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References
Qanun, no. 21, p. 1. Translations are my own, unless otherwise noted.
Abbas Amanat, “Constitutional Revolution,” in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopeadia Iranica, vol. 6, London: Routledge (1982-) 163–176.
Abdul-Hadi Hairi, “Why Did the Ulama Participate in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909?” 17, 1–4 Die Welt des Islams (1976–7) 128.
Ibid., 130. Scholars writing on the constitutional period such as Hairi, Algar, Admaiyat, and Kasravi have shown that other leading clerics, such as Behbehani, Na’ini, Tehrani, Khurasani, and Mazandarani also supported the constitutionalist movement. Some clerics clearly opposed the movement. There is little consensus amongst scholars on a general historical explanation of Shiite ulama’s position on constitutionalism as a concept. Scholars have suggested that ulama supported the constitutional movement because of their alliance with merchants, their sense of patriotism, their dislike for the corrupt Qajar kings, and/or their desire to ally themselves with a populist movement. Hamid Enayat outlined aspects of Shiite thought that were commensurate with constitutionalism. By the nineteenth century, he argued the development of usul-i fiqh or the theory of jurisprudence had developed in ways that accommodated constitutionalism. The centrality of doctrines relating to the competence of reason and the importance of consensus lent themselves to the acceptance of the role of man in lawmaking and the significance of majority opinion. These principles were reconcilable with democracy. Furthermore, Shiite ulama accepted the necessity of monarchy while recognizing the need for a hay’at-i musaddidah (adjusting body) that would oversee their governance. This view of the state was also compatible with notions of parliamentary government. See ibid., 127–154; Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought, Austin: University of Texas Press (1982) 164–181; Faridun-i Adamiyat, Idi’uluzhi-i Nahzat-i Mashrutiyat-i Iran, Tehran: Payam (1976);
Hamid Algar, “Religious Forces in Twentieth-Century Iran,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 7, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1991) 734–5 and Ahmad Kasravi, Tarikh-i Mashrutah-i Iran, 16th printing, Tehran: Amir Kabir (1991).
For more on the importance of the bast for creating a revolutionary community and spreading ideas of constitutionalism, see Janet Afary, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911, New York: Columbia University Press (1996) and see Edward G. Browne, The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909 (1910), reprint, London: Frank Cass (1966).
Edward G. Browne, A Brief Narrative of Recent Events in Persia, London: Luzac (1909) 15.
For a comparative analysis of Iran’s first Constitution, see Nader Sohrabi, “Historicizing Revolutions: Constitutional Revolutions in the Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Russia, 1905–1908,” 100, 6 American Journal of Sociology (May 1995).
This committee was never actually formed. Throughout the twentieth century, various individuals and parties called for the formation of this committee.
See Nikki Keddie, Qajar Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan, 1796–1925, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Press (1999) 59. For a discussion of Iranian responses to the treaty, see Shiva Balaghi,”Print Culture in Late Qajar Iran: the Cartoons of Kashkul,” 34 Iranian Studies, 4 (2001) 165.
A weak Ahmad Mirza took over the kingship and ruled until the 1921 coup that eventually overthrew the Qajar dynasty.
Algar, op. cit., note 4, 734–5.
For more on the Shuster mission to Iran, see Robert A. McDaniel, The Shuster Mission and the Persian Constitutional Revolution, Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica (1974).
For a more complete history of the Persian Revolution, see Browne, op. cit., note 5; Mangol Bayat, Irans First Revolution: Shiism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909, New York: Oxford University Press (1991); Nikki Keddie and Mehrdad Amanat, “Iran Under the Late Qajars, 1848–1922,” in Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 7, note 4 and Keddie, op. cit., note 9.
Qanun, no. 4, p. 1. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from French and Persian which appear in this paper are my own.
Edward G. Browne, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia (1914), Los Angeles: Kalimat Press (1983) 19.
Adamiyat as quoted in Hafez Farman Farmayan, “The Forces of Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Iran,” in William Polk and Richard Chambers (eds.), Beginnings of Modernization in the Middle East, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1968) 137.
Shaul Bakhash, Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy, and Reform Under the Qajars, 1858–1896, London: Ithaca Press (1978) 396.
Browne, op. cit., note 15, 18–19.
Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, (Thomas Burger transi.), Cambridge: MIT Press (1993) 181–186. See Geoff Eley’s valuable commentary on Habermas: “Nations, Publics, and Political Cultures: Placing Habermas in the Nineteenth Century,” in Craig Calhoun, Habermas and the Public Sphere, Cambridge: MIT Press (1992).
A controversial character, Malkum has had his fair share of detractors. Here, I am not attempting to judge his character but to ascertain the significance of his thoughts as presented in his newspaper. Huma Natiq has written that questions about Malkum’s desire for financial gain, his continued efforts to be granted titles by the Shah, and other controversies do not call into question his status as a reformer of the Qajar era. See Huma Natiq, “Ma va Mirza Malkum Khan-ha-yi Ma,” in Ax Mast ke bar Mast, Tehran: Agah, (1975–6) 136–200.
Farmayan, op. cit., note 16, 173 and Bayat, op. cit., note 13, 55–56.
As quoted in Browne, op. cit., note 5, 38.
Naser al-Din’s successor, Muzaffar al-Din Shah, was said to have received copies of Qanun. Ibid., 416.
Al-Afghani and Malkum Khan maintained a friendship and intellectual collaboration through the years. Edward G. Browne wrote of meeting Al-Afghani at the Holland Park home of Malkum Khan in the fall of 1891, at the same time that Malkum Khan was publishing Qanun. Ibid., 45.
Khatirat-i Siyasi-yi Amin al-Dawlah, in Hafez Farman Farmayan (ed.), Tehran: Amir Kabir Press (1970) 138–9.
One British resident of Iran wrote, “The Lottery people are, I think, behaving very stupidly. They telegraph the Shah instead of persecuting Malcolm. What can the poor Shah do? He has no power whatever over Malcom now.” Ironside to Curzon, Tehran (12 January 1891) MSS.EUR.F112/614, pt.l, Curzon Personal Papers, Oriental and India Office Collection, the British Museum, London. [Heretofore OIOC]
Drummond Wolff to Curzon, Tehran (21 December 1889) MSS.EUR.F112/614, pt. 3, Curzon Personal Papers, OIOC.
Qanun was printed on a press with moveable type in London at an address on Lombard Street. Its pages were divided into two columns. Altogether, forty-two undated issues were published over the span of three and a half years.
He went on to serve as the Persian ambassador to Rome under Muzaffar al-Din Shah.
See Isma’il Ra’in, Mirza Malkum Khan (Tehran, 1350/1971–2) 11; Huma Natiq, introduction to the reprints of Qanun, Tehran: Amir Kabir (1976) 1; Bakhash, op. cit., note 17, 382.
Bakhash, ibid., 320.
Browne, op. cit., note 15, 18; Amanat, op. cit., note 2, 163.
Qanun, no. 1, p. 1. A complete English translation of the 14th issue of Qanun appears in Hamid Algar, Mirza Malkum Khan: A Study in the History of Iranian Modernism, Berkeley: The University of California Press (1969), Appendix C, 300–308.
Ibid.
Qanun, no. 2, p. 1.
Memorandum from Malcom (received 8 April 1874) FO 60/166, Foreign Office, London, original in French.
Ibid.
Malkum Khan,”A Crisis in Persia” (6 June 1891) newspaper clipping found in the Curzon’s Personal Papers, MSS.EUR.F111/68, OIOC.
Ibid.
Malkum Khan, “Persian Civilization,” as printed in Contemporary Review (1891) 238–244.
Ibid.,238.
Ibid., 239.
Ibid., 239.
Ibid., 244.
Ibid., 243, emphasis his. The notion of carefully presenting liberal ideas within the context of Islam in order to avert opposition from Iranians was also shared by Jamal al-Din Al-Afghani. In a letter to Tabataba’i, a mujtahid who supported the establishment of the Parliament, Al-Afghani encouraged him to hide his real intentions, i.e., support for constitutionalism, for tactical reasons. Subsequently, mujtahids such as Tabataba’i and Behbehani called for the establishment of representative government even as they claimed not to be endorsing a Western style constitutionalism. Hairi, op. cit., note 3, 127–154.
Qanun, no. 9, p. 1–2.
Qanun, no. 5, p. 1.
Qanun, no. 3, p. 1.
Qanun, no. 7, p. 1.
Qanun, no. 1, p. 1.
Ibid.
Qanun, no. 1, p. 3
Qanun, no. 1, p. 1.
Qanun, no. 3, p. 1
Qanun, no. 1, p. 2.
Qanun, no. 1, p. 4.
Qanun, no. 17, pp. 1–2.
Qanun, no. 27, as translated by Bakhash, op. cit., note 17, 343.
Qanun, no. 1, p.3.
Ibid.
Qanun, no. 3, p. 1.
Qanun, no. 14, as translated by Algar, op. cit., note 4, 304.
Qanun, no. 17, p. 2.
Qanun, no. 29.
As quoted in Bakhash, op. cit., note 17, 14–15.
Qanun, no. 41, p. 4.
Qanun, no. 14, as translated by Algar, op. cit., note 4, p. 308.
Qanun, no. 22, p.1.
Qanun, no. 9, pp 2–3.
Qanun, no. 3, pp. 2–3.
Peter Avery, “Printing, the Press and Literature in Modern Iran,” in Peter Avery, Gavin Hambly and Charles Melville (eds.), Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 7. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1991) 828.
Khatirat-i Siyasi-yi Amin al-Dawlah, op. cit., note 25, 139–140.
Browne, op. cit., note 5, 35.
Natiq, op. cit., note 20, 10–12.
Bakhash, op. cit., note 17, 315–7.
Supplement Persan, folios 99–100, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (1996).
Supplement Persan, folios 101–102, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (1996).
Supplement Persan, folios 110–111, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (1996).
Supplement Persan, folios 66–67, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (1996).
Natiq, op. cit., note 20, 3.
Kirmani to Malkum, Istanbul, 1308/1890, Supplement Persan, folio 63 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (1996).
Supplement Persan, folios 94–95, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (1996).
Supplement Persan, folios 61–62, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (1996).
As quoted in the Persan in Isma’il Ra’in, op. cit., note 30, 119.
Ibid.
I have reviewed issues of the newspaper that were reprinted under the auspices of Hashim Aqa Rabizadeh. These issues are marked “It is a copy” in the header and were sold in bookshops in Tehran and Tabriz.
Princess Malkom Khan to Edward G. Browne, Paris, (7 November 1908), Box 12, bundle 2, folio 71, Browne Personal Papers, Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, UK.
Hamid Enayat supports the notion that this is the classic interpretation of Malkum. See Enayat, op. cit., note 4, 166.
Edward G. Browne, “The Persian Press and Persian Journalism,” A lecture delivered to the Persia Society, London (May 1913) p. 22, emphasis his.
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Balaghi, S. (2004). Constitutionalism and Islamic Law in Nineteenth-Century Iran: Mirza Malkum Khan and Qanun. In: Sajó, A. (eds) Human Rights with Modesty: The Problem of Universalism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6172-7_15
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