سیاست ایلی در ایران: ستیز روستایی و دولت جدید 1300-1320 فارسی 1405

Tribal Politics in Iran, by Stephanie Cronin, is a study of the relationship between Iran’s central government and the country’s tribes and nomadic communities during the formation of the modern state, with particular emphasis on the period between the 1921 coup d’état and the fall of Reza Shah in 1941. Focusing on the policies of the early Pahlavi state, Cronin examines the expansion of central authority into tribal regions and the consequences of this process for local communities.

Cronin demonstrates that, in its efforts to consolidate power, the state relied on the creation of a modern army and on policies such as the disarmament of tribes, military conscription, taxation, restrictions on nomadic mobility, and forced settlement. These measures were intended to weaken local centers of power and promote the political and administrative integration of the country. In many regions, however, they also produced profound economic and social consequences.

With particular attention to regions such as Luristan, Fars, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, and the Bakhtiari territories, the book examines tribal resistance from a perspective that differs from conventional state-centered narratives. Within this interpretation, at least some forms of tribal resistance are understood not simply as manifestations of disorder or opposition to modernization, but as responses to the erosion of political autonomy, changes in traditional livelihoods, and the dismantling of established structures of tribal life.

One of the book’s central themes is the policy of the forced settlement of nomadic populations. Cronin analyzes the social and economic consequences of this policy and shows that the compulsory transformation of nomadic ways of life, in the absence of adequate infrastructure and alternative resources, contributed in some areas to poverty, declines in livestock holdings, and disruption of traditional systems of subsistence.

Drawing on historical documents, diplomatic reports, and consular sources, Tribal Politics in Iran offers a critical account of state-building under Reza Shah and explores the relationship between political centralization, militarization, modernization, and local communities. The book is an important source for the study of the political and social history of modern Iran, the policies of the early Pahlavi state, the history of tribes and nomadic societies, and relations between the center and the periphery in Iran.