Russian positions in Qarabagh, Elizavetpol', and elsewhere, Britain
decided that this was exactly the kind of irredentist war it should not
assist. Therefore, no subsidy was paid during the second war.^11
Whatever Fath 'Ali's feelings about the growth of Russian power
on the border of his realm, he did not display great concern, not even
after the difficulties about Lake Gokcha. His motives are not directly
known. Court chronicles are uninformative. British diplomats, who
had a low opinion of the shah as a leader, attributed his lack of action
to miserliness and weakness. In any case, his options would have been
limited because of the economic slump that followed the cholera epi-
demic of the early 1820s and because he also had to worry about the
defense of his other borders, in the northeast against the Turcomans
and in the west against the Ottomans. Changes in key administrative
positions may also have influenced the disposition of the central gov-
ernment. Mirza Shaft' died in 1819 and his replacement was not force-
ful. This enabled two other officials,Mirza 'Abd ol-Vahhab, the chan-
cellor, and Mirza Abu'l-Hasan, the de facto head of foreign affairs, to
expand their already considerable influence. Both these powerful
men wanted to avoid war with Russia. The prowar faction had lost
its most effective spokesman when Mirza Bozorg died in 1822. After
some delay, his son, Mirza Abu'l-Qasem, succeeded as 'Abbas's chief
vizier, but for several years he lacked his father's influence with either
the prince or the shah and was involved in a fierce rivalry with the
two dominant officials in Tehran.
12
In any event, it was 'Abbas, not his father, who played the key
role in Iran's relations with Russia. His motives were not obscure. He
felt the defeat in the first war acutely and looked for ways to com-
pensate for the personal humiliation. He used a minor border incident
as an excuse for war with the Ottoman Empire (1821-1823), as a re-
sult of which Iran gained some concessions, mostly with regards to
the security of Iranian merchants and pilgrims traveling in the Otto-
man Empire. The most noteworthy event of the war was the death
(from cholera) of Mohammad 'Ali. However, the elimination of the
most likely rival for the throne did not mean that 'Abbas would be
assured of a clear succession. There was always the danger that some
other brother might profit from any troubles that befell 'Abbas. (This
indeed happened briefly after 'Abbas suffered repeated defeats in
the second war and the shah displayed special favor toward his other
sons—Mohammad Hosein, the governor of Kermanshah, and Hasan
'Ali, governor of Khorasan.)
'Abbas's prime hope of strengthening his position was to refight
the war with Russia with better results than the previous time. The
156 The Consequences of the Struggle