(Qashqaai, Qashqa'i, Ghashghai)

The Qashqai compose a community of settled, semi-settled, and pastoral nomadic households who reside mainly in the Fars region of south west of Persia close to Shiraz. They speak Qashqai Turki (Turkish). Most of them also speak, at least, Persian (Farsi).

  The nineteenth century Fars velayat (region or province) covered the present-day provinces of Fars, Kohgiluyeh, and Bushehr. For centuries Fars had been a multi-ethnic region in which tribal and pastoral nomadic groups composed a large part of the population.

Historical movement of larger and smaller groups of pastoral nomadic households of different ethnic backgrounds, including Turks, into and out of Fars continued up to the nineteenth century.

The Qashqai, as a large tribal confederacy, composed of pastoral nomadic house folds, dates back at least to the early eighteenth century, when some Turkish(Turki)-speaking tribal groups in the Fars region existed under the name Qashqai and leadership of the head(s) of a certain lineage called Shahilu.

During the nineteenth century the Qashqai was transformed into a large tribal confederacy composed of mainly Turkic-speaking pastoral nomads. Their summer pastures stretched to areas in central Persia, and their winter pastures to areas close to the Persian Gulf. Many Turki(Turkish)-speaking tribal groups, as well as groups belonging to other ethnic groups in the region, were integrated into the Qashqai. The non-Turk groups, in time, adopted the language and other ethnic identity markers of the Qashqai.

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