Journal of history of Iran)

Document Type : review paper

Abstract

Iran’s engagement in its second round of wars against Russia, in the domestic arena, provided an opportunity for some members of the ruling family to take advantage of the situation and extend their extortion. Under such circumstances, public dissatisfaction about the misconducts of Mohammad Vali Mirza in Yazd led to a riot which was directed by Abd-Alreza Khan Bafghi. The present research aims to offer a descriptive-analytic discussion of the subsequent upheavals concerning the political history of Iran and Kerman while presenting a new insight for the social backgrounds of the recent events. Influenced by factors such as the power relations among the ruling family, the reflection of the central government’s weakness for aggravating the domestic rivals, and the simultaneity as well as the amalgamation of Yazd events with that of Kerman, the king and his to-be-successor prince decided to conceal their decision of dispatching army to the eastern borders under the pretext of the military presence of Abbas Mirza in these regions. All in all, while the conquest of Yazd and Kerman without any bloodshed was an indication of the lack of a severe crisis, the sad death of Abd-Alreza Khan manifested the policies adopted by king Fatah Ali Shah in coping with the problems and punishing the inferiors instead of dealing with the infringements made by the royal family.

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