Bulletin of SOAS, Page 1 of 27. © SOAS, University of London, 2017. doi:10.1017/S0041977X17000015 On the margins of minority life: Zoroastrians and the state in Safavid Iran1 Kioumars Ghereghlou Columbia University, New York
[email protected] Abstract This article looks at the treatment of the Zoroastrians by central and pro- vincial authorities in early modern Yazd, Kirman and Isfahan, emphasiz- ing the institutional weaknesses of the central or khāsṣạprotection they were supposed to benefit from under the Safavids (907–1135/1501– 1722). It is argued that the maltreatment the Zoroastrians endured under the Safavids had little to do with religious bigotry. Rather, it arose from rivalries between the central and the provincial services of the Safavid bureaucracy, putting Zoroastrians in Yazd, Kirman, Sistan and Isfahan at risk of over-taxation, extortion, forced labour and religious persecution. The argument developed in this article pivots on the material interest of the central and the provincial agents of the Safavid bureaucracy in the revenue and labour potentials of the Zoroastrians, and the way in which the conflict of interest between these two sectors led to such acts of perse- cution as over-taxation, forced labour, extortion and violence. Keywords: Zoroastrians, Safavids, Religious minorities, Yazd, Kirman, Isfahan, Iran For much of the Safavid period (907–1135/1501–1722), the Zoroastrians of Yazd and Kirman, the two historical centres of bihdīn (Zoroastrian) population in Iran, lived under the supervision of the khāsṣạ(crown) services of the central bureaucracy. They contributed cash and free labour to the crown sector, in exchange for the protection that khāsṣạauthorities, including the shah and members of the royal family, were supposed to provide against maltreatment at the hands of local notables and non-khāsṣạelements in Yazd and Kirman.