184 • 11 WESTERNIZING REFORM IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURYhandsomely—to run Persia's mines, banks, railroads, and public utilities.
The sale of its assets reached the point where a concession to process and
market all the tobacco raised in the country was sold to a British firm. This
event touched off a nationwide tobacco boycott in 1892. It worked so well
that the shah himself could not smoke his water pipe in his palace! The boy¬
cott was led by Shi'i ulama, who thereafter would remain politically active.
Its success was a warning to the West, little heeded at the time, that the pa¬
tience of Middle Eastern peoples had limits. Someday they would strike
back. This brings us to the rise of nationalism, a subject that deserves its
own chapter.