1 Abbot to Thomson, dispatch 31 March 1855, FO60–205, quoted fromSeyf, A., “Some aspects of economic development in Iran, 1800–1906,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Reading, 03 1982, pp. 161–62.
2 Balfour, J. M., Recent Happenings in Persia (London, 1922), p. 22. For a brief history of “forced migration” see Perry, J. P., “Forced Migration in Iran During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Iranian Studies 8 (Autumn 1975), 199–215.
3 Subsequent to the famine in 1871–72, many thousands left the southern and central provinces for the Caspian littoral in search of food. Abbot to Alison, Rasht, 20 November 1871, FO60–338, PRO, referred to inGilbar, G., “Demographic Developments in Late Qajar Persia, 1870–1906,” Asian and African Studies 11 (1976), 152.
4 Like the many Azerbaijani families who left their province to settle in Khurasan. Consul-General Maclean, J., “Report on the Trade of Khurasan and Seistan for the Year 1890–1891,” in United Kingdom Parliamentary Accounts and Papers (PAP, hereafter), 1892, Lxxxiii, p. 9.
5 Churchill, H. L., Consular Report (CR, hereafter), “Gilan,” PAP, 1878, lxxix, pp. 701–702;Bouvat, L., “Le commerce et l'agriculture dans la Perse du Nord, d'après MM. H.-L. Rabino et F. Lafont,” Revue du Monde Musulman 23 (06 1913), 183;Edmund, C. J., “An Autumn Tour in Daylam,” Journal of Central and Asian Society 11 (1924), 355.
6 Wilson, A. T., “The Opium Trade Through Persian Spectacles,” The Asiatic Review 21 (04 1925), 189.
7 For a very rare English source on this subject see the partial translation of Abdullaev, Z. Z., Promyshlennost i zarozhdenie rabochego kiassa Irana v kontse XIX- nachale XX vv. (Baku, 1963) in Issawi, Charles, ed., The Economic History of Iran, 1800–1914 (Chicago, 1971), pp.42–52; hereafter Issawi, EHI.
8 The lower figure is suggested in Ivanov, M. S., lnqilab-i Mashrutiyat-i Iran (The Constitutional Revolution of Iran) (Tehran, 1978). For the higher figure see Taqi-Zadeh's speech in the first Majlis cited in Kermani, Nizam al-Islam, Tarikh-i Bidari-yi Iranian (The History of the Awakening of the Iranians), 3 vols. (Tehran, 1960), vol. 2, p. 121. His figure is imprecise in the sense that it seems to include all emigration out of Iran. See also Belova, N. K., “Ob otkhodnichestve iz severozapadnogo Irana, v Kontse XIX- nachale XX veka,” Voprosy Istorii 10(1956), 114. For a rare French translation of parts of this article see “La social-démocratic en Iran: Histoire du mouvement ouvrier en Iran (I),” (Florence, 1979), pp. 53–62. Abdullaev, too, agrees with this higher estimate. See Issawi, EHI, p. 51.
9 Telegramme from Baku, , Kermani, Nizam al-Islam, Tarikh-i Bidari, The 3 vols. in one edition (Tehran, 1953), p. 511.
10 Orsolle, E., La Caucase et Ia Perse (Paris, 1885), p. 49. Also Danish, Mirza Riza Khan (Arfa' ad-Dawlah), Iran-i Diruz (Yesterday's Iran) (Tehran, 1966), p. 39.
11 Telegramme from Ashkabad Nizam al-Islam Kermani, Tarikh-i Bidari, vol. 2, p. 91.
12 See note 9 for the higher figure. The lower estimate appears in Adamiyat, F. and Natiq, H., Afkar-i Ijtima'iy va Siyasi va Iqtisadi dar Asar-i Munrasher-nashudeh-i Duran-i Qajar (The Social, Political, and Economic Thought in Unpublished Works of the Qajar Period) (Tehran, 1977), p. 295. A similar case arises when, in one and the same source, the Persians in Batum are given as 4,000 to 5,000 in one place and 40,000 to 50,000 in another. See Maraghe-i, Haj Zain al'Abedin, Siyahatnameh-i Ibrahim Baig (The Travel Memoirs of Ibrahim Baig) (Tehran, 1974), pp. 24–25.
13 Belova, Ob otkhodnichestve, p. 114.
15 Entner, M. L., Russo-Persian Commercial Relations, 1828–1914 (Gainsville, Fla., 1965), p. 60.
16 Gordon mentions that in 1894–1895, 20,000 Persian Passports were issued in the Persian Embassy in Constantinople, which “would include pilgrims as well as home Visitors.” Sir Gordon, Thomas Edward, Persia Revisited (London, 1896), p. 9. It is not t all unlikely that some of these went to Russia.
17 Maraghe-yi, Siyahatnameh, p. 28; Arfa', Iran-i Diruz, pp. 69–70.
18 This practice, however, was so recurrent that the consulate decided to reissue the travel documents. Arfa was assigned the task of rewriting them whereby he benefitted from one tenth of the revenue. Given the large number of Persians in the Caucasus, sometimes he had to “write on until the morning,” as a result of which, “his economic means expanded.” Arfa', Iran-i Diruz, p. 70.
19 Quoted in Entner, Russo-Persian, p. 60.
20 Belova, Ob otkhodnichestve, p. 114.
21 Dealing with the same passport data, Gad Gilbar overlooked the national census, hence stating that: “As there are no data for the number of Persians who returned from Russia to Persia before 1900, it is impossible to estimate the total number of Persian nationals who lived and worked in Russian territories in the years immediately prior to World War 1.” Gilbar, G., Demographic Developments, p. 152. More importantly, Gilbar also commits an error in stating that, “in the years 1900–1913 about 1.765 million Persians left legally for Persia,” and conversely that, “over 1.412 million Persians left Russia for Persia,”ibid. He arrives at these figures by adding up the relevant number of entries and exits for this period (see our Table 2) and ignores the fact that an “individual Persian national” could have made recurrent entries to and exits from Russia — a common occurrence, given the short-term nature of migration for the most part.
22 Gordon dismisses this figure as an exaggeration, Persia Revisited, p. 9.
23 Minorsky, V., “Dvizhenie persidskikh rabochikh na promysly v Zakavkaze,” Sbornik konsulskikh doneseniy (Consular Reports of Ministry of Foreign Affairs), 3 (St. Petersburg, 1905), p. 206.
25 Kasravi, A., Tarikh-i Mashruteh-i Iran (Tehran, 1967), p. 85.
26 Minorski, Dvizheniepersidskikh, p. 205.
27 Abdullaev, in Issawi, EHI, p. 51.
28 Sykes, P., A History of Persia, 2 vols. (London, 1930), vol. 2, p. 392.
29 Abdullaev in Issawi, EHI pp. 51–52.
30 Belova, Ob otkhodnichestve, p. 115.
32 Gordon, Persia Revisited, p. 8.
33 Orsolle, La Caucase, p. 49.
34 Gordon Persia Revisited, p. 9.
38 Abdullaev in Issawi, EHI, p. 51.
39 BeIova, Ob otkhodnichesrve, p. 116.
42 Arfa', Iran-i Diruz, p. 316.
43 Belova, Ob otkhodnichestve, p. 118.
45 Maraghe-yi, Siyahatnameh, pp. 24–25.
46 From the letters of Mirza Agha Khan Kermani, cited in Malik, R. Reza-Zadeh, Haidar Khan-i 'Amu Oghli (Tehran, 1973), p. 13.
47 Zadeh, SoItan in Historical Documents: The Workers': Social-Democratic, and Communist Movement in Iran, 7 vols., Persian Text, (Florence, vol. 4, 1973[?]), pp. 82, 99; hereafter denoted as Hist. Docs. Others regarded lack of “individual's security, anarchy and wide-spread brigandage” as responsible for peasants flight to Russia, see,Pavlovitch, M., “La situation agraire en Perse à Ia veille de Ia revolution,” Revue du Monde Musulman 12 (12, 1910), 625.
48 Hist. Docs., vol. I, p. 30.
49 See Keddie, R. N., “Historical Obstacles to Agrarian Change in Iran,” Claremont Asian Studies 8 (09, 1960). For a discussion of the limitations to this type of analysis, see Nowshirvani, V. F., “The Beginnings of Commercial Agriculture in Iran,” in Udovitch, A. L., ed., The Islamic Middle East: Studies in Economic and Social History, 700–1900 (Princeton, 1980), pp. 552–54.
50 Keddie, Historical Obstacles, p. 4.
51 Lambton, A. K. S., Landlord and Peasant in Persia (London, 1953), p. 143.
52 lssawi, EHI, p. 18, and Bakhash, S., Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and Reform under the Qajars,1858–1896 (London, 1978), p. 271.
53 Pavlovitch, La situation agraire, p. 618; lssawi, EHI, p. 208.
54 Lambton, Landlord and Peasant, p. 139.
55 On the sales of Khaliseh lands, see ibid., pp. 151–53;, Pavlovitch, La situation agraire, pp. 618–19; Issawi, EHI, p. 208; Bakhash, Monarchy, Bureaucracy, p. 280.
56 Pavlovitch, La situation agraire, p. 620.
57 Keddie, Historical Obstacles, p. 6.
58 Kazemi, F. and Abrahamian, E., “The Non-Revolutionary Peasantry of Modern Iran,” Iranian Studies 11 (1978), 294–95.
59 Cited in Kasravi, Inqilab-i Mashruteh, p. 85.
60 Malik, Reza Zadeh, Haidar Khan, p. 12.
61 Adamiyat and Natiq, Asar-i Muntasher-nashudeh, pp. 378–96.
62 See chapter 6 on Industry, in Issawi, EHI, pp. 258–310.
63 Floor, W. M., “Traditional Handicrafts and Modern Industry in Iran, 1800–1914,” unpublished paper presented to International Conference on the Economic History of the Middle East, 1800–1914, Haifa, 14–18 December, 1980.
64 Enclosure in Lascelles to Rosebery, No. 3, Tehran, 13 January, 1893, FO60–52, quoted in Bakhash, Monarchy, Bureaucracy, p. 265.
65 Ibid., p. 288. For a list of rebellions against local governors between 1881 and 1895, see A. Seyf, Some Aspects, p. 137.
66 lvanov, Inqilab-i Mshruteh, p. 17.
67 Seyf, A., Some Aspects, p. 137.
68 Malik, Reza Zadeh, Haidar Khan, p. 12.
69 Gordon, Persia Revisited, p. 9.
70 Gilbar, Demographic Developments, p. 153.
71 Wigham, H. J., The Persian Problem (London, 1903), p. 402.
72 Orsolle, La Caucase, p. 49.
73 Minorsky, Dvizhenie Persidskikh, p. 211.
74 Entner, Russo-Persian, p. 61.
75 For a description of these developments, see Falkus, M. E., The Industrialisation of Russia, 1700–1914 (London, 1972), pp. 44–46 and 64–66.
77 Lane, D., The Roots of Russian Communism (London, 1975), p. 177.
78 Curzon, G. N., Persia and the Persian Question, 2 vols. (London, 1892), vol. I, p. 66.
79 CR, “Caucasus Tea Industry,” PAP, 1903, lxxvi, p. 5.
80 Belova, Ob oikhodnichestve, pp. 115–16.
82 See Entner, Russo-Persian, pp. 39–41 and p. 77 for an elaboration of this point.
83 Abdullaev in Issawi, EHI, p. 52.
84 Curzon, Persia, vol. I, p. 517.
85 Issawi, C., “The Tabriz-Trabzon Trade, 1830–1900: Rise and Decline of a Trade Route,” International Journal of Middle East Studies I (1970), 18–27.
86 Seyf, Some Aspects, p. 514.
87 On the economic depression of the 1890s see various consular reports on Tabriz, and Azerbaijan, , PAP, 1895, xcix, p. 5; PAP, 1897, xcii, p. 5; PAP, 1906, cxxvii, p. 4.
88 Maraghe-yi, Siyahatnameh, p. 28.
89 Abdullaev in Issawi, EHI, p. 50. To probe into the mechanism linking migration with the later emergence of an industrial proletariat in Iran, though an interesting point, is unfortunately beyond our limited focus in this article.
90 CR, “Baku,” PAP, 1906, cxxviii, p. 159.
91 Abdullaev in Issawi, EHI, p. 51.
92 Belova, Ob okhodnichesrve p. 121.
93 See the memoirs of 'Amu Oghli partially printed in Hist. Does., vol. 6, pp. 46–57.
96 See lvanov, Inqilab-i Mashrureh, p. 35 for the major strikes of this period.
97 Tria, T., “La Caucase et Ia revolution Persane,” Revue du Monde Musulman 13 (11 1911), pp. 324–33.
98 Hist. Does., vol. 4, p. 48.
99 Soltan Zadeh, Ibid., p. 99.
