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The Crowd in The Persian Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ervand Abrahamian
Ervand Abrahamian*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

The Constitutional Revolution of 1905-09 was a major watershed in Persian history. It ended the traditional system of government in which the Shah, as the Shadow of God on Earth, ruled his people without any legal and institutional limitations. And it introduced the constitutional system of government in which “the people” were sovereign, and their elected representatives made and unmade ministers, laws, budgets, concessions and foreign treaties. In this revolution the political crowd played a prominent role. An organized procession in April 1905 raised the issue whether the Shah could freely choose his administrators. A larger assembly, nine months later, initiated the demand to limit the monarch's arbitrary powers by creating a “House of Justice.” Spontaneous riots in June 1906, and the killing of demonstrators, poured a stream of blood into the wide gap between the government (dawlat) and the nation (millat). A general strike in July, and the exodus of 15,000 from Tehran into the British Legation, forced the court to grant the country a written constitution with an elected House of Parliament.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1969 , pp. 128 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1969

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References

Notes

1. Parts of this article appeared in “The Crowd in Iranian Politics 1905-53,” Past and Present, 41 (December 1968), pp. 184-210.Google Scholar I would like to thank the editors of the journal for permitting me to reprint those parts.

2. In this article the term “crowd” is used to describe any large gathering whose behavior is not regulated by formalized rules of conduct and whose aim is to impress its opponents either by collective action or by the show of group solidarity. This includes protest demonstrations indoors as well as hostile outbursts in the streets. But it excludes institutionalized gatherings, such as parliamentary assemblies, where laws of procedure structure the behavior of individuals.

The qualifier “political” is added to exclude religious disturbances with no political content and no political repercussions.

For more detailed definitions of “crowd” see: Rude, G. The Crowd in History, 1730-1848 (New York, 1964), pp. 3-4Google Scholar; and Bernard, L. “Crowd,” Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences (New York, 1931), Vol. 4, pp. 612-13.Google Scholar

Descriptions of crowds have been obtained mostly from the following sources: Amir-Khizi, I. Qiyam-i Azarbayjan va Sattar Khan (The Revolution in Azarbayjan and Sattar Khan) (Tabriz, 1960)Google Scholar; Browne, E. G. The Persian Revolution of 1905-1909 (London, 1910)Google Scholar; Dawlatabadi, Y. Hayat-i Yahya (Yahya's Life) (Tehran, 1943)Google Scholar; Britain, Great Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of Persia (London, 1909), Vol. I, Nos. 1-2Google Scholar; Habl al-Matin; Hiravi-Khurasani, M.H. Tarikh-i Paydayish-i Mashrutiyat-i Iran (The History of the Genesis of the Persian Constitution) (Mashad, 1953)Google Scholar; Kasravi, A. Tarikh-i Mashrutah-i Iran (History of the Persian Constitution) (Tehran, 1961)Google Scholar; Malikzadah, M. Tarikh-i Inqilab-i Mashrutiyat-i Iran (History of the Constitutional Revolution in Persia) (Tehran, 1951), Vol. II-IIIGoogle Scholar; Qudsi, H. ‘A. Kitab-i Khatirat-i Man (The History of My Life) (Tehran, 1963)Google Scholar; Ruh-i Quds; Sur-i Israfil; and Tahirzadah-Bihzad, K. Qiyam-i Azarbayjan dar Inqilab-i Mashrutiyat-i Iran (The Revolt of Azarbayjan in the Constitutional Revolution of Persia) (Tehran, 1953).Google Scholar

3. Quoted by H. Arsanjani, “Anarshizm dar Iran,” (Anarchism in Iran), Darya, 17 July 1944.

4. Most of the histories of the Persian Revolution fit into this category.

5. E. Monroe, “Key Force in the Middle East - The Mob,” New York Times, 30 August 1953, pp. 13-5: “Provide Tehran with a political stir and out pour the mob from its slums and shanty towns no matter what the pretext for a demonstration. …Take a cluster of mean streets; fill with idle and semi-employed people; sprinkle with raw notions of social improvement; top with hunger or despair; add rising prices; stir and bring to a boil. Of the ingredients, the most important are the unemployed and the cramped quarters, for they insure that the rumor which sets men moving reaches the maximum of ears in the minimum of time. This applies in any continent - Europe, and America, as well as Asia and Africa. The years in which the historic Paris mob swayed policy were before Haussman built the boulevards…. The Middle Eastern mob of today is so full of dumb resentfulness that it can change within seconds from a collection of separated beings into a mad thing, no longer out for simple ends such as loot or hire, but pouring into the bazaars, it will hack into stores and tear its booty to pieces.”

6. For a humorous story of the crowd see Jamalzadah's, M. “Rajal-i Siasi” (Politician) in his collection of essays entitled Yiki Bud Yiki Nabud (Once Upon A Time) (Tehran, 1941).Google Scholar

7. Le Bon, G. The Crowd (New York, 1966), pp. 35-59.Google Scholar

8. G. Rude, op. cit., pp. 237, 257.

9. Tavildar-i Isfahan, M. H. Joghrafiya-yi Isfahan (The Geography of Isfahan) (Tehran, 1963).Google Scholar

10. Habl al-Matin, 9 and 23 March, 1905.

11. Habl al-Matin, 19 June, 1905.

12. Habl al-Matin, 17 August, 1905.

13. Qudsi, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 99-100.

14. Ibid., p. 106.

15. Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 41.

16. Ibid., p. 47.

17. Qudsi, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 112.

18. Kasravi, op. cit., p. 95.

19. G. B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 3.

20. Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 150.

21. G. B. op. cit., Number 1, pp. 3-4.

22. Quoted by Kasravi, op. cit., p. 110

23. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 4.

24. Recounted by Shaykh Yusif in the Majlis. Iranian Government, Muzakirat-i Majlis (Parliamentary Debates), First Majlis, p. 351.

25. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 4.

26. Quoted in Browne, op. cit., p. 167.

27. Kasravi, op. cit., p. 159; and Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 193.

28. Quoted by Browne, op. cit., p. 137.

29. Quoted in Kasravi, op. cit., p. 336.

30. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 27.

31. Ibid., p. 60.

32. Cited by Browne, op. cit., p. 153.

33. Bahar, Malik al-Shu'ara Tarikh-i Ahzab-i Siasi-yi Iran (History of Political Parties in Iran) (Tehran, 1944), P. 2.Google Scholar

34. For a detailed description of the palace economy see Mustaufi, “A. Sharh-i Zindigani-yi Man (My Life) (Tehran, 1945), Vol. I, pp. 524-64.Google Scholar

35. Marx, K. Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations (London, 1964), p. 178.Google Scholar

36. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 58.

37. Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 93, and Vol. IV, p. 59.

38. Parliamentary Debates, op. cit., First Majlis, p. 385.

39. Ibid., p. 400.

40. Ibid., p. 400.

41. Ibid., p. 383-85.

42. Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 59.

43. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 27.

44. Sur-i Israfil, 13 February 1907.

45. Habl al-Matin, 18 June 1907.

46. Parliamentary Debates, op. cit., First Majlis, p. 229.

47. Ibid., p. 188-90.

48. Ibdi., p. 484.

49. The text of the pamphlet published by the conservative ‘ulama’ is reprinted in Kasravi, op. cit., pp. 415-23.

50. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 27.

51. For a description of the lutis see Arastah, R. “The Character, Organization, and Social Role of Lutis in the Traditional Iranian Society of the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. IV (February 1961), pp. 47-52.Google Scholar

52. Kasravi, op. cit., p. 376.

53. Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 55.

54. Quoted by Hiravi, op. cit., p. 126.

55. Amir-Khizi, op. cit., p. 169.

56. Habl al-Matin, 23 September 1907.

57. G.B. op. cit., Number 1, p. 27.

58. Ibid., p. 141.

59. Ibid., p. 35.

60. Kasravi, op. cit., p. 355.

61. G.B., op. cit., Number 2, pp. 97-9.

62. Hiravi, op. cit., p. 50.

63. Electoral Law, Parliamentary Debates, op. cit., First Majlis, pp. 6-7.

64. For the electoral results of the guilds see Habl al-Matin, 12 November 1906.

65. Shaji'i, Z. Namayandigan-i Majlis-i Shura-yi Milli dar Bist va Yik Dawrah-i Qanunguzari (Members of Parliament in Twenty-one Sessions of the Lower House of Parliament) (Tehran, 1961), p. 176.Google Scholar

66. Parliamentary Debates, op. cit., First Majlis, p. 348.

67. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 114.

68. Parliamentary Debates, op. cit., First Majlis, p. 351.

69. Habl al-Matin, 2 October 1906: “The merchant class played the leading role in the Constitutional Revolution. Without the merchants there would have been no revolution.“

70. Amir-Khizi, op. cit., p. 410. I would like to thank Mr. J. Habibune for giving me a description of the various parts of old Tabriz.

71. Quoted in ibid., p. 163.

72. Ibid., p. 320.

73. Ibid., p. 177.

74. Bibliographical information obtained from: Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. V, pp. 184-222; Tahirzadah-Bihzad, op. cit.; and Kasravi, A. Tarikh-i Hijdah Salah-i Azarbayian (An Eighteen Year History of AzarJaayjan) (Tehran, 1961) , pp. 297-422.Google Scholar

75. Quoted in Malikzadah, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 142.

76. Qudsi, op. cit., p. 158.

77. G.B., op. cit., Number 1, p. 141.

78. Ibid., Number 2. p. 46.

79. Ibid., p. 60.

80. Ibid., p. 107.

81. Quoted by Qudsi, op. cit., p. 245.

82. Sur-i Israfil, 11 Zulhijja, 1325.