International Society for Iranian Studies

Refashioning Iran: Language and Culture during the Constitutional RevolutionAuthor(s): Mohamad Tavakoli-TarghiSource: Iranian Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1/4 (1990), pp. 77-101Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310728 .Accessed: 12/08/2011 18:06

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Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi

Refashioning Iran: Language and Culture During the Constitutional Revolution*

Introduction

The dialogic interaction among India, Europe, and the Arab-Islamic culture in the 18th and 19th centuries led to a refashioning of Iran and a rescripting of "the people" and "the nation" in Iranian political and historical discourses. The newly imagined Iran, constructed of textual traces and archaeological ruins, fashioned a new syntax for the reconstruction of the past and the formation of a new national time, territory, writ, culture, literature, and politics. Language, the medium of communication and signification, and the locus of tradition and cultural memory, was restyled. Arabic words were purged, "authentic" Persian terms forged, and neologisms and lexicography were constituted as endeavors for "national reawak- ening." Iran-centered histories displaced dynastic and Islam-centered chronicles. In order to recover from historical amnesia, people reinvented pre-Islamic Iran as a lost utopia with Kayumars as a Persian prophet predating Adam, Mazdak as a theoretician and practitioner of freedom and equality, Kavah-yi Ahangar as the originator of "national will" (himmat-i mill), and Anushirvan as a paradigmatic just-constitutional monarch.

The selective remembrance of things pre-Islamic made possible the dissociation of Iran from Islam and the articulation of a new national identity and political discourse. This contingent forgetting and remembering, a generative theatrical and rhetorical act enabling maneuvers among alternative and often contradictory positions and identities, foregrounded Iranian modernity and the discourse of con- stitutionalism. The modernist language and identity was a product of theatrical and rhetorical maneuvers and contestations among alternative forms of Iranian- ness. Such maneuvers made possible the resignification of shared but contested concepts used by modernists and traditionalists, Iranists and Islamicists. 'Ilm, previously restricted to Qur'an-centered knowledge, was considered a monopoly

* This essay is dedicated to Firaydun Adamiyat, in appreciation of his historio- graphic contributions. It is a product of extensive dialogue with many friends and colleagues, including Catherine Peaden, C. M. Naim, Palmira Brummett, Khosrou Shakeri, Valentine Moghadam, and Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, as well as Shahla Haeri, Houchang Chehabi, and Abbas Amanat; I am especially thankful to Afsaneh Najmabadi for her intellectual support. Needless to say, I alone am responsible for the rhetoricality and theatricality of its approach.

78 Tavakoli-Targhi

of religious scholars (ulama) by the emerging empiricist modem intellectuals (munavvar al-fikran), who sought to inherit the scientific developments of "cultured Europe" (Farang-i bdafarhang). InqilTb, formerly considered disorder created by unruly subjects, was resignified as the people's endeavor to reestablish social order disrupted by the tyranny and injustice of the shahs. Siyasat, the right of the sovereign to punish and even execute "his subjects," was recoded as the right of the nmllat to participate in societal decision making. Kishvar-i iran (the realm of Iran) or Iran-zamin (Iran-land), viewed in the earlier Iran-centered geographical imagination as the center of the seven spheres of the earth, was reimagined to conform to the territorial realities of the 19th century imposed on Iran by the newly emerging European powers. Valan, previously exclusive of one's birthplace, became inclusive of territorial Iran. Millat, a collective forma- tion associated with the community of believers, was dissociated from Islam and the creator God, and anchored to the life-giving mother-nation (mam-i valan) and the mother tongue (zabdn-i mddari). The sedimentation or forgetting of contin- gent and constitutive acts that refashioned the nmllat from a religious collectivity (millat-i ShUl) into a national collectivity (millat-i fran) authorized a new hegemonic politics emerging in the aftermath of the Constitutional Revolution.

In the following pages, a general outline of the cultural and political contesta- tions that informed Iranian modemity and the Constitutionalist discourse will be offered. It will be argued that the re-emplotment of pre-Islamic history and the restyling of the Persian language provided the discursive conditions for the disso- ciation of Iran from Islam and the articulation of the Constitutionalist language and identity.

I. Re-Envisaging History

In an increasing number of 18th- and 19th-century Persian historical texts, "Iran" was constituted as the shifter and organizer of chains of narration and emplot- ment. For instance, Rustam al-tavarikh, completed in 1215/1800, referred to Karim Khan Zand (d. 1779) as "the architect of the ruined Iran" (mi'mdr-i Iran-i virdn) and "the kind father of all the people of Iran" (pidar-i mihrbdn-i hamah- yi ahl-i !rdn).1 Among compound constructions with Iran that were politically significant, Rustam al-Hukama used iranmadar (Iran-protector), dawlat-i Iran (government of Iran), farnumnravd'i-yi iran (governing of Iran), ahl-i Iran (the people/residents of Iran), and territorial couplets such as kishvar-i Iran, mamalik-i !rdn, qalamraw-i Iran, and bilad-i iran.2 Like many other 19th- century historians, Muhammad Hasan Khan I'timad al-Saltanah set himself the task of writing a geographical and historical "biography of Iran" (sharh-i hal-i

1. Muhammad Hashim Rustam al-Hukama, Rustam al-tavdrikh, ed. Muhammad Mushiri (Tehran, 1969), 423. 2. Respectively in ibid., 309, 378, 391, 418, 459; 309; 61; 383, 392, 395, 458; 69, 396; 81, 82; 130; 466.

Refashioning Iran 79

Iran).3 The narratological centrality of Iran signified the emergence of a new conception of historical time differing from the prevalent cyclical arrangement of chronicles. While Iran had been conceived of as the center of the universe in the Persian geographic imagination, pre- 19th-century chronicles rarely temporalized Iran and were often concerned with the cycle of rise and fall of dynasties.4 Tem- poralization-the formulation of Iran as the "ultimate referent" for the sequence of events-allowed for the emergence of new modes of historical emplotment. Ancient history, for long equated with the sacred history and the cycles of mes- sengers and prophets from the time of Adam to the rise of Muhammad, was reenvisaged. The cyclical time of messengers and prophets gave way to an Iran- time connecting the "glorious pre-Islamic past" to a reawakened present and a rejuvenated future. In such histories the universality of the biblical/Qur'anic sto- ries was challenged. It was argued that Adam might have been the father of the Arabs but not the father of humanity; that position was claimed for the Persian Kayumars.

With the emergence of Iran-time, the mythical tempos of the ShIhnamah, a 10th-century Persian epic narrative of pre-Islamic Iran, and neo-Zoroastrian texts such as Dasdtir, Dabistan-i mazahib, and Chdrisidne-i chahar chaman increasingly displaced the sacred time of Islam.5 Reading and (re)citing the

3. Muhammad Hasan Khan I'timad al-Saltanah, Mir'dt al-buldan, ed. 'Abd al- Husayn Nava'i (Tehran, 1367 S./1988), 3; 'Abd al-Razzaq Maftun Danbali, Ma'as ir-i sulwiniyah (Tabriz, 1241/1825). 4. In the Persian geographical perception the earth was divided into seven realms or territories (haft kishvar or haft iqlim) with Iran as their center.

The succession of dynasties was explained with recourse to the master narratives of the "Circle of Justice" and the "twinship of state and religion." According to the circle of justice (dj'irah-yi 'addlat) theory, the stability of the state (dawlat) depended on the army (sipTh/lashkar); maintenance of the army depended on pros- perity (dbaddni); and prosperity depended on justice ('adl). The fall of a dynasty was attributed to the spread of injustice. 5. By neo-Zoroastrianism I have in mind the movement led by Azar Kayvan and his disciples. The publication and dissemination of their works, especially Dasctir, Dabistdn-i mazdhib, Charistan-i chah&r chaman, Zardast-i Afshar, Zindah ruid, and Khishtab contributed to the revitalization of the pre-Islamic history of Iran. On Azar Kayvan and his disciples see Muhammad Mu'in, "Azar Kayvan va payravdn-i ii," Majallah-yi ddnishkadah-yi adabiyct-i Tihran 4.3 (Farvardin 1336 S./March 1957): 25-42. Dasatir was claimed to be a "collection of the writings of the different Persian Prophets, who flourished from the time of Mahabad to the time of the fifth Sasan, being fifteen in number, of whom Zerdusht or Zoroaster was the thirteenth and the fifth Sasan the last" (The Desatir or Sacred Writings of the Persian Prophets, 2 vols. [Bombay: Courier Press, 1818], iii). The Dasdtir was collected by Mulla Firuz and taken to India during the reign of Shah 'Abbas. The second volume of the published text included a glossary of obscure Persian words. Scholars such as Purdavud have questioned the authenticity of the Dasatir. Dabistan-i mazdhib also flourished during the same period with similar claims. These attempts seem to have been an important component of the contestation for constructing an Iranian identity at a time of Shi'i ascendancy. On the controver- sial issues surrounding Dasatir see Sheriarji Dadabhai Bharucha, The Dasdtir, being

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Shahnamah and other Iran-glorifying texts in a period of societal dislocation, military defeats, and foreign infiltration allowed for the contingent rearticulation of Iranian identity and construction of alternative forms of historical narration and periodization. The Islamic master narrative dividing history into civilized Islamic and uncivilized pre-Islamic periods was increasingly displaced by the meta-narratives and periodizations of the Shdhncmah and the Dasctir. The eras of Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus were replaced with those of Kayumars, Hushang, Tahmuris, and Jamshid.

Published in more than twenty editions in Iran and India in the 19th century, the Shdhnamah provided valuable semantic and symbolic resources for dissociating Iran from Islam and fashioning an alternative basis of identity.6 Its accessibility contributed to its increased popularity in the coffeehouses-important sites of cultural production and dissemination. Recitation of the Shahndmah in the coffeehouses increasingly displaced the narration of popular religious epics such as Husayn-i Kurd-i Shabistarl, Iskandar namah, Rumuiz-i Hamzah, and Khdvar ndmah.7 A number of 19th-century poets such as Sayyid Abu al-Hasan Harif Jandaqi (d. 1230/1814),8 Hamdam Shirazi and Mirza Ibrahim Manzur were among the well-known reciters of the Shuihndmah.9 The Qajar shahs, Aqa Muhammad Khan, Fath 'Ali Shah, Nasir al-Din Shah, and Muzaffar al-Din Shah, were known to have had their own reciters, or Shahndmah khwdrnn.10 It is reported that Amir Kabir, upon hearing from Nasir al-Din Shah that Sir John Malcom's History of Persia was being read to him at bed time, suggested that instead the shah should have the Shdihnimah recited to him: "Why don't you read the Shahnamah.... You should know that for all Iranians, from the highest to the lowest, the ShThndmah is the best of all books."" The importance of the Sh,ihnamah in 19th-century Iran can also be ascertained from the increased adop- tion of the names of its heros and characters. An increasing number of Qajar princes were given names such as Farhad, Firaydun, Nushafarin, Isfandyar, Ardashir, Bahman, Kaykavus, Kayumars, Jamshid, and Khusraw. The popular-

a paper prepared for the tenth International Congress of Orientalists held in Geneva in 1894 a. c. (Bombay, 1907). 6. For a list Shdhhndmahs printed in the 19th century see Iraj Afshar, Kitjbshindsi- yi Shahncmah (Tehran, 1347 S./1968), 191-9. 7. For studies of recitation traditions see Muhammad Ja'far Mahjub, "Sukhanvari," Sukhan 9.6 (Shahrivar 1337/1958): 530-35; idem, "Sukhanvari," Sukhan 9.7 (1337 S./1958): 631-7; idem, "Sukhanvari," Sukhan 9.8 (1337 S./1958): 779-86; idem, "Tahavvul-i naqqdli va qissah khwcini, tarbiyat-i qissah khWandn va t(imarha- yi naqqili," Iran Nameh 9.2 (Spring 1991): 186-211. Also see Bahram Bayza'i, "Namdyish dar Iran: naqqali," Majallah-yi masiqi 3.66 (1341 S./1962): 15-33; Mary Ellen Page, "Professional Storytelling in Iran: Transmission and Practice," Iranian Studies 12 (Summer 1979): 195-215. 8. Ahmad Divan Baygi, Hadiqat al-shu'ara' (Tehran, 1364 S./1985), 425-7. 9. For a useful study of Shjhndmah khwani see Husayn Lisan, "Shdhndmah khw'ni,' Hunar va mardum 14.159-160 (Day-Bahman 1354/1975): 2-16. 10. Muhammad Ibrahim Bastani-Parizi, "Shdhndmah dkhirash khush ast," Nay-i haft band (Tehran, 1353 S./1974), 259-373. 11. Quoted in Lisan, 15. Also see Safar namah-yi Mirza Fattah Khan Garmrurdi bi Urupa, ed. Fath al-Din Fattahi (Tehran, 1347 S./1968), 919.

Refashioning Iran 81

ity of ancient Iranian names signified an important aesthetic shift in the compo- sition of both personal and national identities.

Imitations of the Shahndmah, popular among the 19th-century poets, became an important means of literary and cultural creativity. Fath 'Ali Khan Saba (d. 1238/1822) mimicked Firdawsi in a 5,500-verse collection, Shdhanshahnamah, describing the Irano-Russian war. Among other poets mimicking Firdawsi were Visal Shirazi (1192 or 1193-1262/1778 or 1779-1845) and his son, Muhammad Davari (1238-1283/1822-1866). Davari was an able calligrapher and transcribed a most beautiful copy of the Sh/hndmah.'2 In a versified introduction to his transcribed edition, Davari praised Firdawsi for glorifying the name of Iran and revitalizing ancient history.'3 He also wrote a versified history of Iran from the Mongol to the Safavid periods that remained incomplete because of his early death.'4

Veneration of Firdawsi was not limited to traditionalist poets. Nineteenth-cen- tury intellectuals such as Akhundzadah, Mirza Malkum Khan, and Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, who were critical of Iran's poetic tradition, respected Firdawsi's work. Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani viewed the Shdhndanwh as a foundation for pre- serving the Iranian nation:

If not for the Shihndmah of Firdawsi, the language and race of the Iranian nation/people would have been transformed at once into that of the Arabs after the domination of the Arabs over Iran. Like the peoples of Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, Persian speakers would have changed their race and nationality.'5

Imitating Firdawsi, Mirza Aqa Khan wrote a versified history entitled Ndmah-yi bcastan (Book of Ancients).'6 In the introduction, while accusing the classical poets of stimulating falsehood, idleness, and moral corruption in kings and viziers, he praised Firdawsi for "inspiring in the hearts of Iranians patriotism, love of their race, energy and courage; while here and there they also strive to reform their characters."'7 Akhundzadah, who was also critical of the Persian

12. According to Iraj Afshar, Davari's copy was in the possession of Farah Pahlavi and was held in her personal library. See his "Shahnamah, az khatti td chtipi,"Hunar va mnardum 14.162 (1354 S./1975): 24. 13. For Davari's introduction see Mahdi Hamidi, Shi'r dar 'asr-i Qajdr (Tehran, 1364 S./1985), 210-15. 14. Ibid., 175. 15. Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, Ayinah-yi Sikandari (Tehran, 1324/1906), 14. 16. Ndmah-yi bastan, completed by Shaykh Ahmad Adib Kirmani after the execu- tion of Mirza Aqa Khan, was also known as SWlar nzmahi (Shiraz, 1316/1898). The alternative title bears the name of 'Abd al-Husayn Mirza Farmanfarma Salar Lashkar who sponsored the publication of Namah-yi bdslin in Shiraz. On this point see Nazim al-Islam Kirmani, Tarikh-i bidiri-yi Irdniyan, ed. 'Ali Akbar Sa'idi Sirjani (Tehran, 1346 S./1967), 175-88. 17. With some minor changes in translation, see Edward G. Browne, The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia (Cambridge, 1914), xxxv. For the Persian original see Nazim al-Islam Kirmani, Tarikh-i bidari (Tehran, 1362 S./1983), 1: 222-3.

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poetic tradition, viewed Firdawsi as one of the best Muslim poets.'8 A signif- icant aspect of the mimicry of Firdawsi was the recirculation of a large number of obsolete Persian terms, concepts and allusions.'9 The authorization and popular (re)citation of the epic ShIhndmah, at a time of military defeat and European domination, resulted in a process of cultural transference that intensi- fied the desire for the recovery of the "forgotten history" of ancient Iran.20 This awakening of interest in pre-Islamic history provided a formative element of the discourse of constitutionalism.

The protagonists of the constitutional order in Iran recognized the importance of the rhetoric of history in their struggle. They inverted the Islamic system of his- torical narration, in which the rise of Muhammad constituted the beginning of a new civilization, and the pre-Islamic period the age of ignorance (jdhillyah). Like Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, the forerunners of constitutlonalism construed the pre-Islamic period as an "enlightened age" ('a$r-i munavvar) and the desper- ate conditions of their day as a result of the Muslim conquest of Iran.21 Disil- lusioned with the "weak" and "despotic" state, which claimed to be the protector of Islam and the shari'a, the protagonists of the new order looked back to the pre-Islamic era with great nostalgia, borrowing its myths and images to articu- late a new social conceptualization. In the emerging nationalist discourse Islam was defined as the religion of Arabs and the cause of Iran's weakness and deca- dence.22 Looking back to the idealized Iran of pre-Islamic times, Akhundzadah addressed his nation thus:

What a shame for you, Iran! Where is your grandeur? Where is that power, that prosperity that you once enjoyed? It has been 1,280 years now that the naked and starving Arabs have descended upon you and made your life miserable. Your land is in ruins, your people ignorant and innocent of civilization, deprived of prosperity and freedom, and your King is a despot.23

18. Mirza Fath 'Ali Akhundzadah, Maktubat-i Mirza Fath 'Ali Akhandzddah, ed. M. Subhdam ([Paris], 1364 S./1985), 33-5. 19. See Malik al-Shu'ara Bahar, Sabk shinasi: tarikh-i latavvur-i nasr-i Farsi (Tehran, 1337 S./1958), 3: 348. 20. By transference I have in mind the dialogic relation of cultural interlocutors and cultural texts, i.e., the Shihhndmah-narrators and the Shahnamah, whereby the language and the themes of the text reappear in the works of the interlocutor. For a theoretical formulation of transference in the field of historical research see Dominick LaCapra, "History and Psychoanalysis," in Soundings in Critical Theory (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989), 30-66. 21. Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, Ayinah-yi Sikandari, 9. 22. It should be pointed out that Persian chauvinism became a component of the new secular political strategy. This anti-Arab tendency was to some degree similar to the Shu'ubiyah movement, which had developed as a reaction to the Muslim conquest of Iran. Concerning the Shu'ubiyah movement see H. A. R. Gibb, "The Social Significance of the Shu'ubiyya," in Studia Orienialia Janni Pedersen dicata (Copenhagen, 1953), 105-14; Husayn 'Ali Mumtahin, Nahzat-i Shu'ubiyah: junbish-i milli-yi Iraniyadn dar bardbar-i khildfdt-i Umavi va 'Abbdsi (Tehran, 1975); 'Abd al-Husayn Zarrinkub, Du qarn sukat (Tehran, 1957). 23. Akhundzadah, Maktiubdi, 20-21.

Refashioning Iran 83

The same Arabophobic ideas, in remarkably similar language, were echoed in Kirmani's rhetorical masterpiece, Sah maktib.24 In such "novelized" and "dramatized" accounts of historical processes, the pre-Islamic era was constructed as a lost utopia with just rulers, and the Islamic period as a time of misery, ruin, ignorance, and despotism.25 Mirza Aqa Khan labeled this fall from imaginary grace as the "reverse progress of Iran" (taraqqi-yi ma'kus-i Iran). The rhetorical use of history for him was "necessary for uprooting the malicious tree of oppres- sion and revitalizing the power of milliyat (nationalism) in the character of the Iranian people."26

In a dual process of projection and introjection Iranian modernists attributed undesirable customs and conditions to Arabs and Islam, and appropriated the desirable European manners and cultures by depicting them as originally Iranian. In these endeavors, spurious etymology and assumed resemblances facilitated cul- tural appropriation and narcissism. Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, viewing history as the "firm foundation of the nullat," speculated that the French term "histoire" was derived from the Persian word "ustuvar," meaning firm and sturdy.27 After enumerating a number of Persian words with similar supposed roots in French, in a fashion similar to the Young Turks, he argued that the French and Iranians were "two nations born from the same father and mother." In a racist anti-Arab articulation, he argued that unlike the French who, by moving to the West, pro- gressed and prospered, Iranians were raided by the Arabs in the East and lost their reason, knowledge, and ethics.28 Such identification with Europeans was an important component of historical dissociation from the Arab-Islamic culture in the 19th century. For example, in a proclamation calling for the adoption of European-style military uniforms, Muhammad Shah (r. 1834-1848) argued that the new uniforms were a readaptation of what ancient Iranians used to wear, authenticating his claim by pointing out the similarities between the new uni- forms and the uniforms of the soldiers engraved on the walls of Persepolis.29 Mirza 'Abd al-Latif Shushtari (d. 1220/1805) also discovered a Persian origin for the European custom of dining at a table. He argued that the term mizban (host) was etymologically connected to the word miz (table). Accordingly, the term mizbCan constituted a trace of a forgotten Persian custom adopted by Europeans. Kirmani, attributing the progress of Europe to the ideas of liberty and equality (czddf va musavdt), claimed that those ideas were first introduced into Iran by Mazdak centuries earlier.30 In I'timad al-Saltanah's Durar al-tijan, many

24. Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, Sah makifib: makuib-i Shahzadah Kamal al-Dawlah bah Shihzadah JalIl al-Dawlah, ed. Bahram Choubine ([Paris], 1370 S./1991), 68- 9. 25. The idea of Anushirvan as a just king was not a novel development. In the genre of "mirrors for princes" the Sasanian king was projected as a just ('adil) ruler. 26. Letter to Mirza Malkum Khan, dated 15 Jumada I 1311, quoted in Firaydun Adamiyat, Andishahha-yi Mirza Aqd Khdn Kirmani, 55. 27. Kirmani, Ayinah-yi Sikandari, 17, 14. 28. Idem, Sah maktib, 270 29. Mirza Muhammad Taqi Lisan al-Mulk, Nasikh al-tawdrikh (Tehran, 1344), vol. 2, part 2, 359-6 1. 30. Kirmani, Ayinah-yi Sikandari, 522-3.

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modernist political concepts such as mashviratkhdnah and majlis-i shurd (parliament), jumhuiri (republic), and mashruilah (constitutional) can be found, and the author speculated that the pre-Islamic Ashkanid dynasty, "like the con- temporary British monarchy, was constitutional and not despotic."'31 At the end of his brief outline of Iranian history from Kayumars to Nasir al-Din Shah, Jamal al-Din Afghani asserted that most of the industrial innovations of Europe, such as the telescope, the camera, and the telephone had been invented by Iranians of earlier times.32 In most instances, identification with Europe and the emergence of Iranian modernism was mediated through a reinvention of the pre- Islamic past that made it mirror 19th-century Europe.

Efforts to reinvent that history included Jalal al-Din Mirza's Namah-yi khusravdn, Furughi's Tirrkh-i salatin-i Sdsani, and Tusirkani's Farazistan,33 as well as the earlier mentioned Durar al-t:!an by I'timad al-Saltanah and Ayinah-yi Sikandari by Kirmani. The authors of these historical works viewed their efforts as a struggle to overcome historical oblivion. "For a civilized people and a great nation," according to I'timad al-Saltanah, "no imaginable flaw is more severe than ignorance of the history of their country and total obliviousness to events of former times."34 In his tireless efforts to recover the memory of Ashkanid history, I'timad al-Saltanah synthesized Orientalist works with classical Persian and Arabic mytho-histories.35 His "discovery" that the Qajars were descendants of the Ashkanids was highly praised by Nasir al-Din Shah.36 In his history, Furughi viewed the Sasanids as the "true Persian Kings" (padish1hcn-i haqiqi-yi 'ajam) and regretted that "at a time when all over Europe, that is, in London and Paris, people know the history of our land [tdrikh-i mamlikat-i ma], the sons of my homeland are entirely ignorant of it."

31. Muhammad Hasan Khan I'timad al-Saltanah, Durar al-lijan fi tarikh-i Bani Ashkan, 3 vols. (Tehran, 1308-1310/1890-1892), 1: 106. 32. Jamal al-Din Afghani, "Tarikh-i ijmdli-y Iran," appearing in Fursat Shirazi, Divan-i Fursat, ed. 'Ali Zarrin Qalam (Tehran, 1337 S./1958), 28-73. 33. Jalal al-Din Mirza Qajar's Namah-yi khusravan: dastan-i padshdhdn-i Pars bizaban-i Pdrsi kah sudmand-i marduman bivizhah kadakan ast, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1285-1288/1868-1871). According to Mumtahin al-Dawlah, Mirza Shaykh 'Ali and Mirza Muttalib assisted Jalal al-Din in the writing of Namah-yi khusravan. See Mumtahin al-Dawlah, Khatirat-i Mumiahin al-Dawlah, 2nd ed. (Tehran, 1362 S./1983), 264

Muhammad Husayn Furughi, Tarikh-i salatin-i Sasani, 2 vols (Tehran, 1313- 1315/1895-1897)

Mirza Isma'il Tusirkani, Fardzistan (Bombay, 1894). 34. I'timad al-Saltanah, Durar al-tijan, 4. 35. In an appendix to Durar al-tijan (1: 202-35) I'timad al-Saltanah introduced eighty-two European historians and classicists whose works he had used. Among the authors authorizing his text were: Edward Gibbon, Sivester de Sacy, Comte de Gobineau, ttienne Flandin, Friedrich Max Mluller, John Malcolm, Victor Delacroix, Henry Rawlinson, and George Rawlinson. I'timad al-Saltanah had col- lected the works of these authors during his visits to Europe with Nasir al-Din Shah. 36. Nasir al-Din Shah's letter to I'timad al-Saltanah, dated 1309/1891, was added to the first volume of Durar al-tijan. For I'timad al-Saltanah's speculation that the Qajars were descendants of the Ashkanids see op. cit. 3: 154-7.

Refashioning Iran 85

He celebrated the completion of his work by declaring, "I can now say that Iran has a Sasanid history."37 Jalal al-Din Mirza's Ndmah-yi khusravdn, written as a children's history book, became rather popular because of its illustrations and "pure Persian" prose. Akhundzadah praised Jalal al-Din Mirza for writing history in a purified idiom: "Your excellency has freed our tongue from the domination of the Arabic language."38 Jalal al-Din Mirza's illustrations, an attempt to create a visual memory of the past, provided ideas for plaster-molding and internal decoration.39 In most instances, Orientalist works such as John Malcolm's History of Persia, which was based on sources such as the Shahnamah and Dabistcn-i mazdhib, provided the "scientific bases" for the discovery of the "real" pre-Islamic past.

Historical research and the ensuing reconstruction of the pre-Islamic past helped craft a new memory. Emplotted in a tragic mode, the ancient histories of Iran engendered a will to recover the lost glory and to dissociate the Iranian Self from the alien Muslim-Arabs who had dominated Iran. Pre-Islamic myths and sym- bols, resignified through this process, were used to fashion a new Iran and reiden- tify the millat. Akhundzadah, for example, argued against the adoption of the picture of a mosque as the logo of the newspaper Millat-i saniyah-yi irdn.40 In a letter to the editor he argued, "If by millat-i Iran you mean the specific con- notation prevalent today, the mosque, which is a general symbol for all Mus- lims, is not an appropriate logo." He suggested that the newspaper use a com- bination of a pre-Islamic symbol, like an icon of Persepolis, and a picture of a Safavid building, in order to capture the spirit of millat-i Irdn (the people/nation of Iran).41 Kavah the Blacksmith (Kdvah-yi Ahangar) provided an inspiring icon.42 In his Sasanid history, Furughi argued that Kavah's famous banner was the national flag of Iran,43 while Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani portrayed him as the vanguard of revolution:

Because of the courage and nationalist aspirations of Kavah-yi Ahangar, who uprooted from Iran the rule of the Chaldean Dynasty which had lasted for 900 years, Iranians can truly be proud that they have taught the nations of the world how to remove oppression and repel the repression of despotic kings.44

37. Furughi, Tarikh-i salatin 1: 5, 194; 2: 196. 38. Akhundzadah to Jalal al-Din Mirza, 15 June 1870, in Alifbd-yi jadid va maktuibTd (p. 172), quoted in Hamid Algar, Mirza Malkum Khan, 92. 39. Dust 'Ali Khan Mu'ayyir al-Mamalik, Rijal-i 'asr-i Nasiri (Tehran, 1361 S./1982), 54. 40. The first issue of Millat-i saniyah-yi Irdn was published on 14 Rabi' I 1283. 41. Akhundzadah, Maqailat, ed. Baqir Mu'mini (Tehran, 1351 S./1972), 44-5. 42. A few years after the Constitutional Revolution, a group of Constitutionalists exiled to Europe began to publish a newspaper with the title of Kavah. The title page of this newspaper, the first issue of which came out on 24 January 1916, bears a picture of Kavah leading a popular movement. 43. Furughi, Tarikh-i salatin 2: 194. 44. Kirmani, Ayinah-yi Sikandari, 75-6.

86 Tavakoli-Targhi

Through a process of recoding, Kavah was defined as a revolutionary nationalist and Anushirvan as a constitutional monarch. It was argued that the veiling of women and polygamy were not customary in pre-Islamic times.45 These "historical facts" were used rhetorically in the Constitutionalist discourse in order to project Iran's "decadence" onto Arabs and Islam, and introject desirable attributes to the pre-Islamic Self. This double process of projection and introjec- tion provided mechanisms for rescripting the nillat and articulating a Constitu- tionalist conceptualization and identity.

II. Minmcry, Canonization, and the Restyling of Language

The invention of an idealized past was contemporaneous with the restyling of language, which was achieved in a dialogic relationship with Iran's Arab-, Euro- pean-, and (the often ignored) Indian-Other. The relationship with the Persian- speaking Indian-Other facilitated the renaissance and canonization of classical Persian literature. The fear of European colonization, as was experienced in India where Persian was the official language until 1834, led to a desire for neolo- gisms, lexicography, and the writing of grammar texts. The Arab-Other pro- vided a scapegoat and a reason to free the "sweet Persian language" (zaban-i shirin-i Pirsi) from the influence of "the difficult language of the Arabs" (zaban-i dushvar-i 'Arab).46 Through these regenerative responses the Persian language was reconstituted as the essential component of Iranian national iden- tity.

The rise of Persian print culture in the late-18th century strengthened a literary trend that had begun as the result of a contestation among Persian poets in Iran and India. In the 17th and 18th centuries, India was an important center for the development of Persian art, culture, and literature, and gave birth to the "Indian School" of Persian poetry (sabk-i Hind!). The poets of the Indian School broke away from the conventional paradigms of the classical Persian poets and fashion- ed a distinct style and language of expression.47 By shifting the emphasis to content rather than form, these poets set themselves the task of creating new conventions and systems of signification. The Indian poets' liberty in constiuct- ing and shifting the meanings of terms and concepts came to be viewed by Iranian literati as signs of incompetence and unfamiliarity with the Persian lan- guage. The question of competence and performance in Persian led to intense

45. Furughi, Tarikh-i saldtin 2: 195-6. 46. Kirmani, Sah maktub, 260. 47. On the Indian School see Aziz Ahmad, "The Formation of sabk-i Hindi," in Iran and Islam: In Memory of the late Vladimir Minorsky, ed. C. E. Bosworth (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971), 1-9; Muhammad Riza Shafi'i Kad- kani, "Persian Literature (Belles-Lettres) from the Time of Jami to the Present," in History of Persian Literature: From the Beginning of the Islamic Period to the Pre- sent Day, ed. George Morrison (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1981), 145-65.

Among the leading figures of the Indian School were poets such as Kalim Kashani (d. 1650), Sa'ib Tabrizi (d. 1670), Ghani Kashmiri (d. 1667), Shawkat Bukhari (d. 1695), Nasir 'Ali Sirhindi (d. 1696), Juya Tabrizi (d. 1706).

Refashioning Iran 87

debates and contentions. Siraj 'Ali Khan Arzu (1689-1756), a leading lexicog- rapher and poet, outlined one such controversy in his famous essay, Dad-i sukhan, and explained the problems of rhetoric, poetic creativity, and language identity.48 Reflecting on whether an Indian poet's resignification of idioms should be regarded as an error or not, Arzu declared:

The Persian poets belonging to countries other than Iran, who are experts in language and rhetoric and have a long experience in poetic exercises, are qualified to amend or modify the meaning of words and idioms and use indigenous idioms in case of poetic contingency.49

As Muhammad Akram has noted, such controversies were also reflected in Munir Lahuri's Karnamah-yi Munir, in which he criticized poets who laid a claim to fame because of their birth in Iran.50

In a critical response to the practices of the poets of the Indian School, Iranian poets such as Muhammad Shu'lah Isfahani, Mir Sayyid 'Ali Mushtaq, and Lutf 'Ali Bayg Azar Baygdili (1711-80) sought to return to the imagery and language of Anvari, Manuchihri, Farrukhi, Firdawsi, Sa'di, and Hafiz.51 This literary mimesis, later labeled junbish-i bdzgasht (the Return Movement), was a consti- tutive event in the formation of the literary canon and an early expression of lit- erary nationalism in Iran.52 Although in some instances it led to "mindless imitation" and gave rise to "false Sa'dis, false Sana'is, [and] false Manuchihris,"

48. Siraj al-Din 'Ali Khan Arzu, Dad-i sukhan, ed. Muhammad Akram (Rawalpindi: Iran-Pakistan Institute of Persian Studies, 1974). The controversy developed over Muhammad Jan Qudsi's (d. 1646) eulogy to the eighth Shi'i Imam, 'Ali b. Musa al-Riza. Shayda Fatihpuri (d. 1632) sharply criticized Qudsi for rhetorical and lin- guistic mistakes in his eulogy. In return another poet, Abu al-Barakat Munir Lahuri (d. 1644), writing in the same rhyme and meters as Qudsi and Shayda, criti- cized Shayda for his errors in criticism. 49. Arzu, Dad-i sukhan, x. 50. Ibid., xxx-xxxii. 51. Nostalgia for classical literature was also an important component of both Arab and Turkish nationalism. In this regard, S. Moreh wrote, "The return to clas- sical Arabic sources seems to have been inevitable especially among the Muslim poets and writers not only because it suited admirably the poetry of the court and of religious and national revival (being a genre suitable for addressing rulers and crowds from a platform) but also to emphasize their cultural identity by recalling its glorious and profound classical heritage. This seemed to them the best answer to the alien European literature and the invading and aggressive Christian civiliza- tion of the West" ("The Neoclassical Qasida: Modern Poets and Critics," in Arabic Poetry: Theory and Development, ed. G. E. von Gruenbaum [Wiesdbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1973], 156). 52. For an insightful reevaluation of the "Return Movement" see Ghulam 'Ali Ra'di Azarakhshi, "Darbdrah-yi sabkha-yi shi'r-i Farsi va nahzat-i bazgasht," in Namvarah-yi Duktur Mahmad Afshdr, ed. Iraj Afshar and Karim Isfahaniyan (Tehran, 1364 S./1985), 73-112. See also William Hanaway, "Bazgast-e adabi," in Encyclopaedia Iranica; Shafi'i Kadkani, "Persian Literature (Belles-Letters)," 166-74.

88 Tavakoli-Targhi

according to Mahdi Akhavan Salis,53 the Return Movement also engendered a creative phase in Persian literary and political discourse. By authorizing particu- lar poets and recirculating certain semantic resources, this mimesis contributed to the Persian literary renaissance of the 19th century. The intertextual resources for this renaissance and its corresponding historical imagination were made avail- able with the rise of Persian print culture in India.

With the beginning of Persian printing in India, a large number of classical texts became easily accessible for the first time.54 Printing made possible the for- mation of authoritative canons and facilitated the dissemination of seminal texts. Cultural and religious movements that were peripheralized within the hegemonic Shi'i networks of knowledge and power gained new means of propagation and proliferation. Printed copies of Dabistan-i mazdhib, Dasatir and Burhan-i qati' were widely disseminated in Iran and influenced the restyling of language. These texts popularized a large number of supposedly obsolete Persian words which appear to have been coined by Azar Kayvan and his disciples. These words soon found their ways into the works of Iranian poets such as Yaghma Jandaqi (d. 1271/1854), Furughi Bistami (d. 1274/1857), Surush Isfahani (d. 1285/1868), Qa'ani (d. 1271/1854), Fursat Shirazi (1271-1299/1854-1920), and Fath Allah Shaybani (d. 1308/1890).55 Yaghma Jandaqi owned a personal copy of Burhtin-i qati', which he used extensively in his pursuit of parsinigari (writing in pure Persian). Many terms from the Dasitfr have been incorporated into modern Persian dictionaries, and words such as amigh, akhshayj,farsandaj, and timsdr are widely used by language purists. The proliferation and dissemination of these words, regardless of the warnings about their false etymology by Persian scholars and lexicographers such as Purdavud, 'Ali Akbar Dihkhuda, and Muhammad Mu'in, indicated the need for semantic diversification and the increased importance of neologisms in the cultural contestations of the 19th cen- tury.

An important impetus for the proliferation of neologisms in this period was the British move to replace Persian as the official language of India. Among the charges leveled against Eastern languages such as Persian was that they "greatly darken the mind and vitiate the heart" and are not an "adequate medium for com- municating a knowledge of the higher departments of literature, science, and the-

53. Mahdi Akhavan Salis, Bid'al va badayi'-i Nima Yishij (Tehran, 1357 S./1978), 22. 54. Among such published texts were Firdawsi's Shahnamah (1785, 1811, 1829), the Divan of Hafiz (1791, 1826, 1828, 1831), Sa'di's Pandnimah (1786), Biistin (1809, 1828), and Gulistin (1809, 1827,1830, 1833), Hatifi's Layli va Majnuin (1788), Nizami's Sikandar ndmah (1812, 1827), Amir Khusraw's Layli va Majniun (1811) and Akhldq-i Jaldli (1810), Husayn Va'iz Kashifi's Anvar-i Suhayli (1804, 1805, 1813, 1823), Jami's Yusuf va Zulaykhd (1809, 1821, 1829), Kaykhusraw Isfandyar's Dabistdn-i mazahib (1809, 1818, 1860), Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi's Burhadn-i qati' (1818, 1858), and Daseitir (1811, 1818). 55. Ibrahim Purdavud, "Dasatir," in Burhan-i qati', ed. Muhammad Mu'in (Tehran, 1362 S./1983), 1: Iii-liii.

Refashioning Iran 89

ology ... ,"56 Such anti-Persian positions, which served to justify the British government's abolition of Persian as the official language of India in 1834, intensified the need for lexicography and neologisms as anti-colonial defense mechanisms.57 The British action in India could not have remained unnoticed in Iran. The Persian dictionaries published in India provided the basic model and lexical resources for the compiling of Iranian dictionaries such as Farhang-i anjuman ard-yi Nd4iri (1871), Farhang-i Na;im al-Alibba' (1900), and Lughatna-mah-yi Dihkhuda (1958-1966). Many of the terms and concepts con- tested in the lexicographical controversy surrounding Burhdn-i qdti' in India were later adopted by Iranian neologists such as Isma'il Tusirkani, Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, and Ahmad Kasravi.58

An increasing number of 19th-century Iranian authors and bureaucrats recognized that a style of writing full of allusions and ambiguities was not appropriate for the age of diplomacy, where political negotiations, agreements, contracts, and correspondences could determine the fate of a people and the degree of their con- trol by outside powers. Following a trend set by Indian Persophones, Iranian bureaucrats and court historians began to take pride in the simplicity and com- prehensibility of their writings. Instead of displaying their knowledge of Arabic, they began to value a simplicity that meant de-Arabizing the Persian language. Among the leading practitioners of "simple prose" (nasr-i sddah or sddah nivisi) were 'Abd al-Razzaq Dunbuli (1167-1242/1753-1826), Qa'im-maqam Farahani (1193-1251/1779-1835/6), Mirza Muhammad Ibrahim Badayi' Nigar

56. "The Rev. A. Duffi's] . . . address to the General Assembly of the church of Scotland," The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register 18 (1836), "Asiatic Intelli- gence" section, 86-8. 57. Among the dictionaries edited and published in India were Bahr-i 'Ajam (1860, 1894), Bahdr-i 'Ajam (1861), Bahr al-jawdhir fi lughat al-lib, Burh/n-i qdti' (1818), Chiragh-i hiddyat, Dari gushd, Farhang-i Farrukhi (1829), Farhang-i Jahcdngiri (1853, 1876), Farhang-i Rashidi (1872), Farhang-i Anandraj (1882), Ghiyas al-lughat (1826), Haft qulzam (1822), Kashf al-lughat wa al-istild/ht, Khazinat al-amsal, Khiyaban-i gulshan (1886), Lughat-i Dari va Pahlavi (1818), Lughadt-i Firuizi, Madar al-afazil, Majma' al-Furs-i Suruiri, Mu'ayyid al-fuzala' (1884), Mustalahat al-shu'ard' (1888), Nafta'is al-lughat, nawidir al-masadir, Nasir al-lughat, Shams al-lugh/t (1806), Siraj al-lughat, Tahqiq al-istil/hzt, Sur/h (1831), and Zubdat al-lugh/it ma'rif bih lughat-i Sururi. 58. Burhan-i qjti', written in 1062/1652, became the locus of one of the most interesting and understudied lexicographic controversies in Persian. Asad Allah Ghalib (1797-1869), the celebrated Urdu poet, wrote a critical review of Burhan-i qciti' in 1860 entitled Qati'-i burhan, and five years later added a new introduction to it and renamed the work Dirafsh-i Kdvyani. Ghalib's harsh criticisms of the au- thor of Burh/n-i qati' led to a great literary controversy and the publication of many responses and rebuttals. Among the texts written against Ghalib were Mirza Rahim Bayg's Sati'-i burhan (1860), Ahmad 'Ali Shirazi's Mu'ayyid-i burhan (1863), Sa'adat 'Ali's Muharriq-i qcti' (1864), Amin al-Din Dihlavi's Qdti' al-qati' (1865), and 'Abd al-Samad Fada's Shamshir-i tiztar (1868) and Tigh-i liztar (1868). These responses in turn prompted essays in both Persian and Urdu by Ghalib and his supporters, such as Najaf 'Ali Khan's Rafi'-i hazayan (1865), 'Abd al-Karim's Su'cldt-i 'Abd al-Karim (1865), and Miyan Rad Khan's Lat&'if-i ghaybi. On this controversy see Nazir Ahmad, Burhan-i qati'.

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(d. 1299/188 1), Mirza Muhammad Khan Sinki Majd al-Mulk (1224-1289/1809- 1879),59 Hasan 'Ali Khan Amir Nizam Garusi (1236-1317/1820-1899), Nadir Mirza Qajar (1242-1303/1826-1885),60 and Amin al-Dawlah (1845-1907).61 By moving away from a "sheer display of rhetorical cleverness and skill"62 and adopting a style geared towards clarity of meaning and comprehension, these writers claimed to close the gap between the written language of the elite and the spoken language of the masses.63

At the same time that the need for clarity of meanings and intentions resulted in the simplification of bureaucratic language, there also began a more radical attempt to purge the Persian language of Arabic words and concepts. Contrary to the prevalent perception, the purist movement in language predated the Riza Shah period.64 This movement, becoming fashionable with the printing of Dasctir and Burhan-i qati' in India, found many committed advocates in Iran. In many of his correspondences, Yaghma Jandaqi (1197-1276/1782-1859) used unfamiliar Persian terms instead of the popularly used Arabic equivalents.65 He called this "recently appeared new style" (tazah ravish-i naw diddr) pure Persian (fdrsi-yi basi or pdrsinigdri) and encouraged his students and disciples to practice pdrsinigari.66 Yaghma pointed out in a letter that there were many writers and reporters in different parts of Iran who had adopted the method of pdrsinigdri, and were "highly determined in their endeavor, and have written valuable materials."67 Among the 19th-century writers who wrote in "pure Persian" were: Mirza Razi Tabrizi, Farhad Mirza (1818-1888), Ahmad Divan Baygi Shirazi, Jalal al-Din Mirza, Isma'il Khan Tusirkani, Gawhar Yazdi, Mirza Riza Khan Bagishlu Qazvini, Manikji Parsi, Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, and

59. Mirza Muhammad Khan Sinki Majd al-Mulk, Risdlah-yi Majdiyah, bound with Bist sdl ba'd az Amir Kabir, ed. 'Ali Amini (Tehran, 1358 S./1979). 60. Muhammad 'Ali Ghawsi, "Nadir Mirza va tdrikh-i Tabriz," Yadgar 5 (1965): 15-26. 61. Mirza 'Ali Khan Amin al-Dawlah, Khd;irdt-i siyasi-yi Mirzd 'Ali Khan Amin al-Dawlah, ed. Hafiz Farmanfarmayan (Tehran, 1341 S./1962). 62. Farmanfarmayan's Introduction to Amin al-Dawlah, op. cit., 5. 63. On the simplification of Persian prose see Bahar, Sabk shindsi 3: 361; Shakoor Ahsan, Modern Trends in the Persian Language (Islamabad: Iran-Pakistan Institute for Persian Studies, 1976), 34; 'Abbas Zaryab Khu'i, "Sukhani darbdrah- yi munsha'dt-i Qd'im-maqam," in Ndmvdrah-yi Duktur Mahmaid Afshdr 3: 1433-55. 64. For studies of language reform and purism see John R. Perry, "Language Reform in Turkey and Iran," IJMES 17 (1985): 295-30; M. A. Jazayery, "The Modernization of the Persian Vocabulary and Language Reform in Iran," in Lan- guage Reform: History and Future, ed. I. Fodor and C. Hag6ge (Hamburge: Buske, 1983), 2: 241-68; Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, "Language Reform Movement and Its Language: The Case of Persian," in The Politics of Language Purism, ed. Bjorn Jernudd and Michael Shapiro (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1989), 81-104. 65. For a collection of Yaghma's writings see Abu al-Hasan Yaghma Jandaqi, Majmiu'ah-yi asdr-i Yaghmd Jandaqi: makatib va munsha'dt, 2 vols., ed. 'Ali Al-i Davud (Tehran, 1362 S./1983). 66. Yaghma, Kulliyat-i Yaghmd Jandaqi (Tehran), 49; Yahya Aryanpur, Az Saba ta Nimd, 114. 67. Yaghma, Majmd'ah-yi asdr 2: 85; idem, Kulliydt (Tehran, 1339 S./1960), 56.

Refashioning Iran 91

Kaykhusraw Shahrukh Kirmani.68 In addition, the Qajar statesman Mira 'Ali Amin al-Dawlah demonstrated his ability to write in "pure Persian" prose in the introduction to his memoirs, but refrained from doing so in the body of the text, arguing that "children of Iranian descent" (kutdakan-i irdni nizhdd) would under- stand him better in the contemporary language that was mixed with Arabic (zabdn-i imruizi-yi iran kah dmikhtah bah navadir-i Tdzi ast).69

The movement for the simplification and purification of the Persian language was contemporaneous with the movement for the simplification of Ottoman Turkish. These struggles were intimately tied to the struggle for what later became known as constitutionalism and nationalism. Language reform was not an aftereffect of the constitutional revolutions in Iran and the Ottoman Empire but a prelude to them. Purists constituted language as the essential component of the national identity. As Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani argued, "Millat means a people [ummat] speaking in one language. For exarnple, the Arab millat means Arabophones, the Turkish millat means Turkophones, and the Persian millat means Persophones."70 By recirculating and resignifying old Persian concepts, the purist movement in Iran provided the semantic field for dissociating Iran from Islam and forming a new system of signification and political conceptual- ization.

Consciousness of language did not stop with attempts to purify Persian and replace Arabic terms with Persian equivalents. There were also attempts to study and reform the structure of the Persian language. Lamenting the state of the lan- guage in 1286/1869 Riza Quli Khan Hidayat wrote:

In the 1,286 years since the hijra of Muhammad, the Arabic language has continuously developed and evolved; but because of religious enmity and opposing natures, the Persian language has become obsolete, disordered, and obliterated, and nothing remains of the ancient Persian texts.71

Such binary comparisons of the Persian and Arabic languages were important components of the rhetoric of language reform and purification. The compiling of dictionaries and the writing of grammar texts were responses to a melancholic understanding of the state of the Persian language. Among important books written on Persian grammar were: 'Abd al-Karim Iravani's Qava'id-i sarf va

68. For samples of the writing of the first three in pure Persian see respectively: Tabrizi's letter to Napoleon, in Farhad Mirza, Zanbil (Tehran, 1345 S./1966), 26- 32; ibid., 364-79; Hadiqat al-shu'ara' (Tehran, 1365 S./1986). For Tusirkani see Farazistan.

Bagishlu served in Constantinople as the charge d'affaires and consul of Iran. He is the author of the controversial essays Alifbd-yi Bihruzi and Piruz-i nigarish- i Parsi. For more details see Hasan Taqizadah, "Luzium-i hifz-i Farsi-yi fasih," Y&dgir 5.6 (Isfand 1326/Feb. 1948): 14.

For a sample of Shahrukh Kirmani see Furugh-i Mizdisni (Tehran, 1909). 69. 'Ali Khan Amin al-Dawlah, Khdtirdt-i siyisi, 5. 70. Kirmani, Sah maktub, 265. 71. Riza Quli Khan Hidayat, Farhang-i anjuman ara-yi Nasiri (Tehran, 1288/1881), [2].

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nahv-i F&rsi (1262/1848), HaiJ Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani's Sarf va nahv-i Firsi (1275/1858), Muhammad Husayn Ansari's Tanblyah al-fibyan (1296/1878),72 Mirza Habib Isfahani's Dast:r-i sukhan (1289/1872) and Dabisicin-i Pirsr (1308/1890),73 Mirza Hasan Taliqani's Kitdb-i lisain al-'Ajam (1305/1887), 74Ghulam Husayn Kashif's Dastuir-i Kashif (1316/1898), and Mirza 'Ali Akbar Khan Nafisi's Zabdn amuiz-i Fdrsi (1316/1898). The early grammar texts, while modeled after studies of Arabic grammar, and often carrying Arabic titles, provided the groundwork for the development and identifi- cation of the rules of the Persian language.

The protagonists of the constitutional order in Iran were conscious of the Impor- tance of language in their struggle for a new identity. The reconstruction of his- tory would not have been possible without the transformation of language, the locus of culture and memory. Mirza Aqa Khan argued that language was in real- ity "a history which signifies the general and specific characteristics, behaviors, manners, and forms of belief of a people," and believed that "the strength of the millat depends on the strength of the language."75 He conceived of writing as a creative act, arguing that the Persian word nivishtan (writing) was derived from naw (new) and that "it means creating something original."76 His Ayinah-yi Sikandarl, a creative act of historical writing, involved not only the subversion of the dominant system of historical narration but also the articulation of a new system of signifying.

Most modernists viewed writing as a crucial but problematic element in the progress and development of Iran. Some, like Akhundzadah, Mirza Riza Khan Bagishlu, and Mirza Malkum Khan argued that the proliferation of scientific thinking was not possible so long as the Arabic script was used.77 As Bemnard Lewis has remarked, "In the inadequacy of the Arabic alphabet, Malkum Khan saw the root cause of all the weakness, the poverty, insecurity, despotism, and inequity of the lands of Islam."78 Akhundzadah argued that the reforms in Iran could not bring about the desired changes without the dissemination of modern sciences which, in his view, was only possible with changing the alphabet. He felt that such a change was necessary because scientific terms had to be borrowed from European languages: "How can we translate European books into Arabic, Persian, or Turkish when our three languages lack scientific terminologies? We

72. At the end of this book there appears an essay on the problems of the scripts and suggestions for its reform. 73. For "grammar," Mirza Habib used the concept of dastiur, instead of the more prevalent Arabic term nahw. His writings on grammar are historically important for he tries to formulate the rules of Persian language without being constrained by the traditional categories of Arabic grammar. 74. Written as a textbook for the dair al-funiun, and published in 1316/1898. 75. Firaydun Adamiyat, Andishaha-yi Mirza Aqa Khan-i Kirmani (Tehran, 1357 S./1978), 162, 274. 76. Kirmani, Ayinah-yi Sikandari, 118. 77. On Bagishlu's views on reforming the Persian alphabet see his Alifba-yi Bihruzi, which is written in pure Persian. 78. Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), 428.

Refashioning Iran 93

have no choice but to adopt those terms into our language."79 Ahundzadah devised a new alphabet based on Latin and Cyrillic, stating: "The old alphabet should be used for the affairs of the hereafter, and the new alphabet for the affairs of this world."80 Mirza Aqa Khan's attempt to redefine the old terms, and Jalal al-Din Mirza's "purification of Persian" proved to be much more practical solu- tions that involved researching and rethinking the Iranian past. I'timad al- Saltanah, like Jalal al-Din Mirza, hoped for the establishment of a language academy responsible for the formation of new Persian words to replace foreign terms.81 This was realized in 1903 with the establishment of the majlis-i ckedimi, headed by Nadim al-Sultan, the minister of publications.82

The emphasis on pre-Islamic history and the attempt to change the script and purge the Persian language of "foreign elements" were important components of the strategy for dissociation from Arab-Islamic culture and identity. The lan- guage debate affected the development of the constitutionalist discourse, best rep- resented by the simple style of Constitutionalist newspapers such as Qanuin, 5 uir-i Israfil, Musavat, Iran-i naw, and by writers such as Zayn al-'Abidin Maragha'i, Mahdi Quli Hidayat, Hajj Muhammad 'Ali Sayyah Mahallati, Hasan Taqizadah, 'Ali Akbar Dihkhuda, and Mirza Jahangir Shirazi.83 The literary mimicry and canonization, the refashioning of language, and the reconstruction of history in the 19th century provided the necessary components for the articula- tion of the constitutionalist discourse and the institution of a new national con- ceptualization.

III. Dialogism and the Rescripting of the Nation

The reconfiguration of history and the restyling of language foregrounded the rescription of the millat from the "Shi'i nation" (millat-i ShV'ah-yi isna 'ashara) to the "nation of Iran" (millat-i Iran). While inclusive of Shi'is, the millat was no longer limited to a religious formation that constituted the non- Shi'i as the Other. The fashioning of millat-i Irdn with a distinct identity, the system of historical narration, and the aesthetics of language set the terrain for an intensified symbolic contestation leading to the resignification of key political

79. Akhundzadah, Maqaldt, 187, 193. 80. Letter to Mirza Muhammad Rafi' Sadr al-'Ulama, dated 18 Muharram 1129, ibid., 205. 81. For I'timad al-Saltanah's and Jalal al-Din Mirza's positions see respectively: I'timad al-Saltanah, Tatbiq-i lughdt-i jughrafiyd'i (Tehran, 1311/1893), 68; Firay- dun Adamiyat, Andishahha-yi Talibuf-i Tabrizi, 2nd ed. (Tehran, 1363 S./1984), 85. 82. "I'lIm," Iran: ruiznamah-yi sullani 56.1 (31 March 1903): 3. Majlis-i dkddimi, a forerunner of Farhangistan (established in 1935), is not mentioned in any con- temporary accounts of language reform in Iran. Such selective amnesia occurs in much of the literary history of Iranian modernism in which the Qajar period is depicted as 'asr-i bikhabari (the age of unawareness). 83. For valuable studies of the Constitutionalist literature see Yahya Aryanpur, Az Saba ta Nimd, and Browne, Press and Poetry.

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concepts and the institution of a new national political culture. These contesta- tions also led to the subversion of "the twinship of state and religion," a basic mechanism of political consensus and coercion in Iranian political discourse.Y4

The division of political space into the antagonistic poles of dawlat and millat was a product of dialogic contestations and rhetorical performances among mod- em Iranian intellectuals, ulama, and statesmen. By shifting from one discursive frontier to another, the Constitutionalist intellectuals managed to appropriate the floating elements commonly used by the state and the clergy. In his famous essay, Yak kalimah (One Word), for example, Mirza Yusuf Khan Mustashar al- Dawlah (d. 1322/1888) propagated the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen by foregrounding each of its seventeen articles on the Qur'an and hadith.85 The popularity and effectiveness of this Iranian secularist manifesto was due to the author's rhetorical and theatrical ability to perform in both Islam- icist and French revolutionary discourses and to construct a new modernist and Islamic language and identity. Mirza Malkum Khan, an Armenian-Iranian, gained national prominence by virtue of his apt discursive maneuvers between Islamicist and secularist terminology and his double articulation of highly con- tested concepts such as millat and qcntin (law). He shaped the demand for qanan into a populist slogan unifying a diverse ensemble of social and ideological forces. Malkum Khan utilized the twofold connotations of millat as both a religious and a national formation in order to gain the support of the ulama for his constitutionalist endeavors. Others, such as Malik al-Mutakallimin, Jamal al-Din Va'iz, and Yahya Dawlatabadi, who were educated in seminary schools, effectively utilized their knowledge of Islam in order to articulate a new mod- ernist discourse and identity. The theatrical abilities of these rhetoricians and their mastery of Islamicist discourse enabled them to win over to the cause of constitutionalism such leading Shi'i ulama as Akhund Mulla Muhammad Kazim Khurasani (d. 1911), Sayyid Muhammad Tabataba'i (1841-1920), and Mirza Muhammad Husayn Gharavi Na'ini (1860-1936).87 The double articulation of the interests of the millat as both Iranian and Islamic accounts for the changing

84. In orthodox Iranian political discourse, both Islamic and pre-Islamic, religion was viewed as the foundation of the state, and the state as the guardian of religion. According to a classic formulation, "State and religion are twin brothers. When- ever a disturbance breaks out in the country, religion suffers, too: heretics and evil-doers appear. Whenever religious affairs are in disorder, there is confusion in the country: evil-doers gain power and render the Ruler impotent and despondent; heresy grows rife and rebels make themselves felt" (Nizam al-Mulk, The Book of Government or Rules for Kings, trans. Hubert Darke [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978], 60). On a pre-Islamic articulation of this view see The Letter of Tansar, trans. M. Boyce (Rome: Instituto Italiano peril Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1968), 33-4. 85. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, "Constitutionalist Imaginary [sic] in Iran and the Ideals of the French Revolution," Iran Nameh 8.3 (Summer 1990): 421-2. 86. Qdniun 2 (Sha'ban 1308/22 March 1890), 3. 87. On the Shi'i ulama and constitutionalism see Abdul-Hadi Hairi, Shi'ism and Constitutionalism in Iran: A Study of the Role Played by the Persian Residents of Iraq in Iranian Politics (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977).

Refashioning Iran 95

grammar of Shi'i politics-a new grammar articulating classical Shi'i concepts in modernist syntax.88

The rhetoricality and political theatricality evident in the works of many Consti- tutionalist activists has often been misunderstood by critic-historians seeking fixity, homogeneity, and monologic uniformity in history and politics. Conse- quently, the intellectual contributions of rhetoricians such as Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani, Mirza Malkum Khan, Jarnal al-Din Afghani, and their contemporaries and disciples have not been appreciated. Malkum Khan, who contributed to the formation of the Constitutionalist discourse, is often labeled an opportunist, charlatan, Islamicist, and Europhile.89 Jamal al-Din Afghani, who has been both lionized and condemned by Iranians, Turks, Arabs, and Afghans, has been viewed as an opportunistic British agent and an inconsistent intellectual.90 It is often overlooked that the Pan-Islamicist Afghani had also encouraged Mirza Aqa Khan Kirmani and Fursat Shirazi to research and write on pre-Islamic Iran.91

Rhetoricality and theatricality were the distinctive characteristics of mundazrah, a dialogic political genre seeking to construct a new national consensus by recon- ciling entrenched and antagonistic political positions. As a distinctively Consti- tutionalist genre that sought to build societal cohesion at a time of social dislo- cation and identity crises, the munazirah was pivotal in Inaugurating a new age of politics in which the meaning of siydsat was being transformed from the sovereign's right to coerce to the people's right to dissent and participate in local and national politics.92 Shaykh va shalkh was a representative sample of this new political genre.93 Shaykh and Shukh, respectively a seminary professor and a teacher at the dar al-funan, debate important national issues from the introjectionist position of an Islamophile and the projectionist position of a Europhile. One argues that the Arabic-Persian alphabet is simpler and that Europeans have borrowed their sciences from Muslims; the other asserts that the

88. The changing grammar of Shi'i politics is quite evident in the discourse of the Islamic Republic of Iran in which traditional Islamic concepts have gained trans- parently secular usage. 89. For such articulations see Hamid Algar, Mirza Malkum Khan: A Biographical Study in Iranian Modernism (Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973); Huma Natiq, "Raznarmah-yi Qaniun: pish dartzmad-i hukuimat-i IslIani, 1890-1903," Dabirah 4 (Fall 1367 S./1988): 72-102. 90. For one such recent view see Bahram Choubine's "Pishguftar" to Kirmani, Sah maktub, 22-5. 91. Fursat Shirazi, "Zindagani-yi Fursat," in Divan-i Fursal, ed. 'Ali Zarrin Qalam (Tehran, 1337 S./1958), 16-25, 73; Kirmani, Ayinah-yi Sikandari, 22. 92. It appears that the connotative transformation of the concept of andishah from "fear" to "thinking" is related to the displacement of the politics of coercion with the politics of consensus. 93. Bahaikra Charch Dakani [a pseudonym], Shaykh va shiukh (unpublished manuscript in the library of Ayatullah Mar'ashi Najafi, #3747, Qum). This manuscript was kindly provided by Dr. Mahmud Mar'ashi, director of the Mar'ashi Foundation, Qum. For a valuable introduction to Shaykh va shuikh see Huma Natiq, "Farang va Farang-ma'abi va risdlah-yi inliqadi-yi 'Shaykh va Shukh,"' in Musibat-i vaba va bala-yi hukumat (Tehran, 1358 S./1979), 103-29.

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alphabet must be changed and European knowledge obtained. In the dialogic essay Musahibah-yi *sliamiyah-yi !slam, akhuind, va hatif al-ghayb, the hatif al-ghayb, echoing a modernist voice, mediates between Islam seeking the cause of its weakness and isolation, and akhund who symbolizes the clerics blamed for the ignorance of the people and the degeneration of Islam.94 Among other dia- logical essays written by modernists competent in both Islamicist and secularist discourses were Kirmani's Suismar al-Dawlah, Malkum Khan's Raflq va vazfr, Talibuf's Maqalah-yi mulkt, Fitrat's Munaizirah-yi mudarris, Nayyir's 5uhbat ba sar-i rafiqam, and other essays by anonymous authors such as Guftugu-yi yak mFrzd-yi ba 'ilm ba yak 'avdm-i mustahzar (1298), Rawyd-yi $adiqah, and Mukalimah-yi sayyah-i Ircni ba shakh/-i Hindi.95 The debates outlined in these munazirahs critically articulated the contesting positions on issues of national importance, with modernist authors offering their own versions of "reasonable" solutions for the salvation of Iran. Such dialogues appeared exten- sively in Constitutionalist newspapers and played an important role in opinion making during the Revolution.

Theatrical and rhetorical maneuvers made possible the deconstruction of "the twinship of the state and religion" that had traditionally provided the basis for the legitimacy of the state. The fight against despotism was construed as the nodal point of a populist discourse bringing together forces with diverse and often con- flicting demands and aspirations. In the emerging discourse the political space was divided into the two antagonist camps of people (millat) and state (dawlat). Dawlat was depicted as despotic (mustabidd) and unjust (;zlim), and millat as oppressed (mazlum) and justice-seeking ('adalatkhwdh).96 Consequently, the ulama, who were viewed as ru'asa-yi ndllat (leaders of the nation/people), could not openly support the dawlat, the enemy of the millat. The clergy's dual and precarious position at this juncture explains its contradictory roles during the events that led to the Constitutional rupture of l905-1909.97 The arch-

94. Khadim-i Millat [a pseudonym], Musjhibah-yi Isldmiyah-yi Isldm, tikhund, va h6tif al-ghayb (Baku, 1321/1904). 95. For the above-mentioned works, with the exception of Guftugui, see respec- tively: Rahim Rizazadah Malik, Susmar al-Dawlah (Tehran, 1354 S./1975), 132- 65; Mirza Malkum Khan, "Rafiq va vazir," in Majmu'ah-yi tsar, ed. Muhammad Muhit Tabataba'i (Tehran, 197?), 54-71; 'Abd al-Rahim Talibuf, Aztidi va siydsat, ed. Iraj Afshar (Tehran, 1357 S./1978), 192-240; Fitrat Bukhara'i, Munazirah-yi mudarris-i Bukhdrd'i bd yak nafar Farangi dar Hindustdn (Istanbul, 1327/1909); Mirza Ghulam Husayn Nuri (Nayyir), Suhbat bd sar-i rafiqam va yd nalah-yi gharibanah-yi Nayyir (Tblisi, 1909); Bahram Choubine, ed., Rawyd-yi sadiqah ([Paris], 198?); anonymous, Mukalimah-yi sayyah-i Irani ba shakhs-i Hindi (n.l.: Paradise Press, n.d.). 96. For a more elaborate study of the changing connotation of "millat" and the polarization of the political space see Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, The Formation of Two Revolutionary Discourses in Modern Iran: The Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1906 and the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979 (Ph.D. dissertation, Uni- versity of Chicago, 1988). 97. For a valuable analysis of the position of the Shi'i ulama during the Constitu- tional Revolution see Arjomand, "The Ulama's Traditionalist Opposition to Par- liamentarianism: 1907-1909," Middle Eastern Studies 17 (1981): 174-90.

Refashioning Iran 97

mujtahids who coordinated their position with the millat were given the hon- orary title of "ayat'alldh" (Sign of God). This title was discursively important since it was articulated in opposition to the shah's title of "zill'allah" (Shadow of God). Those members of the clergy who did not support the millat were con- ceived of as religious impostors and seekers of worldly privileges. The symbolic role of the shah as zill'allah and the locus of power and authority was also undermined. In turn, the rnillat was constituted as the new source of sovereignty through a synthesis of the idea of the equality of all Muslims before God with the ideals of the French Revolution. The sovereignty of "the people" not only challenged the symbolic power of the shah, but also the function of the clerics as guardians of the legal basis of society. The society that was conceived of and institutionalized in the course of the Constitutional Revolution was foregrounded not on the divine sharl'ah, guarded by the ulama, but on the qainun legislated by the representatives of the people. In this regard, the discursive articulation of the millat and the formation of the National Consultative Assembly (majlis-i shara-yi milli), the institutional expression of popular sovereignty in Iran, were the critical events of the Constitutional Revolution.

The intensified popular struggle against the despotism of the state forced Muzaf- far al-Din Shah to consent to the convening of the National Consultative Assembly in August 1906.98 In the course of the negotiations that led to the drafting of the shah's edict (farman), the prime minister proposed the establish- ment of an Islamic assembly (ma]lis-i Islami).99 But the protestors disagreed, insisting, "With the power of the millat, we will obtain a majlis-i shura-yi mlll." In the edict, which was addressed to the newly appointed prime minister, Nasr Allah Mushir al-Dawlah, the shah called for the convening of an assembly in which the representatives of "crown princes and Qajars, ulama and theology students, nobles and notables, landowners, merchants and craftsmen" were to par- ticipate.100 While the edict included the Constitutionalists' demand for the formation of a majlis, it failed to make mention of the millat. The exclusion of the concept of millat from the "Constitutional Edict" proved unacceptable to the Constitutionalists. The text of the shah's widely distributed letter was torn off the walls, and protestors who had taken sanctuary in the British embassy refused to leave until the word millat was added to the Constitutional Order.")' A few days later, Muzaffar al-Din Shah issued a supplementaryfarmdn, noting, "I have

98. For a chronicle of the struggles leading to the granting of the Constitution see Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Between Two Revolutions, 69-92; Mangol Bayat, Iran's First Revolution: Shi'ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1906 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 106-42. For the position of Muzaffar al-Din Shah on constitutionalism see "Muzaffar al-Din Shah va mashr(*ttyat," Armaghan 32 (1332 S./1953): 104-7. 99. Nazim al-Islam Kirmani, Tdrikh-i biddri 1: 561. 100. On the class affiliations of the elected deputies to the First Majlis see Mansurah Ittihadiyah, Paydayish va tahavvul-i ahzdb-i siyisi-yi mashritiyal. dawrah-yi avval va duvvum-i majlis-i shura-yi milli (Tehran, 1361 S./1982), 101- 18. 101. Kasravi, Tarikh-i mashriitah-yi Irdn, 120; Malikzadah, Tdrikh-i inqilaib-i mashritiyat-i Iran (Tehran, 1363 S./1984), 2: 176; Bastani-Parizi, Talash-i dzddi, 89.

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explicitly ordered the establishment of a majlis, an assembly of the representa- tives of the millat."'02

Although the shah was forced to recognize the millat as a political entity, he made an important rhetorical move to subvert the Constitutionalist discourse that had united both the modem and traditional intellectuals (ulama). In the sup- plementary letter the shah changed the name of the Majlis from majlis-i shurd- yi milli (National/Popular Consultative Assembly) to majlis-i shuira-yi Isldmi (Islamic Consultative Assembly). At that euphoric moment the importance of this shift went unnoticed by the Constitutionalists, who were busy organizing the celebration of the convening of the Majlis.103 On the day of the inauguration of the Majlis (27 Jumada II 1324), it is reported, the crowds for the first time chanted, "Long live the people of Iran" (zindah bdd millat-i irdn).104

Recognition of the millat in the constitution was crucial in many respects. In Iranian political discourse prior to this period civil society was viewed as an amalgam of various classes, ranks, professions, and religious formations. This was clear from the shah's farmdn dividing society into six classes.105 But the Constitutionalist discourse broke away from the hierarchical language of politics and introduced the millat as a unified force and the source of sovereignty, invested with the right to determine the policies of the government through its representatives to the Majlis.106 In the Constitutionalist discourse millat sig- nified everyone, regardless of professional, social, or religious status.'07 This view of nillat differed radically from the dominant Islamic ranking of Muslims over the zimml (non-Muslim) millats and provided the discursive terrain for the expansion of democratic rights. An editorial in the newspaper irdn-i naw viewed the division of the nafion into separate millats as a despotic design to isolate people from one another:

Despotism has isolated us from one another for different reasons, and has made us hate one another under different pretexts. We have become alienated from one another because we have been given different identi- ties. [The despots] have named some Zoroastrians and have made the shedding of their blood permissible by the Muslims. They have named others Jews and, with the help of diverse interpretations of life, their

102. Kasravi, Tdrikh-i mashraeah, 120. 103. The inauguration was initially supposed to be on 15 Sha'ban, but since it coincided with the birthday of the "Twelfth Shi'i Imam," and since the constitu- tionalists wanted it to be an independent day, the Majlis was inaugurated on 18 Sha'ban 1324. In a message from the shah the inauguration of the Majlis was regarded as "the strengthening of the unity between the representatives of dawlat and millat" (Kashani, V2qi'dt-i ittifiqiyah dar tdrikh 1: 106). 104. Dawlatabadi, Hayat-i Yahya 2: 84. 105. See Ahmad Ashraf, "Mardtib-i ijtimd'i dar dawrdn-i Qajdriyah," Kitab-i dgTh 1 (Winter 1360 S./1981): 72-3. 106. According to article 26 of the supplement to the Constitutional Law, "All powers of the state are derived from the millat." 107. On this point see Mustafa Rahimi, Qanuin-i asaisi va usal-i dimukrdsi (Tehran, 1357 S./1978), 106-8.

Refashioning Iran 99

hatred has been cultivated in our hearts. Others are named Armenian and made to look as if they were not of our kind and therefore should not enjoy the same rank and status as Iranians.108

The editorial concluded, "Iranians are of one nillat, a nlillat that speaks in differ- ent dialects and worships God in various ways."'09

The definition of millat as a people with diverse languages and religions all equal before the law challenged the most basic hierarchy of nillat as conceptualized by Islam. The ambiguous double articulation of millat that had united both the secularist and Islamicist forces earlier reached an impasse with the constitutional discussions over the questions of equality (bardbarn or musdvat) and freedom (azddi or hurrryat), two basic ideals of the French Revolution prominent in the Iranian revolutionary discourse. With the death of the ailing Muzaffar al-Din Shah after the convening of the Majlis and the ratification of the Fundamental Laws on 14 Zu'l-qa'dah 1324/30 December 1907, his son Muhammad 'Ali, an antagonist of the Constitutional movement, moved to Tehran as the new shah.' 10 Muhammad 'Ali Shah refused to invite the deputies of the Majlis and "the representatives of the nillat" to his coronation, and in his speech he spoke not of mashrataa (constitutionalism) but of mashritah-yi mashra'ah (shari'atist constitutionalism)-a government based on the shari'ah. By using the term nashritah-yi mashri'ah, Muhammad 'Ali set out to utilize Islam as a mechanism for the subversion of the Constitutionalist discourse and the disinte- gration of the Constitutionalist camp, which was divided over the drafting of the supplement to the Fundamental Laws that included controversial issues such as the curbing of royal authority and the equality of all citizens. With the assis- tance of Shaykh Fazl Allah Nuri, a leading mujtahid of Tehran, Muhammad 'Ali Shah managed to organize the nashra'ahkhwdhs, a camp that viewed constitu- tionalism not as a government based on qdnuin (Majlis-legislated law) but the divine Islamic shari'ah. Unlike the Constitutionalists who moved toward a sec- ular articulation of politics, the mashrt'ahkhwdhs emphasized the importance of Islam as the legal basis of society. In the shari'atist discourse, because of the centrality of Islam, millat had a clearly religious definition, and the equality of Muslims and non-Muslims was viewed as a heretical stance. Shaykh Fazl Allah Nuri, the intellectual leader of the mnashrd 'ah camp, argued against the idea of equality as articulated by the Constitutionalists by declaring:

0 you who lack integrity and honor [referring to the Constitutionalists]! The founder of the shari'a has granted you integrity and privileges because you belong to [the community of] Islam! But you disenfranchise yourself, and demand to be brother of and equal with Zoroastrians, Arme- nians, and Jews! 111

108. Iran-i naw 134 (16 February 1910). 109. Ibid. 110. Concerning the circumstances leading to the drafting of the Fundamental Laws see 'Abd al-Husayn Nava'i, "Qanan-i asisi va mulammim-i an chigdnah ladvin shud?" Yadgar 4.5 (Bahman 1326/January 1947): 34-47. 111. Muhammad Turkuman, Majma'ah-'i az rasa'il, i'lamiyahha, maktubat, . . . va ruzndmahha-yi shaykh-i shahid Fazl'alldh Numri (Tehran, 1362 S./1983), 1: 108.

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Denouncing the conception of freedom (dzddi),112 Nuri argued: "The strength of Islam is due to obedience and not to freedom. The basis of its legislation is the differentiation of groups and the summation of differences, and not equality."1'3 Condemning the "Paris-worshipers" (Pdris parasthd),114 he exhorted his followers:

O you God-worshipers! This National Assembly [shilrd-yi milli], liberty [hurriyal va dzadi], equality [musavit va bardbari], and the principles of the present constitutional law [asds-i qdnun-i mashriuiah-yi haliyahJ are a dress sewn for the body of Europe [Farangistan], and are predominantly of the naturalist school [tabi'i mazhab] and transgress the divine Law and the holy book."115

Nuri asked the Constitutionalists why on "so many banners of long live, long live, long live equality, equality, fraternity, why don't you once write 'Long live the shari'a, long live the Qur'an, long live Islam?"'116 He asserted that "In Islam the verdict of equality is impossible (mahli ast bd Isldm hukm-i musdvdt).'"'17 In his sincere protestations Nuri had clearly understood that the new conception of politics, that is, the equality and freedom of all citizens regardless of their religious affiliation, would undermine the primacy of Islam in politics.

With the discursive articulation of mashruitah as anti-Islamic, the campaign against it was portrayed as an attempt to "protect the citadel of Islam against the deviations willed by the heretics and the apostates.""8 The shari'atists' insis-

For an analysis of Nuri's political positions during this period see Firaydun Adamiyat, "'Aqayid va dra'-i Shaykh Fazl'alldh Nuiri," Kitab-i jum'ah 31 (28 Far- vardin 1359/17 April 1980): 52-61. The same ideas were articulated in a gather- ing for the election of the Majlis deputies in the city of Yazd, a city with a large Zoroastrian population. One of the clerics present at the session pointed out: "We should not allow Zoroastrians to become dominant. I hear that one of the articles of the laws of the Majlis is equality. Zoroastrians must be kept wretched and held in contempt. According to reports, in other cities Zoroastrians ride horses, mules, and donkeys. They wear elegant and colorful clothes and hats. This behavior is against the shari'ah. The Zoroastrians, even if they are wealthy, can only wear milla cotton garments" ("Surat-i majlis va nutqhd-yi ahili-yi Yazd bardyi intikhtb- i vakil, shab-i 6 Rama2dn 1325," Sar-i Israfil 17 [14 Shavval 1325]: 4). 112. For the meaning of azadi in classical Persian literature see 'Ali Asghar Mudarris, "Fitrat va zdzdi," in Muhil-i adab, ed. Habib Yaghma'i (Tehran, 1357 S./1978), 411-24. Concerning the meaning of dzadi in contemporary Persian lit- erature see Isma'il Khu'i, Azddi, haqq va 'addlat (Tehran, 2536 Shahanshahi/1977), 262-5. 113. Turkuman, Majmi'ah, 320. 114. Shaykh FazI Allah Nuri, Laviyih-i Aqa Shaykh Fazl'allah Niuri, ed. Huma Rizvani (Tehran, 1362 S./1983), 29. 115. Ibid., 62. 1 16. Ibid. 117. Nuri, Rasd'il, i'ldmiyahha, maktabat, 107. 118. Said Amir Arjomand, "The Ulama's Traditionalist Opposition to Parliamentar- ianism: 1907-1909," Middle Eastern Studies 17 (1981): 179.

Refashioning Iran 101

tence on an Islamic consultative assembly and the Constitutionalists' insistence on a national consultative assembly resulted in the intensification of the antago- nism between Islam and millat-i irdn. To ground themselves in Iranian history and culture and to guard against the charges of being "Paris-worshipers," the Constitutionalists turned increasingly to pre-Islamic myths, symbols, and sys- tems of historical narration. As a result, the concept of millat gained the mean- ing of "the people" of Iran, with an increasingly secular and non-Islamic conno- tation. While in the pre-Constitutional period the leading ulama were viewed as the the leaders (ru'asa, sing. ra' is) of the nillat, in the period immediately after the Revolution the title came to refer to the head of the Majlis.

The Constitutionalist movement that had started with dialogism and the mutual influencing of secularism and Islamism ended in civil war. The Constitutional- ist and shari'atist camps, with Iran and Islam respectively as the primary locus of their identity, clashed in June/July 1908. In the final battle the Constitutional- ists captured Tehran, deposed the shah, and executed some of the leading anti- Constitutionalists, among them Shaykh Fazl Allah Nuri.119 This seems to have been the first time in the history of Iran that an orthodox Shi'i cleric was hanged from the gallows in public. The execution of Nuri-the cultural equivalent of the execution of Louis XVI-marked a radical rejection of the previous social and symbolic order. It launched the new mrullat and inaugurated an age of popular national politics. The Iran that was staged and inculcated in the memory of the post-revolutionary generations was the product of a new cultural sedimentation. The creative efforts in canonizing literature, restyling language, and re- constructing memory in the 19th century were later recognized unquestioningly as "history," culture, and tradition.

Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Department of History, Illinois State University

119. On the prosecution and the charges against Shaykh Fazl Allah Nuri see "Muhakamah va i'dam-i HIjj Shaykh Fazl'allah-i muj]ahid-i Nuiri," Kitab-i jum'ah 35 (25 Urdibihisht 1359/15 May 1980): 137-45; Muhammad Mahdi Sharif Kashani, Vaqi'adt-i iltifaqiyah dar ruizgdr (Tehran, 1362 S./1983), 3: 375-8.