Qasem Sultan Afshar

Qāsem Sultan was a member of the Imānlū branch of the Afshar tribe, one of the original Qizilbash tribes that had supplied power to the Safavids since its earliest days.[1][2] During King Abbas I's early reign, Qāsem Sultan became the head of a group of Afshars whose duty it was to protect the marshes surrounding the city of Kermanshah.[1] In the early 17th century, marked by wars against the archrivals of the Safavids — the Ottomans — Qāsem Sultan fought with great distinction, which earned him the governorshop of Mosul in 1622.[3][1][4] However, shortly after, following the outbreak of a plague, he moved towards the western part of Azerbaijan with the rest of his tribe.[1] He became the founder of the Afshar community of the city of Urmia.[1] His son Kalb-e ʿAlī Beg (or Kalb' Ali Sultan Afshar) was appointed governor of Urmia in 1627-28,[1] or 1630,[5] until 1648.[5] The descendants of both formed the Qāsemlū clan — named in honor of Qāsem Sultan.[1]

• Floor, Willem M. (2008). Titles and Emoluments in Safavid Iran: A Third Manual of Safavid Administration, by Mirza Naqi Nasiri. Washington, DC: Mage Publishers. p. 309. ISBN 978-1933823232.
• Newman, Andrew J. (2012). Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0857733665.
• Oberling, P. (1984). "AFŠĀR". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 6. pp. 582–586. Archived from the original on 2011-04-29.
• Rothman, E. Nathalie (2015). Brokering Empire: Trans-Imperial Subjects between Venice and Istanbul. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801463129.