Frontier Nomads of Iran: A Political and Social History of the Shahsevan

Cambridge Middle East Studies #7

by Richard Tapper

Based on three decades of ethnographic fieldwork and documentary research, this book traces the political and social history of the Shahsevan, one of the major nomadic peoples of Iran. It is a dramatic story, recounting the mythical origins of the tribes, their unification as a confederacy and their eventual decline. In its synthesis of anthropology and history, the book will make a major contribution to the study of the Middle East and Central Asia, and also to current debates on tribe-state relations and the relationship between identity and history.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published August 28, 1997

About the author

Richard Lionel Tapper is a professor emeritus of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. He is a social anthropologist who did ethnographic field research in Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. His publications have focussed on pastoral nomadism, relations between ethnic and tribal minorities and the state, the anthropological study of Islam, the anthropology of food, Iranian cinema, and Iranian religious politics.