دانشگاه شهید بهشتی مجله تاریخ ایران 2008-7357 19 1 2026 03 21 Nader Shah's government faced with the problem of legitimacy دولت نادرشاه در مواجهه با دشواره مشروعیت 47 73 106620 10.48308/irhj.2026.241091.1444 FA رضا بیگدلو دانشیار تاریخ، گروه اجتماعی، پژوهشگاه علوم انتظامی و مطالعات اجتماعی، تهران، ایران. Journal Article 2025 08 13 The legitimacy of governments has been an issue for rulers in Iran from the past to the present. Legitimacy is a relative issue for all governments, and no government has had and will never have complete and absolute legitimacy. Many governments in Iran have also grappled with the issue of legitimacy and have even faced a crisis in this regard. Despite the military power of Cairo and the victory over the occupying enemies, the government of Nader Shah faced the issue of legitimacy from the very beginning of the Afshari dynasty, and over time this issue turned into a crisis of legitimacy. Using the historical method, this article seeks to answer the question of what were the causes and contexts of the crisis of legitimacy of the Naderi government and what was Nader's reaction to this crisis? The findings of the research suggest that two types of causes and contexts, originary and functional, caused problems and then crises in the legitimacy of Naderi's government. From the originary perspective, the existence of a deep-rooted rival legitimacy and the lack of lineage legitimacy were challenging that Nader always struggled with. According to the findings of the present study, functional legitimacy was a much more important factor that caused the erosion of legitimacy and made it critical. Performance based on tyranny, inefficiency and dysfunction of the government, crisis in identity and participation, attempts to transform the foundations of religious legitimacy, and the rupture of the knowledge-power relationship in legitimation were among the main causes of the crisis in the legitimacy of the Naderi government. Introduction Legitimacy is one of the oldest, most important, and most influential concepts in the social sciences and other fields of the humanities. It has always been one of the most important concerns of rulers and political organizations. Since the state came into existence, the need to legitimize power and government has also been born with it. The specific task of legitimacy is very important for the state. In fact, legitimacy is a justification of the right to rule and sovereignty by the ruler and the institution of the state, a justification of the right to command by the ruler and the necessity of obedience by the people. Any government that is established, no matter how powerful, still needs to legitimize its regime. It is this necessity for the continuation of government and the expansion of sovereignty that rulers and those in power, from the earliest stages of the establishment of governments, have always sought to legitimize and demonstrate their power in the eyes of the people and other governments in order to maintain their power and influence. For this reason, governments are always trying to establish their government's authority by relying on various factors and sources of legitimacy such as religion, tradition, customs, law, race, popular consent, ideology, etc. Nader's government, from the perspective of ups and downs, power and weakness, strength and fragility, is a source of wonder and surprise for every historian and government researcher, and the assumption of this article is that despite the military power and conquests that made Nader the last great conqueror of Asia, The sudden and surprising collapse of his power was due to the weakness of his original legitimacy and the erosion of his government's functional legitimacy. Documents and evidence show that legitimacy in Nader Shahi's government was the main concern of Nader and his government from the very beginning of the government. To this end, a series of measures and policies were taken to produce, reproduce, justify, and propagate its legitimacy and delegitimize its rivals. Despite these measures and programs, the process of producing and reproducing the legitimacy of the Naderi government faced increasing erosion, so that ultimately the Naderi government faced a situation that can be described as a crisis of legitimacy. This article, seeks to answer the question of what were the causes and contexts of the crisis of legitimacy of the Naderi government and on what basis was Nader's reaction to this crisis based? Materials And Methods Research Method The present research is a historical research type. In historical research, the research data is based on sources, documents, and evidence left by the research subject. The information gathering tool in this type of research is library resources, documents, and archival records. The analysis method will be historical analysis. Explanation in the historical analysis method is mainly based on induction. This means that by referring to the data, including documents, evidence, and remaining evidence, it attempts to reach some kind of theoretical conclusion. By examining the evidence and documents and thinking carefully about them, it attempts to discover existing patterns and deduce a general and agreed-upon opinion from the documents and evidence. Result and Discussion Considering the theoretical foundations of legitimacy, it seems that legitimacy is the problem of yesterday, today, and tomorrow for governments and those in power. Every government, no matter how powerful, still needs to legitimize its power. Naderi's government is an example of a government that, despite its extraordinary military power and victories over Iran's occupying enemies, fell into crisis due to weakness in legitimacy and suffered from weakness and erosion due to the lack of an appropriate response to the legitimacy problem. Accordingly, the present article, using the method of historical research, sought to answer the question of what were the causes and grounds of the legitimacy crisis of Naderi's government and what was Nader's response to this crisis? While most scholars have focused on the origin/precedence of the legitimacy problem of Nader's government, and the fact that Nader ignored the strong Safavid legitimacy and came from a subordinate lineage that did not have royal lineage, they have reduced the problem of Nader's legitimacy to an origin. This is despite the fact that, according to this article, the main crisis of legitimacy of Nader's government arose from functional legitimacy. Nader Shah's claim to legitimacy was in conflict with the legitimacy of the Safavids from the beginning, and there is ample evidence that the legitimacy of the Safavids was still deeply rooted in Nader's era. From this perspective, it can be said that the government of Nader Shah Afshar was challenged from the outset from the perspective of origin. In addition to the problem of his originary legitimacy, Nader also failed to produce, reproduce, and justify the legitimacy of his government from the perspective of function. The findings of the present study indicate that the problem of Nader's legitimacy was more in functional legitimacy than in originary legitimacy. Nader attempted to transform the religious foundations of the legitimacy of society. For this reason, he introduced the Ja'fari religion, and in fact, Sunnism, which was met with a cold reaction and rejection by the Shiite and fanatic majority of the people. The change in religious foundations and the entry of new and alien religious and ethnic elements led to identity divergence and a crisis in participation. Nader based his rule on tyranny, violence, and absolute tyranny. Conclusions Despite all the measures Nader Shah took to legitimize his government and delegitimize claimants to power, his efforts were not successful. This had several reasons. In addition to persuasive and theoretical issues, Nader's government failed to fulfill its inherent special task. Despite the removal of foreign occupation and his famous conquests, which were expected to bring prosperity and peace to the people, Nader's government itself became a factor in insecurity, excess, and the destruction of cities and villages. Ultimately, Nader's reliance on legitimacy based on militarism, which was the strength of his government, led to his own downfall and destruction. Thus, Nader was a major failure in creating legitimacy for her government, which she was unable to resolve from the beginning of her reign to its end. مشروعیت دولت‌ها مسئله‌ای از گذشته تا به امروز برای حکمرانان در ایران است. مشروعیت برای همه دولت‌ها امری نسبی است و هیچ دولتی مشروعیت تام و مطلق نداشته و نخواهد داشت. بسیاری از دولت‌ها در ایران نیز با مسئله مشروعیت دست‌به‌گریبان شده و حتی در این امر دچار بحران نیز شده‌اند. دولت نادرشاه باوجود قدرت نظامی قاهره آن و پیروزی بر دشمنان اشغالگر از بدو تأسیس سلسله افشاری با مسئله مشروعیت مواجه شد و در طی زمان این مسئله تبدیل به بحران مشروعیت شد. این مقاله با استفاده از روش تاریخی به دنبال پاسخ به این پرسش است که علل و زمینه‌های بحران مشروعیت دولت نادری چه بود و واکنش نادر در مقابل این بحران چه بوده است؟ یافته‌های پژوهش بر آن است دو گونه علل و زمینه‌های خاستگاهی و کارکردی باعث ایجاد مشکل و سپس بحران در مشروعیت دولت نادری شدند. از منظر خاستگاهی وجود مشروعیت ریشه‌دار رقیب و فقدان مشروعیت تباری از چالش‌هایی بودند که همواره نادر با آنها دست‌به‌گریبان بود. طبق یافته پژوهش حاضر، مشروعیت کارکردی عوامل به‌مراتب مهم‌تری بودند که زمینه فرسایش مشروعیت و بحرانی ساختن آن را موجب شدند. عملکرد مبتنی بر جباریت، ناکارآمدی و کژکارکردی دولت، بحران در هویت و مشارکت، تلاش برای دگرگون‌سازی مبانی مشروعیت مذهبی و گسست رابطه دانش-قدرت در مشروعیت‌سازی از علل اصلی پیدایش بحران در مشروعیت دولت نادری بود.

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