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The Baha'is and the Constitutional Revolution: The Case of Sari, Mazandaran, 1906–1913

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Moojan Momen
Moojan Momen*
Affiliation:
Bedfordshire, England
*
momen@momen.org.uk
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Abstract

Accounts of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran have tended to ignore the role of the Baha'is in that event. This paper looks at the case of Sari, capital of Mazandaran province, where the Baha'is of the city played a major part in initiating the move towards Constitutionalism and in educating people about the reforms envisaged and about the modern world. They also led the way in carrying out some of these reforms. In particular, the Baha'is established the first modern schools in the town. In this process, they were opposed by the Muslim ‘ulama in the town, who equated Constitutionalism and the Baha'i Faith, and persecuted the Baha'is of the town relentlessly for both reasons, leading eventually to the killing of five of the leading Baha'is of Sari in 1913. A brief account is also given of the attitude of the Baha'i leader ‘Abdu'l-Baha (1844–1921) towards the Constitutional Movement and the role of the Baha'is in it. This paper follows the events of the seven years 1906–13 in Sari and describes seven swings of the pendulum of power in the town alternating between the Baha'is and Constitutionalists on the one hand and the ‘ulama and the royalist forces supporting Muhammad ‘Ali Shah on the other. It points out that the neglect of the Baha'i aspect of these events by historians has led to a failure to account adequately for some of the events of these years.

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Articles
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Iranian Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , June 2008 , pp. 343 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2008

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References

1 Mahjuri, Isma‘il, Tārīkh-i Māzandarān, vol. 2 (Sari, 1966), 230–283Google Scholar. The author was a resident of Sari and had access to oral sources of information as well as archival ones.

2 ‘Shayan, Abbas, Tārīkh-i Daw-hizār-sāla-yi Sārī (Qa'imshahr, 1993), 351–361Google Scholar, 366–378. This source follows Mahjuri closely for this period, but often gives some additional details or explanations.

3 Ali Kazembeyki, Mohammad, Society, Politics and Economics in Māzandarān, Iran, 1848–1914 (London, 2003), 159–210Google Scholar.

4 de Gobineau, Arthur Comte, Religions et philosophies dans l'Asie centrale (Paris, 1957), 273–274Google Scholar.

5 See for example the dispatch in May 1896 of Henry Longworth, the British Consul at Trabizond, in Momen, Moojan, The Bābi and Bahā’ī Religions 1844–1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (Oxford, 1981), 362–363Google Scholar (see other examples of this, p. 362n.). Asadabadi was in fact opposed to the Baha'is, probably because he perceived them as causing a division in the Islamic world and also because of his close association with Azali Babis; see Baha'u'llah's comment on Asadabadi and his activities in Lawh-i Dunya, in Majmū‘a-iy az Alwāh˙-i Jamāl-i Aqdas-i Abhā kih ba‘d az Kitāb-i Aqdas nāzil shuda (Lagenhain, 1980), 54–55.

6 Bayat, Mangol, Iran's First Revolution: Shi‘ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905–1909 (New York, 1991), 186–187Google Scholar.

7 Wratislaw, Albert, A Consul in the East (London, 1924), 246Google Scholar, cited in Momen, Babi and Baha'i Religions, 368; see also Safa'i, Ibrahim, Rahbarān-i Mashrūta, 2 vols., 2nd ed., Tehran, 1983)Google Scholar 1:393n; Ahmad Kasravi, Tārīkh-i Mashrūta-yi Īrān, 4th ed. (Tehran, n.d.), 628, 681.

8 Bayat clearly demonstrates this throughout her book Iran's First Revolution, although she does cloud matters a little by frequently referring to these individuals by the designation “religious dissidents” rather than Azalis. There were, however, no Azalis active in Sari.

9 Juan Cole has studied the role of Shaykh al-Ra'is (see later in this paper) and Janet Afary has looked at the role of Tayira Khanum in The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism (New York, 1996) 197–9Google Scholar. See also Moojan Momen, “The Baha'is of Iran: the Constitutional Movement and the Creation of an ‘Enemy Within’,” paper presented at the conference “The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906–1911”, held at University of Oxford, 30 July–2 August 2006, and Kavian, Milani, “Baha'i Discourses on the Constitutional Revolution,” in Baha'is of Iran: Socio-historical Studies, eds., Dominic Parviz, Brookshaw and Seena, Fazel (London, 2008) pp. 141–155Google Scholar. The most detailed study of the Baha'is in the period of the Constitutional Revolution is Mina Yazdani, Awd˙ā‘-yi ijtimā‘ī-yi Īrān dar ‘ahd-i Qājār az khilal-i āthār-i mubāraka-yi Bahā’ī (Hamilton, Ont., 2003), esp. 255–316.

10 Asadullah, Fadil Mazandarani, Asrār al-Āthār, 5 vols. (Tehran, 1967–72), 4: 97–98Google Scholar; idem, Tārīkh-i Żuhūr al-h˙aqq, vol. 8, pt. 1 (2 parts, Tehran, 1974–75), 818.

11 ‘Azizullah, Sulaymani, Masābīh˙-i Hidāyat, 9 vols. (Tehran, 1947–76), 4: 516Google Scholar.

12 Asadullah Fadil Mazandarani, Tārīkh-i Żuhūr al-h˙aqq, vol. 6 (copy of mss. in private hands), 545–549; vol. 8, pt. 1: 615–618; Sulaymani, Masabih-i Hidayat, 2: 118–123.

13 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 6: 987–989.

14 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 268–269; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 101, 138–139.

15 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 6:988–989; vol. 8, pt. 2: 808–9.

16 Ibid., vol. 8, pt. 2: 810, 818; Mazandarani, Asrar al-Athar, 4:98.

17 Mirza Siraj al-Din in Safarnama-yi Tuhaf-i Bukhara, quoted in Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 154; a similar description is given in Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:282

18 Shaqayiq Iqani, “Tārīkhcha-yi Madāris-i Bahā’ī dar Māzandarān,” unpublished paper, 2001, 22–23.

19 Telephone interview with Badi‘ullah Imani, 23 June 2006, confirmed by e-mail 29 June 2006.

20 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 8, pt. 2: 809–812.

21 For details of these individuals see Mazandarani, Asrar, 4:97–98; Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 8, pt. 1: 117–118; vol. 8, pt. 2: 801–808, 818; Star of the West 3/1 (21 March 1912) - Persian section, 5; Muhammad ‘Ali Faizi, Hayat-i Hadrat-i ‘Abdu'l-Baha (Langenhain, 1986), 175–180; ‘Abdu'l-Husayn Avara (Ayati), al-Kawakib al-Durriya, 3 vols. in 2 (Cairo, 1923), 2: 166–167; Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 294n.

22 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 283n131.

23 Iqani, “Tarikhcha-yi Madaris,” 23; Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 8, pt. 2: 808, 810.

24 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:230; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 351–352; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 163.

25 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:230; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 163–164, 167.

26 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:230; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 163–164. See also Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 145–148 regarding the rivalries among the ‘ulama.

27 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:230; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 352–353; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 163.

28 The evidence for these nine individuals being Baha‘is has been given above; the information for the remaining person, Mirza Hasan Salimi, was given in a telephone interview with Badi‘ullah Imani, 23 June 2006, confirmed by e-mail 29 June 2006. The latter being 87 years old and a life-long Baha'i of Sari knew most of these individuals as a child in Sari and was able to confirm the Baha'i identity of the other individuals, except as indicated above. The seven whose status is not known are Abu'l-Qasim Khan Sa‘id Hudur, I‘timad al-Khaqan Kasimi and the last six of the list, except Mirza Hasan Salimi.

29 Only Sa‘id Hudur is not known to have been a Baha'i.

30 See Momen, “The Baha'is of Iran”.

31 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:231–232; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 355–356; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 164.

32 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:231–233n, quoting the newspaper Majd al-Islam. Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 353; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 158.

33 Salar Fatih quoted in Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:232; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 355. See also comment by Zill al-Sultan that the town contained more than 200 Qajar princes in the 1860s (Tarikh-i Mas‘udi, cited in Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 233n130) and by Mirza Siraj al-Din that there were many mullas in the town (Safarnama-yi Tuhaf-i Bukhara, quoted in Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 144).

34 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:232–233 (quoting Salar Fatih); Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 171.

35 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:230; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 164.

36 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 148.

37 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:232n; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 354.

38 Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 354–355.

39 Iqani, “Tarikhcha-yi Madaris,” 23.

40 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:232n; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 353–354.

41 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 171, citing Fortescue, Military Report and Sadr al-Ashraf, Khatirat.

42 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:232n; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 353–354.

43 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:282; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 180, 187, 188–189; on the ‘Abd al-Malikis, see Sistani, Iraj Afshar, Īl-hā Chādur-nishīn va Tawāyif-i ‘Ashāyirī-yi Īrān, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1368/1987), 2:1078–1079Google Scholar and Adamec, Ludwig, Historical Gazetteer of Iran, vol. 1:Tehran and Northwestern Iran (Graz, 1976), 5–6.Google Scholar

44 On Baha'i-run schools, see Moojan Momen, “The Bahā’ī Schools in Iran” in Brookshaw and Fazel, Baha'is of Iran, pp. 94–121. On women, see Momen, Moojan, “The Role of Women in the Iranian Baha'i Community during the Qajar Period” in Religion and Society in Qajar Iran, ed. Gleave, Robert M. (London, 2005), 346–369Google Scholar and Dominic Parviz Brookshaw, “Instructive encouragement: tablets of Baha'u'llah and ‘Abdu'l-Baha to Baha'i women in Iran and India” in Brookshaw and Fazel, Baha'is of Iran, pp. 49–93.

45 This is what ‘Abdu'l-Baha states (Makatib-i ‘Abdu'l-Baha, vol. 4 (Tehran, 1964), 179) and there is no record of any Baha'i participating, even Shaykh al-Ra'is who was the most politically active (Safa'i, Rahbaran-i Mashruta, 1: 582).

46 There were a few Baha'is who, because they were members of the Qajar family or landowners, opposed the Constitution but there is no evidence that these were more than a handful and none of them were in Sari. The only notable Baha'i supporter of the royalist cause was the Qajar prince Muhammad Husayn Mirza Mu'ayyad al-Saltana (later Mu'ayyad al-Dawla), who became head of the royal cabinet under Muhammad ‘Ali Shah; Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 832; Sulaymani, Masabih Hidayat, 2: 266–71. Another Baha'i Mahdi Khan Vazir Humayun (Qa'im-Maqam) Ghaffari is reported at first to have opposed the Constitution (Avara, al-Kawakib al-Durriya, 2: 181) but this seems to have been before he became a Baha'i. Other Baha'is such as the brothers ‘Azizullah and Valiyullah Varqa were closely associated with Muhammad ‘Ali Shah's court but they had positioned themselves there on ‘Abdu'l-Baha's instructions so that they could act as intermediaries for ‘Abdu'l-Baha's communications with the Shah. This matter however requires further research. The situation in Shiraz (in the south), for example, was complex.

47 Moojan Momen, “The Baha'is of Iran.”

48 Avara maintains that the Sari Baha'is had not been informed of ‘Abdu'l-Baha's prohibition of involvement in politics, but he admits that his information is incomplete (Avara, al-Kawakib al-Durriya 2: 166–167). Avara's statement seems to be contradicted by Mazandarani's assertion that Mushir al-Tujjar was not involved in political activity by 1911 (Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 803).

49 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 805–806, 813. Mazandarani in fact contradicts himself calling Aqa Mahmud first an ardent Baha'i (Bahā’ī-yi mushta‘il, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 805–806) and later when he records his becoming a member of the Democratic Party, he calls him merely a sympathizer (muhibb) with the Baha'i faith (Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 813).

50 No satisfactory biography of Ihsanullah Khan Dustdar has been written, but see Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2:294n. and Rustamnizhad, >Kavus, “Khulāsih-yi Zindigī-nāmih-yi Ihsānullāh Khān Dūstdār,” Gāh Rūzānih-hā-yi Dīrūz va Imrūz, 3 (Spring 1377/1999): 37–44Google Scholar, viewed at http://rouzaneha.org/GahRouzaneh/151-200/153_Ehsanolah.pdf on 25 January 2007. On the Jangali revolt, see Chaqueri, Cosroe, The Soviet Socialist Republic of Iran, 1920–21: Birth of the Trauma (Pittsburgh, 1995Google Scholar); for Dustdar's involvement, see the index in this book under “Doustdār”; for Dustdar's continuing Baha'i sympathies, see 512n68.

51 Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 355–356; Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 232–233; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 171–172.

52 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 232n.; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 354.

53 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 170, 175; Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 239.

54 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 174.

55 Ibid., 174–175. He then joined Sipahdar Tunukabuni in the march on Tehran to overthrow Muhammad ‘Ali Shah.

56 Haj Aqa Muhammad ‘Alaqaband Yazdi, “Tarikh-i Mashrutiyyat,” Iranian National Baha'i Archives, photocopy series (manuscript in Afnan Library), vol. 2, 231–232.

57 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 176.

58 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 232n; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 354;

59 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 811.

60 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 187.

61 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 232n; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 354; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics,182, 294n185.

62 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 187; on the evidence for Tunukabuni being a covert Baha'i, see Momen, “The Baha'is of Iran.”

63 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 182–184.

64 For Baha'i-authored biographies of Shaykh ur-Ra'is see Sulaymani, Masabih-i Hidayat, 7: 419–447, Afnan, Muhammad, “Abu'l-Hasan Mirza Shaykh al-Ra'is,” ‘Andalīb 16, no. 63 (Summer 1997): 39–46Google Scholar, 52. See also Cole, Juan, “Autobiography and Silence: The Early Career of Shaykh al-Ra’īs Qājār”, in Iran im 19.Jahrhundert und die Entstehung der Bahā'ī Religion, eds. Bürgel, Cristoph and Schayani, Isabel (Hildesheim, 1998), 91–126Google Scholar; Cole, Juan, “The Provincial Politics of Heresy and Reform in Qajar Iran: Shaykh al-Rais in Shiraz, 1895–1902,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 22, nos. 1&2 (2002): 119–129Google Scholar. The only historian to try to give an explanation of why Shaykh al-Ra'is was appointed is Mahjuri (Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 275n.) who points out that Shaykh al-Ra'is' brother was stationed in Sari as postmaster. But this brother was an anti-Constitutionalist and as an outsider had little influence in the town.

65 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 174–175, 188–189; Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 277; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 366–367.

66 See for example the comment about Mushir al-Tujjar in Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 803.

67 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 274, 276n; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 367–371; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 190.

68 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 188–191.

69 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 277; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 191–192; Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 813; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 374.

70 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 277–279; Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/1: 117–118, 8/2: 801–806, 814; Star of the West 3/1 (21 March 1912 ) - Persian section, 5; Faizi, Hayat-i Hadrat-i ‘Abdu'l-Baha, 175–180; Avara, al-Kawakib al-Durriya, 2: 166–167; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 375–376; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 191–192. See comments by ‘Abdu'l-Baha concerning the involvement of the partisans of Muhammad ‘Ali Shah in these killings in Makātīb-i ‘Abdul-Bahā, vol. 5 (Tehran, 1975), 176; and in ‘Ishraq-Khavari, Abd al-Hamid, Mā’ida-yi Asamānī, 9 vols. (Tehran, 1964–72) 5: 176, 198–199Google Scholar. Only Mahjuri mentions the killing of Sakina. There is some disagreement in the sources as to whether the murder of Kashmiri took place on this night, a few days later or a month earlier.

71 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 279; Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 814.

72 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 184.

73 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 806–808; Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 278.

74 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/2: 808; Star of the West 3/1 (21 March 1912) - Persian section, 5; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 192; Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 255, 258; the latter source describes him as one of the two leading Constitutionalists of Barfurush (2: 255).

75 Iqani, “Tarikhcha-yi Madaris,” 23–25, 32.

76 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 195–196; Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 280; Shayan, Tarikh-i Daw-hizar-sala, 374–375.

77 Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 83.

78 Mahjuri, Tarikh-i Mazandaran, 2: 282–283; Kazembeyki, Society, Politics, 197.

79 For more on the Baha'i-run schools, see Iqani, “Tārīkhcha-yi Madāris”.

80 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 8/1: 435.

81 On ‘Alaviyya Khanum, see Momen, “Role of Women,” 356–357.

82 Mazandarani, Zuhur al-Haqq, 6: 989, 8/2: 817–818. On ‘Imadi, see ‘Shayan, Abbas, Mazandaran: Sharh-i Hal-i Rijal-i Mu‘asir (Tehran, 1938), 53Google Scholar

83 Review of Religion and Society in Qajar Iran, ed. Robert Gleave, in Baha'i Studies Review 13 (2005), 133. A similar double blindness is noted by Houri Berberian with respect to Armenians and Iranians in “Traversing Boundaries and Selves: Iranian-Armenian Identities during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 25, no. 2 (2005): 279CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 Prior to the Islamic Revolution, the main purveyors of anti-Baha'i polemic posing as scholarship were such individuals as Khan-Malik Sasani (Dast-i Panhān-i Siyāsat-i Ingilīs dar Īrān, Tehran, 1952) and Isma‘il Ra'in (h˙uqūq-bigīrān-i Ingilīs dar Īrān, Tehran, 1967 and Inshi ‘āb-i Bahā'iyyat pas az marg-i Shawqī Rabbānī, Tehran, 1978). After the Revolution, some writers have continued this line, among them ‘Abdullah Shahbazi (see his “Justār-hā’ī az Tārīkh-i Bahā‘ī-garī dar Īrān,” Tārīkh-i Mu ‘āsir Īrān 7, no. 27 (2003): 7–52). The matter of anti-Baha'i propaganda in Iran in the twentieth century is beginning to be investigated; see Rida Afshari, “Naqd-i h˙uqūq-i bashar-i Bahā'iyān dar Jumhūrī-yi Islāmī”, Irannama 19, nos. 1–2 (2001): 151–164, translated as “The discourse and practice of human rights violations of Iranian Baha'is in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” in Brookshaw and Fazel, The Baha'is of Iran, pp. 232–77; Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi, “Bahā'ī-sitīzī va Islām-garā'ī dar Īrān,” Iran-Nama, ibid.: 79–124, translated as “Anti-Baha'ism and Islamism in Iran” in Brookshaw and Fazel, Baha'is of Iran, pp. 184–99; H.E. Chehabi, “Anatomy of Prejudice: Reflections on Secular Anti-Baha'ism in Iran” in Brookshaw and Fazel, Baha'is of Iran, pp. 200–31.

85 A good example of this is Frances Bostock and Geoffrey Jones, Planning and Power in Iran: Ebtehaj and Economic Development under the Shah (London, 1989). In the opening chapter, the authors attempt to answer the question: “Where did Ebtehaj get the ideas and outlook which differentiated him so starkly from most of his Iranian contemporaries?” (p. 11). Their conclusion is that one of the most important influences on Abu'l-Hasan Ibtihaj's “views and character” was the moral uprightness and independence of mind of his father Mirza Ibrahim Ibtihaj al-Mulk (p. 11). And yet, nowhere in this opening chapter (pp. 11–24) where this matter is discussed (nor indeed anywhere else in the book) is it mentioned that Ibtihaj al-Mulk was an active and committed Baha'i. Indeed during a persecution of the Baha'is that broke out in Rasht in 1903, he had been temporarily expelled from the town as one of the leading and well-known Baha'is (see dispatch of the British consul Churchill, 19 May 1903, FO 248 792, in Momen, Babi and Baha'i Religions, 376). Nor is it mentioned that Abu'l-Hasan Ibtihaj himself had been brought up as a Baha'i and had attended the Baha'i-run Tarbiyat School in Tehran, although he was not a Baha'i in his adult years.

86 See discussion of this point in Velasco, Ismael, “Academic Irrelevance or Disciplinary Blind-Spot? Middle Eastern Studies and the Bahā'ī Faith Today,” MESA Bulletin 35, no. 2 (Winter 2001), 188–200Google Scholar. Available at http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/35-2/35-2Velasco.htm (viewed 26 January 2007).

87 In many small towns, such as Astarabad, Zanjan, Arak (Sultanabad) and Sari, the leading clerics were against the Constitution, and in the larger towns, such as Tehran and Tabriz, there was usually a faction of the cleric class who were opposed. Thus the orthodoxy that the clerical class were the leaders of the Constitutional Revolution, first established by E.G. Browne (in The Persian Revolution of 1905–1909, Cambridge, 1910) and subsequently confirmed by Hamid Algar (in Religion and State in Iran 1795–1906, Berkeley, 1969) has hidden the role of other groups and needs to be re-examined on a town-by-town basis. Bayat (Iran's First Revolution), Afary (The Iranian Constitutional Revolution) and others have already studied other leading groups in the Constitutional Revolution. I am grateful to Peter Smith and Sen McGlinn for their comments on this paper.