If the Ottomans were sick, then the Qajars were already checked into a hospice.Any way for the Qajars to industrialize and take the Middle East from the Sick Man?
If the Ottomans were sick, then the Qajars were already checked into a hospice.Any way for the Qajars to industrialize and take the Middle East from the Sick Man?
Any way for the Qajars to industrialize and take the Middle East from the Sick Man?
There is a huge difference in quality of Armies during Chaldiran. The only defeat is a sudden death of the Sultan followed by the Grand Viziers death. And even then the defeat is not catastrophic enough to crush the Ottomans.
How about a scenario where the state is not ruled by Iranians, but by Kurds? If the Kurds at some point established their own state in the area known as Kurdistan, with a bit of Mediterranean coast, and then later expanded to control a part of Iran. Would that count as a solution?
I have no idea what kind of POD you would need for this to happen, or if it is even possible.
Well, Standard Persian and the Kurdish languages are both Iranic, but they differ considerably and diverged long ago. It never seems to have been a documented time when the Kurds as such shared any sort of overarching identity with "Persians", even if several customs and traditions are more or less shared. I recent times, you can concoct some variation of the "Aryan" myth to base this stuff on, but it never worked very well historically and would probably require some nasty regime to enforce.
I think that it would be even more complicated than this. You are right that identities were and are complex, and especially in pointing out that urban-rural distinction are historically critical, but even the Sunni-Shia thing would not necessarily bridge the difference (it is not impossible that it could, partly).Actually "Kurd" originally referred to any Iranic speaking nomadic group of the Zagros. Urban dwellers of the area were almost always Persian speakers. Nowadays it mainly refers to non-Shia Iranic speakers of the area. Lurs were once considered as a Kurdish group. Also, there are Sorani Kurdish speakers in Iranian Ilam and Kirmanshah who are Shia, but consider themselves Iranian. Its not that cut and dry. If you could get the Kurds to be majority Shia then the Pan Iranic identity would stick more.
I think that it would be even more complicated than this. You are right that identities were and are complex, and especially in pointing out that urban-rural distinction are historically critical, but even the Sunni-Shia thing would not necessarily bridge the difference (it is not impossible that it could, partly).