AVROMAN

 

AVROMAN (Hawrāmān, Persian Owrāmān), a mountainous region on the western frontier of Persian Kurdistan. It extends for approximately 50 km, from a point west of Marīvān (46° 0’ east longitude, 35° 30’ north latitude) south-eastwards to the confluence of the two branches of the river Sīrvān (46° 20’ east longitude, 35° 10’ north latitude). The Kūh-e Owrāmān range has several peaks of over 2,000 m, the highest being Kūh-e Taḵt, 2,985 m. It is continued south of the Sīrvān by the Kūh-e Šāhō, which rises to 3,223 m. Parallel to these, east of the Sīrvān, is the Kūh-e Sālān, 2,597 m. The chief products of the area are various orchard fruits, walnuts, gall-apples (for tanning), and terebinth mastic.

The territory has four divisions: Owrāmān-e Lohōn, southwest of the main range; main village, Nowsūd: Owrāmān-e Taḵt, north of Kūh-e Taḵt; main village, Šahr (Šār)-e Owrāmān: Dezlī, further north: Razāb (Razāw), around the Kūh-e Sālān. The population of the valley numbers perhaps 10,000 persons. They are distinguished from the Kurds, who surround them on all sides, to some extent by their traditional dress, but especially by their language (see Avromani), which is an archaic dialect of the Gōrāni group. They pay allegiance to branches of the Bagzāda family, which traces its descent back through at least three centuries in the first instance, and ultimately to legendary kings of Iran. The chieftains often use the title Sān, i.e., sultan, dating from Safavid times. The main divisions are the Ḥama-Saʿīd-Sānī family in Lohōn, the Ḥasan-Sānī in Taḵt, the Bahrām-Bagī in Dezlī, and the Moṣṭafā-Sānī in Razāb. At the beginning of this century all branches of the Bagzāda family succeeded in extending their sway over a number of non-Avromani villages adjoining their homelands. The Lohōni branch, in particular, acquired Bīāra and Tawēla, both the seats of Naqæbandī shaikhs, among other villages in Iraq, and Pāva, to the south of the Sīrvān. (The men of Pāva, like their neighbors of Ḥajīj in Lohōn proper, are known as wandering peddlers, who formerly traveled the length and breadth of the Caliphate.) With the increase of the power of central government in Iran and Iraq after the First World War, however, their depredations ceased and several chieftains were dispossessed and exiled.

 

Bibliography:

C. J. Edmonds, Kurds, Turks, and Arabs, London, 1957 (index s.v. Hewrāmān).

M. Mardūḵ Kordestānī, Ketāb-e tārīḵ-e Mardūḵ II, Tehran, n.d.

Search terms:

 اورامان oraman ouraman oraaman

 

(D. N. MacKenzie)

Originally Published: December 15, 1987

Last Updated: August 18, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. III, Fasc. 1, pp. 110-111