Tribe and state: the "tribal problem" in Iran -- The new state and the rural poor -- The destruction of the tribal leaderships : the Great Khans of the Bakhtiyari -- Challenges from within: Junior Khans, nomads and peasants in Bakhtiyari -- Rural resistance: the tribal uprisings of 1929 -- The politics of debt: the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Bakhtiyari Khans -- The politics of terror: the fall of Sardar Asad and the "Bakhtiyari plot" -- Conclusion : the end of tribal politics in Iran -- Appendix : tribal campaigns 1921-1941.