µþ´¡±áÄ€¸é³¢Åª, a Turkic tribe of Azerbaijan, Khorasan, KermÄn, and FÄrs. According to J. Malcolm, it was originally a branch of the ŠÄmlÅ«s (q.v.), “who were brought into Persia from Syria by Timur” (The History of Persia, London, 1829, I, p. 237). Also of this opinion was A. Houtum-Schindler, who added that “in FÄrs, they are generally known as Arabs, probably on account of their having come from Syria” (Eastern Persian Irak, London, 1896, p. 48). But neither of these authorities provided any documentary evidence to back up the claim, and it could be argued that if the BahÄrlÅ«s of FÄrs are often called Arabs it is because of their association with the Arab tribe in the á¸Âë³¾²õ²¹ tribal confederacy. On the other hand, a close connection does exist between the BahÄrlÅ« tribe and the QarÄgozlÅ« (q.v.) tribe, which is known to have been a branch of the ŠÄmlÅ« tribe (see F. Sümer, “ḲarÄ Gözlü,” in EI2 IV, pp. 577-78). There is a village by the name of QarÄgozlÅ« 25 km northwest of MÄ«ÄndoÄb (RazmÄrÄ, Farhang IV, p. 365), which is very near the area inhabited by BahÄrlÅ«s, northwest of MarÄḡa; there are villages by the name of BahÄrlÅ« and QarÄgozlÅ« west of HamadÄn (ibid., V, pp. 60 and 321); and there is a clan of the BahÄrlÅ«s of FÄrs by the name of QarÄgozlÅ« (personal interviews with EbrÄhÄ«m Khan BahÄrlÅ« and AmÄ«r Ä€qÄ Khan BahÄrlÅ«, Shiraz, 1957).
V. Minorsky believed that BahÄrlÅ« was another name for the BarÄnÄ« (or BÄrÄnlÅ«) tribe, which was the tribe of the Qara QoyunlÅ« ruling dynasty, and that the tribe was an offshoot of the ĪvÄ (q.v.) tribe, which was one of the basic Oghuz divisions (“The Clan of the Qara-Qoyunlu Rulers,” in Mélanges Fuad Köprülü, Istanbul, 1955, p. 391; idem, “BahÄrlÅ«,” in EI2 I, p. 919). However, F. Sümer has shown that there is no concrete evidence to substantiate the claim that the names BahÄrlÅ« and BarÄnÄ« refer to the same tribe (Kara Koyunlular I, Ankara, 1967, pp. 23-24). At the time of the Qara QoyunlÅ«s, the BahÄrlÅ«s lived in the vicinity of HamadÄn, a fact which prompted Minorsky to suggest that the name was derived from that of the fortress of BahÄr, 14 km northwest of that city (“The Clan,” p. 392; “BahÄrlÅ«,” p. 919). But the fact that in the eighteenth century there was a tribe by the name of BahÄrlÅ« in central Anatolia (C. Niebuhr, Reisenbeschreibung nach Arabien und andern umliegenden Ländern, Copenhagen, 1774, II, p. 415) suggests that part of the tribe stayed behind when the ancestors of the BahÄrlÅ«s of Iran moved to the HamadÄn region and that the name existed already before that event took place.
From all the information available, it appears that the BahÄrlÅ« tribe joined the Qara QoyunlÅ« tribal confederacy only after the latter had already been formed, most probably following the conquest of HamadÄn by QarÄ YÅ«sof in 1408. In any case, it was not until the reign of JahÄnšÄh (r. 841-72/1438-67) that the BahÄrlÅ« leaders reached any degree of prominence. During that period, the chief of the tribe was Ê¿AlÄ« Šakar Beg, of the BalÄl, or BÅ«lÄllÅ«, clan. According to Ê¿Abd-al-BÄqÄ« NehÄvandÄ«, he was one of the ablest of the Qara QoyunlÅ« commanders and was responsible for the conquest of most of western and southwestern Iran in 861/1457 (MaʾÄṯer-e raḥīmÄ«, Calcutta, 1924, I, pp. 46-49). Ê¿AlÄ« Šakar Beg established marital ties with the Qara QoyunlÅ« ruling family, but their exact nature is still debated. According to BÄbor, JahÄnšÄh married Ê¿AlÄ« Šakar Beg’s daughter, PÄšÄ Begom (A. S. Beveridge, The µþÄå²ú³Ü°ù-²ÔÄå³¾²¹ in English, London, 1969, p. 49). But according to Fażl-AllÄh b. RÅ«zbehÄn, it was JahÄnšÄh’s son, Moḥammad MÄ«rzÄ, who married her (V. Minorsky, Persia in A.D. 1478-1490, London, 1957, p. 42).
Ê¿AlÄ« Šakar Beg’s son, PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg (who is also sometimes called ŠÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg), succeeded him as chief of the BahÄrlÅ« tribe. He was one of JahÄnšÄh’s officers, and when that ruler was defeated by Uzun Ḥasan Ä€q QoyunlÅ« (q.v.) in 872/1467, he took refuge with the Timurids in Khorasan, along with EbrÄhÄ«m Beg, JahÄnšÄh’s grandson, and four or five thousand families of BahÄrlÅ«s. There, the exiled leaders entered the service of AbÅ« SaÊ¿Ä«d (q.v.), the last Timurid ruler who tried to restore TÄ«mÅ«r’s empire from KĚḡar to Transcaucasia (µþÄå²ú³Ü°ù-²ÔÄå³¾²¹, p. 49). When AbÅ« SaÊ¿Ä«d was, in turn, defeated by Uzun Ḥasan in 1469, PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg and EbrÄhÄ«m Beg joined Sultan Ḥosayn BÄyqarÄ, the Timurid ruler of Khorasan (875-912/1470-1506). Uzun Ḥasan repeatedly wrote to Ḥosayn BÄyqarÄ, demanding the extradition of the exiled leaders (one of these messages has been preserved in Istanbul (Nuruosmaniye Kütüphanesi 4031, no. 51, müṇşeât mecmuası 3b-7b). When he received no answer, he dispatched no less than three armies to Khorasan (MÄ«rḵᵛÄnd, Rawżat al-á¹£afÄʾ, Lucknow, 1874, VII, pp. 16-17; John E. Woods, The Ayqoyunlu: Clan, Confederation, Empire, Minneapolis, 1976, p. 125). Later, PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg broke with Ḥosayn BÄyqarÄ and entered the service of Sultan MaḥmÅ«d, AbÅ« SaÊ¿Ä«d’s third son, who had established himself in Ḥeá¹£Är-e ŠÄdmÄn (in today’s Tajikistan). There, PÄšÄ Begom, who had become widowed and had followed her brother, PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg, into exile, was married to Sultan MaḥmÅ«d (µþÄå²ú³Ü°ù-²ÔÄå³¾²¹, p. 49; Minorsky, Persia, p. 42).
When Uzun Ḥasan died in 882/1472, PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg attempted to recapture his former power base in Iran. Together with his brother BayrÄm Beg and a brother of Sultan MaḥmÅ«d by the name of AbÅ« Bakr, he led a combined force of BahÄrlÅ«s and ÄŒaḡatays into KermÄn province by way of SÄ«stÄn and Bam. This tribal army seized both KermÄn and SÄ«rjÄn, which were poorly defended, and then headed for FÄrs. But it was routed by an expeditionary force dispatched by the new Ä€q QoyunlÅ« ruler, Sultan YaÊ¿qÅ«b (r. 883-96/1478-90; q.v.). PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg, BayrÄm Beg, and AbÅ« Bakr, abandoning their families in SÄ«rjÄn, fled to GorgÄn. There, a force sent by Ḥosayn BÄyqarÄ attacked them. AbÅ« Bakr was killed and the BahÄrlÅ« leaders were captured. PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg was then blinded and BayrÄm Beg was executed (Minorsky, Persia, pp. 42-43).
PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg’s successor as chief of the BahÄrlÅ«s of Khorasan was his son JÄn-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg (who was erroneously called YÄr-Ê¿AlÄ« by BÄbor). He settled down in BadaḵšÄn and, by the late 900s/1490s, had entered the service of BÄbor (µþÄå²ú³Ü°ù-²ÔÄå³¾²¹, p. 91). While fighting for BÄbor in the AndÄ«jÄn area in 1499, he received such a blow on the head that it had to be trepanned (ibid., p. 109). However, in spite of these injuries, he continued to serve BÄbor, following him to Kabul and then to India (ibid., p. 546).
JÄn-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg’s son, Sayf-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg, also served BÄbor. When BÄbor died, he entered the service of HomÄyÅ«n (937-63/1530-56) and, at the time of his own death, was governor of ḠaznÄ«. Sayf-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg’s son, BayrÄm Khan (d. 968/1561), became a famous statesman of Mughal India. He was Akbar’s ḵÄn²úÄå²úÄå (guardian) and first ḵÄn-e ḵÄnÄn (chief minister). He was also a distinguished scholar, poet, and patron of the arts (A. S. Bazmee Ansari, “BayrÄm Khan,” in EI2 I, pp. 1135-37).
Solá¹ÄnqolÄ« Qoá¹b-al-Molk, the Turkic adventurer who founded the Qoá¹bšÄhÄ« dynasty at Golconda, in the Deccan, in 901/1496 was also a BahÄrlÅ« (Moḥammad QÄsem HendÅ«šÄh AstarÄbÄdÄ«, °ÕÄå°ùīḵ-±ð¹ó±ð°ù±ð&²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô;³Ù²¹, Cawnpore, 1884, p. 167). During its rule of nearly two centuries (901-1098/1496-1687), this dynasty produced a distinctive Indo-Muslim culture (R. M. Eaton, “Ḳuá¹b ShÄhÄ«,” in EI2 V, pp. 549-50).
During the period following the collapse of the Qara QoyunlÅ« empire, the BahÄrlÅ«s who had remained in Western Iran gradually settled down in Azerbaijan, together with several other Qara QoyunlÅ« tribes. These seem to have collaborated with the Ä€q QoyunlÅ«s, for we hear of a certain Ḥasan Beg ŠakaroḡlÅ« who was an ally of the Ä€q QoyunlÅ« ruler Alvand b. YÅ«sof when the latter was attacked by Shah EsmÄÊ¿Ä«l ŠafawÄ« at NaḵjavÄn in 907/1501-02 (Ḥasan RÅ«mlÅ«, II, pp. 25-26; ḤabÄ«b al-sÄ«ar IV, p. 463).
The BahÄrlÅ«s did not play an important role during the Safavid period. Although Malcolm claims that the BahÄrlÅ« tribe was one of the seven tribes which constituted the mainstay of the early Safavid rulers (History of Persia I, p. 326), this is not confirmed by any reliable source. Ḥasan RÅ«mlÅ« (pp. 78, 202) mentions only two BahÄrlÅ«s of note during that period, namely Moḥammad BahÄrlÅ«, who was commander of the fortress at Balḵ in 922/ 1516, and WalÄ« Beg BahÄrlÅ« who, along with many other QezelbÄš leaders, supported EsmÄÊ¿Ä«l MÄ«rzÄ in his quest for the throne following the death of Shah ṬahmÄsp in 984/1576. Moreover, MonajjembĚī’s list of the eight principal QezelbÄš tribes does not include the BahÄrlÅ«s (°Õ²¹á¸k±ð°ù²¹³Ù²¹±ô-³¾´Ç±ôÅ«°ì, p. 194).
Today, there are traces or fragments of the BahÄrlÅ« tribe in Turkey, the USSR, and Iran. There is a village by the name of BahÄrlÅ« in the province (vilayet) of DÄ«Ärbakr in eastern Anatolia (Gazetteer No. 46: Turkey, Washington, D.C., 1960, p. 69). There are BahÄrlÅ«s in the districts of Shusha and Zengezur in Russian Azerbaijan (M. H. Valili Baharlu, Azerbaycan, coÄŸrafi, tabii, etnografi ve iktisadi mülâhazât, Baku, 1921, p. 61). There are also three villages by the name of BahÄrlÅ« in Russian Azerbaijan (Gazetteer No. 42: U.S.S.R., 2nd ed., Washington, D.C., 1970, I, p. 283). Another group of BahÄrlÅ«s is to he found in Iranian Azerbaijan. While visiting the province in 1906, the French scholar, Eugène Aubin, found the plain of the DÄ«zajrÅ«d, northeast of MarÄḡa, inhabited by BahÄrlÅ«s (La Perse d’aujourd’hui, Paris, 1908, p. 101). It must be the group which M. L. Sheil had earlier estimated at 2,000 families (Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, London, 1856, p. 396). Today, these BahÄrlÅ«s have lost their tribal identity and are included in no current list of the tribes of Azerbaijan. But the area in which they dwell nevertheless contains villages with highly suggestive names, e.g., BÅ«lÄllÅ«, the name of the principal BahÄrlÅ« clan during the 9th/15th and 10th/16th centuries, and ĀḡaÄ ErÄ«, the name of another Qara QoyunlÅ« tribe. Nearby are villages by the names of Ä€lpÄvot and BÄrÄnlÅ«, two more Qara QoyunlÅ« tribes (RazmÄrÄ, Farhang IV, pp. 37, 41, 72, 99). Further south, there is the aforementioned village by the name of BahÄrlÅ« in the Sanandaj region (RazmÄrÄ, Farhang V, p. 60).
To the east, some BahÄrlÅ«s live in the village of BahÄrmarz, 12 km south of DarmÄ«Än, near the Afghan border, in southern Khorasan. There is also a village by the name of BalÄl, 3 km northwest of BošrÅ«ya, in the same province (RazmÄrÄ, Farhang IX, pp. 60, 65). Then, according to Ḥasan FasÄʾī (II, p. 310), there is a tribe by the name of BahÄrlÅ« in ḴᵛÄrazm (Ḵīva).
In KermÄn province, there is a small tribe by the name of Bar-e BahÄrlÅ«. It dwells between RÄbor and BezenjÄn and, in late Qajar times, consisted of about forty families (H. Field, Contributions to the Anthropology of Iran, Chicago, 1939, p. 235).
Finally, there is a BahÄrlÅ« tribe in FÄrs. According to tribal tradition, these BahÄrlÅ«s came from northwestern Iran (personal interviews with EbrÄhÄ«m Khan BahÄrlÅ« and AmÄ«r Ä€qÄ Khan BahÄrlÅ«, Shiraz, 1957). But the fact that one of their ³ÙÄ«°ù²¹s (clans) is called MašhadlÅ« suggests that they were among those BahÄrlÅ«s who fled to Khorasan following the collapse of the Qara QoyunlÅ« state. Field claims that they settled in FÄrs in the 12th/18th and 13th/19th centuries (ibid., p. 216). But this could not be the case if they came from Khorasan. One is tempted to believe that both the Bar-e BahÄrlÅ«s of KermÄn and the BahÄrlÅ«s of FÄrs are descendants of the BahÄrlÅ«s who were abandoned in SÄ«rjÄn when PÄ«r-Ê¿AlÄ« Beg and his brother BayrÄm Beg were defeated by Sultan YaÊ¿qÅ«b Ä€q QoyunlÅ« in 1478, for the Bar-e BahÄrlÅ«s have settled down in SÄ«rjÄn and the BahÄrlÅ«s of FÄrs have established themselves in an area immediately to the southwest of that region.
Until the 1280s/1860s, the BahÄrlÅ«s of FÄrs were fully nomadic. Their summer quarters were in the districts of RÄmjerd, Marvdašt, and KamÄ«n, north of Shiraz, and their winter quarters were around DÄrÄb and ĪzadḵᵛÄst, in southeastern FÄrs (FasÄʾī, II, p. 310). M. L. Sheil estimated their number at 1,230 families in 1849 (Glimpses, p. 399); K. E. Abbott at 2,000 families in 1850 (“Notes Taken on a Journey Eastwards from Shiráz . . . in 1850,” JRGS 27, 1857, p. 153). Their last important leader was MollÄ Aḥmad Khan BozorgÄ« of the AḥmadlÅ« clan, who ruled between 1268/1851-52 and 1275/1858-59 (FasÄʾī, II, pp. 310-11). Upon his death, a fierce struggle for power ensued. Massacre followed massacre. So great were the losses in human life that the tribe was never again able to recover its former strength and the tribesmen decided that they were no longer numerous enough to participate in the lengthy seasonal migrations to which they were accustomed. The remaining BahÄrlÅ«s settled down in their winter quarters and eked out a living from a mixture of agriculture and pastoralism, as well as from the proceeds of banditry. L. Pelly, who visited them in the early 1860s, wrote that they “are very mischievous and a set of robbers, who by killing each other have put an end to themselves and their ketkhodas, and all that remains of them are some horsemen, who wander about plundering everyone that comes in their way” (“Brief Account of the Province of FÄrs,” Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society 17, 1963, p. 183). Similar observations were made by H. B. Vaughan (“A Journey Through Persia, 1887-88,” Royal Geographical Society; Supplementary Papers III/2, 1892, p. 97), A. T. Wilson (South West Persia . . . 1907-1914, London, 1941, p. 47), G. Demorgny (“Les réformes administratives en Perse,” pt. 1, RMM 12, March, 1913, p. 103), P. M. Sykes (A History of Persia, 3rd ed., London, 1951, II, p. 479), and others. Their exploits as bandits are also described in WaqÄyeÊ¿-e ettefÄqÄ«ya.
In 1278/1861-62, the tribe was absorbed into the á¸Âë³¾²õ²¹ tribal confederacy, which was formed by the governor-general of FÄrs, Solá¹Än MorÄd MÄ«rzÄ, in an endeavor to check the growing influence of the QašqÄʾī tribal confederacy (P. Oberling, The QashqÄʾi Nomads of FÄrs, The Hague, 1974, p. 65).
In 1311 Š./1933 the BahÄrlÅ« tribe of FÄrs comprised 8,000 families forming twenty ³ÙÄ«°ù²¹s: EbrÄhÄ«mḵÄnÄ«, AḥmadlÅ«, EsmÄÊ¿Ä«lḵÄnÄ«, BÅ«rbÅ«r, Bakla, JÄmbozorgÄ«, Jarga, JÅ«qa, ḤÄjÄ«tarlÅ«, ḤÄjÄ«Ê¿aá¹á¹ÄrlÅ«, ḤaydarlÅ«, RasÅ«lḵÄnÄ«, Saqqez, á¹¢afīḵÄnÄ«, ʿĪsÄbÄ«glÅ«, KarÄ«mlÅ«, KolÄhpÅ«stÄ«, MašhadlÅ«, NÄá¹£erbÄ«glÅ«, Waraṯa (KayhÄn, ´³´ÇḡrÄå´ÚÄ«Äå II. p. 86).
Since World War II, the BahÄrlÅ«s have become completely sedentary, living the year round in the »å±ð³ó±ð²õ³ÙÄå²Ôs (subdistricts) of FasÄrÅ«d, ḴosÅ«ya and QarÄ«at-al-Ḵayr in the ²ú²¹á¸µ&²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô; (district) of DÄrÄb (RazmÄrÄ, Farhang VII, pp. 88, 165, 171). O. Garrod, a British physician who visited FÄrs toward the end of the war, noted that the BahÄrlÅ«s were “fast losing their tribal organization and characteristics” (“The Nomadic Tribes of Persia To-Day,” Journal of the Central Asian Society 33, 1946, p. 44) and concluded: “The Baharlus, once the foremost horsemen and more feared warriors and bandits of Eastern FÄrs, have sadly degenerated from the effects of Malaria and the diseases bred in the cumulative filth of their settlements” (ibid.).
By 1336 Š./1957, the tribe’s population had dwindled to a mere 4,000 individuals (personal interview with AmÄ«r Ä€qÄ Khan BahÄrlÅ«).
Bibliography:
See also Ḥasan FasÄʾī, History of Persia Under QÄjÄr Rule, tr. H. Busse, New York, 1972, pp. 208ff., 219, 221, 307, 336, 340ff., 360ff., 363ff., 387, 388 n., 390, 391 n., 418.
M. S. Ivanov Plemena Farsa, Moscow, 1961, pp. 50-52.
Ê¿A.-A. SaÊ¿Ä«dÄ« SÄ«rjÄnÄ«, ed., WaqÄyeÊ¿-e ettefÄqÄ«ya: MajmÅ«Ê¿a-ye gozÄrešhÄ-ye ḵofyanevÄ«sÄn-e EngelÄ«s dar welÄyÄt-e jonÅ«bÄ«-e ĪrÄn az sÄl-e 1291 tÄ 1322 qamarÄ«, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1362 Š./1983, index, s.v.
BahÄrlÅ«. AbÅ« Bakr ṬehrÄnÄ«, KetÄb dÄ«ÄrbakrÄ«ya, ed. N. Lugal and F. Sümer, 2nd ed., Tehran, 2536 = 1356 Š./1977.
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| &²Ô²ú²õ±è;بÀµØ§Ø±Ù„Ùˆ | baharlou | baharlu | baharlou |
(P. Oberling)
Originally Published: December 15, 1988
Last Updated: August 23, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 5, pp. 482-484
Thanks for this interesting piece of work. I come from a town called Bahar, 14 km west of Hamadan city in West of Iran a town of now approx. 20000-25000 people. A Turkish speaking agrarian community. Also, you may mention the name of Hamadan province to the title of this document.
There are some research works recently completed in Iran on originating the people of this town (Bahar) by a linguistic scientist, Dr. Mohammad Jafar Bani-Ardalan, a professor of English language of literature at the Bu-Ali-Sina University. He completed a MA with late Prof. Tahereh Saffar-Zadeh of Kerman University to compare the Turkish language of the people of Bahar and the current Azeri Turkish in Iran's Azerbaijan. I believed this will be an interesting part to be added here.
Many thanks,
Ali Shafiei