The history of the province is tied to that of the Bakhtiari tribe. The Bakhtiari tribe can be divided into two sub-tribes, Haft Lang and Chahar Lang with various territorial affiliations and they are the main speakers of Lurish language. As the name of the province dictates with the combining grammatical feature of "-o-" which is Persian for "and";

the other group of peoples in this ancient province are the Chahar Mahali's.

These peoples and the Lur's live side by side and share almost similar customs. Very slight differences exist between them but most are almost unnoticeable. However there is often quite a bit of intermixing of the peoples through marriage. The cities of Shahrekord, Broujen, Ben, Naafch and Saman fall in the Chahar Mahali area of the province and are generally not inhabited by Lurs. The Bakhtiari territories at times have also come under Isfahan and Khuzestan province.