2 - Qajar Autocracy

Summary

This chapter analyzes the rise and consolidation of Qajar rule from a tribal monarchy to a national dynasty. It examines the pervasiveness of centrifugal forces dominating the country’s landscape following the collapse of the Safavid dynasty, and slow rise in the 1780s of the Qajars from a tribal chieftaincy to a dynasty. The Qajars consolidated power, eliminated various tribal rivals, incorporated the clerical classes into the power structure, and implemented what was at best halting and scant social and economic reforms. Personal autocracy, and the avarice of successive monarchs and courtiers, undermined prospects for any kind of political development, paving the way for the dynasty’s steady decline and eventual collapse.