IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN FROM MONARCHIES TO REVOLUTIONS

The course is part of the Master degree in Lingue e civiltà dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea (percorso Vicino e Medio Oriente). It is intended to widen the students’ knowledge base on modern and contemporary history of the region, with a focus on the transition from traditional monarchies to republics in Iran and Afghanistan.

Students are expected to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to understand the political and economic dynamics that shaped the current political setting in Iran and Afghanistan. In particular,
1. Knowledge and understanding
● Knowledge of the general outlines of the historical and political evolution of the two countries from the late modern period (18th century) to the 1970s.
● Knowledge of the basic issues that characterize historical evolution in the aforementioned period, particularly multilingualism and tribalism.
● Knowledge of the main geophysical characteristics and bioclimatic aspects of the two countries.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
● (Knowledge of the general outlines of the historical and political evolution of the two countries.) Be able to adequately place events and issues in their relative geostrategic and geopolitical contexts in diachronic terms;
● (Knowledge of the basic issues.) Be able to perform a general analysis of political events in relation to the specific context in which they occurred;
● (Knowledge of the main geophysical characteristics and bioclimatic aspects.) Ability to evaluate the validity or otherwise of the analyses carried out by scholars in the field and/or information analysts through a deeper understanding of the context in which the events analyzed occurred.
3. Judgment Skills
● Ability to formulate and argue simple hypotheses, also developing a critical approach to evaluating alternative hypotheses.
4. Communication Skills
● Ability to communicate the specifics of the Iranian and Afghan historical and political landscapes, using appropriate terminology;
5. Learning Skills
● Ability to critically read the historical and political analyses circulating on the two countries.
● Ability to critically consult the reference texts and the bibliography contained therein.

There are no specific prerequisites beyond working skills with Italian and English study materials. Familiarity with premodern history of the region is welcome.

§ Qājār society
Economy
Education system
Political system
Religious system
§ Afghan society in 18th-19th centuries:
Tribalism
Political system
Religious system
§ Modern monarchies in Iran and Afghanistan (19th-20th centuries)
The origins of the Qājārs and the history of the dynasty
The origins of the Dorrānis and the history of the dynasty
§ The era of colonialism in Iran e AfghanistanI
International relations of Qājār Persia
The capitulations of Qājār Persia
International relations of Dorrāni Afghanistan
The Afghan wars
§ Early 19th century in Iran and Afghanistan
The constitutional movement in Iran
Formation of national identity in Iran
The Third Afghan War
Definition of the borders between Iran and Afghanistan
§ Before the Republics
Zāhir Shāh and the Afghan Modernists
From the Rezā Shāh coup until his deposition
The Da’ud Khān coup and the Sovietic intervention in Afghanistan
From Mohammad Rezā to the Iranian Revolution
§ From revolutions to the Islamic republics
From the Iranian Revolution to the Islamic Republic of Iran
From the Democratic Republic to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Mandatory texts:

• Contributions from monographs:
GAVIN R.G. HAMBLY, Iran during the reigns of fath 'Ali Shah and Muhammad Shah. Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7, Chapter 4.
N. KEDDY, M. AMANAT, Iran under the Later Qajars, 1848-1922. Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7, Chapter 5.
MONICA M. RINGER, Iranian Nationalism and Zoroastrian Identity. In: A. Amanat & F. Vejdani eds. Iran Facing Others
Palgrave Macmillan US (2012), pp. 267-277.
S. HAROON, Competing Views of Pashtun Tribalism, Islam, and Society in the Indo-Afghan Borderlands. In: Afghanistan’s Islam: From Conversion to the Taliban. Ed. by Nile Green, 2017, Oakland, California: University of California Press, pp. 145-162.

• Articles from magazines:
N. GREEN, Blessed Men and Tribal Politics: Notes on Political Culture in the Indo-Afghan World. In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 49-3, pp. 344-360.

Supplementary texts:

Further study texts and other references will be given during class.

Students will be asked to look into a subject of their choice related to the course. No later than one week before the oral exam, students will have to produce an short essay containing an annotated bibliography on the chosen subject (30.000-50.000 characters including spaces). Overall assessment will be based on the short essay (annotated bibliography) and its discussion in an oral exam (max 15/30) and on the study of the mandatory texts verified trough al least three oral questions (max 15/30).
The examiner will evaluate candidates on their debating skills, command of technical vocabulary, and capacity to engage reading materials and subjects critically, establishing meaningful relations between analyses and prior knowledge.
Students are warmly invited to let the lecturer know their chosen subject.

oral

The overall assessment will be based on the thesis (which must be presented as a reasoned bibliography according to the indicative models uploaded on the course Moodle page) and the discussion of the thesis during the oral exam. It will also be assessed on the study of the required texts, verified through at least three oral questions.
Not only will presentation skills and the use of appropriate technical vocabulary be assessed, but also the ability to critically approach the proposed readings and topics, as well as to connect the proposed analyses to prior knowledge or knowledge acquired during other training activities.
Regarding the grading scale, scores will be assigned according to the following schema:
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded for: sufficient knowledge and ability to apply understanding of the texts analyzed for the thesis;
B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded for: fair knowledge and ability to apply understanding of the texts analyzed for the thesis;
C. Scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded for good or excellent knowledge and applied understanding of the texts analyzed for the thesis;
D. Honors will be awarded for excellent knowledge and understanding of the texts analyzed for the thesis.

Conventional didactic method (face-to-face course).

Frontal lectures will be held in Italian.
For a general treatment of the premodern history of the region, see
I. LAPIDUS, A History of Islamic Societies, Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, 2014 (3rd ed.).
G. VERCELLIN, Iran e Afghanistan. Editori Riuniti, 1994.