The cities Position in political – military relations with claimants succeed Karim Khan Zand (1209-1193)

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Abstract

1. Introduction
With the death of Karim Khan and the lack of strong succession, the number of his relatives especially the brothers and cousins were campaigns destroyed for access to government. These events consist of the wide range of historical sources in the end of twelve century. With careful study on the historical texts, we can be follow up the various ranges of civic society for protecting the citizen lives and properties and also for access to gain the financial - political interests personally or a special group.
2. Methodology
This research by using the methods of historical research and techniques of library data collection from original historical references after description and classification of the political – military functional of various ranges of civic society specifications of related cities in that specific times deals to analyses and interpretations of these features and their impacts on cities relations with the various claimants succeed of Karim Khan.
 
 
3. Discussion
In the Zand period, the political-military structure of many cities consisted of three layers of people, elders and ruler. The support and following of the cities and the adjacent areas of their elders had a great influence on the rise and fall of Karim Khan Zand's successors. The people who were the lowest social category of cities were subordinate to their leader's authorities in obedience or disobedience to the rulers. The pursuit of the people led to the social-financial capability of the elders to carry out effective political-military activities. In the sources of this period, the general loyalty of the society lower classes of Haji Ibrahim Khan has been mentioned by the general and obscure word "ahali". This is in the first First Look of is the collective will of the this classes, but by examining more precisely the historical texts, we find that the interests and efforts of the heads of the guilds and districts in the political-military organization of the ordinary people of the community provide an effective political-military role of the elders, such as Haji Ibrahim Khan kalantar. The complete resident's follow-up of the elder's actions led to their displacement by the victorious commanders. The rulers, at the beginning of the rule, tried to prevent the expression of the political-military elder's power by the exaltation of them and some of their loyal people from indigenous areas with extensive social protection to areas directly under their control. In this regard, any support from the survivor's elders and residents of the rest of the monarchy's claimants exposed the captives to torture and execution. The tribal families, who had been living in the cities by Karim Khan in particular in Shiraz and Esfahan, formed the core of tribal forces of Karim Khan's successors. Contrary to the native inhabitants of these cities, whose security was their most important concern, the tribesmen wanted to obtain financial revenues from the treasury and the spoils of war; thus, by joining the various armies, persisted the struggles of the kingdom's conquerors. Despite this tribesmen, were ready to betray their commanders and join the victorious forces if they fail in the battle for the more benefits. Despite of the tribesmen political instability, they were tendency to Continuation the Zand's rule because most of them had a lot of tribal-cultural ties. This led to the deportation of the  this tribes to the areas under the direct control of the Qajar government when the Aqa Muhammad Khan captured the Isfahan and Fars, in order to prevent the thier supporting from the survivors of Zand clan.
4. Conclusion
In the second half of the twenty century, the political-military structure of the cities consisted of three groups of inhabitants, elders and ruler. The following of the native peoples led to the social-financial capability of the elders to carry out effective political-military Abilities. Mentioned Following, the victorious commanders prevented the expression of their political-military power by the elders and some of the people by the exile of them. The compulsory migration, in addition to depriving the victor's enemy of the acquaintance of the elders for city administration, was a security guarantee to obey the insurgent cities. The relationship between the native and tribal households in the cities was based on suspicion due to a different social structure. The suspicion that occurred during the confrontation of Fars elders with Lotf Ali Khan Zand became apparently a mutual hostility. Nevertheless, the main weakness point of the tribal citizen were their families Residence, which made the rulers of the cities absorb or reject them according to their policy, but the mistreatment of them led to their separation and joining the rival competing camps. 
The elders were the intermediaries to reflect the socioeconomic demands of the lower classes of the society to the ruler, as well as to the tax collector and the warriors who usually continued their positions in a kinship manner. During this period, the city's representative for the political talks with the victorious commanders was the Shikh al-Islam or Judge, but when they failed in the negotiations, other ulama were sent to ask for intercession. The ulama of the city had a great influence on the people, so they reacted in the face of the siege or tyranny of the ruler. The coherence actions of the elders, in the internal disputes events by group or personal interests, would have resulted in their plotting or rebellion against the ruler to fail. Nonetheless, the coherence actions of the fars Elders led to the defense of each other's interests in crisis times. One of the main reasons for this could be the effective political-military ties between Fars elders and the bureaucracy of the Zand government, including their unity in a separate group in the army. During the period of the weakness of Zand's rule, the elders had a lot of power in applying their policies, because the divisions between the civilian tribes and their annexation to the camp of various claimants, while reducing their military significance, increased the military role of the civil gunmen. Initially, the political style of Fars elders was united with the some insurgent tribal elders to create state changes. This policy was successful with the period of Jafar Khan, Seyyed morad khan and then Lotf Ali Khan. Due to this giving crown of the elders, Haji Ibrahim Khan insisted on the acquittal of the elders who had united in the killing of Ja'far Khan Zand. The event ultimately led to the displacement of Lotf Ali Khan and the expulsion of urban tribes. However, the Level power of the rulers had a direct impact on the elites' political-military behavior. Therefore, despite of the relative weakness of Ja'far Khan and Lotf Ali Khan Zand, the Fars elders were completely submissive to the military power of the Qajar dynasty.

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