Erzurum, Treaty of (1823)
ERZURUM, TREATY OF (1823)
Two treaties, 1823 and 1847, that settled boundary disputes between the Ottoman Empire and Iran.
Although the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 had established the boundary between Ottoman Turkey and Iran, the border in the mountainous Zuhab region remained a site of intermittent conflict in the subsequent two centuries. Attacks from Iran into Ottoman territory prompted Sultan Mahmud II in 1821 to declare war on Iran. Fath Ali Shah Qajar's army had initial success and marched east as far as Diyarbekir in the south and Erzurum in the north. The first Treaty of Erzurum was signed in July 1823, but it essentially confirmed the 1639 border and thus failed to resolve the disputes that had led to conflict. A series of border incidents in the 1830s again brought Iran and Turkey to the brink of war. Britain and Russia offered to mediate, and a second Treaty of Erzurum was signed in May 1847. This treaty divided the disputed region between Iran and Turkey and provided for a boundary commission to delimit the entire border. The boundary commission's work encountered several political setbacks but finally completed its task in 1914.
See also Fath Ali Shah Qajar; Mahmud II.
Bibilography
Lambton, Ann K. S. "The Qajar Dynasty." In Qājār Persia: Eleven Studies, edited by Ann K. S. Lambton. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.
zachary karabell updated by eric hooglund