The Near and Middle East (1684 – 1827 CE)

Empires in Decline, Pilgrimage Routes in Turmoil, and the Return of Reforming Powers

Geography & Environmental Context

The Near and Middle East spanned the eastern Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Persia, and the Caucasus—a crossroads from the Nile to the Hindu Kush. Its three interlocking subregions—the Near East(Egypt, Hejaz, Yemen, Levant, Sudan, southwestern Turkey, and Cyprus), the Middle East (Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, eastern Arabia, and most of Anatolia), and Southeast Arabia (southern Oman, eastern Yemen, and Socotra)—together formed a vast zone of deserts, deltas, plateaus, and pilgrimage corridors. Major anchors included the Nile, Tigris–Euphrates, and Zagros–Caucasus uplands; the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Arabian Seacoasts; and the high valleys of Yemen and Oman that bridged Africa and Asia.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The late Little Ice Age imposed alternating drought and flood.

• Mesopotamia and Iran endured erratic rains and destructive river floods.

• Egypt oscillated between low- and high-Nile years; plague and famine shadowed poor floods.

• Hejaz and Yemen suffered water scarcity punctuated by torrential storms.

• Caucasus winters grew harsher; earthquakes at Tabriz (1721), Shiraz (1824), and along the Levantine Riftreshaped towns.

• Dhofar and Hadhramawt relied on fickle khareef monsoons, while Socotra was struck by periodic cyclones.

Despite volatility, canal maintenance, terrace farming, and nomadic mobility preserved regional resilience.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Mesopotamia & Iran: Irrigated grains, dates, and silk; qanats and canals remained vital to subsistence and taxation.

• Caucasus & Anatolia: Pastoralism and mountain farming—wine, fruit, and grain—supported caravan towns like Tiflis, Yerevan, and Aleppo.

• Levant & Egypt: Terrace agriculture (olives, vines, citrus) complemented Nile wheat, barley, and sugar.

• Arabian littoral: Date groves, pearling, and fishing from Basra to Muscat linked desert to sea.

• Yemen & Oman: Terraced grains, coffee, and frankincense; mixed herding in uplands.

• Sudan: Millet and sorghum in river belts tied to Egypt’s provisioning system after Muḥammad ʿAlī’s conquest (1820–1821).

Urban centers—Cairo, Baghdad, Isfahan, Damascus, Tehran, Muscat, Sanaʿa, and Tiflis—functioned as nodes of governance, trade, and craft.

Technology & Material Culture

• Agrarian infrastructure: Qanats, canals, and dikes remained the hydraulic spine; terrace systems in Yemen and Palestine embodied millennia of continuity.

• Crafts & manufactures: Persian silks and carpets; Aleppine cottons; Damascene soap; Cairene brassware; Georgian and Armenian metallurgy.

• Architecture: Ottoman domes, Safavid and Qajar mosques, Armenian churches, and Yemeni tower-houses defined skylines.

• Maritime innovation: Omani dhows and Red Sea sambuks maintained oceanic trade; firearms and artillery modernized gradually through Ottoman and Persian reforms.

• Printing & learning: The French expedition to Egypt (1798–1801) introduced presses and surveying; by the 1820s Muḥammad ʿAlī’s workshops were producing cotton gins, arms, and canal plans.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Caravan arteries: Aleppo–Mosul–Baghdad; Isfahan–Tabriz–Yerevan–Baku; Basra–Shiraz–Hormuz–Muscat.

• Pilgrimage routes: Cairo and Damascus caravans converged on Mecca until disrupted by Wahhabi–Saʿūdī control (1803–1812); Egyptian forces restored Ottoman sovereignty (1811–1818).

• Maritime spheres: Omani fleets projected power across the Indian Ocean to Zanzibar; Hadhrami merchants spread to Gujarat, Southeast Asia, and the Swahili coast.

• Caspian & Black Sea fronts: Russian expansion brought forts and commerce, drawing Persia into treaties (Gulistan 1813, Turkmenchay 1828).

• Nile & Sudan corridors: River convoys moved grain and troops; Khartoum and Sennar became extensions of Cairo’s fiscal reach.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Ottoman provinces: Sunni institutions, Sufi lodges, and urban guilds organized civic life; Coptic, Armenian, Greek, and Jewish communities sustained schools and trade.

• Persia: Shiʿism remained the ideological core from Safavid through Qajar eras; Isfahan and Tehran mosques, gardens, and miniatures embodied Persian identity.

• Caucasus: Islamic and Christian traditions coexisted; oral epics preserved frontier memory.

• Arabian coasts: Poetry, pearling songs, and mosque schools reflected maritime Islam.

• Hejaz & Yemen: Pilgrimage festivals, Sufi orders, and coffee rituals intertwined devotion and commerce.

• Egypt: Al-Azhar scholars debated governance; after 1798, the Arabic press and translation offices of Muḥammad ʿAlī inaugurated modern intellectual life.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Nomadic transhumance adjusted to drought belts from Arabia to Iran.

• Oasis and terrace restoration maintained food security.

• Maritime adaptation: Oman’s sea routes and Gulf pearling offset inland disruption.

• Pilgrim provisioning: Waqf-funded cisterns, markets, and bakeries sustained caravans.

• Irrigation renewal: In Egypt, canal repair and proto-barrage planning sought to stabilize Nile floods and expand cotton cultivation.

Political & Military Shocks

• Safavid collapse (1722): Afghan incursions toppled Isfahan; Ottoman and Russian invasions followed.

• Nader Shah (1736–1747): Restored Persian power, campaigned in India and the Caucasus.

• Qajar consolidation (1794–1827): Centralized Iran but ceded territory to Russia.

• Ottoman strain: Frontier wars with Russia; Wahhabi revolt in Arabia; provincial autonomy in Syria and Egypt.

• Muḥammad ʿAlī’s rise (1805): Eliminated Mamluks (1811), reformed army and monopolies, annexed Sudan (1820–1821).

• Omani revival: The Al Bu Saʿid dynasty (from 1749) rebuilt fleets, expelled Portuguese remnants, and dominated Gulf trade.

• European encroachment: Consuls, treaties, and naval patrols—French in the Levant, British in the Gulf and Red Sea—tightened economic dependence though not yet direct rule.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827 CE, the Near and Middle East transformed from a network of venerable Islamic empires into a patchwork of reforming provinces and maritime powers under growing Eurasian pressure. The Safavids vanished, the Qajars struggled with Russia, and the Ottomans faced internal revolt and European diplomacy. Oman extended Arab reach to East Africa, while Muḥammad ʿAlī’s Egypt pioneered modern bureaucratic reform.
By 1827, caravan and monsoon still ordered daily life, yet behind their continuity loomed the industrial powers of Europe—ready to recast these crossroads into the geopolitical heart of the nineteenth-century world.

The Middle East (1684–1827 CE): Ottoman Decline, Safavid Collapse, and the Rise of New Powers

Geography & Environmental Context

The Middle East includes Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, most of Turkey (except the European part and southwest Anatolia), eastern Jordan, all but southernmost Lebanon, eastern Saudi Arabia, and northern Oman. Anchors include the Tigris–Euphrates basin (Mesopotamia), the Zagros and Caucasus ranges, the Iranian Plateau, the Caspian littoral, the Syrian Desert, and the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea coasts. This geography spans irrigated river valleys, steppe corridors, semi-arid plateaus, and mountain enclaves linking Anatolia, Persia, and Arabia.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The period fell within the late Little Ice Age, producing cooler winters in Anatolia, Armenia, and the Caucasus, alongside recurrent droughts in Mesopotamia and Iran. Floods along the Tigris and Euphrates periodically devastated farmlands, while earthquakes struck Tabriz (1721) and Shiraz (1824). Pastoral nomads in Arabia, Iran, and the Caucasus moved widely to buffer drought, while irrigation in Mesopotamia and northern Iran faltered under war and neglect but revived when political stability returned.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Mesopotamia: Date groves, rice paddies, and cereal fields along the Tigris–Euphrates remained staples; tribal confederations dominated countryside around Ottoman Baghdad.

• Iranian Plateau: Dryland farming (wheat, barley) and oasis gardening (fruit, melons) sustained populations; silk in Gilan and rice in Mazandaran anchored Caspian subsistence.

• Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan): Pastoralism, viticulture, and orchards flourished in upland valleys; caravan towns like Tiflis and Yerevan mediated exchange.

• Anatolia & Syria: Grain, olives, and vines in uplands; Aleppo and Damascus remained provisioning and craft centers despite periodic crises.

• Persian Gulf & Oman: Fishing, date cultivation, and pearling dominated, with maritime trade sustaining settlements from Basra to Muscat.

Technology & Material Culture

Agriculture relied on qanats, canals, and animal-powered irrigation. Fortresses and caravanserais dotted plateau routes; mosques, madrasas, and Armenian and Georgian churches anchored towns. Persian silk textiles, Azerbaijani carpets, and Aleppine cottons were prized. Gunpowder weapons, artillery, and fortress improvements spread, though unevenly. Maritime craft ranged from Ottoman galleys to Omani dhows controlling Indian Ocean lanes.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Caravan routes: Linked Aleppo to Mosul and Baghdad; Isfahan to Tabriz, Yerevan, and Baku; Basra to the Gulf; Shiraz and Yazd to Hormuz/Muscat.

• Persian Gulf: Omani seafaring extended across the Arabian Sea; Basra exported dates and grain; pearl fisheries tied Bahrain and Qatar to Indian and European markets.

• Caspian trade: Connected Gilan’s silk and Astrakhan’s markets; Russian expansion brought new garrisons and merchants.

• Imperial contest zones: Anatolia and the Caucasus saw repeated wars; Iraq oscillated between Ottoman and Persian control.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Ottoman provinces: Islam anchored society through mosques, Sufi lodges, and guilds; Armenian and Syriac Christians maintained schools and churches; Jewish communities thrived in Aleppo and Baghdad.

• Safavid Iran: Shi‘ism remained state religion; Isfahan’s mosques and gardens expressed grandeur, though after the Safavid collapse, Qajar art and architecture reshaped Persian identity.

• Caucasus: Christian Orthodoxy (Georgian, Armenian) coexisted with Islam; mountain oral epics and shrine pilgrimages preserved memory.

• Arabian littoral: Tribal poetry, pearl-diver songs, and Omani mosque schools expressed maritime identity.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Nomadic strategies: Tribal migrations across steppe and desert balanced drought and grazing.

• Oasis and qanat systems: Managed water for cereals and orchards; local repair after war was critical.

• Silk, carpet, and date economies: Offered export resilience when crops failed.

• Maritime trade: Oman and Gulf ports buffered against inland disruption by maintaining Indian Ocean routes.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827, the Middle East was a contested imperial borderland. The Safavid dynasty collapsed (1722); Afghans, Ottomans, and Russians fought over Iran and the Caucasus. Nader Shah briefly restored Persian power (1736–1747), raiding into India and the Caucasus. The Qajar dynasty (from 1794) consolidated Iran but conceded land to Russia in treaties (Gulistan 1813, Turkmenchay 1828). The Ottoman Empire faced Russian expansion in the Black Sea and Caucasus and Wahhabi revolts in Arabia. Oman emerged as a naval power, dominating the Gulf and East Africa. By 1827, the region was still a mosaic of caravans, mosques, and fortified towns, but the balance of power had tilted toward European and Russian pressures—foreshadowing the 19th-century age of colonial rivalry and reform.

Afghan supremacy is brief.

Tahmasp Quli, a chief of the Afshar tribe, soon expels the Afghans in the name of a surviving member of the Safavi family.

He then assumes power in 1736 in his own name as Nader Shah.

He goes on to drive the Ottomans from Georgia and Armenia and the Russians from the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea and restores Iranian sover eignty over Afghanistan.

He also takes his army on several campaigns into India, sacking Delhi in 1739 and bringing back fabulous treasures.

Nader Shah achieves political unity but his military campaigns and extortionate taxation prove a terrible drain on a country already ravaged and depopulated by war and disorder, and in 1747 he is murdered by chiefs of his own Afshar tribe.

A period of anarchy marked by a struggle for supremacy among Afshar, Qajar, Afghan, and Zand tribal chieftains folows Nader Shah's death.

Persia's last two Safavi rulers, Shah Suleiman (1669-94) and Shah Sultan Husayn (1694-1722), are voluptuaries.

The eastern frontiers began to be breached once again, and in 1722 a small body of Afghan tribesmen wins a series of easy victories before entering and taking the capital itself, ending Safavi rule.

The Middle East: 1720–1731 CE

Dynastic Shifts and Regional Upheaval

This era marks significant realignments across the Middle East as major empires face internal struggles and emerging powers begin to reshape regional dynamics.

In Safavid Persia, internal decay reaches a critical point, culminating dramatically in 1722 when Afghan forces, led by Mahmud Hotak, invade and capture Isfahan, effectively ending Safavid dominance. Sultan Husayn is forced to abdicate, and Afghan rulers briefly establish control over central Persia. This upheaval sends ripples throughout the region, destabilizing traditional power balances and leaving Persia fractured and vulnerable to further incursions.

In response to Safavid collapse, Russia and the Ottoman Empire seize the opportunity to expand their territories. The Ottomans occupy western provinces, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, and parts of western Persia. The Treaty of Constantinople in 1724 formalizes a division of Persian territories between these two empires, intensifying geopolitical rivalries and complicating local governance.

In Iraq, despite nominal Ottoman rule, tribal autonomy continues to prevail, exacerbated by weakened central authority. Cities like Basra and Baghdad are governed by influential local dynasties and prominent tribal leaders, further fragmenting imperial governance. This decentralization fosters economic stagnation and internal instability, making Iraq a frontier region with limited control from Constantinople.

On the Arabian Peninsula, the Yarubid Imamate in Oman faces severe internal strife following a disputed succession after Imam Sultan bin Saif II's death in 1718. This dynastic turmoil leads to a debilitating civil war that weakens Oman’s maritime dominance and disrupts its established trading networks in East Africa and the Indian Ocean. Rival factions within the Yarubid dynasty vie fiercely for supremacy, severely diminishing the state’s previous power and cohesiveness.

Meanwhile, in the Levant, specifically Lebanon and Syria, Ottoman governance continues to decline, allowing powerful local families and tribal leaders to consolidate control. Beirut and Aleppo maintain economic vitality, largely due to ongoing European trade interests. French and British traders, protected under agreements known as "capitulations," continue to establish influential commercial presences, furthering European cultural and political influence in the region.

In Caucasian Armenia and Georgia, the fragmentation and instability caused by declining Persian power and Ottoman territorial ambitions increase local vulnerability. While Armenians under Ottoman administration retain religious autonomy through the millet system, Georgia remains fractured, its territories contested between Ottoman and Persian spheres of influence.

Legacy of the Era

Between 1720 and 1731 CE, the Middle East experiences pivotal shifts as the Safavid collapse significantly alters regional power structures. Afghan incursions into Persia, Ottoman-Russian territorial expansions, Omani civil strife, and enhanced European influence characterize a turbulent period. These events set the stage for subsequent power realignments that will reshape the region profoundly in the decades to come.

Medieval and obsolescent forms of government have given place to effective autocracy in the course of Peter's reign.

He had in 1711 abolished the boyarskaya duma, or boyar council, and established by decree of the Senate as the supreme organ of state—to coordinate the action of the various central and local organs, to supervise the collection and expenditure of revenue, and to draft legislation in accordance with his edicts.

Martial discipline is extended to civil institutions, and an officer of the guards is always on duty in the Senate.

From 1722, moreover, there is a procurator general keeping watch over the daily work of the Senate and its chancellery and acting as “the eye of the sovereign.” When Peter had come to power, the central departments of state had been the prikazy, or offices, of which there were about eighty, functioning in a confused and fragmented way.

To replace most of this outmoded system, Peter in 1718 had instituted nine “colleges” (kollegy), or boards, the number of which is by 1722 expanded to thirteen.

Their activities are controlled, on the one hand, by the General Regulation and, on the other, by particular regulations for individual colleges, and indeed there are strict regulations for every branch of the state administration.

Crimes against the state come under the jurisdiction of the Preobrazhensky Office, responsible immediately to the tsar.

In 1722 also, Peter creates a new order of precedence, known as the Table of Ranks.

Formerly, precedence had been determined by birth.

In order to deprive the boyars of their high positions, Peter directs that precedence should be determined by merit and service to the Emperor.

This replaces the old system of promotion in the state services, which had been according to ancestry, by one of promotion according to services actually rendered.

It classifies all functionaries—military, naval, and civilian alike—in fourteen categories, the fourtenth being the lowest and the firsst the highest; and admission to the eighth category confers hereditary nobility. (The Table of Ranks will continue to remain in effect until the Russian monarchy is overthrown in 1917.)

Peter also introduces new taxes to fund improvements in Saint Petersburg.

He abolishes the land tax and household tax, and replaces them with a capitation.

The taxes on land on households are payable only by individuals who own property or maintain families; the new head taxes, however, are payable by serfs and paupers.

Despite Russia’s exhaustion after the Second or Great Northern War, Peter, who has long contemplated establishing a trade route to India via the countries east of the Caspian Sea, is apprehensive over the Turkish push toward the region.

Even during the second half of the Northern War, Peter had sent exploratory missions to the East—to the Central Asian steppes in 1714, to the Caspian region in 1715, and to Khiva in 1717.

The end of the war leaves him free to resume a more active policy on his southeastern frontier.

Losses suffered by some Russian merchants during one of the many tribal uprisings in the Persian realms, ongoing since 1709, provide Peter with the pretext for launching a war against a Persia weakened by the Afghan rebellions.

Mahmud, the young son and successor of Mir Wais Hotak, is not content to hold only Qandahar.

He leads some twenty thousand men against Isfahan in 1722; the Safavid government surrenders after a six-month siege.

Sultan Husayn, shah of Iran from 1694, had been reared in the harem and has no knowledge of state affairs.

He has depleted the treasury for personal expenses and allowed the mullahs (clergy) to control the government.

He can defend himself neither from tribal raiding in the capital nor from interfering mujtahids led by Mohammad Baqir Majlisi (whose writings later will be important in the Islamic Republic of Iran).

The Russian and Ottoman empires have taken advantage of Husayn's weakness to seize border territory.

Despite these losses, Husayn has ruled in relative peace for twenty years, while the nation has slowly declined.

Of a pious temperament, Husayn is especially influenced by the Shi'ite divines, whose conflicting advice, added to his own procrastination, seals the sudden and unexpected fate of the Safavid empire.

Abruptly, he is faced with a series of revolts by his tribal subjects.

The most serious of these comes from one Mir Mahmud, a Ghilzay Pashtun and former Safavid vassal from Qandahar whose father, Hotaki dynasty founder Mirwais Khan Hotaki, had seized the throne of Afghanistan.

Mahmud is not content with holding Qandahar.

He had already launched an expedition against Kerman in 1719 and in 1721 he besieged the city again.

Failing in this attempt and in another siege on Yazd, in early 1722, Mahmud had turned his attention to the shah's capital Isfahan.

Rather than biding his time within the city and resisting a siege in which the small Afghan army is unlikely to succeed, Sultan Husayn marches out to meet Mahmud's force at Golnabad.

Here, on March 8, the Persian royal army is thoroughly routed and flees back to Isfahan in disarray.

The shah's advisors urge him to escape to the provinces to raise more troops, but he decides to remain in the capital, which the Afghans have now encircled.