The Constitutional Revolution in Persia
Merchants, ulama and townsmen wring a constitution and a Majlis from the shah; the next shah shells the parliament but loses.
In December 1905 the punishment of Tehran merchants over the price of sugar brings the bazaar and the ulama into the streets; thousands of townsmen take sanctuary in the British legation demanding a "house of justice". In August 1906 the ailing Mozaffar ad-Din Shah agrees to elections, and in October the first Majlis opens; in December, a few days before his death, the shah signs the Fundamental Law—the first constitution in the Muslim world after the Ottoman one. His son Mohammad Ali Shah in June 1908 orders the Cossack Brigade under a Russian colonel to shell the Majlis and disperses it. Tabriz rises and holds out under siege for a year; in July 1909 forces from Gilan and the Bakhtiari khans take Tehran, the shah flees to Russia, and the throne goes to his eleven-year-old son. The second Majlis sits until December 1911, when a Russian ultimatum and troops in the north put an end to the revolution. Under the electoral law of 1909 the Jews of Persia receive a deputy of their own in the Majlis—for the first time in the country’s history.
Sources
Documents of the period
- the Fundamental Law of 1906 and the Supplement of 1907 — the constitution and the Majlis
Scholarship
- Edward Browne, The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909 — the course of events from the sugar affair to the taking of Tehran
Basis: documents and evidence.