Bastak
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Bastak is a town in the Hormozgan Province of southern Iran. It has a road connecting it to the Bandar Lengeh area and its inhabitants speak Bastaki, a dialect made up of Persian.
History of Bastak
The history of Bastak can be traced back to the Safavids era. When the Safavids under Ismail I decided to convert all Iranians from Sunni to Shiite Islam in 1501, they started arranged attacks and massacres against those who refused to convert. As a result, many Sunnis left their hometowns for the Zagros mountains. After the Battle of Chaldiran the Safavids lost to the Ottoman Turks and the Sunnis in the south and on the coasts of the Gulf descended from the mountains to begin a new life in the land they named "Bastak", meaning barrier or backstop. It is reported that Sunni Arabs established the city of Bastak and started expanding their rule on other areas. They interacted with the Turks, Arab tribes from the Coast of Oman (Current day UAE and Oman), and the Arab tribes living on the Persian Gulf islands. It is narreted that an Omani worrior(s) came to them and established a state and launched an expansion campaign. Eventually they pledged loyalty to the Abbasids, an Arab dynasty that left Baghdad after the Moghol invasion. It is said that the Omani leader(s) assigned the Abbasides as the defacto rulers when he would go on military missions to expand his rule or defend it against Shiite attacks. The Omani fighter/leader died in one of the battles and Abbasids became the rulers and carried on the expansion of Bastak's rule. It was said that a few Hashimites (descendants of Prophet Mohammed) moved to Bastak from Khonj where they had settled after leaving Iraq towards Persia. Many alliances were formed between the Bastaki rulers and the Arab rulers in UAE, Bahrain, Qatar. The most famous was an alliance with Sheikh Zayed Alnahyan (Zayed Alawal) the ruler of Bani Yas in Abu-Dhbai and Al-Ain. The Bastaki forces also fought along Al-Qasimi and other arab tribes tribes against the Sultan of Oman. In general Bastaki people are Sunni Arabs who's ancesstory originated from different parts of Arabia. The Abbasids and their relatives came from Baghdad, other came from the coast of oman (current day UAE and oman), and some are the descendents of first muslim army who invaded Persia from Ras Al-Khaimah during the time of the rightous caliphs, who developed a distinct way of life in Bastak before emigrating to Dubai, Bahrain, and Kuwait after refusing to pay taxes to Nasir al-Din, the last member of the Qajar dynasty and refusing to give up their Sunni faith, and espcially when Pahlavi ordered the women to remove their head scarf and forced them to attend public meetings dressed like westernes. Also, because Pahlavi wanted to erase their Arabic culture and turn them into Persians. Arab tribes in the south were ruling their own lands. The Abbasids ruled Bastak and 60 other villages, Al-Qasimi ruled Lingah and many islands along with Ras-Alkhaimi and Alshareqah in current day UAE, Al-hammadi, Al-Ali, Al-Marzouqi tribes also controlled many Islands and sea ports and villages in southern Persia.Today, there are many Bastakis in Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait and other Gulf countries, who have carried their culture, language, and architecture with them. They have named their neighbourhood in Dubai, al-bastakeyah, after their small city of Bastak in southern Persia, and use an old style of Persian architecture that is represented in the Barjil ("wind catchers")
Culture of the Bastaki's
Bastaki people speak an unwritten dialect that has Arabic, Persian and some Turkish influence in it. Many Bastaki's today work as merchants and own their own businesses and are highly educated. They tend to work in finance, real estate, education and engineering sectors. Not to mention the many medical practices which they run. They are also known to be a very proud of their heritage and independent yet very loyal to their rulers, to Al-Maktoums in Dubai especially and Al-Qassimi in Al-Sharjah, Al-Khalifa in Bahrain, and to other ruling families of the GCC countries where they reside.
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