Caucasian Seminary Students and their Role in the Political - Social Changes of Mashhad in the Late Qajar Era (1902- 1911)

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Mashhad was a destination for many immigrants from different parts of Iran and also neighboring regions of Iran such as Central Asia, Afghanistan, the Indian subcontinent and Caucasus. These immigrant groups who had entered Mashhad with different motivations affected the political, social, economic and cultural conditions of this city in different ways. After several generations, many of these immigrants became the main citizens of Mashhad and their descendants are still living in this city with family names that show their origins (Bukharaei, Heravi, Badkoubei etc.). Among the immigrant communities, the Caucasians were an important group. The Caucasians, who migrated to Mashhad during the Qajar Era with motivations such as pilgrimage, trade and education, played influential roles in various fields; they were sometimes active in developing the cultural and economic infrastructures of the city, and were sometimes involved in its social and political movements. A group of these Caucasian immigrants were students who studied in the Islamic seminaries around the Holy shrine of Imam Reza. In the last two decades of the Qajar Era, these Caucasian students were among the most active communities in Mashhad. This article studies the important events in which the Caucasian students played roles and the position of these students in the developments of this city. Among the most important of these events are the bread crisis in 1903, the Constitutional Revolution, and the Minor Tyranny period.