Information and Knowledge – A Way of Understanding Iran: Austrian Residence Reports

Former authors have stressed the fact that Austria was in its neutral position a good choice for Iran to hire instructors for the dar al-fonun and/or the military academy. While not comparable with the powers England, Russa and France, Austria had valid interests in Iran mainly on the commercial sector, forcing the governement to engage in Iran from the 19th century on.
Trade with Iran started with quite some success in the first half of the 19th century. This information we have from the Austrian Consul in Trapzon, Rudolf Gödel. In 1849 he had written a brochure „Über den pontischen Reiseweg nach Persien” in which he gave a detailled description about the commercial situation between Austria and Iran. In the relations between Austria and Iran we can recognise a transformation process of the phase of interest into the phase of institutionalised cooperation extended from the 1850s to the 1880s.
This process can be abserved in a series of events, the so called first Austrian Mission from 1851-1853, the Contract of Shipping and Trade dated 1857, the visits of Shah Nasir-ad-Din to Vienna in 1873, 1878 and 1889, the establishment of a steady Austrian residence in Tehran from 1872/73 on, and the so called second Austrian Mission to Iran 1879-1881.
The variety of sources in the Austrian State Archives gives a vivid picture of this process. From the 1860ies on the Austrian governments was furnished by regular reports from Iran, revealing the country’s situation and policies. The reports came first from Austria’s honorary consul in Tehran, Albert Gasteiger Khan. From 1872 on a permanent Austrian residence in Tehran was established. The comprehensive and regular reports from Tehran have hitherto not been analysed properly. The paper aims at sheding light on the Austrian interests in Iran on the one had, and on the other hand on analysis of the foreign interests in Iran from the Austrian perspective on the basis of this highly important source.