Friday, August 25, 2017

The Baharlu tribe of the Fars Province (Mirza Hasan Fasāʾī, [1896] 1923)

Baharlu Tribe


 


Since all this tribe speak Turkish, they must have come originally from the nomad tribes of Turkestan, who came to Persia at the time of the Seljuq kings and Mongol Il-Khans and settled in Fars; for up to the present one of the nomad tribes of Turkestan living in the plain of Khwarazm has retained the name of Baharlu.
Their winter quarters are in the plains of Izad Khast in Laristan and the plain of Darab, while their summer quarters are in the neighbourhood of Ramjird, Marvdasht, and Kamin. For some years past they have not left the neighbourhood of Darab; they have remained summer and winter along the banks of the rivers of that district.
The tribe’s governor and leader in the time of Nadir Shah was Hajji Husan Khan Nafar. In the year A.H. 1268 all the Baharlu sub-tribes united in support of Mulla Ahmad Baharlu and obtained for him, from the government, the chiefship of the whole tribe with the title of Khan. In the year A.H. 1275 he died, and the various sub-tribes went to war with one another until Cheragh Ali Beg succeeded in pacifying most of them and then became their chief.
In A.H. 1294 Hajji Farhad Mirza issued instructions for the conquest of the fortress of Tabar, which had been in the possession of Fazl ‘Ali’ Baharlu and a number of brigands. Every day they plundered caravans far and near, and then retired to Tabar for safety. This went on for ten or fifteen years. These operations were entrusted to the Qawamu’l-Mulk, who brought the issue to a successful conclusion.
Husayn Khan Baharlu succeeded Cheragh ‘Ali Beg as chief, and up to the present he has endeavoured to bring the whole tribe to a state of law and order; and he has removed the stigma of brigandage and pillaging from the tribal records.
There are twenty sub-tribes of the Baharlus.



D. Austin Lane, Hajji Mirza Hasan-i-Shirazi on the Nomad Tribes of Fars in the Fars-Nameh-i-Nasiri, JRAS 1923, pp. 212—213.

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