A Man for All Sides? Sorting Out Jafar Quli Khan and the Turkmen-Persian Wars

Historians have struggled to sort out the tumult of the mid-1800s in the borderlands between Iran and Central Asia. Key figures like the local governor Jafar Quli Khan seem to be fighting on multiple sides, loyal to all and to none. Who was fighting whom, and why? What could explain Jafar Quli’s shifting loyalties? How far did Persian power reach? Local sources shed new light on this pivotal age of Turkmen-Persian conflict, and this talk mines the sources on Jafar Quli’s strange career as a means of answering these questions. 
Jeff Eden is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University. His books include The Turkmen Wars (forthcoming), God Save the USSR, and Slavery and Empire in Central Asia.
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Hosted by: Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies
Online Location: https://unc.zoom.us/j/94351537402#success
Additional Information can be found at: https://heellife.unc.edu/event/12149862