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HISTORY: A Short Historical Overview (A Meta-narrative?)

For centuries the Fars region had been a multi-ethnic region, in which tribal and pastoral nomadic groups composed a large part of the population.

Turkic-speaking pastoral nomadic tribal groups began entering central and southern Iran during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Historical movement of larger and smaller groups of pastoral nomadic households of different ethnic backgrounds, including Turks, into and out of the Fars region continued up to the nineteenth century. The Qashqai, as a large tribal unit, dates back at least to the early eighteenth century, when some Turkish(Turki)-speaking tribal groups in the region existed under the name Qashqai and leadership of the head(s) of a certain lineage called Shahilu.

Photo: A. Shiva, 2002

In addition to pastoralism for use and exchange, various nomadic households of the Fars region during the nineteenth century relied on different combinations of a variety of economic resources and relations--such as agriculture, handicrafts production, and gathering; all these also for use and exchange. Exchange of labor (in a variety of contracts with property owners), trade, providing protection and transportation facilities for traders, and, for some, banditry and raiding, were other potential household economic resources.

During the nineteenth century the Qashqai was gradually transformed into a large tribal confederacy composed of, mainly, Turkish-speaking pastoral nomads. Their summer pastures stretched to areas in central Iran, and their winter pastures to areas close to the Persian Gulf. Many Turki(Turkish)-speaking tribal groups, as well as groups belonging to other ethnic groups in the region, were integrated into the Qashqai. The non-Turk groups, in time, adopted the language and other ethnic identity markers of the Qashqai. Perhaps more than a quarter of the region's population was pastoral nomadic about mid nineteenth century.

Generally speaking, during the nineteenth century the Qashqai became increasingly, though with ebbs and flows, hierarchical and centralized. Its official political hierarchy was part of the regional state structure for purposes of 'tax and order." Growth of political centralization and expansion of Qashqai population and territory in this period paralleled changes in the larger regional political economy. There was an increasing articulation of the region's political economy with the world market. This process included rise in production of agricultural and pastoral products for the market and consumption of imported goods, growth in monetization of the administrative system and the economy, relative centralization of the state apparatus, spread of private forms of land ownership, and expansion of mercantile, financial, and landed capital. Though Iran never became an official colony of either Russia or Britain, Fars and other regions in southern Iran were under the economic and political influence of Britain during this period.

The economic changes mentioned above were unevenly effective among the region's various local communities, including various Qashqai groups. The whole nineteen century transformation process was complex, uneven, and paradoxical. Alongside Western political and economic sway, the modern Iranian nation and nationalism gradually emerged. Likewise, parallel to the emergence of the Iranian nation, some modern Iranian ethnic groups took their beginnings. In Fars, abreast the general trend of expansion and centralization of the state and some tribal groupings, dispersion of some other larger tribes, internal tribal strife and acts of rebellion, brigandage, and "lawlessness,” specially in certain periods, intensified.

The Qashqai as an Ethnic Group

The Qashqai are distinguished from other ethnic groups in the region by identification as Turk, or Qashqai, by themselves and others. Their identity includes a common political history, present social ties, and a shared cultural and linguistic heritage. Most Qashqai are, at least, bilingual in Persian (Farsi).

Other major ethnic groups in Fars in the nineteenth century were the Tajik (non-tribal and Persian speaking villagers and city dwellers, also called Tat, or sometimes referred to as Fars), and the Lurs, and the Arabs (or later the Arab-Basseri). The Lurs and the Arabs were also considered "tribal."

There are other non-Qashqai but Turki-speaking communities in Fars. Three out of five large tribal groups that were formed into the Khamseh confederacy of eastern Fars in the second half of the last century are Turki-speaking, so are many smaller settled and semi-settled communities throughout Fars. These three Turki-speaking tribes of eastern Fars (sometimes referred to as "Turk-e Arab"), regarded themselves as culturally close to the Qashqai, and generally sided with the majority of them in some of the major social dramas of the region's history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There were many small Turki-speaking settled rural communities scattered throughout Fars, but for many Qashqai these were not considered to be "Turk proper," and in some context referred to them as Tajik or Tat (non-tribal peasants). Ethnic and tribal affiliation shifts were common historical phenomena, so were nomads becoming peasants or peasants becoming nomads and joining tribal groups.

Photo: A. Shiva, 2002

Premodern Social Structure

I view the Qashqai "premodern," or "traditional" tribal social structure as characterized by a variety of interrelated "aspects."

We may call these aspects “structures” and “models” of, or “discourses” on, the Qashqai “traditional tribal society."

i) There was a hierarchical formal administrative structure which integrated the Qashqai with the state structure (for taxing and “order” purposes).

There were also the hierarchies of (ii) the status groups and of (iii) the socio-economic classes.

There was also (iv) a segmental or branching structure to the whole confederacy and its divisions.

Heads of bandits and raiding groups were also men of power, or, to use Tapper’s (1983) phrase for tribal societies of Iran and Afghanistan, there existed (v) a tribal chief/bandit-rebel dialectic.

Qashqai heads of groups of bandits, rebels, and raiders, similar to the tribal chiefs, were engaged in appropriation and distribution of surplus, and punishment. Typically, tribal rebels could become chiefs; the reverse was also the case.

(vi) Individual and group networks constituted another major aspect of social life. These networks brought individuals and groups across tribal groupings together. They also brought individuals and groups from pastoral, rural, and urban background in social contact. Regional alliances included urban, rural, and nomadic/tribal forces.

(vii) The political field at local, regional, and national levels was characterized by a flexible system of alliances and counter-alliances. Over time, many individuals and groups changed their political and even tribal and ethnic affiliation.

Flexibility of alliances was even practiced during the course of social dramas, sometimes suddenly in the climax of dramas. Narratives of so many social dramas point to moments of impromptu change of political side, not only by main actors, but also by the larger population, who are the audience, but also actors. Regional alliances normally contained urban, nomadic, and rural forces.

The Qashqai were active participants in the country-side political space. Their migratory routes pass by the region’s capital, Shiraz. In many regional and national upheavals, both during the nineteenth and modern (twentieth century) eras, the Qashqai also took part in the dramas staged in urban political space.

Modern Period

A transitional or liminal period, covering the first quarter of the twentieth century, dramatically divided the Iranian "premodern" and "modern" historical periods. The economic, political, cultural, and social backgrounds for such a transformation were set in the nineteenth century, particularly its later decades. But, it was during these dramatic quarter-of-a-century-long years of the Constitutional revolution and the First World War, that Iranian nationalism was communicated to larger segments of the society. In Fars and among the Qashqai, during the nationalist and anti-British movement of the war years modern ideas on national identity were disseminated, contested and reconstructed among the larger population.

During much of the twentieth century, the expanding and centralizing modern nation-state dominated the Iranian political field. Populations with a tribal and/or minority ethnic background were diversely reconstructed and transformed in a context characterized by various discourses on nationalism--combined with new ideas on the state, ethnicity, Islam, popular participation, social justice, gender relations and progress. This trend, part of a larger process of change usually termed "modernity" (or rather multiple and contested modernities) intensified and expanded since the sixties. Similar to many other dominantly non-urban populations in the country, incorporation of Qashqai masses in the national politics as Iranian citizens has further augmented during and after the Islamic revolution of 1978-79.

Sedentarization of Qashqai nomads, and rise in their involvement in non-pastoral and new economic activities, has intensified since the nineteen sixties. Presently, the Qashqai form mainly settled and semi-settled households. Settled Qashqai are dispersed throughout the region, but mostly in rural and urban locations in north-, mid-, and south-central Fars. There are some Qashqai who reside outside southern Iran, and indeed throughout the global village.

With the dissolution and transformation of tribal hierarchies and groupings in the last few decades, the importance of social networks in the way Qashqai construct their daily lives has increased. Transformations of the last few decades have brought new channels of establishing networks in urban areas and in the state apparatus.

Qashqai population of today is estimated to be over one million; up to a million and half. The definition of who could be, or is considered Qashqai, is contextual, multiple, and variable in time and space. This estimate is based on a more inclusive definition. There are no "reliable" statistics on the changing divisions into settled, nomadic and semi-nomadic components.

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QASHQAI (QASHQAI) TRIBAL CONFEDERACY


PIERRE OBERLING- 7 Jamuary 2004



i. History

Like most present-day tribal confederacies in Persia, the Il-e Qashqai is a conglomeration of clans of different ethnic origins, Lori, Kurdish, Arab and Turkic. But most of the Qashqai are of Turkic origin, and almost all of them speak a Western Ghuz Turkic dialect which they call Turki. The Qashqai , in general, believe that their ancestors came to Persia from Turkestan in the vanguard of the armies of Hulagu Khan or Timur Leng. However, it seems more probable that they arrived during the great tribal migrations of the 11th century. In all likelihood, they spent some time in Northwestern Persia before making their way to Fars. Until recently, there was a clan by the name of Mogaanlu among them, a name which is undoubtedly derived from that of the Mogaan steppe, north of Ardabil, in Persian Azerbaijan. The clan names of AIq Qoyunlu, Qara Qoyunlu, Beygdeli and Musellu also suggest a past connection with Northwestern Persia. Moreover, the Qashqai often refer to Ardabil as their former home.A close relationship appears to have existed at one time between the Qashqai and the Khalaj, one branch of whom made its way to Azerbaijan and Anatolia, and another branch of whom settled down in the area known as Khalajestan in Central Persia, probably in Seljuqid times. Indeed, several authors, including H®asan Fasai, have gone so far as to argue that the Qashqai are but an offshoot of the Khalaj tribe (Fars Nama I, p. 312).

Vladimir Minorsky, however, believed that the migration of Khalaj nomads from Central Persia to Fars antedated that of the Qashqai and that the two groups merged when already in their present tribal territories (Personal interview, 1956). In any case, there are considerable Khalaj remnants among the Qashqai (see Garrod, p. 294), and there is also a large group of sedentary Khalaj on the Deh Bid plateau, north of Shiraz, who claim to have belonged, while still nomadic, to the Il-e Qashqai . A list of Qashqai clan names shows that, besides the Khalaj, some Afshar, Bayat, Qajar, Qaragozlu, SHamlu and Igder also joined the tribal confederacy (Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads of Fars, p. 30).

Precisely when the Turkic components of the I1-e Qashqai established themselves in Southern Persia is still shrouded in mystery. Many Qashqai believe that their ancestors were sent to Fars by Shah Esmail S®afavi (r. 1501-1524) to protect the province from the incursions of the Portuguese. But we know that their summer quarters were close to the present ones already at the beginning of the 15th century, for Ebn SHahab Yazdi mentions a group of them who were summering at Gandoman, in northwestern Fars, in 1415 (Aubin, p. 504, n. 24).

Equally uncertain is the etymology of the name Qashqai . The most plausible theory, and one which was first advanced by Wilhelm Barthold ("Kashkai", EI1 I, p. 790), is that it is derived from the Turkic word qashqa, which means "a horse with a white spot on its forehead". According to another theory, which was first proposed by H®asan Fasai (Fars Nama I, p. 312), the name comes from the Turkic verb qachmaq, "to flee".

The Qashqai chiefs have all belonged to the SHahilu clan of the ¿Amala tribe. The earliest known leader of the tribe was Amir GIazi SHahilu, who lived in the 16th century and is buried in a village called Darvish, in the vicinity of Gandoman. He was apparently a holy man, for his grave is a center of pilgrimage. According to legend, he helped shah Esmail establish Shi¿ism as the official faith of Persia.But it is only at the beginning of the 18th century that the I1-e Qashqai began to play a significant role in the history of Fars province. At that time, the chief of the Qashqai was Jan Moháammad AIqa, popularly known as Jani AIqa. According to Moháammad H®ashem AIsáaf (Rostam al-Tawarikò, p. 105), another Qashqai leader, H®amid Beyg Qashqai , was a prominent person during the reign of Shah H®osayn I S®afavi (r. 1694-1722).

According to legend, Jani AIqa's two sons, Esmail Khan (who succeeded him as chief) and H®asan Khan took an active part in Nader Shah's conquest of India in 1738-1739. But it is said that during the campaign they ran afoul of the Afshar ruler, with the result that Esma¿il Khan was blinded and H®asan Khan was so severely mutilated that he died shortly afterward. The Qashqai tribes were then forced to move to the districts of Darregaz, Kalat-e Naderi and Sarakòs in Khorasan.

While Karim Khan Zand ruled from Esfahan (1751-1765), Esma¿il Khan wrote him a letter asking him to allow his tribes to return to their former pastures in Fars. On the verso of this letter, Karim Khan answered in the affirmative. Thus, the Qashqai were able to return to Fars. Later, Esma¿il Khan became a confident of the Vakil (Rostam al-Tawarikò, pp. 337, 343), and one is tempted to believe that he is the blind man standing immediately to the left of Karim Khan and identified simply as "Esma¿il Khan" in the picture which is to be found on the cover of Add. 24,904 in the British Museum.

During the period of anarchy that followed the death of Karim Khan in 1779, Esma¿il Khan threw in his lot with Zaki Khan, claiming for himself the title of governor of Fars province, but when Zaki Khan was slain, Esma¿il Khan was executed by another contender for the crown, ¿Ali Morad Khan. Esma¿il was succeeded as chief by his only son, Jan Moháammad Khan, popularly known as Jani Khan, who backed Ja¿far Khan (whose father, S®adeq Khan, had likewise been murdered by ¿Ali Morad Khan). In 1788, AIqa Moháammad Khan Qajar launched a campaign against the Qashqai in the Gandoman region. But the Qashqai , having been forewarned of the impending attack, retreated to safety in the mountains. After the assassination of Ja¿far Khan in 1789, Jaani Khan supported that ruler's son, LotÂf ¿Ali Khan.

When AIqa Moháammad Khan defeated LotÂf ¿Ali Khan in 1794 and established the Qajar dynasty, Jani Khan and his family withdrew into the Zagros mountains, where they remained in hiding until the murder of the Qajar ruler in 1797. AIqa Moháammad Khan revenged himself upon the I1-e Qashqai by moving some of its component tribes (including the ¿Abd al-Maleki) to Northern Persia. On the other hand, during this period a large number of Luri and Kurdish tribes, which had followed Karim Khan to Fars, joined the Il-e Qashqai , thus greatly enlarging it.

In 1818/19, Jani Khan was given the title of ilkòani, which, Fasai claims, was the first time that title had been used in Fars (Fars Nama I, p. 267). Thereafter, all the paramount chiefs of the Il-e Qashqai bore that title. When he died in 1823/24, Jani Khan was succeeded by his eldest son, Moháammad ¿Ali Khan. Even though Moháammad ¿Ali Khan was of trail health and led his tribes mostly from his Baga-e Aram garden palace in Shiraz, he acquired enormous power, his sway extending not only over the Qashqai tribes but also over such important tribes as the Baharlu, the Aynallu and the Nafar. He also forged useful marital alliances with the Qajar dynasty. He married a daughter of H®osayn ¿Ali Mirza Farman-Farma, a son of Fathá ¿Ali Shah who was governor-general of Fars province, and, later, he arranged for one of his sons to marry a sister of Moháammad Shah Qajar (r. 1834-1848). But, in 1836, he was summoned to Tehran and then forced to reside at the Imperial Court for the rest of the shah's reign.

Moháammad ¿Ali Khan returned to Shiraz in 1849, during the first year of Nasáer al-Din Shah's reign (r. 1848-1896), and died three years later. He was succeeded by his brother, Moháammad Qoli Khan, whose powers were limited by the presence in Tehran of a strong, stable central government that was determined to stamp out tribal unrest and banditry. The new ilkòani was forced to reside in Shiraz as a hostage for the good behavior of his tribes. In 1861/62, Nasáer al-Din Shah further curbed his authority by creating a rival tribal confederacy, the "Il-e Khamsa" ("Confederacy of Five"), consisting of the Baharlu, Aynallu, Nafar, Basáeri and Arab tribes, and headed by the rich and powerful Qawami family of Shiraz.When he died in 1867/68, Moháammad Qoli Khan was succeeded by his weak, alcoholic son, SoltÂan Moháammad Khan. Under the latter's ineffectual leadership, the Qashqai tribes faced their greatest challenge, the terrible famine of the early 1870's. Although SoltÂan Moháammad Khan retired from active leadership in 1871/72, he retained his title. During this period, the Qashqai tribal confederacy stood on the brink of disintegration. George Nathaniel Curzon wrote: "the tribal affairs fell into the hands of smaller khans, which resulted in internal dissension. Owing to this, about 5,000 families went over to the Bakhtiaris, and an equal number to the Iliat Khamsah, and about 4,000 families dispersed themselves to different villages" (Persia and the Persian Question I, p. 113).

It was only in 1904, when Esma¿il Khan S®owlat al-Dowla became ilkòani, that the Qashqai once more regained their former cohesion and might. At that time, Persia was ruled by the ailing, corrupt Mozáaffar al-Din Shah (1896-1907), and the authority of the central government over the provinces was steadily eroding. In Fars, S®owlat al-Dowla gained control of most of the tribal hinterland, while his arch-rival, Qawam al-Molk (the Qawami leader), established his power base in Shiraz.

During the Persian revolution of 1906-1911, Fars became the scene of unprecedented chaos as the two camps struggled for dominance. At first, probably because the Qawami favored the Royalists, the Qashqai supported the Constitutionalists. Later, when the Bakòtiari leaders became dominant in Tehran and the Qawami sided with them, S®owlat al-Dowla formed an anti-Bakòtiari and anti-Qawami alliance with the reactionary Sheikh Khaz¿al of Moháammarah and Sardar-e Ashraf, the wali of the Posht-e Kuh, called the "Etteháad-e Jonub" ("League of the South").

The civil war in Fars grew even more intense as the British government became embroiled in it. The British, who established their oil concession in Khuzestan in 1908, felt threatened by the League of the South. They were also increasingly irritated by the high incidence of banditry and the extortionate demands of tribal toll collectors on the Bushehr-Shiraz road, which was the main artery of British trade with Persia. Because the road passed through Qashqai territory, British merchants blamed S®owlat al-Dowla for their losses. Thus the British Consulate in Shiraz became a focal point of pro-Qawami sentiment. The unrest in Fars reached its climax in July 1911, when a combined force of Qashqai warriors and troops belonging to the pro-Qashqai governor-general of Fars, Nezáam al-Saltana, repeatedly stormed Qawami positions throughout the city. But in September, British threats of intervention and defections from S®owlat al-Dowla's tribal army finally convinced the ilkòani to withdraw from the scene.In World War I, Fars once more became a seething cauldron of conflict. After the proclamation of Jihad by Enver Pasha, it was optimistically believed by Turkish and German leaders that Muslims from French North Africa to British India would spontaneously revolt against their infidel masters, and that even such neutral states as Persia and Afghanistan would make common cause with the ottoman empire. To facilitate this task, the German government planned to dispatch a whole contingent of agents provocateurs to Persia and Afghanistan. But when no uprisings took place and the Persian and Afghan governments remained stubbornly neutral, the German plans were accordingly scaled back. In the end, only two small groups of agents were sent, one to Persia and the other to Afghanistan.

The agents who were sent to Persia were headed by Wilhelm Wassmuss, who had previously been German consul in Bushehr, where he had befriended tribal leaders who resented British interference in their arms smuggling operations. In spring 1915, Wassmuss was sent to Shiraz as German consul. On his way through Southern Fars, his two German aides were arrested by the British and all his equipment, as well as his secret codes, seized. Nevertheless, during the following three years, he was able to cause such widespread mayhem in the province that he became known as the "German Lawrence." Anticipating the rapid destruction of British forces in Mesopotamia, he decided to open a corridor from the southeastern reaches of the Ottoman empire to India to be used as a prospective route for an invasion of the Raj. In November, 1915, he led a coup in Shiraz together with pro-German officers of the newly-created Gendarmerie, in the course of which the British Consul and eleven other British subjects were apprehended. The women were later released, but the men were incarcerated in the fortress of Ahram, near the Persian Gulf, which belonged to a pro-German sheikh.

However, Wassmuss's triumph was ephemeral, for his support came mostly from the coastal tribes of Dashtestan and Tangestan, which were too far from Shiraz to be of much help. In February, 1916, Qawam al-Molk, the pro-British governor-general of Fars, who had fled to British-occupied Bushehr during Wassmuss's coup, set out for Shiraz with his British-supplied private army. Although he was killed in a hunting accident on the way, his son, who inherited the title, completed the journey, and, together with pro-British officers of the Gendarmerie, recaptured the provincial capital. A new, British-officered Persian force, the South Persia Rifles, was then organized to prevent any further pro-German coups.

After that, Wassmuss directed most of his energies to forming new tribal alliances, especially with the kalantar of Kazerun and the Qashqai ilkòani. S®owlat al-Dowla was particularly susceptible to his appeal, for he still bore a grudge against the British for their support of the Qawami in 1911 and viewed the formation of the South Persia Rifles as a British plot to further increase their power. Moreover, he was easily convinced by Wassmuss that Turkish forces which were then invading Western Persia would soon oust the British from Persia. Therefore, he finally decided to take action against the British. But he quickly learned that he had overestimated the strength of his tribal army. In May 1918, a large Qashqai force attacked a detachment of the South Persia Rifles at Khana Zenyan, on the Bushehr-Shiraz road. As British troops rushed to the rescue, a major battle took place between the Qashqai and the relief column. In this engagement, Qashqai forces far outnumbered those of Great Britain, but they were nonetheless decisively defeated. As the war was winding down in Europe, Wassmuss fled to Qom, where he was finally captured by the British in 1919.During the reign of Reza Shah (1925-1941), the Qashqai suffered great hardship. In 1926, S®owlat al-Dowla and his eldest son, Nasáer Khan, were summoned to Tehran as deputies in the new Majles, but they quickly realized that they were virtual prisoners of the Shah. They were forced to cooperate with the central government in its efforts to disarm the Qashqai tribes. Then they were stripped of their parliamentary immunity and thrown into jail. Meanwhile, military governors were assigned to the various Qashqai tribes, the tribesmen were subjected to the Shah's highly unpopular military conscription law and a new taxation system was established which was often abused by corrupt government tax collectors.

In the spring of 1929, the nomads' resentment, which had been further exacerbated by the barbarity of some of the military governors, led to a widespread uprising in Southern Persia in which the Qashqai played the leading role. After several months of fighting, the central government signed a truce according to which S®owlat al-Dowla and Nasáer Khan were reinstated as members of the Majles, the military governors were withdrawn from tribal territories and a general amnesty was declared. However, Reza Shah was determined to put an end to the tribal system in Persia, and, just as he crushed the Lors, the Kurds and the Arabs, he finally crushed the Qashqai . In 1932, the Qashqai once more rebelled, but in vain. In 1933, S®owlat al-Dowla was put to death in one of the Shah's prisons, and, shortly thereafter, the Shah, having decided to force the nomads to settle down upon the land, cut off their migration routes with his modern, mechanized army. This shortsighted policy did not produce agriculturists, but only starving nomads, and William O. Douglas was probably right when he wrote that "they would have been wiped out in a few decades had the conditions persisted" (p. 139).

When Reza Shah abdicated in September 1941, Nasáer Khan and his brother Khosrow Khan escaped from Tehran, where they had been forced to reside, and hastened back to Fars. Proclaiming himself ilkòani, Nasáer Khan reconstituted the Il-e Qashqai , repossessed all the tribal territories and ordered the resumption of the tribal migrations. But he had inherited his father's Anglophobia and propensity for fishing in troubled waters. Certain that the German thrust toward the Caucasus was a mere preamble to a German invasion of Persia and its liberation from the hated British, he, like his father before him, decided to back Germany in a world conflict.Having heard that the German agent, Berthold Schulze-Holthus (of the Abwehr), was hiding in Tehran, he urged him to come to Fars in the late spring of 1942. Thereupon, Schulze-Holthus set out for Qashqai headquarters in Firuzabad and became Nasáer Khan's military advisor. Later, several more German agents were dropped by parachute in Qashqai territory. But few of the weapons that the Germans had promised to send to the Qashqai ever materialized.

Instead of sending a British force into Fars to subdue the Qashqai , the British prevailed upon the Persian government to do so. In the spring of 1943, Persian troops were duly dispatched to the South and a series of clashes occurred with the Qashqai , the Boyr Ahámadi and other refractory tribes. In this campaign, the Persian army suffered several major defeats.

Especially devastating was the mass slaughter of the Persian garrison at Samirom by the Qashqai and their Boyr Ahámadi allies, in which the Persian army lost 200 men and three colonels. A treaty was finally signed between the central government and Nasáer Khan according to which the Qashqai were allowed to retain their autonomy, as well as their weapons, in exchange for accepting the establishment of Persian military garrisons in Firuzabad, Farrashband and Qal¿a Parian. In 1943, Nasáer Khan's two other brothers, Malek Mansáur Khan and Moháammad H®osayn Khan returned to Persia from exile in Germany. They were arrested by the British and, in the spring of 1944, they were exchanged for Schulze-Holthus and the other German agents, whose presence among the Qashqai had, by that time, become a liability for Nasáer Khan.

In 1946, there was yet another major tribal uprising in Southern Persia. This time, it was actually encouraged by the central government. The prime minister, Ahámad Qawam, who was under great pressure by the Soviet Union to accept a Soviet oil concession in Northern Persia, had already been coerced into accepting three Communist Tudeh Party members in his cabinet. He felt that a widespread anti-Soviet uprising in Southern Persia would act as a counterweight to that pressure. Nasáer Khan needed little prompting, for he detested the Soviets as much as he abhorred the British, and he calculated that if, for some reason, the Qawam government should falter, he himself might provide alternate leadership as the head of a grand anti-Communist coalition.

But Nasáer Khan also wanted to improve living conditions in Fars. Therefore, in September 1946, he called a conference of the major tribal and religious leaders of the province at Ùenar Rahdar and a "national" movement called "Sa¿dun" ("The Happy Ones") was created which demanded, among other things, the resignation of the entire cabinet, except for Premier Qawam, the allocation of two-thirds of Fars's taxes to the province, the immediate formation of provincial councils and more representatives from Fars in the Majles.

When these demands were rejected, tribes from Khuzestan to Kerman rose en masse. The Qashqai seized the towns of Kazerun and AIbada, and broke through the outer defenses of Shiraz. Premier Qawam's scheme worked to perfection, for, in October, he was able to form a new cabinet without any Tudeh Party members.

Meanwhile, he had signed an agreement which accepted most of Sa¿dun's demands. Moreover, a few months later, Khosrow Khan was elected as a member of Qawam's Demokrat-e Iran party to represent the Qashqai in the Fifteenth Majles, which rejected the Soviet concession.

During the years 1945-1953, Il-e Qashqai thrived as never before. It enjoyed almost complete autonomy, and, under the enlightened leadership of the "Four Brothers", as S®owlat al-Dowla's sons were called, the tribesmen prospered. Nasáer Khan and Malek Mansáur Khan functioned as tribal leaders in Fars, while Moháammad H®osayn Khan and Khosrow Khan represented the interests of the confederacy in the Persian capital.

But, in 1953, the Four Brothers once more displayed their anti-Pahlavi sentiments by supporting Moháammad Mosáaddeq in his attempt to overthrow the Shah. Khosrow Khan severely criticized the Shah in the Majles, and, when Mosáaddeq was arrested, Qashqai forces briefly threatened to seize Shiraz in a futile attempt to convince the pro-shah Zahedi government to free him. As a result, in 1954, the Four Brothers were exiled and all their properties were confiscated by the Persian government.

During the 25 years that followed the expatriation of the Four Brothers, new efforts were undertaken by the central government to make the nomads adopt a sedentary way of life. According to Lois Beck, "Because of far-reaching disruptions brought about by scarcity of pastures, government restrictions, undermined tribal institutions, and capitalist expansion, most Qashqa'i found it exceedingly difficult to continue nomadic pastoralism" (The Qashqa'i of Iran, p. 251). As a result, thousands of tribesmen moved to cities, such as Shiraz, Bushehr, Ahwaz and AIbadan, seeking work as laborers in factories and in the oil industry. With the loss of their traditional way of life, the tribesmen gradually lost the cohesion which had once made them strong, and they were unable to prevent the government from establishing direct control over them. In 1963, the government officially declared tribes to be non-existent, and all the remaining khans were stripped of their titles and prerogatives. So confident was the Shah that the tribal problem had at last been solved that he allowed Malek Mansáur Khan and Moháammad H®osayn Khan to return to Persia, provided they stayed out of Fars province.Many Qashqai participated in the demonstrations which led to the fall of the Shah in 1979, and, during the revolution, Nasáer Khan and Khosrow Khan made their way back to Persia. At first, relations between the Qashqai and the Khomeini regime were harmonious. Nasáer Khan visited Khomeini shortly after the Ayatollah's arrival in Tehran, and, later, Khomeini publicly praised the Qashqai leaders for their assistance in maintaining order in Fars. Although Nasáer Khan was warmly welcomed by the Qashqai, he made no attempt to restore tribal autonomy or even to resume his functions as paramount chief of the confederacy. But Khomeini's determination to establish a highly centralized theocratic state soon alienated the tribal population of Persia, and relations with the Four Brothers became increasingly strained. Accusations against Khosrow Khan to the effect that he had been a CIA agent and an attempt by the Revolutionary Guards to arrest him in Tehran in June 1980 finally led to a complete breakdown in the relationship between the Qashqai and the new regime.

Eluding his captors, Khosrow Khan sought refuge in the Qashqai capital of Firuzabad in Eastern Fars, where he was joined by Nasáer Khan and several other tribal chiefs. When Revolutionary Guards converged upon the town, the Qashqai leaders and some 600 tribal warriors set up an armed camp in the nearby mountains. For two years, the Qashqai insurgents defied the central government and repelled repeated attacks by the Revolutionary Guards. In July 1980, Rudaba Khanom, Nasáer Khan's wife, died of diphtheria in Firuzabad. In April 1982, a surprise night attack by Revolutionary Guards who had been transported by helicopters finally compelled the Qashqai to abandon their camp and move to higher ground, leaving behind all their equipment and medical supplies. A few days later, ¿Abdollah Khan, Nasáer Khan's eldest son, who was the insurgents' only doctor, died of a heart attack. This loss so devastated Nasáer Khan that he decided to give up the struggle, and, in May 1982 he fled Persia by way of Kurdistan with the help of the Jaf Kurds.

In July, Khosrow Khan negotiated a settlement with the central government, which put an end to the tribal rebellion. But, in September 1982, the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Shiraz condemned him to death and he was hung in one of the city's major squares on October 8. Several other Qashqai leaders, including Malek Mansáur Khan, were also arrested.

When Nasáer Khan died in January 1984, the history of the I1-e Qashqai truly ended, for he was the last ilkòani.

Bibliography.
General works:
Lois Beck, The Qashqa'i of Iran, New Haven, 1974. Pierre Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads of Fars, The Hague, 1974. Early history: Mirza ¿Abd al-Karim, "Zeyl-e Mirza ¿Abd al-Karim", in Mirza Moháammad S®adeq, Tarikò-e Giti Gosha, Tehran, 1938/29, pp. 276-373. Moháammad Hashem AIsáaf Rostam al-H®okama, Rostam al-Tawarikò, Tehran, 1969. Jean Aubin, "References pour Lar medievale", Journal Asiatique 243, 1955, pp. 491-505. Mirza Moháammad Kalantar-e Fars, Ruznama, Tehran, 1946.
Nineteenth century;
Heribert Busse, History of Persia under Qajar Rule (trans. of H®asan Fasai's Fars Nama, Vol. I), New York, 1972. George Nathaniel Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, 2 vols, London, 1892. Mirza H®asan Fasai, Fars Nama-ye Nasáer I, 2 vols. 11th, Tehran, 1896/97. Reza Qoli Khan Hedayat, Tarikò-e Rowzat al-S®afa, Qom, 1960/61, Vol. X. Moháammad Ja¿far Khan Khormuji, Fars Nama, lath. Tehran, 1859. Augustus H. Mounsey, A Journey Through the Caucasus and the Interior of Persia, London, 1872. Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Viaje al interior de Persia, Madrid, 1880-81, Vol. I. Mirza Moháammad Taqi Lesan al-Molk Sepehr, Nasekò al-Tawarikò: Dowra-ye Kamel-e Tarikò-e Qajariyya, Tehran, 1958/59. Zayn al-¿AIbedin SHirvani, Bostan al-Siaháat, lith. Tehran, 1892/93.
Persian Revolution of 1906-1911:
Gustave Demorgny, "Les reformer administratives en Perse: les tribus du Fars". RMM 22, March 1913, pp. 85-150; RMM 23, July 1913, pp. 1-108. Pierre Oberling, "British Tribal Policy in Southern Persia, 1906-1911", Journal of Asian History IV, no. 1, 1970, pp. 50-79. Arnold Talbot Wilson, Report on Fars, Simla, 1916.
World War I:
Roknzada AIdamiyyat, Fars va Jang-e Beynolmelal, Tehran, 1933. Ulrich Gehrke, Persien in der deutschen Orientpolitik, wahrend der Ersten Welt Krieqes, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1961. Dagobert von Mikusch, Wassmuss, der deutsche Lawrence, Berlin, 1938. Christopher Sykes, Wassmuss, the German Lawrence, London, 1936. Percy M. Sykes, A History of Persia, Third Edition, London, 1951, Vol. I.
Reza Shah period:
Kaveh Bayat, SHuresh-e ¿Ashayeri Fars 1307-1309 h.sh., Tehran, 1987. Wipert von Blucher, Zeitenwende in Iran, Ravensburg, 1949. G. F. Magee, The Tribes of Fars, Simla, 1945. Ferdinand Taillardat, "La revolte du Khouzistan et du Fars", L'Asie francaise, May 1930, pp. 176-179. Leon Van Vassenhove, "La revolte de Chiraz", Le Temps, Aug. 1, 1929, p. 2. Mir H®osayn Yekrengian, Golgun-e Kafnan, Tehran, 1957.
World war II:
George Eden Kirk, The Middle East in the War, London, 1953. Berthold Schulze-Holthus, Daybreak in Iran, London, 1954.
Post-World War I period and 1946 rebellion:
Peter Avery, Modern Iran, New York, 1965. William O. Douglas, Strange Lands and Friendly People, Garden City, 1958. Oliver Garrod, "The Qashqai Tribe of Fars", Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society 33, 1946, pp. 293-306. George Lenczowski, Russia and the West in Iran, 1918-1948, Ithaca, 1949. Marie-Therese Ullens de Schooten, Lords of the Mountains: Southern Persia and the Kashkai Tribe, London, 1956.
Mosáaddeq period:
Kermit Roosevelt, Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran, New York, 1979. Recent events:
Lois Beck, "Tribe and State in Revolutionary Iran: The Return of the Qashqa'i Khans", Iranian Studies 13 (1-4), pp. 215-255.

(PIERRE OBERLING)

7 Jamuary 2004

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