David Lockhart Lorimer
Above: DLR Lorimer was originally in the colonial service in India, before he was posted to Persia. Here he is, in 1909, shortly after his renegotiation of the key 1905 oil agreement. (This image is reproduced with the kind permission of Christina Lorimer, DLR Lorimer’s grand niece).

Bakhtiari poetry and DLR Lorimer

David Lockhart Lorimer was the Vice-Consul for Arabistan (SW Persia) in 1906 and an important local ally for the first oil explorers – successfully renegotiating as he did the key 1905 agreement.

Perhaps surprisingly, he was also a sensitive photographer – capturing rare images of ordinary Bakhtiari men, women and children engaged in daily life; and a passionate philologist – keen to record traditional Bakhtiari poetry and prose tales, and all too aware of what peril a society faced if they lost sight of their mythological traditions.

Some of the poems he recorded and translated with his wife Emily Overend Lorimer are included here, with a few of his many photos. More photos and details are on http://tiny.cc/lorimerphotos

To learn more about Bakhtiari poetry click here.


Above: Photographs of ordinary people – especially women – were rare in 1906,
when these lantern-slide images were taken. The spindle one of the women is
holding is very similar to those still used today. (This image is reproduced with
the kind permission of the SOAS library).


Above: These men are from the Bahmehi tribe, near Marmatain. They are
wearing their wide, formal black overtrousers, and the traditional felt hats – both
are still worn today, although the hats are now rounder in shape. (This image is
reproduced with the kind permission of the SOAS library).

 

References
For some of Lorimer’s ideas about the Bakhtiari and their poetry, see:

  • Lorimer, DLR 1954 “The Popular Verse of the Baḵẖtiāri of S. W. Persia –I”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3 pp. 542-555

All of the poems quoted here, with the original Bakhtiari language version and additional detailed notes, are in:

  • Lorimer, DLR 1955 “The Popular Verse of the Bakhtiāri of S. W. Persia –II: Specimens of Bakhtiāri Verse”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1 pp. 92-110

  • Lorimer, DLR 1963 “The Popular Verse of the Baḵẖtiāri of S. W. Persia –III: Further Specimens” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 55-68

For more of an idea of the Lorimer’s as fascinating human beings:

  • Lorimer, EO 1939 Language Hunting in the Karakorum, George Allen & Unwin, London (reprinted 2008: Pilgrims Book House)