دکتر ریچارد (Richard Tapper) استاد بازنشسته گروه انسان شناسی و جامعه شناسی مدرسه مطالعات شرقی و افریقایی دانشگاه لندن-  سوآس (SOAS) و از همکاران موسسه خاورمیانه لندن ( London Middle East Institute ) و مرکز آسیای مرکزی و قفقازمعاصر ( Center of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus ) در دوران تحصیل انسان شناسی در مقطع کارشناسی در دانشگاه کمبریج تحقیقات خود را درباره ایران و در ایران آغاز کرد. در تابستان سال 1963،‌ ریچارد تپر در پایان سال دوم تحصیل خود به میان شاهسون های آذربایجان رفت. در تابستان بعد و پس از فارغ التحصیلی به سوآس آمد تا پژوهش خود در مقطع دکترا را آغاز کند که شامل کار میدانی فشرده در سالهای 1965-1966 درمیان شاهسون ها می شد. پس از آن دو سال به مطالعه اسنادی و کتابخانه ای درباره شاهسون ها مشغول شد و پایان نامه ای مفصل درباره ابعاد تغییرات اقتصادی و سیاسی ایل شاهسون به نگارش درآورد و به این وسیله موفق به اخذ درجه دکترا در سال 1972 گردید.

آثار او درباره شاهسون ها:

مرتع و سیاست، اقتصاد : کشمکش و مناسک کوچگران شاهسون در شمال غربی ایران
Tapper, R. 1979. Pasture and Politics, Economics, Conflict and Ritual among Shahsavan Nomads of Northwestern Iran. London: Academic Press.

کوچگران مرزنشین ایران : تاریخی اجتماعی سیاسی از شاهسون ها
Tapper, Richard, 2006, Frontier Nomads of Iran: A Political and Social History of the Shahsevan (Cambridge Middle East Studies) , Cambridge University Press

ایشان در کتاب کوچگران مرزنشین ایران : تاریخی اجتماعی سیاسی از شاهسون ها اشاراتی نیز با ایل شاهسون بغدادی دارند که در ذیل عینا مطالب ذکر شده در این کتاب را آورده ام

  352                                         Appendix 1

The Baghdadi are narrated to have migrated from Persia during the safavi period and settled near Baghdad, whence they returned to Shiraz during the reign of Nadir Shah. During the reign of Karim Khan Zand they had no fixed abode. They joined Agha Muhammad Khan Kajar, who settled them in their present habitat.8

A more recent researcher tells a slightly different story, based on interviews with the chiefs and documents owned by them: at Nadir Shah’s  orders, 12,000 families of Moghan Shahsevan, led by the brothers Qasem ‘ Ali Khan and Qara Bey, were sent to watch the western marches of Iran (Baghdad?). later, Karim Khan sent them to Shiraz, where they resided in Zand times; after his death they wished to return to Moghan, their original home, but Agha Mohammad Qajar prevented them and settled them between Hamadan, Qazvin and Saveh; under Naser ad-Din Shah they acquired private rights to their pastures. In the same writer’s investigations, however, Inanlu are counted as one of the three branches of the Baghdadi (the others are Lak and Arkhlu), and it may be only this branch that has traditions of Moghan origins.9

Yet more recently, ‘Ataollah Hasani has argued that sections of the Baghdadi came from the Bayat Turks; he has found traces of the Baghdadi in the kerkuk region of Iraq, in Syria and southern Turkey, as well as in Khorasan, where legends a,ong present Baghdadi chiefs state that Nader Afshar removed their ancestors after his expedition to Baghdad. After his death, they moved to Shiraz; then, under Agha Mohammad Qajar, to Saveh. Their leader, ‘ Ali Khan, was one of Karim Khan Zand’s experienced military commanders, who campaigned in the Gulf in the 1750s, then in 1759 was detailed to kill off the settled Afghans in Mazandaran in Karim Khan’s Nouruz massacre. Later, with difficulty he routed the Qajars. In 1762 he was commander of Karim Khan’s western flank at the battle of Urmiyeh, and a year later he accompanied Nazar ‘Ali Khan Zand to capture rebel Zaki Khan. His end came in 1765 when, having been sent to reduce Taqi Khan Dorrani at Kerman, he was shot by a sniper.10 Though he is only named ‘ Ali Khan Shahsevan in the sources, Hasani argues that he was from the Qasemlu branch of the group that later became known as Baghdadi.11 I know of no reference to the Baghdadi by name before the mid-nineteenth century, when they are Mentioned among the Persian forces fighting in Afghanistan; later they became the chief recruiting ground for the Iranian Cossacks.

 

8  Fortescue (1922:326). According to Minorsky (1934a:268), however, the Baghdadi are said to have come from Shiraz in the time of Shah ‘AbbasI.

9  Ardalan (1972: 133).                                       10  See Perry (1979).

11 Hasani (1990, I: 12-16). Napier, Fortescue, Minorsky, Ardalan and ( in most detail)

Hassani all give lists of the Baghdadi subsections: a few names echo those of ancient Oghuz or Qizilbash groups, but on the whole they give little indication of the origins of the Baghdadi before the move to Baghdad. Despite her name, Shahsevand-Baghdadi includes virtually no information on the Baghdadi Shahsevan in her book (1991), which focuses on the Moghan Shahsevan.