Iran is the state in the world where nomads are the most numerous - several million - and where their economic role and their political weight are the most important. The largest tribes of Iran, and in particular the Bakhtyâri of the Zâgros mountains (half a million people) gave birth to royal dynasties or confronted those in power, often with the support of foreign powers, especially the British. . Unified in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, this tribe began to play a decisive role with the English who donated part of the profits from oil exploitation in exchange for the security of the wells. This source of income will be stolen from them with the nationalization of oil by Mossadegh (1951-1953); as for their nomadic way of life, it will be fought by the Pahlavi, then restored with the Islamic Revolution. 
 Their life has always been linked to Iranian national history and, at least from the 19th century, to world history. It is these three parallel stories, their relationships and their mutual insights, which constitute the fabric of this book.
 Authors biography
 Jean-Pierre Digard, emeritus research director at the CNRS, founded and directed the UPR "Social Sciences of the Contemporary Iranian World". He has notably published Le Fait Ethnic en Iran et en Afghanistan (1988), L'Iran au XXe siècle (with B. Hourcade and Y Richard, 2007), Une Histoire du cheval (2007) and L'Homme et les Animaux Pets ( 2009).