Friday, August 25, 2017

The Qashqais (Mirza Hasan Fasāʾī, [1896] 1923)

Qashqai Tribe


 


When the Khalaj came to Persian Iraq from the provinces of Asia Minor, part of them left the main body and settled in Fars. So the general public referred to the migration of these people as “qach qai” i.e. “gurikhteh” (a fugitive), and this was afterwards changed in form to “Qashqai”.1
Afterwards part of them settled in the district of Qunqari and dwelt in villages. Up to the present their language has remained Turkish, and this division is called the Khalaj.
Those who made the semi-yearly migrations are divided into two groups ― Khalaj and Qashqai.
The chief of the Qashqais, who is always a member of the tribe, is known as the “Il-Khani”, while his deputy is known as the “Il-Begi”. Headmen of villages do not recognize any superior except the Il-Khani and the Il-Begi. Particulars regarding the leaders of this tribe are to be found in this Fars-Nameh in the section of Maidan-i-Shah ― a quarter of Shiraz.
The winter quarters of the tribe in the south are in such places as the Districts of Arba’ah, Afzar, Jarah, Khisht, Khanj, Dashti, Dashtistan, Farashband, and Mahur Milati.
They have their summer quarters in the Districts of Dizgird, Sar Hadd-i-Chahar Dungeh, Sar Hadd-i-Shish Nahieh, Kam Firuz, and Kakan.
There are sixty-six sub-divisions of the tribe.
Muhammad ‘Ali Khan was born in A.H. 1208 and succeeded his father after his death, as Il-Khani. In A.H. 1240 he married into the family of the Farman Farma and in A.H. 1248 took offence at the latter, and withdrew all the tribe from Fars to the neighbourhood of Kirman.
Prince ‘Abbas Mirza, Governor of Kirman, gave them a hearty reception, and appointed for their use sufficient land for 100,000 households of nomads, both in the cool region and in the hot belt of his province.
Three years later Minuchihr Khan Mu’tamidu’d-Dawleh, Vezir of Fars, forced him and Mirza Muhammad Fasai to go to Tihran, where the former remained as an honoured guest for years. In 1265 he returned to Shiraz, where he played an important part in the affairs of the province and died A.H. 1268.
He had three sons, the eldest of whom, Iftikharu’l-Akfa Jihan Gir Khan Il-Begi, was born in A,H. 1230. For a time he was commandant of the Qashqai Regiment, and spent some years in that capacity in Tihran until his return to Shiraz in 1265. For two years he was governor of Darab and then Kazrun. After the death of his father he became Il-Begi.
Muh. Quli Khan became Il-Khani in A.H. 1268, and until his death in A.H. 1284 he exerted such an influence for good over his tribe that no one suffered robbery at their hands.

1 This is obviously a Persian invention. Regarding the Bayat sub-tribe, which he classes as a branch of the Qashqais (vol. II, p. 313), he says elsewhere (vol. II, p. 27, l. 5): “They originally came from the plain of Qachaq in Turkestan and came to Fars with the Qashqai tribe in ancient times. Then they divided into two branches, one of which united with the Qashqais and became nomads, while the other settled in the Shiraz. The Bayats of Fars and the Bayats of Nishapur in Khurasan were one tribe in the first plce.” See also vol. II, p. 109, ll. 21―7: “The Agh Aughali tribe originally came from Turkestan with Fars to the Bayats and Qash-qais. Turkish is their language up to the present.”



D. Austin Lane, Hajji Mirza Hasan-i-Shirazi on the Nomad Tribes of Fars in the Fars-Nameh-i-Nasiri, JRAS 1923, pp. 215—217.

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