Document Type : Research Paper

Author

• Mohammadreza Tahmak

PhD Candidate of Sociology, Allameh Tabataba'i University

Abstract

To understand government is one of the fundamental grounds of understanding Persia’s history. However, understanding Persia’s history requires examining the constituent parts of Persian society. This study is carried out with a critical approach, in historical individuality employing a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods and it investigates the proportion of forces in zones of Asir, Beyram, Alamarvdasht, Gallehdar, Gavbandi, Maleki and Tamimi of Fars state prior to the modern state. The findings of this study indicate that on the one hand, people in these regions had been generally armed and possessed the instrument of exerting coercion, on the other hand, the local governors needed the support of their subjects. This process causes the balance of forces between the people and the local governors, subsequently, bringing into existence cores of armed local power. Moreover, the existence of these armed communities in conjunction with data as to forces of central government and macro-level analysis of the country point out to the plural structure of government in Persia prior to its modern state.

Keywords

• Keywords: Sovereignty
• local government
• armed communities
• balance of forces
• governmental plural structure

Main Subjects

• Sociology