Their
territory lay in the mountainous district immediately west of Ispahan, and
extended to the River of Dizful, which parted it from Little Lur.
The
stronghold of the Atabegs was the extraordinary hill fort of Mungasht, and
they had a residence also at Aidhej or Mal-Amir in the mountains south of
Shushan, where Ibn Batuta visited the reigning Prince in 1327. Sir H.
Rawlinson has described Mungasht, and Mr. Layard and Baron de Bode have
visited other parts, but the country is still very imperfectly known.
Little Luristan lay west of the R. Dizful, extending nearly to the Plain
of Babylonia. Its Dynasty, called Kurshid, [was founded in 1184 by the
Kurd Shodja ed-din Khurshid, and existed till Shah-Werdy lost his throne
in 1593. - H. C.].
The Lurs are akin to the Kurds, and speak a Kurd dialect, as do all those
Ilyats, or nomads of Persia, who are not of Turkish race. They were noted
in the Middle Ages for their agility and their dexterity in thieving. The
tribes of Little Lur "do not affect the slightest veneration for Mahomed
or the Koran; their only general object of worship is their great Saint
Baba Buzurg," and particular disciples regard with reverence little short
of adoration holy men looked on as living representatives of the Divinity.
(Ilchan. I. 70 seqq.; Rawlinson in J. R. G. S. IX.; Layard in
Do. XVI. 75, 94; Ld. Strangford in J. R. A. S. XX. 64; N. et E.
XIII.
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