Welcome to History 376 - the Rise of Modern Persia.
Class is in Ian Hall on the second floor, room 228, TR 9am-10:30am.
We tend to divide periods of Persian history into dynasties, but the involvement of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar in the Crimean War kick-started the modernization and expansion of the Empire. That is where this course will begin - 1853 and the Letter of Sheil. An accidental mistranslation or misinterpretation is historically cited as the official cause, but more recent inquiries point to the alliance struck between Amir Kabir and the Queen Mother of the time, with whom Mirza Nuri coordinated and formed the Iranian Triad that dominated Imperial politics for the next half-century. While the Middle East is a very quiet part of the world today, this was not always so, until World War II the region was exceptionally turbulent. Every week we cover one block of material as noted below. Here are our major foci for the course:
1. War in Crimea
2. Retaking the Caucasus, Khiva, and Bukhara
3. Persia and the 'Great Game'
4. Retaking Mesopotamia
5. The Asian League
6. Purge in Armenia
7. Perso-Russian-Japanese War
8. World War I
9. Mandates, Oil, and Spheres of Influence
10. World War II
11. Alliance of the Crescent
12. Cold War, Hot Place
13. 'Shahab-nauts'
14. Chaos after the Soviets
15. Coordinating the Muslim World
Grading structure:
-10% Participation
-25% Midterm Exam
-25% Weekly Review Papers*
-40% Final Exam
*2 pages each, 12 point font, single space, answering the five questions in the syllabus for each topic. These papers must be handed in directly before class each Tuesday and will be checked against the Paper Bank! Your personal signature must also be on each and is indicative of the honor code!
Reading list as follows...