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Rebellion and Social Change in Astarābād, 1537–1744

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

James J. Reid
James J. Reid
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
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Abstract

Three basic forms of rebellion existed in Iran during the Safavid period. These were qazāq revolts, rebellions by urban notables, and peasant revolts against the Safavid state or local notables. All three types sprouted spontaneously in the fallow fields of Astarābād. While they existed in other regions of Iran as well, Astarābād was the only region where all three grew up independent of one another. By examining the separate courses of these rebellions a better dissection can be made of the three forms, how they affected one another, and how they grew up. Since Astarābād was also a border region near Central Asia, some of the many grievances that affected life in other parts of Iran came more clearly to the forefront, and a better picture can be obtained of the reactions evinced by various local populations to the burdensome loads of the Safavid state and the qizilbāsh tribal state systems.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 1981 , pp. 35 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

NOTES

(Abbreviations used in notes)AT Hasan-i, Rumlu, Ahsan al-Tavārīkh: A Chronicle of the Early Safawis. Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1931, 1934.Google Scholar

Dhail-i TAAA Iskandar, Beg-i Turkamān, Dhail-i Tānīk-i 'Ālam Ārā-yi 'Abbāsī, ed. Khānsārimacr;, S.. Tehran: Chāpkhāna-yi Islāmīya, 1317/1939.Google Scholar

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NS Laurence, Lockhart, Nadir Shah. London: Luzac and Co., 1938.Google Scholar

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TJA Qāzī, Ahmad Ghaffārī-yi Qazvīnī, Tārīkh-i Jahān-Ārā. Tehran: Hafez, 1964.Google Scholar

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1 Paul, Avrich, Russian Rebels, 1600–1800, (New York, 1972), pp. 50–122;Google ScholarKaempfer, E., “Zapiski o persidskom poxode S. Razina,” Inostrann'e Isvestiya o Vosstanii Stepana Razina, Man'kova, A., ed., (Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Nauka, 1975), pp. 157, 163. He actually raided Astarabad city on one occasion, killing all the men he found and carrying off all the women.Google Scholar

2 Avrich, , Russian Rebels, pp. 180–255.Google Scholar

3 Lawrence, Krader, Social Organization of the Mongol-Turkic Pastoral Nomads (The Hague: Mouton, 1963), p. 217.Google Scholar

4 The Sunni leanings of Nadir Shah in the eighteenth century are not surprising when it is realized that his entire family came from the Turkmen subtribes living in Astarabad. and that he was Chaghatai in origin despite his official title of Afshar.

5 MA, p. 74, from a stone inscription under the governorship of Sultān Mutammad Dhu'l-Qadr-oghlū.Google Scholar

6 Irene, Melikoff, “Le probleme kizilbash,” Turcica, 6 (1975), 49–67.Google Scholar

7 Mulla 'Abd al-Fattāh Fūmenī Gīlānī, Tārīkh-i Gīlān Intishārāt-i Bunyād-i Farhangi-i Iran, 1349/73;1971, passim, esp. references to Khān Ahmad Khān.

8 The peasants of Iran in the Safavid period were the furthest thing possible from a “nonrevolutionary” peasantry. The record of rebellion as found in the various chronicles of the Safavid period is immense.

9 Norman, Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (New York: Harper, 1961), pp. 307 ff.Google Scholar

10 Hobsbawm, E. J., Primitive Rebels (New York: Norton, 1959), p. 38 and pp. 30–56, passim.Google Scholar

11 On the problems associated with dating this rebellion, see MD, pp. 373–378.

12 MD, pp. 379–380; TAAA, pp. 106–107;Google ScholarAT, pp. 129 ff.Google Scholar

13 TAAA, pp. 107–109;Google ScholarAT, p. 158, 170–171, 176–178;Google ScholarTJA, p. 303.Google Scholar

14 TM, pp. 16–17,Google Scholar 103 for Chaghatai elites in qizilbash uymaqs. NS, pp. 17–24, Nadir's family was Chaghatai in origin, but came into the service of a qizilbāsh family.Google Scholar

15 TAAA, p. 239.Google Scholar

16 Any attempt to derive information about the rural social organization of Safavid Astarabad using later data on the groups bearing the same names would be misleading for the reasons mentioned before (the shifting of lower level populations from one group to others over time). Use of the excellent materials researched by William Irons (The Yomut Turkmen) would be anachronistic in this situation. It is also impossible to reconstruct an accurate picture of the rural organization from the scanty evidence left from the period.

17 TAAA, p. 579.Google Scholar

18 This entire account was taken from ibid., pp. 510, 579–582. No other accounts give such an in-depth discussion concerning the rebellions over so long a period of time. Unfortunately, there are no documents remaining that have come to light concerning the arrangements of 'Abbas I during his reimposition of Safavid rule in the region. This would be the most accurate source of all about the outcome of these late sixteenth-century revolts.

19 TAAA, pp. 140, 227 1085, 1087;Google ScholarKhT, pp. 39–40;Google ScholarMA, pp. 76, 78, 83–84;Google ScholarTM. p. 103.Google Scholar

20 TAAA, pp. 533, 541, 1087;Google ScholarMA, pp. 82, 98.Google Scholar

21 TAAA, p. 1085;Google ScholarNS, p. 18 ff.Google Scholar

22 TAAA, pp. 593–594, 1087.Google Scholar

23 Dhail-i TAAA, pp. 21–23.Google Scholar

24 NS, pp. 18–20.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., p. 22.

26 Mirza, Mehdi Khan Astarabadi, Tārīkh-i Nādirī (Bombay, 1849). p. 18.Google Scholar

27 Pugachev, unlike Nadir, also included peasants in his rebel forces (Avrich, , Russian Rebels, pp. 194–195, 232–237).Google Scholar

28 NS, pp. 261–262.Google Scholar

29 Jonas, Hanway, An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspaian Sea (London, 1753). I. p. 295–303,Google Scholar has an eyewitness account of this revolt. See also NS, pp. 243–245.Google Scholar