Qashqai

The Qashqai are a confederation of Oghuz Turkic tribes in southern Persia, speaking the Qashqai tongue they call Turki alongside Persian. Turkic pastoralists entered Iran from Central Asia in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Qashqai tradition holds that their ancestors came with the Mongol armies of the thirteenth century, dwelt around Ardabil as clans of the Aq Qoyunlu, and were moved to Fars after 1501, when Shah Ismail founded the Safavid state and charged them with guarding the Persian Gulf coast against the Portuguese.

Five principal tribes were organized under their ilkhan. Most drove sheep and goats twice a year between summer pastures north of Shiraz and winter grounds around Firuzabad and Kazerun; their women's carpets and woven bags became prized across the region. In the Qajar era the confederation grew into one of the great tribal powers of southern Persia.