Song of the Acorn: a Bakhtiari poem

The holly-oak tree, with its large, oval acorns, used to cover the inner ranges of the Bakhtiari country. Now, environmental changes mean that it’s being lost. Lorimer describes how, in the old days of its abundance and “in time of scarcity [acorns] are ground into flour after prolonged treatment to get rid of their more …

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The Parted Lovers: a Bakhtiari poem

Two lovers dream of each other, and the land that both separates and unites them in this sensual poem.  When the warm weather comes, and the woman has gone off with the tribe to the ‘Cold Country’ (called sardsir, sarhador yelaq,). For the first time, the man has been left behind in the ‘Warm Country’ (garmsir), to …

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Factional fighting: a Bakhtiari poem

This ballard describes brave men and a gorgeous woman who were also included in  Henry Layard’s account of his 1841 sojourn and fighting alongside the Bakhtiari – shortly before he discovered Nineveh/Nimrud (see www.soas.ac.uk/gallery/bakhtiari-kuch/eet/layard/ for more information and images). The poem is about the battle between the Duraki and Behdarwand tribes. Ja’far Quli Khan was chief of …

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Slim Wali: a Bakhtiari poem

This poem hails ‘Slim’ Wali, who was so successful in his burglary that silk was ‘like cotton yarn’ to him. He was from the Mauri tribe of the Haftlang and lived at Chilau, Bazuft. They call me ‘Slim Wali’: this year I am in gaol. Between Kichuz and Pas Galla, I have broken into seven houses. A …

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Bakhtiari poetry and DLR Lorimer

Above: DLR Lorimer was originally in the colonial service in India, before he was posted to Persia. Here he is, in 1909, shortly after his renegotiation of the key 1905 oil agreement. (This image is reproduced with the kind permission of Christina Lorimer, DLR Lorimer’s grand niece). Bakhtiari poetry has been described as “revealing the …

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