History
Throughout Iranian history, the Lur regions were largely outside of Iranian government control and controlled by the local Lur tribes. Before 1900, the majority of Lurs were nomadic pastoralists. [1] By 1907, Luristan was completely out of state control and under local tribes, such as the Baharvand, Biranvand, Chagani, Judaki, Papi, Qalavand, Sagvand and Salsalah. Qajar authorities were not allowed to enter. Each tribe and its land were an autonomous polity and all social, legal and political problems were settled within the tribe. The tribes did not unite to form a confederacy, nor was there any organized separatist movement, as the Lurs did not have a concept of nation. The tribes were primarily interested in themselves, clashing with the Iranian state and rival tribes alike. [2]
In 1912, Salar-od-Dowleh, brother of Mohammad Ali Shah, attempted to seize the Qajar throne by recruiting tribal warriors from the Kurds and Lurs. Although Salar-od-Dowleh was quickly defeated in Hamadan in May 1912, the revolt encouraged Kurds and Lurs to further rebel against the Iranian government. The Kurdish and Luri regions remained unstable, with control of cities very often shifting back and forth between the government and rebellious tribes. The weakness of the Iranian military was further exacerbated by the deployment of troops to fight Simko Shikak. [3]
Immediately after becoming Minister of War in 1921, Reza Shah launched several campaigns against the Lur tribes, aiming to settle them, detribalize them, and bring them under direct state control. The 1920s and 1930s were full of conflict between Lurs and the Iranian government. [1]
By early March 1922, Iran was ready to confront the Kurdish rebels, first defeating the rebel leader Rasheed Khan in Ravansar in March 1923, afterwards he fled to Turkey, but was pardoned and returned to Iran where he revolted again in June 1923, and was defeated in April 1924. The Iranian army heavily relied on Rasheed Khan's Kurdish rivals to defeat him. [3] As Simko rapidly grew his region, he boosted the morale of the Kurdish tribes, who increasingly accepted his authority. Simko called on the Lurs to join his revolt, and received Lur support. In addition to his main support base of the Shikak, Herki, Mamash, Mangur, Dehbokri, Piran, Zarza, Gewrik, Feyzullabegi, Pizhdar, and the smaller tribes around Baneh, Simko was supported by several Lur tribes. [4] [5] In summer 1922, when Simko declared an open revolt against Iran and captured Maragheh, the Lurs joined Simko and revolted in Luristan. [6] Reza Shah initially was unable to suppress the Lurs due to the intensity of the war against Simko. In spring 1922, after weakening Simko, Reza Shah led a bloody campaign against the Lur tribes which supported Simko, and initially failed, although he subdued them by summer. [7] Simko was fully defeated in August 1922 and fled Iran for Turkey, and later to Iraq, afterwards returning to Iran in 1925 after being pardoned. In 1926, as the Iranian army was busy suppressing another revolt by the Lurs, Simko revolted again. Simko was killed in 1930. [8] [9] With the defeat of Simko in 1922, the Iranian government consolidated control over Kurdistan, although sporadic revolts continued and some areas temporarily fell to Kurdish rebels from time to time until 1931 when it stabilized. By 1935, the Kurdistan Brigade of the Iranian army had upgraded to an entire division. [3] When Simko was defeated in 1922, the pro-Simko Luri rebels were deported to other parts of Iran alongside the Kurdish rebels. [10]
Reza Khan became Minister of War in February 1921 and instantly came into conflict with the Lurs. [11] The Iranian army first deployed to Luristan in April 1921, planning to connect Luristan to Khuzestan by road. After intense fighting, the Iranian army captured Boroujerd in October 1923, and Khorramabad by late November. [3] In spring 1922, as the Iranian army under Amir Ahmadi dispatched to Luristan, the people of Boroujerd and Khorramabad were anxious to see the establishment of a powerful state to counter the tribes. The tribes of Tarhan were under Nazar Ali Khan Amir Ashraf, the Selseleh were under Mehr Ali Khan Amir Monazam, the Sagvand were divided into two rival branches led by Ali Khani and Rahim Khani, while the Beyranvand were under Asad Khani, Haydar Khani, Ali Mohammadi, and Mohammad Khani, the tribes of Bala Gariva, such as Baharvand, Judaki, Mir, Qalavand, and Papi, were each under their own leader, same with the Chegini tribe. The Mir tribe of Saimara were affiliated to the Vali dynasty of Posht e Kuh and its leaders were competing amongst each other. The Beyranvand were described as the most troublesome tribe which did most of the actual combat against the Iranian army. Lur tribes were generally disunited and hostile to each other, and there were many instances of Lur tribe leaders siding with the Iranian army only to weaken their rival tribe leaders or to take revenge, even if it meant their own demise. This had allowed the Iranian army to enforce the divide and conquer tactic. [12] The west and northwest of Luristan province was controlled by the Amra'i tribe, while the Baharvand, Biranvand, Chagani, Judaki, Papi, Qalavand, Sagvand, and Silsilah each had their own lands which operated independently. [13]
Amir Ahmadi swore on the Quran that Ali Khan and Hussein Khan of the Beyranvand tribe would not be killed if they were captured, but were nevertheless killed. The Selseleh tribe leaders were hung alongside the Beyranvand despite siding with the army against the Beyranvand. This had destroyed any remaining trust the Lurs had in the government. [14]
There was another wave of fighting after an Iranian soldier had approached a newly married Lur girl from the Romani tribe and her husband shot him dead. General Shah Bakhti sent Colonel Fuladi to punish them. The Romani, joined by the Chegini, who had often been mistreated by the army, defeated the army in Khorramabad. Upon seeing their victory, the Beyranvand, Baharvand, Papi, and half of the Judaki joined the revolt, attacking the army in the vicinity of Khorramabad in May 1924. [14] However, the Lur control over Khorramabad was disrupted after a dispute between the tribes over a captured Iranian cannon, causing the Baharvand to withdraw, followed by the Papi, Judaki, and Chegini, leaving only the Beyranvand who were quickly defeated. [15] In June 1924, Reza Shah sent warplanes to bombard the Luri rebels, and himself headed to Luristan to defeat the Luri tribes and advance southwards towards Sheikh Khazal. [16] The American filmmaker Merian C. Cooper, who was in Luristan at the time, in 1924, wrote that "daily the fighting becomes more bitter there. Two weeks ago the Persian Governor-General of Luristan invited twelve leading khans to a conference, pledging security. Upon their arrival he hung all twelve up in a row in the public square. Now the Lurs are besieging his capital, boiling alive all of his officers they catch, it is said, and awaiting, apparently undismayed, the army that is filing down through the valleys of Kurdistan to raise the siege." [17] When Khorramabad was taken by the Lurs, Reza Shah dispatched a force under Ahmad Amir-Ahmadi, which captured the town and immediately hung eighty of the Lur leaders, proceeded to massacre Lur women and children at the nearby camp, and forced captive Lur men to jump off a cliff. [17]
In October 1925, Reza Shah declared the end of the Qajar dynasty, which had a long conflict with the Lurs, and announced the beginning of the Pahlavi dynasty on December 13, 1925. His goals were to establish a modern centralized and unified nation state. In Luristan, the urbanists of Khorramabad, including landlords and merchants, had actually supported Reza Shah as the absence of the state had resulted in tribal supremacy and the urbanists lost political power, while the tribal leaders were skeptical of state power as it meant the end of tribal autonomy. [18] The coronation of Reza Shah in 1925 sparked many simultaneous tribal revolts across Iran, many of which were Luri revolts. [17]
The last major engagement in Luristan was in 1926 between the tribes of Tarhan and the Iranian army, and the only reason the tribes of Tarhan were defeated was due to the tribes of Bala Gariva refusing to support them. [19] The Iranian government used tribes against one another, and in one instance, when the Beyranvand tribe killed 101 Iranian soldiers in 1927, the Iranian government convinced their rival Selseleh tribe to bring them to justice, which they did, although the Selseleh were nevertheless attacked by the Iranian government as a message to all the Lur tribes. [17] The Lur tribes were officially defeated in 1928 and stopped fighting. The Iranian government built the road between Luristan and Khuzestan. Some Beyranvand continued to fight. [19]
In 1928, Iran had achieved its goal of opening the highway between Luristan and Khuzestan. The Luri regions were stabilized, although some isolated rebel pockets existed until 1930, they were also suppressed. [3] In June 1929, several Haft Lang and Chahar Lang Bakhtiaris, joined by Boyerahmadis and Mamasanis, revolted in western Fars, in a very large revolt involving several tribes such as the Qashqai and Khamseh, and the revolt engulfed most of Fars province. In 1930, in Tang-e Tamuradi, west of Ardakan, the Boyerahmadis attacked the Iranian government and Qashqai fighters, killing over 1,000 of them. [17] In Luristan, the main Luri tribal insurgents belonged to the Beyranvand, Sagvand, Papi, and Chegini tribes. Khorramabad fell once again to Lur rebels after they returned from exile in Khuzestan to Luristan, although the Iranian army quickly recaptured it. [20] The main phase of the conflict between Reza Shah and the Lurs was from 1922 to 1928. Reza Shah brought Luristan under direct control in 1928, ending 744 years of independent Lur rule over Luristan (the Atabeks of Lur-e-Kuchak from 1184 to 1597, and the Vali dynasty from 1597 to 1928). [21]
Reza Shah equated nomadic pastoralism to barbarianism in a March 1924 speech in Luristan. The conquest of Luristan was very important for Reza Shah for many reasons. First, Luristan was in a state of anarchy, completely out of state control but without a unified governing body. Second, the pacification of Luristan paved the way for the pacification of Khuzestan. Third, Luristan was vital for trade, as the road through Luristan was the shortest road connecting the Persian Gulf to the center of Iran. Fourth, the previous attempts by the Qajars to capture Luristan had repeatedly resulted in defeat, and therefore Reza Shah wanted to show the vitality and superiority of his new regime by conquering Luristan. [22]
After the Lur tribes were defeated, several tribes were exiled to other regions of Iran such as Khorasan. Tribe leaders were executed and the tribes were disarmed. [23] The Lurs politically declined, and the boundaries of Luristan province were changed and made smaller, with much territory being given to neighboring provinces. City names were changed. Many Lurs stopped using tribal names and even the organization of the tribes changed. [24]
When Reza Shah was abdicated in 1941, many newly settled Lurs returned to their nomadic lives, although by 1986, the majority of Lurs had permanently settled in villages, small towns, or had moved to the cities, as Mohammad Reza Shah had avoided military conflict and instead gave the Lurs many incentives to permanently settle, such as programs to economically develop the Lur regions. [1] [25] Many settled Lurs assimilated among the Persians who lived in Lur regions. [26] Furthermore, the 1979 Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war severely damaged the remaining nomadic Lurs, causing them to settle in cities. [27]
In 2002, Sekandar Amanolahi, who expounded on the relationship of Reza Shah and the Lurs, stated that in Iran, the sources about the military operations of Reza Shah against the Lurs were deliberately left scanty, unreliable and one-sided. He stated that the main Iranian military sources still deliberately distorted the reality. He claimed that they took full credit for the victory and none of them mentioned the Lurs who fought against other Lurs or persuaded them to surrender. He also claimed that none of the sources mentioned the several atrocities committed by the army, and portrayed the Lurs as evil. He also claimed that the sources did not mention the defeat of the army on numerous fronts and instead exaggerated the military achievements of the government. Amanolahi stated that "In any event, the scarcity of the historical materials and the unreliability of the available documents practically make it difficult, if not impossible, to reconstruct a full picture of the military operations in Luristan." [28]
Qajar Iran (until 1925)
Pahlavi Iran (after 1925)