The Constitutional Revolution
Merchants, clerics and reformers force the shah to grant a constitution and an elected parliament, the Majles, the first in the Middle East outside the Ottoman Empire.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
- Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution — Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (2006)
- Modern Iran since 1797: Reform and Revolution — Ali M. Ansari, Routledge (2019)
By the early 1900s many Iranians felt their country was being sold off. The Qajar shahs borrowed heavily from Russia and Britain, granted concessions and customs control to foreigners, and ruled arbitrarily. Ideas of constitutional government arrived with merchants, students and exiles who had seen Istanbul, the Caucasus and Europe, and Japan’s defeat of Russia in 1905, the first victory of an Asian constitutional state over a European autocracy, was widely noticed.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
Taking sanctuary
In 1905 and 1906 merchants and clerics protested against the governor of Tehran, who had sugar merchants beaten for raising prices. In the summer of 1906 thousands of protesters took bast, traditional sanctuary, in the grounds of the British legation in Tehran, while senior clerics withdrew to Qom. Facing a shutdown of the bazaar and the city, the ailing Mozaffar al-Din Shah issued a decree on 5 August 1906 agreeing to an elected assembly. The first Majles met that October and drafted a constitution, signed by the dying shah at the end of December 1906, with a supplement in 1907 that guaranteed equality before the law and established Shia Islam as the state religion.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
- Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution — Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (2006)
Counter-revolution and civil war
The new shah, Mohammad Ali, hated the constitution. In June 1908 his Russian-officered Cossack Brigade shelled the Majles. Resistance held out in Tabriz, where the former horse-dealer Sattar Khan led the defence through a long siege, and in 1909 constitutionalist forces from Gilan and Bakhtiari tribesmen from the south marched on Tehran and deposed him in favour of his young son.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
Women’s associations, secret societies, newspapers and schools sprang up during these years; Janet Afary and others have shown how women, the poor and Caucasian social democrats were part of the movement, not just elite men.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
Strangled
In 1907 Britain and Russia had agreed to divide Iran into spheres of influence, without asking Iranians. When the Majles hired an American, Morgan Shuster, to fix the country’s finances in 1911, Russia issued an ultimatum demanding his dismissal and sent troops into the north. In December 1911 the Majles was shut down.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
- Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution — Nikki R. Keddie, Yale University Press (2006)
Why it still matters
The constitution formally survived until 1979, though shahs often ignored it. The revolution established ideas, mashruteh (constitutionalism), the Majles, equality under law, that Iranians have invoked ever since. It also set out the arguments that still divide them: how far religion should shape law, and how much clerics should rule, and it left a lasting conviction that foreign powers will always try to stop Iranians from governing themselves.
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
- Modern Iran since 1797: Reform and Revolution — Ali M. Ansari, Routledge (2019)
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
The birth of Iranian democracy: ordinary people demanded the rule of law and won it, until Russia and Britain helped strangle it. Heroes include the Tabriz fighter Sattar Khan and the American teacher Howard Baskerville, killed defending the city in 1909.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
- Iran Between Two Revolutions — Ervand Abrahamian, Princeton University Press (1982)
The clergy were split. Many leading clerics backed the constitution as a check on tyranny, while Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri argued that a man-made constitution conflicted with sharia; he was hanged by the constitutionalists in 1909. The Islamic Republic has honoured Nuri, while liberals see him as a symbol of reaction.
- The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 — Janet Afary, Columbia University Press (1996)
- An Introduction to Shi'i Islam — Moojan Momen, Yale University Press (1985)
- Modern Iran since 1797: Reform and Revolution — Ali M. Ansari, Routledge (2019)
Why it matters today
For more than a century Iranians have been fighting over the same questions first raised in 1906: the rule of law, an elected parliament, the place of religion, and independence from foreign powers. Many Iranians see their recent protest movements as heirs of the constitutionalists, and the 1906 constitution is invoked by liberals, monarchists and reformists alike.