Table Of ContentQajar Iran
and
The Rise of Reza Khan
1796-1925
Qajar Iran
and
The Rise of Reza Khan
1796-1925
Nikki R. KeMe
Including
“Theatrical Buildings and Performances in Tehran”
by
Farrokh Ghaffary
MAZDA PUBLISHERS
1999
The publication of this volume was cosponsored by
The G. E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies,
Program in Iranian History, Society, and the Arts
Mazda Publishers
Academic Publishers
P.O. Box 2603
Costa Mesa, California 92626 U.S.A.
www.mazdapub.com
Copyright O 1999 by Nikki R. Keddie
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted by any form or by any means without written permission
from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-ia-Publication Data
Keddie, Nikki R.
Qajar Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan, 1796-1925/ Nikki R. Keddie: Essay by Farrokh
Ghaflary. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN:1-56859-084-9 (paper: alk. paper)
1. Iran—History—Qajar dynasty, 1794-1925.2. Iran—Civilization—19th century. I. Title.
DS298.K39 1999
955\04—dc21
99-12715
CD*
Front cover “Two lovers drinking wine,” late 18th century, attributed to Mohammad Sadeq.
Back cover “Fath *Ali Shah in a hunting scene,” lacquered box top, private collection.
Contents
Preface vii
CHAPTER I
Main Trends in Iranian History and Culture 1
CHAPTER II
The Qajar Dynasty: The Early Period 1796-1852 14
CHAPTER ffl
Iranian Politics and Society 1852-1890 32
CHAPTER IV
Rebellion and Revolution 1890-1914 44
CHAPTER V
From World War to Coup d’État 1914-1921 65
CHAPTER VI
Reza Khan: From Coup to Coronation 1921-26 78
CHAPTER VII
Conclusion: The Qajar Period and the Twentieth Century 89
APPENDIX
Theatrical Buildings and Performances in Tehran 94
by Farrokh Ghaffary
Translated by Nikki R. Keddie
Illustrations 103
Bibliography 123
Index 127
Preface
The period of die Qajar dynasty, ending with the rise of Reza Khan to
power, 1796-1925, covers a key transition toward a modem and largely
transformed Iran. This book aims to give a basic history of this period, not
only of acts by the central state and rulers, but also of economics, society,
foreign relations, culture, and the role of women and minorities. As in any
brief history, compression involves leaving out some matters and details, for
which readers are referred to die book bibliography at the end. In general this
book does not have footnotes, but a few exceptions are made for important
original material not found in English-language books.
This book also, like most histories, contains interpretations of events and
it also occasionally comments on points that have been controversial among
historians or others interested in Iran. While one cannot hope that all readers
will agree with all interpretations, it is hoped that these interpretations are
soundly based in years of reading and thinking about, and witnessing,
Iranian history. My debt to other authors and scholars in writing a work with
such broad coverage is greater than I can say. I also owe a particular debt to
Janet Afary, who read and commented on the entire manuscript, and to Rudi
Matthee, Mehrdad Amanat, Jasamin Rostam, Afshin Matin-asgari, and
Afshin Marashi, who gave valuable suggestions based on material in several
languages on large parts of it. I would also like to thank my unusually
cooperative and able publisher, Ahmad Jabbari, and Robyn Murgio of the
UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, whose invitation to lecture at the exhibit
then coming to the Hammer Museum from the Brooklyn Museum, “Royal
Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925," inspired me to put together
my thoughts and revise some unpublished writing about the Qajar period in
a new book. Also helpful have been Irene Bierman, Jonathan Friedlander,
and die staff of the G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies at
UCLA. Ali Behdad kindly lent me some of the photographs included within
that are in the public domain. Thanks are also due to Farrokh Ghaffary for
helping with the appended translation of one of his articles, and to Bernard
Hourcade for giving permission for its translation and helping in die relevant
correspondence.
Transliteration follows a common system that uses e and o for short vow
vii
VIII Preface
els, except in cases of certain names and words widely known in the West
in forms not conforming to this system. In most cases, for comprehensibility,
I have used a single name throughout for Iranian men and women who may
have had different titles in different periods. In some cases, where a title like
Moshir al-Dauleh was held by several well-known men, I have opted to use
the title only for one of them, while in others I have opted for what seemed
the most appropriate of several titles for each individual.
CHAPTER I
Main Trends in Iranian History
and Culture
The period of the Qajar dynasty, 1796-1925, has many interesting
features, especially as a period of cultural and artistic contribu
tions and of important popular movements. It was also a key transitional
period between pre-modem Iranian culture and society and Iran’s mod
em development. This chapter will consider some general historical and
cultural trends in Iran which were operative under die Qajars, while later
chapters will deal with specifics of die Qajar period.
The history and civilization of Iran, or Persia as it is called by some,
has elicited much interest and scholarship both in Iran and in the outside
world. From ancient through modem times Iran has made major contri
butions to world literature, art, and intellectual life, and Iran has been the
home of several important states, empires, religions, and oppositional
and revolutionary movements that have had major effects both within
and far beyond their borders. Here we will summarize some main char
acteristics of this civilization briefly, not only because of Iran’s intrinsic
interest and importance, but also because of the persistence or develop
ment in Iran of certain themes from the past to the present. These themes
are often slighted in histories of one Iranian period and in histories of the
Middle East. Here those factors are important for the understanding of
the Qajar period, many of which remain important, will be stressed.
Today many scholars point out that the nation is a modem concept
that did not exist in today’s sense in the past. During the pre-modem
past the territory of contemporary nations did not constitute nation-states.
However, in the case Iran the concept of an entity called either Iran, Iran-
shahr, or a related term, is an ancient one, going back into pre-Islamic
times and continuing during the early centuries of Islam, when there was
1
2 QAJAR IRAN
no single Iranian state. Iran was more a concept of cultural identity than a
national one in the modem sense, but such a cultural concept still makes
up an important part of Iranian identity. Even in periods where there was
one Iranian state, its borders varied, and a number of languages and cul
tures existed within these borders, as is also true of Iran and of many
other nations today. To study or write history people must often deal
with units smaller than the entire world, even though all divisions are to a
degree arbitrary. The common division of all Middle Eastern history into
pre-Islamic and Islamic is one useful form of division, even though it
often understates continuities between these periods, and so should the
division of Iran and other countries as units be seen as meaningful subdi
visions of a common world history of humanity.
Iran has long been characterized both by major cultural continuities
and by frequent and often sudden political or political-religious changes,
which have sometimes baffled outside observers. Under the Qajars Iran
was often seen by westerners as a backward Oriental society with very
different and often irrational values, and at best western writers could
write sympathetically only about religious and political opposition
movements like the Babis or the revolutionaries of 1905-1911. Without
losing sympathy or interest in these movements, today it is possible to
look in a more comprehensive way at both Iranian and Qajar society and
history as a whole, taking into account all major groups and classes and
their activities and cultural contributions.
Here will be stressed features of Iranian history that bring better un
derstanding both of the Qajar period and subsequent developments. Is
sues regarding the past have been important in nineteenth and twentieth
century Iranian political discourse; hence earlier history is not a dead
past but with one seen by different groups as holding different political
and cultural meanings. Iranian nationalists, a group that has grown since
the nineteenth century and came to include most of the educated classes,
stress the virtues of the pre-Islamic period, when Iran had great and in
dependent empires, while those who have identified more with Islam
stress the Islamic period and Islamic elements of culture. Such issues as
the history of language, culture, and religion have been important in
nineteenth and twentieth century Iranian thinking, with those who stress
Iranian nationalism often seeing them very differently from those who
stress Islam. A third major intellectual trend, influenced by Marxism,
appeared in the Qajar period and grew later. It has stressed class and so
cioeconomic factors more than either national or Islamic ones. In modem
times there has been some often unacknowledged interpenetration of
ideas among these three main groups-the nationalists, the Islamists, and
