Jewish Barforoush (Babol) and British Support (1283 AH/ 1866 AD)

Iran is a country with ethnic, religious and cultural diversity, and this privilege in the absence of an efficient administrative system can lead to the confrontation of social forces and the occurrence of issues locally and nationally. In the 12th century AH / 19th AD, the city of Barforoush (current Babol) in Mazandaran province, located in the south of the Caspian Sea, became the scene of the anger of the majority of Muslims against the Jewish minority of that city, which, in addition to bloodshed and looting, also led to the forced conversion of Jews to Islam. These circumstances in turn caused the intervention of Britain in the position of protecting the Jews (1283 A.H./ 1866 A.D.). Although this incident has been already studied and investigated, the present research aims to examine this event from a new prespective with a historical-analytical method. For this purpose, it probes the presence of the Jewish community in Barfarosh, the process of British support for Jews, as well as the solution of the central government to establish order and security in the city, the latter of which requires the rereading of a new archival document. The findings show that the presence of the Jewish community with a rural origin in the city of Barfarosh did not have much history, and this short stay could prevent the mutual understanding and definition of the interaction framework of the parties, especially that the administrative system of Mazandaran lacked the necessary ability to organize affairs. The emotional and ill-considered reaction of the Muslim majority towards the Jewish minority quickly took on a religious aspect. The consequence of the lack of action of the central government was the appeal of the Jews to the Jewish organizations in Britain, leading to the involvement of London in this event. Hence, the Muslim majority could not achieve what they wanted, and in addition to compensating the Jews, it provided the opportunity for British imperialism to intervene in the internal affairs of Iran as a supporter of the Jews until the end of the Qajar era.