Bindenschild und Sonnenlöwe

Austrian-Iranian relations have a long and fruitful tradition reaching back more than 500 years. indicating the start of an eventful encounter between the European principalities and kingdoms, still not clearly defined, with a state which took shape in the aftermath of the Mongolian world empire: Iran as a territorial state. The consolidated Habsburg dynasty together with the Italian city republics belonged to the oldest European states which tried consciously to develop political and economic relations with the emerging political order of the Safavid Empire. Such a policy was often driven or even dictated by the threat of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul, the main rivals of the Habsburgs in south-eastern Europe. Such attempts of a more official nature were accompanied by travels of adventurers who were attracted by the wondrous world in the east or hard-nosed profit merchants searching for trading links with countries on the route to India. The trickle of individuals, often nothing more than adventurers and fortune hunters, turned into a more engaged stream of diplomats and travellers with scientific or cultural interests visiting Iran in the following centuries. Increasingly with the political imperative being to find an ally in the Iranians against the century long arch-enemy of the imperial power in Vienna, the Ottoman sultan moved into the background and was replaced by not only purely academic interests but also economic ones. At the beginning of the 19th century, when the political attention of major European powers, like France, Czarist Russia and Great Britain, for Iran became overwhelming and finally ended in gaining complete control in the Middle East, Austria seemed to be squeezed out. However, expertise in various areas like the military, technological sciences, education or the organisation of administrative structures provided the Habsburg government with various opportunities to get a foothold in the country. The later Shahs of Iran were looking for support from a European state which had neither colonial nor political interests in Iran, nor the Middle East in the wider sense. The Habsburg monarchy grasped the opportunity at various levels and from that moment onwards close contacts developed between the two countries which till today have not lost their importance, in a purely bilateral as well as overall European sense, One can probably claim that without that Austrian help, support and advice wider areas in the education, military, central administration fields might never have developed and modernised or existing institutions have been sufficiently reformed and enlarged in the 19th and early 20 centuries. And it did not stop there. Austrian engineers and surveyors played an important role in such gigantic state projects like the construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway between the two world wars, but just as important was the education of a large number of Iranian scientists, technicians and medical doctors in Austria. Geographers and biologists laid the foundations for building up knowledge of the country that became internationally recognised as trail blazing. Such a kind of involvement in Iran has continued till the present, although more through collaborative research initiatives than direct involvement in affairs of the state. The study by Slaby is for various reasons exemplary and till today the only one which deals extensively with this multifaceted topic, in depth from a historical point of view but also with a clear understanding mind for the underlying issues which carry on through different periods of time. The book also opens the vista into areas which were either only rudimentary or not at all known to a wider readership. Chapters like those ones dealing with the period between World War I and ll are based on intimate knowledge of the material in the Austrian State archive which he had access to as one of its archivists. To my knowledge nobody has been able to locate the majority of the material used by him as it is not centrally catalogued and it needs pains takingly searches in various groups to identify the files. Earlier periods have been thoroughly researched and produced in a readable form, which is instructive for the specialist but also never loses its attraction for a general readership because of its fluent narrative. The only problem with Slaby’s book is that it has been out of print for quite some time and has not been replaced by an equally comprehensive study or even individual reports and analyses. lts deep insight into the complex and varying relationships and the psychology of the actors in their time makes it a “must” for everybody who wants to know about the political landscape in Iran throughout the ages and the interaction of its ruling elites with various parts of the Austrian establishment. be they politicians, educationalists. military personnel. administrators or academics. It is a fascinating display of the relations between a medium sized European country and its counterpart in the Middle East. It reveals to us as much about the motivations of the main actors, their behaviour and actions in Austria as it does about those in Iran. lf Slaby’s Bindenschild und Sonnenlowe cannot be translated into English, which would give it a much wider and deserved exposure, it should at least be reprinted in order to make its original available to as many readers as possible.