Lak (tribe)

Not to be confused with the Caucasus Laks of Dagestan, Russia.
Lak
لەک / Lek
Total population
c. 2.5 million (est. 2000)[citation needed]
Regions with significant populations
Western Iran:
  1,160,000[1] to 2,000,000,[2] Iraq[2]
Languages
Laki
Religion
Mostly Shi'a Islam, a Yarsanism minority

Lak (Kurdish: Lek ,لەک)[3][4] is a Kurdish[5][6] tribe[2] native to Western Iran. They speak Laki, which is considered a Kurdish dialect[2][7][8][9][10][11] by most linguists.[12]

Laks inhabit a large part of Lorestan Province where they constitute over 65% of the population[2] and most of the eastern regions of the neighboring province of Kermanshah, and some parts of western Ilam province (Poshte-Kuhi Laks). The area to the east of Mount Kabir is known as Pishe-Kuh, and west of the mountain is known as Poshte-Kuh.

  1. ^ "Laki".
  2. ^ a b c d e Hamzeh'ee, M. Reza (2015). "Lak Tribe". Iranica Online. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  3. ^ ""بێڕێزیكردن بە كوردانی لەك" كاردانەوەی تووندی لێكەوتەوە". Rûdaw (in Kurdish). 30 July 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Radyoya Lekî li Kirmaşanê; Îran li çi digere?". Rûdaw (in Kurdish). 9 August 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  5. ^ Hamzehʼee, M. Reza (1990). The Yaresan: A Sociological, Historical and Religio-historical Study of a Kurdish Community. p. 64. ISBN 9783922968832.
  6. ^ Minorsky, Vladimir (2012). "Lak". Encyclopaedia of Islam (Second ed.). Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0562. ISBN 9789004161214.
  7. ^ "Laki". Ethnologue.
  8. ^ Anonby, Erik John (29 September 2003). "Update on Luri: How many languages?" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. 13 (2): 171–197. doi:10.1017/S1356186303003067. S2CID 162293895. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  9. ^ Gernot Windfuhr (2009). The Iranian Languages. London & New York: Routledge. p. 587. ISBN 978-0-7007-1 131-4.
  10. ^ Hulst, Harry van der; Goedemans, Rob; Zanten, Ellen van (2011). A Survey of Word Accentual Patterns in the Languages of the World. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110198966.
  11. ^ Rüdiger Schmitt (2000). Die iranischen Sprachen in Gegenwart und Geschichte (in German). 200. p. 85. ISBN 3895001503.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ "Atlas of the Languages of Iran A working classification". Languages of Iran. Retrieved 25 May 2019.