Typology of Gilan's Social Movements during the Safavids Era

Gilan witnessed significant social movements during the reign of Safavids. This was due to the factors like specific climatic conditions, proximity to the sea, presence of massive forests and thickets, powerful local families, mass production of silk, the high income of the province through the trade of this product and the distinctive approach of the government to this area. However, when the inheritance privileges of the local governors were compromised and the heavy and cruel taxes imposed on various classes of the society, and when the Safavid policies and programs in the field of economy and the administrating manners of the province, including privatization of fertile lands, creating monopoly on silk trade and establishment of non-native groups such as Georgians, Armenians and Qizilbash tribes were implemented the local families, urban classes and peasants in Gilan were united against the Safavid government. Through a descriptive-analytic method and inspired by Eric Olin Wright's class analysis methodology, it has been tries in present study to explore the typology of Gilan movements and to explain why and how they evolved. The research claim is that the Gilan movements included a vast range of tribal-urban, tribal- peasant, and peasant movements, and the changes happened in the Safavid government's approach to the economic and political policies towards this profitable province resulted in suppression of urban families, emergence of other types of movements and bring new demands up.