LUR

member of a mountain Muslim people of western Iran, speaking a distinct language closely related to Persian. The Lurs are thought to be of aboriginal stock, with strong Iranian, Arabic, and other admixtures. The Lurs and their neighbours, the Bakhtyari, are partly agricultural and partly pastoral tribes. Lush grazing pastures between the mountain ranges enabled the Lurs to maintain themselves as pastoral nomads until the 20th century, when they developed agriculture largely in response to economic and political pressures from outside. Lurs on the western frontier, south of Kermanshah, Iran, were once almost independent under their own valis (viceroys) until Reza Shah Pahlavi brought them under control of the central government and deported some sections to Khorasan. The economic and political life of the Lurs resembles that of their northern Kurdish neighbours. The traditional authority of the tribal chiefs remains a more viable force among nomadic groups than among those who are more fully settled. As with the Kurds and Bakhtyari, women among the Lurs have traditionally had greater freedom than other Arab or Iranian women.