Constitutionalization attempts in Iran
The
Foundation and causes
While no concrete date has been agreed upon with respect to the origins of the Constitutional Revolution itself, the seeds for revolution were sown with increasing foreign influence within the country (namely British and Russian influence) during the 19th century. Various concessions granted to foreign powers by the Shah(s) ranging from capitulations to the Reuters Concession of 1872 [1] created contempt and distrust amidst the clergy, bazaaris and merchants amongst others, but none proved more inflammatory than the Tobacco Règie of 1890, in which the Shah granted Britain a monopoly over the production, sale, and export of all Iranian tobacco.[2]
Despite initially being kept secret, the agreement for the Tobacco Règie was eventually leaked and criticized through a series of articles published in late 1890 by a Persian newspaper in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement sparked unprecedented protest due to tobacco being a widely grown product within Iran that provided the livelihood for many landholders, shopkeepers, and exporters.[3] Moreover, the clergy viewed it as fundamentally violating Islamic law as Iranian consumers and merchants were being implicitly coerced into buying and selling tobacco from and to the monopoly. The clergy's loathing of the Règie led to a coalition of massive protests led by the ulama (clergy) in the form of a tobacco boycott as well as street demonstrations. The government reacted by shooting into a non-violent crowd, resulting in even greater protests and culminating in the concession eventually being cancelled in 1892. The fiasco left more than a bad taste in the mouths of the citizenry; the Tobacco Règie resulted in several deaths as well as a debt of 500,000 pounds to the British.[4]
Aftermath of the Tobacco Règie and economic downturn
In the aftermath of the botched Tobacco Règie, political instability reached a new apex with the
The role of foreign influence in Iran (
First protests
In 1905 protests broke out over the collection of Iranian
The two protesting groups sought sanctuary in a mosque in Tehran, but the government violated this sanctuary and entered the mosque and dispersed the group. This violation of the sanctity of the mosque created an even larger movement which sought refuge in a shrine outside Tehran. On 12 January 1906 the Shah capitulated to the demonstrators, agreeing to dismiss his prime minister and to surrender power to a new "house of justice," (the forerunner to the parliament). The Basti - protestors who take sanctuary in mosques - returned from the mosque in triumph riding royal carriages and hailed by a jubilant crowd.[8]
In a scuffle in early 1906 the government killed a
The Constitution
The revolution formally began in August 1906, when Muzaffar al-Din Shah signed a royal decree which called for the election of a Constituent Assembly, known as “
The Constituent Assembly, a group of delegates composed mainly of merchants,
The law then said that the
The first Majles, or National Assembly, opened in October 1906, and consisted of more than sixty bazaaris, twenty-five clerics, and fifty landlords and notables, all of whom eventually divided into two parties called the Moderates (Mo’tadel) and the Liberals (Azadikhah).[13]
The Majles was meant to be an integral part of the new
1908 coup
Despite optimistic beginnings given the level of pressure exhibited by the population through protests and demonstrations, by June 1908 the successor to Muzaffar al-Din Shah,
The Majles’ attempts to reform the tax system further weakened the constitutionalists’ goals as the Majles sought to reform the tax system by taking authority away from local mostowfis (
Civil war and legacy of the Revolution
Despite the submission of most of Iran to
Despite the convening of a second Majles, which had reformed electoral laws by creating a single class of
Despite the Iranian Constitutional Revolution not having the long-term success the populace hoped that it would, the financial reforms of the pre-existing
References
- ^ Abrahamian, E. A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press, 2008, p.38
- ^ Keddie, N. R., & Yann, R. Roots of Revolution. Yale University Press, 1981, p.66
- ^ Keddie, p.66
- ^ Keddie, p.67
- ^ Keddie, p.71
- ^ Abrahamian, p.42
- ^ Mackey, Sandra “The Iranians.” Dutton, 1996, pp.150-55
- ^ Mackey, Sandra, pp.150-155
- ^ Abrahamian, E. Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press, 1982, p.84
- ^ Abrahamian, p.84
- ^ Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran, p.45
- ^ a b c Abrahamian, p.45
- ^ Abrahamian, p.46
- ^ Abrahamian, p.47
- ^ Abrahamian, p.49
- ^ Sohrabi, N. “Historicizing Revolutions.” The American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 100, No. 6, (1995): p.21.
- ^ Abrahamian, p.50
- ^ a b c Abrahamian, p.51
- ^ a b Abrahamian, p.43
- ^ Keddie, p.76
- ^ a b c Keddie, p.77
Bibliography
- Abrahamian, E. “The Causes of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 10(3), 381-414.
- Abrahamian, E. Iran Between Two Revolutions, Princeton University Press, 84 (1982).
- Abrahamian, E. “Reform, Revolution, and the Great War.” A History of Modern Iran. New York: Cambridge University Press. (2008).
- Afshari, M. R. “The Pishivaran and Merchants in Precapitalist Iranian Society: An Essay on the Background and Causes of the Constitutional Revolution.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 15(2), 133-155.
- Amuzegar, J. The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution: The Pahlavis' Triumph and Tragedy. Albany: State University of New York Press. (1991).
- Bayat, M. Iran's First Revolution: Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909.
New York: Oxford University Press. (1991).
- Bonakdarian, M. “Iranian Constitutional Exiles and British Foreign-Policy Dissenters,” 1908-9. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27(2), (1995), 175-191.
- Gettleman, M. E., & Schaar, S. The Middle East and Islamic World Reader. New York: Grove
Press. (2003).
- Gheissari, A., & Nasr, V. Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (2006).
- Keddie, N. R., & Yann, R. Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran. New Haven: Yale University Press. (1981).
- Mackey, S. The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation, New York: Dutton, (1996), 150-155.
- Sohrabi, N. “Historicizing Revolutions: Constitutional Revolutions in the Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Russia, 1905-1908.” The American Journal of Sociology, 100(6), (1995), 1383-1447.