The Qajar Pact, Bargaining, Protest and the State in Nineteenth-Century Persia

(International Library of Iranian Studies)
The Qajar Pact' seeks to explore new perspectives on the 19th century Iranian state and society, and is the first broad study of lower social groups during the period 1834-1896. Vanessa Martin argues that Qajar government was certainly despotic, but was also founded on a consensus understood in deed rather than word, derived from consultation and bargaining. Looking at urban society, the author shows how all levels were involved, and focuses on the role of non-elite groups, whose networks organised the struggles with the authorities