Frontier Nomads of Iran
Frontier Nomads of Iran
Looking for an examination copy?
This title is not currently available for examination. However, if you are interested in the title for your course we can consider offering an examination copy. To register your interest please contact collegesales@cambridge.org providing details of the course you are teaching.
$42.00
USDRichard Tapper's 1997 book, which is based on three decades of ethnographic fieldwork and extensive documentary research, traces the political and social history of the Shahsevan, one of the major nomadic peoples of Iran. The story is a dramatic one, recounting the mythical origins of the tribes, their unification as a confederacy, and their decline under the Pahlavi Shahs. The book is intended as a contribution to three different debates. The first concerns the riddle of Shahsevan origins, while another considers how far changes in tribal social and political formations are a function of relations with states. The third discusses how different constructions of the identity of a particular people determine their view of the past. In this way, the book promises not only to make a major contribution to the history and anthropology of the Middle East and Central Asia, but also to theoretical debates in both disciplines.
- Interesting study of major nomadic tribe in Iran focusing on history and anthropology
- Accessible and well written by mature scholar
- 'Shahsevan' is now a well known and fashionable category in the Oriental Carpet business with several books and articles devoted to 'Shahsevan' weavings
Reviews & endorsements
"...Tapper's Frontier Nomads of Iran is the most significant ethnological study of tribes in Persia to have been published during the past decade." Pierre Oberling, Journal of Anthropological Research
"...the rigor with which he examines and uses his sources in the deconstruction and reconstruction of Shahsevan origins and identity is commendable." Philip S. Khoury, American Historical Review
"...a rich, ambitious and complicated book....Clearly, this book is a must for those who want to discuss tribalism in the Middle East in general and of its role in Iran's history in particular." Willem Floor, Journal of the American Oriental Society
Product details
November 2006Paperback
9780521029063
456 pages
233 × 154 × 26 mm
0.64kg
9 b/w illus. 9 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on transliteration
- Glossary
- 1. Writing tribal history
- Part I. The Safavid State and the Origins of the Shahsevan:
- 2. 'Shahsevani': Safavid tribal policy and practice
- 3. Shahsevan traditions
- 4. Moghan and Ardabil in Safavid times
- Part II. The Rise of the Shahsevan Confederacy:
- 5. Badr Khan Sari-Khan-Beyli
- 6. Nazar 'Ali Khan Shahsevan of Ardabil
- 7. The Shahsevan tribal confederacy
- Part III. The Shahsevan Tribes in the Great Game:
- 8. The Russian wars and the loss of Moghan
- 9. The Shahsevan nomads in the mid-nineteenth century
- 10. Nomads and commissars in Moghan
- Part IV. The End of the Tribal Confederacy:
- 11. Pastures new: the effects of the frontier closure
- 12. The Shahsevan, the Constitution, the Great War and after
- 13. Settlement and detribalization
- 14. Conclusion: Shahsevan identity and history
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Indexes.
