From Constitutionalism to the Islamic Revolution: the role of Bakhtiari political elites in the social and political life of contemporary Iran

The present article examines the position of the political elites of the Bakhtiari people in the contemporary history of Iran. The main question of this article: What is the special historical position of Bakhtiari political elites and what social and political variables forced them to act according to the situation? Based on this question, the hypothesis that is raised is that in two important periods of contemporary Iranian history (constitutionalism and the first and second Pahlavi), the influential variable of Bakhtiari elite is based on property, while this variable undergoes a major change in 1979. The results of the research show that during the Islamic Revolution, the distinction between the Bakhtiari elites and the masses disappeared and it is precisely the integrated body of the people that sided with the revolution and played a role in its eventual victory. The research method in this article is to collect historical documents in a library manner and then analyze the data.