There is a great unanswered question at the centre of historical writing on modern Iran: why did the position of the Persianate world in global affairs change so dramatically over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries?

This book explores this critical transitional period in Eurasian history from an environmental perspective. It argues that severe ecological challenges dating to the late 17th century, and deepening over the post-Safavid crisis of the 18th century, drove a severe decline in the demography and resource base on the Iranian plateau. This in turn gave rise to the perennially troubled Qajar period in the 19th century.

Environmental history offers a new set of perspectives to revisit key sources with new questions in mind. Whilst relying upon scientific evidence such as Geographic Information System data and tree-ring analysis, Nature and Empire in Iran also draws on a careful re-engagement with existing sources. Re-interpreting court chronicles, administrative orders, local histories, geographical texts, endowment deeds, and business archives the book reveals the way in which the relationship between imperial systems and the rest of nature formed the modern state of Iran. An important and original contribution, it will be essential reading for scholars and students of the modern history of Iran and the environmental history of the Middle East.