ABSTRACT
For the new regime which came to power via the coup d’état of 1921, and the nationalist elite which supported it, the tribal problem loomed large in terms of practical politics and in terms of ideology. The previous decade and a half of revolution and war had seen a widespread and general reassertion of tribal power and much of the country had fallen under tribal control. In 1921, for the newly empowered Iranian nationalists, the suppression of the tribes was an indispensable element of their larger project: the construction of a modern, centralized state, with a culturally homogeneous population.1 Their agenda was clear: the destruction of the autonomy and feudal authority of the tribal leaderships was to be closely followed by the subjection of the tribal populations to the unmediated power of the modernized state and their integration into settled society. From the very moment of seizing power in Tehran, the new regime embarked on a sustained effort to establish its military and administrative hegemony over the tribes, inaugurating a transformation in the relationship between the centre and periphery in Iran.
