"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد III." [و‎‎٣‎٧‎٣] (٩٨٢/٧٥٠)

Kashgar. In manners, customs and features, they resemble the Bakhti-
ari and Kuhgalu Lurs. Of migratory habits, they are scattered pretty
well over the whole of Ears, winter in the garmslr or warm region of the
coast fringe known as Dashtistan, and in Luristan on a line stretching from
Behbehan on the north-west, to Bandar Abbas on the south-east. AH the
pastures on this line do not, of course, belong to them and are shared with
others, but no confusion results, as the boundaries of each section or tribe are
well defined and known by long accepted custom and recognized landmarks.
Their summer resorts are the highlands between Isfahan and Shiraz. The
move up from the winter lowlands occurs ten days after Nauruz (21st
March), and down from the highlands at the end of October.
From their proximity to Shiraz and Isfahan, the Qashqai are more
Numbers and administra- under Persian domination than other nomad
)in - tribe and are more heavily taxed.
Before the years of famine and scarcity, 1869-71, the Qashqai were said to
number 50,000 tents, but at this time they suffered heavily, and the dis
persion in search of food for families and flocks, in many cases a permanent
migration, greatly reduced their numbers. General Gordon in 1892 esti
mated them at 10,000 tents only. Their reduction in number tells in favour
of the remaining families, as not only do they own extensive lands, arable
and pasture, but they also have many rent-paying tenants.
Their yearly tribute was assessed in 1892 at 30,000 tumdns. The Qash
qai are under the control of an Ilkhani or chief, with an Ilbegi, or second-
in-command.
Muhammad QulI_Khan who died in 1885, is referred to by the Qash
qai as the “Great Ilkhani, ” and under him the Qashqai were a powerful
and united tribe. _On his death, much of his power, according to Colonel
Bell, passed to the Ilbegi Darab Khan, who is mentioned as the virtual head
of the tribe. At the time of General Gordon’s visit, however, the balance
of power had apparently again inclined to the Ilkhani, Haji Nasrullah
Khan, who succeeded his cousin, the son of the Great Ilkhani, in 1891.
Haji Nasrullah Khan, described at that time as a pleasant mannered and
capable man of about 50, owed his firm hold over the Qashqai to a great
extent to the fact that he had married the sister of bis predecessor, thus
uniting the considerable possessions of the two branches of the family in
his own person.
The present Ilkhan.I is Sculat-ud-Daulsh, who, says Chick, has about
2,000,000 men under his command, and is treated like a king in his tribe.
Chick says that he is really a greater chieftain thsn the Bakhtiari Khans!
In 1910 the Persian Government sent Soulat-ud-Daulah a 7-centimetre gun
from Shiraz, but its weight would prevent its being used for anything
except an attack on Shiraz.
Although their chief wealth lies in the possession of flocks, the Qashqai are
Resources. of agricultural as well as of pastoral habits.
, , , . „ , The y 80w wheat and barley on the summer
lands, nee in the low country. They allow the summer lands to lie fallow
for one year. In the spring they plough and break up the fallow land, which
they again run over with the plough in autumn, and then put in the seed
just before the first fall of snow and their migration south.