Laki

The origin of the Laki traces back to ancient Iranian peoples who occupied the Zagros Mountains long before the Islamic era, in a crossing zone between Mesopotamia and the Persian plateau. Over the centuries, the isolation of the mountains favored the formation of a distinct language and tribal identity, situated between the Kurds to the north and the Luri peoples to the south.

With the expansion of Islam in the region from the seventh century onward, the Laki were gradually brought into the Shia sphere, but without fully abandoning older spiritual traditions. The administrative division of modern Iran into provinces split the traditional Laki territory across different internal borders, reinforcing tribal identity as the people's bond of cohesion.

Historically semi nomadic herders, the Laki moved flocks of sheep and goats between the low valleys in winter and the high altitude pastures in summer, a seasonal rhythm that still shapes the life of part of the rural families. Others work in terrace farming and small plantations in the more fertile valleys of the Zagros.

The tribe and subtribe remain the main social reference: they define obligations of hospitality, mutual support in hard times, and the respect owed to elders. Poetry and music sung in Laki, often accompanied by traditional stringed instruments of the region, remain one of the most vivid expressions of the people’s identity.

The predominant faith among the Laki is Islam, in a particular blend of Iran’s official Shia Islam with Ahl-e Haqq, an older mystical tradition from the Zagros region. This stream includes beliefs such as the transmigration of souls between bodies, along with its own devotional practices that coexist, not always without tension, alongside Shia orthodoxy.

For most of the Laki, belonging to this religious tradition is intertwined with tribal identity itself: following the faith customs of the family and subtribe is seen as part of honoring the ancestors, not merely a personal choice of belief.

Laki is a living language, spoken as a first language throughout the ethnic community, but for a long time it had no Scripture of its own, overshadowed by Persian and Kurdish, languages with which Laki mixes in daily life. Recent progress has brought Bible portions and a New Testament translated into Laki, a development still little known among the people. Most of the Laki have never heard a passage of the Bible in their own mother tongue.

Among the Laki, belonging to the tribe and to the Islamic faith form a single identity: leaving Islam is perceived as breaking with the family and the honor of the clan, not merely changing religion. The isolation of the mountain areas, the absence of any local Christian community, and the fact that Scripture in Laki is practically unknown make it rare for a Laki person to have ever heard the gospel in a clear and understandable way.

Rural communities in the Zagros still face difficulties accessing basic health and education services, made worse by the semi nomadic life of part of the families. There is also a deep spiritual need: to know the good news of Jesus in a language and culture that reach the heart, not merely as a foreign message.

There is, today, no visible Laki Christian community able to walk alongside anyone who came to believe. Whoever took that step would need discipleship, protection, and brothers and sisters in the faith, things that are practically nonexistent in the people’s own language and culture.

The recent arrival of Bible portions and a complete New Testament in Laki is, in itself, a new sign after generations without Scripture of their own: for the first time, a Laki person can hear God speak in their own mother tongue. Every passage read or heard in Laki carries the potential to plant, in the heart of a family or an entire subtribe, the first clear seed of the gospel in their own language.