lak ethnicity existed in the first place and whether the Laks were just Kurds and Lurs who spoke the Laki language. By the beginning of the 21st century, the Laks of Pish-e-Kuh mostly identified firmly as Lurs, while the Laks of Posht-e-Kuh were generally fluid in their ethnic identity and alternatively identified as Kurds or Lurs. Many Laks also identified as an independent ethnic group but still related to Kurds and Lurs. Regardless of what they identified as, the Laks were aware that they had an intermediate position between Kurds and Lurs, whether ethnic, linguistic, cultural, or geographic. Sometimes their identification even shifted based on circumstances.

In the 21st century, many Laks in Lorestan province began abandoning the Laki language, as it was associated with cultural conservativism, rurality and economic deprivation. There were many Laki-speakers in Lorestan province who considered Luristani Luri as more valuable than Laki, and adopted the Luri language to "get ahead", even though Luri was also under pressure and was shifting towards Persian.

Sub-tribes

List of Lak sub-tribes:

• Adinevand
• Ahmedvand
• Amraei
• Azadbakht
• Baharvand
• Balvand
• Beiranvand
• Bijanvand
• Chahardowli
• Dalvand
• Dinarvand
• Geravand
• Ghiasvand
• Hasanvand
• Itivand
• Jalalvand
• Jalilvand
• Kakavand
• Kamalvand
• Khalvand
• Kolivand
• Koushki
• Kushvand
• Mafivand
• Mirvand
• Mumivand
• Musivand
• Nurali
• Osmanvand
• Padarvand
• Payeravand
• Rizavand
• Romanvand
• Sagvand
• Shahivand
• Şêxbizin
• Tarkhan
• Torkashvand
• Yousefvand
• Zand
• Zola

Notable Lak people

• Karim Khan Zand
• Alireza Beiranvand

Further reading

• Yusefvand, Reza (2008). "Some Laki Demons". Iran and the Caucasus. 12 (2): 275–279. doi:10.1163/157338408X406047.