Rafay > Recent Status Updates

a horrifying account of the events leading up to genocide, the brutal way in which the circassians were made to flee the caucasus and how those resettled in the balkans were made to flee once more! all too heartbreaking was the projection of a modern 30 million strong circassian community based on 1860 figures (already after decades of russian brutality,,,,) compared to the 4-6 million today

amazing job so far of introducing details of 18th/19th century circassia and the gradual encroachment of russia into the caucasus as well as the british stake in the region.

blowing my mind at how quickly iran was modernising and developing but that being said i do begin to understand the causes of the revolution as they’re beginning to simmer. so interesting how iran positioned itself within global political climate and who it aimed to be. a slight tinge of regret at what could’ve been today if everything fell into place but alas it’s never that simple

very interesting seeing the foundation of the pahlavi state and the modernising reforms. the american, soviet and british violation of iranian sovereignty again and again is absolutely heartbreaking :/ loved reading about how all sectors of society fared in response to certain events or laws and how varied attitudes are across the country

tl:dr - people want change but conservative religious factions and autocratic leadership do not // tbh it’s really shocking when you see the later images of pahlavi reign vs just how conservative iran was even in the 1920s - it definitely contextualises how fast the pahlavi kings wanted to reform the country and why it caused so much backlash from those - very excited to get onto the ascent of reza khan

the nuanced approach to the qajar era is interesting. to most, the qajar era is one of humiliation - losing important territory in their periphery to russian and british colonial expansion and lagging behind other powers of the time. however, we also see the development of iranian identity, consolidation of core territory, growth of tehran, modernisation and how the nation prevailed in spite of all its challenges

about a quarter through the book! begins at the start of the 1500s & the dawn of the safavid’s/ iran’s forced conversion to shiism. takes us through the safavid rise/fall & covers the periods after e.g. afsharid,zand. interesting to see foundations of iran as a nation state and political entity. amanat deserves praise for such detail whilst not boring the reader. on to the extremely controversial qajar era !

this book is 1,000 pages long,,, pray for me y’all 😭