Qashqai (pronounced ; also spelled
Qeshqayı,
Ghashghai,
Ghashghay,
Gashgai,
Gashgay,
Kashkai,
Qashqay,
Qashqa'i and
Qashqai: قشقایی) are a conglomeration of clans of Turkic ethnic origins, mostly nomadic
Iranian Azerbaijanis from
Qashqay, Iran. But also
Lurs. They mainly live in the
Iranian provinces of
Fars,
Khuzestan,
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province,
Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province,
Bushehr and southern
Isfahan, especially around the city of
Shiraz and
Firuzabad in Fars. After assimilation politics since Pahlavi, almost all of them are bilingual, speaking the
Qashqai language - which is a member of the
Turkic family of languages and which they call Turki - as well as (in formal use) the
Persian language. Majority of Qashqai people were originally
nomadic pastoralists and some remain so today. The traditional nomadic Qashqai travelled with their flocks each year from the summer highland pastures north of Shiraz roughly 480 km or 300 miles south to the winter pastures on lower (and warmer) lands near the
Persian Gulf, to the southwest of Shiraz. The majority, however, have now become partially or wholly sedentary. The trend towards settlement has been increasing markedly since the 1960s.