ABSTRACT
The land of Khuzestan, ‘the bread basket’,4 the ‘indigenous home of wheat and wine’, the ‘garden of the world’ and ‘the paradise of the earth’,5 was and still is potentially one of the richest provinces of Iran. Najm believed that, if ajam (nonArab, i.e. Persian) population was induced to immigrate to Khuzestan, the revenue from that province alone could equal that of the rest of the kingdom.6
Nevertheless, even 25 years after the opening of the Karun, the British were less than satisfied with the ‘development’ of the area. This, of course, meant that, contrary to their earlier expectations, the trade of Khuzestan had not grown as much as they had anticipated.7 Around this time, in the eyes of the British, ‘development’ and similar terms were almost synonymous with an increase in
