Constitutionalist forces in Tabriz (date?)
Where it all started
Democratic concepts emerged during the 1906 Constituional
Revolution
October 18, 2000
The Iranian
Excerpt from Janet Afary's The
Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911. (1996, Columbia University
Press). The Persian translation, titled Enqelaab-e mashruteh-ye Iran,
was published in Iran this summer by Nashr-e Bistoon. Janet Afary is an
associate professor of Middle East studies & women's studies at the
at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She has published articles
in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal
of Women's History, and the journal of the National Women's Studies
Association, as well as in other journals and edited collections.
In the present study, I have moved away from a single narrative that
privileges the political dimensions of the revolution and instead have
explored its multiclass, multicultural, and multi-ideological dimensions.
The Constitutional Revolution was not, I will argue, only a political revolution
~ where one set of elites replaced another ~ but also a social and cultural
revolution with a significant grassroots dimensions. In addition, this
study will show that the ethnic, class, and gender dimensions of the movement
were not obscure, insignificant, and marginal issues with no crucial bearing
on the political events. On the contrary, they were at the very heart of
the revolution, defining its scope, its limitations, and its political
directions.
I have also focused, more than in previous accounts, on the influence
of social democratic activists and organizations and have attempted to
show that three divergent concepts of democracy emerged during the Constitutional
Revolution: 1. a European-style parliamentary democracy represented by
the Majlis-i Shawra-yi Milli (National Consultative Assembly) and the 1906
constitution, 2. a series of social democratic tendencies that were inspired
predominantly by Transcaucasian social democratic associations in tsarist
Russia, and 3. multiple expressions of radical democracy that manifested
themselves in a variety of grassroots councils and societies, some of which
called themselves anjumans (councils). The complex interaction of the three
sets of institutions and democratic ideologies, their attempts to challenge
both the royalist government and the conservative 'ulama, ultimately defined
the course of the revolution. This struggle took place in the context of
imperialist rivalries ~ especially between the two major contenders for
power in the region, Russia and Britain ~ but had a dynamic of its own.
Chapter 1 explores the background to the revolution and the destabilizing
ramifications of greater political and economic interaction with the capitalist
world-economy in the late nineteenth-century Iran. On the one hand the
process of dependent development encouraged by the European powers turned
Iran's economy into a periphery exporting raw materials to the more industrially
advanced metropolis, with an Iranian government that readily submitted
to foreign demands for concessions. On the other hand increased contact
with the more democratic and industrialized institutions of the West also
encouraged Iranian intellectuals to call for a reform of their traditional
society, to demand greater political representation, and to ask for limits
on the authority of the absolutist government. In addition, customs reforms
enacted by the Belgian officials in the government of Muzaffar al-Din Shah
(1896-1907) created further political resentment among merchants and artisans,
leading to a series of protests in major cities during the years 1900 to
1905.
Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of the 1905 Russian Revolution and
its impact on the East and continues with the description of secret and
semisecret prerevolutionary societies that were formed in Iran in 1904-1905.
After months of strikes and a series of sanctuaries at the Shah 'Abd al-'Azim
Shrine, the city of Qum, and the garden of the British legation in Tehran,
Muzaffar al-Din Shah agreed to a constitutional monarchy in August 1906.
The coalition that made this initial victory possible included groups with
differing political agendas such as members of the 'ulama, who resented
the increasing centralization of powers in the hands of the government,
local merchants, who opposed customs tariffs on their exports, and liberal
and radical intellectuals from the secret societies. This last group included
merchants, educators, religious dissidents, Freemasons, and freethinkers.
The influence of religious dissidents, especially Azali Babis, was significant
in many of the prerevolutionary societies that were formed in Tehran, Isfahan,
and Kirman. By camouflaging their secular and modernist views, which significantly
differed from the beliefs of the mainstream Shi'ite 'ulama, religious dissidents
and freethinkers helped create a broad nationalist coalition with wide
public appeal that called for limits on the authority of the shah.
Chapter 3 examines the composition of the First Majlis (1906-1908) and
its accomplishments. The December 1906 constitution reduced the powers
of the shah and his ministers, gave administrative autonomy to the provinces,
granted limited suffrage to adult men, established the groundwork for a
new secular legislature, and guaranteed freedom of the press. A large number
of grassroots urban councils appeared in the period, including the Tabriz
Anjuman and other radical councils of Tehran and Tabriz. The provincial,
departmental, and popular anjumans, especially the more radical councils
of the north, were influenced by social democratic organizations and political
tendencies from Transcaucasia, especially the Iranian Organization of Social
Democrats in Baku and its branches throughout Iran. These councils brought
a new sense of political autonomy and cultural identity to the provinces.
Almost everywhere, formation of such grassroots societies was accompanied
by the opening of modern secular schools, first for boys and then, in some
major cities, for girls as well. The authority of the 'ulama was challenged
in both educational and legal matters as modern schools came to replace
traditional religious schools and as courts of appeals of provincial councils,
rather than the clerics, began to settle local community affairs.
Chapter 4 turns to the ratification of the Supplementary Constitutional
Laws that became the subject of intensive debates in the spring of 1907.
The response to this document would define many of the ideological debates
of twentieth-century Iran. The secular constitution of 1906 had implicitly
challenged the authority of Shi'ite institutions and traditions by moving
into the domain of the shari'at (religious laws). Recognizing this, the
conservative clerics led by Shaikh Fazlullah Nuri distanced themselves
from the revolutionary movement and drew closer to the shah. Progressive
Majlis delegates such as Hasan Taqizadah hoped to ratify a bill of rights
that guaranteed freedom of expression, association, and publication as
well as equal political rights for (male) citizens, regardless of ethnicity
and religion. But Nuri, with the support of other orthodox clerics, and,
eventually, the backing of the pro-constitutionalist 'ulama of Najaf, succeeded
in ratifying article 2, which on paper gave supreme authority to a committee
of 'ulama in Majlis.
Chapter 5 explores the popular culture of the revolutionary period and
the radical newspapers that constructed new narratives of resistance and
social change. The journal Sur-i Israfil developed in its pages an unprecedented
critique of the social, political, and cultural traditions of Iran. The
poet 'Ali Akbar Dihkhuda used satire and allegory to mock superstitions,
belief in predestination, and patriarchal traditions that degraded women
and children: as a result Sur-i Israfil editors had a number of confrontations
with the conservative 'ulama. Other newspapers, such as Habl al-Matin,
warned the public of imperialist machinations in Iran, focusing on the
1907 Anglo-Russian Convention, which partitioned Iran into two spheres
of influence.
Chapter 6 discusses the debates on land revenue reform in the Majlis,
the formation of village councils, and other forms of rural resistance.
Popular calls for land reform, coupled with an acute budget deficit, encouraged
the Majlis to abolish tuyul land allotments. The reforms increased government
revenue but did not improve village earnings. Furthermore, the reforms
of the Majlis were not broad enough to create a mass peasant-based movement,
one that could help sustain the reforms. Submitting to the pressure of
wealthy landowners and politicians, the Majlis opposed the formation of
councils in small towns and large villages and in some cases, as in Gilan,
sent troops to disband them.
Chapter 7 looks at the women's anjumans and other social and cultural
institutions that were created by elite and urban middle-class women of
Tehran, including schools, clinics, and theaters. Shaikh Fazlullah Nurri
issued a fatwa (religious edict) against women's education, arguing that
it would lead to undesirable changes in gender roles. Nevertheless, women's
schools continued to flourish. Some activist women published letters in
the newspapers of the period in which they condemned the actions of the
religious-conservative opposition and called for greater recognition of
women's rights to education. A number of radical male journalists, Majlis
delegates, and poets supported the women's movement. Together they would
speak out on other issues, such as child marriage, polygamy, and easy male
divorce, and even call for women's suffrage in the Majlis. Nearly all,
however, saw women as primarily mothers and wives. They stressed that a
more educated woman would become a better mother and housewife and produce
children who could lead Iran to modernization more quickly and efficiently.
Chapter 8 turns to the period known as the Lesser Autocracy (June 23,
1908- July 16, 1909) and the civil war of Azerbaijan in 1908-1909. On June
23, 1908, the Majlis was bombarded by members of the Russian Cossack Brigade
who were in the service of Muhammad "Ali Shah. When many leading revolutionary
intellectuals of Tehran were forced to flee into exile, Tabriz became the
new center of national resistance. Azerbaijani social democrats, with the
help of the Tabriz Anjuman, organized a resistance army. This volunteer
army, which also included Azeri, Armenian, Georgian revolutionaries from
Transcaucasia, was headed by Sattar Khan, the folk hero of the Constitutional
Revolution, and his colleague Baqir Khan. For nine months Tabriz resisted
the royalist forces. Eventually the siege was brought to an end by Russian
intervention and occupation of Tabriz in April 1909.
Chapter 9 analyzes the multiethnic and international dimensions of the
resistance during the Lesser Autocracy. Iranian exile intellectuals in
Europe reached a broad audience and called for the reinstitution of the
constitutional government in Iran. Transcaucasian social democrats sent
to Azerbaijan and Gilan several hundred volunteer fighters who, armed with
a more sophisticated military technology, bolstered the nationalist resistance.
With the royalist forces locked in the struggle with Tabriz, provinces
in the south and the north gradually joined forces to reinstitute the constitutional
government, first in their locality and then in Tehran. In July 1909 a
revolutionary army from Gilan, together with Bakhtiari tribesman from Isfahan,
reconquered Tehran and reestablished the constitutional government.
Chapter 10 examines the composition of the Second Majlis and the role
of the influential Democratic Party. Muhammad 'Ali Shah was deposed and
sent into exile in Russia. His twelve-year-old son was crowned Ahmad Shah
and represented by a regent. The Democratic Party, headed by social democrat
Taqizadah, was made up of both liberals and social democrats and soon gained
an important minority representation in the Majlis. The party's radical
social agenda, and its support for separation of religion and the state,
were reflected in party newspaper Iran-i Naw, which broke new ground with
its analyses of the Iranian events and the European politics of the period.
Chapter 11 turns to the summer of 1910 and the Bakhtiari-Democrat government.
The Democrats hoped to modernize Iran through a centralized state and a
parliamentary government, but their attempts at centralization angered
various non-Persian tribes that also resented the greater authority of
the Bakhtiaris in Tehran. The Democrats' efforts to bring change via parliamentary
reform likewise floundered. The Second Majlis and the government were dominated
by landowners, tribal leaders, and members of the nobility who had little
interest in continuing the social and political reforms of the revolution.
The public's earlier admiration for constitutionalism was now replaced
with cynicism and distrust toward a new generation of politicians who seemed
to care for no one but themselves. The assassination of the ranking cleric,
Sayyid 'Abdullah Bihbahani, the forcible disarmament of the resistance
fighters, together with the unpopular taxes of the Democrat-Bakhtiari government,
further eroded support for the Democrats by late 1910. A conservative parliamentary
majority was now formed in the Majlis. The rupture of the coalition that
had reinstituted the constitutional government, and the growing popular
antagonism toward the government, gave the green light to Russia and Britain
to intensify their political intervention in Iran.
Chapter 12 discusses the role of the American financial adviser Morgan
Shuster, who arrived in Tehran in May 1911. Shuster's fiscal reforms, and
his active collaboration with the Democrats in thwarting an invasion by
the former shah, briefly bolstered the Democrats' position in the Majlis.
But these actions were not enough to undo the political and social shortcomings
of the Second Constitutional Period. Hostile Russian and British governments,
which no longer tolerated Iran's political independence and resented Shuster's
appeals to the world community, called for dismissal. Russian troops moved
to the city of Qazvin, outside Tehran, and threatened to march to the capital
and close the Majlis. Pressured by the British and Russian legations, the
regent and the cabinet ministers closed the Majlis on December 24, 1911,
and brought the Constitutional Revolution to an end.
