CHRISTOPH WERNER, An Iranian Town in Transition: A Social and Economic History of the Elites of Tabriz, 1747–1848 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000). Pp. 419 $51.00 cloth.

Extract

This book, the author's dissertation, is an excellent contribution to our field and should be held up as a model to university professors and Ph.D. hopefuls of how to be engaged in Iranian studies. Werner's objective is to demonstrate that the history of Iran can also be told by using Persian archival materials. In fact, he wants “to present a methodological alternative to counter standard perspectives originating from the reliance on Western sources, and to offer a different, often microscopic view of the social and economic history of an Iranian town in transition.” To do so he has made use of unpublished decrees, sales contracts, waqf deeds, and other legal documents as well as an unpublished manuscript of a local history in addition to under-used published Persian sources. He also has used Western sources, but only as additional material, seldom (he claims never) to base an argument entirely on such a source out of fear that it would dominate the study. To focus his new approach, Werner has concentrated his study on the role of the elites of the city of Tabriz during the period 1747–1848, mainly because this period represents a black hole in Iranian history.