An overview of Shah Qalandar during the Safavid dynasty

The fundamental basis of this research is based on the results of appropriate answer to the following questions: What kind o f backgrounds and agents caused the Qalandar’s Riot? What was its purpose? What was its intellectual and social end? What was the process of its upheaval? And how and why did such riot happen and what were the consequences of this riot? This riot happened during the sovereign of Shah Mohammad Khodabande Safavi (1577-1586) in Kouhgilouye province and the affected his monarchy for several years. It was partly due to socio-economical restlessness and political crisis involving the Safavid government; the unstable situation contributed to the inflections of a vast group of Tajik people who were living in the area and were fed up with the ruling of Afsharid Qezelbash. Qalandar became a center of attention. He made lots of promises such as guarantee of development of their territory and conquering the world, and through the claim of Esmail Mirza to erect a new kingdom by promising to promote them to prominent political positions and assuring to enjoy better life styles. As a result of such promises he could raise the folk against the central government and its advocates. This paper will fully scrutinized the major causes of the riot of Qalandar in the Kouhgilouye, the back grounds leading to its intellectual, social bases as well as the process of its upheavals, the reasons that why people attended to this riot and responded to Qalandar’s invitation, and finally the factors contributing to its deficiencies and the outcomes of it.