Review
"...Tapper's Frontier Nomads of Iran is the most significant ethnological study of tribes in Persia to have been published during the past decade." Pierre Oberling, Journal of Anthropological Research
"...the rigor with which he examines and uses his sources in the deconstruction and reconstruction of Shahsevan origins and identity is commendable." Philip S. Khoury, American Historical Review
"...a rich, ambitious and complicated book....Clearly, this book is a must for those who want to discuss tribalism in the Middle East in general and of its role in Iran's history in particular." Willem Floor, Journal of the American Oriental Society
"...the rigor with which he examines and uses his sources in the deconstruction and reconstruction of Shahsevan origins and identity is commendable." Philip S. Khoury, American Historical Review
"...a rich, ambitious and complicated book....Clearly, this book is a must for those who want to discuss tribalism in the Middle East in general and of its role in Iran's history in particular." Willem Floor, Journal of the American Oriental Society
Product Description
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.
