1 The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign ...

MILLER: Oh yes, very definitely, but the network still was always evident even if distant.
The sense of Iran as a nation was something that you began to understand, how the
country fitted together even though the vast distances and isolation, and the autonomies
were very evident. A good example of this is, again, in the tribes – I went on one
occasion, on a tribal migration with the Bakhtiari. I had friends in Isfahan who were
living there as exiled tribal chiefs, Bakhtiari chiefs. They were not allowed to be with the
tribes, because ...
Q: The Bakhtiari were located where?
MILLER: In the Zagros Mountains from south of Kermanshah all the way to Shiraz, and
then the Qashqai lands begin in the Shiraz area and go south to Firuzabad. The Bakhtiari
were divided into various clans that were loyal to different tribal chiefs. The main clans
were called Haft Lang and the Chahar Lang, that’s “seven” and “four.” The clans would
wear a typical canvas woven tunic above their shalvar (wide, broad trousers), shirts that
button up to their necks and who wore a distinctive domed hat, black hat made of goat
hair. They were stripes on the tunics: four stripes for the Chahar Lang and seven stripes
for the Haft Lang. The two main clans got along reasonably well except for occasional
disputes along the migration routes and where the sheep would graze on to disputed
grasslands and domestic conflicts would emerge.
The migration trip was hosted by a Haft Lang family whose lands extended from the
north near Khorramabad across the Zagros Mountains down to Masjed-e Soleyman in the
flat lands near Iraq, which is where the oil fields were in Khuzestan. This migration was a
three week trip on horseback. It was a marvelous, absolutely marvelous experience. The
host was a Kalantar, a tribal leader of several families. A Kalantar is a second level
retainer to the Khan who is the leader of the tribe. There were about eight families who
were traveling with their flocks of sheep along with the Kalantars group. The migration
follows at the pace of the sheep. The families travel only as far as the sheep could go in a
day. Then they’d stop and eat and set up their black tents, cook dinner and would remain
for a few days during which they would go hunting, engage in story-telling, and feasting,
of course until the sheep were ready to move again to new pastures. We followed that
pattern of travel over three weeks. Up and down mountains, swimming across rivers with
the sheep, back up the mountain and down again.
Q: What you are doing, you are talking about probably a wiser, certainly more indulgent,
Foreign Service then we have today, where they can allow you – essentially it was
invaluable as far as making you aware of the world which you were dealing with.
MILLER: I was learning about an important part of Iran and I hope I was also making
friends. As far as establishing a relationship with people of another country, this is a very
pleasant way to do it. It’s a great privilege to be invited to live for a time with the tribes,
particularly if they have invited you to come as their guests. We were welcome. It was an
ideal time for us, as Americans. Americans were then believed to the real friends of Iran
46