Newsletter No. 680
Research-Review
July 18, 2007

 

HOSUKE NAGASE’S ACCOUNT OF THE IRANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION

One of the very few contemporary Japanese to take an interest in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1906-1911) was the academic Hosuke Nagase. Presented here is an English translation of an article he published in the popular magazine Taiyo (The Sun) in February 1912.

There are several significant points to be made. First of all, this may be the only serious account of the Constitutional Revolution produced in Japan in that era. Nagase was practically the only scholar of the region at that time. Secondly, Nagase had actually traveled in the region during the previous decade, so he did have some firsthand knowledge to supplement what he had read in European accounts. Third, as he himself states directly, his own sympathies were with the revolutionary party, perhaps because Japan had itself faced political interference from European nations in the previous decades of its development. On the other hand, Nagase also makes clear that, in his analysis, Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) was a much stronger and vital Islamic nation than Persia.

This English translation is provided by the Shingetsu Institute.

The Persian Revolution
By Hosuke Nagase, PhD

In recent years, the revolutionary movement in Persia has signified an awakening of the Islamic peoples as well as those of Turkey, and can be regarded as a remarkable event in the history of civilization. However, compared with Turkey, the level of Persian culture and the ability of the people are much lower. Moreover, the power of Persia as a country is extremely weak. Although its revolution succeeded three years ago, the Persian government still doesn’t have the ability to fulfill its constitutional politics. Even now there are many political troubles in the country, and thus the Powers interfere in this country. They are faced with a national crisis.

According to my observations, the origin of this revolution is based on the existence of the Young Persia Party organized by patriotic people in Persia. The members of this party thought that the existence of Persia as an independent country had already passed in practical terms, and that their country would be divided by the Powers sooner or later. Therefore, they decided to destroy the old regime and form a constitutional government in order to restore the power of their country, and they firmly rose in revolt against the old regime. There were some incentives for raising the revolution. First, they were inspired by the success of the Young Turk Party. Moreover, the glorious victory of Japan as a constitutional country gave them motivation as well. Therefore, I am interested in writing the history of this revolution, as I can’t help sympathizing with these people.

Section II

Before discussing the main theme, I would like to explain the two big social powers in Persia, or the relationship between the king and Islamic priests.

Successive Persian kings called themselves “Shah” since the age of the Islamic Empire. They were believed to be endowed with a particular spiritual right. Thus they could control people with absolute and unlimited power. For example, they had the privilege to kill people, and this right made no distinction between ordinary people and the royal family. Thus, they were known as typical tyrants. Although there were some dynasties in the royal history of this country, the god-like power of the king was inherited and maintained its strength. Moreover, because Islam spread among the people rapidly, Persian kings could establish the basis of their regime through the doctrines of the Holy Koran. Therefore, they succeeded in making a strong relationship between royalty and the religion. In 1794, the Qajar royal family arose out one of the Mongol nations and claimed itself descendant from an officer of Genghis Khan. The royal family which founded the present dynasty inherited the honorific title “the King of Kings.” This family also obtained and abused the absolute and unlimited power which has been handed down since the ancient age. However, the fourth king Nasr ad-Din and his son Muzaffar ad-Din were influenced by Europeanization and they tried to reform the old political system, but they failed. This was because political conventions which had been maintained for a long time in this country prevented their plans from attaining success.

As for the Islamic priests, they already called themselves magi in the age of Zoroastrianism. At that time, they already had the second-highest social rank below the king. Their power was so strong that even the king couldn’t control it. Afterward, they changed their faith to Islam and they called themselves mullahs. They had an influence not only on religious events but also political, legal, and other secular matters. Actually, they played an important role as a lawyers and educators. They had a strong influence on the people and tremendous power in Persian society. Sometimes their power was strong enough to surpass that of the king, and they often became leaders of rebellion. During the recent revolution they stood on a platform and expressed ideas of liberalism, and they supported the revolutionary movement openly or secretly. In addition, in Turkey an emperor was also a shaikh of the Sunni sect of Islam under the title of Caliph. On the other hand, in Persia, a king was not a shaikh of the Shiite sect of Islam. A shaikh in Persia was the highest-ranking priest who lived in Karbala, which was located southwest of Baghdad. People looked up to him as a substitute for the founder, and a million people came to his mosque in order to pray with him every year. When the revolution broke out last year, it was said that this priest supported the revolutionists, and he proclaimed this movement as a jihad.

In short, in order to study both the causes of the Persian Revolution and the formation of this country, it is important for us to understand the fact that there were two conflicting social powers in Persia, and thus they became to be two main centers of the political conflict.

Section III

As for the above, the Persian kings Nasr ad-Din (who succeeded to the throne in 1848) and his son Muzaffar ad-Din (who succeeded to the throne in 1896) had been to Europe twenty-three times. Therefore, they were influenced by Europeanization, and they tried to change their traditional regime into constitutional politics. For example, they invited an Austrian military officer first and a Russian officer in order to reform their military systems. Also, they employed a public officer of Belgium in order to establish both the postal system and the customs system (actually set up in 1899). They selected young people of noble families and made them study in Europe. Moreover, they constructed many technical schools and employed French people as teachers. However, it was difficult for them to get a good result because there was strong resistance by a group which supported the ancien régime. In addition to this opposition, there was an economic problem that stymied their reforms. Basically, the economic condition of this country wasn’t stable and great sums of money were spent in order to invest in new enterprises. For example, it took several million yen to support the kings’ travels to Europe. Because of these expenditures, foreign debt increased much more than previously. In order to pay off this debt, heavy taxes were imposed on the people, and creditor nations such as Britain and Russia were given some privileges from the Persian government. In this way, both countries started to interfere in the internal affairs of this country. People became dissatisfied with the king and expressed their complaints openly. In other words, the germ of the revolution was already seen at the time of the king Muzaffar ad-Din. The members of the Young Persia Party who had received modern education in Europe asserted the advantages of constitutional government loudly, and they demanded the king to establish the parliament. The Persian people agreed with this idea instantly because they tended to side with others easily. They founded the National Constitutional Party and they engaged in political movements. Because of this, some rebellions broke out in various places and Persian society became unstable. Certainly, the higher Persian priests supported these movements willingly, and although they concealed their identity at first, they demanded the king to establish the parliament (called a “majlis”) clearly.

Finally, the king Muzaffar ad-Din accepted the wish of the people on August 10 in 1906. He published a temporary constitution immediately and he ordered the establishment of the parliament. He then carried out an election to choose members of the parliament. On October 7 of the same year, the king held the grand opening ceremony of the Parliament in his palace. After that, the constitution was written and the king approved it. The Persian Constitution was formally promulgated on December 31. In making the constitution Saad ad-Dowleh was the most influential person. Once he stayed in Belgium as the Persian minister and he knew the situation of that country very well. Because of that, it was said that Belgium was taken by him as a model of the Persian Constitution.

Like this, the members of the Young Persia Party realized their dream. Persia became a constitutional country two years earlier than Turkey. Unfortunately, the king who supported progressivism fell sick and passed away on January 9, 1907; and then the prince Mohammad Ali succeeded to the throne. However, unlike the previous king, he was mediocre and had little knowledge about the international situation. Moreover, because of his weak character, he accepted the ideas of the conservative group easily, and thus he tried to abolish the constitutional government. Because of this, it is needless to say that he had the same fate as Turkish king Abdul Hamid.

Section IV

On October 7, 1906, the first session of parliament was held. In this meeting the first item on the agenda was a loan from Britain and Russia. The members of parliament thought that borrowing heavily from other countries would cause serious damage to the honor and benefit of their country. Therefore they decided to reject this subject unanimously. Instead of the loan, they made a plan to found a national bank in order to pay back their debts by issuing national bonds. They tried to take back some privileges which the branch banks of Britain and Russia had held in Persia. Next, they discussed the idea that the reform of their government was just nominal. First, they demanded the king Mohammad Ali to adopt a meritocracy. However, their behavior was so rude that the king proposed a plot to his close officers secretly in order to abolish the constitutional government. There was severe conflict between the parliament and the government, which led to troubles between the officers and people in local areas. Finally, Prime Minister Ali Ashgar Khan was assassinated, and there was a person who threw a bomb to kill the king.

Thus, the king reconciled with the parliament reluctantly. In January 1907, he promised again to respect the constitution in front of the chairman of the House of Representatives. After that, the power of parliament increased even more, and the king became afraid. Unfortunately, it was then revealed that the king had concluded a secret treaty with Russia in order to ask for its protection. The conflict between the government and the National Constitutional Party broke out again, and there were some battles in the city of Tehran. The members of parliament blamed these struggles on the ministers of the conservative party and they strongly demanded the king to dismiss them. However, the king rejected this demand. He decided to attack the members of parliament with the Cossack Cavalry Brigade led by the Russian Colonel Liakhoff after having meeting with his close officers. Finally, the king succeeded in dissolving the parliament by force and abolished the constitution. This event caused a flutter among the people and led to a revolution. According to my observations, this is the first direct cause of the Persian Revolution.

Section V

The Persian king took oppressive measures to solve the problem, and he temporally succeeded in putting down the resistance in Tehran. However, because of that, strong resistance arose among people in local areas, and thus many rebellions broke out all over the nation. There was a city which took the initiative in carrying out a rebellion among local cities. It was the capital city Tabriz of Azerbaijan which was the second biggest city (population about 200,000) in Persia. In this city, the leader of the movement was Sattar Khan, who was a Persian of Mongol heritage as well as a famous rich merchant. He intended to raise a revolution and mobilized his army against the king with his friend Baqir Khan. They resisted the loyalist army and defeated it. Finally, they could occupy the palace and founded a temporary government, and thus they proclaimed their independence. There were some reasons why Tabriz became to be a main city of the revolutionary activities in those days, and even now the city has many rebellions. The first reason was that people in the city were full of independent spirit, and they intended to resist the central government. The second reason was that they had strong consciousness as Persians because their city was located in the border with Russia and Turkey. The third reason was that people in the city felt strong hostility toward Russia because there were conflicts with Russia. Another reason was that the people in this city were influenced by the revolutionary movements which broke out in Russia at that time.

As soon as the Persian patriots who lived in Turkey, Egypt, India, and Russia heard the news of the rebellion, they collected a great deal of money to support this revolutionary movement as if they were competing with each other. They sent their money to the revolutionaries in Tabriz. The Persian people who supported the revolution did these things for the sake of the independence of their motherland. Therefore, the ministers of Russia and Britain advised the Persian king to call for the members of parliament in order to restore peace to the country. Finally, the king accepted this advice and he promised to call the members of parliament on November 14 in order to have an election on December 20, 1908. However, he didn’t want to keep this promise. He managed to make some excuses in order to break his promise. At this time, three hundred priests, officers, and merchants of the conservative group visited the king at the palace. They asked the king not to adopt the constitution because they thought that it was against their principles. Although it was not clear whether their visit was one of the king’s strategies or not, he had his strong supporters and he decided to break his promise. Therefore, when the ministers of Britain and Russia demanded the Persian king to keep his promise again, he didn’t have any good plans. Formally, the king founded a House of Councilors consisting of fifty members whom he appointed directly, and he held the parliament on December 29 of the same year. However, the “constitutional party” was a kind of dummy group, and its members were only puppets of the king. Therefore, people couldn’t trust their king any more, and that inspired them once again for revolution. Their movement increased in energy as if it was a fire burning out of control. According to my observations, that is the second direct cause.

Section VI

There were many rebellions all over the nation which spread over from Azerbaijan in the north to each state of central and south Persia. Especially, the Bakhtiari nation, half-nomads who lived beside the Karun River in east Luristan, was brave and militant. About twenty-five thousand cavalry of the Bakhtiari were led by chief Samsam al-Saltanah and they invaded Isfahan -- an old city which had about ninety thousand people located in central Persia and in an important position for commerce or traffic -- on January 3. They killed the governor and officers of the state and occupied the governmental office, and then they founded their temporary government. The leader Saltanah sent a telegram to his younger brother Sardar Assad, who lived in Paris at that time. Saltanah recalled his brother to Persia in order to raise a revolution with other rebellious people. Sardar Assad was not only smart but also courageous. He was also educated in Europe, and he had enough knowledge. Moreover, he had an ambition that he would defeat the Qajar dynasty and the Bakhtiari family would take the place of it. Later, Sardar Assad became known as a hero in the revolutionary party.

At the end of January a rebellion also broke out in the important port of Bushire in the Persian Gulf. Rebellious people killed the governor of the state and occupied the office, and then they proclaimed their independence. Many rebellions broke out in each region such as Larestan, Shiraz, Hamadan, and so on. Like this, the rebellious movement really spread all over the nation. At this time, the Russian government sent troops to the borders of Persia, and the Turkish government guarded this area, too. After that, the British government sent the cruiser Fox to the Persian Gulf and one hundred soldiers for landed at Bushire. At the same time, four hundred soldiers of Russia landed at Enzeli on the coast of the Caspian Sea.

The Persian king had received news about the rebellion in Tabriz. The king commanded the previous prime minister, Prince Ain ad-Dowleh, to go Tabriz in order to put down the rebellion with Rahim Khan. The loyalist army battled with the revolutionary army for a month near the city. The king’s soldiers were often beaten back, and it was difficult for them to break the force of their enemy. During this war Rahim Khan attacked some villages around the city and plundered there. Finally, he occupied the road which led from the Russian border. Because of this, Tabriz was surrounded, and the traffic was shut down and food was short. People in the city were starving. Therefore, on April 19, the Russian government ordered the Persian king to supply food to the representatives of other countries, foreigners, and to peaceful citizens in this area. If the king didn’t do so, the Russian government would interfere forcefully. The ministers of Britain and Russia sent a letter to the Persian king. In it, they utilized the difficult issue of debt payments. Their first condition was to dismiss both the prime minister and the military minister, and the next was to give amnesty to political prisoners. The third was to respect the constitution. The fourth was to reform the government. The fifth was to construct a governmental system based on liberalism.

Finally, the king promised a six-day truce on April 20 and he supplied food to people in Tabriz. However, Prince Ain ad-Dowleh rejected this order and didn’t obey the king. Therefore the Russian government decided to interfere in Persia by force. On April 26, the Russian General Snarsky approached Tabriz with his force of roughly six thousand soldiers and occupied the city. At this time, the Persian king held to the truce and supplied food to the people in Tabriz.

The king didn’t seem to fulfill the plans of political reform proposed by Britain and Russia. As a result of this, the governments of both countries sent a final notice to the king on April 30. In it they said that if the king didn’t carry out these reforms by May 2, they would interfere in the country with a strong attitude. Finally, the king accepted this demand and consented to establish a new constitution. The king ordered the holding of an election to choose new members of parliament and he declared that he would call for these members on July 19. The king also established a new government based on liberalism. Finally, he gave amnesty to political prisoners and withdrew his troops from Tabriz on May 10. However, the timing of the king’s obedience was so late that nobody believed in his declarations. The movements which sought a revolution in each region maintained their power.

Section VII

In those days the members of the revolutionary party increased their passion for their movements more and more, in part because the Russian troops occupied the northern area of Azerbaijan. They thought that the Russian government had tried to help the Persian king in order to destroy the constitutional party. Therefore, they criticized the intervention of Russia, and then they demanded that the king remove the Russian troops from their land. However, it was impossible for the government to fulfill this demand because it had no power to do so. Finally, the revolutionary party decided to advance on Tehran from each region in order to occupy it. This was the time in which the highest-ranking priest in Karbala, who was mentioned above, sympathized with the members of the revolutionary party, and he proclaimed their movements as a jihad.

Then, Sipahdar, who was a leader of Gilan, appeared as a leader of the revolutionary party. He was also influenced by European civilization and one of the real brains in Persia. He believed in liberalism and he made an effort to establish a constitutional government. When the previous liberal government was formed, Sipahdar was appointed the mayor of Gilan by the king. However, the king didn’t change his real way of thinking and eventually destroyed the constitutional government. Therefore, Sipahdar was so angry that he decided to be a leader of the revolutionary party and raised rebellion in Qazvin. He cooperated with Sardar Assad in Isfahan, and he inspired his brothers in local areas. He made a plan to advance on Tehran, and his brothers agreed with his idea, and thus they decided to raise a revolution together.

In Qom, Sardar and his soldiers of the Bakhtiari nation left for Tehran. Sipahdar in Qazvin, who also became to be a leader of militia gathering from Tabriz and other regions, left for Tehran, too. When the Persian king received news of these movements, he understood that his situation was extremely perilous. Because this bad news upset him greatly, he immediately proclaimed martial law in Tehran. On May 17, 1909, the Persian king ran away to the palace in Sultanabad with his princes and royalists.

The revolutionary army gathering from each region defeated the royalist army and swept all before them. As the revolutionary party approached Tehran gradually, the situation of the king grew into a crisis. On July 3, the Russian government sent a letter to the Powers. In this letter, Russia said that the present condition of Persia was very serious. The Persian government had accepted advice proposed by Britain and Russia, and Persia had established a constitutional government and began to reform its administration. However, the movements of revolution hadn’t ended, and now rebellious troops were approaching Tehran. Moreover, there were people who welcomed these troops in Tehran. The condition of the city was very dire. Not only the legations of Russia and other European countries in Persia, but also people’s lives and properties might be faced with danger. In order to protect them, the Russian government sent a regiment of Cossack horseman, a battalion of infantry, and a battery from Baku to Enzeli. The Russian government said that it would like to take the opportunity to approach Tehran through Qazvin. Also, the government declared that it had no intention of interfering in Persia. Therefore, the expeditionary army of Russia landed on Enzeli on July 6, and the advance party arrived at Tehran with their vehicles three days later.

During this battle the Persian king depended exclusively on the Cossack Brigade in Persia. However, the Russian colonel made peace with Sipahdar and demanded his soldiers to stop fighting. This is because Liakhoff knew that the numbers of the revolutionary troops were bigger than own his army. Thus, the Persian king didn’t have any real resources in his hands any more, and he proclaimed the end of the war according to the demands of Britain and Russia. On the night on July 16, he went to the Russian legation and asked for its protection. That night he ran away to Russia protected by Russian soldiers.

Section VIII

Finally, the revolutionary troops gained victory. The new government was under the control of Sipahdar. He called the main members of the government to a meeting, and then they decided to dethrone King Mohammad Ali. Instead of him, they put the ten-year old Prince Ahmad Mirza forward as a king. Sipahdar took the posts of both Minister of the Army and the Governor of Tehran. Sardar took the position of the Home Secretary. Nasir al-Mulk, who was a senior member of the royal family, became Minister of Foreign Affairs. After that, a new election was carried out on August 19. A new parliament was held on November 5. In this way, the Persian revolution ended in success.

However, there have been a lot of troubles in Persia since then. Last year, the abolishment of the monarchy was discussed again, and there was a conflict between Persia and Russia. It was ended without major trouble only because the Persian government obeyed Russia absolutely. The revolution of Persia couldn’t bring a bright future to this country. The present situation of this country seems to be unstable just the same as before. I can’t help sympathizing with a tragic end of the Persian Empire.