Qashqai people


Qashqai people are a Turkic tribal people indigenous to southern Iran. Almost all of them speak Qashqai, an Oghuz language they call Turki, as well as Persian in formal use. The Qashqai mainly live in the provinces of Fars, Khuzestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Bushehr and southern Isfahan.
The majority of Qashqai people were originally nomadic pastoralists and some remain so today. The traditional nomadic Qashqai traveled with their flocks twice yearly between the summer highland pastures north of Shiraz roughly 480 km or 300 miles south and the winter pastures on lower lands near the Persian Gulf, to the southwest of Shiraz. The majority, however, have now become partially or wholly sedentary. The trend towards settlement has been increasing markedly since the 1960s under government pressure, and encouragement, which has built housing for those willing to settle, starting in the early 20th century during the Pahlavi era. However, for those who continue their migratory lifestyle, the Iranian government maintains and controls travel corridors for the Qashqai and their livestock, and other populations practicing pastoral migrations.
The Qashqai are made up of five major tribes: the Amale / Amaleh, the Dere-Shorlu / Darreh-Shuri, the Kashkollu / Kashkuli, the Shishbeyli / Sheshboluki and the Eymur / Farsimadan. Smaller tribes include the Qaracha / Qarache'i, Rahimli / Rahimi and Safi-Khanli / Safi-Khani.

History

Historically, the Turkic-speaking people are believed to have arrived in Iran from Central Asia from the 11th or 12th century onwards.
Told to Marie-Tèrése Ullens by the Ilbeg Malek Mansur, brother of the Ilkhan, Nasser Khan, Chief of the Qashqa'i, in 1953:
The Qashqai were a significant political force in Qajar Iran during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During World War I, they were influenced by the German consular official Wilhelm Wassmuss and sided with the German Empire. During World War II, the Qashgais attempted to organize resistance against the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, receiving some ineffectual assistance from Nazi Germany in 1943 by the means of Operation Anton, which proved a complete failure.
In 1945–1946 there was a major rebellion of a number of tribal confederacies, including the Qashgais, who fought valiantly until the invading Russians were repelled. The Qashgais revolted during 1962–1964 due to the land reforms of the White Revolution. Gamal Abdel Nasser saw potential in the Qashqai tribe to undermine the Pahlavi government. In 1963, when the Qashqai protested against the Iranian government, the Iranian government used armed force, causing Qashqai leaders to seek support from Nasser.
On 2 February 1963, the Qashqai leaders met with Al-Deeb in Switzerland, after which the Qashqai were issued Egyptian passports in 1963 and given training in Egypt in 1964. The revolt was put down and within a few years many Qashqais had settled. Most of the tribal leaders were sent to exile. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the living leader, Khosrow Khan Qashqai, returned to Iran from exile in the United States and Germany. However, another Qashqai revolt erupted in 1979, against the Islamic republic, after the arrest of Qashqai tribal leaders.
When anti-government protests began in 1978, Qashqai participated, although not in large numbers. However, towards the end of the year, Naser Khan and Khosrow Khan, the sons of Qashqai tribal chief Sawlat od-Dowleh, who were in exile in Europe, were contacted by the Qashqai leadership in Iran, seeking advice. They cautiously visited Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris, who reminded them that their father embraced calls from the ulema for a jihad against the British in World War I, expressing hope that they would similarly embrace the call from the clergy if called upon.
Although Mohammad Reza Shah had personally attacked the exiled Qashqai leaders in one of the last speeches he delivered before fleeing Iran, Naser Khan returned to Iran before the Shah left. Naser Khan displaying a hesitance and reticence in his actions allowed him to be co-opted by the revolutionaries to act as a mediator between rival tribes, just as his father Sowlat-od-Dowleh had acted for Reza Shah.
Many Qashqai rearmed and sometimes forcibly captured land, particularly from non-tribal farmers, herders, and orchard owners. The optimism the Qashqai initially had about their place in a new Iran largely died in the summer of 1979, and the Qashqai leaders, who attempted to unite the tribal opposition in southern Iran, were shocked by the force used against the 1979 Kurdish revolt. Khomeini had only acknowledged the suffering of tribes under the Pahlavi government but never made solid assurances.
When parliamentary elections took place in 1980, Khosrow Khan, who received 70% of the vote in the Eqlid district, west of Shiraz, was rejected by the Majlis who accused him of SAVAK and CIA ties and a family history of landlordism. He was arrested by the IRGC in Tehran, before being released, arrested again, and then escaping and returning to Fars. There, he gathered Qashqai, Boyerahmadi Luri, and Basseri tribesmen, and he and Naser Khan resisted the Iranian forces for two years from June 1980 to July 1982. They were considered the only group in Iran effectively offering credible resistance. After a sham amnesty, Khosrow Khan was captured in Shiraz, sent to Tehran, and sentenced to death by an Islamic Revolutionary Court and hanged on 8 October 1982, in Shiraz.

Major tribes

The Qashqai tribal confederation consists of five major tribes, including the Dareshuri, Farsimadan, Sheshboluki, Amaleh, and Kashkuli.

Amale / Amaleh

People of the Amaleh tribe were originally warriors and workmen attached to the household of the Ilkhani, or paramount chief; recruited from all the Qashqai tribes they constituted the Ilkhani's bodyguard and retinue. By 1956, the Amaleh tribe comprised as many as 6,000 families.

Dere-Shorlu / Dareshuri / Darehshouri

The Dareshuri are said to have joined the Qashqai tribal confederation during the reign of Karim Khan Zand. According to Persian government statistics, there were about 5,169 Dareshuri families, or 27,396 individuals, in 1360 sh./1981. The Dareshuri were "the greatest horse-breeders and owners among the Qashqai". The policy of forced sedentarization of the nomadic tribes pursued by Reza Shah Pahlavi resulted in the loss of 80–90 percent of the Dareshuri horses, but the tribe made a recovery after World War II. Reza Shah Pahlavi also executed Hossein khan Darehshouri the head of Darehshouri family in order to take back the control of the Fars province which was controlled by Darehshouri tribe during the Qajar era.

Kashkollu / Kashkuli

During World War I, the Kashkuli khans supported the British in their struggle against Ṣowlat-al-Dowleh and the German agent, Wilhelm Wassmuss. After the war, Ṣowlat-al-Dowleh punished the Kashkuli. He dismissed the Kashkuli leaders who had opposed him and "deliberately set out to break up and impoverish the Kashkuli tribe". Two sections of the tribe, which consisted of elements which had been loyal to Ṣowlat-al-Dowleh, were then separated from the main body of the tribe and given the status of independent tribes, becoming the Kashkuli Kuchak and Qarachahi tribes. The remaining tribe became known as the Kashkuli Bozorg tribe. The Kashkuli Bozorg tribe comprised 4,862 households in 1963. As Oliver Garrod observed, the Kashkuli Bozorg are "especially noted for their Jajims, or tartan woolen blankets, and for the fine quality of their rugs and trappings".

Eymur / Farsimadan

The Farsimadan claim that they are of Ḵhalaj origin, and that, before moving to southern Persia, they dwelled in Ḵhalajestan, a region southwest of Tehran. The tribe was already in Fars by the late 16th century, for it is known that in October 1590 their leader, Abul-Qasem Beyg and some of his followers were punished for having sided with Yaqub Khan the Zul-Qadr governor of Fars, in a revolt against Shah Abbas I. The population of the Farsimadan was estimated by Afshaar-Sistaani at 2,715 families or 12,394 individuals, in 1982.

Culture

The Qashqai are traditionally pastoral nomads who speak the Qashqai language. They rely on small-scale cultivation and shepherding. Traditional dress includes the use of decorated short tunics, wide-legged pants, and headscarves worn by women. Many Qashqais in Shiraz have become Persian-speaking.

Carpeting and weaving

The Qashqai are renowned for their pile carpets and other woven wool products. They are sometimes referred to as "Shiraz" because Shiraz was the major marketplace for them in the past. The wool produced in the mountains and valleys near Shiraz is exceptionally soft and beautiful and takes a deeper color than wool from other parts of Iran.
Qashqai carpets have been said to be "probably the most famous of all Persian tribal weavings". Qashqai saddlebags, adorned with colorful geometric designs, "are superior to any others made".

Notable individuals

Cultural references

  • In 2006, Nissan named its new European small SUV "Qashqai", after the Qashqai people. The designers believe that the buyers "will be nomadic in nature too".
  • The everyday life of nomadic Qashqai people was portrayed in the 1996 Iranian film Gabbeh directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.