Bakhtyari

Bakhtiari

A Bakhtiari nomad family in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province in western Iran
Total population
(1,000,000)
Regions with significant populations
Iran Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, parts of: Khuzestan, Isfahan, Markazi, Lorestan
Languages
Bakhtiari Lurish
Religion
Shia Muslim
Related ethnic groups
Lurs

The Bakhtiari (Persian: بختیاری‎‎) are a southwestern Iranian tribe, and a subgroup of the Lurs. They speak the Bakhtiari dialect, a southwestern Iranian dialect, belonging to the Lurish 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.

A small percentage of Bakhtiari are still nomadic pastoralists, migrating between summer quarters (sardsīr or yaylāq) and winter quarters (garmsīr or qishlāq). Numerical estimates of their total population vary widely.

In Iranian mythology, the Bakhtiaris are considered to be descendants of Fereydun, a legendary hero from the Iranian national epic, Shahnameh. They are also considered to be directly descended from Cyrus the Great.

According to research into NRY markers, the Bakhtiari, as with many other groups in Iran, show very elevated frequencies for Y-DNA haplogroup J2—a phenomenon that is probably, at least partially, attributable to the Neolithic diffusion of early farmers from the Near East c. 8000–4000 BCE. The Southwest Eurasian haplogroups F, G, and T1a also reach substantial frequency among Bakhtiaris.