Nationalism in Persia • 199Mongol invasions. Persia was predominantly Muslim; but its uniqueness
was ensured by its general adherence to Twelve-Imam Shi'ism, whereas its
Muslim neighbors were mainly Sunni. Its chief written and spoken language
was Persian, although many of the country's inhabitants spoke Turkish
while numerous Muslims in India and the Ottoman Empire read and wrote
Persian well. Race is a treacherous term to use in a land so often invaded and
settled by outsiders, but certainly the Persians viewed their personal appear¬
ance as distinctive. Their culture had withstood the tests of time, invasions,
and political change. Both visitors and natives hailed the Persian way of life:
its poetry, architecture, costumes, cuisine, social relationships—and even its
jokes. The economic interests of nineteenth-century Persia seem to have
been, if not homogeneous, at least complementary among city dwellers,
farmers, and nomads. No other Middle Easterners could match the Persians'
strong historical consciousness, expressed in their monumental architec¬
ture, painting, epic poetry, written history, and music, glorifying twenty-five
centuries as a distinctive people.
Early Resistance to Foreign Power
It is not surprising, therefore, that a Persian nationalist movement arose
between 1870 and 1914. Basically, it was a reaction against the threat of a
Russian military takeover, against growing dependence on the West, and
against the divisive effects of tribalism in the rural areas. It was facilitated
by the spread of roads, telegraphs, and both public and private schools.
Nasiruddin Shah's policy of selling to foreign investors the rights to develop
Persia's resources alienated his own subjects. In 1873 he offered a conces¬
sion to one Baron de Reuter, a British subject, to form a monopoly that
would build railways, operate mines, and establish Persia's national bank.
Russian objections and domestic opposition forced the shah to cancel the
concession, although the baron was later authorized to start the Imperial
Bank of Persia. In 1890 Nasiruddin sold a concession to an English com¬
pany to control the production, sale, and export of all tobacco in Persia. As
we noted in Chapter 11, a nationwide tobacco boycott, inspired by the
same Afghani involved in Egypt's nationalist politics, forced the cancella¬
tion of this concession. The boycott gave westernized Persians, Shi'i ulama,
and bazaar merchants enough confidence in their political power to spur
the growth of a constitutionalist movement in the ensuing years. Many ob¬
servers noted the mounting problems of the Qajar shahs, their economic
concessions to foreigners, the widening disparities between rich landown¬
ers and poor peasants (owing to the shift from subsistence to cash-crop
agriculture), and Persia's growing dependence on Russian military advisers.