Book Reviews Arthur Tsutsiev: Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of The

Iran and the Caucasus 20 (2016) 253-258

Book Reviews

Arthur Tsutsiev: Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus, Translated from Russian by Nora Seligman Favorov, New Haven: “Yale University Press”, 2014, xv+221 pp.

Scholars interested in the history of the North and South Caucasus can fi- nally utilize an accurate, complete and objective reference guide in the form of a historical atlas, which depicts the political history and the ethnic diversity of the region from 1722, that is from the fall of the Safavid Dynasty in Iran and Peter the Great’s invasion of the Caspian littoral, to the present. The 57 superb color maps not only indicate political changes, but also demonstrate the notorious ethnic complexity of this mountainous region, which has perhaps more languages, races and cultures than any other region in the world. Realizing the post-Soviet extreme regional nationalism and the “im- agined states and communities”, which now claim that “our group is ancient, we were always there, our culture is unique and great, therefore we must do whatever it takes to assert ourselves as a sovereign state”, the au- thor has chosen the historic maps of the Ottoman and Iranian empires (1722-1829)[maps 1-6], as well as the official administrative divisions of the region during the Russian Empire [maps 7-21]. Maps 2-3 clearly demonstrate the fact that the South Caucasus from 1722 to 1736 was the battleground between the Ottomans and Iranians. Map 6 depicts the wars between the Ottoman and Russian, and the Ira- nian and Russian armies. The Ottomans sought to maintain their pasha- liks and the Iranians their khanates. Both also wished to maintain their suzerainty over eastern and western Georgia. Following the treaties of Bu- charest (1812), Gulistan (1813), Turkmanchay (1828), and Adrianople (1829), Russia became the master of the south Caucasus; and, by 1860, af- ter the long war in Daghestan and Chechnia, the master of the north Cau- casus as well [maps 7-9].

The next dozen maps describe the Russian administration of the Cau- casus. These are especially important in the light of maps printed in the USSR (1937-1991) and the Republic of Azerbaijan (1991-present), which de- spite the fact that the overwhelming number of 19th century Russian1 and Iranian, as well as European historians considered the Iranian province of Azerbaijan and the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan as two separate geographical and political entities (confirmed by Tustsiev’s maps 10-21), modern Azerbaijani historians and geographers view it a single state that has been separated into “northern” and “southern” sectors and which will be united in the future.2 The claim and confusion rests on a number of factors: a) Although politically the two rarely formed one region, since the majority of the population of Iranian northwestern provinces (ancient Aturpāta- kān) spoke the same Turkic dialect as the overwhelming numbers of Muslim Tatars in the South Caucasus, modern Azerbaijani historians view the people and the two regions as one. b) The khanate of Nakhichevan and parts of southern Karabagh (the Qap- anat) had been, at times, included in the administrative division of the Iranian province of Azarbaijan. c) Following the Treaty of Gulistan, the khanates of Nakhichevan and Yere- van and their khans were subordinate to ʿAbbas Mirza, the commander- in-chief of the Iranian forces in Tabriz (Azerbaijan). d) The Tadhkirat Al-Muluk,3 an important Persian source on the administration of Iran in the last years of the Safavids, seems to include the three provinces of Chukhur-e Saʿd (Yerevan and Nakhichevan), Karabagh (Gan- ja and Karabagh) and Shirvan (Shirvan, Baku, Kuba and Sheki) as being under the governorship (beglerbegi) of Azarbaijan centered in Tabriz.4

1 To be fair, one has to note that at least two 19th century Russian sources occasionally sometimes confuse some of the khanates of the South Caucasus as being part of what they refer to as Azerbaidžan (see P. G. Butkov, Materialy dlya novoj istorii Kavkaza, s’ 1722 po 1803 (St. Petersburg, 1869): II, 132, 139-140, 155; 176, 287, 318-320; and Akty, I, 93, 159, 611; III, 458, 366, 370). However, in other pages, both of these sources consider Azerbaijan as the Ira- nian province lying south of the Arax (Aras) River (see Butkov, I, 60, 109; Akty, III, 252, 291, 324). 2 Stalin’s unsuccessful occupation of Iran’s Azarbaijan province in 1945-1946 spurred historians and politicians in Baku to accept the (earlier) Soviet notion of a “southern Azer- baijan” and “northern Azerbaijan”, which were separated by force. 3 Vladimir Minorsky, transl., Tadhkirat Al-Muluk (London, 1943): 100-102. 4 Upon careful examination, however, Minorsky’s commentary reads: “The list starts in the north-west with the enumeration of the four governorships, those of Tabriz, Chukhur-