Iran at War

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.

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., 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.

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