Conceptual evolution of the two terms "Lur" and "Luristan" in the sources of Iranian Islamic history

The term Lur was used for the first time in the sources of the thirth and fourth centuries AH and pointed to a village in Khuzistan. Later, by development of meaning, it denoted people of the southern strip of Zagros, from Khuzistan to Fars and from Fars to where is now known as KhorramAbad. The term "Luristan" was first mentioned in the sources of the sixth century and linked to Lur. It seems that the term Lur, in the meaning of a certain people or population, has been taken from the name of the mountainous land of Lur, where this people inhabited. This has led to the fact that in the first Islamic centuries, the term Lur linked to the term Kurd (which also points to mountain inhabitants) and sometimes placed under or instead of it. In this research, the development of the two terms Lur and Luristan in Islamic sources and the process of their continuation or transformation in the history of Iran has been investigated. This research is based on the historical method and relies on data from various sources of historical, geographical, and religious documents and nonetheless, in some cases, for more accuracy, some data borrowed from field studies and oral history.