Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:18:23.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Bakhtiyâri Khans, The Government of Iran, and the British, 1846–19151

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Gene R. Garthwaite
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

Extract

Great power rivalry in nineteenth and early twentieth century Iran and the Qajar dynasty's dependence upon British and Russian support have long attracted the attention of western scholars. Recent scholarship also has begun tocus on internal power shifts in response to these conditions. An important element in these processes, but one which has been relatively unstudied, is political change within the great tribal confederations, especially the Bakhtiyâri. A number of elements contributed to the political transformation of the Bakhtiyâri. To begin with, the heightening of political activity in the tribe coincided with a decline of central power and authority and the growth of Anglo-Russian rivalry in Iran. Also significant was the concentration of powerand wealth within one princely family of the Bakhtiyâri. In addition a number of economic and strategic factors played a role in creating a new alignment of power among the Bakhtiyâri and Tehran and Great Britain. Chief among these elements were the increasing strategic and economic importance of the Bakhtiyâri winter pasture area in Khuzistan following the discovery of the oil fields there and the new national political role played by the Bakhtiyâri following the Persian Revolution.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 24 note 2 A title used by Turkic tribes to indicate the chief of the tribe and used by the Qâjârs in the nineteenth century for appointed tribal leaders, especially the paramount khhans of the Bakhtiyâri and Qashqāi.Google Scholar

page 24 note 3 Bakhtiyâri, Sarhang Abu'l Fath Ozhân, Tarikh-e Bakhtiyâri (Tehran, 1345/1967), pp. 8182 and 85.Google Scholar

page 25 note 1 Sir Layard, Henry, Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia (New York, 1887).Google Scholar

page 25 note 2 Garthwaite, G. R., ‘Pastoral Nomadism and Tribal Power’. Paper prepared for delivery at the Conference on the Structure of Power in Islamic Iran, University of California, 26–28 June 1969.Google Scholar

page 26 note 1 Haft Leng and Chhaâr Leng are usually translated as ‘seven legs’ and ‘four legs’, but possibly refer to a rate of taxation dating from the Safavid period when Leng was half a joft, or pair (communication from Professor Amin Banani, University of California, Los Angeles).Google Scholar

page 26 note 2 There are problems in defining and translating the many terms used by the Bakhiyâri for their tribal components. There is a similar difficulty for bedouin society, and Robert Murphy and Leonard Kasdan have written: ‘The prefix bait, for example, may be encountered in the name of a group numbering in the thousands and can also be correct usage for the inhabitants of a single tent. As Evans-Pritchard…notes, … for all these terms are relative and are used in a more or less comprehensive sense according to the context.’Google ScholarMurphy, Robert F. and Kasdan, Leonard, The structure of Parallel Cousin Marriage,’ American Anthropologist, LXI (02 1959), 1819.Google Scholar

page 26 note 3 Garthwaite, ‘Pastoral Nomadism,’ p. 55; see, also, Barth, Fredrik, Nomads of South Persia (Oslo, 1964), pp. 82–4.Google Scholar

page 27 note 1 es-Saltaneh, E'temâd, Ruznâmeh-ye khâterât-e E'temâd es-Saltaneh, ed. by Afshhar, Iraj (Tehran, 1345/1967), p. 197.Google Scholar

page 27 note 2 Ozhân, Târikhh-e Bakhtiyâri, p. 87.Google Scholar

page 27 note 3 Ilbeg, another Turkic title used by the Bakhtiyâri to designate the Ilkhân's assistant.Google Scholar

page 28 note 1 Britain, Great, Foreign Office, Inclosure in no. 99, Churchill to Wolff, 14. July 1888, FO 539/39.Google Scholar

page 28 note 2 Curzon, Lord, Persia and the Persian Question (New York, 1892), p. 295.Google Scholar

page 28 note 3 Government of India, Foreign Department, Secret E, November 1892, no. 37, Preece to Minister in Tehran, Isfahan, 6 August 1892.Google Scholar

page 28 note 4 Great Britain, Foreign Office, Preece to Lascelles, Isfahan, 20 December 1893, FO 248/548.Google Scholar

page 29 note 1 Hâjj Khosrou Khan Sardâr Zafar, ‘Târikh-e Bakhtiyâri’ (1329/1911–1333/1914; MSS in the library of the Honorable Mr Malekshah Zafar Bakhtiyâri), p. 84.Google Scholar

page 29 note 2 Ibid.

page 29 note 3 Ibid., pp. 84–5.

page 29 note 4 Ibid.

page 30 note 1 Government of India, Foreign Department, no. 379, May 1882, Ronald F. Thompson to Earl Granville, no. 18, Tehran, 25 January 1882, transmission of a report made by Mr Baring of a journey in Southern Iran, 27 October 1881 to 24 January 1882.Google Scholar

page 30 note 2 Hurewitz, J. C., ‘Curzon's Analysis of British Policy and Interests in Persia and the Persian Gulf, 21 September 1899’, Diplomacy in the Near and Middle East, vol. I (Princeton, 1958), pp. 224–5.Google Scholar

page 30 note 3 Kazemzadeh, Firuz, Russia and Great Britain in Persia 1864–1914; A Study in Imperialism (New Haven, 1968), p. 344.Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 Government of India, Foreign Department, Capt. Hennell, S., Resident in the Persian Gulf, to Colonel Sheil, Envoy and Minister, Erzerum, no. 2, 8 February 1841, Secret.Google Scholar

page 31 note 2 Great Britain, Foreign Office, Inclosure in rio. 4, Durand to Salisbury, ‘Extract from Consul Preece's Report on the Bakhtiari Country’, Isfahan, 24 october 1895, F.O. 539/74.Google Scholar

page 31 note 3 Ibid.

page 31 note 4 Great Britain, Foreign Office, no. 73, inclosure 2, Hardinge to Salisbury, Tehran, 7 May 1897, F.O. 539/76.Google Scholar

page 32 note 1 Great Britain, Foreign Office, no. 57, Hardinge to Salisbury, Tehran, 28 March 1898, F.O. 539/78.Google Scholar

page 32 note 2 Government of India, Foreign Department, Secret E, November 1901, Proceeding 9, Hardinge to Lansdowne, Golhak, 26 June 1901.Google Scholar

page 32 note 3 Ibid., Proceeding 10, Hardinge to Lansdowne, Golhak, 6 July 1901.

page 33 note 1 Ibid., Proceeding 129 Hardinge to F.O., no. 22, Tehran, 21 August 1903.

page 34 note 1 Ibid., Proceeding 650, Spring-Rice to Secretary Foreign Department, Government of India, Tehran, 2 November 1906.

page 34 note 2 Great Britain, Foreign Office, No. 16, Spring-Rice to Greys, Tehran, 5 April 1907, F.O. 416/32.Google Scholar

page 35 note 1 Government of India, Foreign Department, Secret E, Proceedings 1–15, August 1907, no. 22, Spring Rice to Grey, 26 April 1907.Google Scholar

page 35 note 2 Ibid., Prodeedings 319–27, November 1907, no. 319, Loraine to Spring Rice, 20 May 1907.

page 35 note 3 Ibid., Enclosure in no. 325 Lormier to Spring Rice, 20 June 1907.

page 36 note 1 Ibid., Proceeding 222, Lorimer to Spring-Rice, January 1908.

page 36 note 2 Sir Wilson, Arnold, Southwest Persia: A Political Officers' Diary 1907–1914 (London, 1941), p. 18.Google Scholar

page 36 note 3 Elwell-Sutton, L. P., Persian Oil: A Study in Power Politics (London, 1955), pp. 1920.Google Scholar

page 36 note 4 Lt Wilson, A. T., A Précis of the Relations of the British Government with the Tribes and Shaikhs of Arabistan (Calcutta, 1912), p. 37.Google Scholar

page 37 note 1 Government of India, Foreign Department, Secret E, Proceeding 524, Barclay to Grey, Tehran, October 1909.Google Scholar

page 37 note 2 Ibid., Proceeding 545, Ranking to Barclay, Camp Qaleh-ye Tol, 14. October 1910 –Ahwaz, 28 October 1910. See also Garthwaite, ‘Pastoral Nomadism’, p. 55.

page 37 note 3 Young, M. Y., ‘Memorandum: The Governorship of Bakhtiaristan’ [August 1932], private paper to the author, 1967.Google Scholar

page 38 note 1 Garthwaite, G. R., Appendix IX, ‘Copy of Agreement Given to Serdar Jang’ in ‘The Bakhtiyâri Khans: Tribal Disunity in Iran’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1969), pp. 334–8.Google Scholar

page 39 note 1 Government of India, Foreign Department, External B, Proceeding 18, Townley to Grey, no. 15, Tehran, 10 July 1912.Google Scholar

page 39 note 2 Ibid., Proceeding 181, Townley to Grey, Tehran, 6 August 1912.

page 40 note 1 Great Britain, India Office Library, Miscellaneous Lists, no. 20 Political and Secret Files, vol. II, 1917, 469, Pt. I, ‘Persia: Bakhtiari Affairs’, register no. 1082B, Cox to F.O., Tehran, and India Office, 10 May 1915.Google Scholar

page 40 note 2 Ibid.

page 40 note 3 Ibid., vol. 50, 1914, 3516, Pt. 12, register no. 1748, ‘Minute Paper’, 10 and 12 May 1915.

page 40 note 4 Government of India, Foreign Department, Secret War, March 1916, Proceeding 45, British Minister to Secretary, Government of India, Foreign and Political Department, no. 386F, Tehran, 7 October 1915.Google Scholar

page 41 note 1 Great Britain, India Office Library Miscellaneous Lists no. 20. Political and Secret Files, vol. 50, 1914, 3516, Pt. 12, ‘[B]akhtiari Affairs’, register no 2218, Cox to F.O., Tehran, and Secretaty of State India, Basrah, 29 May 1915.Google Scholar

page 41 note 2 Ibid.

page 41 note 3 Government of India, Foreign Department, Secret War, May 1916, Proceeding 222, register no. 3031 B, Political Resident Persian Gulf to Secretary, Government of India Foreign and Political Department, Basrab, 15 December 1915.Google Scholar

page 42 note 1 Ibid., August 1916, Enclosure to Proceeding 29, Marling to Grey, Tehran, 17 February 1916.

page 42 note 2 Ibid., October 1916, Enclosure 2 in Proceeding 60, Cox to HBM's Minister, no. 2476, Basrah, 26 May 1916.

page 42 note 3 Ibid.