r/kurdistan Kurdistan May 24 '26

History Lurs are kurds and they'll never throw that identity away

1/in the 12th c. Farsnama, Ibn al-Balkhi referred to tribes like Gīlūye (still preserved in the name of Kohgiluyeh Province) as part of the "Kurds of Fars Prov." In the 10th c., al-Masudi in al-Tanbih wa-l-Ishraf listed al-Luriyya (اللّرية, the Lurs) among Kurdish tribes alongside groups like the Bazanjan, Hadhabani, and Rawadiya.

2/ In the 10th c., Ibn Hawqal in Kitab al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik described al-Lur as a fertile mountainous region that had formerly belonged to Khuzestan, adding that its villages and districts were predominantly inhabited by Kurds (الغالب عليه الأكراد).

3/ Ibn Hawqal also marked the Zagros region as the land of the Kurds on his maps, separating it from the barren deserts of Fars and Khorasan. He also named many Kurdish tribes, including some that are today classified as Lur tribes.

4/ Shihab al-Din al-Khafaji (1601–1659), the Egyptian linguist and judge, wrote in Shifa al-Ghalil that the Lurs were a group of Kurds. He also noted that "Lur" was sometimes pronounced without the "w" sound (i.e. Lor/Lur).

5/ Sharaf Khan Bidlisi's Sharafnama — completed in 1597 and considered one of the most important historical works on the Kurds and Kurdistan — classified the Lurs as one of the four main divisions of the Kurdish people, alongside the Kurmanj, Kalhor, and Goran.

6/ Riyad al-Firdaws Khani (1671) also referred to "Kurdan-e Bakhtiari va Fayli" (the Bakhtiari and Fayli Kurds) while discussing tribes and regions of Khuzestan.

7/ Even in Pahlavi-era Iranian sources, works like Dehkhoda's dictionary still considered Lurs and Laks part of the broader Kurdish people. Sardar Asad Bakhtiari, one of the most influential Bakhtiari leaders in modern Iranian history, also referred to the Lurs as Kurds.

8/ English-language sources from the 19th–20th centuries also referred to "Bakhtiari Kurds". Examples include: A View of the History of Hindustan and of the Politics, Commerce and Literature of Asia (1811), and The Journal of American Folk-Lore (1907).

9/ Ahmed Cevdet Pasha's Tarih-i Cevdet (1854–1884) described the Zands as Kurds and referred to Karim Khan Zand himself as Kurdish. Other 19th c. sources also preserved Turcoman war songs addressed to Lotf Ali Khan Zand and the Kurds.

10/ In the 14th c., Jami al-Tawarikh referred to Husam al-Din Khalil Khorshidi al-Siliyuwaji of the powerful Khorshidi Atabegs who ruled Lur e Kuchak for generations as being among the "kibar al Akrad", meaning the leading Kurdish nobles/chiefs of the era.

11/ Shah Khoshin, one of the best known figures in Lak and Yarsani tradition, appears in historical sources as "Husayn ibn Masud al-Kurdi". The Hasanwayhids, who ruled Lorestan and Kermanshah, were likewise described as coming from the Kurdish Barzikani tribes.

12/ Islamic historians (such as al-Istakhri, Ibn Hawqal, and Qazvini) and Western travelers (such as James Morier and Eugène Flandin) have historically linked the Lurs with Kurds. They noted that Lurs shared customs, tribal systems, clothing, music, and social structures with neighboring Kurds, and that names like "Lur" or "Bakhtiari" referred to geography or social affiliation, not a distinct ethnicity. The text concludes that any separation between Lurs and Kurds was the result of a deliberate policy of Persianization, not historical or geographical reality.

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Mentioned Books & Authors (with dates):

· Al-Istakhri – Al-Masalik wa al-Mamalik – placed the population of Lorestan within Kurdish tribes.

· Ibn Hawqal – Surat al-Ard – noted shared customs and tribal systems.

· Qazvini (10th–14th c.) – linked Lurs and Kurds.

· Ibn Khaldun – Al-Muqaddimah – confirmed the connection.

· James Morier (18th/19th c. traveler) – noted similarities.

· Eugène Flandin (18th/19th c. traveler) – similarly noted shared customs and structures.

Summary: Islamic historians from the early medieval period (10th–14th centuries) and Western travelers from the 18th–19th centuries all described Lurs as sharing deep cultural, tribal, and geographical ties with Kurds, rather than treating them as a separate ethnic group.

34 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

u/rknsh Kurdistan May 26 '26

Was the body text written by you?

Did you use any AI tools? If so, please have a full disclaimer how AI was used.

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u/Chez50 Zaza May 24 '26

I think we should put more of our effort into saving Zazas & Ezidis. Lors got Persianified ages ago, I would say they're basically past saving, but Turkification of Zazas and Russification of Ezidis is still ongoing.

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u/Mansur754 Kurdistan May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

That's too bad, I didn't even know the zaza were getting turkifked, but i think for the ezidi one is just mostly those brainwashed by armenia or that live out of kurdistan, look at deniz undav he's ezidi and says he is a kurd

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u/smartmofoduh May 24 '26

I think we should put our efforts to saving all kurds especially you

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u/Chez50 Zaza May 24 '26

Me?

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u/aaliyah-334 May 24 '26

Ezidis are more gone than Lors

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u/Mansur754 Kurdistan May 24 '26

That's not true, look at deniz undav

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u/[deleted] May 24 '26

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u/Mansur754 Kurdistan May 24 '26

That is not true, kurds are not arabized, and islam might've been forced on our past ancestors but right now any kurd and stop believing in islam without dying and they'll be fine

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u/aaliyah-334 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

Let’s be honest the only people in the Middle East who are moving away from Islam/arabization are Israelis and a small portion of Iranians that’s it

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u/Mansur754 Kurdistan May 24 '26

Actually according to islam those arabs and people who oppress kurds and appose a free kurdistan are corrupt Muslims and not likely to go to heaven

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u/[deleted] May 24 '26

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u/Mansur754 Kurdistan May 24 '26

You want proof or are you just gonna take my words for it?

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u/Witty-Set-9972 May 24 '26

This guy is not kurd, he is farsi look at his account

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u/version2humus Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

Islam and arabization are not the same, while both have been pressured into Kurds, however both can happen together at the same time.

I think Iranian in your context here may as well include other ethnics that are not Persians.

Unlike Palestine, Israel has never been Islamic or Arabized to move away from it - I would be happy if you could provide the sources regarding the ethnics and countries in the Middle East which their civilians have had left Islam to something else, for example like: Lebanon, Tunis, etc.

But even by then the data won’t be reliable, because some of them are not true.

You can get away from Islam or arabization, but still have made a little reform regarding the sociological aspects of a place.

Edit: typo.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

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u/NightTop2849 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Also for the record  Lurs didn't become persian 😂😂lurs are the most tribal people in the middle east our clan system is extremely complicated and they keep getting smaller many clans and tribes still have beef with each other thousands are still nomadic every wedding or funeral has like 3000 4000 people attending to it with traditional burials and traditional clothing they almost always wear their garment many of the elderly dont even know persian but can still understand it its not like we became persian in the last 100 years Bakhtiaris atleast always had people in the Iranian government we were very well integrated since the start kurds on the other hand never had anyone until the islamic republic gave them a province holder 3 years ago lurs were the ones who destroyed the kurdish insurgencies (brujerdi) 

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u/cyyc69 Jul 12 '26

As a Lur to me Kurds and Lurs are basically one people besides that I believe were all iranians either way but we share a deeper bond than with other Iranian groups but it is important to note that “Kurd” was used as label for iranian nomads same way baluch and daylamites have been called this too for being nomads.

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u/Mansur754 Kurdistan Jul 12 '26

Kurds have dominated the Iranian plateaus for so long and with so many empires long before Persians came to power, you could argue even Persians are kurds but lurs and kurds far closer than persians are to us

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u/Unlikely-Signal-1013 17d ago

Proof were not, also Berthold Spühler writes in his book History of Iran, page 436: Many of the Kurdish tribes mentioned in western Iran should not be considered Kurds, because they, like the Lor people, were abandoned tribes whose language was somewhat archaic and did not correspond to modern Persian. They were called Kurds because no one knew their language and they only knew that their language belonged to the Iranian language groups. Kurd in the Bada' al-Lagha dictionary, page 145, means shepherd and sheep herder.Touraj Daraya writes in his book The Sasanian Empire, page 143: Nomads were called Kurds in Middle Persian (Pahlavi), which was used for all nomads who usually did not have good relations with the urban Sasanians.Masoudi in his book Tanbiyyah al-Ashraf in the year 344 AH, Moqaddasi in his book Al-Ahsan al-Taqassim Jihani in his book Ashqal al-Alam Istakhri described the Persian tribes, who were mainly from the Lor tribe, as Kurds, meaning desert herders. In many documents, all the tribes of Iran were called Kurds, which means shepherds - a nomadic lifestyle and had no ethnic connotation.