York: W.W. Norton, 2004); Osama bin Laden, Mes-
sages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden,
edited by Bruce Lawrence and translated by James
Howarth (New York: Verso, 2005); Michael Wolfe and
the Producers of Belief Net, eds., Taking Back Islam:
American Muslims Reclaim Their Faith (Emmaus, Pa.:
Rodale, 2002); Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower:
Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Random
House, 2006).
Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty, which ruled iran from 1796
to 1925, was originally composed of a loose tribal
federation in the northwest territories of Iran
until 1796, when a shaykh named Agha Muham-
mad Khan defeated his rival shaykhs and declared
himself the first Qajar shah of Iran. Although
Khan was assassinated a year after taking power,
his descendants managed to unify the country
under a strong, centralized government, putting
an end to the tribal warfare and civil strife that
had gripped Iran for centuries.
Under the Qajar shahs, Iran went through an
intense process of modernization and Westerniza-
tion in nearly every sector of society. At the same
time, the Qajars encouraged the blossoming of a
distinctly Persian literary and artistic tradition,
and they promoted a high level of philosophical
and theological creativity unmatched in the rest
of the Middle East at the time.
Despite these successes, however, the Qajar
shahs were unable to escape the Anglo-Russian
rivalry that dominated most of the 19th century.
Consequently, they were powerless to keep Iran
from being partitioned into British and Russian
zones of influence. The loss of national sover-
eignty and the plundering of the country’s natural
resources by foreign powers led a coalition of mer-
chants, clerics, and intellectuals in 1906 to force
the Qajar shah, Mozaffar al-Din (r. 1896–1907),
to accept a constitUtion that created an elected
parliament, or Majlis, transforming Iran into a
constitutional monarchy. Yet, the constitution-
alists were promptly repressed by Russia, who
feared that the rising sense of nationalism in Iran
would compromise their political and economic
interests in the region. Using the might of their
Cossack forces, the Russians, with the support
of the British, propped up a succession of weak-
willed shahs on the Qajar throne. However, with
the outbreak of World War I, the Russians and
British recognized the need for strong leadership
in Iran. As a result, they encouraged a coup d’état
by the commander of the Cossack Brigade, reza
shah pahlavi (r. 1925–41), who, in 1925, put an
end to the Qajar dynasty by declaring himself the
first Pahlavi shah of Iran.
See also colonialism; democracy.
Reza AslanFurther reading: Hamid Algar, Religion and State in
Iran: 1795–1906 (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1969); A. K. S. Lambton, Qajar Persia (London:
I.B. Tauris, 1987); Hasan-e Fasai, History of Persia under
Qajar Rule. Translated by Heribert Busse (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1972).Qalandar See dervish.
Qaramatians See ismaili shiism.
Qatar See gulf states.
qawwali
Qawwali is a form of Islamic mUsic that has
recently gained popularity in Europe and the
Americas by the pioneering efforts of the late
great Pakistani singer Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan (1948–97), but its roots are over 600
years old. Qawwali music is devotional music,
traditionally sung by South Asian Sufi singers
at religious festivals and Sufi shrines. A typicalqawwali 567 J