Bordering on War

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

• Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Introduction. Khuzestan, a Borderland--Writing a Connected History 1. Leveraging Loyalty in the Borderland 2. Luring and Repelling Iranians: Abd al-Karim Qasim, 1958–1963 3. An Ambiguous Borderland Milieu: The Impact of the Arif Years, 1963–1968 4. Arab Iranians and Arabized Iranians: The Baath Party, 1968–1975 5. Nationality and Loyalty: The Baath and Iraqis of Iranian Descent 6. A National Narrative of Revolution: Subsuming the Local, 1978–1979 7. Khorramshahr and Abadan, May–July 1979 8. The Iran–Iraq War: A Denouement Conclusion Notes Index

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 Ahmadi’s book aims to recentre the border people [of Khuzestan] by treating them as active agents within history rather than passive subjects being shaped by history...Bordering on War offers us a new way of thinking about the history of nationalism. (Middle East Monitor)