Qajar Iran: lost provinces and the tobacco protest
Defeated by Russia, Qajar Iran loses the Caucasus and falls under Russian and British pressure, until a mass boycott forces the shah to cancel a British tobacco monopoly.
- Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution — Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (2006)
- Modern Iran since 1797: Reform and Revolution — Ali M. Ansari, Routledge (2019)
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
- A History of Modern Iran — Ervand Abrahamian, Cambridge University Press (2008)
The Qajar dynasty, which made Tehran its capital, fought two wars with an expanding Russian Empire and lost both. By the treaties of Gulistan (1813) and Turkmenchay (1828) Iran gave up its territories in the Caucasus, roughly today’s Georgia, Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and granted Russia trade privileges and legal immunity for its subjects. The new border along the Aras river divided the Azerbaijani Turkic people between Russia and Iran.
- Modern Iran since 1797: Reform and Revolution — Ali M. Ansari, Routledge (2019)
- Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution — Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (2006)
For the rest of the century Iran was squeezed between Russia in the north and Britain, guarding India, in the south and east. Cash-strapped shahs sold concessions to foreigners. In 1890 Naser al-Din Shah granted a British subject a monopoly over the production, sale and export of all Iranian tobacco. Merchants and clerics revolted, and in December 1891 a ruling attributed to the leading Shia cleric, Mirza Hasan Shirazi, declared smoking forbidden. Iranians stopped smoking, reportedly even in the shah’s own harem, and in January 1892 the concession was cancelled.
- Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution — Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (2006)
- A History of Modern Iran — Ervand Abrahamian, Cambridge University Press (2008)
The tobacco protest was a rehearsal for the revolutions to come: an alliance of bazaar merchants, clergy and reform-minded intellectuals against a ruler seen as selling out the nation.
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
- Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution — Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (2006)
Why it matters today
The Qajar century is remembered as a time of humiliation, when Iran lost territory and its rulers sold concessions to foreigners. It is the root of a deep, widespread suspicion of foreign, especially British and Russian, scheming, and of the idea that the clergy and the bazaar can stand up for the nation against its rulers.