Importing Modernity: European Military Missions to Qajar Iran

Abstract

In the first decades of the nineteenth century, when the Middle East and North Africa first began to attract the sustained attention of European imperialism and colonialism, Arab, Ottoman Turkish, and Iranian polities began a protracted experiment with army modernization. These decades saw a mania in the Middle East for the import of European methods of military organization and techniques of warfare. Everywhere, in the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, Egypt, and Iran, nizam-i jadid (new order) regiments sprang up, sometimes on the ruins of older military formations, sometimes alongside them, unleashing a process of military-led modernization that was to characterize state-building projects throughout the region until well into the twentieth century. The ruling dynasties in these regions embarked on army reform in a desperate effort to strengthen their defensive capacity, and to resist growing European hegemony and direct or indirect control by imitating European methods of military organization and warfare. Almost every indigenous ruler who succeeded in evading or warding off direct European control, from the sultans of pre-Protectorate Morocco in the west to the shahs of the Qajar dynasty in Iran in the east, invited European officers, sometimes as individuals, sometimes as formal missions, to assist with building a modern army. With the help of these officers, Middle Eastern rulers thus sought to appropriate the secrets of European power.

The Political Language of Takvîm-i vekayi:the Discourse and Temporality of Ottoman ‘Reform’ (1831-1834)

“…Here too, there is little question of an Ottoman exception: the history of the founding of central armies in Prussia, the Habsburg Empire and the Russian Empire is characterized by similar developments that were, moreover, underlined in reform treaties and embassy reports written by Ottoman scribes at the end of the eighteenth century (Yeşil 2010;Findley 1995a and1995b). A similar discourse of reform was used by Emir Abdelkader in Algeria in the 1830s and in Morocco in the 1850s (Cronin 2008;El-Tahir El-Mesawi 2008;Bennison 2004;Rollman 2004). This being said, let us recall that this is only one of the reasons behind this deployment of an Islamic discourse of reform in the service of political authority.…”

“…Moreover, following the Ottoman example, the term was also used in the field of military reorganization and the founding of modern armies in several countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, and Iran (Cronin 2008;El-Tahir El-Mesawi 2008;Bennison 2004;Rollman 2004).…”

'Westernizations' from Peter I to Meiji: War, Political Competition, and Reform

“…Guns were produced locally after a French pattern, and young men were sent to study abroad. Abbas Mirza also attempted to go beyond technical and organizational innovations: he designed and tried to implement in Azerbaijan a new, centralized system of recruitment and taxation (Martin 1996;Cronin 2008;Hambly, 1991).…”

“…With Naser al-Din's accession to the throne, Amir Kabir quickly consolidated power: he assumed the titles of atabak (tutor, as in "tutor to the Shah") and the offices of commander-in-chief and first minister were created specifically for him. During his short tenure he raised new nizam regiments, invited Austrian military advisors; developed the bunichah system of conscription, based on the one designed earlier by Abbas Mirza for Azerbaijan; and established a military and technical school, Dar al-Funun, staffed by European teachers (Cronin 2008). These activities were intertwined, not unexpectedly, with Amir Kabir's efforts to strengthen the central administration, i.e.…”

“…In the 1870s, a new round of reforms was attempted by Mirza Husayn Khan, Mushir al-Dawlah,the first official who had managed to consolidate in his hands the powers of a chief minister since Amir Kabir. Extensive plans for army reorganization were drawn up, which provided for the regulation of its budget, enforcement of conscription, and improved military education (Cronin 2008). Mushir al-Dawlah had significant experience of diplomatic service in Istanbul and was assisted and even encouraged to continue his reforms by officials with similar backgrounds abroad.…”