Talk:Persian famine of 1870–1872

True Death Toll of the 1869-1873 Iranian Famine

The current info box figure of 0.2-3 million vastly understates the number of famine victims and needs to be corrected. Citing Sir Henry Rawlinson in his 2010 article noted in the Wikipage, Ahmad Seyf states that the population of Iran had fallen from 10 million in 1850 to 6 million in 1873. That is this famine had wiped out 23 years of population growth plus 4 million. In comparison to the 1917-1919 famine, Iran's population had fallen from 12 million in 1900 to 10 million in 1920. That is the WWI famine loss, estimated at 8-10 million, amounted to twenty years of population growth plus 2 million. Thus the 1869-1873 Great Famine was of longer duration and had exacted an even bigger toll (Majd 2021).[1]

The 10 million population figure for 1850, however, is almost certainly an underestimate because the 1841 population was given at 11.2 million by J.R. MacColluch, the intellectual heir to David Ricardo (Majd 2018, p. 122).[2] In addition, from the 1850s, Iran had experienced considerable immigration by Moslems fleeing Russian advances in the Caucasus, and the migration inflow had accelerated in the 1860s.[3] It is not surprising that Iranians had cited the 1865 population at 16 million. Given a post-famine population of 6 million, Majd concluded that, conservatively, 10-12 million, nearly two-thirds of the population had perished to starvation and disease.

It was the most deadly of the three historical famines suffered by Iran in the seventy-five year span of 1869-1944, and also one of the deadliest disasters of the 19th century. Moretonian (talk) 18:17, 1 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Newspaper and Magazine Images of 1869-1873 Famine

Some interesting press images found online. They may be suitable for inclusion in the WP article, copyright laws permitting:

1- New York Herald, July 29, 1871.[4] This seems preferable to the NY Herald, July 30, 1871, currently listed.

2- Boys in Shiraz orphanage. [5]

3- Starving People at Shiraz. London Illustrated News. [6] Moretonian (talk) 20:21, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]