About this book:

*Borderlands and Empire* provides a comprehensive geopolitical and social history of Iran’s relationships with the Ottoman and Russian Empires from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. It shifts the historical focus from imperial centers to the frontiers, arguing that modern boundaries were not merely created by high-level diplomacy and treaties like Amasya (1555), Zuhab (1639), and Turkmenchay (1828), but were co-produced through the everyday practices of people living at the edges. By examining the lives of tribal khans, merchants, smugglers, and pilgrims, the book illustrates how contested marches were gradually transformed into formalized national borders through a combination of military conflict, scientific mapping, and state centralization.

The narrative tracks the evolution of these frontiers through several transformative eras, beginning with the ideological and religious schism between the Safavid and Ottoman states. It details how the "science of empire"—characterized by boundary commissions, telegraph lines, and customs houses—sought to fix lines in rugged terrains like the Zagros and the Caucasus. Simultaneously, the study highlights the human cost of these shifts, exploring microhistories of captivity, conversion, and the displacement of plural societies, including Kurds, Armenians, Azeris, and Assyrians. These communities often navigated overlapping legal regimes and capitulatory rights, using the border’s inherent fluidity to maintain kinship ties and economic livelihoods despite imperial dictates.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the book analyzes the impact of Great Power rivalry, specifically the "Great Game" between Britain and Russia, which culminated in the de facto partition of Iran via the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention. The text explores how the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the "war without borders" during World War I further destabilized these regions, leading to a vacuum that was eventually filled by the centralized Pahlavi state. Under Reza Shah, the Iranian government implemented aggressive policies of sedentarization and linguistic homogenization, attempting to replace traditional tribal mobilities with a singular national identity and a rigid border regime.

Ultimately, the book concludes that while the physical and legal boundaries of modern Iran were solidified in the twentieth century, they remain repositories of contested memory. The transition from empire to republic in Turkey and the emergence of the Soviet Union forced Iran to reimagine its northern and western horizons once more. By blending diplomatic history with social and cultural analysis, the author demonstrates that the making of modern Iran was a process of both remembering and forgetting, where the state's drive for territorial integrity constantly grappled with the enduring, transnational realities of its diverse borderland populations.

What You'll Find Inside:

• The book examines Iran's borders with Ottoman and Russian empires as dynamic zones of encounter where diplomacy, trade, and cultural exchange occurred alongside conflict, challenging the notion of fixed imperial boundaries.
• It highlights the crucial role of local power brokers - tribal khans, merchants, shrine custodians, and smugglers - who interpreted, mediated, and often redirected imperial policies to serve their own interests and community needs.
• The study traces how key treaties from Amasya (1555) to Turkmenchay (1828) gradually transformed fluid frontiers into fixed boundaries, often disregarding local realities and creating lasting demographic and economic disruptions.
• It explores the lived experiences of border populations including captivity and conversion during warfare, pilgrimage to Shi'i holy cities in Ottoman Iraq, and the economies of smuggling and pastoralism that continually defied imperial control.
• The book demonstrates how modern Iranian boundaries emerged from cumulative, negotiated practices rather than singular decisive moments, remaining ongoing projects maintained through patrols, paperwork, and local adaptation long after treaties were signed.

Who's It For:

This book will be most valuable for students and scholars of Middle Eastern history, particularly those specializing in Iranian-Ottoman-Russian relations, borderlands studies, and the transition from imperial to nation-state systems. It will also appeal to readers interested in how local communities experience, resist, and reshape geopolitical boundaries, as well as those studying the historical roots of contemporary regional tensions in Iran's western and northern frontiers.