The Mediterranean and the Near East had comparable populations for most of their history. It was only really after the 1600’s that India and China truly diverged and Europe became the population center in the West.

The exact causes of the famine, the experience of the people that lived there, how it affected history going forward, etc. It's worth studying history for its own sake in my opinion, you could boil down most events in history to "well that sucked", but it doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile to learn about it.

It was in the middle of a war. There was also widespread Influenza, Cholera, and Typhus epidemics. The most productive land in Iran was a war zone between the Ottomans and the Russians. Inter-country transport and international import of grain was disrupted by the conflict, and there was also unusually low snowfall in the mountains, which led to a drought. 3 of the 4 major players disintegrated during or shortly after the war (Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Qanjaz Dynasty) leading to paucity of reliable sources.

Not particularly easy to study.

The issue is you would need heavy industry to actually be self sufficient, systems essential for life would inevitably break down and it takes that to fix them. Radiation and impact events would damage the hull over time, solar panels or reactors would need repairs, and moving parts or communications equipment would break. Even the simple act of maintaining an atmosphere would degrade the ship over time. You would probably want engines or thrusters to keep a stable orbit, or in case a big asteroid came close to intercepting, and that would definitely require maintenance.

Lol what? Obama, Clinton and Carter, to name a few in the modern era, were neither lifelong political operators or particularly rich before becoming president.