War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and ... - Oguzlar.az

184 Ali Gheissarithe Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (Mo’asseseh-yeMotale’at-e Tarikh-e Mo’aser-e Iran) offer a wide range of unpublishedprimary source material for research.MEMOIRSThis paper provides a general summary of the Memoirs of a merchant fromTabriz, Hajj Mohammad-Taqi Jourabchi, during the period of the ConstitutionalRevolution in Iran. The Memoirs was written primarily for privatecirculation among family members in the future. The time span of theMemoirs corresponds to the years 1906–1911, i.e. during the tense period ofthe revolutionary struggle against royal autocracy and imperialist interventionin Iran by Russia and Britain. In addition to family affairs, the Memoirsis also informative with regard to the social and political situation of northernIran during the period of the Constitutional Revolution and the presenceof Russian forces in Azerbaijan province in north-western Iran, andprovides valuable information on trans-regional trade and travel. The textoffers valuable observations on both the personal and social life of the authorin Tabriz and Rasht, in the northern provinces of Azerbaijan and Gilan respectively;both were major centres of revolutionary activity during the period.It also contains information on the port of Anzali in northern Iran, as wellas on Baku and other locations in the Russian Caucasus, on trans-Caspian travelat the time, and on Eshqabad, Qouchan, and Mashhad in north-easternIran; all of which the author visited and resided at during this period. TheMemoirs further provides information on Ottoman Istanbul and Izmir, PortSaid (Egypt), and the pilgrimage route to Mecca, and especially contains informativeobservations about several Shia centers of pilgrimage in OttomanMesopotamia, i.e. the Atabat, including Najaf, Karbala, and Kazemain, whichhe also visited during the time of the Iranian revolution.It becomes apparent in the Memoirs that although the ConstitutionalRevolution was an important event, it was not the only source of preoccupation,and that the everyday life of the merchants was not entirely overwhelmedor overshadowed by it. Moreover, one gets a clear sense that theconstitutionalist partisans, the ulama, or the intellectuals, were not the onlyleading players. Although many merchants themselves were also constitutionalists,and on occasion were drawn to the centre stage, 8 their lives atthe time did not solely revolve around political/national concerns, as businessand personal matters continued to preoccupy these individuals.In the Memoirs we have the case of a well-connected, dynamic, and busymerchant who offers a personal narrative of contemporary life in some majorIranian cities and beyond and provides a very different perspective onIranian society and politics. Constitutionalism or not, business mattered more,and other considerations in life did not come to a halt because there was eithera revolution, a Russian occupation, or a famine. This is not to suggest that