Persian famine of 1917–1918

The Great Persian Famine
(1917–1919)
The Great Famine

Iranian victims of famine and disease in 1918
Country  Iran
Location Iran
Coordinates 32°N 54°E / 32°N 54°E / 32; 54
Period 1917–1918
Total deaths 4–10 million (according to khamenei.ir)[1]
Death rate 25%~40% (according to PBS)[2]
50% (according to khamenei.ir and Mashregh News)[1][3]
Observations World War I, Famine, Drought

The Persian famine of 1917–1918 was an enormous famine in Iran that resulted in (due to starvation, and cholera) the deaths of one quarter of the population of Iran.[2][4] It is considered to be a genocide against Persian people made by Great Britain according to Iranian sources.[1][3][2]

The Famine

Majd's book identifies a number of allied sources that detail the proportion and scale of the deaths, for example on page 72:

According to the American Charge d'Affaires, Wallace Smith Murray, this famine had claimed one-third of Iran's population. A famine that even according to British sources as General Dunsterville, Major Donohoe, and General Sykes had claimed vast numbers of Iranians.

before arguing the pre-famine population was not the Allies estimated 11 million, but much greater, he supports his claim with two 1914 quotes from American diplomat Charles Wells Russell, who estimated the population at 20 million, then by subtracting the Allies post famine estimates of 10 million, concludes up to 10 million died. He goes on to describe how the British army bought 500,000 tons of grain in the period, to both feed its armies during the Mesopotamian campaign, and to deny the Ottoman forces access to the food, supporting the claim by siteing the likes of Ain-ol-Saltaneh, who recorded:

The Russian and British military authorities are continuously taking our food supplies, and hoarding it from themselves

and Zaban-e-Azad, who reported:

British Officials, with the assistance of their local agents and middlemen, were busy buying wheat, and wherever grain was found, they bought it at an exorbitant price and stored it.

The research of Mohammad Gholi Majd alleges as many as 8–10 million died, across the whole nation, based on an alternate pre-famine Persian population estimate of 19 million, and diplomatic cables. Other estimates place the pre-famine population at only 11 million, disputing Majd's numbers, while all offer a post famine estimate of around 10 million.[5][6]

Legacy

The Iranian government has stated that The Great Famine of Persia was caused by the British (this is disputed, should be seen in context of bad Iran–United Kingdom relations) and that 8–10 million people died.[1] This has caused some Iranian scholars to call the famine a genocide.[1][3][2]

See Also

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Abbasi, Sadegh. "8–10 million Iranians died over Great Famine caused by the British in late 1910s, documents reveal". Khamenei.ir. Retrieved 2016-11-23.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Global Connections – Timeline". PBS. Retrieved 2016-12-13.
  3. 1 2 3 "هولوکاست ۹ میلیون ایرانی به دست بریتانیای کبیر +تصاویر". Mashregh News (in Persian). Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  4. ↑ Kenneth Pollack (2004). The Persian Puzzle: Deciphering the Twenty-five-Year Conflict Between the United States and Iran. Random House Publishing Group. p. 25.
  5. ↑ Floor, Willem (2005-01-01). "Review of The Great Famine and Genocide in Persia, 1917–1919". Iranian Studies. 38 (1): 192–196. JSTOR 4311715.
  6. ↑ Messkoub, Mahmood (2006-01-01). "Social Policy in Iran in the Twentieth Century". Iranian Studies. 39 (2): 227–252. JSTOR 4311815. doi:10.1080/00210860600628773.


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