Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh

Mirza Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh Tabrizi ( Persian میرزا یوسف خان مستشارالدوله mirzā yūsuf chān mostaschār od-doule , DMG mīrzā yūsuf ḫān mustašār ad-daula ; * 1813 in Tabriz ; † 1895 in Tehran ) was a Persian diplomat and one of the most influential liberal thinkers in Persia. He published for the first time considerations on the replacement of the absolute monarchy and the introduction of a constitutional government in Persia and was thus one of the pioneers of the constitutional revolution .

Life

Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh Tabrizi was born in Tabriz in 1813 as the son of the merchant Mirza Kazim Aqa Tajjir Tabrizi. He received traditional training in Persian and Arabic literature, religion and Islamic law. He began his professional career as a secretary at the British Consulate in Tabriz. In 1853 he resigned from the British consulate and moved to the Foreign Office. Nāser ad-Din Shah sent him as consul to Hajji Tarakhan. In 1863 he became consul in Tbilisi and from 1867 to 1868 Chargé d'Affairs at the Persian embassy in Paris. In 1868 he returned to Tehran and became a minister in the cabinet of Mirza Hosein Khan Moschir al Dowleh . In 1873 he became governor of Khorasan.

His progressive contemporaries saw the establishment of a railroad system in Persia as a fundamental impetus for the country's development. Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh was also an advocate for a railway project. Therefore, in 1877 he wrote Ketabche-ye Banafsh ( Persian كتابچهٔ بنفش, DMG ketābče-ye banafš , “the purple booklet”).

Under Justice Minister Mirza Yahya Khan Moshir ad-Dowleh he became Deputy Justice Minister in 1881 and was responsible for reforming the Persian judicial system. In addition, he considered the introduction and enforcement of written legal norms within the framework of a constitution to be inevitable for a soon to be brought about social change. Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh Tabrizi has been suspected of writing critical articles about the current Persian judicial system for the Akhtar ( Persian اختر, DMG aḫtar , "star", "omen") and Qanun ( Persian قانون, DMG qānūn , "law"), which is why he was repeatedly imprisoned. In 1891 he published Yek Kalameh ( Persian يك كلمه, DMG yek kalame , “One word”).

Through the intervention of Zell os-Soltan , he was released from prison on payment of 300,000 tomans, his entire paternal inheritance. Completely impoverished, he was dependent on the financial support of friends until his death.

A word

Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh Tabrizi has presented a groundbreaking work with his book "Ein Wort". The title is derived from the consideration that the entire administration in Europe is based on "the code of law". Today one would rather say that a European state is a constitutional state and that everyone is equal before the law. "King and beggar, subject or soldier are bound by the law." In a comparative law study, Yousuf Khan works out five differences between European and Islamic law, the most significant difference for him being that European laws are secular laws, so that they are valid for everyone regardless of religion or ethnic origin . In the Islamic legal system, there is no distinction between secular and religious laws such as compulsory prayers, fasting or pilgrimage, which means that they are considered inapplicable to non-Muslims as a whole. In addition, the Islamic laws are contradictory and are freely interpreted by clergy within the framework of their jurisprudence, depending on the school of law or the clergyman's personal opinion, so that there is no legal certainty.

Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh Tabrizi called for a constitutional state and equality before the law for Persia based on the European model, justifying this demand with a quote from the Koran: Sura 75, verse 36 "Do people think they should remain completely free? ". The recourse to quotations from the Koran in all of his further reform proposals should prove that the reforms proposed by him are not directed against Islam. Rather, he saw his reform proposals as an essential prerequisite for the further social and economic development of Persia.

Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh Tabrizi calls for a departure from absolutism. The rule of the Shah is not absolute in the sense of legibus absolutus (detached from the laws), but tied to laws (mashruteh): "No person, king or beggar, citizen or soldier has the right to rule. A king is not a ruler, but one has given him a responsibility. If you are still called "ruler", this is not to be understood literally, but in a figurative sense. " This consideration, first formulated by Yousuf Khan Mostashar al-Dowleh Tabrizi in a Persian text, was included in the constitutional amendment passed by parliament in 1907, as was further requirements formulated in his book: "Section 35 of the amendment to the constitution:" Persian rulers are entrusted which was given by the people as a divine gift to the person of the ruler. "

Publications

• Ruh ul-Islam (The spirit of Islam), 1869
• Tabrizi's treatise on codified law (Yak kalima) One Word (he meant Ghanoon), [Law]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ AA Seyed-Gohrab, S. McGlinn: One Word - Yak Kaleme. Leiden University Press. 2010, p. I.
2. ↑ Ali Gheissari, Iranian intellectuals in the twentieth century S. 140
3. ↑ AA Seyed-Gohrab, S. McGlinn: One Word - Yak Kaleme. Leiden University Press. 2010, pp. I-vi.
4. ↑ Afshin Marashi: Nationalizing Iran : culture, power, and the state, 1870-1940
5. ↑ AA Seyed-Gohrab, S. McGlinn: One Word - Yak Kaleme. Leiden University Press. 2010, pp. 11, 13.
6. ↑ AA Seyed-Gohrab, S. McGlinn: One Word - Yak Kaleme. Leiden University Press. 2010, p. 15.
7. ↑ http://www.koran-auf-deutsch.de/75-die-auferstehung-al-qiy%C3%A1mah
8. ↑ AA Seyed-Gohrab, S. McGlinn: One Word - Yak Kaleme. Leiden University Press. 2010, pp. Ix-x.
9. ^ Wilhelm Litten: The new Persian constitution. Overview of the previous legislative work of the Persian Parliament - Tehran 1907. epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-0183-5 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Adbul Hassan, Ilchi	Persian ambassador to Saint Petersburg 1862 to 1863	Eshagh Khan Mofakhamed-Dovleh
	Persian ambassador in Tbilisi 1863 to 1867
Muhsin Khan	Persian ambassador to France 1867 to 1871	Samad Khan Momtaz os-Saltaneh