Studying Missions of Qajar Military Regiments during Peacetime: The Case of Kamareh Regiment

During the Qajar period, Iran was deprived of having an organized, coherent, professional, and experienced army, while the country was struggling with serious territorial and extraterritorial dangers for many years and every now and then faced foreign aggression or internal rebellion and chaos. In that situation, the central and main core of the Qajar army was formed by tribal and local warriors. The said army consisted of dozens of regiments, each of which belonged to a specific province or state. The duty of the armed forces was clear at the time of foreign attack, but the question is, what duty or duties did the military units in question have during the time of peace and tranquility and what was their mission? To answer this question, in this article, some of the missions of the peace period of one of the Qajar army forces called Fouj-e-Kamareh (Kamareh Regiment) was investigated. Like other regiments, the aforementioned regiment was recruited with very limited training mainly in two types of missions: the mission of border guarding and the suppression of riots and internal disturbances. Of course, learning and practicing military skills were also one of the occupations of these military units during the peace periods. To find the answer to the question of this descriptive-analytical research, written documents and sources were used. The findings of the research show that the formation of the Kamareh regiment, like other military elements of the Qajar period, was influenced by the needs of the time and had an independent military command that was chosen by the king or some princes. After Herat War and some border conflicts in Sistan, this regiment had an effective presence in the suppression of rebellions in Delfan, Bakhtiari, Azerbaijan and Fars regions for many years.