Today
the name Bakhtiyari suggest to Westerners colorful carpets;
the beautiful Soraya (Surayya), Muhammed Reza Shah's second
wife; the shah's last prime minister, Dr Shahpour(Shapur)
Bakhtiari; or perhaps even an All American football player
with the unlikely name of "Jimmy" (actually Jamshid) Bakhtiar.
But to Iranians of an earlier era the name Bakhtiyari meant
insecurity and fear, when powerful and arrogant khans, leading
armed and mounted retainers, attacked or intimidated both
settled populations and rival nomads. Conflicting images exist
for Iranians, too. The praise Bakhtiyari participation in
the deposition of Muhammed 'Ali Shah in 909 and the restoration
of the constitution; but they also view the subsequent Bakhtiyari
role as both anticonstitutionalist and antinationalist.
The Bakhtiyari
have constituted a continuing, relatively changeless socio-political
unit isolated for centuries; its leaders' roles date from
antiquity; the link between the khan and his tribesmen, between
power and the pastoral economy with its ties to the wider
society, is self-evident, enviromentally determined, and isolted.(Khans
and Shahs, A documentary analysis of the Bakhtiyari in Iran
by Gene R. Garthwaite)
