Dilfan

Dilfan, a large section of the Kurds of Luristetn, West Persia, appear to be the true aborigines of this region, and are regarded as such by the rest of the population, who call them Leks or Laks, and who look upon themselves as more recent immigrants from the north-west. The Dilfans, who are certainly of Kurdish stock and speech, still maintain the tribal organisation, and, like the neighbouring Bakhtiari, are divided into a large number of clans. Chief divisions - Mumuvend, with twelve branches, including the Bijavend, Bavali, and Hindi (gypsies); Kahavend, with five branches; Ivetivend, with ten branches; Ainevend or Clievdri, with four branches (A. H. Schindler, Beisen im Sud-westlichen Persien, 1877-78). The tribal ending vend has been identified by Rawlinson with the Cuneiform manda, a dialectic variety of mada, whence mede, and the Dilfans seem to be direct descendants of the ancient Medes, of whom the Kurds (the Karduchi of Xenophon) were a main division.