Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands
Making a Boundary, 1843–1914

This book examines the making of the present day Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish boundary, shedding new light on some of the most contentious issues of today.

Sabri Ate? (Author)

9781107033658, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 October 2013

366 pages, 13 b/w illus. 12 maps
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.4 cm, 0.61 kg

'Ate?' study is full of new information, new arguments, and offers new perspectives to historians who aim to study frontier regions, centre-periphery relations and state formation processes in general and Kurdish history in particular.' Yener Koç, Kurdish Studies

Using a plethora of hitherto unused and under-utilized sources from the Ottoman, British and Iranian archives, Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands traces seven decades of intermittent work by Russian, British, Ottoman and Iranian technical and diplomatic teams to turn an ill-defined and highly porous area into an internationally recognized boundary. By examining the process of boundary negotiation by the international commissioners and their interactions with the borderland peoples they encountered, the book tells the story of how the Muslim world's oldest borderland was transformed into a bordered land. It details how the borderland peoples, whose habitat straddled the frontier, responded to those processes as well as to the ideas and institutions that accompanied their implementation. It shows that the making of the boundary played a significant role in shaping Ottoman-Iranian relations and in the identity and citizenship choices of the borderland peoples.

Introduction
1. The Kurdish frontier in Ottoman-Qajar relations
2. Laying the ground: the concert of Zagros
3. The long journey of the first survey commission
4. The borderland between the Crimean War and Berlin congress
5. Sunnis for the sultan: the Ottoman occupation of northwestern Iran, 1905–12
6. Boundary at last
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]