Iran at War

 This is Maziar Behrooz's book on Qajar Iran and its conflicts with Imperial Russia in the early 19th century. If, like me, the use of Iran confuses, it's because that is how the nation referred to itself, even though the country's formal name didn't change until the 20th century. 

The author starts with some background to Iran during this period and how the Qajar dynasty came to power. Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar was a eunuch monarch from 1789, being castrated as a six-year-old upon his capture by Adel Shah Afshar, and hence was childless. While eunuchs have achieved powerful positions, he is possibly unique in terms of royal power. The Ottomans infamously killed off princes who might contend for the throne. The Iranians blinded or cut off ears, noses and other parts to eliminate them from royal contention. For most of this period, Fath Ali Shah ruled Iran. He had a harem of 158 wives and concubines who delivered 48 sons and 49 daughters. Clearly, making up for lost time!

The early years focused on consolidating power, but the first clashes with the expanding Russian Empire came in 1781. The Russians under Potemkin had already reached the Caucasus, and Suverov led a full invasion in 1779. 

At the start of the conflicts with Russia, the Qajar military was a traditional tribal force, at least 60,000 strong, mostly cavalry. From 1805, European-modelled infantry were trained, significantly contributing to the army, although there was a shortage of good-quality muskets. For more information on the Iranian military, David Brown's excellent booklet is available on Wargames Vault. 

The meat of the book is a detailed look at the Russo-Iranian Wars. The first was fought between 1801 and 1813, and while on the fringes of the Napoleonic Wars, all the leading players engaged with the Iranians. The problem for Iran was that alliances with the French and then the British always played second fiddle to European alliances. Behrooz challenges many of the traditional explanations for the conflicts, clearly placing the responsibility on Russian imperialism. This isn't a military history as such; greater emphasis is given to the diplomatic events. However, the main actions are all covered with an analysis of the reasons for the outcome. The Iranians typically started the war well, but the Russians were able to reinforce their armies, and their greater resources triumphed. The Iranian troops generally fought well, but generalship was poor.

War broke out again in 1826, provoked by the Russian governor in 1825. Again, the Iranians started well, but the Russians fought back, aided by some bizarre command decisions. For example, the Iranian commander Abbas Mirza appointed three of his young sons to command segments of the army and then withdrew them when threatened.  

In the final chapter, the author seeks to put the record straight on the common distortions of Qajar history, using seven points of analysis. There is also a detailed chronology and biographies of the leading players. This is a very readable account of the period and valuable for my current wargame project. I now have the core of the infantry and artillery thanks to purchasing and rebasing some of Mark Bevis' collection. The cavalry and camel guns are coming from Irregular Miniatures. In the meantime, I got them onto the table by using some similar Ottoman types. The Russians narrowly pulled off a victory in the first game using Blucher rules.