Constitutional Revolution

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Constitutional Movement Protesters (1906)
Member of the first Iranian parliament (1906)

The Constitutional Revolution in Iran ( Persian انقلاب مشروطه, DMG enqelāb-e mašrūṭe ), occasionally also the “Young Persian Revolution”, was a liberal revolution from 1905 to around 1911, supported by western-oriented merchants, craftsmen, aristocrats and some clergy. The goal of the constitutional movement ( Persian مشروطيت, DMG mašrūṭīyat ) was to replace the absolute monarchy with a parliamentary system of government and to introduce a modern legal system.

Autumn 1905 is seen as the beginning of the revolution. After protests and strikes in Tehran, the monarch Mozaffar ad-Din Shah announced elections to a parliament ( Majles ) on August 5, 1906 . This met for the first time on October 6, 1906 and passed a constitution with basic civil rights. The constitution introduced a constitutional monarchy in Iran .

After the death of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, the ruling house of the Qajars made several, ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to dissolve parliament by force, to suspend the constitution and return to absolute monarchy. After the political victory of the constitutional movement in 1909, northern Iran was occupied by Russian troops in 1912. British troops later marched into southern Iran, so that the establishment of a stable parliamentary system in Iran only succeeded after the end of the First World War .

Causes and Background

Nāser ad-Din Shah photographed by Nadar

The main cause of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran can be seen in the economic and social policies of Nāser ad-Din Shah , who ruled as absolute monarch after the assassination of his Prime Minister Amir Kabir .

With the beginning of the reign of Nāser ad-Din Shah in 1848, Prime Minister Amir Kabir initiated an extensive reform program. On his travels through Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire , he got to know the incipient industrialization and recognized that Persia, with its mineral resources, had the best prerequisites to be able to connect to the economic and social development of Europe. Amir Kabir promoted the establishment of industrial and mining companies and reformed agriculture. With the establishment of the first university in Tehran ( Dar-ol Fonun , House of Skills), he wanted to train engineers based on the Western model. The attempt of Amir Kabir to break the absolutist structures of rule, to create a modern tax system, to abolish the privileges of the aristocracy, to carry out a land reform and to end serfdom, led to serious conflicts with the ruling house and finally to the assassination of Amir Kabir on behalf of Naser ad- Din Shah.

With the death of Amir Kabir, there was a complete about-face in economic policy in Persia. Naser ad-Din Shah began to award profit and company shares to foreigners, as well as monopoly concessions against payment in advance, including to the Imperial Bank of Persia , which had the monopoly on the issue of Persian banknotes and was in British possession. The first uprising against the Shah's concession policy took place in 1891. A tobacco monopoly license awarded to a British major, with which the entire tobacco cultivation and tobacco trade of Iran was transferred to a British company, led to the tobacco movement , which is considered to be the forerunner of the Constitutional Revolution. The tobacco growers and tobacco dealers refused to cooperate with the British. The clergy also participated in the uprising with a tobacco fatwa , a temporary ban on smoking. The Shah was forced to withdraw the concession to end the ongoing demonstrations. The price the country had to pay for it was high. The British insisted on payment of £ 500,000 in compensation, financed by a loan from a British bank at 6 percent interest. Persia suddenly had its first foreign debt without having received anything in return. This concession policy, which was disastrous for the development of Iran, combined with the taking out of further loans from the Russian State Bank, led the country increasingly to the economic and political dependence of Russia and Great Britain , which in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg in 1907 divided Persia into economic zones of influence. Northern Iran fell to Russia while the British secured the south.

Mozaffar ad-Din Shah

Mozaffar ad-Din Shah , the successor of Naser ad-Din Shah, initially thought of a continuation of this policy. It was the merchants and the clergy who pushed for reforms. The merchants did not want to continue to accept that “the foreigners” took over more and more areas of the economy, which slowly wiped out the clergy, who were economically dependent on the donations of the local merchants. In addition, “the foreigners” were not subject to the Islamic jurisdiction exercised by the clergy, which made them legally almost unassailable.

In the course of the Constitutional Revolution, two fundamentally different movements emerged. A secular group was based on Western ideas. It can be seen as a bourgeois legalist movement ( Persian مشروطه, DMG mašrūṭe ). A small part of this movement later called itself, following the movement of the Young Turks, Young Persians (first mentioned on September 22, 1908 in the Persian newspaper Habl el-matin ). The second group was led by the clergy. This movement was based on the Islamic legal principles of Sharia ( Persian مشروعه, DMG mašrū'e ). Both movements wanted to replace the absolute power of the Shah with a new form of government. While the Maschruteh movement was striving for a constitutional monarchy of the western type, the Maschruteh movement wanted to establish a state based on Islamic principles.

Ultimately, the Constitutional Revolution was unable to resolve this fundamental conflict between the two movements. At the end of the Constitutional Revolution, Iran had a constitution and a parliament. The introduction of comprehensive civil liberties , which would also have included religious freedom and thus the separation of state and religion , could not be achieved. On October 7, 1907, a compromise amendment to the constitution was passed by parliament, which established Shiite Islam as the official religion of Iran and stipulated that the Shah must be a Shiite Muslim and stand up for Islam, and that a body of at least five clergymen must be set up by parliament, which reviews all parliamentary bills for compliance with Islamic legal principles; otherwise the law cannot be passed. This gave the clergy a constitutional right of veto. According to a constitutional amendment, this provision could neither be changed nor abolished, which constitutionalized the right of veto. It was to remain in force until the hidden Imam appeared .

This basic conflict between the bourgeoisie and the clergy still exists today. The Islamic Revolution of 1979, the creation of an Islamic Republic of Iran, was the continuation of a conflict that began with the political struggle of the Constitutional Revolution in 1905.

Course of the Revolution

Soltan Abdol Majid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh, 1904

In 1899 Mozaffar ad-Din Shah took out a loan of £ 2,400,000 from the Tehran branch of the Russian State Bank with an interest rate of 5% to pay for his planned trip to the World Exhibition in Paris as well as the later planned cures and medical treatments in Europe to be able to. Interest and repayment should be financed from customs and tax revenues. Since Iran did not yet have a functioning customs and tax system at that time, the Belgian Naus was hired as head of the customs department in 1899 and promoted to Minister for Customs Affairs a year later. In fact, Naus used the Persian Cossack Brigade to put pressure on the customs and tax demands and to put defaulting payers under pressure. The tariff consisted of a surcharge on all imported goods that was three to four times the purchase price.

In September 1903 Abdol Madschid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh became Prime Minister. In February 1904 he agreed on a new customs treaty between Iran and Russia, but with higher tariffs in order to accelerate loan repayment to Russia. In this new customs treaty, Minister Naus was empowered to collect the fixed customs by force. In the same year, Iran was hit by a severe cholera epidemic that claimed numerous lives and worsened the already tense economic situation. In the bazaar of Tehran, the economic center of the country, dissatisfaction and unrest developed, which soon turned into violent clashes.

1905: Strikes and protest marches begin

In March 1905 the first protest marches against Customs Minister Naus, organized by the clergy, took place. In early April, at a meeting with Prime Minister Mozaffar ad-Din Shah and Customs Minister Naus , representatives of the merchants complained about the high tariffs and the violent actions by Naus in collecting taxes, which ranged from flogging to the forced closings of shops. Naus insulted the representatives of the business community as fraudsters who did not want to pay the fixed taxes and duties. The meeting ended with no result. On April 25, 1905, all textile merchants who were particularly affected by the increased tariffs closed their shops, went to the mosque of the tomb of Shah Abdul Azim in Rey and began a strike lasting several days, which had to be broken off without result. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah declared that he was ill, that he could no longer negotiate with the merchants because of the customs duties and that he had to go to Europe for a cure. He stayed there for five months. After his return, Naus was sent to Europe on a "business trip" to calm down the still angry merchants.

The planned construction of a road from the Russian border to Tabriz fueled rumors of the invasion of Russian troops in support of Mozaffar al-Din Shah. The successful Russian Revolution of 1905, which brought Russia a constitution and a parliament, encouraged the demonstrators against Russian paternalism and the unjust customs policy in Iran as well. On November 25, the branch of the Russian State Bank in Tehran was attacked . This bank was built in a former cemetery in the middle of the bazaar. After fiery speeches against the disturbance of the peace of the dead during the construction, the bank was attacked and razed to the ground. Thereupon the Tehran Governor Ala-al-Dowleh imposed harsh sentences on some arrested demonstrators and had several merchants flogged ( bastonade ).

Prime Minister Eyn-al-Dowleh met with his cabinet in Bagh-e Shah

The real trigger of the revolution is considered to be a dispute between Governor Ala-al-Dowleh and the sugar traders in the bazaar on December 12, 1905. He accused the sugar traders of hoarding sugar and selling it overpriced. The violent seizure and opening of the sugar stores and the public flogging of the largest sugar trader Seyed Haschem Ghandi and his son led to an uproar that was to shake the entire political system of Iran. The bazaar was closed and on December 14, 1905, the first major protest march of all Tehran merchants, part of the clergy, led by the ayatollahs Abdullah Mojtahed Behbahani and Seyed Mohammad Tabatabai, as well as ordinary citizens of Tehran. The protest march again led to the grave of Shah Abdol Azim in Rey. There was a strike in Tehran for the next 25 days. The demonstrators called for a "House of Justice", the removal of Governor Ala-al-Dowleh and the dismissal of Belgian Customs Minister Naus.

1906: Demonstrations for a "House of Justice"

Protesters seek refuge in the British Embassy (1906)

Due to the ongoing strike and the widespread popular support for the strikers, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah promised the establishment of an "independent house of justice" (independent court). The demonstrators returned to the capital from Rey on January 14, 1906 and were received by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah in the Golestan Palace. On January 15, the governor of Tehran Ala-al-Dowleh was dismissed and replaced by Nayyer-al-Dowleh. But nothing else happened. Customs Minister Naus remained in office. On February 7, 1906, Minister of Commerce Saad al-Dolweh, who supported the merchants' demands for the dismissal of Customs Minister Naus, was exiled to Yazd by Prime Minister Eyn-al-Dowleh . Twelve days later, another representative of the December 1905 protest movement, Seyed Jamal Waez Esfahani, was exiled to Qom by the Tehran Prime Minister . This should prevent any further criticism of the government. On May 1, 1906, at the invitation of Prime Minister Eyn-al-Dowleh to Bagh-e-Shah, the entire cabinet discussed the establishment of independent courts ("House of Justice"), but decided not to set up a "House of Justice" and the Maintain sharia courts of the clergy.

Prime Minister Abdol Madschid Mirza arrested three members of the constitutional movement on June 15, 1906, on the charge that they were Bab ( Baha'i ) followers. On July 7, 1906, Seyed Mohammad Tabatabai gave a fiery speech for the establishment of a "House of Justice". He referred to the murder of Osman , the third caliph, by the population and derived from this historical event the right for the population to be able to depose unjust rulers at any time. He called on his listeners to end the government atrocities and eliminate their cause, namely Prime Minister Eyn-al-Dowleh. On July 11, Prime Minister Eyn-al-Dowleh arrested Sheikh Mohammad Waez, who had also spoken out against the government in his sermons. A large crowd gathered in front of the guard house where the arrested Waez was held, overwhelmed the guards and freed Waez. The colonel in command seized a student at a religious school and shot him several times to kill him. The crowd that had already left the guardhouse returned and took the body of the dead student to a mosque. More people poured into the mosque and stayed there for two days. On the morning of July 13, a march left the mosque in the direction of the bazaar, with the dead student's bloody shirt worn in front. Mirza Ahmad Khan, the commander of the Farahan Guard, stopped the march and gave the order to shoot at the unarmed demonstrators. The protesters withdrew to the mosque. Over 70 dead lay in the street, which were collected by the guard on the evening of July 13th. Ayatollah Behbahani calmed the demonstrators at the mosque and asked them to go home to avoid further bloodshed.

Food distribution in the garden of the British Embassy, ​​1906

The government ordered that no one was allowed to come to the mosque to hear the sermons of the clergy gathered there. On July 14th, the clergy were allowed to leave the mosque and Tehran. Ayatollah Behbahani set out on July 15 with some companions to travel by carriage from Tehran to Qom, which is about 100 km south of Tehran. On the way, the number of Behbahani's companions grew more and more, so that in the end several thousand people arrived in Qom. Sheikh Mohammad Waez gave a long and moving speech on the events in Tehran and reported on the many dead demonstrators for which the government was responsible.

In Tehran, fourteen bazaar merchants who had supported the demonstrators fled to the British embassy on July 17th. They demanded from Mozaffar al-Din Shah the return of the clergy to Tehran, the resignation of Eyn al-Dowleh, the establishment of a "House of Justice" and severe punishment of those responsible for killing unarmed demonstrators. The next day, all textile merchants in the bazaar also asked to be admitted to the British embassy. A day later, the carpenters and other craftsmen followed. Food was brought in and people settled down in the embassy garden. Supporters of the monarchy were stopped in front of the embassy and prevented from entering the embassy premises. Every day new supporters of the constitutional movement came in, so that in the end there were thousands on the embassy grounds.

Mozaffar al-Din Shah, realizing that he could not stop the constitutional movement by force, dismissed Prime Minister Eyn-al-Dowleh, asked the clergy to return to Tehran and expected the demonstrators to leave the British embassy. However, these remained where they were and ultimately demanded that a legal system with ordinary courts should finally be introduced and that the Shah's absolutist decision-making power should be replaced by codes of law. The bazaars in all the big cities were closed, the constitutional movement spread to the whole country. A general strike had brought Iran's economy to a standstill. In support of the demonstrators in the British embassy, ​​the Tehran merchants had now collected 100,000 tomans and made them available to buy food. Mozaffar al-Din Shah had no choice but to give in to the protesters' demands.

On July 29, 1906, Nasrollah Khan Moshir al Dowleh was installed as the new Prime Minister. In the meantime, tents had been set up for the demonstrators in the British embassy, ​​in which the individual professional groups and merchants could meet for political discussions. Over 13,000 people had gathered on the grounds of the British embassy in early August. In the discussions on the embassy grounds, calls for a constitution and civil liberties were voiced for the first time. On the birthday of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah on August 5, 1906 (13th Amordad 1285), the demonstrators organized a huge festival in front of the British embassy in honor of the Shah. This had signed a decree in which the establishment of an advisory assembly was promised. However, the public reading of the text resulted in great disappointment. The decree provided for class suffrage with six classes (nobility, large estates, princes, the Qajar family, clergy, merchants and craftsmen), who were to elect their representatives separately for a consultative assembly. As I said, this assembly should only have an advisory role. Political power would remain in the hands of the monarch.

Protesters at the British Embassy flatly opposed this August 5th decree. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah nevertheless had the decree posted and made known in Tehran. The population tore the posters off the walls. They did not want an assembly of nobles and large landowners as an advisory body to the Shah, but a representative body that could pass laws and discuss and decide the political questions of the country. The next day Mozaffar ad-Din Shah wrote in a letter to the demonstrators that he would immediately call a panel of experts (مجلس شورا, DMG maǧles-e šaurā ) order that an electoral law be drawn up for a parliament that would take into account the traditions of the country and Islam. The protesters were divided. Most of the merchants went back to the bazaar and opened their shops. The clergy in Qom also made their way to Tehran. The students of the Dar-ol Fonun technical college moved to the British embassy on August 8, 1906, erected their own tent and called for the abolition of the monarchy, the establishment of a republic and the introduction of civil liberties. However, they were unable to assert themselves with these demands. The majority were satisfied with what had been achieved.

On August 18, the five-person panel of experts promised by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah met. Within three weeks it drew up an electoral law for the parliamentary elections, which was signed by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah on September 9, 1906 and thus came into force. Although elections were planned for all of Iran, Mozaffar al-Din Shah and the Qajar princes wanted the elections to be limited to Tehran. After this became known in Tabriz , a local strike broke out that lasted 10 days. Mozaffar al-Din Shah sent a telegram to Tabriz on September 27 and promised to hold elections for Azerbaijan and the rest of the country's provinces. On October 6, 1906 (13. More 1285) the first, constituent session of the parliament in the Golestan Palace in Tehran was opened by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah. The citizens of Iran had won a parliament ( Majles ) in an Islamic country that had previously been ruled by absolutism .

The parliamentary debates that followed now revolved almost exclusively around the drafting and adoption of a constitutional text, in which the rights and obligations of the members of parliament, the legislation and the rules of procedure of the parliament and the Senate, which was yet to be established, were to be laid down. After months of negotiations between the MPs and the court officials, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah signed a constitution with 51 articles on December 30, 1906 (Day 9, 1285).

1907: Iran receives a parliament and a constitution

Mohammed Ali Shah
Constitution of Iran

Mozaffar ad-Din Shah died just 10 days after the constitution was signed on January 7, 1907 . His son Mohammed Ali Shah was crowned Shah 10 days after his father's death. Representatives of the parliament were not invited to the coronation. Mohammed Ali Shah decided to ignore parliament. On February 3, 1907, the new Prime Minister Nasrollah Khan Moshir al Dowleh presented his newly formed cabinet in a letter to Parliament, but made it clear that the ministers were solely responsible to the Shah and only if they deemed it necessary to would seek advice from parliament. MEPs were furious at the disregard for Parliament and the Constitution. According to the constitution, Mohammed Ali Shah should have sworn an oath before parliament and the ministers should have been approved by parliament. In response to the disregard of parliament, the bazaar in Tabriz closed on February 6, 1907. The people of Tabriz demanded that Mohammed Ali Shah finally recognize that the form of government in Iran was a constitutional monarchy ( maschruteh ) and thus a European nation-state The example is that foreigners cannot become cabinet ministers, that a local parliament should be set up in every province and city, and that Customs Minister Naus, a Belgian citizen, must be dismissed, other foreign customs officials arrested and the governor of Ardabil removed.

Parliament building in Tehran
In front of the entrance to the Iranian Parliament, 1907

Prime Minister Nasrollah Khan Moschir al Dowleh declared that Iran was still an absolute, Islamic monarchy ( maschrueh ), the Shah alone decides, the parliament can only draft laws but not enforce them, and above all that Customs Minister Naus is urgent needed and therefore could not be released. Parliament rejected the Prime Minister's statement and declared Customs Minister Naus to be deposed. On February 11, 1907, the court official Mokhber-al Saltaneh declared that a constitutional monarchy and a nation-state based on the European model meant civil liberty and thus also religious freedom . However, this can never apply to Iran, since the free choice of religion is directed against Islam. Therefore, Iran can only be an Islamic monarchy ( maschrueh ) and not a constitutional, secular monarchy and thus also not a national state of European style. Thousands of Tehrans gathered in front of parliament to demonstrate for a constitutional monarchy ( maschruteh ) and a nation-state. Mohammed Ali Shah gave in on February 12, 1907 (22nd Bahman 1285) and declared in a letter to parliament that the government of Iran was based entirely on the principles of the constitutional monarchy ( "Dowlat-e Iran maschruteh tammeh ast" ). He convened a commission of experts to work out an amendment to the constitution. On May 4, 1907, the new Prime Minister Ali Asghar Khan Atabak presented his cabinet to Parliament. The dispute between the different conceptions of the forms of government escalated further. The cleric Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri demanded a clear commitment to the maschrueh , the Islamic monarchy. He drafted a bill according to which a panel of experts made up of five clergymen would have to review all parliamentary bills to see whether they corresponded to Islamic legal principles, otherwise the panel of experts could declare them invalid. In addition, this provision should be written into the constitution as unalterable, remain in force until the appearance of the hidden imam and cannot be repealed or modified by a parliamentary majority. On June 15, 1907, Parliament approved Nuri's proposal after he had given three days' prior assurance that he would stop his verbal attacks on Parliament.

The representatives of the maschruteh movement , however, did not want to admit defeat and organized demonstrations against Nuri and the maschruteh movement. Hundreds of mullahs under the leadership of Fazlollah Nuri then gathered for three months in Rey and continued to preach against the maschruteh movement, parliament and the existing constitution as incompatible with Islam. On August 31, 1907, Abbas Agha Tabrisi pointed a gun at Prime Minister Ali Asghar Khan Atabak, who wanted to mediate between the different currents, and shot him while leaving parliament; he then shot himself. 40 days later, more than 100,000 Tehrans demonstrated for the constitution and the Mashruteh movement at the tomb of Atabak . The death of Atabak and the ongoing unrest created great uncertainty at the court, and more than 500 court employees went to parliament and said they would support the Mashruteh movement. It was not certain whether Tabrisi was a lone perpetrator or whether a radical clergy-led movement was behind the attack.

Session of the Iranian Parliament, 1906

On October 7, 1907, the constitution and the amendment to the constitution were adopted by parliament. This supplement consists of 107 articles which, in addition to the introduction of a right of examination for the Shiite clergy, also enumerate the basic rights of the people of the Iranian nation, the separation of powers, the rights of the deputies, the rights of the monarch and the ministers, the establishment of a second chamber (Senate ), the basic structure of the legal system and the courts, the establishment of local councils (anjumnas) and the status of a national army. On November 11, 1907, Mohammed Ali Shah went to parliament for the first time, swore the oath on the constitution and declared that from now on he would respect the constitution and rule in cooperation with parliament.

Mohammed Ali Shah (center) with followers

In the course of 1907, the Parliament's Finance Committee had drawn up the first state budget for the coming year 1908 and submitted it to Parliament for decision on November 9, 1907. In order to reduce the national deficit, the budget of the court was cut by the parliament by 380,000 tomans. Mohammed Ali Shah then told the workers employed at the court (gardeners, cooks, coachmen, grooms, etc.) that he could no longer pay them wages because parliament had cut their salaries. On December 15, 1907, the workers, accompanied by numerous petty criminals and thugs, went to Parliament, cursed the MPs and began shooting at the MPs and throwing stones at them. The Parliament guards fired back and dispersed the crowd. To avoid arrest by troops loyal to the Shah, the MPs stayed in the parliament building overnight. In the meantime the people of Tehran had come together to support the parliamentarians.

Mohammed Ali Shah did not consider keeping the promise he had given to parliament. Parliament decided to send six MPs to see Mohammed Ali Shah to rectify the situation. Mohammed Ali Shah promised that he would call his workers back if parliament made sure that the people of Tehran went home and went back to work. Parliament rejected this proposal because the promises of Mohammed Ali Shah were not trusted. Then the Shah supporters took Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri , Seyyed Ali Yasdi and other mullahs from their homes and took them to the cannon square. There they gave a speech against the parliament: "Sleep with a whore, steal, kill, but do not go near this parliament." The crowd replied: "We do not want Mashruteh, we want the religion of the Prophet". Supporters of the constitutional movement were attacked and robbed in the streets, newspaper offices were stormed and set on fire.

On Tuesday, December 17, 1907, more and more people came to the parliament building, many of them with weapons. By the afternoon, around 2,700 men had appeared in front of Parliament with their own weapons to protect the parliamentarians. The employees of all public institutions went on strike and also came to Parliament. The Shah supporters pounced on a young man, Mirza Enayat, whom they recognized as a supporter of the constitutional movement, and dismembered him with the words: “You Muslims are witness at the Last Judgment that I was the first to tear out the eyes of a Mashruteh supporter to follow my religion ”.

A riot broke out in Tabriz that same day. The insurgents supported the parliamentary movement and demanded the removal of Mohammed Ali Shah because of his resistance to the parliament in Tehran. Mohammed Ali Shah was now frightened. He had heard that the Mashruteh supporters wanted to depose him and have his uncle Zel-al-Soltan proclaimed Shah in his place. He called on his supporters to stop the demonstrations and go home. On December 22, 1907, Mohammed Ali Shah wrote on the last page of a Koran sent to Parliament

“In the chaos of the last few days, the impression arose in the country that We are against the constitution. In order to dispel this suspicion and to win the trust of the nation, I swear on this Quran that I will respect the constitutional movement and the constitution. Anyone who opposes the constitutional movement will be punished. If I break this promise, I will answer to God and admit my guilt. "

1908: Mohammed Ali Shah becomes a dictator

Prisoners in Bagh-e Shah after the dissolution of parliament, June 1908
The Persian Cossacks under Captain Liakhov

On February 25, 1908, a new press law was passed by parliament. Mohammed Ali Shah congratulated Parliament in writing on its successful work. It appeared that the Shah had chosen to work with Parliament. On February 28, 1908, Mohammed Ali Shah was driving his carriage from Tehran to the suburb of Duschantapeh when a bomb was suddenly thrown against his carriage. Mohammed Ali Shah was unharmed, but his carriage was badly damaged in the attack. After an investigation, on April 8, 1908, four employees of the city gas lighting were arrested and taken to the Shah's Golestan Palace. Parliament protested against the fact that those arrested had not been brought to justice and that the arrests had been carried out without the intervention of the judicial authorities solely on the orders of the Shah. The arrested were then handed over to the judicial authorities. Since no evidence of their involvement in the attack could be presented, they were released. For the first time in Iran, the rule of law was valued higher than the will of the Shah. The constitutional movement had won a great victory.

It had finally become clear to Mohammed Ali Shah that the era of absolutist decisions was over. He did not want to accept this loss of power any longer. The dissolution of parliament, the abolition of the constitution and the return to absolute monarchy should from now on be its sole aim.

Parliament is dissolved
The burnt-out Iranian parliament building after the shelling of the Persian Cossack Brigade on the orders of Captain Liakhov

Mohammed Ali Shah contacted General Liakhov, the commander of the Persian Cossacks , and the Russian ambassador to dissolve the parliament by force of arms. On June 4, 1908, the Shah went from the Golestan Palace to the Barracks of Bagh-e Shah and stayed there. The Cossacks marched through Tehran to intimidate the population. Four days later, Mohammed Ali Shah insulted the supporters of the constitutional movement in a leaflet entitled "The Path to Liberation" as traitors, thieves, murderers and depraved subjects who wanted to destroy Iran with their delusions and innocent children of the country for their criminal ideas instrumentalized. He, Mohammed Ali Shah, must now take measures to liberate the population and destroy the constitutional movement. On June 12, cannons from Shemiran and Duschantapeh were posted in front of the parliament building. The people of Tehran gathered again in front of the parliament. Clergymen Behbahani and Tabatabai and parliamentary speaker Momtaz al Dowleh urged the population to go home to avoid violent clashes. However, the population stayed with parliament and demanded the deposition of the Shah. However, the parliamentarians disagreed on how to proceed. Usebaschi Mehdi, an important leader of the constitutional movement, committed suicide in desperation because of the duplicity of many MPs, and became the first victim. The Shah has now called for the "removal" of eight other leaders of the constitutional movement, including Mirzā Dschahāngir Chān , editor of the newspaper Sur-e Esrafil (Souresrafil), and Malek-ol Motekalemin ("King of Orators"). First a commission was formed to negotiate with Mohammed Ali Shah. But this refused negotiations.

On June 23, 1908, the bombardment of Parliament with the cannons of the Cossacks began. The 600 armed defenders of Parliament faced 2,000 Persian Cossacks. After four hours the unequal fight was over. The defenders of parliament had to give up. A state of emergency was declared for the next day. The Cossacks searched the houses of the constitutionalists, looted and killed whoever opposed them. The intention of Mohammed Ali Shah was clear. The still young plant of the Iranian democracy and freedom movement should be uprooted. Newspapers such as Souresrafil were banned, the printing presses destroyed, publishers such as Mirzā Jahāngir Khān killed, the political leaders of the constitutional movement Malek-al Motekalemin and Seyed Jamal Vaez hanged. Deprived of its leaders, the constitutional movement in Tehran had become politically insignificant. The new elections planned for August 8, 1908 were canceled and Mohammed Ali Shah declared on November 22, 1908 that a parliament fundamentally violated Islamic laws. The absolutist ruling monarch had regained power. The end of the parliamentary movement seemed to have come.

Parliament was replaced by a Grand Consultative Assembly appointed by the Shah , made up of 50 people personally chosen by him from the classes of large landowners, merchants, notables and Qajar princes. A well-known member of this council was Mohammad Mossadegh , who fled Iran to France in 1909 when Mohammad Ali Shah was overthrown in order to escape persecution by the constitutional movement. The simple population was not represented in the “Consultative Assembly”. The “Consultative Assembly” worked out bills, which were then either rejected by Mohammed Ali Shah or confirmed by his signature. The following period from June 23, 1908 to July 16, 1909 is referred to as the short period of dictatorship , because it was to be until July 1909 before the fighters of the constitutional movement from Tabriz, Gilan and Isfahan liberated Tehran and the dictatorship Mohammed Ali Shahs had put an end to it.

The battle for Tabriz
Sattar Khan - the hero of Tabriz 1908
The freedom fighters of Tabriz 1908

After the dissolution of parliament in Tehran, it was initially only the inhabitants of Tabriz who opposed Mohammed Ali Shah's absolutist claims. They had prepared for possible attacks and had already built up an underground movement called Mujahed (freedom fighters) in recent years by Naser al-Din Shah . From March 1907 the military training of the "freedom fighters" began. Every day after sunset, the citizens of Tabriz went home after their work was done, fetched their weapons, met at local assembly points and held military exercises.

On July 1, 1908, when Rahim Khan attacked Tabriz with 700 horsemen on the orders of the Shah in order to arrest the leaders of the Constitutional Movement in Tabriz Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan , the mujahideen were able to prevent this. Another attack on July 13, 1908 brought the Shah a first success. Large parts of Tabriz were occupied by his troops. Only one district could be defended by the freedom fighters led by Sattar Khan. But after an unexpected counterattack by the Muhajeds headed by Sattar Khan, Rahim Khan, the leader of the troops loyal to the Shah, had to announce his defeat on July 20, 1908. On August 8, 1908, a major attack on Tabriz was again repulsed by the Mujahideen under the leadership of Sattar Khan. Mohammed Ali Shah had to realize that he could not defeat Sattar Khan, and that his military successes brought him more fighters and thus increased the fighting strength of the mujahideen.

The Shiite clergy had meanwhile sided with the Shah and vilified the fighters of Sattar Khan as Bab followers ( Baha'i ). As a result, the mujahideen began to chant Islamic prayers all day long in order not to be further insulted as heretics. On August 28, 1908, a new attack on Tabriz began, led by Abdol Majid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh. Sattar Khan had armed his fighters with novel bombs made by Georgians, which Iranians had sent from the Caucasus to Tabriz to support the mujahideen. The attackers suffered another defeat. On September 21, 1908, Sattar Khan was given an ultimatum to finally give up. The attack by the Shah's troops took place on September 25th. But this time too, the attack had to be stopped after more than 300 attackers fell in the hail of bullets from the mujahideen. This renewed defeat of the government troops had a signal effect for the people of Iran. Sattar Khan had proven that one could withstand Mohammed Ali Shah's troops if one was adequately armed and fought heroically.

On October 9, 1908, the mujahideen attacked the government troops in the middle of the night, causing them considerable losses. By October 12, the mujahideen had control of all of Tabriz again. Eyn-al-Dowleh was now given the choice of either defeating Sattar Khan or resigning from the Shah. Since victory was completely out of the question, Eyn-al-Dowleh resigned. The constitutional movement took over again the administration of Tabriz. In Tehran, too, the constitutional movement began to form anew, and in all major cities of Iran such as Isfahan, Rasht and Mashhad , the population gathered for demonstrations against the Shah.

1909: The overthrow of Mohammed Ali Shah

The liberation of Tehran by Sardar Asad and Sepahsalar Tonekaboni

Iran's economic life had slowly come to a standstill. The population began to starve. Sattar Khan decided to continue the fight despite the poor food situation and march from the west to Tehran. In northern Iran, Mohammad Vali Khan Tonekaboni Sepahdar from Tonekabon in Mazandaran , who was supposed to support the Shah against Sattar Khan with his troops, switched sides and came to the aid of Sattar Khan. From the south, the Bakhtiaris, led by Sardar Asad, supported the constitutionalists. In the end, freedom fighters marched into Tehran from three directions to overthrow the Shah.

In a final attempt to save his throne, Mohammed Ali Shah installed a new cabinet and recognized the Mashruteh constitutional movement as the only legitimate political movement. Work began on a new electoral law, which was passed on July 1, 1909. This removed the political supremacy of the nobility, the Qajar family and the large landowners. From now on, every citizen of Iran, with the exception of women, criminals, fraudsters and the mentally handicapped, was entitled to vote from a certain age or could stand for election as a possible member of parliament. A central demand of the constitutional movement had thus been fulfilled.

Despite this reform of the electoral law, the fighters of the constitutional movement marched on towards Tehran. The occupation of Qazvin , which is only 200 km from Tehran, by Sepahdar's troops caused a shock to Mohammed Ali Shah, the Qajar court and the Russian and British embassies. The Russian and British ambassadors jointly developed plans to save the Shah. They sent negotiators to Najaf and Karbala to persuade the highest Shiite clergy to mediate between Sattar Khan, Sepahdar and Mohammed Ali Shah. A delegation went to Qazvin to see Sepahdar. The Shah confirmed in a telegram to Sepahdar that he had ordered elections to the second parliament. Sepahdar read the telegram to his fighters, wanted to hold a victory ceremony and go home. But his fighters prevented Sepahdar from leaving and wanted to go to Tehran. Their demand was unequivocal: Mohammed Ali Shah should go.

Execution of Fazlollah Nuris (1909)

On June 22, 1909, the freedom fighters stood in front of Qom, which they captured on July 8, 1909, after which they entered Tehran on July 13. On July 16, the High Council met members of the freedom fighters, the clergy, the Qajar court and some bourgeois politicians. Mohammad Vali Khan Tonekaboni (Sepahdar) was appointed head of the new revolutionary government. On the same day, the Shah fled his palace to the Russian embassy. In an extraordinary session, the high council deposed Mohammed Ali Shah in favor of his twelve-year-old son Ahmad Shah . Ali Reza Khan Azod al Molk , the over 80-year-old son of an uncle of Naser al-Din Shah, was installed as regent until Ahmad Shah came of age.

Negotiations began with Mohammed Ali Shah and the representatives of Russia and Great Britain on the terms under which Mohammed Ali Shah would leave the country and recognize the government under Ahmad Shah. Agreement was reached after Mohammed Ali Shah was promised a pension of $ 80,000 a year, which was conditional on his abstaining from all political activity. In addition, the government had to take over Mohammad Ali Shah's debts to the Russian state owned Banque d'Escompte et des Prets de Perse in the amount of 1.5 million Toman. On September 10, 1909, Mohammed Ali Shah left the Russian embassy and went into exile in Odessa in Russia . The ministers of the revolutionary government consisted for the most part of well-tried followers of the Qajar court. So it is not surprising that instead of trying Mohammed Ali Shah for his crimes and the high treason he had committed against the constitution, the revolutionary government granted him a monthly pension. General Liakhov, the commander of the Persian Cossacks, who had the parliament bombarded with cannons, was also acquitted of all guilt. Only five outspoken opponents of the Mashruteh, such as Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri and Mir Haschem Davatschi, were sentenced to death and hanged.

Life in Iran slowly began to return to normal. The food supply improved, newspapers reappeared and in October 1909 the elections for the second parliament of Iran took place, which was constituted on November 15, 1909. Sepahdar was elected Prime Minister. The constitutional movement seemed to have finally defeated absolute monarchy.

1910: Constitutional monarchy under Ahmad Shah

Ahmad Shah (center) and his entourage, 1911

In order to get Iran's economy going again, the Sepahdar government began negotiations with the Russian and British governments in December 1909 for a loan worth $ 2.5 million. Great Britain and Tsarist Russia had meanwhile come to terms with the constitutional monarchy and the Iranian parliament as the new center of power. The most influential powers in Iran to date had found a way to curtail the power of the parliamentary government. In order to "safeguard their interests", the Russians occupied large parts of northern Iran during the internal Iranian military conflicts of 1909. The British torpedoed the government's efforts to revitalize the country's economy. After negotiations with Great Britain and Russia over an economic loan failed, the Iranian government entered into negotiations with a London private banker to obtain a loan against the pledging of the Crown Jewels. This loan was also canceled due to British government intervention. If the constitutional movement could not be defeated militarily, the British and the Russians wanted at least to keep Iran economically dependent.

In all the controversies over political power in Iran, one fact was completely ignored. Three years after taking over the concession from William Knox D'Arcy , the British Burmah Oil encountered oil in 360 meters while drilling in Masjed Soleyman on May 26, 1908. Burmah Oil workers had discovered one of the largest oil fields in the world. In order to extract, process and market Persian oil, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was abbreviated to APOC in April 1909 (renamed Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) in 1935 and British Petrol , BP in 1954 ) as a nearly wholly-owned subsidiary founded by the Burmah Oil Company. While the Iranian government was desperately negotiating a loan with the British to revive the shabby economy of Iran, the British brought arguably the most valuable natural resources in southern Iran under their control. On October 16, 1910, they issued an ultimatum to the Iranian government. The uncertain situation in the south makes it necessary to ensure peace and order with your own efforts. On October 19, 1910, British naval troops went ashore in Bushehr and occupied Shiraz . The Iranian government protested unsuccessfully on October 23, 1910 and asked the Ottoman and German empires for help. The Germans agreed with Russia on November 5, 1910 not to intervene. The Ottoman Empire was so weak politically and militarily that it could not offer military aid. On October 30, 1910, more British troops landed in Lingeh. Yazdi and the Shiite clergy called for national resistance in the then Ottoman Nedschef . Before the outbreak of World War I , British and Russian troops had occupied parts of Iran. Under these conditions, it was almost impossible for the constitutional government to begin the orderly development of a functioning administration in Iran.

Ali Reza Khan Azod al Molk died on September 22, 1910 , and Abolqasem Naser al Molk was appointed by the Iranian parliament as the new ruler of Iran.

On October 29, the Iranian Foreign Minister informed the British and Russian ambassadors that they were aware that Mohammed Ali Shah, who was in exile in Russia, was negotiating military support for his return to Tehran with Turkmen tribes and that payment was therefore being made want to suspend his pension until further clarification. This request by the Iranian government was strictly rejected. Instead, a group of gunmen was sent to the Foreign Minister's house to collect the outstanding pension. Mohammed Ali Shah had meanwhile started a tour of Europe to get political and financial support for the overthrow of the constitutional government.

In its need, the Iranian government turned to the United States. The American government could not be persuaded to take out a loan, nor could it be won political support against Russia and Great Britain. The mere promise to send a capable tax officer to Iran to set up a functioning tax system and thus enable the constitutional government to generate the income it urgently needs to build up the state and administration was seen as a modest political success.

1911: Mohammed Ali Shah attempted to overthrow

Russian troops in Iran, 1911
Yeprem Khan Davidian, Tehran Police Chief during the Constitutional Revolution
Major Haase (center), Tehran 1911
Volunteer fighters against Mohammed Ali Shah, 1911
Heads of tribal leaders of the Turkmen, stuffed with straw and brought to Tehran, 1911

In the spring of 1911, the American Morgan Shuster arrived in Tehran and was immediately assigned to reorganize the state's finances. Shuster was to take over the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer for three years. On June 13, 1911, Parliament passed a finance law drafted by Shuster, according to which all state income and expenditure should be administered centrally by the Treasury. In a short time, Shuster achieved a reorganization of public finances. The taxes levied in the provinces were paid to the central government, a budget was drawn up, discussed and approved by parliament, and the salaries of state officials and the wages of the police and gendarmerie were paid on time.

Meanwhile, on July 18, 1911, the former Shah Mohammed Ali had "entered" the Russian-occupied Komeschtepe on the Caspian Sea with a false beard and false passport disguised as a businessman from Baghdad with the name Khalil. With him he carried heavy boxes labeled "Mineral Water" containing three dismantled cannons. He was accompanied by his former general Arshad-ol-Dowleh. On paper there was a Persian army built under Naser al-Din Shah by an Austro-Hungarian military mission in Persia and commanded by Mohammad Vali Khan Tonekaboni Sepahdar , but according to Morgan Shuster's research it consisted of only a few men. The constitutional government could not rely on the Persian Cossack Brigade , commanded by Russian officers, either , since the Cossacks were considered loyal to the Shah. The only significant troops that could be used to repel the coup attempt by Mohammad Ali Shah consisted of the 1,800 Tehran police and gendarmerie, commanded by the Armenian Yeprem Khan Davidian. Their armament consisted of old rifles, a Maxim machine gun and two Schneider field guns . The machine gun and the two field guns were combined into a small artillery unit, which was led by the German Major Haase, who was in Persian service.

Mohammed Ali Shah had recruited 2,000 Turkmen and devoted Persian soldiers and marched into Astarabad (today: Gorgan) on July 22, 1911 . At the suggestion of Morgan Shuster, the government in Tehran put 100,000 tomans (approx. $ 90,000) on the head of Mohammed Ali Shah and 25,000 tomans each on the head of his two brothers, who invaded Persia from the Ottoman Empire were out. This method, which was quite successful in the search for criminals in the USA, was previously unknown in Iran. Wanted posters with the picture of Mohammad Ali Shah and the bounty offered were printed and distributed throughout the country. When the news of the suspended bounty reached Mohammed Ali Shah, he fled to the Caspian Sea and waited there for further events. The 2,000 armed Turkmens and Persian soldiers loyal to the Shah had meanwhile advanced on Tehran under the leadership of Arshad-ol-Dowleh. Yeprem Khan and Major Haase advanced towards them with 350 lightly armed police officers and gendarmes, the Maxim machine gun and the two field guns. The unequal forces met 50 km southeast of Tehran near the village of Veramin. Major Haase took up position on a small hill and fired machine guns at the approaching Turkmen. Up to this point they had never seen a machine gun, were horrified by its deadly effect and fled. They left 60 dead and 400 captured Turkmen and the wounded Arshad-ol-Dowleh. Arshad was interrogated and shot dead the following day. His body was brought to Tehran and publicly displayed there. Tehran and the constitutional government were saved. On October 4, 1911, the government troops recaptured the city of Hamadan , which was occupied by Mohammed Ali Shah's brother . Mohammed Ali Shah finally left the country for Russian Turkmenistan on October 16, 1911 .

After the failed coup of Mohammed Ali Shah, who is now again in exile in Russia, the Iranian government called on the brother of the Shah Shu'a al-Saltaneh (شعاع السلطنه), one of the richest men in the country and ardent advocate of Russia's political goals in Persia to cede his property to the government as compensation for the damage caused by the coup. Morgan Shuster was hired to carry out the seizure. The representative of Russia placed the property of Mohammed Ali Shah and his brother under Russian protection and, conversely, demanded compensation and apology from the Persian government. In order to emphasize these demands, the tsar immediately dispatched Russian troops to Bandar Anzali, Iran . In addition, on November 30, 1911, the Russian side ultimately called for Shuster to be recalled. On December 1, 1911, the Russians marched from occupied Rasht ( Gilan ) to Tabriz . The regent then dismissed Shuster on December 11, 1911, against the will of Parliament, which had rejected the ultimatum. On December 20, 1911, Nizam al-Mulk dissolved parliament. On December 24, 1911, an uprising broke out in Tabriz. On December 29, 1911, Russian troops occupied Tehran again. Once again the constitutional movement seemed to be at an end.

After the shelling of the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad by Russian troops on March 29, 1912 and ongoing uprisings in Tabriz, during which several clergymen who spoke out against the constitution were publicly executed together with Russian sympathizers, the parliament gave under pressure from the regent Naser al Molk to finally get things back in order. Morgan Shuster had already left the country. The confiscation of the lands of Mohammad Ali Shah's brother has been lifted. The Russian troops withdrew again.

Iran in the First World War

Ahmad Schah, Reza Khan (behind Ahmad Schah), Abdol Hossein Farmanfarma (left by Ahmad Schah)

British-Russian occupation

Elections took place in June 1914 and Parliament resumed its work. In 1915, Ahmad Shah turned 18 and officially took over the reign. After the outbreak of World War I , Great Britain and Russia urged Prime Minister Hassan Mostofi to declare war on the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire . However, the latter refused and instead declared Iran's neutrality. The British and Russian governments, however, ignored Iran's declaration of neutrality, but invaded Iran as part of the First World War and waged war against the Ottoman Empire from Iranian territory. Famine broke out in western Iran. In Hamadan and Kermanshah , the population temporarily lived in caves. Over 100,000 Iranians starved to death.

Hassan Mostofi and Ahmad Shah wanted to move the government to Qom to avoid British and Russian influence. After this had been prevented by the British and Russians, some parliamentarians founded a national defense committee in Kermanshah and called a government in exile under the chairmanship of Reza Qoli Khan Nezam al Saltanehs (who had already been prime minister 1907-1908). The parliament had since dissolved and was not due to meet again until 1921. The British pushed through the appointment of Abdol Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma as prime minister to Ahmad Shah . On March 11, 1917, Baghdad fell into the hands of the British. The Provisional Government of Iran and the Persian gendarmes with their German and Swedish officers fled western Iran to Kirkuk . The Iranian Provisional Government under Nezam al Saltaneh ceased operations. From now on it was clear that the British and Russians had regained the influence in Iran that they had lost for a short time through the independently operating constitutional government from 1911 to 1915. The economic zones of influence established in the Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1907 had become zones of occupation in the course of the First World War.

The Peace of Brest-Litovsk

By the end of the First World War, a quarter of the Iranian population had died as a result of the war. The office of prime minister should be filled seven times. Even the arch-conservative Abdol Madschid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh , who had fought so vehemently against the constitutional movement under Mohammed Ali Shah, should once again become prime minister. After the Bolsheviks came to power as part of the October Revolution on November 7, 1917, Eyn-al-Dowleh recognized the new Soviet one on December 14, 1917, one day before the armistice agreement concluded between the German Reich and Russia on December 15, 1917 Government on. The Iranian government, through its ambassador in Petrograd, had congratulated the Soviet government on the takeover of power and declared that "it will nullify all treaties between Persia and Tsarist Russia that restricted the independence and security of Persia." to conclude new treaties with the new Soviet government that took account of the changed political situation. Leon Trotsky declared on January 4, 1918 that Russian troops would leave Iran in "the shortest possible time". He was referring to the peace negotiations with the German Reich. In the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed on March 3, 1918, the withdrawal of Russian troops was also regulated. The tsarist troops did not initially withdraw, however, but mostly joined the White Army in order to overthrow the new Soviet government. Iran should not come to rest even after the end of the First World War. The British tried to use their supremacy and urged the Iranian government on August 9, 1919 to sign the Anglo-Iranian treaty of 1919 , with which Iran would in fact become a British colony.

epilogue

The years 1919 to 1921 were to be the great test of the Iranian parliament. MEPs resisted massive British pressure and, despite paying substantial bribes, steadfastly refused to put into effect the 1919 Anglo-Iranian treaty signed by the government. The British failed at the Iranian parliament.

Even if the period from 1911 to the coup of February 21, 1921 by Tabatabai and Reza Khan, who later became Reza Shah Pahlavi , is viewed by some historians as not very fruitful, the success of the Constitutional Revolution cannot be overestimated. The constitution won by the constitutional movement was to last until 1979 with only a few changes. In 1925, the articles relating to the Qachar monarchy were modified in favor of the new Pahlavis dynasty. Later reforms in the context of the White Revolution by Mohammad Reza Shah concerned the introduction of women's suffrage and the abolition of the feudal system, which was linked to the abolition of serfdom and land reform, in the course of which arable land was distributed to the now free peasants.

The attacks by Islamist movements on Mohammad Reza Shah and the murder of several prime ministers in the post-war period show that the basic conflict between the two constitutional conceptions of the maschruteh with a Western bourgeois state and the maschrueh with a clergy-led Islamic state has not yet been resolved . With the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the constitutional monarchy created by the constitutional revolution and existing from 1907 to 1979 was replaced by an Islamic republic. In his writings, revolutionary leader Khomeini named Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri , who was hanged by the constitutionalists in 1909, as a role model who fought for the supremacy of religion in the political system of Iran. The demands for a secular state put forward primarily by Iranians living abroad ultimately only reflect the discussion that had already been held between 1906 and 1911 as part of the constitutional revolution.

Constitutionalists and their opponents

Constitutionalists - Mashruta-ha

Absolutists - Mustabidd

  • Mozaffar ad-Din Shah
  • Mohammed Ali Shah
  • Vladimir Liachow - Russian colonel and commander of the Cossack brigade.
  • Arfa'ol-Dowleh
  • Hossein Qoli Khan (Hedayat), Mokhber-al Doleh II. (1848-1916); older brother of the constitutionalists Morteza Qoli Khan, Sani-ol Douleh (1856–1911), Mehdi Qoli Khan Hedayat Mokhber-ol Saltaneh (1864–1955) and Mohammed Qoli Khan, Mokhber-ol Molk (1865–1950)
  • Abdol Madschid Mirza Eyn-al-Dowleh , Prime Minister under Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, later twice Prime Minister in a constitutional government

Clergy

  • Mohammad Kāzem Chorāsāni , constitutionalist
  • Seyyed Jamal ad-Din Esfahani, constitutionalist
  • Seyyed Abdullah Behbahani, constitutionalist
  • Seyyed Mohammad Tabataba'i, constitutionalist
  • Mirza Hosein Na'ini, constitutionalist
  • Sheikh Mohammad Waez
  • Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi , anti-constitutionalist.
  • Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri , anti-constitutionalist. Was hanged after the Constitutional Movement's victory.

gallery

literature

  • Fereydun Adamiayat: Ideolozhi-ye nehzat mashuriat-e iran. (The ideology of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran) . Tehran 2535 (1976).
  • Nūrallāh Dānišwar Alawī: Tarīh-e mašrūta-e Īran wa gunbiš-e watanparastān-e Isfahān wa Bahtīyārī (History of the Constitution and the Patriotic Movement of Isfahan and the Bakhtiars). Tehran 1956.
  • Janet Afary: The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911. Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origin of Feminism . Columbia University Press, New York 1996.
  • Edward G. Browne: The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909. Cambridge University Press, 1910.
  • Hans-Georg Ebert, Henner Fürtig , Hans-Georg Müller: The constitutional-bourgeois revolution from 1905 to 1911. In: Günther Barthel (Hrsg.): The Islamic Republic of Iran - historical origin, economic foundations, constitutional structure. Akademie Verlag Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-05-000079-1 , pp. 1–10.
  • Heinz Halm : The Schia. Knowledge Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 3-534-03136-9 .
  • Fatollah Khan Djalali, Wolfgang von Keitz: Democracy in Persia - History of the Constitutional Revolution. Berlin 2021, ISBN 9783753168227 , (edited version of the first edition, Marburg 1934).
  • Ahmad Kasravi: Tārikh-e Mashruteh-ye Iran (تاریخ مشروطهٔ ایران) (History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution), in Farsi, (Negāh Publications, Tehran, 2003), ISBN 964-351-138-3 . This book is considered to be the standard work on the Constitutional Revolution of Iran.
  • Ahmad Kasravi: History of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Tarikh-e Mashrute-ye Iran. Volume I, translated into English by Evan Siegel. Mazda Publications, Costa Mesa, California 2006, ISBN 1-56859-197-7 .
  • Wilhelm Litten: The new Persian constitution - overview of the previous legislative work of the Persian parliament - Tehran 1907 . epubli 2014. ISBN 978-3-7375-0183-5 .
  • Abdolali Massoumi: Enghelab-e Maschruteh (Constitutional Revolution - History of Iran, Vol. 4) . 1385 (2007).
  • Gerhard Schweizer: Persia. Culture hub. Econ, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-430-18226-3 .
  • The Mashruteh Constitution of Iran. epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-9292-3 . (Persian) (details)

See also

Web links

Individual references and comments

  1. ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IB Tauris, 2000, p. 4f.
  2. ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IB Tauris, 2000, p. 6.
  3. Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. UC Press 2009, p. 5.
  4. Abdolali Massoumi: Enghelab-e Maschruteh (Constitutional Revolution - History of Iran, Vol. 4). 1385 (2007), p. 42ff.
  5. Abdolali Massoumi: Enghelab-e Maschruteh (Constitutional Revolution - History of Iran, Vol. 4). 1385 (2007), p. 45.
  6. Abdolali Massoumi: Enghelab-e Maschruteh (Constitutional Revolution - History of Iran, Vol. 4). 1385 (2007), p. 56.
  7. Abdolali Massoumi: Enghelab-e Maschruteh (Constitutional Revolution - History of Iran, Vol. 4). 1385 (2007), p. 62ff.
  8. Abdolali Massoumi: Enghelab-e Maschruteh (Constitutional Revolution - History of Iran, Vol. 4). 1385 (2007), p. 72ff.
  9. Abdolali Massoumi: Enghelab-e Maschruteh (Constitutional Revolution - History of Iran, Vol. 4). 1385 (2007), p. 85.
  10. Ahmad Kasravi, Tarikhe-e Mashrute-ye Iran (History of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran). Tehran 2003, p. 515.
  11. Ahmad Kasravi, Tarikhe-e Mashrute-ye Iran (History of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran). Tehran 2003, p. 521.
  12. Mohammad Mossadegh: Khaterat va ta'llomat-e Mosaddeq. Tehran, Entesharat-e 'Elmi, 1373, p. 13.
  13. Mehdi Malekzadeh: Tarikh Engelab Mashrutiat Iran. Vol. 5. without year, p. 1033.
  14. ^ Arabic-Persian plural form of mujahid .
  15. ^ W. Morgan Shuster: The Strangling of Persia. New York, 1912. pp. Xxii
  16. Helmut Slaby: Bindenschild and Sun Lion. Academic Printing and Publishing Society, 1982, p. 250.
  17. iranchamber.com
  18. ^ W. Morgan Shuster: The Strangling of Persia. New York, 1912. S. liv
  19. Morgan Shuster: The Strangling of Persia. New York 1912, pp. 85-133.
  20. ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IB Tauris, 2000, p. 17.
  21. ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IB Tauris, 2000, p. 18.
  22. Cosroe Chaqueri: The Sovjet Socialist Republic of Iran, 1920-1921. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, pp. 143f.
  23. ^ Cyrus Ghani: Iran and the rise of Reza Shah. IB Tauris, 2000, p. 15.