Tabriz During the First World War

This study explores urban violence in Tabriz during the First World War which was mostly triggered by local agents as well as occupation of ottoman as Muslim and anti-Russian state and enduring Russian empire troops in the city. This research investigates the period after the Iranian constitutional revolution, focusing on Tabriz, a major city, the citizens of which were radicalized and espoused anti-absolutist resistance during the revolution. Tabriz underwent socio-political upheaval as well as aggressive imperial Russian military conquest and occupation from 1908 to 1917. Different neighborhoods of Tabriz experienced violence because of the changing socio-political situation. The battle between revolutionaries and the supporters of absolutism and later the occupation by Russian troops was at the root of the violence.
This study attempts to plug two gaps in the scholarship. First, the lack of literature on urban life in Tabriz during the First World War. Second, literature on Russian imperialism which can serve as a comparison with British imperialism. This study attempts to reconstruct this history more thoroughly through the (Ariza)letter of Tabrizi citizens to the parliament for the damage they received during the First World War, as well as through European council records of German , British, Ottomans and the other possible Iranian publish materials that yet to be examined by historians of Tabriz.