ČERĀM or ČORŪM, a small tribal confederacy (īl) inhabiting the dehestān of Čerām, in the Kūhgīlūya region, in southwestern Persia. The residence of its chiefs is at Talgerd, some 50 kilometers northeast of Behbahān. Today the Čerāms are almost all sedentary. In 1362 Š./1983 only 786 families were nomads (kūčrow; Afšār, I, p. 583, citing Sāzmān-e Barnāma o Būdja-ye Ostān-e Kūhgīlūya o Boir Aḥmad). In the past their winter quarters were in the Belād-e Šāpūr and their summer quarters in the Raven region. In the 1300s/1890s the confederacy comprised the following tribes: Begler (the chiefs’ tribe), Bonārī, Parūḵūrī (or Parvḵūrī), Tārmūnī, Ḥosām Bahāʾ-al-Dīnī, Dīlgūn, Šayḵ Golbār, Goštāsb, Kamānkešī, and Masīḥšāhī (Fasāʾī, II, p. 273). Recent sources, such as Bāvar (pp. 103-05), Żarrābī (p. 299), and Afšār (I, pp. 583-87) differ widely as to the names of the component tribes of the Čerām.
Little is known about the history of the Čerām. The names of their tribes suggest that the confederacy is an amalgam of Turkic and Lur elements, but none of the available sources indicates when these tribes moved into the Kūhgīlūya. Fasāʾī (ca. 1900; loc. cit.) estimated the number of Čerām at barely 600 or 700 households; Demorgny (1913, p. 115) and Kayhān (1930s; Joḡrāfīā II, p. 88) at 1,000 households; Bāvar (1945, p. 105) at 1,200 households; Żarrābī (1960, p. 299) at 4,800 individuals. Afšār (1987, I, p. 583) cites two other (identical) estimates: 1,275 households in 1347 Š./1968 (Moʾassasa-ye Ejtemāʿī-e Dānešgāh-e Tehrān) and 1360 Š./1981 (Sāzmān-e Omūr-e ʿAšāyer).
Bibliography:
Ī. Afšār Sīstānī, Īlhā, čādornešīnān wa ṭawāyef-e ʿašāyerī-e Īrān, Tehran, 1366 Š./1987, pp. 580-81.
M. Bāvar, Kūhgīlūya wa īlāt-e ān, Gačsārān, 1324 Š./1945.
G. Demorgny, “Les réformes administratives en Perse: les tribus du Fars,” pt. 1, RMM 22, March 1913, pp. 85-150.
M. Żarrābī, “Ṭawāyef-e Kūhgīlūya,” FIZ 9, 1340 Š./1961, pp. 278-302.
(Pierre Oberling)
Originally Published: December 15, 1991
Last Updated: October 10, 2011
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Vol. V, Fasc. 3, p. 265