The Distribution of Religious Scholars In the Twelfth Century

With the fall of Safawid dynasty (1135 AH.), the religious and political structure of Iran was emasculated. The government of Afghans (1135-1145 AH.) led to a ten-years fighting, and the statesmanship of Nader Shah (1148-1160 AH.) led to numerous foreign and domestic campaigns due to frequent internal oppositions. These wars and the lack of social security as well as the growing pressure on people led to the migration of many people from Iran. The political governance and the short-term peace under Zand dynasty (1163-1209 AH.) were restricted to some parts of Iran. Due to these changes, the religious structure was weakened, because in addition to Sunnite Afghans, Nader faced religion with the political instrument and marginalized the religious scholars by disregarding them. Zand dynasty, while respecting the scholars, did not attempt to revive the social status they enjoyed under Safawids. As a result of that crisis and lack of affiliation between the scholars and the rulers, some of the scholars had to migrate. The dispersal of scholars is the subject of this study. Thus, this fact is studied geographically and by assuming the three following trends: seclusion in cities and migration to villages, migration to Najaf, and migration to India. Then, the motivations and the results are studied and explained. The research method is descriptive-analytical and is done using library resources.