Friday, August 25, 2017

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

Ainallu Tribe


 


This tribe originated among the nomads of Turkestan, some of whom emigrated to Fars in the time of the Mongol Il-khans and settled there. They usually supplied a force of several thousand cavalry and infantry for the Mongol rulers.
Their winter quarters are in the Districts of Khafar, Darab, and Fasa, and their summer quarters in Ramjird and Marvdasht.
Their chief from the time of the Safavi kings has always been a member of the Abu’l-Wardi family, who trace their ancestry back to Muhammad Salih Abu’l-Wardi, who was chief of the tribe in those early days. From the year A.H. 1293 up to the present Basir Khan Bulaqi has been chief of this tribe. He inherited that office from his direct ancestors.
The writer knows for a fact that during the past forty-five years up to the present (A.H. 1304) the chief means of livelihood of the Ainallu tribe have been stealing, highway robbery, and pillaging in various parts of Fars, Kirman, and Yezd.
When the governor of Fars took steps to punish them and fordable them to rob, they confined their activities to Kirman and Yezd. However, there has been a tendency among them to earn an honest living, and as a result of the efforts of Mu’tamidu’d Dewleh Hajji Farhad Mirza and of Mirza ‘Ali Muhammad Khan Qawamu’l-Mulk-Shirazi, the worst offenders of the tribe have been punished and the obstinate among them forced to submission and obedience.
Most of the tribe have settled in the open country around Fasa. This district is the best of all Fars for the cultivation of tobacco, the poppy, and cotton with the aid of irrigation wells, and for agriculture in general without irrigation. Since settling down they have busied themselves with agriculture, and during all four seasons of the year they do not leave the level open district around Fasa. Year by year their agricultural activity increases. As a result of their present peaceful habits valuable caravans pass in safety through their territory. The Ainallus are divided into twenty-five sub-tribes.
An ancestor of the writer, Ghulam Husayn Khan Shahiyun was at one time the Shah’s commandant of artillery. According to Husayn Khan Shihabu’l-Mulk he obtained for his sub-tribe, the Guk-Pir, the title of “shahiyun” (friends of the Shah) at the same time as several other tribes received that honour.



D. Austin Lane, Hajji Mirza Hasan-i-Shirazi on the Nomad Tribes of Fars in the Fars-Nameh-i-Nasiri, JRAS 1923, pp. 210—211.

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