Born Then
1870–1872

Life during the Persian famine of 1870–1872

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

Drought, the spread of cash crops such as opium and hoarding by grain holders led to a severe famine across Iran. Death tolls are uncertain; contemporary reports suggest a large share of the population died.

Deaths: estimates vary widely, from several hundred thousand to around 2 million.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from our model, estimated from the sources.

Around the same time