Lak,a very large nomade tribe spread over Persia, though chiefly in Fars, Mazandaran, and Kasvin. They claim descent from the Kaiauian kings. The Zand, the tribe of Karim Khan, were Lak. They have 20,000 families, all of them predatory. The principal are the Beiranawand, Khojawand, Nadawand, Nakawand, Jalalawand, Abdul Maliki, and Sujah Vaksan. They are of the Ali Ilahi sect.
The Abdul Maliki reside partly near Shiraz and partly in Mazandaran, but chiefly around Sarmi Kala. They are said to be about 3000 or 4000 families. They have villages and cultivate, but are constantly on the move. They are professed thieves, living on plunder of passengers and small caravans, but seldom murder. They are liable to furnish 500 mounted fighting men for the Shah. Iliyat is the general designation of the nomade tribes of Persia. They comprise a very large portion of the population of the country. Many of the best families are of Iliyat origin. The term is derived from the Turkish word II, signify ing a tribe, and the Arabic termination ' at.' All of them, Zand or Pehlavi, Arab or Turk, lead the same manner of life, their pastoral habits little distinguishing them from the Bedouin Arab or the nomade Tartar on the banks of the Tedzen. Each Iliyat tribe has its own history, and the prin cipal nomade tribes are the Afshar, Aimak, Arab, Bajiban, Bakhtiari, Baluch, Bayat, Falb, Hazara, Kajar, Khuda Bandlu, Kurd, Kurd Bucheb, Lak, Mamaseni, Shah Seven, Shekagi. Some of them grow small quantities of grain, but their chief avocation is to breed camels, horses, cattle, mules, and asses.
They change their places of encampment with the season and climate, going in the summer to their Ailak, or quarters where pasturage and water are to be found in abundance ; and when the cold of winter sets in, adjourning to their Kishlak or warmer region, in which their flocks and herds as well as themselves are better sheltered. Their summer abodes consist of large black tents, made of woven horse-hair, the sides being matting or dried rushes. They are usually pitched in a quadrangular form on the banks of their hereditary rivers, and under the brow of the mountains which have shadowed their forefathers for unknown generations. Hence, though they wander, it is yet within bounds. They have a country, and only change their place in it. The nomade tribes of Arabia and of Tartary bear the same character, possessing an extended inheritance, though it be only a desert. The Iliyat chiefs, to whom the tribes are entirely devoted, are the hereditary nobility of the kingdom of Persia. Those in the southern provinces, the Bakhtiari, Feili, and Mamaseni, trace their origin to the most remote antiquity, and are probably the descendants of the warlike bands who inhabited the same country in the days of Alexander. The Kashgoi are a nomade Turkish tribe of about 12,000 families, whose chief is the Il-khani of Fars. They and the
Bakhtiari from the warm pastures of Arabistan and the head of the Persian Gulf arrive in spring on the grazing of Isfahan. At the approach of winter, both the tribes return to their respective larrn-sair or wintering lands. The entire southern egion of Fars, bordering on the Persian Gulf, is yelled the Garm-sair or hot region. It extends rein the sea to the latitude of Kazerun, and runs arallel with the Persian Gulf, from the banks f the Tab to the confines of Luristan. From ahr eastward, as far as Kangoon, the tract med the Dashtistan, or land of plains. The igistan, commonly pronounced Tungistun, or marrow land, is a small tract of land cast of Bushehr. The greater portion of the people of he whole of that Garm-sair consists of an in dependent, lawless set, many of the tribes being obbers by profession.
The Garm-sair of Sijistan is a narrow tract along the lower course of the Helmand. The Much races seem to pronounce it Gurtn-sehl or Garin-sail, and one of their wintering places is about 75 miles north-west of Nooshky. Each Iliyat tribe has a separate grazing ground for its flocks ; and this land, from long and undisputed powession, is considered as the property of the different chiefs. In the fine season they are con tinually on the move in search of pasturage ; but in the winter, several of the tribes, amonest which may be numbered the Karagoosli and ° Afshar, settle in villages. In Dashtistan, Asterabad, and the northern parts of Khorasan, instead of tents they live in small portable wooden houses. They principally subsist on the produce of their flocks, and consequently grow but a very small propor tion of corn. They manufacture cloth, as well as several other little articles for their own use ; and the most beautiful Persian and Turkish carpets, so much admired in Europe, are the work of the Iliyat. Inured from their infancy to arms, to danger, and fatigue, and tenacious at the same time of the honour of their tribe, they are at once the prop and the glory of their country. Each tribe is divided into tira or branches, and each tira has a particular leader, all of whom are, however, subservient to the chief. These chiefs are, both from birth and influence, the first men in the empire ; they are always mutually jealous and hostile ; and the king, by nicely balancing the power of the one against that of the other, in sures his own safety and the peace of his dominions. It was also the custom to detain at court, either the chief himself or some part of his family, as hostages for the fidelity of the tribe. Iliyat women are chaste and correct in their lives, and faithful to their husbands, and in their conduct and morals are vastly superior to those of the towns and settlements.