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ABSTRACT
Iran’s encounters with Britain and Russia after the turn of the nineteenth century necessitated coming to terms with British and Russian imperialism, modern ideas of border implementation and the modern skills of surveying and mapping, all of which were to perform roles in modifying Iran’s pre-modern frontiers. Iran’s engagement with this imperial modernity proved to be an even greater challenge during Naser al-Din Shah’s reign in the second half of the nineteenth century. Iran’s ability, under the reign of Naser al-Din Shah, to counter and ameliorate the power and wishes of the British and Russians was facilitated by incorporating these modern methods. This paper will explore, set against a background of Iran’s own “enlightenment” in cartography and negotiating skills, how the Iranians were able to mitigate against the worst possible outcomes as their borders were re-drawn. Using Persian language sources and Iranian maps together with British archives, and concentrating on the Dargaz-Kalat region between 1881 and 1884, this paper will show that the Iranians did have agency and were not always the victims in this process.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Foliard, Dislocating the Orient.
2 Peluso, “Whose Woods are These?”
3 Ibid., 384.
4 Kashani-Sabet, Frontier Fictions.
5 Ansari, Modern Iran since 1797, See introduction.
6 Amanat, Pivot of the Universe, 417.
7 Ateş, The Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands.
8 For an interesting discussion of Naser al-Din and modernity see Abbas Milani, “Nasir al-Din Shah in Farang”.
9 Defined as the region east of the Caspian Sea.
10 Iran’s importance in protecting India from invaders was a subject of much debate during the nineteenth century. See, in particular, Ingram, “Approaches to the Great Game”.
11 Geyer, Der russische Imperialismus.
12 Andreeva and Nouraei, “Russian Settlements in Iran”.
13 Deutschmann, Iran and Russian Imperialism.
14 Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia.
15 The modernity which Iran encountered lay in the reformation and was a peculiarly European project and in the view of Peter Van Der Meer was a “project and an ideology that originates in the Enlightenment. Modernity celebrates freedom from localized, hierarchical bonds, progress in terms of scientific knowledge and economic welfare, and rejects the past in so far it does not fit the story of progress [and] is a political notion realized in the nation-state.” See Van Der Veer, “The Global History of “Modernity”.
16 See Matin-Asgari, Both Eastern and Western and Mirsepassi, Intellectual Discourse and the Politics of Modernization.
17 Gholi, Tarikh-e Siyasi va Ejtemaee-e Turkmen-ha.
18 Avery and Simmons, “Persia on a Cross of Silver”.
19 Bakhash, Iran, Monarchy, Bureaucracy & Reform.
20 Yarshater, “The Qajar Era in the Mirror of Time,” 191.
21 Re-quoted in Maryam Ekhtiar, “Nasir al-Din Shah and the Dar al-Funun”.
22 Milani, “Nasir al-din Shah in Farang,” 52.
23 Farrauto and Ciuccarelli, “The Image of the Divided City,” 5.
24 Brauer, “Boundaries and Frontiers,” 27.
25 Ateş, The Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands, 10.
26 Sahlins, “Natural Frontiers Revisited,” 1428.
27 Curzon, The Romanes Lecture 1907, 32.
28 Ibid., 27.
29 FO60/449, Lovett to Granville, June 2, 1882, 329.
30 For an interesting articulation of the treaties behind African agency in the carving up of Africa see Touval, “Treaties, Borders, and the Partition”.
31 The British Empire was generally coloured red on British maps.
32 Wood, The Power of Maps, 4.
33 Ibid., 7.
34 Schofield, The Iran-Iraq Border, General Preface XVI, Volume 1.
35 Ateş, The Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands, 96.
36 Hubbard, From the Gulf to Ararat, 10.
37 Wright, The English Amongst The Persians, 157–8.
38 Layard, “Description of the Province of Khuzistan”.
39 Sir Henry Layard was a friend of Ambassador Stratford Canning. See Layard, Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia, 387–90.
40 Andreeva, Russia and Iran in the Great Game, 42.
41 Wright, The English Amongst The Persians, 150–1.
42 This is one narrative in Foliard, Dislocating the Orient.
43 Volkov, Russia’s Turn to Persia.
44 IOR/L/PS/20/MEMO36/16, “The Russians in Akhal,” March 1882. 4.
45 Ibid., 5.
46 Ibid.
47 Described as “the attempt to use European institutions as models for Iranian modernization, and to adopt European technology and knowhow, while at the same time guarding against a loss of cultural agency and authenticity” See Ringer, “Ulama and the Discourse of Modernity,” 40–1.
48 Ibid.
49 Karamzadeh, “Abdolghaffar Najm al Dowleh,” 117.
50 Ibid., 109.
51 Ibid., 110.
52 Ibid., 113.
53 Kashani-Sabet, Frontier Fictions, 65.
54 Karamzadeh, “Abdolghaffar Najm al Dowleh,” 121.
55 Hammadi-neya, “Asnad-e tasveri (nagshe)”.
56 This has been an obvious Russian tactic utilised throughout Russian expansion and is a detailed in the author’s forthcoming thesis: Resurrecting Empire: Iranian Irredentism in 1919.
57 For an English translation of the Treaty of Akhal (1881) see Curzon, Russia in Central Asia, Appendix VI.
58 For an English translation of the secret treaty of 1881 see FO60/486, Nicholson to Salisbury, January 25, 1887, 56–68.
59 FO60/447, Russian Abstract, February 7, 1882, 15.
60 FO60/462, Cypher Thomson, December 8, 1884, 208.
61 Kashani-Sabet, Frontier Fictions, 63.
62 Hammadi-neya, “Asnad-e tasveri (nagshe),” 69.
63 Hammadi-neya, “Asnad-e tasveri (nagshe),” 64–8.
64 IOR/L/PS/18/C32, “Report on the North-eastern Frontier,” 36.
65 FO60/457, Rasht Consul to Granville, August 6, 1883, 95–7.
66 FO60/457, Rasht Consul to Granville, October 29, 1883, 148–9.
67 It is not entirely clear but is reasonable to assume that these maps had been surveyed and drawn by the Russians. See Arfa, Memories of a Bygone Age, 80.
68 Ibid.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid., 81.
71 Ibid., 87.
72 FO65/1204, Thomson to Granville, March 5, 1884, 25.
73 FO65/1206, Thomson to Granville, May 13, 1884, 66.
74 FO65/1204, Letter from Governor of Kelat, February 12, 1884, 31.
75 Arfa, Memories of a Bygone Age, 87–92.
76 Ibid.
77 FO65/1205, Memorandum from The Mashad Agent, February 9, 1884.
78 Vazini, “Keshakesh amniaty,” 76.
79 Curzon, Russia in Central Asia, 102.
80 Arfa, Memories of a Bygone Age, 93.
81 Curzon, Russia in Central Asia, 102.
82 FO60/479, Thomson Memorandum, June 8, 1882, 370–8.
83 Curzon, Russia in Central Asia, 102.
84 See FO60/492, Wolff to Salisbury memorandum, May 10, 1888, (unnumbered) and for a Persian assessment see Khakestar, “Protocol-e Ab-haye Kalat”.
85 FO60/492, Wolff to Salisbury memorandum, May 10, 1888, (unnumbered), 1–3.
86 Ibid., 5.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid., 6.
89 Ibid., 1.
90 Ibid., 3.
91 FO60/462, Thomson Cypher, April 21, 1884, 92.
92 FO60/447, Thomson Draft, February 11, 1882, 13.
93 FO60/445, Thomson to Granville, Enclosure in No.9, May 22, 1882, 375.
94 FO60/460, Thomson (undated), 162–3.
95 Barthold, An Historical Geography of Iran, 62.
96 Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia, 87.
97 Ibid., 88.
98 FO60/462, Thomson Cypher, June 18, 1884, 126.
99 Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, 33–5.
100 Safayee, Marzha-ye na-aram, 64–7.
101 FO60/462, Thomson Cypher, May 11, 1884, 100.
102 FO60/462, Thomson Note, undated, 134.
103 FO60/462, Thomson Cypher, June 15, 1884, 124.
104 Safayee, Marzha-ye na-aram, 64–7.
105 FO60/460, Thomson (undated), 162–3.
106 FO60/411, Thomson to Salisbury, September 3, 1878, 105–7.
107 FO60/410, Thomson to Salisbury, July 6, 1878, 223.
108 FO60/459, Thomson Draft, July 3, 1884, 73–5.
109 FO60/462, Thomson Cypher, June 15, 1884, 124.
110 FO60/471, Thomson Cypher, April 9, 1885, 108.
111 FO60/471, Thomson Cypher, July 17, 1885, 164.
112 FO60/472, Thomson to Granville, February 28, 1885, 74–8.
113 Greaves, Persia and The Defence of India, See chapter 5 which remains a superb explanation of the crisis.
114 Treaty of Friendship, Moscow, February 26, 1921.
115 Arfa, Memories of a Bygone Age, 119.