Iran at War: Interactions with the Modern World and the Struggle with Imperial Russia

by Maziar Behrooz

Overview

After the destructive decades following the fall of the Safavid Empire, the Qajar dynasty inherited a weakened state and the growing threat of European imperial powers, culminating in two wars with Russia. In this book, Maziar Behrooz provides a history of the Qajar dynasty's navigation of this difficult period, beginning with the reign of Aqa Muhammad Shah and ending with that of Fath Ali Shah. Examining the key decisions taken by Qajar, Russian, British and other actors, the book argues that a reevaluation of the early-Qajar period is required, one which acknowledges the failures of its rulers, while recognising the external constraints they were under, and their successes in reuniting a formerly fragmented state in the face of overwhelming technological, economic and military firepower.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780766270
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/04/2023
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Maziar Behrooz is Associate Professor of History at San Francisco State University, USA. He has authored numerous articles and book chapters on the 19th and 20th-century history of Iran. His first book, Rebels with a Cause: the Failure of the Left in Iran (1999), has been translated into Persian and Turkish. His second book, Perspectives on the History of Rebels with a Cause in Iran (2006), is a translation of a collection of articles and interviews on the left movement in Iran, published in Tehran. To find out more please visit: https://faculty.sfsu.edu/~mroozbeh

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction

1. Qajar Reunification
The Eunuch King and reunification of Iran
Aqa Muhammad Shah
Defeat of the Zand
Conquest of the Caucasus

2. Iran: State and Society in the Early Nineteenth Century
Fath Ali Shah Qavanllu-Qajar
Early Qajar state
Social classes and land tenure
Ulama–state relations
Early nineteenth-century society
The Qajar military

3. Diplomacy and War: The First Russo-Iranian War, 1804–1813
Prelude to war, 1801–1803
Abbas Mirza Qavanllu-Qajar
Fall of Ganjeh, 1804
First siege of Iravan, summer 1804
The Battle of Qarabagh and the siege of Ganjeh and Badkubeh, 1805
Diplomacy and intrigue
Battles of 1806
The Peaceful 1807
The Gardane mission, 1807–1809
Second siege of Iravan and the Battle of Nakhjavan, October–December 1808
The Jones Brydges mission, 1809–1810

4. Interwar Years and the Second Russo-Iranian War
The Interwar years
Prelude to war
Russian policy toward the southeastern Caucasus
Council of Sultanieh
The Battlefield
Causes of the Second Russo-Iranian War
The aftermath

Conclusion: Seven Points

Chronology
Appendix Biographies
Notes
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

The early Qajar period has been largely neglected by scholarship. This book therefore fills an important gap and makes a welcome contribution to our understanding of early nineteenth-century Iran, as seen through the prism of its political and military conflicts with imperial Russia.” —Stephanie Cronin, University of Oxford, UK

From the Publisher