The article argues that the pīshkish, a tributary gift-giving ceremony, constituted a central role in the political culture and economy of Qajar Iran, and was part of the process of presenting Qajar rule as a continuation of previous Iranian royal dynasties. It first demonstrates that gifts have a long history in the administrative and political history of Iran, the Persianate world, and broader Eurasia, before highlighting specific features found in Iran. This article uses gift-giving practices in early nineteenth-century Iran as a window onto statecraft, governance, and center-periphery relations in the early Qajar state (1785–1925). Although the influence of these Iranian émigré communities would gradually decline following the reign of Timur Shah, their contributions to the complex process of state building in Indo- Khurasan left a lasting mark on the political culture of the early Durrani state and its contemporary counterpart, Afghanistan. It does so by inves- tigating some of the key factors that prompted the growth in Iranian migrations to the Durrani Empire and the considerable role they came to play in the extension and consolidation of Durrani authority in Indo-Khurasan. Nejatie’s article seeks to better understand the movement of Iranians to the Durrani Empire and their ascendency therein, particularly during the reigns of Ahmad Shah and his son and successor, Timur Shah (r. 1747–72) was accompanied by a steady rise in Iranian migrations to the Durrani territories of Indo-Khurasan.
The presence of Iranian émigrés in the Durrani Empire has garnered minimal attention, even though the formation of the polity by Ahmad Shah Durr-i Durran (r.
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