Bordering on War

A Social and Political History of Khuzestan

By Shaherzad Ahmadi

SERIES: Connected Histories of the Middle East and the Global South

University of Texas Press

A study of transnational identity, migration, and state loyalties told through the social and political history of Iran’s Khuzestan province.

In 1980, Saddam Hussein’s Ba‘athist forces invaded Khuzestan, one of the oldest and richest provinces in Iran, triggering the Iran-Iraq War. Shaherzad Ahmadi’s Bordering on War examines the social history of Khuzestan and sheds light on how border dwellers, provincial leaders, and migrants in the region shaped Iran and Iraq's history before, during, and after the war.

Drawing from a rich collection of Persian- and Arabic-language archival sources—rarely used by western scholars due to restrictions in Iran—Ahmadi’s research focuses on Arab Iranians and argues that Iranian border dwellers and migrants formed local, non-national loyalties, thereby eschewing bureaucratic pressures to confine loyalties to a single nation-state. The transnational character and ethnically diverse composition of Khuzestan, especially in the oil-rich towns on the southwestern border, led many, including Iraq’s Ba‘ath Party, to question the national belonging of Arab Iranians. Bordering on War contributes to a wider discussion about the ability of individuals and communities to exert agency through migration, trade, education, and other activities.

In this smart and discerning work, Shaherzad Ahmadi succeeds in giving us a rich picture of Iraq in flux, a nuanced view and balanced discussion of an often oppositional history. Her perceptive arguments and insights capture the complexities of both Arab (Iraqi) and Iranian (Persian) nationalisms and discourses as they coexist and clash in contiguous spaces. Bordering on War sifts through an array of unexplored sources to provide an informative, timely, and indispensable account of a complicated community. By interrogating their contested past, this absorbing book gives voice to silenced narratives. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, University of Pennsylvania, author of Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804–1946

Bordering on War traverses a long period covering issues of enduring political significance for Iraq and Iran. A valuable contribution to the field, Shaherzad Ahmadi’s close study of the Khuzistanis and of Iranian Arabs makes this a work of enduring value and of significance to reflections on migration, identity, and citizenship. Dina Rizk Khoury, George Washington University, author of Iraq in Wartime: Soldiering, Martyrdom, and Remembrance

Shaherzad Ahmadi is an associate professor of history at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.