Lorestan or Luristan comprises a province and an historic territory of western Iran south of the Zagros Mountains. The center of the Lorestan Province is the city of Khorramabad. The famous Falak-ol-Aflak Castle is situated inside this city.

In the wider sense (as its name implies), "Luristan" refers to the land of the Lurs, namely that part of western Persia bounded by Iraq on the west and extending for about 400 miles on a northwest to southeast axis from Kermanshah to Fars, with a breadth of 100 to 140 miles. The terrain consists chiefly of mountains, with numerous ranges running northwest to southeast. The central range has many summits which almost reach the line of perpetual snow, rising to 13,000 feet and more, and it feds the headwaters of Iran's most important rivers, as the Zayendeh-rud, Jarahi, Karun, Dix, Abi, Kerkheh. Between the higher ranges lie many fertile plains and low hilly, well-watered districts.

The Lurs

Lur man in traditional clothing, 1921

Ethnologists classify the Lurs as aboriginal Persians. Their language forms a dialect of Persian and does not differ materially from Persian. Traditionally the Lur people outwardly profess Shia Islam, but some of them show little veneration for either Prophet or Koran, and the religion of some of them seems to consist of a mixture of Ali-Illahism involving a belief in successive incarnations combined with mysterious, ancient, heathen rites. The Lurs are some of the most devout Shias in the world. While they are ethnically close to the Kurds and Persians they consider themselves to be a group on to themselves, and especially resent being labeled as Kurdish. In fact, during the Iran-Iraq war, the Lurs proved themselves to be amongst the fiercest fighters protecting Iran against the Iraqi/Arab invasion.

The north

In the northern part of Luristan, formerly known as Lurikuchik (Little Luristan), live the Feili Lurs, divided into the Pishkuh (cis-montane) Lurs in the east and Pushtkuh (ultra-montane) Lurs in the west adjoining Iraqi territory. Little Luristan maintained its independence under a succession of princes of the Khurshidi dynasty, and called atabegs, from 55 to the beginning of the 17th century when Shah Abbas I removed the last atabeg, Shah Verdi Khan, and entrusted the government of the province to Husain Khan, the chief of a rival tribe, with the title of vali in exchange for that of atabeg. The descendants of Husain Khan retained the title as governors of the Pushtkuh Lurs, to whom only the denomination of Feili now applies.

The south

The southern part of Luristan, formerly known as Lur i Buzurg (Great Luristan) comprises the Bakhtiari division of the province of Khuzestan and the districts of the Mamasennis and Kuhgilus which belong to Fars. Great Luristan formed an independent state under the Fazlevieh atabegs from 1160 until 1424. Its capital, Idaj, survives as mounds and ruins at Malamir, 60 miles southeast of Shushter.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

See also

• Demographics of Iran