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Edinburgh Historical Studies of Iran and the Persian World

Imperial Iran in the Eighteenth CenturyIdentity and State Formation under Nader

By Mohammad Amir Hakimi Parsa

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£105.00

About this book

Offers the first structuralist account of the Naderid Empire’s ideological and institutional foundations

  • The first monograph to offer an integrated understanding of state formation in post-Safavid Iran (c.1720–1750)
  • Show how politico-cultural, military, administrative and ecclesiastic developments related to one another
  • Identifies the profound and long-lasting developments in this period as the emergence of a new conception of state (dowlat), which was defined in terms of Iran and its people (Irān o ahl-e Irān) rather than any dynasty (dudman)
  • Demonstrates that, far from the conception of him as a ‘tribal leader’, Nader was an avid state builder and centraliser who instituted a standing army, sustained by a rationalised and expanded bureaucracy in Iran


The 18th-century ‘interregnum’ between the Safavid and Qajar dynasties remains woefully understudied in Iranian history, regarded as a turbulent and inconsequential gap between two major dynastic periods. This book, however, argues that this period saw the emergence of the idea of Iran as the foundation for collective identity and state formation. It traces the development of a sacralised territorial identity that fused an irredentist notion of Iran-realm (Iranzamin) with Shiʿism, culminating in an unprecedented political idea: that of an ‘Iranian state’ (dowlat-e Irān), supposedly formed by the unanimous consensus of the ‘Iranian people’ (ahl-e Irān). The book then covers how this state, under Nader Shah (Nāder-e Irān), subjugated non-Iranian realms to form a new universal Islamic empire.

This is the first monograph to offer an integrated understanding of state formation in post-Safavid Iran (c.1720 – 1750), demonstrating how politico-cultural, military, administrative and ecclesiastic developments related to one another. Drawing on a wide range of neglected primary sources in Arabic, Turkish (both Ajami and Ottoman) and Kurdish (Hawrami), as well as Persian and European sources, the book sheds light on Iran in its last iteration as a great power.

Reviews

Parsa cuts a clear path through the chaotic thicket of post-Safavid Iran. In his reading of the period, the ruthlessly pragmatic Nader Shah, having gained legitimacy as Iran’s God-sent savior, laid the foundations of a new national identity. Henceforth the interests of the state superseded the preservation of the dynasty. Imperial Iran in the Eighteenth Century is a major contribution to the debate about the formation of the Iranian state, associated with Iran-zamin and the idea of a monarchy yet unrelated to any individual dynasty.
Table of contents

Acknowledgments
Transliteration System and Pronunciation Guide
Maps and Figures
Key Personalities and Sources

Introduction: Iran, State, and Empire in Eighteenth-Century History and Historiography

1. Iranianness and Otherness 1722-1732
2. Nāder, the Unoriginal Saviour 1726-1736
3. Nāder Shāh and the ‘Iranian State’ 1736-1746
4. Shāh of Iran, Shāhanshāh of the World 1736-1746
5. Nāder as the Enemy of Iran and a Traitor to the Iranians 1740-1750

Conclusions and Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Imperial Iran

Bibliography
Index

About the author

Mohammad Amir Hakimi Parsa

Dr M. A. H. Parsa is an Assistant Professor of Imperial and World History at Ashoka University in India. His primary focus is on the post-Mongol empires and the Turco-Persianate world. Currently, he’s working on the emergence of popular sovereignty in eighteenth-century Iran, rooted in the Turco-Mongol tradition of consultative rule and Perso-Islamic mystical thought. He has published several articles on Nader Shah’s imperial inscriptions in ‘Ajami/Qizilbash Turkic. He completed his PhD at SOAS University of London in 2022 on the post-Safavid and Naderid history of Iran. He was a lecturer at NYU London and the University of St Andrews in Scotland before taking up his current position at Ashoka University.

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