Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

A Note on Transliteration

Introduction

1 On the Periphery of Nineteenth-Century Iran

2 The City of Isfahan and Its Hinterland

3 A Road through the Mountains

4 In the Fields of Oil

5 The Bakhtiyari Tribes in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

Conclusion

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Traces the history of the Bakhtiyari, a confederacy of tribes in the rugged Zagros Mountains of Iran, as roads brought the Qajar government into closer contact and the British began to pursue their own projects in the region. The book approaches the history of early modern Iran from its edges and places tribal history at the heart of a complex story about imperialsim and transformation in a region that lies directly between Tehran and Baghdad.--Arash Khazeni is assistant professor of history at Claremont-McKenna College.