فصلنامه تاریخ روابط خارجی
پیاپی 55 (تابستان 1392)

Shah Abbas (I) who was concerned with expelling Portuguese from the Persian Gulf decided to get help from East India Company Navy. Thus, in 1615 he signed an agreement of 20 Articles with the Company and granted them many privileges. Once they defeated Portuguese, Shah Ababs gave other privileges to East India Company including half the proceeds earn in Bandar Abbas Customs. Nevertheless, the Government of Iran thereafter, failed to fully pay the half of the proceeds to the Company and the issue existed as a major conflict between the Government of Iran and the East India Company until the end of Safavid time. The conflict could not even be completely resolved through sending several ambassadors from British Government to Iran. This article considers the issue of Bandar Abbas Customs proceeds and the related conflict between the Safavids and East India Company.

Iran underwent political and social crisis from the constitutional revolution to the rise of Reza Shah. The crisis was aggravated when the World War I broke out. Did Iran have a pattern in foreign policy within the period between the constitutional revolution and the rise of Reza Shah? In Qajar time, while the world powers were strengthening their military and economic capacities and developing policies in the new world, Iran was so under the heavy burden of old traditions that did not have the power to step in to the new world. As Naser ul-din Shan was killed and modern ways of thinking emerged, Iranians broke the skin of age-old governance structure and followed novel goals in foreign policy. This paper gives an overview of Iran’s foreign policy between the years 1906 to 1925 which is from the constitutional revolution until the time when Pahlavi Dynasty took power. Before the constitutional revolution, some measures had been conducted to safeguard national interests at international arena; however, Iran had always experienced autocracy and poor economic and military situations. This had made the country to be so submitted to Russia and Britain that it cost it the loss of a major part of the territory and ultimate humiliation. The constitutional revolution prepared the ground for institutional and law-abiding thoughts becoming practical. In this connection, a policy of independence was developed in order to escape the adverse consequences of succumbing to the demands of Russia and Britain. The present paper studies the internal and external conditions of Iran from the time of constitutional revolution to the rise of Reza Shah and will methodologically explore the trends and internal and external developments that led Iran to maintain neutrality in the war.

Although the World War I (1914-1918) broke out in Europe, it spread to other parts of the world including Asia and Iran. Even though Iran had declared all-out neutrality toward the war, this state of being neutral was not recognized by the countries involved. Various intellectual, cultural and political groups took different stances toward this war. Among other things, the war was remarkably reflected in the Persian literature particularly in poetry. Most of the Iranian poets as a part of the intellectual and cultural body of the society, expressed the position of the Iranian society, their support for Germany and their hatred toward Britain and Russia. Adib Pishawari was one of those poets who in their poems criticized the invasion of Russia and Britain. This paper aims at providing an overview of the positions and views of Adib as regards the WWI and his support for German and its allies as well as the hatred toward Russia and Britain.

Relations between Iran and Iraq as two neighboring states go back to a long way in time with various dimensions influenced by different variables. The present paper studies the influence of some of these variables on Iran – Iraq relations in economy and religious tourism in Qajar time. This study shows that in addition to political factors, other cultural, legal and social elements have also influenced the relations in economy and religious tourism between the two countries in the course of time.

Mirza Ali Khan Mughaddam Maragha-iy was among the high ranking officials in the royal court of Mohammad Shah and Naser ul-din Shah where he was also known by the titles of Hajib ul Dowleh, Zia’ul Molk, Sani’ul Dowleh and Etemad ul Saltaneh. In his lifetime, he served in Khoozestan and Lorestan States, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Duties and Endowment. Although in the history of Iran, he is notorious for assassinating Amir Kabir the Chief Minister to Naser ul-din Shah, beside that heinous crime, he performed several construction programs. He was also a writer who wrote a number of books including “Travel Literature of Hajj, Mecca” and “Booklet of Protocol”. Since there is no compiled information about the protocol of receiving and hosting diplomatic corps in sources from Qajar period, therefore, this manuscript booklet of diplomatic protocol is known to be one of the useful sources of reference in this regard. The present paper first gives an account of his biography and later introduces the manuscript booklet of diplomatic protocol.

After the end of the World War II, despite having had a legal obligation to immediately leave the soil of Iran, Soviet Union deferred the withdrawal until Iran submitted a complaint to the Security Council forcing them to pull out. Aggravation of Azerbaijan Crisis proved that Soviet Union was determined to take the dispute to a higher level in order to gain better results from the fierce battle among the parties involved. Azerbaijan Crisis (lasted from 1925 to 1926) not only provoked a confrontation between the East and the West, but also paved the way for external powers to intervene in the internal affairs of Iran. The authors of the present article have revisited Azerbaijan Crisis through Michael Brecher’s comprehensive model of Crisis Management.