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Tribe and State in Revolutionary Iran: The Return of the Qashqa'i Khans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Lois Beck
Lois Beck*
Affiliation:
Washington University in St. Louis
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Extract

This paper discusses the attempted resumption of paramount Qashqa'i leadership upon the fall of the Pahlavi regime in 1979. Paramount Qashqa'i leaders had been exiled from Iran following their support of Prime Minister Mosaddeq in the early 1950s and had, since then, either remained in exile or returned to Iran to live under political restrictions. In early 1979, those in exile returned to Iran and joined the others in resuming positions of regional and national political power.

These questions are central to the discussion and analysis: What was the nature of Qashqa'i leadership both before and during Pahlavi rule, and how and why had it changed under the Islamic Republic of Iran? How had changes in Iran affecting the Qashqa'i people between 1953 and 1979 affected the attempted resumption of paramount leadership? How had the nature of the Iranian state changed during these periods? How are Qashqa'i leaders best characterized? Are they “tribal” or national-minority leaders, or are they better seen as regional and national powers? How is Qashqa'i leadership different from other kinds of political leadership in Iran, in particular that of other tribes and national minorities, and why?

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1-4: Iranian Revolution in Perspective , 1980 , pp. 215 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1980

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Footnotes

Sections of this paper are based on interviews conducted in the summer of 1979 in Iran and Great Britain with many Qashqa'i leaders and on correspondence and telephone conversations since then. I am deeply indebted to the many Qashqa'i who aided me in the research. At a later date I will be able to acknowledge them by name. For any factual errors or misjudgments, I alone am responsible. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Anthropology Colloquium at Yale University in October 1979, and Gene Garthwaite, Richard Tapper, and Leonard Helfgott offered helpful comments on all or part of the written draft. I especially appreciate the lengthy comments and suggestions provided by Mary Hooglund and Eric Hooglund, who lived in southern Iran in 1978-79, and by Brad Hanson, who was associated with the tribal education program in Fars from 1973 to 1977.

References

Notes

1. Oberling, Pierre, The Qashqa'i Nomads of Fars (The Hague: Mouton, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lois Beck, “Iran and the Qashqa'i Tribal Confederacy,” in Richard Tapper, ed., Tribe and State in Afghanistan and Iran from 1800-1980 (forthcoming).

2. Beck, Lois, “Economic Transformations among Qashqa'i Nomads, 1962-1978,” in Bonine, Michael and Keddie, Nikki, eds., Modern Iran: Dialectics of Continuity and Change (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981).Google Scholar

3. This is a summary of the dominant characteristics of Qashqa'i leadership in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. My forthcoming book on the Qashqa'i political system provides historical depth and context.

4. Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads, pp. 31, 35; “The Turkic Peoples of Southern Iran” (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1960), p. 202.

5. See Perry, John, Karim Khan Zand: A History of Iran, 1749-1779 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lambton, A. K. S., “The Tribal Resurgence and the Decline of the Bureaucracy in the Eighteenth Century,” in Naff, Thomas and Owen, Roger, eds., Studies in Eighteenth Century Islamic History (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1977), pp. 110–111.Google Scholar

6. Beck, “Iran and the Qashqa'i Tribal Confederacy.”

7. Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads, p. 195.

8. Beck, Lois, “Herd Owners and Hired Shepherds: The Qashqa'i of Iran,” Ethnology XIX (July 1980), pp. 327–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. Ibid.; Beck, Lois, “Women among Qashqa'i Nomadic Pastoralists in Iran,” in Beck, Lois and Keddie, Nikki, eds., Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. This appears to be the last time that the state appointed an ilkhani.

11. Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads, pp. 200-201; Lambton, A. K. S., The Persian Land Reform 1962-1966 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

12. Beck, “Economic Transformations among Qashqa'i Nomads.”

13. For Bahmanbegi's account of the tribal education program, see “Qashqa'i: Hardy Shepherds of Iran's Zagros Mountains Build a Future through Tent-school Education,” Nomads of the World (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1971).Google Scholar See also Paul Barker, “Tent Schools of the Qashqa'i: A Paradox of Local Initiative and State Control,” in Michael Bonine and Nikki Keddie, eds., Modern Iran: Dialectics of Continuity and Change.

14. Most of the information in this paragraph derives from letters (January 21, 1981, and March 30, 1981) and conversations with Mary Hooglund and Eric Hooglund.

15. Mary Hooglund, personal communication, January 21, 1981.

16. Lois Beck, “Revolutionary Iran and Its Tribal Peoples,” MERIP Reports, No. 87, 10 (May 1980), pp. 14-20.

17. Mary Hooglund and Eric Hooglund, personal communication.

18. I heard a tape recording of the speech but was unable to discover the date of its original broadcast.

19. Other than several female members of the ruling elite, Qashqa'i women and children did not attend this gathering.

20. On several previous occasions of political unrest in Fars, Qashqa'i forces have attacked the airport and damaged equipment that could be used militarily against them.

21. Mary Hooglund, Personal communication, January 21, 1981.

22. The Qashqa'i khans and some ulama were allied during the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911 (Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads, p. 99), during World War I, and in the 1940s (ibid., pp. 186, 188).

23. Revolutionary guards did not return to Firuzabad in force until June 1980.

24. The two-eared Qashqa'i hat made its first appearance in the 1940s, introduced by Naser Khan upon his return to Fars after Reza Shah's abdication.

25. With bazaar moneylenders and merchants, capitalist stock raisers, and some urban employers.

26. In 1910 the Qashqa'i ilkhani and leaders of Arab and Lur tribes formed the “League of the South” (Ettehad-e Jonub), and in 1946 Naser Khan formed an alliance of tribal and religious leaders of Fars (Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads, pp. 99, 186).

27. Mohammad Hosayn Khan, personal communication, London, July 29, 1979.

28. For the situation in one village in Fars, see Mary Hooglund, “One Village in the Revolution,” MERIP Reports, No. 87, 10 (May 1980), pp. 7-12.

29. The ‘Amaleh tribe, the largest of the Qashqa'i tribes, had received its pasture allotments from the ilkhani; the tribe had no khans of its own and was vulnerable when the paramount khans were exiled.

30. Bahmanbegi's wife is a Lur.

31. See Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads.

32. Upon their return to Iran, Naser Khan and Khosrow Khan announced publicly that they were donating Bagh-e Eram to the people of Shiraz, to be used as a religious center and museum. However, given that legal title was in question, the family continued to discuss the property. In the meantime, revolutionary guards took possession of it.

33. Oberling, The Qashqa'i Nomads, pp. 237-240.

34. See Beck, “Revolutionary Iran,” p. 20.

35. Ettehadiyeh-ye Dina. Mount Dina is the highest mountain in Qashqa'i territory and dominates much of summer pastures.

36. Malek Mansur Khan, personal communication, Tehran, August 28, 1979.

37. Malek Mansur Khan, personal communication, Tehran, September 5, 1979.

38. This was suggested by Gene Garthwaite, personal communication, March 30, 1981.