On the margins of minority life

Zoroastrians and the state in Safavid Iran

Bibliographic Data

ID2801882
AuthorsKioumars Ghereghlou (0000-0001-6529-305X, Columbia University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume80
Issue1
Pages45-71
Publication date2017-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0041-977X • E-ISSN: 1474-0699
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0041977x17000015
OpenAlexW2590429457
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited13

This article looks at the treatment of the Zoroastrians by central and provincial authorities in early modern Yazd, Kirman and Isfahan, emphasizing the institutional weaknesses of the central orkhāṣṣaprotection they were supposed to benefit from under the Safavids (907-1135/1501-1722). It is argued that the maltreatment the Zoroastrians endured under the Safavids had little to do with religious bigotry. Rather, it arose from rivalries between the central and the provincial services of the Safavid bureaucracy, putting Zoroastrians in Yazd, Kirman, Sistan and Isfahan at risk of over-taxation, extortion, forced labour and religious persecution. The argument developed in this article pivots on the material interest of the central and the provincial agents of the Safavid bureaucracy in the revenue and labour potentials of the Zoroastrians, and the way in which the conflict of interest between these two sectors led to such acts of persecution as over-taxation, forced labour, extortion and violence

Argument (complex analysis · Bureaucracy · Business · Economics · Economy · Extortion · Persecution · Political science · Revenue · State (computer science · Byzantine Studies and History · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Finance · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Medicine

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