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Ethnohistory of the Qizilbash in Kabul: Migration, State, and a Shi'a Minority

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Ethnohistory of the Qizilbash in Kabul: Migration, State, and a Shi'a Minority ETHNOHISTORY OF THE QIZILBASH IN KABUL: MIGRATION, STATE, AND A SHI’A MINORITY Solaiman M. Fazel Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology Indiana University May 2017 i Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee __________________________________________ Raymond J. DeMallie, PhD __________________________________________ Anya Peterson Royce, PhD __________________________________________ Daniel Suslak, PhD __________________________________________ Devin DeWeese, PhD __________________________________________ Ron Sela, PhD Date of Defense ii For my love Megan for the light of my eyes Tamanah and Sohrab and for my esteemed professors who inspired me iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This historical ethnography of Qizilbash communities in Kabul is the result of a painstaking process of multi-sited archival research, in-person interviews, and collection of empirical data from archival sources, memoirs, and memories of the people who once live/lived and experienced the affects of state-formation in Afghanistan. The origin of my study extends beyond the moment I had to pick a research topic for completion of my doctoral dissertation in the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University. This study grapples with some questions that have occupied my mind since a young age when my parents decided to migrate from Kabul to Los Angeles because of the Soviet-Afghan War of 1980s. I undertook sections of this topic while finishing my Senior Project at UC Santa Barbara and my Master’s thesis at California State University, Fullerton. I can only hope that the questions and analysis offered here reflects my intellectual progress. It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge my debt to a number of mentors who have guided me in my intellectual development at Indiana University, given me the necessary confidence in my abilities as a non-native English speaker, and helped me improve this study by urging me to clarify, theorize, and sharpen its arguments. My deepest thanks goes to Professors Raymond J. DeMallie, Anya Royce, Daniel Suslak, Devin DeWeese, and Ron Sela for being helpful mentors. I will always be grateful for the meticulous intellectual support that I received not only to present my ideas clearly and intelligibly, but reminding me of the importance of minorities, local histories and cultures, and state-formation that defines our interconnected world. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the staff at Departments of Anthropology and Central Eurasian Studies, my academic home for the last seven years, for their help. I also would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the helpful staff of the various archives and libraries that I visited over the years. I extend my thanks to Massouma Nazari, Director of National Archives in Kabul. Nancy H. Dupree, Director of Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University. Ghulam Farooq, Dean of Social Sciences, Kabul University. Huma Jawansheer, Director of Library and Archives, National Museum of Afghanistan. Sayyid Yusuf, Curator of Ziyarat-e Sakhi; and last but not least, Kabir Mushtaq, President of Afghanistan Qizilbash Solidarity Council. I would like to end by thanking my helpful interlocutors in Afghanistan, United States, and Canada for their hospitality and enthusiasm for this historical ethnography of the Qizilbash. iv My daughter Tamanah and my son Sohrab still wonder why their father spends countless hours at the library or days away to attend academic symposiums. Nonetheless, both are brilliant readers and master storytellers with a keen sense of curiosity who now find my bookstands and filing cabinets as sources of excitement. I hope that one day they will read their father’s dissertation. My greatest thanks goes to my lovely wife, Megan. I deeply thank my parents, Hafiz and Najla Fazel, for raising me with the gift of reading and a curious mind. My in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Sarwary, are the kindest people anyone could ask for. My entire family encouraged me during the stressful years of dissertation writing to ensure I still had my sanity. Megan often reminds me that anthropology and history is so captivating, but it is also important to live in the present. To which I always reply, there is no present without the genealogies of the past. On the other hand, living in the present with Megan, Tamanah, and Sohrab is a pure joy that I always treasure. So I dedicate this study to my family and mentors, because this dissertation would not have been possible without them. v Solaiman M. Fazel ETHNOHISTORY OF THE QIZILBASH IN KABUL: MIGRATION, STATE, AND A SHI’A MINORITY This study explores the question of who are the Qizilbash people of Kabul. My research uses the ethnohistorical method for the study of Qizilbash history and culture. The Qizilbash history is reconstructed in a chronological and thematic manner by including data from a wide range of anthropological and historical sources that contains primary sources, memoirs, hagiographies, images, maps, participant observation, and in-person interviews. The advent of the Qizilbash coincides with the advances of the Safavid Sufi order that arose in the Iranian Plateau. This study then explains the reason behind the Qizilbash migration to the eastern frontier city of Kabul and ends by discussing the shifting Qizilbash relations with the modern state of Afghanistan. The latter part helps us better understand the Shi’a question in the context of Afghanistan, 1880-1978. This study, for the first time places the stories of a relatively small, but influential urban Shi’a group within the broader state-formation efforts that materialized in Kabul (constitutionalism, modernity, urbanization) prior to the Soviet Union invasion of 1979. __________________________________________ Raymond J. DeMallie, PhD __________________________________________ Anya Peterson Royce, PhD __________________________________________ Daniel Suslak, PhD __________________________________________ Devin DeWeese, PhD __________________________________________ Ron Sela, PhD vi TABLE OF CONTENTS COVER…………………………………………………………………………………………..i ACCEPTANCE…………………………………………………………………………………ii DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………………….iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………………..iv ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………….vi QUOTATION……………………………………………………………………………..…….x TRANSLITERATION.......................................................................................xi ABBREVIATION............................................................................................xii LIST OF MAPS………………………………………………………………………….…..xiii LIST OF TABLES………………………………………..…………………………………xiv LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………….……………………………………xv LIST OF APPENDICES……………………………….………………………………..…xvi INTRODUCTION I. Research Objective………………………………………………………………...1 A) Qizilbash: A Brief Look…………………………………………………..2 B) Modern Afghanistan: A Closer Look…………………………………..8 II. Research Significance…………………………………………………………..13 A) Sunni-Shi’a Conflict: Historical Dimension………………………..15 B) Shi’a Population………………………………………………………….18 C) State System vs. Sectarian Blocs…………………………………….20 III. Literature Review……………………………………………………………….22 IV. Outline of Chapters…………………………………………………………….29 CHAPTER 1: Ethnohistorical Method I. What is Ethnohistory?.......................................................................32 II. Research Methodology: Recollecting the Past……………………………..35 A) Interviews.…………………………………………………………………41 CHAPTER 2: Origin, Etymology, and Evolution, 1501-1747 I. Origin………………………………………………………………………………..48 A) Etymology……………………………………………………………….…49 II. Qizilbash and the Fall of the Safavids……………………………………...57 vii III. Nadir Afshar, 1729-1747………………………………………………….….59 A) Indian Expedition…………………………………………………….….62 B) Central Asian Expedition……………………………………………...66 C) Ottoman Expedition……………………………………………….……68 D) Qizilbash Tragedy………………………………………………….……70 E) Primary Sources………………………………………………………....72 IV. Tribes……………………………………………………………………………...76 A) Organization and Transformation………………………………..….82 B) Culture………………………………………………………………..……93 CHAPTER 3: A History of Qizilbash in Kabul, 1747-1880 I. Aftermath of Nadir Shah’s Assassination………………………………….100 II. Rise of Afghans…………………………………………………………...…….101 A) Political and Military Consolidation………………………………..104 B) Abdali-Qizilbash Ties: Ahmad Shah’s Early Years……………..110 C) Transfer of the Capital to Kabul: Role of the Qizilbash…….....113 D) Primary Sources………………………………………………………..116 III. Colonial Encounter……………………………………………………………119 A) Anglo-Afghan Wars, 1839-41 and 1878-80………………………123 B) Anti-British Uprising in Kabul………………………………………126 C) Primary Sources .………………………………………………………128 CHAPTER 4: Qizilbash Migration to Kabul, 1504-1880 I. Kabul……………………………………………………………………………...133 II. Migration: Push and Pull Factors………………………………………….134 A) First Wave: Post-Babur, 1504…………………………………..….137 B) Second Wave: Nadir Shah’s Reign, 1729-1747………………...141 C) Third Wave: Post-Ahmad Shah, 1747…………………………….145 III. Qizilbash Neighborhoods……………………………………………………153 A) Chindawol……………………………………………………………….153 B) Murad Khani………………………………………………………..….158 IV. Culture………………………………………………………………………….165 A) Family………………………………………………………………...….166 B) Food……………………………………………………………………...168 C) Leisure Activities……………………………………………………...169 D) Education……………………………………………………………….171 viii CHAPTER 5: State and the Shi’a Question I. Revival
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