Arash Khazeni

Pomona College

2010 Winner

In Qajar rulers' attempts to extend imperial control to the Zagros-hinterlands and to integrate the fiercely independent tribal groups into the administrative bodies of the state, various agents produced informative accounts of local life and politics. The government used these ethnographic accounts to strengthen its presence in the new oil producing areas. Within a short time the Bakhtiyari confederation was in the spotlight of both the Qajar government and the British prospectors and agents who were allowed to exploit the oil. Bakhtiyari leaders and their people had to adapt quickly to the political power games, the new economic realities and the environmental changes in their regions. They did so with aplomb and vigor. But until Dr. Khazeni undertook the difficult task of sifting through the accounts involving the Bakhtiyari in the 19th century, we new little about what happened to the tribal people and how they maneuvered in a world that suddenly had become much wider and much more complex.

In taking the view from below, as it were, from the level of Bakhtiyari people and their leaders, Dr. Khazeni introduces here an entirely new historical perspective on the much romanticized Zagros peoples; incorporating ethnographic data and attending to environmental conditions he broadens the historical perspective to its fullest and allows an appreciation of the circumstances of life that transcends other historical accounts of conditions of the Zagros tribes; and in his extensive and thorough use of documents and illustrations of all kinds that pertain to Bakhtiyari history, his treatment of sources as a historian is flawless. Altogether, this exemplary book fully fits the scope and spirit of the Pourshariati's Award.

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