War, Empire and the ‘Other’: Iranian-European Contacts in the ‘Napoleonic’ Era

Abstract

In 1817 Moritz von Kotzebue, travelling from Russia in the ambassadorial suite of General Ermolov from Russia to meet the ruler of Iran, Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar, after ten years of war between the Tsarist and Qajar regimes, noted with surprise that the shah’s son and heir ‘Abbas Mirza displayed portraits of Tsar Alexander and Napoleon in his palace in Tabriz.¹ Granted that exchanges of portraits were a familiar diplomatic ritual in the period, this might just show the inexperience of a young officer, recently returned from war and imprisonment in campaigns against the French. We might speculate whether his surprise also rested on the assumption that a Qajar prince would be unlikely to grasp the importance of, or take an interest in, these European rulers. In reality Iranian elites were aware of the larger world within which they pursued their particular interests, and had been managing difficult relations with their Tsarist neighbour for a considerable time. It might be more helpful to note the rich transnational context of von Kotzebue’s remarks. A German-speaking officer in the Tsarist army, who had sailed round the world aged 16, the journey he recorded took him to Iran through newly occupied Caucasian territories where he could comment on Georgians, Lesghis, Armenians and Kazakhs now passing from Iranian to Tsarist control. His text was translated from German into English within a year, and later into French.