The Rebirth of the Persian Empire - a Qajar/Persia wank TL

OW, you always know how to set the stage and build the anticipation and suspense. Looking forward to your next update. This is going to be a long and drawn out war TL...(I hope so). :)
 
Interesting TL. I've read the first few posts, and nothing about the reforms has really jumped out at me other than decriminalizing homosexuality (which would still have been illegal in Europe at the time). Though to be extremely nitpicky, "Mirza restoration" seems an odd name-the Meji Restoration was called that because the reformist Emperor Meji deposed the Takaguwa Shogans-who had effectively ruled Japan for the last several centuries-and "restored" the political power of the monarchy. I don't see a similar event happening in Iran.

And the Afghan campaign needs some work. A few pointers:

1. The Durrani dynasty had been deposed by Dost Muhammad Khan, who founded the Barakzai dynasty. Herat at the time was an independent state ruled by a Durrani remnant, and wasn't reincorporated into Afghanistan until after the whole adventure with the British.

2. The fact that Pashto and Persian are in the same Indo-European subfamily would have meant about diddly. From the point of view of Persians at the time, Pastuns and Turks are equally foreign people speaking unintelligible languages. Persian at the time was considered the dominant language of culture in central asia, and educated Turks/Pashtuns would be expected to know Persian and be familiar with Persian literary culture and court ettiquette. The real cleavage would be religion-specifically Sunni/Shia-and this works against a prolonged rule of the (Sunni) population of Afghanistan by (Shia) Iran. The Shia clerics in Iran would demand the application of Shia jurisprudence throughout all the Shah's domains, even the Sunni parts, and the Sunnis would resist this. A Persian-ruled Afghanistan could well become a bleeding wound, prone to significant revolts every few years and requiring large garrisons of troops to keep it in order-which would, of course, weaken Iran against external enemies like Russia. (Note that Sunni Herat would present similar problems, but its a much smaller area and much closer to the Qajar power base than, say, Khandahar or Kabul)

If Iran does take over Afghanistan and hold it, then this might provide an incentive for the Shahs to move away from Shiism as a unifying ideology and towards European-style romantic nationalism, emphazing the cultural similarities between Persian-speakers, and even between, say Persians and Turks or Pashtuns. However, I just don't see Iran being exposed to European thought enough to really do this until the later half of the 19th century, and the clerical elite (Sunni and Shia) would be very upset.
 
Interesting TL. I've read the first few posts, and nothing about the reforms has really jumped out at me other than decriminalizing homosexuality (which would still have been illegal in Europe at the time).


The Ottomans decriminalized it in the 1860s, as an adoption of a western legal code.
 
I think you misread the part on sugar beets. Persia is the one exporting sugar beets and other crops to Britain in exchange for tech.
It's entirely possible I misread that part. But if Persia is exporting sugar beets, 1) where are they getting them from, as they are only newly developed, 2) where are they getting the industrial tech needed to process them and 3) why on earth would Britain buy sugar (I assume you mean sugar, then) from Persian sugar beets, when Caribbean sugar from cane is so much cheaper. 3a) if you did mean exporting beets, that's even less economical than buying sugar from the Caribbean.
 
Unfortunately, I kinda lost inspiration with TTL. It eventually grew into another Russo-French screw and Anglo-German wank.

You could have Persia and Iran becoming allies as part of some "Eurasian" alliance against Anglo-American imperialism. This would be later on, though--perhaps the Russians and French get hammered and then revanche, squashing Germany between them and tossing Britain off the Continent.

Perhaps the reformers overreach and there's a more traditionalist reaction, albeit the traditionalists' ideas of tradition are still post-reform.

(Say the Qajars abolish the death penalty and the traditionalists bring it back, only with modern ideas of evidence and due process implemented by the Qajars.)
 
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