On Turkish Identity and the Position of Turkish Language in the Qajar Period

The reign of the Qajar dynasty (1796-1925) constituted the last stage of nearly a thousand years of Turkish rule in Iran, which began with the Gaznavids. The Qajar shahs, who were aware of their ethnic identity, boasted that they came from the Turkish lineage, and this issue was reflected in the historical sources of that period. Turkish was continued to be a dominant language in the palace, and the army and some official correspondences were carried out in Azerbaijani and Chagatai Turkic languages, and the Turks were active in the upper echelons of the state at the time of Qajars, similar to the previous Turkish dynasties. In this period, many specific elements of Turkish culture were maintained in Iran, and the Turkish Twelve-Year Animal Cycle Calendar was used as the official calendar. The Turkish terms were used actively in the administrative organization; dynastic members and administrators had more Turkish names than the ruling class at that time in the Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, there were lessons on Turkish language in schools, works in Turkish were written and printed in the Qajar State. Despite the well-known fact that Qajars were Turks, few attempts have been made to study the Turkish identity and Turkish consciousness of this dynasty. Moreover, the status and position of Turkish language of that period has been a rather neglected subject until now. In the current article we have tried to clarify this issue by examining both the Eastern and European sources and documents