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632 QASHQA'I
Turkic identity, speech and custom. These populations were united by strong
political leadership centered on a dynasty of powerful tribal khans. Beginning
in the late eighteenth century, the paramount Qashqa'i khan was recognized by
the Iranian central government with the title of II Khani and given official
administrative responsibilities, including tax collection, army conscription and
maintenance of law and order in Qashqa'i and surrounding territories. By the
early nineteenth century, the Qashqa'i confederacy had grown to be a strong
political and military force, and through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
it has been a leading center of power in Fars Province, actively involved in progovernment
and anti-government actions, intertribal alliances and disputes and
some intrigue with foreign powers. During World War I, the Qashqa'i were
perceived as a major impediment to British interests in Iran, and British military
forces were used against them.
Reza Shah (1925-1941), founder off the Pahlavi dynasty, dealt severely with
Iran's nomadic tribes. He stopped migrations by military force and enforced the
settlement of nearly all pastoral nomads. He removed, imprisoned and in some
cases executed tribal leaders. He confiscated tribal firearms. Many tribal populations,
including the Qashqa'i, were forcibly settled on land that could not
support flocks or produce crops, and many people and animals died. With the
abdication of Reza Shah in 1941, the Qashqa'i, like many tribal populations,
reacquired weapons and resumed their migrations. Leaders who had been imprisoned
returned, and the Qashqa'i once again assumed political and military
control of the area.
Qashqa'i leaders supported Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq (1951-1953),
who nationalized Iran's British-owned oil company. After Mossadeq's overthrow,
Mohammed Reza Shah moved against Qashqa'i power by exiling paramount
tribal leaders and installing military governors. The confederacy was
formally disbanded by government decree. Between 1956 and 1979, state action
against the Qashqa'i was less dramatic, but the impact of the government policies
of the 1960s and 1970s was severe nonetheless (see Lur).
Changed economic conditions, removal of tribal leaders, government control
of land use and movement and loss of pastureland all had detrimental effects on
the Qashqa'i. Pastoralism became increasingly commercialized, with more work
and products oriented to the market instead of the home. Qashqa'i needs for
cash (for agricultural products, grazing rents, bribes to government officials and
newly felt needs) exceeded their income. They were unable to increase pastoral
production because of pasture shortage, and they were forced to buy dry fodder
for their animals. Many nomads fell heavily into debt to urban moneylenders,
whose practices included interest rates up to 100 percent a year and belowmarket-value
prices for pastoral products. Many Qashqa'i had to transfer ownership
of their flocks to pay their creditors, only to become the hired shepherds
of these same animals.
In the period from 1962 to 1978, the Qashqa'i were moving in three general
directions: settlement in villages, continuation of impoverished nomadic pastor-