The East India Company in Persia - by Peter Good (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In 1747, the city of Kerman in Persia burned amidst chaos, destruction and death perpetrated by the city's own overlord, Nader Shah. After the violent overthrow of the Safavid dynasty in 1722 and subsequent foreign invasions from all sides, Persia had been in constant turmoil. One well-appointed house that belonged to the East India Company had been saved from destruction by the ingenuity of a Company servant, Danvers Graves, and his knowledge of the Company's privileges in Persia. This book explores the lived experience of the Company and its trade in Persia and how it interacted with power structures and the local environment in a time of great upheaval in Persian history. Using East India Company records and other sources, it charts the role of the Navy and commercial fleet in the Gulf, trade agreements, and the experience of Company staff, British and non-British living in and navigating conditions in 18th-century Persia. By examining the social, commercial and diplomatic history of this relationship, this book creates a new paradigm for the study of Early Modern interactions in the Indian Ocean.

Review Quotes

"A delight to read for anyone interested in eighteenth-century Europeans interactions with non-Europeans, whether or not the reader is particularly interested in either Persia or the East India Company." --International Review of Social History

"The East India Company in Persia provides a much needed intervention into an under-explored topic and will act as a basis for further exploration into the history of the British-Persian relationship." --The New Arab

About the Author

Peter Good completed his PhD in History at the University of Essex, UK, in 2018. Since then he has undertaken teaching and research at the University of Kent and the University of Manchester on projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the John Rylands Research Institute.