05. Kurds in Modern Iran-Nader Shah-Mashrootiat

05. Kurds in Modern Iran-Nader Shah-Mashrootiat

Nader was of the Sunni Afshar tribe which dwelt in Khorasan. P. Petroshevsky writes that in fifteenth century, the (military) arms of the Safavid rule consisted of nomadic Turkish tribes from various regions that spoke Azeri language, and had migrated to Azerbayjan and elsewhere in Iran from Central Asia because they disliked the Ottoman Sultans and their policy of absolute Centralism . At the beginning there were seven of these tribes: Shamlu, Rumlu, Ustajlu, Takelu, Afshar, Qajar, and Zolghadr.

Of these seven tribes only Shamlu and Rumlu, completely obeyed the Safavis." (Tarikh-e Iran, Petroshevsky, P.471).? Later the Afshar tribe and Zand tribe (from a Lor origin) and finally the Qajar tribe raised the flag of the unification of Iran and founded central governments of Iran.

They formed "Persianized" dynasties and converted to Shiism, be it noted, was the ideological form of "Persianization" until modernism ushered in by the constitutional movement.

At the turn of the 19th century, the reformation of the famed Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir, aimed at the bougeoisification of the Iranian State from above. His efforts cost him his life, due to court intrigue. He was put to death by the order of Nasser Ed Din Shah. But the trend continued, so that in Reza Shah's regime one finds a marriage, so to speak, between the bougeoisification of Iranian State from above and the modernism of the Constitutional Movement.

The "bougeoisification from above," of course, was a belated attempt to hasten and guide a process that had been going on even since the founding of the Safavid state. In this respect, Azerbaijan as a region was, relatively, the most advanced, while Kurdestan was one of the undeveloped regions on the eve of the Constitutional Movement

As the appointment of governors to provinces from Tehran became regular practice with the reign of Nasser ed Din Shah, the rule of the Ardalans and the independence of the Kurds ended.

On 4th of Zighadeh 1284 H.G., prince Motamedodoleh Farhad Mirza, the uncle of Nasser Ed Din Shah was assigned as the governor of Kurdestan. [Tarikh-e Kurd va Kurdestan, Sheikh Mardookh, P.186].

Thus this is the date when the separateness of Kurdestan?s political life from the rest of Iran is ended. The resistance of the Kurdish people to the central government also dates back to this time.

But this resistance, at a time, when the Kurds had NOT developed into a NATION, took the form of peasant uprisings, which were mostly utilized by chiefs and feudals to revive their own rule and weaken the central government.

Before going into the next sections of Kurds in Modern Iran, I am writing this short note about the role of Shi?a clergy in the Constitutional Movement; because I refer to it many times.? I have written scattered notes on the role of Shi?a in contemporary Iran, in other postings as well. The following is not really a treatise on the topic of Shi?a in Mashrootiat or Iranian 1979 Revolution, it is just a short note to help with discussion of the main topic.