IGDIR, a Turkic tribe in Persia and Anatolia. It was one of the 24 original Oghuz tribes (Houtsma, p. 225; for discussions of its etymology, see Houtsma, p. 225, and Pelliot, pp. 194-95). Like other tribes that migrated to the Middle East in Saljuqid times, it has become widely scattered.
A group of Igdir settled down in northeastern Persia, and joined the Yomut tribal confederacy. Its population was estimated at 300 families by Charles Edward Yate (p. 280), and at 700 families by Henry Field (p. 221). These Igdir live around Gonbad-e Qābus and the ruins of the old city of Jorjān, some 95 kilometers northeast of Astarābād (ibid.). Because of their distance from any center of governmental authority, they were among the “wildest and most independent” of the Yomut tribes; and they paid no revenue to the Persian state during the nineteenth century (Yate, p. 252). Today, there is still a village by the name of Igdir, 12 kilometers south of Gonbad-e Qābus (Razmārā, Farhang II, p. 34).
Another group of Igdir made its way to Anatolia. In the 16th century, there were as many as 43 villages and other localities by that name there (Sümer, p. 356). In the district of Tarsus, there was an Igdir oba (clan) among the Gökçelü. In the environs of Adana, there were two small oymak (tribes) by that name. Many Igdir also settled down around Kari-Taş, Gülnar and Mut, in the district of Iµç-ݵl. Some of these joined the Boz-Doğan, who lived in the vicinity of Koç-Hisar, in Central Anatolia (ibid., pp. 356-57). Today, there are still 19 Igdir toponyms in Turkey (in the following villayets: Içel, Denizli, Malatya, Kars, Eski-şehir, Tokat, Gümüşhane, Bursa, Ankara, Çankiri, Kastamonu, Samsun, and Ordu; see Gazetteer of Turkey I, p. 687). In the Iranian Western Azerbaijan, near the Turkish frontier, there is also a village named Igdir, 14 kilometers southeast of Urmiya (Razmārā, Farhang IV, p. 65).
A third group of Igdir forms a tira (clan) of the ʿAmala tribe of the Qašqāʾi tribal confederacy in Fārs. In 1958, it comprised some 400 families (Oberling, p. 225). Like other ʿAmala clans, it probably came to Fārs after spending some time in northwestern Persia.
Bibliography:
Keith Edward Abbott, Cities and Trade: Consul Abbott on the Economy and Society of Iran, 1847-1866, ed. A. Amanat, London, 1983.
C. Burgett, M. Rockmore, and G. Quinting, Gazetteer of Turkey, 2nd ed., Washington, D.C., 1984.
Henry Field, Contributions to the Anthropology of Iran, Chicago, 1939.
Theodor Houtsma, “Die Ghuzenstämme,” WZKM 2, 1888, pp. 219-33.
Gunnar Jarring, On the Distribution of Turk Tribes in Afghanistan, Lund, 1939.
G. C. Napier, “Extract from a Tour in Khorassan and Notes on the Eastern Alburz Tract,” JRGS 46, 1876, pp. 62-171.
Pierre Oberling, The Qashqāʾi Nomads of Fārs, The Hague, 1974.
Paul Pelliot, Notes sur l’histoire de la Horde d’Or suivies de quelques noms turcs d’hommes et de peuples finissant en “ar," Paris, 1949.
Faruk Sümer, Oğuzlar, 2nd ed., Ankara, 1972.
Charles Edward Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, Edinburgh, 1900.
(Pierre Oberling)
Originally Published: December 15, 2004
Last Updated: March 27, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. XII, Fasc. 6, pp. 618-619
