Westward winds
Chapter 2
1848-1872
At the death of Mohammed Mirza in October 1848 Iran appeared to have achieved a whole new level of strength through its triumphant conquest of Afghanistan and the continued process of military modernisation. In reality the Shah’s relentless focus on Eastern campaigns and the army had left the regime exposed to threats both internal and external.
From the early 1840s the Babi religious movement at swept Iran, winning converts in their hundreds of thousands. Following a messianic preacher known as the Bab the Babists formed a powerful force in Iranian society that stood outside the traditional religious structure of the state and were therefore regarded as a major threat. The faced persecution throughout the existence of the movement – but it was to be in 1848 where their greatest imprint on Iranian history was made. In the dying days of the old Shah’s life political wrangling back in Tehran – where various factions sought to secure the best position come the succession – meant that a new Prime Minister was appointed who happened to be staunchly anti-Babist. In September he called for the exile of the Bab from Iran. Rather than bringing about the quiet evacuation of the Bab and a few close confidants from Persia the call for exile caused an explosive insurrection as long frustrated Babists took first to the streets and then to arms against the regime. By November the Babists had been joined in their revolt by wide sections of Iranian society – ethnic minorities, Zoroastrians, the grow swathes of urban unemployed who could no longer find work due to cheap Western imports, peasants aching for land reform. Iran was rapidly descending back into the chaos of the 18th century.
As the new teenage Shah was crowned with his country in disorder the Sikh Empire of the Punjab chose its moment to strike. The Sikh Empire was a powerful force in the politics of the region – it had defied British attempts to bring North-Western India under their sway and was deeply alarmed by Persian expansion into Afghanistan. The Babist rebellion was seen as the idle opportunity to roll back the Persians from Central Asia, exerting once and for all the supremacy of the Punjab in the region.
Initially, the Sikhs were wildly successful. Kabul fell in January 1849, in March the Emir of Khiva joined the war on the side of the Sikhs, the following month Kokand threw its lot in with the Persians. By the end of 1849 the Sikh army had occupied virtually all of Afghanistan and stood outside Herat – ready to plunge into Eastern Iran. Yet a year is a long time, and in Iran itself things had changed. The rebellion had been largely crushed by the Summer of 1849 whilst the Khivan invasion was largely a failure – the Emir’s army being forced out of Northern Iran by the early Autumn. Amassing a mixture of troops that had faced defeat in Afghanistan, those who had won victory against the rebels and fresh faced recruits the Persian army moved to confront the Sikhs at the Battle of Herat.
It was a stunning triumph for Iran. The Punjabi army – tired from the long campaign across Afghanistan and with its supply lines stretched to the limit – was totally and utterly destroyed. Lured close to the city itself the Sikhs found themselves surrounded by an outlandish Persian manoeuvre. With the invaders defeated the Persians began to once more rapidly advance Eastward.
By the late Summer of 1851 the Persian advance had been halted. With the Punjab’s vast population allowing for the rapid recruitment of a large army to replace the losses in Afghanistan the Persians found themselves unable to advance any further than the mountainous borderlands of Peshwar and Afghanistan. That was until December 1851 when the Sikhs made the fatal mistake of attempting to take the initiative once more. After being defeated in a large battle with Kokandian and Persian troops just East of Kabul the Punjabi army was pursued across the border and laid to waste at the Battle of Attock. Unable to even defend Lahore the Sikhs begged for peace with Persia and were granted it at a heavy price.
As peace was agreed in February 1852 Persia was allowed to annex the Emirate of Khiva as well as the tribal borderlands North of the Punjab. Iran was once again becoming a major power in the world as Central Asia and the Persian Gulf started to once more come under the influence of Tehran. Yet the ever growing power of Europe was becoming more and more apparent. From the early 1850s Russia started to take great interest in Central Asia – a region tied by culture and tradition to Iran, by 1863 the city of Ashgabat was under Russian control and Kokand looked to Moscow rather than Tehran in foreign affairs, shortly after their humbling by Persia the Punjab came under British influence whilst the French were starting to show an interest in the Arab world. The ways of the West were clearly the ways of the modern world, and the Persian court was very aware of as much.
The 1850s and 60s were a time of rampant modernisation within Iran. Systemic educational reforms were introduced, the modernisation of the army continued at pace and as early as 1857 there were industrial experiments in Tehran. Iran was visibly changing as new technologies and ideas began to permeate through society. Reaching maturity in the early 1850s Shah Naser al-Din was clearly deeply influenced by the westernising clique at court and made a number of journeys to Europe – visiting Moscow, Paris, Berlin and London – where he presented Persia as a vibrant regional force, greatly improving his Empire’s image in the West. It was in part thanks to Persia’s new image in the West that Tehran was able to play the Russians and British off one another in order to facilitate a Persian invasion of Baluchistan from 1869-70 – an invasion that established Iranian power almost as far as the Indus.
It was in 1871 that Persia made its real great leap into the modern world. In that year the, in large part thanks to monster cash loans from European financiers, began a programme of massive capital investment with the aim of turning Iran into an industrialised and modern nation. The investments began a process that within a short space of time totally changed Iran and the Iranian people.