The famous Bakhtiari lion gravestones were recorded by the earliest of the European travellers (the line-drawing below was published in 1891) – and they are now being analysed and recorded more formally.
When I very first saw them, at dusk on the way northwards from Lali up into the mountains, I was SO excited – I knew that, at last, I was really on Bakhtiari land and was going to be able to walk the traditional migration (kuch).
Before kuch started, one of the things I did every day was to admire the stone lions in the nearest cemetery as I helped take the family cow to graze in the longer grass there.
Paridjan, Morteza’s wife, would usually also spend a few moments ‘talking’ to her dead daughter, after ‘knocking’ on the grave with a stone. On kuch, we stopped in all the graveyards along the way – to greet and talk about the family members and friends buried there.
As well as the gravestones, actual lions were apparently common in Bakhtiari territory until at least 1840. According to Layard:
“The lion abounds . . During my residence here [at Kala Tul] several have been seen in the neighbourhood, and a large lioness was killed a short time ago by a matchlock-man in the teng [defile] of Halaugon. She measured 10½ feet in length. Lions in this country are sometimes very bold and fierce, and are consequently much dreaded”
He also gives usefully detailed information on how lions should be addressed:
“The Lurs divide lions into Musulmans and Kafirs (infidels) . . If, they say, a man is attacked by a Musulman lion he must take off his cap and very humbly supplicate the animal in the name of Ali to have pity on him. The proper formula to be used on the occasion is the following: ‘O cat of Ali, I am the servant of Ali. Pass by my house (or family) by the head of Ali.’ The lion will then generously spare the suppliant and depart. Such consideration must not, however, be expected from a Kaffir lion”.