KURDS AND THE CENTRAL...(PART V)
Sam Ghandchi
Part I : Mahd Dynasty to Arab Invasion.
Part II: From Arab Invasion to Moghol Invasion.
Part III: From Mohol Invasion to Downfall of Safavid Dynasty
Part IV: Kurds in Modern Iran (Till Nadir Shah)
Part V: Kurds in Modern Iran (Nadir Shah-Constitutional
Movement)
- Sam Ghandchi
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KURDS AND THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IN IRAN (Part V)
Kurds in Modern Iran (Nadir Shah to Constitutional Movement)
Nadir was of the Sunni Afshar tribe which dwelt in Khorasan.
P. Petroshevsky writes that in fifteenth century, the (military)
arms of the Safavi rule consisted of nomadic Turkish tribes
from various regions that hads
migrated to Azarbayjan 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. From 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 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. The effort cost him his life, due
to court intrigue, but the trend continued, so that in Reza Shah's
regime one finds a marriage, so to speak, between it 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 Safari state. In this respect,
Azerbayjan as a region was, relatively, the most advanced,
while Kurdistan 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 Nassered Din Shah
(by whose order the Chancellor was put to death), 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 Nassered Din Shah was assigned as the governor of
Kurdistan. [Tarikh-e Kurd va Kurdistan, Sheikh Mardookh,
P.186]. Thus this is the date when the separateness of
Kurdistan 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 at times were utilized by chiefs and feudals to revive
their own
rule and weaken the central government.
End of Part V
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