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Lur people

Lurs
لر Lur
Total population
5,400,000
Regions with significant populations
 Iran
 Iraq 517,000
 Kuwait 50,000
Languages
Lurish languages` dialects including: Bakhtiari, Laki, and Feyli
Religion
Shi'a Islam, Yarsanism
Related ethnic groups
Persians and Kurds

Lurs (also Lors, Lurish: لورَل, Persian:لُرها) are an Iranian people living mainly in western and south-western Iran. Their population is estimated at around five million. They occupy Lorestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Khuzestan and Fars (especially Lamerd, Mamasani and Rostam), Bushehr, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Hamadan, Ilam, and Isfahan provinces. The Lur people mostly speak the Lurish language (sometimes called "Luri"), a Southwestern Iranian language related to Persian. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Lurish language is the closest living language to Archaic and Middle Persian. According to the linguist Don Still, Lori-Bakhtiari like Persian is derived directly from Old Persian.Michael M. Gunter states that Lurs people are closely related to the Kurds but that they "apparently began to be distinguished from the Kurds 1,000 years ago." There are also a significant population of Iraqi Lurs in eastern and central parts of Iraq, mainly known as Feylis.

Lurs are the demographic majority of the provinces of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Ilam, Lorestan, and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari. Half of Khuzestan's population is Lurs and 30% of Bushehr's population is Lurs.


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Wikipedia

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