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

Between Scylla and Charybdis 27their renewed loss. To address these facts, then, one needs to ask: What wasthe extent of the territory of Persia at the time of Agha Mohammad Khanfor us to be able to distinguish clearly between Persia proper and foreigndominions? What were the lines of demarcation and where were they? Thefollowing historical portion of this paper will elaborate these points.For the purposes of this discussion, the focus will be on the decisions thatled the early Qajars either to war or to the defence of their territory untilthe time of the Treaty of Golestan (1813). Clearly, the necessity of defendingthe territory of Persia did not disappear with the conclusion of the Treatyof Golestan and the subsequent Treaty of Turkomanchay of 1828, whichimposed an even heavier toll on Persia; but Turkomanchay, in my view, wasthe continuation of the logics set in motion that led to the Treaty ofGolestan. In looking at these events more closely, Golestan was a preludeto Turkomanchay, as Russia already had made the decision that her borderwith Persia would be the Aras river, while England had made her decisionthat she would not be held to any obligations with respect to Persia otherthan the minimum she could get away with.Defence of her territorial integrity was a perennial theme for Persia andcontinues to be for Iran today. It has been Ariadne’s thread runningthrough Persian and Iranian history. No country in history, of course, hasbeen spared that concern, and very few today are fortunate enough not tohave to be on their guard for such an eventuality. Iran, especially due to itsstrategic position at the crossroads of civilizations and at the cusp of theEast-West divide, has not been and will not be in that happy circumstancein the foreseeable future.AGHA MOHAMMAD KHAN AND THE DECISION TORECLAIM PERSIA’S SAFAVID BORDERSThe assessment of the achievements of the Qajars in their encounters withtheir rivals has particularly been framed around the question of territorialintegrity. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, in her pioneering work, Frontier Fictions,sheds new light on the reason for the framing of the issue in terms of territorialloss and gain. 25 Interestingly, and contrary to expectation, theseparameters did not originate with the critics of the Qajars but rather withthe Qajars themselves, starting with Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar. Uponthe death of Karim Khan Zand, Agha Mohammad Khan escaped from hislong years of confinement at the Zand court, and set out to consolidate hispower over his rivals and to unite Persia under his rule. 26 Agha MohammadKhan’s ambition was singular: to finish what his father Mohammad HassanKhan Qajar had begun. 27 Consolidation of power, control over the Iranianplateau and defeat of all domestic rivals was a feat no ruler had achievedsince the time of the Safavids. 28 Having attained this goal, Agha MohammadKhan’s attention turned to the restoration of Persian sovereignty over all