The Bakhtiari And The State
The Bakhtiari are much more than a localised tribe of pastoral nomads. They have been politically and strategically important at several turning points in the history of what is now called Iran. Most famously, they played a key military role in the Constitutional Revolution – even invading Tehran in 1909 – and an important political role both at that time and in the aftermath. Since then, although many Bakhtiari have ranked high in various (pre-revolutionary) government institutions, their power has dwindled somewhat.
This brief outline cannot attempt to provide a comprehensive political history of the Bakhtiari – Professor Gene Garthwaite has anyway already done this superlatively well, supplemented by Dr Stephanie Cronin in her review of the later period. I have drawn on both of these resources in the text below.
This section instead uses images – many rarely seen – to illustrate key events and individuals, including around:
- The Earliest Years
- The Great Khan, Hossein Gholi Khan, and the period of turbulence after his death
- Links with the British – related to the Lynch or Bakhtiari road and later to oil discovery and exploration
- The Constitutional Revolution, and the subsequent period of so-called Bakhtiari Domination
- The later period
To set this in context, Professor Gene Garthwaite has contributed a brief commentary on the social structure of the Bakhtiari – and how this, within a pastoral nomadic economy of shifting needs for grass and water, leads to a continually renegotiated system of internal alliances and disputes.
I am especially indebted for the images in this section to many members of the extensive and warm Bakhtiari family (see bakhtiarifamily.com and bakhtiari.ning.com). Many thanks to all of them!
