ABSTRACT
The long border between the former Persian and Ottoman empires (Fig 6.1) has been much disputed over many centuries.1 A considerable area of territory changed hands over this protracted period of imperial strife, contained within a vast swathe of land between the Persian Gulf in the south and the Tauris mountains in the north. Subsequent occupations of the borderlands by the two sides inevitably left residual claims across both sides of the contemporary frontier and a legacy of lack of precision on the questions of allegiance of border tribes and the allocation of territory.
