page_title: Bakhtiari people
section_title: Tribal structure
hierarchical_section_title: Bakhtiari people / Tribal structure
caption_attribution_description: فارسی: یک خانواده ایلیاتی بختیاری در استان چهارمحال بختیاری.
context_page_description: The Bakhtiari are a southwestern Iranian tribe, and a subgroup of the Lurs. They speak the Bakhtiari dialect, a southwestern Iranian dialect, belonging to the Luri language.
  Bakhtiaris primarily inhabit Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari and eastern Khuzestan, Lorestan, Bushehr, and Isfahan provinces. In Khuzestan, Bakhtiari tribes are concentrated primarily in the eastern part of the province in the cities of Masjed Soleyman and Andekah.
  A small percentage of Bakhtiari are still nomadic pastoralists, migrating between summer quarters and winter quarters. Numerical estimates of their total population vary widely.
context_section_description: The Bakhtiari people are mainly from two tribal divisions, Chahar Lang (English: Four Shares) and Haft Lang (English: Seven Shares). Lang word in bakhtiari dialect means "share of tax or inheritance". Due to the harsh nature of their life style, Bakhtiaris have been able to keep their blood lines intact, largely marrying within their own tribe.
  Bakhtiaris trace a common lineage, being divided into the Chahar Lang (The Four Shares) and Haft Lang (The Seven Shares) groups, each controlled by a single powerful family. The overall khan alternates every two years between the chiefs of the Chahar Lang and the Haft Lang.
  The famous documentary Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) tells the story of the migration of Bakhtiari tribe from winter quarters in Khuzestan to summer quarters Chahar Mahaal. This film also tells the story of how these people crossed the river Karun with 50,000 people and 500,000 animals. The documentary "People of the Wind" (1975) retraces this same journey, 50 years later. The British documentary series "The Ascent of Man" (1973) in the first part of its second episode, "The Harvest of the Seasons," also shows the Bakhtiari making the annual migration to the summer pastures. This portrayal is not however, particularly positive, using the Bakhtiari as an example of a pre-agricultural tribe frozen in time.  As of 2006, the migration still takes place, although the livestock are now transported in trucks, and the shepherds no longer walk barefoot in the snow between provinces.
caption: A Bakhtiari nomad family
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