War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and Present / Edited by Roxane Farmanfarmaian
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War and Peace in Qajar Persia Persia Felix could never have been a phrase coined to describe modern Iran. Her lot since the period of the Qajars has been to stand in the crossfire of great power politics. In this collection, a new debate takes place on the approach of the Qajar system (1796–1925) within the context of the wars that engulfed it and the quality of the peace that ensued. Consistent with the pattern of history, much of the material avail- able until now on the Qajar era, particularly as regards its responses to crisis, its military preparedness and the social organization of its borderlands, was written by the victors of the wars. This volume, in contrast, throws new light on the decision- making processes, the restraints on action and the political, economic and social exigencies at play through analysis that looks at the Persian question from the inside looking out. The results are often surprising, as what they reveal is a Persia more astute politically than previous analysis has allowed, strategically more adept at spurning the multiple interventions and intrigues on all sides in the heat of the Great Game, and shrewd at negotiating in the face of the severe economic pressures being brought to bear by the Great Powers. Although history reconceived does not paint a purely rosy picture of the Qajars, it does offer a reassessment based on Persia’s geopolitical position, the frequently unpalatable options it had to choose from, and the strategic need to protect its resources. Today, events in Iran and Western Asia appear to echo many of the power plays of the nineteenth-century’s Great Game. States of the region are again seeking advant- age over their neighbours; the issue of oil nationalism is at the top of the agenda as it was in the early twentieth century, and great power dominance, indeed interven- tion, has become a central theme. The essays in this volume make it clear that an understanding of how policies were formulated during the Qajar era can provide a historical dimension to current analysis of the region, as similar circumstances today may be engendering like responses. This volume makes an important contribution to the effort of rewriting the his- torical record. It is a revisionism that is overdue not only in respect to an era that in itself has been understudied and misunderstood, but that carries significant link- ages to present-day conditions. Roxane Farmanfarmaian is completing her PhD at the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge, where she served as editor of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs for three years. During the revolution in Iran she founded The Iranian, an independent weekly newsmagazine. She reported on Iranian affairs from Moscow and has been a contributing writer to The New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor and The Times of London. She has guest lectured at the Centre of Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley, at Madingly Hall at Cambridge University and has consulted on Iran and Iraq for the British Military. Contributors: Peter W. Avery; Stephanie Cronin; Manoutchehr M. Eskandari-Qajar; Mansoureh Ettehadieh; Roxane Farmanfarmaian; Ali Gheissari; Vanessa Martin; Lawrence G. Potter; Richard Schofield and Graham Williamson. History and Society in the Islamic World Series editors: Anoushiravan Ehteshami, University of Durham and George Joffé, Centre for International Studies, Cambridge University Contemporary events in the Islamic world dominate the headlines and emphasize the crises of the Middle East and North Africa, yet the Islamic world is far larger and more varied than we realize. Current affairs there, too, mask the underlying trends and values that have, over time, created a fascinating and complex world. This new series is intended to reveal that other Islamic reality by looking at its history and society over the ages, as well as at the contemporary scene. It will also reach far further afield, bringing in Central Asia and the Far East as part of a cultural space sharing com- mon values and beliefs but manifesting a vast diversity of experience and social order. French Military Rule in Morocco Lebanon Colonialism and its consequences The politics of frustration – the Moshe Gershovich failed coup of 1961 Adel Beshara Tribe and Society in Britain and Morocco During the Rural Morocco Embassy of John Drummond Hay, David M. Hart 1845–1886 Khalid Ben Srhir North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean World The Assassination of Jacques From the Almoravids to Lemaigre Dubreuil the Algerian War A Frenchman between France Edited by Julia Clancy-Smith and North Africa William A. Hoisington Jr The Walled Arab City in Literature, Political Change in Algeria Architecture and History Elites and the balancing of The living Medina in the Maghrib instability Edited by Susan Slyomovics Isabelle Werenfels Tribalism and Rural Society in the The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade Islamic World John Wright David M. Hart Civil Society and Political Change in Morocco Technology, Tradition and Survival James N. Sater Aspects of material culture in the Middle East and Central Asia War and Peace in Qajar Persia Richard Tapper and Keith Implications past and present McLachlan Edited by Roxane Farmanfarmaian War and Peace in Qajar Persia Implications past and present Edited by Roxane Farmanfarmaian First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon Ox14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2008 Editorial selection and matter; Roxane Farmanfarmaian; individual chapters the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data War and peace in Qajar Persia: implications past and present / edited by Roxane Farmanfarmaian. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Iran–History–Qajar dynasty, 1794–1925. 2. Iran–History, Military. I. Farmanfarmaian, Roxane, 1955– DS299.W37 2008 955′.04–dc22 2007025350 ISBN 0-203-93830-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 10: 0-415-42119-5 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-203-93830-5 (ebk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-42119-5 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-93830-0 (ebk) Contents List of figures vii Contributors viii Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 ROXANE FARMANFARMAIAN Prologue: the dream of empire 13 PETER W. AVERY PART I War 19 1 Between Scylla and Charybdis: policy-making under conditions of constraint in early Qajar Persia 21 MANOUTCHEHR M. ESKANDARI-QAJAR 2 Building a new army: military reform in Qajar Iran 47 STEPHANIE CRONIN 3 The Turko-Persian War of 1821–1823: winning the war but losing the peace 88 GRAHAM WILLIAMSON 4 Social networks and border conflicts: the First Herat War 1838–1841 110 VANESSA MARTIN vi Contents PART II Peace 123 5 The consolidation of Iran’s frontier on the Persian Gulf in the nineteenth century 125 LAWRENCE G. POTTER 6 Narrowing the frontier: mid-nineteenth century efforts to delimit and map the Perso-Ottoman border 149 RICHARD SCHOFIELD 7 Crime, security, and insecurity: socio-political conditions of Iran, 1875–1924 174 MANSOUREH ETTEHADIEH (NEZAM-MAFIE) 8 Merchants without borders: trade, travel and a revolution in late Qajar Iran (the memoirs of Hajj Mohammad-Taqi Jourabchi, 1907–1911) 183 ALI GHEISSARI 9 The politics of concession: reassessing the interlinkage of Persia’s finances, British intrigue and Qajar negotiation 213 ROXANE FARMANFARMAIAN Index 229 Figures 5.1 Omani enclaves 130 5.2 Arab principalities 137 6.1 The 1843 borderlands status quo 153 6.2 The 1850 Williams line and rival Persian and Ottoman interpretations (to its west and east) of the 1847 Shatt al-Arab boundary delimitation 157 6.3 A reduced section of the 1869 Anglo-Russian Carte Identique 164 8.1 195 8.2 196 8.3 197 8.4 198 8.5 Taken in Hajj Hasan Jourabchi’s house in Tabriz 199 8.6 200 8.7 201 Contributor list Peter Avery’s interest in Persian began in India during World War II and was focused mainly on the desire to read Hafiz in the original. He spent several years in Iran after the Second World War, having taken a degree in Persian and Arabic from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in 1949. From 1949–1951 he was education liaison officer in the oil fields, and from 1955–1958 he was Personal Assistant to the Senior Manager of John Mowlem, a road building contractor in Southern Iran. In 1958 he was appointed Lecturer in Persian at Cambridge Univer- sity and became a Fellow of King’s College. He translated and published 30 poems by Hafiz in 1952 (reissued in 2003), Modern Iran in 1963, and a translation of The Mantiqu’t-Tair (The Speech of the Birds) by ‘Altar in 1992. Since his retirement from his lectureship in 1990, he has published The Collected Lyrics of Hafiz of Shiraz (2007) and The Spirit of Iran (2007), has written numerous articles and has contributed to the Encyclopedia Iranica. Stephanie Cronin is Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow at the University of Northampton. She is the author of The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran, 1910–1926, (I.